A Long Week

We've had an interesting week indeed. I went to the children's Dr.'s appointments Tuesday, and everything was fine. I was relieved that Emmitt's ears were clear considering he had a fever Sunday and Monday. Emmitt is 50% for weight and 75% for height. He's taller than I thought he was. It's annoying because the pants/shorts that fit his height are always huge around the waist. Mila is 50% for height and 75% for weight. No surprise there. She's always been a very dense child :) 

Mila's throat was hurting really bad the next day and was covered in sores (they were not there the day before when we were at the Dr's), and we went back to the Dr's. SUPER long story short, both children had Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease.

Hand, Foot, and Mouth is an odd illness. The only real complication is dehydration if a child's throat hurts so bad that they don't want to swallow. If Mila wouldn't have complained about her throat hurting, I would have never known they had it since they only got a few, almost unnoticeable, bumps on their fingers (rash on hands and feet is another symptom). I definitely wouldn't have known Em had it since he never complained. It is highly contagious though, so we quarantined ourselves for a few days. I decided that during this time of not going anywhere, I would potty train Emmitt. We used the 3 Day Potty Training method. He's doing pretty well. Not 100% all the time, but good for a starter. I hit up Pinterest for a few ideas and used some of my own to keep us busy. 

The kids enjoyed getting plenty of popsicles to help ward off dehydration.

We made bath paint from here. 

Mila's masterpiece

 After we made the bath paint with shaving cream, Mila wanted to shave like Daddy. We used the popsicle sticks from above to "shave." Mila was really good at it! They wanted to shave over and over. Emmitt put the popsicle stick covered in shaving cream in his mouth a couple of times. Must have not tasted bad enough to keep him from doing it.

We colored a bunch of fish, cut them out, made some fishing poles, and went fishing in the living room.

Emmitt hauling his catch. P.S. I covered the floor with dollar store shower curtains for the first two days until he had things down. I was certainly glad they were there the first day when he was peeing everywhere!

During Emmitt's nap on day 2, Mila and I made some homemade laundry detergent. Another Pinterest find. I based mine off of this and this. I figured it would be a good time to test it out since we had lots of pee pee clothes. So far, so good! All the recipes say to only use a tablespoon or two. I think it works better using 2-3. Maybe my washer is just bigger or something. It pretty much doesn't have a fragrance once the clothes are washed, but things smell clean and fresh.

Later I was listening to Mila while she was playing with the rocking horse. In this high-pitched voice she uses when she's playing, she had this conversation doing both voices:
HORSE: I'm so sad because no one thinks that I'm a girl.
MILA: Oh, you poor horse! Let me help you.
HORSE: Thank you so much! Now I look like a girl.

Getting him to go #2 was way easier than I thought it was going to be. He didn't get it at all the first day, but since then, we've had no problems. The first time he went #2 in the potty, we had a poo poo party. I had some confetti poppers ready for this moment and let the kids have fun. Supervised, of course ;)

I straightened Mila's hair! She loved it so much!

Super long post for a super long week!

There Was a Little Girl...

There was a little girl, 

Who had a little curl,

Right in the middle of her forehead.

When she was good,

She was very good indeed,

But when she was bad she was horrid.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

My mom has said that little poem ever since I can remember, and I just found out it was originally written by Longfellow. I just thought it was one of those things that people say.

I often think of that poem when I see Mila's little curls bouncing around on her forehead.

It is somewhat accurate, too, at times :)

Here is Mila holding her smoothie map.

We were at Target today (by the way, they had tons of t-shirts for $3!) and Mila asked for a smoothie. I told her we could make one at home after Em's nap. Being the persistent girl she is, she talked about the dang smoothie non-stop until we made it hours later! She even made a map during Emmitt's nap to aid me while making the smoothie once he woke up. She included yellow bananas, yogurt, a red bowl of ice, blue lights to keep the bananas warm?, and the blender at the end. Our smoothies were delicious!

Something really funny happened at Target today. As we were walking to the checkout, we saw these two homely, pre-teenish-age girls.  One of the girls had a bowl cut. Not to knock the bowl cut, I had one for many years myself (thanks, Dad), but they don't really scream girliness. Anyways, Mila says in a loud voice as we are right next to them, "Mom, are they girls?" Of course they heard her, everyone heard her. One of the girls said, "That was so rude! I can't believe she just said that!" She said more stuff that I couldn't hear because I was headed to the checkout as fast as I could go! I felt really bad! That's not a good age to hear those kind of comments. A fat comment when I was twelve affected my view of myself my entire teenage years. I was trying to explain to Mila that it wasn't a very nice thing to say, and she just said, "What? What did I say?" 

