Last of the Three's

Tonight, when I put Miss Kaylen to bed, I said "Guess what? You're going to bed as a three year old but guess what you're waking up as?" She screamed happily "A FOUR YEAR OLD!"

Yes it's true. Today was the last day I will ever have a child who is three years old. I survived, and loved, the three's twice...and I am here to tell the tale. :)

I still can't believe she is going to be four tomorrow. When the clock strikes 11:50AM my baby girl will have been on the earth for four whole years. I can tell you what happened that day from the moment I opened my eyes until the moment I closed them that night. When I woke I had a baby still safely inside me and when I closed my eyes at the end of the day, I had a baby in the NICU on oxygen, IV, heart monitors and antibiotics. How far we've come from that day that started out so happy moved through terrifying and then settled into scary.

My sweet baby girl,
Happy Birthday to you, Kaylen Lane - what an amazing little person you are. You have rocked my world since the day the stick turned pink. You are a much wanted dream come true and the world is lucky to have you and I am luckier still. You might have been resistant to being here in the first place but now that you are here you are making a place, and a name, for yourself. You are a beautiful little sole and I love you so very much.
Love,
Mommy

Your Birth Day

This is how I first saw you.

Day two

Finally holding you.

First Birthday

Second Birthday:

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

And oh my gosh - watch this. This was 5 days after she turned two and she is so freaking cute I could gobble her up !!!


Third Birthday

And Fourth Birthday

Snowfall?

Oh my goodness - what a day! I am sitting here at 7:46pm with my head still spinning with all I have done and all there is yet to do. The biggest thing is a workshop tomorrow morning to learn all about the Book Fair. It's a regional meeting with lots of people scheduled to attend. And get this - they are now predicting snow in the morning.

SNOW?!?!?! Of all the days in the past two weeks and in the future two weeks this could not have been predicted for a worse day. For the first time ever I am hoping they are wrong....or at least hoping that it arrives later than the 5AM time frame they are saying. Noon would be good. I would be almost home by then.

So on top of being stressed out about - oh everything....I get to worry about snowfall for the morning hours. Lovely.

Tomorrow just may be another day when I wish I had diet pills to keep the hunger pangs at bay so I can get all I need to get done done without having to worry about eating. Of course, I would still have to get lunch for children so I guess that wouldn't help much....but then again...if diet pills gave me energy.... *grin*

Wish me luck for my day tomorrow. It's bound to be full of surprises.

Overload, anyone?

I am feeling completely overloaded today and this was "supposed" to be a low stress day. Yeah - not so much the case.

The day started out so well in hand - Kelton's morning homework (reading and some writing) done in good time, kids dressed and fed and ready well before the usual deadline.

The house was cleaned, almost sparkling, because I had cleaned well for Kaylen's family party yesterday. Everything felt so peaceful.

And then. I opened my email to find book fair emails coming at me. I had blissfully put it from my mind this weekend and I dare say, while it simmered on the back burner, I felt free from it all. In an instant, it was back. I answered questions, wrote a few emails and then moved on to paying bills. Got that done and moved back to the land of book fair which apparently is an all consuming place because Kaylen's gymnastics lesson went completely out of my mind. To be fair, I didn't even have it on my radar yesterday because I almost made plans with some friends for a playdate this morning (but alas, one of the kids wasn't feeling well and it was postponed). What is wrong with me? She has have gymnastics on Monday morning for three and a half months.

My only excuse is the book fair is robbing me of my brain cells. Counting this week, we have three weeks until the book fair opens for business.....and a whole lot of pieces that have to come together before then.

This morning I wrote letters for kids to take home, edited and printed informational flyers to go home, updated the book fair website, went to the school and had one letter signed, picked up the big box of book fair flyers showing the books available (which will have the letters I created attached and returned to teachers to go home on Thursday) and then took off for the print shop to deliver items to be printed. I will pick those up tomorrow after my all morning book fair workshop (put on by Scholastic), drop promotional things off at the school and then go home to attach 1000 pieces of paper to 500 book flyers. Oh - and after going to the print shop I went to a local high school to register Kaylen for the 6 week preschool program that starts in April.

Tonight I need to organize my PTO binder because after last weeks meeting it looks like a filing cabinet threw up on it. Ugh.

