Is It Naptime Yet

So yesterday I packed up some junk things we don’t use anymore into our trunk to give to Carolyn for her work’s charity garage sale.

Today I woke up to my wonderful Eden asking for something to eat and Jon already being gone. I’m sure I was just too out of it when he went to give me my goodbye kiss and left me to sleep. I’m sorry dear.

I eventually got into my shower and the girls breakfast and us out the door.

We got to Carolyn’s work and after giving her the stuff the girls got their exercise by walking and running around the ramp and stairs that are outside her work. They make a square and are soo fun according the Lilah. We also had time to kill before meeting Anna and my mom at Sweet Tomato’s so it was perfect. After a few laps I asked about anyone needing to go potty and Eden did. Lilah waited in the foyer. Then Lilah had to go and Eden waited in the foyer.
I guess Eden was also singing because one of the women on the office, who loves my girls, came out and complemented Eden on her sweet singing voice. You could tell Eden loved the compliment.

We then went to Sweet Tomatoes and stuffed ourselves full of good food.

My mom took my girls in my car back to her house and I took her car to my doctor’s appointment, or the whole reason I went to Henderson in the first place.

It was an appointment with my dermatologist. Jon noticed one of my moles/ freckles looking abnormal on my arm and I figured I should go now since our deductible has been paid by the girl’s two incidents last year and July is when the fiscal year ends and we’d have to pay it down again.
She said it was good that I was watching the two moles on my arms, but they’re not suspicious enough to remove.
But one of the moles that was removed on my back appears to be coming back, or there is pigment in the scar, and since the cells were abnormal I have to get it sutured.

I really hate this.

These two post explain a little of what I’m went through two years ago when I had precancerous or abnormal cells.

I guess they removed all the abnormal cells, or precancerous cells, but they were pretty deep so their was a chance the mole might grow back, and since it appears to be doing that she has to remove a lot of skin or suture me and they’ll retest and hopefully they’re just abnormal and not melanoma cells. It’s right under my previously sutured area.

It really sucks.

I have the appointment for the end of May. Jon has two weeks off and it’ll be in the middle of the second week. I figure we deserve at least one week of vacation, or time to do stuff, and the second week we can relax at home  and he’ll be there to help me for the first few days since I won’t be able to lift anything heavy, bend over or stretch my back for four weeks.

My doctor says I appear to get pretty thick scars, which is no fun. So I’ll have two scars right by on another. I think I’ll have Jon take a picture so you can understand how beautiful it will be. Luckily they are on my back, but they’re on my shoulder so it’s not a pretty sight when I’m in a swim suit.

It also bites because I won’t be able to go swimming for four weeks, or until the stitches are removed. Which means we’ll have to delay swimming lessons for Lilah, and I won’t be able to go swimming at her birthday party.

I figure it’s better to do it now though, rather then the middle of the summer when it’s the hottest and after we’ve already gone swimming.

It really saddens me to have these abnormal moles.

I have a lot of freckles and moles and as I more closely inspected my spotted back this morning I began to hate what I saw.
Instead of beautiful freckles that made me unique I saw potentially deadly cells that would eventually be taken off and leave by body scarred and ugly.

I know that not all of them will become harmful, but I’ve shown promising potential that they will. All three moles removed two years ago on my back were abnormal and two will leave large scars because of the depth of the cells in my skin. Every freckle and mole on me has the potential to change and become harmful.

I am grateful that I haven’t been diagnosed with melanoma. My doctor mentioned how once diagnosed you have to come in every three months to be checked out. I’m having a hard time with twice a year.

I hope the cells removed from me on the 28th are just abnormal.

Eden’s surpassed her pee in the toilet record.

She peed three times in the toilet today.

Yes, so exciting I know.

She’s yet to poop in the toilet though and I’m pretty sure that the poop will be our biggest hurdle. She likes to tell me she’s pooped, but it’s always after the fact. I think I may have also ruined it because I’ve gotten mad at her for removing her poopy pull-ups and trying to go poop in the toilet after she’s pooped in the pull-up. Not so much mad but impatient. She usually uses the toilet after she’s gone pee, though nothing comes out and I’m sure that’s where the idea hatched.