Poor Emmitt. Had a fever last night. Still has it today. Complaining when he eats (swallows). Has wanted to cuddle all day. I hope he doesn't have strep or another ear infection or whatever. Already had Dr.'s appointments scheduled for tomorrow, so I guess I'll find out. 

Mila's First Day of Preschool!

Today was a big day for me. I sent my first baby to preschool. It was a big day for Mila, too, since she was the one actually going to preschool for the first time. She has been so excited to go, and the countdown has been torturous for her. She packed up her backpack a few weeks ago in preparation and told me she was all ready to go and had everything she needed for school. The school asked us to bring a backpack with an extra change of clothes. When I got her bag out last night to put the extra clothes in, I found it full of toys. This morning when she saw the pile of toys on the floor, she was really mad at me for taking them out. We settled on allowing her to bring two toys in the bag.

I tried and tried to get a good picture of her, but the sun was shining in her face. This was the best one.

Okay, that's fine. We'll get one at the school. The school had a great spot with no sun. 

I barely snapped this one before she was headed inside.

Emmitt really wanted his picture as well. I was running after Mila while taking this one because she was headed into the school with the other kids and their parents. 

They had all the toys out to help the kids want to stay. Mila got started playing with the kitchen right away. I asked her if she was ready for us to leave. Without hesitation she said, "Yep!" Not a single tear from her. But I stood hidden around the corner watching my firstborn moving on to another step in life, and I couldn't help but shed a few. I'm glad to see her progressing, but I sometimes wish she was still that tiny bundle snuggled in my arms.

When I went to pick her up, she told me how much fun she had. When we were walking out the door she said, "Mom, can I go there every day!" This preschool also offers tumbling and dance classes before school, so she will start that next week, and she can't wait!

She looks so grown up to me in this picture. Mila, stop growing!

I'm glad her first day was a success!

My Funny Mila

On Monday night for Family Home Evening we had such a funny lesson. Last month we learned the song I'm Trying to be Like Jesus in Primary, and I've been singing it a lot with her at home to help her learn it. So after we sang that song, I asked Mila how we can be like Jesus. She thought for a second and said (while gesturing everything she said), "Um, we need to have long hair, and a beer (the way she says beard)." Sam and I were trying so hard not to laugh while we steered the conversation toward how we can act like Jesus.

Yesterday Sam and I were talking in the living room after he got home from work. Mila and Emmitt were playing in Emmitt's room. Emmitt came out of his room crying and rubbing his head and Mila followed. Sam asked Mila what happened, and she told him she hit Emmitt. Sam asked her why and she said, "Because he was Jafar!" After we sent her to her room, we laughed.

I love these funny moments!

The Past Week

We went to the zoo again. It's such a nice outing for me to do with the kids because it takes up pretty much the whole day, and we get home about the time Sam does. The Columbus zoo is big enough that even though we see our favorites every time, we rotate the other stuff so it's always is exciting to go. 

They have different metal animal sculptures all over the zoo, and Mila was on a quest to sit on every one she could find. These are just a few of them...

 Emmitt sharing his drink with the polar bear.

 Going in for a big one.

Lots of the animals were totally out!

There's a little play area that has words the kids can climb on.

I wanted to get a picture of Emmitt on the "e", and he got really mad at me. 

When we got home, the kids were playing in Emmitt's room with the door shut. I went to open it and felt some resistance. It was because they tried to stack all of the toys in his room against the door to keep mommy out!

On Saturday, we went to our ward's annual hog roast and had a really fun time. I made some chocolate chip cookies stuffed with Snickers for it that were incredible! It was really well done this year because they had games for the kids so it gave the adults some time to chat. Emmitt opens the church doors with ease, so I spent a lot of the time trying to keep him out of the parking lot. I lost track of him once and found him outside running across the drive that heads out to the street. Afterwards, we went to my parent's so Sam could help my dad put up a tile backsplash in their kitchen. Sweet Sam gave up a big portion of his weekend to that project.

It rained all weekend and while Sam and Papa were busy working in the kitchen, Mila and Emmitt were playing in the rain. Just so you know, you'll be seeing this outfit on Mila a lot. It's her favorite. Even though the shirt is getting too small.

 After playing for hours at the church and playing in the rain with Mila, poor Em was so tired! He barely finished his food before he fell asleep sitting at the counter.

 When he woke up, it was back outside to splash in the puddles on Papa's driveway.

 He was one incredibly happy boy!

 Daddy is so fun! Sam helped Emmitt do some rollerblading.

I always love when holidays are on Monday and there isn't the dread on Sunday night that Sam has to go to work in the morning. On Monday we went to my parent's to finish up the backsplash and have a cookout which we had to eat inside since it was raining still. A pleasant long weekend.