I Swear, I Was Sober...

How about a little back story? We used to have two cats: Zoe and Moose. Moose died about two years ago and Atlee has missed him dearly since then. She has saved money to help pay for Zoe's doctor bills so that someday, someday we could get a new cat. That day arrived yesterday. My Mom's dog, Cady, is due to arrive next week. Things are going to be a little bit crazy town around here. I'd like to introduce Corwin. The rest of the video is the kids' eating Halloween candy from our trick or treating excursion on Tuesday. Pictures coming soon. Promise.

Because I Can't Seem to Get to the Camera Upstairs...

Thank you everybody for your great ideas with Shea. It's slowly getting better. It took four years to get this off kilter and will probably take another four years to get closer to normal. Last night we went to dinner at Pete and Amy's. Amy made a yummy pork tenderloin, rice and broccoli. I explained to Shea that he had to taste something. We were going trick or treating after dinner and he wasn't going to get to enjoy any of the candy haul if he didn't try something. I explained I didn't care if it was pork or rice, but he had to try something. He opted for the broccoli. Granted, you needed a glass slide and microscope to see the bite he took- but he tried it. We've also been grading the new foods. Did you know that broccoli is a Y and banana chips are a Z? Because sweetened banana chips are worse than broccoli.

In the meantime, I made this quick video for a friend this morning. I've been hitting play again and again on it because I find it slightly addictive. I don't know why, but I thought I'd share it with you.

It's a Battlefield Around Here Lately...

Things are a little tough around our household lately. We've decided to crack down on Shea's eating habits. Why?

Shea's Previous Diet:
Breakfast- Pop-Tart containing chocolate
Lunch- maybe some peanut butter crackers, so-called granola bar containing rainbow chips bound to "granola" with high fructose corn syrup, and "fruit" snack in various colors never found in nature
Dinner- Perhaps Garlic Bread, Biscuits, Toast

Do you see the problem? Shea's diet has been dwindling for a few years now. We decided to pick our battles and chose pleases and thank-yous over what he ate. Mom friends consoled me with the thought that he would eventually try different foods. Instead? Instead, the selection of foods he'll deign to eat has been growing slimmer and slimmer. I have the only eight year old in the country that will not eat mac and cheese. Or pizza. Or hot dogs.

For years my mom and other moms argued that if we just continued putting healthy food in front of him, he'd eventually eat it. Rich and I talked about it and decided to bite the bullet and try it. I no longer prepare a breadlike side for him at dinner. I try to offer something innocuous for him to sample. The results?

Shea's new diet:
Breakfast- Whole Grain English Muffin
Lunch- peanut butter crackers and high fiber granola bar that he nibbles the chocolate chips off
Dinner- One glass of chocolate milk

So- any suggestions out there? Because the kid can't really afford to lose any weight.

Stay At Home Mom: It's Not All Bon-Bon Eating

Remember when I told you a couple of posts ago that Amy was still speaking to me? Come on- you remember. She watched all three kids so I could go shack up in a hotel with my husband. Well, when I left my kids with her, I also left her an assortment of exotic fruits. They didn't get around to trying any that night, so she came over last week with all the zany fruits.

The pineapple was definitely the girls' favorite. Shea wasn't here to partake in exotic fruit sampling. Even if Shea had been here, he wouldn't have partaken in exotic fruit sampling. That would require trying something that doesn't belong to the Pop-Tart family.

Amy recently joined the ranks of Stay-At-Home Moms. It's nice to have someone to swap bonbon recipes with now.

Amy's holding a horned melon. No, not up there. In the picture below. The one up above is a pomegranite. Does it even look like a horned melon? I don't think so.

Have you tried a horned melon? I don't recommend it. She had printed out all sorts of information about the various fruits we were going to sample. The information on the horned melon said it was slimy. An accurate description.

Kiwi? A huge hit.
Starfruit? Another huge hit.

Sometimes you need more than fruit, though.

And so we went to visit our local pizza place, Roman's. The owner, Mike, made us a yummy pizza while we watched.


My hands were full of Greeley, so I couldn't really help with the two girls who wanted to see the pizza being made. Well, my hands were full of Greeley AND I clearly had to take pictures of all of this. Kaya and Atlee peeked over the edge to watch what Mike was up to.

Amy (I told you all she was brave) held two four year olds so they could see a bit better.


See? It's not all bonbons. Sometimes you have to sneak fruit and pizza in there too.

In the Interest of Full Disclosure...

Hey. How are you doing? Good. Good. I was trying to post some pictures, but my computer (remember? The one we paid $200 to repair?) isn't cooperating. So, in the interest of full disclosure, I'll tell you all a little story of what happened to us yesterday.

Two nights ago, I happened to notice Greeley had a rash on the backs of her legs. Third child, rash, -eh, whatever. I'll keep an eye on it. She had a fever a few days ago, but she doesn't seem outlandishly cranky. A bit fussy, but tolerable.