I just hoped I don’t have to wash out too many poopy panties during this. I don’t know which is worst. Pee on carpet or poop in panties. They’re both so gross, though the panties get clean a lot easier.

On an up note Lilah has been a wonderful cheerleader for Eden. If Lilah’s there she starts singing our little song for Eden, (Eden went pee pee in the potty. Eden went pee pee in the potty.)  and encourages Eden and tells her what a great job she’s doing. She really gets excited for Eden.

It warms a mama’s heart to see her children cheering each other on.

The end of April is when the season of Birthday’s begins for our family.

We have a lot of birthdays in May, June and July. At least for the family we keep in touch with. (Since there are 21 grand children on Jon’s side I have no idea when any of them are because we don’t keep close tabs on most of them, though I’m sure I could get the list of birthday’s from his mom. I also only know 3 of his siblings birthdays. Dara and Jason’s, whom we keep close contact with and his brother Conrad’s, but only because it’s the day after Eden’s and the day I wish I had Eden because it’s the same day as mine, just a different month, and I use to always say the wrong day for Eden’s, though I think after nearly 3 years I’ve gotten her birthday through my head. I know this is all pretty vague, but this is the internet after all.)

Then there are some in the Fall, but now are the ones I worry about.

Jon turns 33 at the beginning of May. He’s getting so old.

I’m turning 25 at the end of May. (I’m getting old because I feel like I should only be 22 or 23.)

Lilah turns 5 in June. FIVE. I’m going to be the mother of a school aged child. Yikes!

Eden turns 3 in July. So my next child will be at least 3 1/2 years younger than their closest sibling. That’s such a big age gap, and it’s only getting bigger since I like to have children in the Spring or Summer months so they’re more likely to be nearly four years younger than Eden, if not more. Plus the thought of packing away the crib next year when Lilah gets the top bunk and Eden moves to the bottom is so exciting to me that it almost overrides any desire for another child.

We also have other family members in there. My mom’s, MIL, FIL, BIL’s, a sister, SIL, and a niece, though I’m sure there are more.

Plus some friends.

This year I’m going to give Lilah her first friend party. We’ve always done family parties, and the kids in her class have done friend parties so I’m going to venture and try to entertain about six 4 year olds for 2 hours, plus some older cousins. Though it may be a swimming party and the mom’s will have to be there with their kids rather than just dropping them off. I’m not sure what we’re going to do, but I should get started on my plans soon.

So lets get this cake season started.

This week has turned out to be a busy one, not intentionally, so it’s hindered the potty training, but I’m still letting Eden give most of the direction as of now.

Monday I cleaned our back patio, to a degree since we still need to put one more brick in and add the sand to the sand box.

Tuesday Lilah’s friend Britta had her “Grand Opening” of her restaurant and invited all her class friends. It was so fun for the girls. Sam had made menus and Britta got the orders and served all the kids. Lilah now wants her own restaurant, but I tell her I have to clean my house first.

Wednesday we needed to go sign the papers on our life insurance. It turned out UNLV was doing some Earth Day events for elementary aged kids and it was open to the public so we headed over a little early to pick up Jon and changed our appointment to a later time. It was a windy day and there were only so many things to see so we just made our new appointment on time. Jon was a doll and parked my car in the boon docks, other wise known as the Thomas and Mack, and he got it for us, so we only had to wait for him to come back.

Thursday I cleaned my bathrooms because Lilah’s class was canceled due to do half the kids being sick and another mom being out of town, so it left two kids for Lilah’s class, including her and two kids for Eden’s class.

Today I was flipping through the channels, which I never do in the morning, it’s always just on PBS, and the weather came on. Today was to be in the 70’s with it being 79 by 5 pm and light breezes. I decided that I hadn’t spent much time with the girls and a morning at the park would be fun. ( I think I was confused with our bad attitudes last week being a sign I hadn’t spent much time with them.)

I called Sam and we had a long morning at the park, I mean long, like nearly 3 hours. It was the perfect day and the girls had a blast. It seems like the weather heats up so fast sometimes so I thought Jon would be happy that I took the opportunity to take them outside and enjoy it. (I have a tendency to get stuck in a rut and not take the girls outside even on beautiful days.)

Tomorrow who knows what we’ll do with this beautiful weather.

Right now my house consist of a lot of little messes, with a few big ones here and there.

