Keep it simple and SIT DOWN!!

Oh good GRIEF!!!!!  COME ON!!!!!!!!

STANDING!?!?!?!?!?!    What the heck is going ON here?!?!?!!!

Jackster, having Down Syndrome, was much slower to get through all his stages.  We hadn't realized how lovely that was until now.....!!  With Jack's progress each little improvement was a reason to celebrate, it was such a long time before he could sit up unaided.  He never really did get the hang of crawling.  His first steps were a huge cause for celebration!!!!  It's been many years since Jack was a baby and we are so shocked by how fast this little girl is racing through everything!!!  SLOW DOWN little one.... slow down....!!

Other than Miss M shocking the bejimminy out of us this morning the rest of the day was pretty much a breeze!  We all went into town this morning to run some errands and we spent the rest of the day just putzing around the house a little bit....  a nice, laid back kind of a day!!!  So laid back in fact that we even forgot to unload the dishwasher.... hmm... do I bother at this point?!?!?  Still to be determined!! : D  I may just do some more crochet instead!! :D

Friday on the floor!

Today has been a loooong one for some reason!!!  I guess because I was up and out the house EARLY this morning for an appointment at EIGHT am!!  Eeesh.  Who does that??  Still being up and out and all that meant ... well, as I said, it meant it was a really long bloody day!! :D

When I got home from running errands though I was greeted with THIS......!!

The kids had baked me a cake!!!! ;D  How awesome are those kids?!?!?!  CAAAAAAKE!!!!!   So Jessie, Jack and I spent a great deal of time watching movies, drinking tea and eating cake all day!!  The REST of the time was spent dealing with THIS..........

Yah.  It's BLURRED because she is MOVING!!!!

LOOK at that stinker!!!

Tsk.  Planking no less!!!

Yup.  Up on all fours and MOVING!!!  I am so amazed watching this little girl.  I have done all I could to STOP her crawling and yet still she's doing it!!  She's programmed to crawl and she's doing everything right and there is NOTHING I CAN DO TO STOP IT!!!   **sob sob**!!

Jessie couldn't understand why I don't want her to crawl and I explained that first it's just laying there, then rolling, then crawling, then walking, then running, the driving, then they are gone.  I want my baby to STAY my baby....just for a little while longer!!!!   She's so bloody determined!!! :D  And do you know what she's after? What it is that is motivating that little bundle to haul herself across the floor????.......      The PLANT!!!  LOL!!

The plant... which is in mortal peril and has since been moved!!!

So, yah.  Basically we've been keeping our eyes on the littlest member today.  Oh, and we spent a little bit of time rolling around on the floor too...!!

Just how adorable is that face?!?!?

Big sister shows how it's done! ;D

So there ya have it!!  Friday at our place!! :D  Always exciting eh?! :D

Simple Scones!

Oh sleep... you elusive beast!  Tempting me in the darkness.  I close my eyes and feel your warm, deep caress...PAH.  Sleep my eye.  Millie was up seemingly all night last night!!  I'm sure she wasn't really.. just felt that way!!  So today I was a bit...um... groggy?!

We didn't have much planned today, just a trip into town to meet hubby this morning ( which I cancelled since I thought I was too tired to MOVE let alone get myself and Millie up and ready and drive downtown... bleurgh! ) and a trip to the Homeschool co-op in the afternoon for Drama.

Once I'd managed to get up and dressed the kids and I tried a science experiment!  It worked pretty well... we rubbed a balloon to get it static then we rubbed a strip off a plastic bag to get THAT all static then we were able to levitate the plastic off the balloon!!  Kind of neat!  I'm sure pictures would have been GREAT.... I did mention about the "no sleep" thing, right?! :D

We managed to get out to Drama and back with little, um, drama..! and upon our return Jackster said he would like to make scones.  I had PROMISED him we would make scones and so felt we should indeed do so.  I decided to make it into a positive so I had him read the recipe ( where we learned key words such as Flour, Baking Powder, Sugar  and abbreviations such as tsp. and tbsp.) he got out all the ingredients and did the measuring ( where we learned Cup, Teaspoon, 1/2 teaspoon, 3/4 cup and so on ) I helped him when he got stuck but basically stepped back and let him do it himself.   He did a super job and somehow they actually turned out better than mine!!  (I'm still stumped on that one!)  He did say he wanted to be a cook, so there ya go, I guess he's going to make a good one!!  Orders anyone?!