Yesterday, the girls and I were heading into an appointment. As I'm using a wipe to try to swipe the lollipop slime off of Greeley's hand (lollipop=another sign that she's a toddler, not a baby), I notice that she has blisters on her hands. Blisters? Yes! Blisters.

I reschedule our appointment because I'm a little distracted. Did I mention my baby (when they're sick they're soooooo not a toddler) had blisters!! on her hands? We drive over to Rich's job site. I'm kind of thinking chicken pox, but would like a second opinion. Rich looks at the blisters and says, "I don't remember chicken pox but I say you take her to the doctor's." Reassured that I'm not overdoing it, I drive straight to the kid's doctor's office. No, we don't have an appointment, but I was wondering if you could get us in? Because my baby? My baby has blisters on her hands. They did get us in to see the doctor.

We do the initial weigh in, where Greeley stands on the big girl scale. Point towards toddler. She stands up against the wall so the nurse can see how tall she is. Another point towards toddler. We get into the doctor's office. He looks at her paws. He asks if she has blisters on her feet. "Um, I don't know. " We remove her sweet little sneakers to discover that her feet stink like her father's and that she does indeed have blisters on her feet. The doctor turns to his computer and starts to pull up the diagnosis. I see something, something mouth disease and say, "Hoof and Mouth Disease?! Isn't that something cows get?"

It turns out it's hand, foot and mouth disease. Judging by the paper handout he gave us that said, "Not to be confused with hoof and mouth disease", lots of people make the same mistake. It's like a cold. It's a virus. There's no treatment. She'll get over it. And with any luck, I'll be able to post the post I actually wanted to tomorrow.

I'd Like to Thank the Academy

It's an overdue post full of overdue thank yous.

Thank You Number One:
Sometime ago, I won something! Tracey from Just Another Mommy Blog hooked us up with two bottles of Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce. Greeley can't keep her hands off it.

Even though it looks kinda like she can't keep her hands of the bottles of margaritas. Thank you Tracey!
Thank You Number Two:
Saturday night, Uncle Michael came to visit. That can only mean kid tacos! Or, at least, that's what my kids think. As Michael was getting ready to leave on Monday, Atlee pointed out that he couldn't leave because he hadn't even rolled her into a taco yet. I believe the quote went something like, "But, Uncle Michael, if you don't roll me into a taco then I will have to live (big sigh) a tacoless life."

She was not destined to live a tacoless life.

Introducing the taquito. Thank you, Uncle Michael!

Thank You Number Three:
Did I mention Greeley's getting bigger? Here she is enjoying a bowl of Fruity Pebbles. One more step to toddler.
All sorts of big girl toddler-style food going on. You know what else is a step out of babyhood? When your parents decide your big enough to spend the night with someone else so they can go stay at a hotel without any kids.
That's what we did. My last thank you of this post is going to Amy. Amy, my brave friend. The friend who said, "Sure, I can take all three of your kids for the night- including that toddler that still nurses and sleeps next to you every night and has never been away from her Mommy. I'll add that to my two girls and barely even notice." Thank you to Amy for going without sleep so that I could enjoy a leisurely dinner at the Herr's Tavern. No one asked me to get them a glass of chocolate milk during dinner, and it was wonderful!

Thank you! And Amy's even still talking to me- pictures soon to prove it!

Proof That Sometimes I'm Right And He's Wrong...

My father built this rocking horse for Shea when he was a baby. My brother, Bob- the family artist, painted its oh-so-realistic looking eye. Our family has moved three times in three years. We went from a three bedroom house to living in one bedroom in Rich's Dad's house to a two bedroom house to all of Rich's Dad's house. We've gotten rid of many things in each of those moves. Rich asked each time we moved if we really needed to keep the rocking horse. I lobbied hard in favor of the rocking horse... and I was right.



Thank you Grandpa!

That's Not Going To Be Fun...

That's exactly what Rich said when I told him our friend, Amy, had invited Girls Club for an outing to the Round Barn. "Have you been there? They sell apples. What's fun about that?" We ignored my husband and headed out with Amy and her daughter, Kaya.

Grrr.... Blogger won't let me edit where the photos are placed. So, this may be as chaotic to read as it feels to hang out with 2 four year olds and 1 one year old. Atlee posed as an apple.


Apples and donkeys? Atlee was nervous the donkey would take her whole hand and not just the apple. So, she kept dropping the apple.


She kept trying, but in the end just tossed it through the fence.

There were also goats. Kids definitely think goats are fun.

Greeley kept calling them dogs. Everything is a dog these days.

There were hay bales to walk on. Again, fun.

Kaya also posed as an apple.

Kaya was much braver about feeding the donkey- until he bit her hand off. Just kidding.

Fish!? See those smiles? That's because fish are FUN!


More dogs, er- goats, to be petted.

Did I mention the apples? There were plenty of apples. Apparently, we live in the "fruit belt". That's a fancy-schmancy term that means we have a whole heck of a lot of orchards in these here parts.


And places that sell apples? Yeah- they can be fun with the right company.