Not Everyone's Mama

Oh my son waited and waited and waited for this.  He was so happy when I moved it up so that instead of being with Mikayla’s birthday party, we did it with Cambria’s birthday party.  You see, there are so many birthdays in our family in September, it was easier to combine them than have everyone get together another time for another event, plus, it gave the older kids something to do while we adults socialized.

Jordan has loved beyblades for many many years.  He’s 11 now, but he got his first few when he was 5.  He begged and begged and begged some more as I sat there asking, what in the world are beyblades?  I grabbed him some finally.  We brought them home and for the life of me, I could not get them put together.  Pato was at work and Jordan couldn’t/wouldn’t wait, so he took his little stash of beyblades down to our neighbor’s apartment.  His friends’ dad put his together in no time at all.

I actually think they are fun to play with.  Jordan and I have had many battles against each other.  As the other kids got older, they get involved and like to play too.  There is something about a spinning top that every child loves.  Have one made out of metal with a rip cord that makes it spin forever and they are in heaven.

So, on to the party!

The decorations….Cambria was turning one, hence the girly colors.  She’s not too concerned with Beyblades yet.

Some of the food – I love cheese dip.  Those are little smokies in bar-b-que sauce in the back.  I hate bar-b-que sauce, I didn’t partake.

On to the fun!  The party was supposed to be for 14 kids, and I am so glad that we just invited cousins to the party.  There was only 5 beyblades sent.  Usually when we have a party there is enough to go around to each kid, I would have hated to disappoint anyone.  There was also a set of cds that came with the party, but none of them worked, so above is what the kids actually got to play with.

After a bit of squabbling over who got to take a turn, they got down to business and had a blast with the beyblades.  Jordan was quite picky about which Beyblade would be his.  He wanted the one that defeat the most opponents.  And he did.  He beat all of us.  Even me.  And he’s so modest about it too. 

Jordan helping Carter put his Beyblade together. You know, I was worried that these would be too hard for my little 3 year old nephew, but after a couple of times watching me put the rip cord in and having him pull it, he was able to do the rip cord part by himself.  2 Days later he was putting the Beyblade into the launcher and inserting the rip cord.  Child rocks.  He’s a boy’s boy.  He loves anything for boys cars, trucks, and now beyblades.  He’s also a determined little guy, when he wants to figure something out, he does.

Carter and Taylor – Taylor is helping Carter here.  One would think I had more pictures, but the kids were running around so much that a lot of them came out blurry, and you know how much I hate pictures that don’t come out well.

Battling!

Solo blade

All in all, it was a blast.  We decided to split the beyblades up between Carter and Jordan, since they were the ones most interested in them.  Plus, they each got coupons to get some more.  They really aren’t that expensive $5-8/each.  With the coupon and a buy one get one sale that you can find sometimes, it works out well.  I think Shelley is going to grab some more for Carter for Christmas. I’ll probably get some more for Jordan for Christmas.

Thank you to House Party and Spinmaster for sending for us the box of Beyblades!

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I just got up and went into Jordan’s room to wake him up.  I just about froze like a popsicle.  He had (brilliantly) opened his window last night and it was –

I’m not liking Jeriann.  41 degrees in not fantastic weather, it’s a horrible prediction of things to come, you know, like winter.  At leat it warms up for the rest of the week.

I felt so bad for the budgies.  They are under Jordan’s loft bed and off to the side of his window.  I’m surprised I didn’t frozen birds this morning.   Their cover probably kept them warm enough, but he has been told not to open his window when it’s getting this cold at night.

It’s finally starting to warm up in here after I piled on a sweatshirt, sweatpants, socks, and slippers. 

On to Christiano being sick.  Last night his fever dropped out of nowhere.  LIke, one minute he was burning hot and the next his temp was normal and he was running around playing like he hadn’t just been sick since Wednesday night.  After his bath, Pato and I noticed that there was a rash of little red spots all over his tummy.  Turned him over, some on his back, a few on his legs, not much on his arms. 

I was sitting there thinking, he had his MMR….didn’t he?  Yeah, he had his MMR, it was at 12 months I think.  He had his chicken pox vaccine at 15 months.  What could this be?

Have you ever Googled measles?  OMG.  Nasty.  The images.  I just about lost my supper.  Then I Googled chicken pox.  I think people only put up absolutely extreme cases of things because I had the chicken pox, my brothers had the chicken pox, my sister had a nasty case of the chicken pox and none of us looked like those pictures.

I think he has roseola.

