Doc McWho

Lauren has liked Doc Mcstuffins since she was the new doc on Disney Junior's block. That was back when we had cable. I was happy because it meant we were saying adios to our Dora days. Seven years of Dora just gets to you. 

Lauren decided she wanted a Doc McStuffins party this year, so that's what she got! I was glad she didn't say Dora, which is what she has said every year for the last four years. I made her a Doc McStuffins cake and we got all of the party decor to go along with it. 

It was hard getting Doc to stay up on the cake. Her head is very unporportioned to her body, so she kept wanting to topple over. I had to stick her down in the cake. She stands great on solid ground, not so much on spongy cake. 

Lauren got lots of great presents from a great family that loves her so much. 

Here she is letting her brother ride with her. If you asked Dallas whose birthday it was, he would say, "It's Doc McStuffins birthday."

Her actual birthday is Tuesday and we are planning a special day for her. 

Planning away

The time has come, much to Paul's dismay, for school planning. When school planning comes, laundry and housework go...right out the window.  Last year I went through each subject and came up with daily lesson plans, not sure if I was wasting my time and would actually end up following them. I did, follow them that is. To a T! It was good to know what we needed to accomplish for that day and even though we may have taken an extra day off here and there, I knew exactly what we needed to do when we started back up. I didn't plan our kindergarten year and that year just drug on and on and on. I think we had a two week break before 1st grade started. 

This year is going to prove to be more challenging. I will have two kids with full loads, plus I am planning on starting some preschool stuff with the little ones as well. It will be a learning experience, juggling it all and getting into a routine, but I'm excited to get started. Our official start day is August 25th, and I still have reading to plan for Lauren and bible to work on. 

Our school supplies have been bought and everything organized. I have our school area decorated for our first couple of weeks of lessons and I am counting down the days!

Look Mom!

This phrase has the potential to be really good...or really bad. I have found when it is said with much enthusiasm it means...I have just done something you will be so proud of. And usually it's about 70/20/10. Seventy percent of the time it is something I am extremely happy about (I just drew the BEST picture ever, or I just made a bracelet and attached it to a headband or I just cleaned my room without being asked...wait...I got a little carried away. The last only happens in my dreams). Twenty percent of the time something "good" is actually something very bad. This usually happens with Dallas...like look mom I just climbed onto my changing table or look mom I just emptied the salt shaker all over your kitchen table. This list could go on, but I will stop. And then ten percent of the time I don't know whether the "look mom" is good or bad. Like, look mom I just took my sheets off the bed for you (on a day I wasn't going to change sheets)...or look mom I collected 529 rocks and leaves from outside and want to keep them all.

So, when Kristen comes out of her bedroom and announces (with much enthusiasm), "Look what Lauren did!" I thought for sure she had written her name all by herself. I didn't imagine this.  

I had that look on my face...you know...the confused I am trying to figure out when and how this happened look. Because I know she didn't have painted fingers when she woke up. I would have remembered her nails and fingers looking like they had been dipped in ketchup and mustard, which made more since at this point than fingernail polish. Kristen must have decided I needed some clarification and announced, "She painted her nails". To which Lauren added, very proudly, "All by myself!" My reply, "Did you paint anything else?" 

Yep, you guessed it. In the process of painting her nails she also painted the floor, which I am happy is NOT carpet. I guess they are now hoarding illegal contraband and their room and it will need to be searched at bedtime.

Are we there yet?

I am not an outdoorsy person. I hate the heat when it's hot and the cold when it's cold. I hate flying bugs, mostly Mosquitos, which I swear only came out at night when I was younger. Now they just hang around outside my door 24/7 waiting for me to step outside. I hate spider webs, not so much the spiders...and ticks...I despise ticks. Oh, and dirt. I hate dirt. Walking from my front door to the car is about as outdoorsy as I like get. But, I occasionally will become a woman of the outdoors for the sake of the love I have for my kids. 

So, when Paul said he thought it would be fun to float the James River with the kids I was all like...YEAH! Actually, I was not like...YEAH!  I was more like...how much stuff can I cram into our weekends in order to not have to float down the James River...in a john boat...with three kids. But, I ended up penciling it in on our calendar and knew God was looking out for me when there was a 60% chance of rain for the day we had planned going. Devine intervention! Except...it didn't rain. Not one.single.drop. 

