Oh Crap, She's Up

First Day of School

Today is the first day of school for our girls ! Although we have had a fabulous summer (more on that in another post), we are looking forward to a great school year. Jenna is now in second grade and Abby makes her debut in Kindergarten.

I am so excited for both of them. Jenna loves school and has so many of her friends in her class. And Abby gets to learn fun things like how to walk in a line quietly, how to participate in a fire drill, and how to read. She'll make new friends and I know it'll be a wonderful year. We are blessed to have a great school for our kids to go to and I am thankful for that.

So it's me and Jacob now . . .what to do? I'm sure I can find something:)

Twister

Jacob is trying to play Twister with Jenna, Abby, and their friends. So incredibly cute!

Kindergarten, Here I Come!

A preschool graduate! Congratulations Abby!

Mommy and Jacob

Sick

This post is purely for my own selfish venting needs. No one reading this will care one bit about anything that I write, but writing it down seems to help.

I can't remember when our family has been this annoyingly sick in a very long time. It has been a week of sickness. And not just one person--everyone. Here's the rundown:

Last week, Jacob got a cold, which means that he is up more at night, crabby, and has snot running down his face quite often. I was sure he had an ear infection, but no. After two trips to the doctor, he was diagnosed with just a cold. $40 for them to tell me he has a cold. I feel awesome for wasting that money.

Next, Jenna throws up and is feeling yucky for three days, but good enough to fight with her sister and complain about being bored.

Next, Abby gets a fever for three days. No throwing up, but the same lethargic stuff that makes her not able to get out of the house, but not happy to be in the house. Both girls were home for a few days like this at the same time.

This is where I start to go nuts.

Yesterday, Nate thought he had strep throat, but ended up being diagnosed with some crazy virus that leaves blister type nastiness in his throat. He's recovering, but tired. At the same time, Abby started to cough. She has cough variant asthma, which usually starts at the onset of a cold and lasts for about 24 hours. This means she coughs non-stop. Day and night.

Well, it's been longer than 24 hours, so I started to suspect something else. And yep, she has a fever. Maybe we'll be at the doctor tomorrow. Maybe the coughing isn't asthma. Who knows. And we are supposed to go to conference while my parents are here watching the kids. Needless to say, I do not want to leave sick kids and am not where I need to be with packing and cleaning.

I am stressed. Please go away sickness. Please.

Happy Birthday Abby!

Abby turned 5 last week! We had a few friends over for a little celebration and then Grandma and Grandpa Pingel came to visit for her actual birthday. She had several days of celebration!

One of her favorite gifts--a pink guitar!

Jacob partied with us too! 8 months old and a crawling machine.

Beautiful Abby!

Best Buddies!

Happy 5th Birthday Abby!

No, Jacob is not sleeping through the night.

This is my answer to the question that I get a lot. Is Jacob sleeping through the night? NO! Can you sense my frustration?

I realize that many babies sleep through the night by the time they are 8 months old, but mine does not. My girls slept through the night at 5 and 6 months, and I assumed that Jacob would be sleeping through the night by now. But he's not:) Before Jacob, I had a pretty strong opinion about babies and sleeping, and now I have had to humbly change the way I think.

We did the sleep training thing with the girls. We let them cry for several nights and each night the crying got less and less. By the fourth night, they were sleeping all night. We thought we were awesome parents! We read the books, followed their advice, and poof! our kids did what the book said they would do. We have done the same things with Jacob but there is no poof. Just crying and screaming and sleeplessness.

We have let Jacob cry for hours, and he doesn't give up. I have talked to my pediatrician many times and she says that many people think that all babies should just sleep for 12 hours and that's that. But she says that 5-6 hours is really sleeping through the night. And that if he wakes up and is hungry that I should feed him. So I do. I followed that advice. He was waking up once per night and sleeping for a total of 10-12 hours.

But now, he's changed the game. He's waking up two times a night. Uggggh. I think it's due to teething, but he very well may be manipulating me. I'm not sure which one it is yet.

So I have resigned myself to the fact that I still have to parent at night (thanks for the advice Dr. Sears) and that I am just going to feed him when he's hungry and encourage him to fall back asleep. Part of me feels like I've failed in the sleeping department with this kid, but I also know that all kids are different and I was so naive to think that he would follow in his sisters' footsteps.