A child with roseola typically develops a mild upper respiratory illness, followed by a high fever (often over 103° F or 39.5° C) for up to a week. During this time, the child may appear fussy or irritable and may have a decreased appetite and swollen lymph nodes (glands) in the neck.

The high fever often ends abruptly, and at about the same time a pinkish-red flat or raised rash appears on the trunk and spreads over the body. The rash’s spots blanch (turn white) when you touch them, and individual spots may have a lighter "halo" around them. The rash usually spreads to the neck, face, arms, and legs.

That’s exactly what has happened.  Plus, Jordan had it as a baby, if I stretch really far back into the deep recesses of my mind, it looked like what Christiano has.  I remembered freaking out because of how high his temperature.  I took him to the doctor and was doubting him when he said, he has roseola, watch for this, this, and this.  I was amazed that everything happened exactly how he said it would, when he said it would.

I’m calling the doctor right now, but I’m pretty sure he’s going to tell me to just watch him if it’s roseola.

There’s nothing you can do for it and the fever is the part that is dangerous.  It can cause febrile seizures.

We’re past that part now, thank goodness!

Here’s hoping Alyce doesn’t come down with it.  It’s a childhood illness, I think Kat and Jordan are probably past catching it, but who knows about Alyce.  I guess I’ll ask when they call me back.

I’m going to take the kids to school so Kat isn’t standing at the bus stop with wet hair.

Have a great day!

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Only took me…well, hours.  I thought it was about time for a new design over here.  I’ve cut my hair, so my little woman up there in the header needed a fresh new look, a change of clothes, the addition of my buying a new nose ring finally (not that you can see it), plus, my kids are older.  I thought I’d update their picture.

I designed the header myself, that’s my own little handiwork up there with the self portrait.

The theme is Mobipress.  It’s here if you’d like it for yourself. 

I’m not a whiz when it comes to coding, so this took me awhile.  Changing things to just the way I want it.

I like the new colors.  Add a little something over the plain white I had before.

Hopefully it’s easy to navigate for you guys.

Let me know if you have any problems at all with it!

Off to redo my buttons.

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It’s that time of year.  The time when the weather starts turning and my kids start getting sick.

I hate this time of year.

Christiano started a low grade fever Wednesday night, along with his every time he’s sick he gets stomach problems that make changing diapers so much fun thing.  It stayed low grade for a couple of days, didn’t think anything of it.

Yesterday it blew up.  He was running at 102.8, but it was controllable most of the day with Tylenol, until later in the evening.  I had Pato run to the store and get some more ibuprofin and started alternating.  He got up at 4 AM just burning up.  How hot was he?  I don’t know.  Pato changed the battery in my thermometer and it started reading 98.4 for every person in my house, including Christiano.  Need a new thermometer now.  He’s cranky, and tired, and just wants to lay on mama.  (That’s why I didn’t blog yesterday.  I laid with him most of the time.  He would sleep as long as he was laying with my arm under his neck and snuggled up against me.  If I tried to leave him, he’d wake up crying. Poor baby.)  At 4, I had Pato throw him in a tepid bath, that brought it down for a bit and gave the dose of Tylenol time to start working.

I called the doctor yesterday to see if I should watch him or bring him in.  Normally I would just watch him, but I was a little concerned about all the mosquito bites he had accompanied by getting sick right afterwards.  I didn’t bring bug spray to practice last Tuesday night.  It was cold.  We haven’t had a problem with mosquitoes all year over there.  Why would I?  The child got ate up.  Then Thursday, I had forgotten about the mosquitoes, until we got to Kat’s game, and he got ate up again. Christiano is like Jordan.  If they get a mosquito bite it swells up huge and lasts FOREVER.  He still has the bites that he got on Tuesday.

I looked up the symptoms of West Nile Virus,

Milder Symptoms in Some People. Up to 20 percent of the people who become infected have symptoms such as fever, headache, and body aches, nausea, vomiting, and sometimes swollen lymph glands or a skin rash on the chest, stomach and back. Symptoms can last for as short as a few days, though even healthy people have become sick for several weeks.

He had the fever and a rash on his cheeks (though WNV rash is supposed to be on stomach and back).  The stomach issues weren’t listed, but that doesn’t mean anything to me.  Christiano gets that all time time anyway.  If you look at this map, there have been human infections of WNV reported this year in Iowa.  So, it’s not too far fetched that I would be concerned about it with all the bites and the getting sick right afterwards.