Paul had floated the river with my cousin once, and enjoyed it. It's different, two grown men floating a river than...let's say...one grown man, three kids and a pretty much useless woman when it comes to all things water. Bath time...I've got it! River floating...not so much. Paul said my "motherly survival instincts" would kick in. Wait...what? Why would my motherly survival instincts need to kick in! 

We originally planned to get up, pack a picnic lunch, and just enjoy a day on the river. It became a day of...how fast can we get on the river and float down it before the rain comes. Paul said it would only take a couple hours, so since we had eaten breakfast, we decided to forgo the picnic. Due to the impending rain, we decided we would just eat when we got back home. I packed some drinks and snacks, for the kids not us...and off we went. 

The kids were excited, especially Kristen. She wanted to paddle, Lauren saw a big bird and wanted to go see it. If I were outdoorsy I would be able to tell you exactly what type of bird it was, but I'm not. We did very little floating and a lot of paddling...actually Paul did a lot of paddling. I am very directionally challenged and I apparently have a talent for paddling our boat around in circles. I would occasionally paddle here and there so it would seem as if I was contributing. 

We stopped a couple times on the way to explore, which the girls loved. Dallas didn't want to leave the boat, and I don't blame him. River water...yuck!  Another thing on my list of nasty outdoor things. Well, as we are floating along I hear...wait...IS THAT A WATERFALL? Ya'll...it sounded just like a waterfall and my worst nightmare. I thought we would get a little rain, but never thought I would be entering the great white rapids. I mean...this is the James River! Paul informed me it was JUST the class 1 riffles. Riffles? What is that? I have never heard of such. And riffles sound nice...like something on my grandmother's bed, NOT the horrorific sound I was hearing. This was rapids and the only way past it was to go through it. I put the life jackets on thie kids as fast as I could and threw one over my head, just in case. You can never be too safe when navigating through...literally...uncharted waters. In hindsight, if I did happen to get pulled under all I would have had to do was stand up, but I wasn't taking any chances. Paul decided it was better for me to wait on a rock while he navigated the kids through the rough waters. He anchored them off and then came back for me. I felt like I was being rescued from a flood. The kids did great, and it added a little excitement to our river paddling. 

We ended up hitting another class 1 riffle. We had all remained calm until we were headed directly into a fallen down tree. Paul jumped out of the boat and that is when Dallas got upset. I guess for him, Paul being in the water meant chaos. He kept pointing inside the boat like, "Dad, get in"! Every time the boat would rock he would say, "whoa". Which was exactly what I was saying in my head. Lauren then ended up getting upset, mostly because Dallas had entered the hysterical crying zone. But, Paul being the awesome captain that he is, got us all thru it and I had somehow managed to get in the back of the boat in "the seat".  You know, "the seat" that one would sit in if they had to adjust their paddling based on what the person in front of them were doing so they could steer the boat. Based on my awesome paddling/steering/navigating skills this had the potential to turn into a disaster. 

We were, or so we thought, coming up on our destination and that'll put some pep in your paddling. And then we hit the last riffle of our journey. We were all able to stay in the boat, but our boat kept turning around...not because of my awesome paddling either, just because of the current. Paul kept telling me that we had to get the boat turned back around. Umm...wouldn't it just be easier to turn our seats around and paddle then us trying to turn the whole boat around. And does it really matter if the pointed end of the boat is at the front? Obviously it doesn't because it was and we still got turned around. But, I remained quiet and started paddling like I knew what I was doing...until Paul informed me I was paddling on the wrong side...in the wrong direction. This is exactly why we need a steering wheel!

Our two hour boat float ended up taking five hours, and Paul paddled the whole way. I can't imagine how long it would have taken if we had actually floated...or if something had happened to Paul's arms and I was forced to paddle us. Kristen said at one point, "I wish there was a motor on this thing." And I couldn't agree more...oh...and a steering wheel. 

Remember when...

Kristen said, "Mom, remember when you used to take pictures of us and put them on your blog and you would let us see them? I wish you would do that again." 


