Leper Ladies Weekend

Poor sick ole Ellie Bean. We noticed on Wednesday night that she had a few bumps on her legs but we chalked it up to potty training and tree climbing. Thursday, an hour after Aunt Jen and Ainsley got here we noticed that it got much worse. Staying true to our Valdez Circus reputation we went to the emergency room TWICE while Jen was here because the bumps turned into blisters that just kept getting worse. The doctors first suspected it was an allergic reaction but the second time they scared Jen and I almost into crisis mode by saying they thought it was either a Staph Infection or Chicken Pox. Both diagnosises are dangerous to be around for babies (Ainsley) and pregnant women (me).  Ainsley and Jen left early for preventive measures. Thankfully this morning the test results from the culture they did Saturday came in and she has hand, foot, and mouth virus. Luckily, since Ava and I have been exposed to it before both her and I have had immunity to this outbreak and Ainsley has been fairing well too. We are staying in quarantine probably another two days until they clear up. Crazy things seem to always happen when Greg is gone but at least I have been lucky enough each time for Jen to be there. She kept me laughing and we had a great weekend of shopping, crafting, and girl time. Jen was my 5 foot superhero by fixing our kitchen table and Keurig making our day to day life much easier.

You know Ellie is not feeling like herself if she will nap, especially in such an uncomfortable position!

I'm sparing you the worse pictures but Ellie had these blisters all over her legs, buttocks, feet, and hands. She is such a trooper though and rolled with the punches all weekend. We were thankful that she never had a fever.

Ellie Bean didn't have quite her energy level for her usual bike rides so her sweet sissy helped her walk back her scooter when she got too tired

The girls were thrilled to have Ainsley and Jen for the weekend.  Every waking moment they wanted to be around the baby

Jen having a movie night with Ainsley and Ava while Ellie and I were at our second ER trip.

The girls favorite thing was to hold "Ainsee"

Aunt Jen brought a fun Valentine's Day craft for the girls. Painting Doilies onto red adhesive fabric, then cutting them out in heart shapes, then ironing them onto a new shirt. Making a craft that is fashionable is so much fun for these girls.

I hope the girls get Aunt Jen's craftiness through exposure because they don't run in our gene pool!

How adorable are the three amigas?

Aunt Jen makes my favorite banana bread. While I am pregnant it is a necessity to have an industrial sized bag of chocolate chips on hand at all times. 

All of our cravings were satisfied for the chocolate chip banana bread...nom nom nom.

The girls get a little jealous when mommy cuddles Ainsley but we are learning to share the baby.

Best entertainment for them

On a side note- Potty training has been going great and Ellie Bean always keeps things interesting. I was trying to explain to her that when you go to the public bathrooms you don't take your panties completely off and put them on the floor. This is her solution to the panties on the floor problem. 

Ellie coaching Ainsley through her jumper work out

No day is complete without a park trip

Ainsley is one of the happiest babies I have ever met. She in turn, makes everyone around her full of joy. Her and Jen were the sunshine that we needed in our house this weekend.

Rain Rain Stay?

This morning I woke up in a grumpy mood with a to do list the size of Texas. I groaned when I looked out the window and saw the wind, rain, and clouds. Ava ran in and said, "It's finally going to rain today Momma! We can wear our new rain boots and use our umbrellas, it's going to be great!" It straightened my attitude right up. I shouldn't just wish away this next month, put my head down and power through till Greg gets home. How sad it would be to miss these small moments with my sweet girls who can find something to get excited about every day no matter what. 