Oh - and in there somewhere I need to work with my co-chair to figure out how we are going to pull off "Muffins with Grandparents/Loved One" which is a mid-week event for the book fair. I'm thinking Costco muffins and mini bottles of water. really the point is to get grandparents shopping at the book fair. :)

So. Much. To. Do.

And now I must remember to take Kaylen to a make-up gymnastics class Thursday morning. And then remember to go to her regular one next Monday.

I'm wishing I had time to just sit back and watch Oak trees grow but alas, I don't. Not this week anyway. And probably not for many weeks to come.

Party With Friends

I can deny it all I want but the truth is, my daughter is days away from turning four. *sigh* I'm not ready. But ready or not....today she had her much anticipated Chuck E Cheese Birthday party with friends. If you know much about me at all you know that I am not the type of mom who has friend parties but instead we stick to family parties only but for some reason...well...I guess all kids deserve a party with friends at least once in their young lives.

I think it's fair to say the Birthday Girl had a great time and I hope all the other young attendees did as well. I have to say, 10AM on a school day is a really good time to go to Chuck E Cheese. It was so quiet and we all felt comfortable letting the kids run the place without hovering all over them.

I didn't do an official "birthday party" there but instead I took over a few tables, took in my own party stuff and cake and just held court. It was low stress which was perfect.

There were 12 kids there and I really wish I had thought to get everyone standing together for a picture but alas - I did not. Sad. :(

Here are a few of the pictures I did get of our fun time:

Happy Birthday Little Princess! I hope you enjoyed the start of your birthday celebration. Four years old. How did that happen so quickly?

Little Coffee Thief

This afternoon I decided to take a few minutes away from the trillions of things I was working on to finish watching Hot Topics from yesterday's "The View". I heated up a cup of coffee (left over from this mornings pot) in the microwave, let the children know where I would be and then went back to my bedroom to settle in and listen to adult conversation.

It went fine for ...oh I don't know....3 minutes? Then a child came asking for something. I paused the show and went to retrieve the craft project (Shrinky Dinks...in case you are wondering. And if you are my sister or brother, a package or ten of the plastic sheets would make a great gift for Mr. Kelton's birthday. I'm just sayin'.). I settled him in to create and went back to my show for...about a minute. The girl showed up and wanted help with something. I helped her and returned to the show. Then Kelton needed something and then Kaylen again. Just when I was convinced they were settled in for a good 10 minutes, the the phone rang. My co-chair for the book fair calling me back about a question I had. We talked and while doing so Kaylen came into the room. I hushed her and turned my attention back to the phone conversation.

When I was done with my call I settled in to watch more TV and I reached for my cup of coffee that had been on the nightstand. It wasn't there.

That's weird. I shrugged it off thinking I had probably taken it back and forth with me while handling kid requests and most likely had finished it and left it in the kitchen.

I watched the rest of the show (all of 5 minutes) and then went out to help Kelton shrink his art projects. Eventually I ended up in the living room and it was there that I noticed my coffee cup sitting in front of the TV. Perplexed, I said "What is my coffee cup doing in front of the TV?" The response from the wee one made me laugh.

She said "I put it there when I was done drinking it."

"Done drinking it? When did you drink it?" I asked

"I took it from your room when you were talking on the phone. Remember when I came in there?"

Huh. I not only have a pint sized coffee drinker on my hands I also have a coffee thief! And I'm betting there was probably a good half cup full. Sheesh!

Where Have You Been?

I know. I know. I've been strangely quiet for the past ummm....5 days and I know some of you are beginning to get restless with the lack of updates happening here and over on Dakota's blog (I'm looking at *you* New Products Jen! Hee Hee).

The only excuse I have to offer is the ol' tired one of "I've been busy!" Stop right there! Don't roll your eyes. I *have* been.

As you know, I'm on the PTO for Kelton's school and if you've ever been on a PTO or PTA than you know what I mean when I say "Holy crudballs, Batman! There is so much to do!!" The project I am buried in right now is the annual Scholastic Book Fair and it is sucking the life out of me. I mean really....someone better look up a life insurance quote online for me because I think this project just may do me in. I kid you not. Though yesterday someone (Jeri - I'm looking at you this time!) on a white horse rode into my email to offer her 5 years of running book fairs experience to me. I promise you I heard the angel's singing.

I'm sure it's not all that complicated once you know what you're doing but at this point, I know nothing. Nada. Zilch. Less than.