So, he has the fever, he vomited twice last night, and his cheeks are rashed out (that can be caused by a fever in little kids too though).  I am not sure about the rest because he can’t tell me.  He’s just cranky.

The on-call doctor said to watch him until Monday when my regular doctor is on, unless his fever surges out of control and isn’t coming down when he has Tylenol/ibuprofin.

I doubt it’s WNV, but remember, this is paranoid mommy here.  Even on my 4th kid, I have to restrain myself from running to the doctor with every cough, sneeze, and slight temperature.  I know, I know, it’s just a virus.  I hate those words.  It means there’s nothing I can do to make them better.

It might have been Pato and my imagination last night but we thought Alyce was feeling warm before she went to bed.  Couldn’t tell you if she really was or not, my thermometer said her temp was 98.4.

Sigh

Jordan had a nasty headache yesterday.  Only Katiana felt good. 

Knock on wood that she doesn’t come down with anything.

And me, I’ve got a sty brewing in my eye.  You know that uncomfortable feeling you get in your inner eye. It’s sensitive, starting to feel tight, just hurts a little.  Got that.

Anyone else want to add something to that list? 

Jordan just got up and his head still hurts.  Christiano is hot.  I’m going to go out on a limb and say we are not going to his soccer game today.

He’s not overly torn up about it.  I wouldn’t be either if my head hurt like his did.

Have a great day!

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No, I’m not talking about the lovebirds or budgies – it’s Christiano.

I can’t even count all the words he can say now.  This is awesome, but it shocks me.  I was totally expecting him to not say one thing until he was 2, just like my girls.  He seems to be taking after Jordan though.  He doesn’t have quite the vocabulary Jordan did at a year and a half, but he’s not that far behind.  (At 18 months, our dr said Jordan had the vocabulary of a 3 or 4 year old.  I could literally have conversations with him at that age like I have with Alyce now.  It was crazy.)

Last night he had a new one and I’m not completely sure where he heard it at.  I don’t really recall any of my kids saying this, but something is nagging at the back of my mind telling me it had to have been Jordan.

We were hanging out in my bed last night reading books when all of a sudden Christiano said, “oopa day-ey”.  Do you get what’s he’s trying to say?  I looked at him and I said, oopsie daisy?  He grinned all big, “oopa day-ey!  oopa day-ey!  oopa day-ey!”

My 19 month old now says oopsi daisy.

He also learned me too and I do!

Picture me, sitting there, doing my make up.  Alyce runs up to me and says, I want lip gloss!  Christiano runs up behind her, Me too!  Me too!  Then he opens his slobbery mouth all wide, just like sissy.  Honey, the lip gloss won’t stick to your slobbery-ness.

I put on deodorant, he comes running, me too!  me too! all trying to pull his shirt sleeve up to get to his pit.

Who wants a popsicle?

Christiano comes running!  I do!!!!

Who wants to clean the living room?

I do!!!

No you don’t, stop telling fibs.

Last night, the kids had been told over and over to get their chores done. There was hardly anything to do.  They kept putting it off and putting it off and finally supper was done. (Supper was frozen pizza because Katiana had a game last night and Pato had put my whole crock pot in the fridge full of the beef and noodle soup I made before Tuesday’s practice.  I felt lazy about getting it out.)  I told them they could eat as soon as things were picked up.  Alyce came running to me.  Mama!  Mama! We’re done.  Can we eat?  Christiano started slapping my leg. Mama!  Mama! 

Are you done cleaning Christiano?

Yesssssss.

You, my dear son, did not clean anything, and you already ate your pizza.

Silly boy.

Are they not just amazing at this age?  I mean, really they are amazing at any age, I love watching my kids learn new things, but at this age, at 19 months, it’s like they learn something new every time you turn around. 

You also have to watch them so much more closely because they think they can do anything.  The only thing Christiano is scared of is a swing.  The child hates to swing, which makes me wonder how he is related to his sisters, whose 3 favorite words are mommy push me.

Other than that, no fear.  He climbs EVERYTHING.  In the time it took me to put away lunch yesterday he was on top of Jordan’s loft bed.  Yes.  He climbed the ladder and got on the bed that is higher up in the air than I am tall.  (I have to stand on my tip toes to shake Jordan’s shoulder when he’s in bed.)  Jordan’s door is now closed all the time.  Only problem is, he can open doors now too.

And the refrigerator.

I need to get a refrigerator lock, but if he’s anything like my other 3, he’ll learn how to rip that puppy right off the refrigerator by the second day.

(That would be the reason I need a new refrigerator lock, I’ve gone through 3 of them, one with each kid.)