I have tons of organizing I need to do. Like putting away the girls and my winter clothes, weeding out clothing we don’t wear and in general getting my pile of DI to DI or to my sister for their charity yard sale for her work.

I have papers to file, things to dust, a kitchen to clean, not to mention mopping the floors.

I did get our bathrooms cleaned, but not much else, today.

Thankfully Jon is supportive of my strange cleaning habits. Like I cleaned our food storage cabinets and microwave area and inside the microwave earlier this week, even though it wasn’t to bad but had been cluttered and needing some attention for months, while the rest of my house was a disaster.

He tells me to not get overwhelmed and be happy in my accomplishments. If I feel like cleaning the microwave, when there is clutter everywhere else and only we see inside our microwave, be happy it got done.

I cleaned that area because I felt the urge but more importantly felt that I could get it done in one day. Where as everything else that needs to be done will take a few days to a week, but that’s after I get everything done.

I suppose I just feel a little overwhelmed in our house. We have a lot of things in a small space plus four human beings who make new messes everyday. Everything kinda has a place, even if it looks like it’s not suppose to be there. I put it there because I have no idea what to do with it.

I also get overwhelmed with cleaning and getting rid of things. I get rid of stuff and then I get rid of more stuff and I find it amazing that I can always find something we don’t need, even though I just went through that exact stuff 6 months earlier.

I have some things I should get rid of but don’t, so those 6 months help me see how dumb it is to hold onto things I don’t use.

Spring cleaning.
Ain’t it grand.

Right after Jon came home the phone rang. The caller id said United States Government, which I was gonna let ring, but it intrigued him enough that he answered it.

It was for me.

The man introduced himself, I think, and said he was with the Army. He asked if I had graduated college within the last year, I said yes, even though it’s been over a year, but I am graduated so within the year doesn’t matter because college is a big reason why people join the military.

He asked what I did. I said I stayed home and took care of my children.

He asked if I wanted to work and said that the Army could offer me great opportunities. I said I didn’t need to work because my husband supported me.

He asked once more so I then said I didn’t want to join and hung up.

Firstly it was just funny to me that he asked if I wanted to work after I stated I stayed home.

Uh, no!

I refrained myself from telling him what a jerk he would be to ask a mother to join the Army at a time of war and how I oppose women being put into hostile territory, especially mothers. (Not that fathers are any less important, but I am slightly sexist when it comes to war. Though I think women in the military is fine.)

It was a funny call, despite my negative feelings at the end.

Well we started potty training Eden today.

I had her in pull-ups for a couple of reasons:
1. She’s only used the toilet once.
2. I didn’t want to get too frustrated on the first day.

We made her sign to put her stickers on to keep track of how often she goes each day last night. We also put her first pull-up on last night.

Jon’s in charge of her for when she first wakes up, because he’s up and I’m not.

She had a wet pull-up. Oh well.

The day progressed and she sat on the toilet several times, but no pee or poop.

Then she ran up to me later in the morning.

“I went pee Mommy.”

It was in the pull-up, but I was happy that she recognized that she went pee.

Later in the day, I smelled a poopy diaper. I’m thinking  that part might take a while.

Then nap time and she awoke with a wet diaper.

The day appears to be getting more expensive as it progresses.

I think I changed another pull-up in the evening and then the moment of glory.

We were watching Dancing With the Stars and off Eden goes. Jon noticed it was too the bathroom and he heard the pee.

Yay!!

She was so happy to go pee in the toilet that she forgot to wipe, so we told her to wipe but she just stuck a piece of toilet paper in the toilet.  It was cute.

We were all cheering for her and all of us were in the bathroom for the first sticker.

I asked if she wanted to call and tell someone that she had gone in the toilet and she said Carolyn, so we called and left a message with her, and then called my parents , but left a message there too. (Where is everyone when you need them to be excited for you child?)
Carolyn called back shortly and was happy for our girl.

I’m going to continue to use pull-ups till she gets that poop goes in the toilet, unless it seems like she uses the pull-ups just because she can.

The day I think went much better because she was in pull-ups and  not just underwear because I hate cleaning up messes and it gets me stressed. I want to ease into this and give her, and myself, a little more confidence then I can deal with pee on my floor daily.

I think the first day ended well.