Gathering the ingredients

Measuring

Carefully getting them out the oven

Ta Dah!

Yummy!

And in case you would like to make some too, here's the recipe.. it's so simple even a child can do it! 

FAVORITE SCONES Printed from COOKS.COM 1/3 c. butter 1 3/4 c. flour 3 tbsp. sugar 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/4 tsp. salt 1 egg, beaten 1/2 c. currants or raisins, optional 4 to 6 tbsp. half and half or milk Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut butter into flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until mixture resembles fine crumbs.  Stir in 1 egg, currants and enough half and half so dough leaves the sides of the bowl. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; knead 10 times. We did not roll them out, we just tore off chunks and rolled them into balls.  MUCH easier!  ((Roll 1/2 inch thick; cut with round or heart shaped cutters. )) Place on ungreased cookie sheet Bake until golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes remove immediately. Serves 15. Split scones and serve with butter, jams and jellies.

Gotta love Rube!

Had an early start this morning...  well rather a late ending... or rather a NON ending... hell, let's face it, I feel like I was up all night ... and not in a good way!  Miss M was not in the mood for sleeping.  Poor chick.  I think she's got some nasal congestion so she'll go to sleep, then she'll close her mouth to swallow and start choking.  She's sleeping soundly now though so fingers crossed and all that!!

Hmm... let's see.  I started a group on Facebook today for people who want to get rid of some of their belongings!  I was surprised at how fun it was!  I hope lots of people spread the word to their friends and more people join otherwise the few members we have will just be selling their stuff to each other!!

Passing me scissors the RIGHT way!

We also spent a lot more time with Jack today.  He is very good at keeping his head down when he wants to be.  He can play with his toys and keep out the way so that no one notices him or makes him learn anything!!!  ( Don't kid yourself!  That boy is learning stuff every which way but loose.  ( what the hell does that mean?!?! ) )  Still, he needs to have some attention spent on him.  He was sat on the landing today playing with his plush toys ( He calls them his Plush Toys! )and saying he wants to build a machine to bring them to life and would I help him build it?!  Oh poor kid!  No matter what we do it's going to be pretty disappointing.  So anyway, he'd also like to build a Rube Goldberg machine and that's more like something we can handle so we started out making a contraption with a balloon, some string and a straw!  It took us a while to get it to work but finally we managed to get the balloon across the room.  Not sure what's next, but that was a start!!!

Supplies!

Readying the balloon!

A little less than dramatic, but it did what it was supposed to do!

Carefully chopping!

In keeping with the "pay more attention to Jack day"  Jessie taught him to make a fruit salad and they worked together on cutting everything up carefully and so on.  Jack alone took on the task of eating it all up!! :D

Other than that the day pretty much revolved around nursing and napping, playing and crying .... and then I had to take care of the baby.... ( hah hah hah!! )

All the children are in their rooms now, two are sleeping one may still be painting.. and as for me it's once more into the breach of the kitchen ...!!

Ta Ta for now!!

Motivation found!

Well... I found my motivation!! ;D   Today this house has been FULL of laundry piles, clean, dirty, folded, to be folded....  ALL now put away!!  I washed the bedding, I washed the blankets and throws that we use on the couch ( did you know that Couches is French for diapers??! ;D ) ... everything is clean again!!  I cleaned out the kitchen pantry ....

Who can spot 6 British things in there???

and sorted out all of the containers...  April is coming to visit in a week or so and I want her to be able to find everything she needs!  I neglected to take any photos of the laundry all over the place so I found a pic of when I cleaned out the games in the pie safe last time ...

Pretend those piles are laundry and it's about what the house looked like today!!

  

 Now I know I don't HAVE to clear out all this stuff, but it's great to have an excuse to do it, isn't it?! :D 

I did also spend a lot of time with my Millie... she had some lovely long naps today AND slept quite well last night!! :D  YEAHY!!   It wasn't a full night by any means, but there ya go... I'll take what I can get ! :D  Jackster kept himself busy for the most part today!  He did help make dinner tonight and helped me make lunch this afternoon!  He really takes the whole business of cooking and helping very seriously!  I really like that!!