He climbs up to the top bunk of Katiana’s bed when the girls are up there.  I constantly hear, mom!  Christiano is on my bed again.  When I walk in he’s sitting there with a big grin on his face and then scoots to the back so I have to climb the ladder to get him.

He pushes chairs to my sink so he can play in the water.

His favorite thing in the world to do is to dump the budgie’s food on the floor.  No matter how many times he gets in trouble for it, when things are really quiet and I go in search of him, 9 times out of 10 he has dumped their food and is playing with it on the floor.

He can unlock and open the sliding glass door now.  Escaping is also on his list of things to do each day.

Plus, he loves to climb on my bed and remove everything from the shelves I have on my walls.  Then he puts the bird Katiana made me out of clay into the bowl Jordan made me out of clay and shakes it up and down.  Give me that!

Jor-an did it!

Jordan did not did not do it.  I am sitting here watching YOU do it.  Don’t you go blaming Jordan.

No fear at all. 

Did I mention that he reminds me of Jordan at this age?

Don’t you let that innocent little face fool you.   He really is rather naughty.

And I wouldn’t have him any other way.  He has brought such joy to our family.  I adore that little guy.

Have a great day!

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So, Shout wants to know how you make time for play in the fall? 

We live an apartment, so we have no need to rake.  Not a lot of jumping in leaves around here, though sometimes Pato will push the leaves together with a shovel (we don’t have a rake yet – since the apartments take care of that), then the kids get a chance to run and jump in the leaves.

Oh yes, that is Miss Katiana and Miss Alyce when I was pregnant with Christiano jumping in the pile daddy raked.

Since they don’t get to do that often, because as you can see we really don’t get a lot of leaves over here (we have like miniature trees), we try to find other things to do.  I take the kids to the park a lot during the fall.  I hate hot weather and I’m one of those people that stays in the air conditioning all summer long.  Come September, I am in heaven when it drops to 65-75 degrees and we go a lot.  Plus, fall starts a new year of soccer.  I always equate fall with soccer.  We spend most of our time in September and October at the practice fields or the game fields.  With 2 kids in soccer I am always on the go.  While the older 2 are practicing, the younger 2 are always playing on the playground.  They live for Tuesdays and Fridays (our practice days this season).

And what else does fall bring for us?  Halloween!  Halloween is my favorite holiday.  I know most people love Christmas best and I do love Christmas, but I love Halloween.  I love the fun of picking out costumes, I love the dressing up, I love all the fun activities there are scheduled around Halloween.  Most of my kids aren’t really old enough yet for a haunted house, but I might take my oldest this year.  We always go to the zoo for Night Eyes at least once, then we hit Living History Farms for their fun (hay rack rides, roasting marshmallows, etc), and of course trick or treating, which we usually do at least twice.  We usually trick or treat in our area one night then go out to where Jordan’s dad lives because all of his relatives love to see the kids dressed up. 

Message from Shout: Shout knows play is so much more than fun and games. Studies show that unstructured play helps kids build fundamental skills like problem solving, coping, and conflict resolution. In other words: play is how kids become happy, healthy adults. Fall has arrived with crisp, cool air and new reasons to go out and play. So, let your kids take that rewarding jump into a pile of leaves. Take at trip to the park and watch their imaginations run free. The one thing you won’t do is worry about their clothes; play should get messy and Shout can help.

Soccer alone causes a lot of messiness with grass stains and mud when you play in the rain plus there’s all the fun dirt to play in at the park.  My littlest 2 love to sit in the pebbles or the sand and build to their hearts content.  I’ve never been one who worries about stains.  I have some friends who freak out when their kids are playing.  No!  Don’t do that!  You’ll get your clothes dirty!  First, I don’t take my kids to the park in their best clothes, second, clothes wash.  Shout makes plenty of stain fighters for that.  More important is the fact that they are having fun, running, playing, getting exercise without even knowing that’s what they are doing.  And they are learning every time they are out there.  I watch Christiano and with every step he takes on the playground, he gets a little more adventuresome, tries one thing he hadn’t tried before.  He gets a little braver and climbs a little higher.

That to me is more important than how I’ll have to try to get that grass stain out of his knee after he fell running after his sister.  The sound of his giggles and him yelling his sister’s name – Leece!  Leece!, how can you even think about laundry when you hear that?

Don’t forget to visit Shout over on Facebook and see how other moms are letting their children go play!

I was chosen to be a Shout Brand Ambassador through a Mom Blogger’s Club program!

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