And there are no former PTO members in the school to help. We're just flying by the seat of our pants and we have four weeks in which to pull a rabbit out of our hats.

I'm sure things will be more clear after I attend the training at the Scholastic Warehouse next week but consider we are rounding the corner on two weeks behind in their "5 Weeks to a Successful Book Fair" schedule, I'm feeling the pressure. I went to the first meeting on Thursday and I just got the materials Monday afternoon. I spent pretty much all day (much to Kaylen's HUGE disappointment for my lack of complete attention) reading, creating documents and sending emails. Right now I should be logged into the book fair site setting up the school's homepage. It's listed as needing 2 hours to do. Ugh. Then there are the letters for students to take home that need to be generated and, and, and!

I have a PTO meeting tomorrow night so hopefully we'll have people willing to take on different pieces of the puzzle so I don't feel like I'm drowning in it. I do have a co-chair but at this point, she is as frazzled as I and is working hard to keep her head above water on her pieces. Do you have any idea how many volunteers are needed to pull this off? And do you have any idea how lacking in volunteers the school is? Yeah - the math hurts on that one.

OH! And add to that a certain 4 year old has two birthday parties this weekend and well.......you can see where blogging has taken a back seat this week. :)

Kaylen is, at this very moment, having a meltdown because she wants to play with Martian Matter. It requires an adult to oversee and darn it - I just don't have 30 minutes to do that right now. UGH! I feel like a bad mom. I need a back-up wife and barring that - a babysitter. And a housekeeper because if you think that the house is being taken care of right now well...you'd be wrong. *sigh*

Just breathe. I just have to keep breathing and remember that if the book fair ends up just being cases of books for sale then well - that's what it is. As long as the kids can buy books (oh wait - that means info going home to parents...so that part will have to be done...as well as lining up people to take their money.....) it will be ok.

It will be ok.

And I have Jeri who knows how to pull a rabbit from her hat.

It really will be ok. Busy - but ok. *inhale* *exhale* *inhale*

Kelton's Music Show

Last night the first grade of Kelton's school put on a music show/concert. It was adorable and so much fun! Here are a few photos and then a couple videos. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. :)






This is Kelton's special part and I have to say, this mommy was swimming with happy tears and lots of laughs. He is just too cute! :)

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

And here are the rest of the songs....it's short and cute factor is very, very high! :)

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A Really Good Day

Yesterday was one of those really good days. I love those days because the make the most perfect memories to look back on during the really not good days. :)

The morning started out with the craziness surrounding getting everyone ready and out the door to Kelton's doctor appointment before school. I'm usually rushing every which way and barking directions at the kids (Shoes! Kelton, you need socks on first! Kaylen, please be sure you have gone potty. etc.) but yesterday when I walked into the living room I found this perfect little scene:

They were playing "Go Fish" and it was the most adorable thing. Kelton was helping her out but trying not to ask for all the cards he knew she had. He's such a sweet kid and a really amazing big brother.

Then we had the good doctor appointment.

The rest of the day went along per usual and before long, Kelton was home. He was happy and helpful and even happily did a bunch of chores to earn $5.00 that he so desperately wanted. Everyone ate a good dinner and helped clean up and then we all headed out to buy a bouquet of tulips, a birthday card and birthday balloon to deliver to the kids grandpa. We went over to the grandparents house and, even though we were pushing bedtime by a lot, the kids were well behaved and polite.

When we were at the store, there was a table set up by a group of Camp Fire kids and they were selling my beloved Camp Fire Mints. I love, love, love mints and I totally missed out last year. There was no way I was missing out this year. The kids and I stopped by and bought two boxes. A small, possibly unknown fact to you, is that I was in Camp Fire for 10 years and I am the proud recipient of the Wo-He-Lo Medallion (think Eagle Scout for Boy Scouts). I sold mints for years and years which sparked a conversation with the kids so on the way to and from the grandparents house we talked all about Camp Fire. They both want to join. :)

I answered questions and told them all about my ceremonial gown, the beads and badges and my charm bracelet. They were practically beside themselves with eagerness to see everything.