Jess was a huge help today too... I really enjoy her company and she keeps trying to get to her room where she listens to her music and paints and draws to her heart's content... Only I keep asking her to stay with me!! :D  So she say's "TALK!" ... I don't need to talk, I just like her there!! :D LOL!!  We decided to start the entire series of Frasier again since we finished Raising Hope... we have to put the TV on so Millie will sleep better....  some background noise helps her stay sleeping... if it's too quiet she will wake up!!  So it was Fraiser and Folding for most of the day!!  It felt so good to get it done though... that dang laundry has been bugging me for ages.  

Anyhoo.... I must pay a couple of bills and then clean up the kitchen again....  It's a real pig's arse in there right now and I like it clean and shiny in the morning!! ;D   I tell ya what... here's a before....

Messy kitchen before....

And here's an after...!!

All clean! :D 

There... I was inspired to get it all cleaned up for the picture!!  Maybe I'll do more of these...!  Somehow having to produce photo evidence made me clean it all the faster and better! ;D 

So now that the kitchen is cleaned I can head here.....

My cozy bed!

...which is where I have dreamed of being since I left it reluctantly this morning! :D

A day with the dentist!

Today started out with a small miracle.....  !!  I managed to get myself showered and dressed, Jack bathed and dressed, and Millie changed and dressed ALL within an hour and a half !!! :D We had to take Jackster to the dentist this morning so had to get up, breakfasted and dressed into reasonably clean and tidy looking outfits!!  It was super helpful and appreciated that once again Jessie made us tea and emptied the dishwasher though she wasn't feeling all that great so I sent her back to bed for a while. When we were all ready to go Jessie decided to stay at home and work on her art whilst Jack, Millie and I ( and my bag of crochet!!) headed out and met hubby there.

Jack had a molar that was growing into another tooth and looked all kinds of crazy.  Half of the tooth had broken away and when I would floss his teeth it would literally tear the floss in half.  We'd been dealing with it for a while, I'm not one to jump on top of these things and as it wasn't hurting him (AND we had no insurance......) then we left it well enough alone.  I was taking care to keep it really clean and would daub Listerine on it to keep bacteria away, but I knew that it would have to be at least looked at sooner or later.  Sure enough the dentist wanted to take the tooth out.   I was dreading it because I wasn't sure HOW Jack was going to handle the pain of the shot so I said I didn't want them to do it.  I sent Hubby in to talk to them and he came out and we talked some more.  Hubby said he thought they should do it and that he thought Jack would be OK.  The dentist assured me that as a pediatric dentist they take great care in not hurting the children.  From MY experience when they say "You'll just feel a little pinch" they are talking out their ass and what they mean is "This is going to hurt like hell, try and act like a grown up and not cry." I told hubby to talk to Jack, explain what was going on and ask him what he thought it would be worth to get the tooth out.  In other words, what was his price!  Turns out a pile of hot wheels cars was going to get the job done!  I sat in the waiting room with Millie and Rex sat with Jack, holding his hand the entire time.  He said Jack did really well and when they gave him the injection the only thing that happened was his leg twitched.. he didn't even grip Rex's hand.   I am so pleased.  Jack is SUCH a good patient and he's so very well behaved when we go to the doctor or the dentist.  I think it helps that we have such great people who work with us but generally it helps that he can be such a good kid when we are out.  He's not that bad at home but I have to share that my day started out with the words "Jack punched me in the nose!!"  ....   sssiiiiiiggghh.  I've always heard that kids are their worst at home because they can be and we will still love them and as long as they are reasonably well behaved out in public, well, what do we have to worry about??! :D

So... after the dentist debacle and a trip to Target to stock up on Hot Wheels it was home again home again.  I had a nice hot cup of tea and we heated up some of last night's soup for lunch.  Jess and I watched the last in the series of Raising Hope  ( which was rotten... now we want to see the next series but it's not on Netflix yet.. !! )   I was so tired that once I got Millie down for a nap I lay down right next to her and went right to sleep myself.

The rest of the day passed in something of a blur!  I was woken from my nap before I was quite done sleeping, you know how that feels, right?  Like a hangover.  I felt so groggy!!  I got absolutely NO chores done and nothing picked up or worked on.. and guess what??  No one cares!  The earth is still spinning smoothly and the house feels quite relaxed!!  I'm going to get to it all.. one of these days... but not today!!

