Don't worry! I haven't forgotten about my beloved blog! It has been a long time though. I just got to thinking it would be a tragedy if the masses didn't have anything to read on a snow day (where applicable 😊). Warning: This post is heavy on photos and video, not so much with on words.
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| Elena got a chair for Christmas. It is very soft and she loves it. |
Oh, where to even begin. Life, as always, is a bit crazy. I just went back and looked at my last post to see where we left of an oh my goodness am I behind. To make a long story short, the antibiotics did NOT work for our bronchitis (every other time I've had bronchitis, antibiotics have worked, so I was a bit annoyed) and I proceeded to not only pull muscles throughout my back and stomach from coughing so much and so hard, but to also tear a muscle that runs along my ribs in my back. I could actually feel it coming apart. It was disgusting and excruciatingly painful. I couldn't sit, stand, or lay down and it hurt to breathe and cough so I went to the ER. At 3:00 AM. With the whole family. Yea. We'll be paying for that for a while. I keep thinking that it was a stupid thing to go to the ER for, and it was, but I honestly didn't have another option. That's how bad it hurt. At least when I was in labor with my children there was a reprieve between contractions (I'm talking pre-epidural here). There is no reprieve with rib injuries if you are breathing, much less if you have bronchitis and are coughing all the time. When they discharged me I could not believe they were letting me go and I had no idea how I was going to get myself through the day, and that's without even considering taking care of children. Luckily, the body is tough and heals remarkably fast. I have now decided that I am not going to be sick any more this year. I quit illness. So far, it is working. Okay, so maybe that wasn't a short story, but the people have a right to know.
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| No one is as comfortable at the dentist as Oskar. |
I decided to become an Usborne Books consultant because my kids absolutely love their books. Also, our MOPS group was looking for one and I thought 'Hey, I can do that.' I'm not going to badger my friends and family to have parties, but know that if you ever need an Usborne lady, I'm here. So far I've just done some fundraisers for some groups and individuals and they have been a lot of fun. Plus, free books, hooray! I'm always impressed with how much Oskar learns from these books, but it can come with a downside. For example:
"I need to go potty."
"Oskar, are you sure?" (I've been tricked before)
"
'When the bladder is full, it means the pee is ready to leave the body.' " Yep, that would be my 4 year old quoting a book, ladies and gentlemen. He also uses a different tone when he's quoting something, it is a bit amusing.
We are the proud owners of a brand new water heater! Hooray home-ownership! I think we got the best possible deal we could and at least it looks like a water heater from the future, so that's pretty neat. Also, still paying for that.
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| Oskar's school pictures. The coloring is better in real life. |
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| Oskar's Ninja Zone pictures. Again- the coloring is better in real life. |
We had Oskar's first school conferences today and I was pretty impressed. He can do all sorts of stuff that we didn't know about. He is also much better behaved for his teachers than he is for us. I'm not surprised, just frustrated. I know most parents have kids like that though so at least we can all suffer together. He has been obsessed with The Nutcracker since Christmas and to say that Dan and I are sick of it is putting it
very mildly. One thing I have enjoyed is that before bed every night, both kids dance to Trepak in Oskar's bedroom. It is very sweet. Note: Not all Oskar's pajama pants are that small. These should probably go in the donation pile, but the technically still fit and that means I have to do laundry less often. And yes, he has little black ballet shoes. But really, they aren't very little.
Elena is... something else. She is 15 months old now, running full bore, eating all the pretzels and chocolate cake she can find and refusing to eat anything else. She will still eat baby food but this is getting ridiculous. She also won't drink from a cup. I gave Oskar a cup on his fist birthday and we never looked back. I finally thought I would trick Elena by putting water in her bottle and milk in the cup. She chugged the bottle of water and all she will do with the cup is carry it around all day. It's like when Phoebe got a bike on Friends.
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I fashioned a device for holding our toys and for sitting on.
That's a touch lamp in the corner. Elena thinks it is pretty neat. |
She's getting very good at puzzles and Duplos and likes to clean/tidy-up. For example. I walked over a rug the other day and the corner of it flipped up. She was following me, bent down and fixed it, then continued on her way. She's great. It's spit bubble time!
I've started occasionally taking both the kids to the open gym type thing at the gymnastics place where Oskar does his Ninja Zone class. They seem to like it. And I like not having them home all day in the house with me on Mondays. The downside is that it is at 9AM in Sioux Falls, so we kind of need to be on our game to get ready and get there. It doesn't always happen, but when it does, I can pretty much guarantee that everyone takes a nap that day. It is wonderful.
Explanation for the following video: That is my Barbie from when I was younger. He found it in a box downstairs. I figure if we have to listen to The Nutcracker nearly every day, you can listen to it too. I'm always impressed with how well Oskar sings. This is just mumbly singing too and you can still make out the song quite clearly. Dude loves his music and ballet. We limit the amount of screen time he gets, so I guess this was the next best thing.
Thanks for reading! Stay warm, local friends!