This week has been really busy, like I already blogged about.
In fact I was thinking of beginning to potty train Eden this week since Jon would be home but, since we had something to do every day except Friday, it was postponed.

Plus since we had something to do everyday but Friday the girls have been terrible, and I haven’t been the happiest mom.

It may sound weird but if they’re misbehaving I am usually grumpy and not wanting to give them attention, but sometimes they misbehave because attention, or time, is just what they need.

It’s kinda a vicious cycle.

They get attention or Mommy time and they’re fine -> They’re fine so Mommy finds things that need to be done and spends less time with them -> They get less time and start acting up -> Mommy gets mad that they’re acting up and wants to have alone time, or doesn’t have the energy to give them time because she’s too busy and they’re just acting up and she doesn’t want to reward bad behavior -> Mommy cools off and finally starts giving them more time and things get better, even if it took a day or two for her to be a happy mom again. -> All is well in the house and the girls get Mommy time. -> cycle begins again.

Thursday was just a bad day for me.

The girls started the day bickering. I got grumpy. We had a good class but right after we got home Eden got upset because she needed too eat her leftovers from the night before. I send her to timeout for not doing what I asked and afterwards she decides to take a nap and skip lunch. (She had woken up at 6:30 am and her allergies were bothering her this day. )
Lilah was okay during Eden’s nap, but I was already stressed because of  the chaotic house and feelings of being over whelmed, plus ornery children.

Lilah went outside and after Eden’s nap Eden joined her. They were playing fine but right before I was going to start dinner I go out and see that they’ve turned on the water. They’re muddy and Lilah’s shirt, which was mostly white, now had brown cuffs, since it was long sleeved. The shed got water in it, because that’s where the hose was, not on the grass, but running off onto our dirty, now muddy concrete and I lost it.

I was fed up with the back yard and water and swore that if they did it again they wouldn’t play outside for a week. Lilah’s feelings were hurt because she wasn’t listening and I pulled her into the house to clean her off. Eden gave Lilah hugs because I was too angry at them.

The backyard really gets to me because of how dirty the girls can get and how dirty our patio gets. The neighbor girls like to play back there with mine and about a week ago they had turned on the water and made a big mess.

Since the back yard is so crazy because of the sand box, in which it’s more of a dirt box and it just gets dirt onto our patio,  today we bought bricks to line it and play box sand to put in with the silt the girls now play with. We hope this will keep the dirt in the sandbox rather than our patio, and that the dirt will be less clingy to the girls and easier to dust off of clothing. ( If they play outside they have to change their clothes and get wiped down or given a bath because otherwise it gets everywhere. ) We also hope that it will make letting them play outside less of a stress on me.

Plus the neighbor girls have been coming over more regularly so my girls have been going through clothes and getting dirty on a regular basis and it’s just too much for this kinda neat freak mom when it comes to dirt, though I have plenty of dust in my house.

Things have just been weighing me down and that was my breaking point.

I’ve also realized that potty training was not the starting point to Lilah’s and mine battle of the wills. I was just potty training her at the age children begin being stubborn and hard to handle, or 2 1/2.  Eden has been this way half the week and it’s because she’s 2 1/2 nearly 3 and not because I’m potty training her and she’s stubborn, but just because she’s stubborn.

Writing about it brings back a lot of the stress I’ve felt, but I am doing better today and I’m going to start potty training Eden on Monday because we have little planned this week and I run out of diapers and will only have pull-ups.

Now I just have to get up at 6:30 am with her. 🙁
She did go potty in the toilet once on our trip. It was in the morning and since her diaper was dry I put her on the toilet. It’s kinda a hit and miss in the morning whether she has a dry diaper, but I’m hoping we can get some sort of recognition going since she  says she has to go potty but never does.

Wish me luck, but mostly wish me patience.

So I would post this video with my caterpillar pictures, but I still need to edit some of them and this was just too fun today.

We had read a book on the life stages of caterpillars from a little girl’s perspective who had a caterpillar in her class. Towards the end of the book she had taken the butterfly out of the jar while it was on her finger and then it flew away. Lilah had mentioned doing this, but I wasn’t sure how the whole release thing would go so I warned her that they may just fly away without going on her hand first.