I keep hoping for a good night's sleep....  it's beginning to feel like the impossible dream.... I've almost forgotten what a full night's sleep feels like... it's becoming mythical....  Some day... right???  Yes!?!?

In the meantime, forget the Hokey Pokey... baby giggles are really what it's ALL about....!!

Night night....!

Old friends with new faces.

Well!!  Ever wake up and think a day is going to go one way, and it ends up going a totally different way and that way is so totally better than the first way that you couldn't have imagined it if you tried??! ;D Yeah.  Today was like that !! ;D   I knew I had planned to be going out to a baby shower in the afternoon so last night I crocheted a baby turban for the new baby..... it turned out a little bigger than I'd hoped as I didn't have the correct sized crochet hook... still.. it worked for MY baby....

So this morning I posted on Facebook and asked my friends if they knew how to make a pattern smaller given that I was using a bigger hook....  I got lots of replies and I figured I would just make it with a couple less stitches to start with ....   My friend Mat said that and his family would be out later and they could stop by with the right sized hook if I liked!  I said not to worry, I'd just try it my way!  We live out of town so it's a hassle for anyone to have to come out here unless they live in the area!

Anyway, I got started on crocheting right after I made zucchini muffins for breakfast.  We didn't have much else in to eat and there were three little zucchini looking rather forlorn in the fridge so the muffins were just the thing.  The kitchen was something of a disaster area but I wasn't concerned... I just needed to get "crowing"!!  Oh, and did I mention that I was still in my PJ's?!  No?  Well.. yeah.  I was.   Anyhoo.. here I am, sitting on the floor, crowing as fast as my fingers would crow when the phone rang.  My lovely friend Jen was calling and asked if she could come over and show us her new puppy. Her new Pyrenean Mountain Dog Puppy.  Them are LARGE!!  ;D  We were all excited so I tore off to get dressed then flew around the house picking up and tidying etc etc... (Yes, the irony of Flylady and my mess of a living room DID occur to me...)  

Soon Jen and Hope arrived.....  .... Oh... My.    

Yup.   We want one!!!!!   We used to foster Great Pyrs and we just love the holy heck out of them!!  LOVELY pooches!!! :D

Anyway, we visited with Hope until we wore  her out and she went behind the chair to sleep!!  Jen left after PROMISING that we would get together again soon!  We really don't live far from each other but never seem to get together.  Know how that goes??

I sat back down to crochet some more and noticed another car pull into our driveway.....   What??!?  WHO????  .... We went to the door... and my friend Mat, his lovely wife and his son had stopped by to bring me crochet hooks!!!  I haven't seen Mat in YEARS and was so thrilled to see him!  He's got a great sense of humor and always made me laugh!  It was lovely to meet his family and to show off mine!!  I took his hooks with the promise to return them asap!!

So.... back to the crochet...... frantic now.... the stitches flying along....!!  I got the turban finished and began making something for the kids to eat for lunch...... what to eat what to eat.... RICE!!  I started rice!!  ( pitiful, but they love rice! ) Off I went to get showered, changed and put some make up on.  I got ready, came down and picked up Millie... only to notice that she had somehow got muck all over her outfit !!!  GAH!!!!  Back upstairs, changed her, cleaned her up.... back downstairs.... and out to the garage to get wrapping paper for the turban.....  Hmm.. it was in the garage.  Don't ask why I keep my wrapping paper in the garage.. it's a long story.... So I run out there.... and find that my hubby had hidden a bar of chocolate on top of the mower for me.....!!!  JOY!!!!!

So I finally manage to get myself and the baby ready to go, I kiss my biggies goodbye and head off to the baby shower!  I arrive only 2 minutes late and was happy to see some faces I knew and some I had heard of, but never met!!   We had a lovely time and Millie was in her element!

Beautiful Blooming Brendy!

Millie's new friend!

Fooling with the camera!

Millie the ham!!

I had such a lovely time at the shower.. it was so nice to see the Mama to be and the beautiful necklace we made for her...!  It was so very pretty!  We had a little blessing way celebration, strawberries and chocolate along with bacon wrapped dates and other lovely treats....  It was perfect!!  After PROMISING to get together with everyone again SOON I headed home to my family where I made veggie soup for dinner and I honest to goodness fell fast asleep on the couch no sooner had I finished eating it!!! ( the soup, not the couch!! )   A busy but wonderful, soul filling day!!