Potty training ain't no joke

We survived! We made it through potty training weekend without major damage to the carpets or upholstery and without booze for me. It was a success. I used the potty train your child in 3 days program and it was fantastic. Here is a link to the program that I used. I wish I would have used it with Ava. The program calls for your child to be naked from the waist down for 3 days and only putting on a diaper at night (no panties either). You also have to have potties in almost every room you will be occupying. You eat lots of fruit and salty things to get them to drink extra water. Ellie did not have one accident in two and a half days! Go get em girl! We even went to church, the commissary, and our friend's house for the super bowl and she was successful using the potty in all the places. Unfortunately, I had a doctor's appointment today and Ellie went to the CDC for 3 hours and they put her back in a diaper and she regressed a bit. I think I left her too soon for this technique to work. I am canceling my appointment for Friday so that we can march on with potty training. I am happy to report that we are back on track. Future houseguests maybe alarmed because the program calls for her to be naked from the waist down for 3 months while she is home and when she goes out to wear mostly loose dresses. I have been dreading doing potty training again but this weekend was actually a lot of fun. The grin Ellie gets on her face when she has a success is priceless. It melted my heart when she told her Daddy on the phone, "Daddy I went on the potty all day. No accidents. I work hard Daddy".  There is no stopping this girl when she gets a goal in her head. 

 One of the reasons Ellie was so successful was because Ava was her "Potty Coach".  She made up the potty victory dance that we all did and the Pee Pee in the Potty Fight song. She was so supportive of her all weekend and kept asking her if she needed to go, etc. This child is such a wonderful older sibling and Ellie is so lucky to have her. 

Lots and lots of craft time this weekend. I even brought out their Holy Grail of crafts- Markers.

 In our old house that we potty trained Ava we had linoleum floors so clean up was a easy peasy. Not so in the new house. It is almost ALL carpet. We improvised and put out blankets, table cloths, beach towels, bathroom rugs, etc. I'm sure Martha Stewart would be proud.

 Ellie running to the potty. She insisted that if she had to be naked from the waist down then we had to be too. We compromised by doing loose dresses. 

Minnie Mouse providing moral support on her teeny potty.

One of the things that I absolutely love about this neighborhood is that it is flooded with children. It reminds me of the movie "The Sandlot". One of the big meet up spots for the kids is at a big tree across the street from our house. It was too torturous for the girls to see all the kids playing outside in 68 degree weather and being holed up inside potty training. I let them outside and just did knee highs for Ellie and just brought the potty with us. 

When you gotta go you gotta go. Even if it is in the front yard. It was quite the icebreaker with some of our new neighbors. They were so nice and came over to introduce themselves and tell me that they had all "been there done that".  I love how relaxed and friendly our neighborhood is. If this happened in our neighborhood in Virginia Beach, our Home Owner Association director would have a coronary and write me a fine!

 This Ava's BFF Emmy. They live across the street from us and we car pool with them to preschool. Playing with Emmy is my ace in the cards of bribes with Ava.

This is Sarah who lives next door to Megan. She is in fifth grade and has a gift with kids. She entertains them all the time for us so Megan and I can catch our breath. Ellie has taken quite the liking to her. 

Potty training has not kept our bike rides at bay. This is still how we spend most afternoons hitting the pavement. 

New Kind of Resolution

One of my new year's resolutions this year was to give to a different charity once a month. It has been fun the last two months deciding where the money will go and which cause I would like to support. I am always compelled to donating to runners running for a cause because of the support I received while running for the American Cancer Society in Marine Corps Marathon in 2010.

In January I chose The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.   Bob's Daughter (yes, our GrandBob) Katie Might is running a half marathon for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. She has had two family members pass away from Leukemia. My idol, my B-Mom passed away in 1999 from Lymphoma so it is a cause near and dear to me. If any of you feel compelled to run a race for charity I highly recommend the "Team in Training" Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. They are very organized, have lots of training events and coaches, and one of the biggest presence at most races I have attended. If you would like to donate to Katie Might's fundraising page for the team in training, click on  this link.

For February, finding the charity to donate to was easy. Shockingly, my friend Sarah from Virginia Beach was diagnosed with Stage III Colon Cancer. She is about my age and is a stay at home mom to a 4 year old and a two year old. She is the definition of a mother warrior. Up till right before her first round of chemo this month she was an avid runner. Her Mantra is "Run because you CAN and think about those who CAN'T". A group from Virginia Beach called, "Mom's Gotta Run" are running the Shamrock Marathon in Sarah's honor and raising money for the charity Chris 4 Life. Sarah's fight is inspirational and here is her blog link.  To check out the Momma's Gotta Run fundraising page for Chris for Life click here.  

