March 5, 2008

Jesse didn't grow much this quarter - he grew 1/2 in to 30.5 in (25th percentile) and gained 12oz to 21lbs even (5th percentile) - but the doctor said it was fine. Josh got to answer yes to all the developmental questions! yay! Also I had made a list of his words last night to count them up - here they are:

mama

dada

bath (BA)

ball (BAH)

bottle (BAWH)

balloon (BLOON)

cat (CA)

ut-oh

na-na for food, any food (derived from ba-na-na)

up (UH)

down (DOW)

more (MO)

no (noooooo)

And then Josh says he has words for sorry and thank you, but I haven't heard those. So that's over a dozen words I VERY exciting!

Oh, and on the subject of words - Jocelyn's latest thing to say is "you're KILLING me" - haha - ooops! 

March 2, 2008

Whoops - almost forgot to write my update today! I was busy calculating all the money I've saved playing the grocery game and sorting through coupons. I also went to Walgreen's, CVS, AND Stop & Shop today. Josh is hitting Shaw's tomorrow. I was hoping for sales on toilet paper this week and VOILA! Now I have 84 rolls of TP. I also really REALLY need to stop buying cereaL REALLY. I had 5x $2 off Honey Bunches of Oats with Chocolate Clusters coupons and that cereal was on sale at Stop & Shop for $2.50 - so I got 5 boxes for 50 cents each. Phew - what a rush! Plus, have you tried that cereal - it's AWESOME.

Slap slap, need to come out of my trance and think about what happened this week.

Jesse is starting tantrum stage and boy oh BOY does he get MAD when he doesn't get his way. Unfortunately, when Jocelyn doesn't give him his way he belts her, so most of the day we hear "JESSE NO HITTING" over and over, then screaming by both of them. oyoyoy - she taunts him. He has his 15 month appt this week. He seems to have more and more new words.

On the subject of words, Jocelyn has started calling me "mom" instead of mommy. Makes her sound so old!

Morgan had a good week at school. They had a Dr. Seuss assembly that he enjoyed and they had a turtle visit the classroom which made him giggle. He's been good at home. He seemed to handle Mandy & family visiting (Friday night over to Saturday - we had so much fun! and too much wine - haha) very well and today Timothy had a friend over and Morgan hung out with them (by his own choice) while they were playing video games. He kept his clothes on, so that's a victory right there.

The friend Timothy had over is the 6th grade neighbor boy. They played video games for a couple hours and then he went home. Nice and easy! Timothy wants a friend in his class to sleepover soon - eeek!

Well it's late, must be getting to bed. Jesse's feeling better but still not sleeping great, which means neither am I. 

February 29, 2008

Jocelyn had her 3yr appt today and Josh just called to say she took the shot like a champ (I delayed the chicken pox until age 3, but now she needs it to go to preschool). She didn't even cry and in fact looked at the nurse like "is that all you got?" Of course, Jesse cried because Josh had put him down - haha.

Jocelyn also did everything else the doctor asked of her and was generally a perfect princess. She's 29lbs (up to the 25th percentile!) and 38.5in. I forgot to ask if she was standing or lying down for her height because it changes what percentile she's in for that - but somewhere between 80-90. 

February 24, 2008

Oh what a week!

So I think we last left off on Monday when I was starting to feel better and Jocelyn was sick and Jesse was getting sick. Well they did indeed take turns getting up all night and I think I counted up my sleep at 2.5 hours - NOT in a row! I still went back to work on Tuesday as I had things I had to tend to.

By Tuesday afternoon Jocelyn was starting to feel somewhat better but Jesse was worse and stayed up most of the night and again I think I clocked in maybe 3 hours of sleep.

Wednesday I was still feeling sort of better except my throat so I went and got some antibiotics from the walk in clinic (where I was in and out in less than 30 minutes and the doctor didn't make actual physical contact with me or tell me what I have - just looked in my throat and gave me a z-pac - yay) and was feeling SO much better Wednesday night.

