Water parks, Pampered Chef, and Bowling...times are crazy!

What I have learned over the past week:

Alex:
-learning more and more words everyday, including the word yes. He sounds so cute saying it too.
-becoming more aware of his emotions. Two seems to be getting closer each and every day.
-is fearless. Only big dogs scare him. Deep water, people, fast things enthrall him. Oh also ANYTHING Anthony has makes him happy.
-is obsessed with brushing his teeth. "Mom, please teeth." So he can eat the Sponge Bob Toothpaste, can a child poison themselves with toothpaste?

Anthony:
-is learning to spell and write new words daily. I love when he chirps up from the backseat to tell me that he can read Bob off of a sign.
-wants an Ipod and DS for Christmas (seriously already?).
-swims like a champion. At the water park this past weekend he went down all of the slides w/o a life jacket and did amazing. I am talking big water slides that freaked me out.
-does not want to wear superhero underwear anymore. Only plain colored ones but will still wear superhero pajamas-makes me feel better.
-when he was home sick yesterday with the flu from school he let me rock him to sleep for the first time in months.
-has figured out that if you tell the teacher your stomach hurts (today) they call your mom at work to come take you home. But if you want to go to soccer you need to get your butt back in class because your tummy is not really hurting.
-is obsessed with soccer, I love watching him play.

Mom:
-stressed because I had the flu after our water park excursion.
-realized after the last two days that really nothing grosses me out anymore. Weird epiphany, not going to lie.
-is super stoked to get all of her new Pampered Chef gadgets.
-had a great time with Leslie, Stu, and the boys in Alexandria. My favorite part was the cute bartender trying to upsell me on their wine while I was wearing green sweat pants and a hat-HOT! Spent $21 on their house wine, drank his specialty shot, and walked it back to our room to drink it on the balcony with Les.
-loves my husband for cleaning out the garage and pre-winterizing the yard...toys go back to where you belong til spring please.

Dad:
-hot, I was looking at him last night and I still think he is...hot I tell you.
-funny, thought he could help when I was sick but than started to gag. He tried.
-a baby because he has an ingrown nail that needs to be cut out today because his finger is turning neon green. Sounds healthy right?
-reminded me that even though he is taking Anthony to soccer tonight I have to be home so he doesn't miss bowling. Yep my baby is in a bowling league. I told you he is hot!
-is geared up for soccer tonight. He is excited that Anthony is digging soccer.

Yep that pretty much sums us up for the week. Pictures to come later today, praying that I can still save all of the pictures since Alex's birth off of my laptop that has a solid black screen.

**Warning**

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/32795587/ns/today-parenting_and_family/displaymode/1247/?beginSlide=1e

For those that are having baby fever this may just put you over the edge..I posted two of my favorite from the gallery.

New Blog that I LOVE!!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/

Check it out and let me know what you think...Melissa

I am seriously going nuts...

Apparently even though the doctors have confirmed that Anthony's hearing is good, I think they have it wrong. That child's behavior is driving me to the brink. Every morning it is a struggle with him. Every single morning. On Tuesday he actually did what he was told, followed through, and made really good decisions. Last night he played soccer like a champ which was a complete 180 from the week before when he sat on the sidelines and refused to play because he didn't have his own ball from home like the some of the other kids. Erik was really smart in making him sit there and watch the whole time though and not giving into his behavior. Because last night he couldn't get out of the car fast enough even though he still didn't have his own ball because he certainly wasn't going to just sit and watch after last week. This morning I told him that we are going to have a meeting with Monsignor Mike to tell him about Anthony's behavior and get some ideas from him to help solve it. Anthony sobbed from the time I told him that to a block away from school. He hops out of the car and acts like he doesn't have a care in the world. Really? I wanted to sob all the way to work. I am so over parenting today...ugghhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I sent this to OTMOM practical gifts contest...

It was the first Christmas that my husband Erik and I had spent in our new house. He had been bragging about this wonderful Christmas present he got me that he knew that I would love. Our friends AJ and Bill were over and we were on our way out for a pre-holiday party. Erik decides that he is going to give me one of my gifts early which is typical because he always caves. I am thinking it must be really good because he is really excited. Let me preface this by saying my husband truly is one of the nicest guys I know and he would never do anything to deliberately hurt me or make me feel bad. I open this gorgeous gift with eager anticipation. My excitement turns to horror in seconds because sitting on my lap is….a scale!! Yep, a nice shiny silver digital scale-once of those fancy and expensive ones that tells your BMI, etc. I burst into tears, our friends are dying because they don’t know if they should laugh or cry with me, and Erik is horrified. He follows it up by telling me that he thought I wanted this because I had pointed out the nice, digital scales at Target. Yep, my husband bought me a scale. He will NEVER live it down.