Sarah's Colon Cancer fight and the passing of close relatives to Leukemia and Lymphoma helps keep my attitude in check.  I think twice about complaining about potty training Ellie while Greg is gone (and not being able to have a cocktail while doing it). Life is precious and I need to do what I can to make at least some of my New Years Resolutions count. The world will not be a better place with me being in size 4 jeans again but these charities do make the difference. 

Goodbye Thumb, Hello Pinkalicious Potty

I was trying to delay this until Greg came home in March....but as always, Ellie has her own plans. I am nervous about potty training in a mostly carpeted house but at least us having brown carpets works to our advantage in this situation.  When we potty trained Ava it took us 6 months because she would regress every time Greg left for work ups. I promised I would not force the issue with Ellie until she was truly ready.  Not surprisingly, she is motivated by fashion to wear "fancy panties" like sissy and is lusting after some Minnie Mouse big girl panties. Wish me luck this weekend.

On a side note, this week I took Ava to her new pediatric dentist in Fresno. We are enamored with Dr. Powell. Ava had a nasty face plant in late November that damaged one of her front teeth. Our dentist in Virginia said she would need a root canal and that he didn't have a papoose (aka straight jacket) small enough to restrain her during it. This dentist said that a root canal might not be necessary and we would revisit the situation in two months to see how the tooth is healing. If a root canal is necessary he said he will not use a papoose. He said he builds trust with the kids he works with, works quickly, and only does enough that she can handle. If she freaks out during the procedure then they try again the next day. Worst case scenario if she doesn't respond well to treatment they will take her to a hospital setting and give anesthesia for the procedure. The miracle of this visit was that I told him she was a thumb sucker and we had tried many methods to get her to stop and all were unsuccessful. Dr. Powell then had a heart to heart talk with Ava asking her why she sucked her thumb, when she sucked her thumb, etc. Then he showed her with his mirror how she was moving her teeth forward, showed her the xray of her adult teeth coming in, and explained to her how important it was to stop sucking her thumb. He then asked her if she would be willing to stop sucking her thumb for a week. When she agreed the dentist said that he would personally be calling her next Tuesday and if she had a successful week he would be buying her an icecream. He gave us a coldstone gift certificate and Ava was thrilled. The technique has worked and we have gone 4 days without thumb sucking! We had a celebratory breakfast date afterwards and Ava came home telling Ellie how much fun it is to go to the dentist. Our healthcare in California has been spectacular with each doctor we have seen taking their time with us, building rapport and trust.  So this weekend instead of watching the big game we will be doing the big game of potty training and thumb sucking avoidance. 

Sir Teeny Grump

The news was double checked and made official yesterday at our ultrasound: Teeny Grump is a Boy! We are obviously thrilled. I am a bit intimidated because I have never lived with a boy/man besides Greg and he is gone half the time. The poor little man is going to have three mommies checking up on him since both his sisters are such mother hens. 

Here is the catch up of baby bump pictures. 4 Months pregnant here. 

5 Months pregnant here- Goodbye Heels. See you in 20 weeks!

Here we are at 6 months. Two great things about this picture: 1. Ava took it  2. Ellie doing a "bump" picture. Both girls love to pretend they have a baby in their belly too and have many sympathy pains. As you can tell I am growing steadily and at the ultrasound yesterday they estimated that the baby already weighed about 2 pounds. He is an active guy and I am carrying him much lower than I carried the girls. I have decided that becoming pregnant in August is the best time of the year to get pregnant. You get to experience Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Super Bowl, Mardi Gras, Valentine's Day, and I'll be going out with a possible Memorial Day Barbeque. I have never appreciated all these yummy holidays as much as I do now. Also, it is liberating NOT to have "lose weight" on your New Year's resolution list. My biggest cravings of the second trimester have been Cinnamon Toast Crunch, any kind of red meat, and all things chocolate. I am devastated that the movers broke our fondue pot but it is probably for the best. We have a name picked out that we will be surprising everyone with at the birth.