Jesse slept a little here and there Wednesday night and Thursday night but during the days were a mess and lots of crying was involved. We called the doctor that was filling in for our doctor on Thursday, but they wouldn't see him because Josh couldn’t find a thermometer to take his temperature and they didn't believe that he had one(??). The nurse told Josh to go buy one and then take his temp and call back. Josh says "listen lady, I have 4 kids and 3 are sick, there's no way I'm going to take them all out to the store to buy a thermometer when I know he has a fever already". She suggested he go borrow one from a neighbor. click.

So now Josh is ripping mad AND he's got a pretty upset Jesse. So we sucked it up one more night but on Friday afternoon Josh called me and said Jesse wouldn't stop crying. So I headed home in the snow, grabbed Jesse, and we went over to the walk-in clinic. The doctor said he wasn't a pediatrician. I apologized and said as long as I was there could he just look in his ears real quick ... so the doctor was kind enough to look him over. Said he didn't see any ear infection but his ears were very congested and his nose was pretty nasty so he gave us some amox (I asked the pharmacist to check the dose - just in case!). Jesse's been feeling better since then, though he's still pretty grumpy) and his fever is no more (I did eventually show Josh where the thermometer is).

Besides being sick - not much time to do anything else this week! Jesse's learned to say "go car?" and bring you his shoes. Hahaha. Jocelyn's latest thing is saying OHMIGAWD - oops! Morgan ended up with a slight cold and is a little squeaky but otherwise seems ok. Timothy and Morgan go back to school tomorrow - yay!

We did well with the grocery game this week - easily got twice as much food as usual while spending the same amount, plus a bunch of baby aspirin for free and Colgate toothpaste for cheap. However, we ran out of freezer space, which makes stockpiling difficult! Luckily I got my annual bonus on Friday, which was enough to payoff all the credit cards and have enough left for a new fridge and upright freezer. So Josh went out today and bought those - the freezer is 20cu ft! It'll be here tomorrow. The fridge won't be here until Thursday (and then we'll move the current fridge out to the garage as a spare).

So Monday night we can start this week's grocery's shopping - which is great because frozen veggies are on special at Shaw's - yay!

Oh here's a funny story. Josh came downstairs this morning wearing, well, an interestingly styled shirt. Not exactly what I would pick for him. Anyway when Jocelyn saw him, she laughed! I said what's so funny?! She says "Daddy's being Uncle Joey". hahahahaha

I think that's it from here - please send the kids healthy vibes!

February 19, 2008

Well I'm mostly on the mend but Jocelyn is MISERABLE and Jesse is starting to head in that direction. Jocelyn was up 3 times in the night and then basically cried all day at any little thing. She's fine while medicated but it wears off before she can have her next dose. I coaxed her up into her room when I got home, with bribes of color wonder finger paints (love these!!) and the portable DVD player. Jesse only started getting moody at day's end so we'll see what happens with him. Overnight tonight should be fun!! 

February 18, 2008

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes. It was not a very good birthday! I was soooooo sick all weekend! We had to cancel going to MA on Saturday. I could NOT get out of bed Saturday and didn't get up at all Sunday either. I couldn't even eat cake! Plus I couldn't watch the kids long enough for Josh to go buy one anyway. Sore throat, fever, chest cold - I was miserable.

Saturday night Josh agreed to get up with Jesse (who has started getting up at 3am again) but that didn't go very well and we both ended up getting up, which so wasn't the point. I did manage to get in a hot bath yesterday and Josh changed my sheets while I was in there, so that was nice. Josh slept in Timothy's room the last 2 nights and I've barely seen the kids except when Jesse comes in to nurse. Finally last night around midnight I woke up DRENCHED in sweat (and milk! I had leaked all over myself! I haven't leaked at night in like a year!) and now that I don't have a fever I feel much better. I got up with Jesse at 4 and we went back to sleep together until 7.

I'm still in bed but did actually go downstairs this morning for about 20 min and had some breakfast like a normal person. Lunch and dinner were in bed though. Timothy has been cute - comes to check on me every couple hours and brings me drinks and such. So far no one else is sick and I hope it stays that way! If Josh gets this I will be sooooo screwed.