So, NO, Jacob is not sleeping through the night and if you ask me I might cry. I look forward to those incredible days when I can sleep for a full 8 hours again, but until then, I'll be hanging out with the cutest 8 month old redhead at night.

7 1/2 months

I love this age. Really I do. Jacob is no longer a tiny infant who eats, sleeps and poops. His little personality is starting to show itself and I must say, I love it. He is the happiest little guy and so determined in his endeavors . . . which include putting everything in his mouth, hanging out with me in the middle of the night, crawling, and playing with his daddy and sisters.

We've had some big milestones lately. Jacob's first tooth arrived last week and he's started to sleep through the night, but not consistently yet. He still thinks that he should be able to hang out with me at 3am. Lately, he's just had to cry. It breaks my heart, but it's time for a full night's sleep for all of us. He's trying to very hard to crawl. He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks and rocks and rocks. In the past few days, he's gotten a hand or a leg to move, but he hasn't figured out quite how to move them all together.

Jacob loves his sisters. When they come home from school or walk in the room, he gets so excited. He does this cute thing where he puts his nose in the air, scrunches up his face and does an Ernie (from Sesame Street) type of laugh. It's priceless. He also has one word do far. Da da:) I'm not sure he connects that word with Nate yet, but we're working on that. Enjoy a few recent pics of Jacob!

Abby and Jacob playing on the floor.

Abby teaching Jacob how to watch TV.

Can you see the tooth? Bottom right. It's our first one!

Trying so hard to crawl:)

Where I Am Is Good (Puke and Justin Bieber included)

I am co-teaching our high school Sunday morning class and at the beginning, we played this game called Four Pictures. They had to draw four pictures based on prompts I gave them. One of the prompts was, "What will you be doing in 15 years?"

So, I just had my 15 year high school reunion this year, and I am sitting here thinking about whether or not I am where I thought I would be. My answer would have to be yes. I have a great family and I am a teacher (I'm counting my online class as experience right now). But life is so much funnier than I ever imagined it would be. My life is not super exciting, but here are a few interesting tidbits about life right now.

1. I am sitting here in a shirt that stinks. Jacob spit up on me a while ago and I just haven't changed. I don't know why I haven't changed, I just haven't. It's crazy to me that I am totally comfortable with the fragrant baby puke aroma that is coming from my shirt.

2. I am going to the Justin Beiber movie tonight. I know you are all jealous:) Jenna loves him and I am taking our girls with a friend and her girls to the movies. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a tiny bit excited to be going to a Justin Bieber movie.

3. Jenna and Abby think that they are going to try out for American Idol when they turn 15 (they lowered the age requirement, you know). They both want to sing Baby by Justin Bieber. Go figure.

4. For so long, we've had our kids tricked into thinking that words like "stupid" and "dumb" were really, really bad words. But then this morning happened. We were sitting at the breakfast table all together and Jenna started to tell us about this word she learned that was really a bad word. She said it wasn't a fake bad word, but a real bad word. She started telling us that she had never heard the word before and that a friend told her what is was. She said, "Mommy, she said a** is a for real bad word. What does it mean?"

So, there you have it. Our first real swear word spoken at our kitchen table this morning. We told Jenna that she can't say it out loud and that it'll land her a trip to the principal's office:) She's afraid of the principal's office, so we figured that would deter her:)

So 15 years later, I am in the thick of family and life. Little things really make my day. Lately, it's been laundry that is clean, folded, AND put away, a clean house, a full night's sleep, my little boy who is finally taking a bottle. He actually loves the bottle and has started to even love formula. Who would have guessed a few weeks ago?

Life is good . . . baby puke on the sweater and all.

Picture Catch Up

Life has been busy, but so good! Three kids is a lot of work. I could use about five extra hours each day to get done everything I'd like to in a day. I still think that being a stay at home mom is so much harder (for me at least) than going to work every day. At work, at least I could go to the bathroom by myself and have some peace and quiet!

But I'm enjoying my time home with the kids. Jacob is 6 1/2 months. He rolls all over the place. He can get anywhere he wants to and is determined to get as close to the remote as he can. I've seen him on his belly scootch a few times, so think crawling won't be too far behind. He's a happy little guy who is incredibly curious, lights up when Nate walks in the room, and is sleeping much better at night. Yay!