The Weekend

Now that we are back from the lake for good for the summer I have a to do list that I am busy putting together for both Erik and I to tackle. First on that list is getting our floors cleaned. I also want to change the dogs room into a playroom. It is really hard to swallow that task and I can barely look in there right now so I am going to hold off a while on that one. I am anxious to make some changes in our surroundings to start fresh. Have you painted cabinets before? I think that I am going to tackle that goal very soon. I want to paint our kitchen cabinets white and put a new countertop on. Our house was built in 1989 and has the laminate butcherblock coutertops with a medium oak cabinet and it drastically needs a change. I am thinking a shabby sheak look in the kitchen. Give it a brighter look and ditch all of the warm tones. Change out the light fixture- that is something I did when we moved in and changing light fixtures drastically changes the look of a room. Funny how cyclical making changes to your home can be. We go in phases when we are really gung ho and other times we could careless. I am pretty excited at cleaning the slate, even to have something fresh for the winter that came way too fast. Well if you have any ideas clue me in on them and I will let you know how all this turns out with before and after pictures.

On another note, today still really hurts. I could not sleep at all last night. I miss Ruby so much. Last night I got up at 2 am and watched P.S I Love You and cried like a baby the entire time. I know it is healthy to get it out but it sucks! No better words than,"IT SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Numb, Raw Emotion

Anger, Frustration, Sadness, Thankful, Empty, Missing her so much already it makes my heart hurt. Ruby came home last night from the vet but she had a really bad night. She was drooling and sick as soon as we brought her home. I know she came home to say goodbye to us, I know she came home to say goodbye to me. Because she was my dog, she was born to be my dog, and she will always be my dog.

The day that we went to pick out a dog Ruby was one of the choices. There was this chihuahua there that Erik and I felt terrible for because he had been there 6 months and clearly had issues. So we pick him out, get him to the register, and get into the car and go home. We start driving, get home, and I look at Erik. I told him that we forgot my dog at the store. We got in the car, got to the pet store, and I know she was just waiting for us to come get her. For those of you that have dogs you understand when I say that your dog was born for you. Ruby had always been my girl. She follows me from room to room. As I am typing I literally just looked for her by my feet. I always joked with Erik that I wanted to clone her. She is the best dog. She has never messed in our house until she was sick the last couple of weeks, she has never nipped or challenged one of my children even though her heart was broke when we brought them home from the hospital. She cuddled, she loved, and the girl has a personality that I adore.

I brought her in right away this morning because even though she had not eaten or drank anything her stomach was bloated rock hard. The vet said that her intestine had twisted due to the pancreatitis. All the fluid was coming back up because the intestine was twisted. To fix it required surgery but with all of her other conditions the most humane thing to do was to let her go. So I did.

Ruby

I ususally call her my Ruby Booby. Well anyway our baby girl is sick, very sick for that matter and we are all very sad. Most of you know that we lost our boy pug Charlie not that long ago due to complications with seizures. Ruby has been acting odd for the last couple of weeks and it was decided that today she needed to go in for a check up. Erik and I both were thinking they would come back with a diabetes diagnosis because she has been drinking a ridiculous amount of water and urinating very frequently, getting us up in the middle of the night 2-3 times to go and having accidents in the house which she has never done before. She actually was sleeping with me at the lake this past week and peed on the comforter-that was pretty much the final straw of us knowing something was up. This morning she ate and got sick 3-4 times before Erik brought her in which was new to the equation. They weighed her and she has lost 4 lb since her last visit. Considering that is 1/4 of her body weight the concerns heightened. After a blood test it was concluded that she does have diabetes and there is also a concern she may have pancreatic cancer due to some of her levels being irregular-well not just concern but alarm. So our baby girl will be spending the night at the vet tonight and tomorrow. They are putting a catheter in to check her urine levels, etc. Poor Erik called me from the vet absolutely beside himself. It is not only hard because your worry she is in pain, if they can "fix" her, but also because of the freshness of Charlie. So please just keep us in a small part of your prayers because we really want Ruby to stick around.

Anthony and Alex Update

Anthony had alot of firsts within this last week:
First time sleeping in a tent.
First time tubing down the Ottertail with the family and mom.
First time in a kayak.
First day of kindergarten. He did not cry, I did not cry.
First day of school he was stung by his first bee. The nurse called and he was pretty upset.

When I was getting ready for school Anthony said to me,"Mom, are you ready for your first day of school looking like a hot chic?" Still cracks me up. Within the same breath as I was putting on my spanx because I was wearing a dress he told me,"Don't wear those Mrs. Doubtfire underwear again, that looks weird." Trust me I wish I didn't have to wear them.

Alex is talking more and more each day. It amazes me how they start to just try to repeat everything you say. Words include typical words like milk, bye-bye, Mommy (he says loud and alot), daddy-but lately he has been calling Erik mommy as well. But also bubbles, butt, poopy baby, and please-which is so cute because he has now picked up on the fact that if he says please he may just get everything he wants, thank you- which is a tone higher and kind of unrecognizable. His favorite word is book and he stalks me with books. Yes, happy he likes to read but also sometimes tired of reading about Spot. Oh and his latest word that he learned from Spot- NO! If you ask him a questions he responds no to almost everything.

This last week Alex also said potty and I asked him if he had to go. He ran to the bathroom, I set him on the toilet, and my 18 month old boy peed in the potty! So now it is a game. He says potty, runs to the potty, sits on the potty and says,"NO!"