I did buy myself a new purse and wallet for my birthday and those arrived Saturday so I sat in bed and cleaned out my old purse and set up my new purse, so that was fun I guess. Today and yesterday I watched 2 different full seasons of America's Next Top Model- there's a thrill. Today Jocelyn sat in bed with me and colored while Jesse napped and Josh took Timothy and Morgan to the grocery store (when he got home he said he refuses to ever grocery shop with kids again, that's it, he's going alone or he's not going). I joined thegrocerygame.com this week and today was my first time sending him with *the list*. The game is that this lady maintains a database of rockbottom prices and makes you a list of all the good deals for the week, matching them up with any coupons out there, and then you stock up on the good deals and only buy minimums of what you NEED and eventually you get a stockpile of everything and never have to buy things not on sale again. A friend online said she went from spending $150/week for groceries to $30. We usually spend about $300 per TRIP to the grocery store and while *usually* there is only one trip per week - not always! Today Josh got a full cart of groceries for $130!! The receipt says we saved $51 but that doesn't count changing brands or whatever. I'd say that's pretty successful! Plus we have about a month's supply of rice and a couple other things included in that. Oh, and of course Josh bought beer too - I didn't have a coupon for that!

I have lists to 4 stores total (the price is $1 for the first 4 weeks and then after that it will be $25 every 8 weeks) so I'm trying to talk Josh into going to CVS tonight since I'm still too sick to go out. Then I'll try to hit Walgreen's tomorrow and have him go to Shaw's tomorrow night (today was Stop & Shop) and then we'll be done for the week. We'll probably still spend about $300 but will have gotten WAY more stuff. Some of the things at CVS end up being free! I only wish I had started saving the coupons from the papers a while ago. She matches coupons with sale items and says which week the coupons come from (so you don't even have to clip coupons really, you just have to file them by date) but since I only started coupons this week I couldn't get as good deals as if I had the coupons. I've never been much of a coupon clipper - but this is pretty fun! I definitely see why they call it a game! If anyone gets inspired to join, please say that I referred you as I then get free weeks.

The boys are on school vacation this week, which will be fine as long as Josh stays healthy. I have to go back to work tomorrow whether I'm bleeding out my eyes or not, so I hope not!

Let's see -the kids must have done something fun this week. Oh, on Friday Josh went to get Morgan up for the day and it went something like this:

Josh: "Come on Morgan, time to get up and go to school"

Morgan: "Awww, I went to school YESterday."

hahahaha - Josh said he could tell it was from some show, but it was still funny.

Jocelyn's new thing is randomly singing to herself. Pretty cute! I also got some of those color wonder finger paints - the kind that only works on the special paper - and that kept her busy for a good 2 hours today while Josh was out shopping.

Jesse's new phrase is “that one?” as he points to things and then if you hand him the wrong thing he says "noooooo" while shaking his head and points again "that one?" Pretty funny.

Timothy's been invited for a sleepover later this week - first one! We'll see how that goes. He's supposed to have an orthodontist consult Friday morning but now I have to sub for my boss in a meeting so will need to move that. 

February 9, 2008

So about a month ago the little light panel thingy on the dash of my car stopped working. Then 2 weeks ago I noticed I was low on antifreeze so last weekend Josh put more in for me. Yesterday I was low again. Being as the car is a 1998, Josh and I both knew what this meant - it was time to get a new car before this one no longer had value! So I am very excited to announce that I bought my very first BRAND NEW car! Happy Birthday to me!

I had been looking at cars (via internet) for some months as I knew it was just a matter of time, so I knew I wanted a Nissan Altima. Timothy and I left the house at noon today and headed to the Nissan dealership (luckily my car is only in my name so I didn't need to drag Josh and all the kids with me - I really need to change it so his car is only in his name). I actually liked the sales guy Abedul (usually I feel pretty creeped out by sales people). He was from Bangledesh and clearly hadn't had many lessons on the hard sell - haha. I made it pretty easy for him by walking in, saying what I wanted, picking one off the lot, and buying it - then driving it home in the snow, so they won't have to shovel it in the morning! Anyway, he was very good at sucking up. On the test drive we were chatting and he asked me if I worked (haha) and I said I was an actuary, and he shouts - "oh my god! I'm talking to like the smartest person ever!" and proceeds to go on and on about how smart I must be blah blah - but in a funny endearing way.