Once we arrived home we opened the box of mints and each had a couple and then the fun began. I pulled my gown out of the closet for them to see. They were mesmerized and asked a zillion questions (which of course I couldn't answer because at this point I have no idea what I did to earn the Tri-Ad bead or what hundreds of things I did to earn the beads. And the patches? Yeah - no clue. I tried my best to explain things but then Kelton's eyes got really big and he asked "Can I try it on?"

Sure - why not. So both kids tried it on.





From there we moved to the jewelry box so they could both try on my charm bracelet and see my medallion.

Kaylen said, with her voice dripping with awe, "Mom! I'm so impressed! I didn't know you were so important."

And there you have it. A perfect day. Plus - my kids think I'm important! :)

I put the kids to bed and I happily floated through the rest of my evening. What a great day!

The Kelton Report

Kelton went in for his weekly weigh-in this morning. He gained 4oz (totally acceptable. I don't want him gaining too much too fast. That just sets up other problems.). YAY! The biggest surprise was his height. On January 7th he was 49.25 inches tall. Today he measured 49.5inches. A quarter of an inch in 3 weeks. WOW! (Of course, we all know measuring at a doctors office in an inaccurate science but still....)

It probably won't take long for him to be towering over my 5.25inch frame. Eeeek!

I sent an email to his doctor this morning to see if we can push off the test for CF because in my motherly heart of hearts I know he doesn't have it (way too healthy and the strongest immune system in our family!). He seems to be doing better overall which leads me to believe we have been struggling with two issues: energy output vs. fuel intake AND severe constipation (poor boy!) and that part makes sense that it started in September. He started school full time and what child likes to have to p**p at school? The doctor, at the onset, said that if constipation was at the root of it, it makes sense why he wasn't eating enough....he always felt "full".

So anyway - hopefully she will let us push it off for a while and see where this all takes us. The time and expense to find out what I already know seems silly at this point.

But I'm not a doctor. I don't know. I stated my case and now I wait to hear back. You know what they say about mommy intuition though. :) I knew something was wrong with him and now...I just have this feeling that we are on the road to being A-OK. And I'm totally fine with it all boiling down to constipation. :)

Yippie!

My Facebook account is back in working order. I'd like to think it was the email I sent to the tech question email address but most likely that had nothing to do with it. Whatever the cause - I'm just glad it's back. I missed it today....which I realize is sad and a bit pathetic but hey - that's life. :)

In other news today; we had snow! After a very sleepless night (Don't ask.....I don't know. Some nights are like that for me.) I got up at 7AM to no snow on the ground. By 8AM there was enough for the kids to get dressed in their snow clothes and head out for 45 minutes of snow play before it was time for Kelton to get into school clothes and get to the bus stop. They had a blast! All told we had about 2 inches. The temps warmed up in the afternoon and now there is but a wee trace out there but we loved having it. I love the snow. So, so much. And we've had several snow falls this year which I think surpass any other year in the six years we've been here. Gotta love that!

Tomorrow Kelton will have his weekly weigh in. If he is holding steady I am going to see if we can move to every other week. It's stressful for all of us to get to the clinic and then to school on time and if he is doing ok, I can just pop him on the scale here in the weeks between. I'm feeling "zen" about it all right now - which is a nice feeling.

The good news for him is that tonight he says his body "just feels better now". So maybe it was that he was so constipated and uncomfortable that it took all the energy he had to function. I do know that in the past few weeks he has gone from a little boy who would come home, drag himself into my bedroom to watch TV and hardly ever asked for food (and did a poor job eating when food was given to him) to a spunky energy-filled boy who is asking for food every time I turn around. He is happy and engaged and his presence feels different to me than in recent months. I thought he was having trouble adjusting to full school days but maybe that wasn't it at all. I don't know...all I know is he seems like the kid he used to be and that makes this mommy VERY happy.

I can't thank you all enough for all your prayers and good thoughts. I know they all counted and more than that - I know they make me feel better knowing that people care about us...even though most of you have never met us in real life. What a gift. Thank you!

I'm tired and ramble-y tonight so I guess I will wrap this up and go do something while I wait for Dakota to arrive home. Hopefully sleep will be easy to catch tonight because tomorrow is a busy day. But then - what else is new? :)

Facebook

Is anyone else having trouble accessing their Facebook account? I'm wondering if it's just me and if I happened to trigger something last night by my flurry of activity and ummm...the accidental spamming of the 83 people on my friends list.