She was so happy to be able to hold the butterfly before it was released. It actually makes me a little teary eyed now to watch the video and hear her talk about the experience.

I love being a mom.

So I have lots of pictures on my camera, some of caterpillars, some if a wedding, some of butterflies, but I’ve been to busy to do anything with them.

I’ll recap on our trip when I do that post, maybe by the end of the week, but for now I’ll tell you why I’ve been busy, or not at home.

Monday Lilah had a birthday party. It was for one of her classmates, Isaak, and the girls had a blast. I took Eden along because one, she loves birthday parties two, she’s too little to understand why she can’t go to her sister’s friends parties and three, she was invited and had Jon not been home she would have been there anyways. Jon had until today, or Wednesday, off so I almost left Eden with him, but since I had to babysit for Kristi so she could take her scouts to the recycling pant Monday afternoon, I thought I’d give some time to my hubby for him to be by himself.

So it was a birthday party in the morning and then babysitting for 4 hours in the afternoon.

Tuesday we took Jon’s car in to the mechanic. His brakes were making bad grinding noises and it turns out were metal to metal, why they didn’t catch this two months ago I’m not sure and makes me a little suspicious, but we still like our mechanic or at least the owner.

After the car was dropped off we headed to my parents to drop off a couple things to be shipped to Andrea because I forgot them this weekend. (I do have the Wonder Woman cake pan now Shauntae so you mush visit me within the next year at least. 🙂 ) We ate lunch and then dropped my dad off at Kristi’s so he could get his truck back. Then off to Kohl’s, my favorite store to shop at for me. We found Jon some shirts to beef up his wardrobe and a belt. It’s been over a year since we’ve bought him clothes, so he badly needed some new shirts to help out his depleting wardrobe. It was fun for me and the girls were OK.

Then we went to JoAnn’s because it’s sale time! I found a pattern I liked for a skirt, $.99, and the pattern I wanted for the girls was gone. 🙁 So I bought my pattern and went to look for Jon and the girls at Petco which is next door, since I thought that might be a fun distraction. They didn’t have any dogs or cats, but plenty of birds, lizards and other things.

Jon is softening to the girls plea for a pet. I’m still a firm no. A hermit crab and gold fish are much as I’ll allow because I can’t stand smelly pets, like, birds, rats, dogs, cats and practically any animal. Plus some caged animals are high maintenance, like iguana’s, which can get huge, and I’m against that also.

I’m just not a pet person.
If we had a spot to put a litter box I might say yes to a cat that doesn’t shed too much, but that’s even a hard sell for me.
I liked my SIL’s Yorkie, but they spent $800 to buy her and that was at half the normal price, so I think even a small dog that doesn’t shed is out since I’d rather have certain home improvements than a pet.

We came home after JoAnn’s but I was still to tired to do pictures. Not to mention I had things around the house that needed to be done and Lilah’s gymnastics class that evening.

Today, or Wednesday, I watched Britta while Sam taught her dance classes this morning. We had to pick up Jon’s car so Sam left the car seat and we piled the three girls in the back of mine. They all fit wonderfully and had fun “giving” each other different flavored ice creams. It started out nice, like peppermint and chocolate and then progressively got worst, like feet and dirty trashcan gum.

Mmm, mmm good.

After paying a lot for four new brakes Jon took Eden to Sunflower Market and I got gas in my car and went to the JoAnn’s by me that is less traveled since it’s so small. ( I was not going to go with three girls.)

I got in trouble because I let Britta and Lilah run around but, I found the pattern I wanted to make dresses for the girls and an apron pattern I liked, both were for $.99 each. I also found fabric the other JoAnn’s didn’t have and got a great deal on everything. Now I just need to finish my drapes so I can make the cute summer dresses for the girls before the summer is over.

Sam got Britta and we had lunch and then I had a stomach ache all afternoon. Literally all afternoon and into the evening. Thankfully Jon was here so I could refer the girls to him, but sadly he goes back to work tomorrow.

I really want to post pictures but the thought of editing is too daunting of a task, especially since I still have travel laundry to do, receipts to check from February, so I also have March and April receipts, and house cleaning to do.

I think they should make one of those vacuum robots that just goes around your house, but one that sweeps and mops for you and instantly dries your floor at the same time.

I’d totally buy one of those.