I was less fond of the financing guy despite the fact that his voice was EXACTLY like cousin Michael. EXACTLY. Which made me like him at first but 3 sentences in I realized he was an idiot and that made it harder to like him. But in general he was ok and while disappointed that I wouldn't buy the 8 million extras he offered me, he was at least a good sport about it. He also gave Timothy one of those water globes with the golf ball and tee in it to keep him busy while I was signing stuff (Timothy did eventually manage to get the ball on the tee). Of course, Abedul had given Timothy a donut and shown him where the TV was, so I think Abedul won as favorite for the day.

So anyway, it took roughly forever, and involved some good cop bad cop negotiating, but at 3pm Timothy and I were finally headed home in our BRAND NEW Altima that is sort of a silvery green (celery?) color.

What else what else. Did I mention last week the psycho total body workout I did on Sunday? It's a series called *Cardio Blast* on FitTV and I DVR'd an episode (60 min!) called total body workout and yeah it is! I didn't have a mega step last week (an issue I remedied this week) and had to use the coffee table - a challenge to say the least. Up, down, up, down - repeat a bazillion times. She also uses dumbbells, a weight bar, and a medicine ball. I did not use even close to the weight she was using (i.e. I didn't actually put any weights on the bar) and it took me 3 days to recover. I did it again today and my arms feel like noodles.

Enough about me I guess. What about the kids this week you ask? Let's see - Jocelyn did a few cute things. On Wednesday, Jocelyn was all about sharing! She was at the counter having a snack and Jesse was next to her in the high chair. She got down and got into the cupboard and got the box of goldfish and gave some to herself and some to Jesse. Then she got back in her chair and turned it around so that she was facing Jesse and they were both pulled up to his tray having snack together! When they both got down she asked if she could go share her blocks with him! Don't worry though, it was temporary - haha.

On another day this week Josh called me at work to say they were having a clothing emergency and did I know where the tiara was. Apparently Jocelyn was listening to her new princess book on CD and had to actually be dressed as a princess to do so!

I found bedding for Morgan's new bed and that arrived this week. Got a great deal from overstock and then of course while I was there found one I loved that was only in a king so Timothy got new bedding too. Such a good deal though - Morgan's was $80 for a 9 piece set including bedskirt, sheets/pillowcases, quilt, shams, and 2 decorative pillows, and Timothy's was $60 for 7 piece set including comforter, bedskirt, sheets/pillowcases and shams. Just can't beat overstock for bedding!

Morgan had a pretty good week. I made some GFCF banana muffins and he actually ate one at school. At home he wouldn't even smell them, so go figure. The other kids liked them too so they did not go to waste.

Oh yeah, we did Jocelyn's birthday party Monday which she loved of course. I came home early and set up the table while Josh had her outside waiting for Morgan's bus. She was very excited - LOVED all the presents, loved blowing out the candles, and then played with her new playdoh the rest of the night. Jesse, as it turns out, has a bit of a balloon fettish and would not stop saying BLOON all night, and then the next day, and now pretty much every day because one of the mylar ones is stuck up in the living room ceiling and probably won't come down for a couple months.

On the subject of Jesse, we have the same general routine every morning:

5:30 alarm goes off. If Jesse isn't already awake, go get him.

5:30-6 doze on and off while nursing Jesse

6am - if Jesse has fallen back to sleep, sneak out of bed and into the shower, else turn the TV on Noggin so that he'll let Josh sleep

6:30am leave house

Ok, so I'm usually 5-10 min behind, but that's the plan anyway!

So one morning this week I sneak out of bed at 6 because he's sleeping. Well when I come back after my shower/getting dressed, he's up and has both remotes in his hands and is trying to crawl out of bed with them to come get me to turn on the TV! hahaha I put on Oobi (I hate that show but he loves it like crack) and sit him back on the bed and say bye. Instead of the usual whine, I get "buh bye!" without even turning towards me - too busy being glued to Oobi.

I’ve mostly finished my taxes, just have to put in the car taxes from last year as soon as Josh looks them up and that should do it I think. With any luck will get that done tomorrow and get them mailed this week.

Well that's the news from here - hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!