Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Busy, busy, busy....and sick

We've been really really busy around here lately! It just seems like we're always on the go. I don't feel like I have any time to just sit down and blog. I do spend a lot of time sitting in my chair, but it is extraordinarily hard to type with one had while nursing. So it's been a while. As I was looking back through my pictures I just uploaded tonight, all the way back from July 4th, I realized we've been having a lot of firsts. Lincoln's first time in the pool as a 2 year old. Aspen's first time EVER in a pool. Lincoln's first ever water slide, that he did all.by.himself. many, many, many times! And Lincoln's first time ever at the bowling alley. Super cute stuff going on here. Oh yeah, and his very first sparkler experience on the 4th of July. We also built a fort out of a sheet in the kitchen for the first time, and Aspen tried the jumper.

I have to say that I have recently become addicted to Pinterest. It's bad. I know. However, it has changed my life. No exaggeration. I now have fabulous, frugal, ideas to make our home and lives better, easier, and cheaper. A few examples you say? Of course!

I made some yummylicious biscuits using just 4 ingredients...from scratch. If you know me well, you know that cooking is not my forte. But these were good!

I used soda can tabs to make double hangers in the closet to free up some room. Genius!

I shaved my legs with conditioner. Pinterest told me to! Needless to say, I will lighten my packing from now on so that it doesn't include that terrible bottle of shaving cream. Totally unnecessary! Shocked.

I have made my son "muffin tin lunches" because he's a toddler and doesn't eat much.

I helped Lincoln perform his first science experiment with baking soda and vinegar.




I made my own baby wipes. Shut up!

AND here's the big one. I have begun an endeavor in hairbows and head bands. This is seriously my new obsession. I can't go to sleep at night sometimes because I keep thinking up new fun color combinations to make a head band out of! I am making elastic small people head bands of every shape and color. I am also making hair clips for slightly larger people. Or even adults if they so desire. Now I know I made this stuff, but I have to say I'm impressed! I found some online sites for super cheap, quality materials and now I've started a new hobby. Using Pinterest I have learned to make many different kinds of flowers and bows, and puffs to put on head bands and hairbows. Beautiful stuff. And the possibilities are endless! The fabric store is my new best friend.









Yes!! From Scratch!



Ultimately I want to open an Etsy shop and sell them online. Once I get that up and going I'll let you know for sure! Now I spend my days playing with the babies, feeding them, and trying to squeeze out just a FEW minutes to work some magic with my glue gun!! You know you've got it bad when your kids go to bed and instead of just sitting down to watch tv to relax, you're dying to plug up your glue gun. 

For the 4th of July we went really low key this year. We honestly didn't want to keep Lincoln up so late to watch fireworks, and we were afraid he'd be scared of him. He's been very scared here lately of lions and monsters and such and I thought the loud sounds would upset him. He doesn't even like the vacuum these days. Not that he ever did really. So instead of going to the Valdese fireworks like we usually do, we went out to dinner as a family (which was fabulous by the way!!) Evidently on the 4th of July you're supposed to be grilling out with your friends and family. So NO ONE was eating out! We went to Olive Garden and were seated and served right away. Fabulous.
After dinner we went home and let Lincoln experience sparklers for the very first time. He wore his mittens so the sparks wouldn't land on his hands. It wasn't really dark yet, either but it was fun. He seemed to enjoy it. They didn't seem to scare him at all. Aspen just hung out on a blanket and watched the fun from safety.





Anthony's work had a private party for us at a local pool: Kool Park Pool. It's in Hickory and has been around for ages. I remember going with the church group when I was 10. Kaleb had to argue with them about my age to get me in at the discounted rate. HA! Being tall sometimes has its disadvantages. Anyway, that's the last time I was there and I didn't remember much about it except for the super high platform to jump from. It's 15 feet. When I was 10 it looked a whole lot bigger. Anyway, there's a super fun water slide down the whole right side of the pool and Lincoln could climb up and slide down it all by himself. And he proceeded to do just that for at least an hour, and probably 15-20 times.


 Not only that was awesome, but the entire side of the pool where the slide is only has a depth of 1.5 feet. So he could literally just run or walk around playing by himself, or with other kids. It was wonderful! He had freedom to run and swim and explore without me having to hold onto him the whole time. We didn't even make him wear his swim vest because it ended up being too hard to get out of the water with it on. It kept him from bending at the waist and he couldn't get himself up out of the water. He was safer without it.

So we had the whole pool to ourselves, it was closed to the public. There were maybe 50 people there total, including all the kids. So there weren't crazy, loud, big kids running around and causing trouble or splashing or knocking people over. It was quiet, and pleasant, and tons of fun.




Lincoln is the sickly one. He has hand-foot-and mouth. It's not as bad as our friend Ian had it I don't think. Anna posted pictures of Ian's poor mouth a few months ago when he had it, and Lincoln's is so mild that if I tried to take a picture you'd probably just scratch your head and wonder what there was to see. Nonetheless, he's been sick since Friday when his fever spiked crazy high at the restaurant and he threw up on the table. Fun. We rushed him back home and threw cold rags on his groin and under his arms to prevent another terrible febrile seizure. That will now forever be our fear. We got his fever down with medication and cold compress and he slept the night away with no trouble. He kept a crazy high fever on Saturday and needed constant meds and we even did the cold rags again at one point. He hated the rags, but loves the medicine. By Sunday he started complaining that his mouth hurt and he wouldn't eat or drink anything. He'd just hold his hand over his mouth and say "it hurt." After trying every liquid in the house in every cup we own I finally got out the flashlight to inspect. Sure enough, there are tiny reddish white sores all over the roof of his mouth. So sad. We'd already been talking to Anna about his symptoms, and she confirmed it was more than likely hand foot and mouth. Lovely. We don't even go to daycare. Where do we get this stuff?? Fifth's disease, chicken pox, now this?! Really.
  
Today is Tuesday and he managed to drink almost the whole bottle of PediaSure tonight. He will only drink tea otherwise, it's the only thing we've managed to get him to keep trying. I guess because that's normally a forbidden beverage. He won't eat either, so drinking the PediaSure at least gives him good calories and some protein, and sugar. He's eating icee pops and ice cream. That's about all he'll attempt. He just says it hurts. Poor kid. I'm really hoping it won't last much longer. I can tolerate little red spots on his hands and feet...but this sore throat and mouth have got to go. How do you convince a 2 year old that even though it hurts he's got to drink so he doesn't dehydrate? You don't. You just try to bribe them with popsicles.

Right in the middle of a huge laugh!

First time in the fort...and Aspen's jumping first.

Daddy with his babies in the hammock.