Friday, December 23, 2011

Why bother?!?!

Yeah, Dave bothered to get us a nice new TV this month. He got some awesome deal with Dell on this 73" DLP fancy new TV. He was so excited about it, I think he wet his pants when it got here! To protect this blessed new machine, I put the baby gate in front of it. Why bother, you ask? I don't friggin' know! Janea had a "magic screwdriver" yesterday and it made "magic screwdriver" scratches at Janea-height all across the lower right hand side of the screen. "HOW?", you ask? "Magic", she answered!

OMG!!!!!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Christmakah is here!

This year Dave and I did almost all of our Christmakah shopping on Amazon. He has gotten several bonuses this year in Amazon dollars and where we lack funds in real cash, Amazon dollars have made up the difference. It's not how I would ideally do our gift giving, but the kids will be happy. On the first night of Hanukah, they got an Xbox Kinect. How happy are those kids now?!!  Last night, (night 2) we gave them gifts from Aunt Dori and Uncle Arnie. Ellie LOVES her Magen David necklace. Jayden was thrilled with Silly Putty; Janea was over the moon with her Dora sippy cup (yep...that's all it takes when you're 3); and Daniel got the cutest Buzz Lightyear tee-shirt! Thanks for the gifts Aunt Dori! I especially loved that they were already wrapped! :D

We have an array of other gifts for the kids. Hope they don't get lost in the shuffle. I have yet to sit down and wrap and organize the chaos. We got Janea a dollhouse that Dave had shipped to work. I hope it comes soon--like today--so he can bring it home and we can give it to her.

In the meantime, I am cleaning out our guest room which has been serving as a storage closet. I got most of the crap out of there, sorted, repacked and stashed away in a better places. Lots of crap is going to freecycle. Anyone want a f@#$ing table? We can't seem to get rid of the table that came with the old couch set. No one wants it! It's pretty big, but a good table to put between chairs or couches. Check it out.... http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/fuo/2764997109.html  Interested? I didn't think so, but you can't blame me for trying!

So, the impetus for cleaning is that Dave's 91 yr old grandmother is coming to visit for Christmas. She is staying with us and therefore we need to make a guest room out of our junk room.  I'm off to work on it.  More as the transformation unfolds!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

A new look!

Blogger wanted me to update to the newest template format. So, we have a new look! Like it?

Just wanted to make an addendum to the last post. Janea's words don't always start with "T". I've noticed sometimes they start with "p".  Like "pall" for small.  Interesting, note, though, she always knows the word and chooses to continue to say it wrong even though she hears the difference when we correct her.

Daniel got another tooth in! He now has the bottom two and one on top. I hope this is the explanation for why we have been sleeping so poorly lately.  Maybe now that he broke that tooth through, the other one will come in quickly and we can start sleeping through the night! :D

Speaking of Daniel, I'm ready to wean him.  I've been nursing babies for over 8 years now. I'm so done! I'm ready to reclaim my body as my own and be done with the nursing thing. But, mostly, Daniel has taken a liking to playing with my very short hair while he nurses. It gives me the itchies and makes me pull my head down toward him. I know I will be sorry when this baby thing is all over and I will miss it terribly, but I'm tired of it. I want a break. Can I take a break now and come back to it in a couple of years when I get baby-fever?

And, can you believe his birthday is in only 2 weeks? Me either!! Should probably discuss with Dave any type of celebration we want. Whether we do it on Friday night (we have rel school and services) or wait until Sat to do it....not sure.  Will keep things updated, I hope! :D

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Kid-speak

I love how little kids distort words to say them the best they know how. Here are a few of my favorites:

Jayden: kee-koo---cookie
             reg-yule-----regular (Ellie did this one too)

Eliana: ham-aise---mayonaise
            twaw-cwate---chocolate
            p-yule-----pool (also true for skee-yule---school) Not sure how she managed to draw that one out so much
           
Janea: bamana---banana
           begot----forgot
           be-out---without
           any word that starts with "s" or an "s" blend becomes a word that starts with "t" or the first hard sound of the blend for example "top" is the word for "stop" as well as the "pinning" toy. She would learn later in "tool" that her ABC's have letters between H and Q but for now those letters are just "m n m o p". And someday she is going to get wise to the M&M's that have S's on them and will call them "kittles" instead of "M-a-M's".

I'm looking forward to decifering Daniel James as he gets into the speaking world too. So far, he's pretty challenging to interpret. EEEEE, AAAAAAAAA, and Bah, Gah, Dah, for just about anything and everything that he wants. Food, toys or otherwise. He's not too articulate.  But, you can be sure when he doesn't like it. He is loud! He does shake his head no when he doesn't want something and he waves hi and bye. He even said "HI" to Aunt Michelle on the phone the other day, but it could have been a fluke. I choose to believe he meant it. :D

And, although one day this list will include Daniel's distortions,  I can wait. He is growing up so fast on me, I want to cry. I swore I would enjoy his baby-ness and his every stage because I worked so hard through the rest of the kids' baby stages, I missed it. But, Daniel is growing up WAY to fast on me. He's creeping up on his first birthday and already walking. Early like his sisters on that one. It's cute though. He's got that wide-footed stance and each step is a hard-fought battle to stay upright. When he gets to his destination on foot, he's so proud! I love his adorable little grin! When he smiles he does it with his whole face! AND, like his brother and sisters, he smiles all the time. It's simply wonderful!!!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Halloween 2011

Poor Daniel James was sick this weekend. He had a fever of 104.7!! I can't believe he was that hot. But, I waited until Tuesday morning to take him to the doc and lo and behold, there was no fever, no sign of illness, just fatigue from having been sick. GRR!  He did still get to go to the pumpkin patch on Saturday with all of us.  Dave and I took the kids to the little pumpkin patch by our house Saturday. They had a good time playing on the hay maze and in the pumpkins. They went on the little train ride and a hay ride through the sunflowers. It was nice and small and fun.  We opted not to get pumpkins because they were pricy there, but it was a good time.

Sunday, Grandma Tess took the kids to the big, fancy pumpkin patch in Morgan Hill. She said it was a ZOO of people (as I said it would be). They waited 45 minutes in line for the petting zoo and the pony rides. They did get to go through a corn maze. Jayden said it wasn't much fun because there were no choices at the intersections. There was only one way to go--no false paths. He's getting so big!! :D

In the end, she agreed with me that it was not worth it to go on the weekend there because of all the chaos. Next year, she wants to take them during the week and after school.....we'll see.

I'm getting ready to make Eliana's Halloween costume. Daniel James is going to wear the wizard costume that all the other kids have worn in yr 1. Janea got a hand-me-down purple dragon that she wants to wear. Jayden wants to be Thor so his costume is coming in from Amazon in a few days. But, Eliana didn't really know what she wanted to be. Dave really wants her to be a lion because her hair is so perfect for it. SO, I am going to make her a lion costume and see what she thinks of it. :D

Speaking of costumes...I think Jayden's has just arrived!

Friday, October 14, 2011