A Photography-Related Contest

MckMama and Grammie Mommy are having a contest together. You have a chance to win either Adobe Photoshop Lightroom or Adobe Photoshop Elements. I'd LOVE to use those to edit my photos. Wouldn't you?

HP TouchSmart 600

MckMama, BlogHer, and HP are giving away a great prize!  Check it out here.

Video

By the way, have you noticed I added a video to this post?

Quote of the Day

I needed John and Emma to get out from under my feet for awhile this afternoon, so I decided to stick them in the bathtub.  They were having so much fun just playing, and I got started on our pile of laundry.  
When I went in to check on them, they were working (together!) to fill the three cups clear up to the very top.  John turns to me and says, "Mommy, we're getting ready to get bathitized."  He must pay more attention in church than I thought!

Not Me Monday

Do you ever have "mommy guilt"?  Well, this is the place to come clean.  Learn more about "not me" Mondays from MckMama.

On Friday, after dropping off John at preschool, Emma and I went to church to get some work done before the weekend.  While there, I did not let her eat a sucker, animal crackers, and part of a chocolate donut just to keep her from hanging on me for a short while.  When it was time to leave and Emma was screaming hysterically, I did not push her into her car seat with my elbow while strapping her in.  Surely, I would calm Emma down first and then pick up John from preschool.

After arriving home with a sleeping Emma (FINALLY!) and then having her wake up again, I did not give her a dose of ibprofen to help calm her down.  I didn't even know that she's sick, so I wouldn't give her medicine.  And I always remember to put the medicine out of the children's reach, so I definitely did not leave it on the bathroom sink.  That's unsafe!

Shortly after this, I did not have to find where Emma's screams were coming from because I was right next to her...definitely NOT talking on the phone in the other room.

This is not becoming too confusing to tell in "not me" fashion, so I am not going to tell the rest of the story as it happened.  No way.  Not me.  I like a challenge and would never take the easy way out.

So Emma was standing on the step stool with the ibprofen bottle in her hand, screaming at the top of her lungs.  John was standing just inside the bathroom door with a semi-guilty look on his face.  He quickly explained what happened, and I'm pretty sure he's telling the truth since he's a bad liar.  Thankfully!  It turns out that Emma opened the medicine (so much for child-proof!), and John knew it was bad.  We often talk about how too much medicine will make you sick.  Since he knew it was bad, he dumped the rest of the medicine (half a bottle) down the sink.  Now I'd still wonder if Emma swallowed any, but she wasn't sticky and does tend to get extremely upset when John takes things from her.  So I'm thinking this is what really happened.  I'm glad John didn't let Emma drink the medicine, but now I need to add it to my shopping list.

A New Post

Fun for All Almost All in the Fall

Free Christmas Music

Amazon is offering a FREE Christmas song each day for the next 25 days. However, today's song (December 4) isn't worth downloading. I happened to check out the reviews before downloading and am glad I didn't download it. December 1's song was Joy to the World by Casting Crowns. Very good!

25 Days of Free Christmas Music

Kids, Kids, and More Kids

We've been having some friends come over to play lately.  The kids enjoy having play dates, even though sharing toys can sometimes be a challenge.

 

Joel VW

Eden and Eliza VZ

Emma K

Tate K

Eli D - I must not have taken any pics of Eli, but he was at our house one day too.

Prayers

John's latest prayers have been ending like this:   

and God bless Aunt Jackie and the baby in her tummy, Miss Shonda and the baby in her tummy, and the baby that will be in Mommy's tummy. 

When asked about that statement, he said he wants to have another sister or a brother.  Ugh.

Yes, babies have been on John's mind a lot lately.  That was the theme in preschool last week, so he was asking all sorts of questions about when he was a baby.  It was fun to look back at his baby pictures (those are actually in an album!).

Trick or Treat

John's joke skills are coming along nicely.  Remember the last one?  Here's the joke he used for trick or treating tonight.  And he really did a good job of it!


Knock, knock


Who's there?


Ivan


Ivan who?


(singing) I've been working on the railroad...

Emma wasn't overly fond of her duck costume.  John loved being a clown...suits him well.

We took the kids trick or treating on Beggars' Night.  We went to Grandpa VM's house first.  John and Scott went in the drizzly, cold night to a few other houses in the Copper Creek area.  Then we headed to Grandma VM's house in Altoona.  John and Scott went down one street near her house, but that was enough of the wet and cold.  Emma and I gladly stayed there instead of trick or treating.  Grandma had very few trick or treaters, but we were there when Drew came for candy.

 

No Pacifier: Night #2

At naptime today, Emma played about 10 minutes in her crib until she was ready to sleep and realized she didn't have her pacifier. Screaming lasted about 15 minutes (5 minutes less than bedtime last night).

We must have exhausted her with a trick or treat stop at Grandpa VM's house and playing at Grandma VM's house because she didn't cry at all when I put her down to bed tonight. She screamed more getting her teeth brushed than putting her to bed. We're definitely making progress.

UPDATE: Emma did wake up wailing around 4:30, but I just let her cry it out. Then she slept the rest of the night. YEAH!

***Pictures of an adorable clown and duck will be coming soon.

No Pacifier: Night #1

Emma and I arrived home tonight after going to the library and the church during worship team practice.  When she went to put her pacifier in her mouth, she took it out and looked at it funny.  I took it from her to see what was wrong, and there was a tear in it.  Obviously a choking hazard, I decided to cut off the end (a suggestion of a friend).  She was amused by this...at first.

Since John's still at worship team practice with Scott, I decided tonight was as good a night as any to try putting Emma to bed without her pacifier.

I gave Emma a sippy cup with water, her blanket, and her baby.  Then I put her to bed...without a pacifier.  And that's when the screams began.  After 15 minutes of intense screaming, her cries began to weaken.  Finally, after 20 minutes in bed, she's quiet.  And there's no way I'm entering her room to check on her until John's ready to go to bed.  Please say some prayers that she sleeps through the night.

Fun For (Almost) All in the Fall

Even though we had snow early in October, this fall turned out to be better for raking leaves.  It probably helps that this year both kids can play outside and be entertained while I rake.  I even raked two days while baby-sitting other kids.  It was fun for all...well, almost all.

Notice Emma in the upper left on this picture.  See how she's smiling?

What happened to that smile?

Tate and John had fun jumping and rolling in the leaf pile.
Tate, John, and Emma had fun running to the big pile of leaves.

But Emma would turn around before jumping in the pile.  She's not a big fan of the leaves, which is too bad because I love taking pictures of the kids in the leaves.  I think I have more than 30 of John and Tate playing.

At least I got one cute picture of Emma...even if she wasn't in the leaves.

John wanted me to take a self-portrait while he threw leaves on my head.

Germs? NO WAY!

Are you feeling guilty for avoiding making a dentist appointment for just one more month because you hate going there so much? Hope that no one saw you pick your nose while you sat at the traffic light? Overcome with shame because, in your house, cleaning for guests just means shoving stuff into drawers and closets? Well don't be! Not Me! Monday was born out of MckMama's desire to admit some of her imperfections and reveal a few moments she'd rather forget. You may find it therapeutic to join in and do the same thing!

I did not take my kids to Cici's Pizza (a buffet) on Friday night to show support for Studebaker Elementary.  With all the illnesses going around, I would not subject my children to a restaurant full of kids touching the same serving utensils as us.  And even if I did go, I definitely would not keep a container of hand sanitizer in the middle of the table to be used every time we got a plate of food.  No way...that's going a bit overboard.