I promise that I did not mean to hit everyone with a valentine theme from the Hug Me application. I highlighted the person I was returning a Hug Me to and hit send only to have it pop up a message that it had been sent to my entire list. I was shocked and well...embarrassed. Thank goodness I didn't pick one of the umm....not generic valentines day greeting.

I finally was able to get on this morning but I couldn't do a status update and when I went to my Wall....it was empty. So where my photo files. Hmmmmmmm......I'm trying to not be all paranoid but part of me is.

So...? Are you having trouble with FB?

Big Girl

My daughter will be turning 4 in two weeks. Two weeks! Will someone please tell me how this is possible??? Four? Really? Impossible.

But.....like it or not (and I do not like it, thank you for asking!), she is and the proof is in the growing. We've been going on daily bike rides/walks and it came to my attention that the little bike she has been riding for the past year (Kelton's hand-me-down 12 inch) was getting small. She was still ok with it and probably would be for another 4-6 months but she began to talk more and more of a "pink or purple" bike that was "just for girls" instead of a "blue boys bike". I figured a new bike for her birthday would be just the ticket.

This weekend we were out and about and I happened upon the row of bikes so I figured it was a good time to have her try out the size I was thinking (16 inch) to be sure it was a good fit. And she fell in love with it! It's perfectly her - a purple and pink princess bike. They had one and it was already assembled so we ended up buying it as an early birthday gift.

Much against Dakota's desire, the girl wanted to take her bike for a ride (and I can't blame her! See post below re: patience. *grin*) so I let her. She was hesitant at first to go too fast - she said "Mom! It's so tall and a little scary."

She did great though and she was quite proud of herself.

And speaking of taller....today the kids and I went for ride/walk and I happened to notice how much Kelton has grown since this fall when he was riding his bike. Holy moly! We are going to be raising his seat about 2 inches before his next ride. How in the world did he grow so tall in such a short amount of time! And the really strange part is it has happened before my very eyes and I haven't noticed. Not at all.

Will someone please tell my babies to stop growing up so fast? While I adore the kids they are, I miss the babies they were.

Sunday Morning Snow

We woke up to a light smattering of snow on Sunday morning but it doesn't matter if there is .25 of an inch or 22 inches - my kids are going to out to play! We did our best to keep them inside until the sun came up but after that - they were outside (sorry neighbors!). Oh the fun to be had in an inch of snow. :)

Kaylen climbing up the play structure because there is big fun to be hand in sliding down a snow-covered slide.

Kelton's snow angel. And look at that perfect hand print.

Throwing snowballs for the dogs to catch. See? Everyone around here loves the snow - even the dogs! :)

Jordan eating a handful of snow.

Waiting.....waiting.....waiting......"Come on Kelton- drop it already!"

Collecting snow for a really big snowball to throw at Mama (Dakota).

Kelton making his giant snowball to throw.

Ready? Set! THROW!

Sledding in the front yard. (See? Precious little snow. But we know how to make the most of it, that's for sure. :) )

And after snow play? It's time to warm up by the fire! :)

And then it's time to try out a "head ride" which is what Kaylen calls shoulder rides. She saw someone on TV doing this and just had to try it out. They had way too much!

The snow was gone by lunch time but boy did we have fun!

Ready for Change

I'm not a patient person. I know this probably comes as a surprise to no one but seriously...not digging the whole "Have patience" stuff. I do not have patience and I imagine that is to my great detriment. I've tried to develop it and I can pretend really, really well but to be honest, it is just nothing I have seemed to master.

To that end - all the economy news is tough for me. I want things to change and I want it NOW. No, actually, I want it last week. I heard today that Home Depot is doing a huge lay off. I also heard Microsoft is doing the same and so is some other big place (whose name escapes me right now and I'm too tired to Google it. Sorry.) It's scary out there and so many of us are just a month or two or three away from being in really big trouble if trouble were to come knocking.

So...again I say, I'm ready for change. I keep waiting for there to be an influx of jobs. For the housing market to turn around. For the dollar to get stronger. For the stock market to go back to being something I don't pay a ton of attention to. I want to know that investment banker jobs are plenty because that would mean we are all doing ok again.

I want to stop worrying and start looking ahead with happy anticipation instead of concern. They say it's coming. I just want it here....and now. I promise you, I'd sleep a lot better at night and I know so many of you would too.