Jenna's birthday was this month. We had 10 of her friends over for a party at the house. We did crafts and games and it turned out great! I was nervous about the number of kids being in my house and having to do crafts with a bunch of kids, but it was fabulous!

Abby is so ready for Kindergarten! She's in preschool three times a week, and still a riot most days:) Enjoy some recent pictures!

Happy 7th birthday Jenna!




Jacob is sitting up all by himself!


Toes are a major distraction!


Crazy eyes!

Abby couldn't take a normal picture that day. She had to have some sort of dance pose:)

Christmas Eve shot of the kids in their jammies.

I Love This Kid

Really, I do. Jacob is so stinkin' cute and fun and smiley and finally sleeping well. I just love him.

I love:

his big toothless, gummy grin . . . especially when he's on the changing table. Lying on the changing table is apparently great big fun at our house. He cracks up every time. Sometimes if he's crabby, I just change his diaper and his mood changes instantly.

that he is not even six months old yet and goes nuts over the remote control. Ours happens to light up and when he sees it, his little arms start moving and he is doing all he can to get to that remote.

that when we put his face up to our cheeks, he opens his mouth a little bit and gives "kisses."

that he can get all five toes in his mouth.

that he is FINALLY sleeping well. 5-6 hours at a time, people. He's come a long way in a few weeks. I am finally beyond sleep deprivation.

when he pulls Jenna's long hair and tries to eat it. She's a good sport about it!

how he smells after a bath.

his little scratchers. That what we call his hands as he tries to grab things and explores.

his giggle.

him.

We Have A Bully

We have a bully. And I say "we" because it involves the whole family in one way or another. Jenna is the target, Nate and I are angry, heartbroken, and protective, while Abby is now convinced that she will be the target of this particular bully when she goes to school next year as well. So it's a family affair, but one that, at this moment, I feel good about where things stand and how we've handled it with Jenna.

So it started during the first day of school for Jenna when we first moved here. A little girl, who is not in the same grade as Jenna, and her friends surrounded Jenna on the playground and started taunting her because she was the "new girl." This bully is also on Jenna's bus and started giving her a hard time there too. I recruited some older kids from the bus to help her out and we didn't have much a problem last year at all. The older kids aren't there anymore and this bully started in on Jenna again this year. She teases her, hits her, and threatens to get her in trouble for things she doesn't do. Apparently, Jenna isn't the only one this bully targets.

At first, it seemed like it was normal teasing that wasn't bothering Jenna too much, but then she started getting stomach aches and I couldn't figure out why. She was up at night and had them in the morning and was even going to the nurse at school. I couldn't figure out where they were coming from. When I was at the end of my rope with the stomach aches, I told Jenna that we were going to go to the doctor and that she was going to have to get shots (which she is petrified of . . . go ahead, nominate me for mother of the year, but she has a history of making stuff up to get out of things and I wasn't sure if the stomach aches were real or not). When she heard the possiblity of shots, she busted into tears and told me all the mean stuff that this bully has done to her and I immediately knew where the tummy aches were coming from.

I called the teacher, spoke with the principal and the bus driver, and pulled Jenna off the bus for a while. I wanted to protect her from all of this hurtful stuff. But we decided that if Jenna didn't ride the bus, that the bully would win. So we encouraged Jenna to get back on the bus and speak up if anything else happened because she was afraid to speak up. But when she knew that I was on her side and was getting some results, she was more confident. Immediately, she had another incident on the bus and told the bus driver.

I was so proud of her. She stood up for herself and knew that she had adults to protect her. And I am impressed with how the school is handling this situation. I have had nothing but support from her school--especially her teacher and hope it continues if more problems arise. So we are in a quiet phase right now. No problems have occurred lately, but I'm anxious to see what the future holds.

Overall, it's been a good life lesson for all of us. Jenna has learned that there are mean people out there, but that we are also there to stand up for her and protect her--as will her teachers. She has learned how to handle this type of conflict and to not be a bully back, which was really important to us. Even though we wanted to march over to this kid's house and talk to the parents, we didn't:) Nate and I have had to think things through and not react emotionally, because it wouldn't do any good for us or Jenna.

Hopefully, this situation is over and all will stay quiet, but if it doesn't we're ready to face it head on again.