Umm...yeah....well....I guess I haven't been doing a good job of that lately.  I do take pictures...it's just finding the time to put them on the blog and compose something clever to say.  Usually by the end of the day I am down to one word sentences that usually begin and end with no and stop. And between taking care of kids, cleaning, laundry, dinners, lunches, snacks, breakfasts...the list goes on and on and on and on and on. But if I am going to record our memories to reminisce later, I better do a better job, because they are fading fast.  I have a hard time remembering what we did yesterday, much less the little things that make me smile and that I want to capture for years to come. 


So I will begin with our summer, which has been hectic and fun.  The kids and I have remained busy with lots of fun things to do, all of which I didn't bring my camera. While it has been an exciting summer, I am looking forward to slowing down and getting our school routine back.  I have lots of fun things I am planning for this year and I have to say I am excited! But, here are some pictures from our summer (so far).

Eating ice cream! 

Icing cupcakes that they helped make.

End of the year Girl Scout ceremony. Kristen will be a Brownie next year.

Dallas loves shoes...any size, any color.

It makes my heart happy when I see them sleeping like they love each other.  Actually, what happened was, Kristen couldn't get into her bed because of the stuffed animal disaster, so instead of cleaning her bed up...she just sleeps with Lauren. And obviously steals Lauren's covers and pillow and sleeps on her hand.

Our 3rd annual firework extravaganza. 

This is only 1/3 of her stuffed animals.  Actually, it might even be less than that.

This kid really should be the spokesman for pop tart. Pop tarts are one of his major food groups. 

I LOVE monopoly....and really LOVE playing junior monopoly with the girls. Paul's too scared to play with us....afraid he might get beat!

So, when my dad's first sentence is, "I had nothing to do with it"....expect something bad...or loud...very very loud. 

Dallas has a girlfriend...and her name is Dora...hola!

Lauren loves to dress herself and her little brother up.

These two are best buddies...if you couldn't already tell.

The Most Perfect Gift

The gifts that make Mother's Day, or any other holiday special, are those handmade gifts. You know, the perfect little handprint or picture taken. Before being a mom I wouldn't have seen the beauty behind these gifts. There is a song that talks about mothers and how they deserve an arm full of roses, but are satisfied with a hand full of weeds. I never saw the beauty in dandelions until I recieved my first handful from a very precious little girl. The joy you get from knowing that they saw something beautiful and thought of you. 

This year was probably the best Mother's Day I have had since becoming a mom. I recieved the best gift, and it didn't come from the store, didn't cost any money, and it came from the heart of the most loving, caring and kind seven year old I know. She was so excited about her gift (that was in a big gift bag with tissue paper and all), that she couldn't wait until today to give it to me. What I found in the bag were two pieces of paper with ALOT of writing. Something that I knew she worked very hard on, especially since she sounded out every word. Then, when she started reading them to me, my heart melted. Paul and I couldn't hold back the tears. 

Here is the card.

On the inside she wrote:

Mom I know how hard it is to take care of kids. I am sorry for all of the times I was bad and given you a hard time and when I was selfish. Love Kristen

On the back she wrote:

Thank you for reading. I hope you can read this. Love Kristen

She also gave me this.

On the back of this she wrote:

You are the best mom in the world. You make me food and you clean the house and you know how to take care of us. Love, Kristen. 

I have fixed all of the spelling errors, although they made the card so much sweeter. As my sister put it today, these are the memories you run back into the fire to get. A memory that will forever be cherished. I am so thankful that I am the mother to three awesome kids. 

Strabismus

Lauren has been seen by a pediatric optometrist since birth. One of the best I might add and the same doctor that saw her in the NICU. When we thought she would need glasses by a year old due to ROP and her brain hemorhaging (and she didn't), the first words out of his mouth were, "Isn't God good." I knew right then that we were where we should be. 

Lauren has been seen every 6 months to follow her strabismus. Strabismus is when your eyes don't line up in the same direction and because of this they don't look at the same object at the same time (or more commonly known as "crossed eyes"). Lauren does "correct" it some on her own by putting her chin down when she needs to focus on something. This is usually how she watches television. 

Her strabismus really hadn't changed much, and her doctor said if it continued how it was, he wouldn't do anything to correct it. It really wasn't too bad and could only be seen by a professional. Over the past few months I thought it was getting worse, but thought maybe it was just me. I have a way of being a little über cray cray when it comes to my kids health. I have self diagnosed them with all sorts of crazy things over the years. 

Anyways, I digress. A few weeks ago I was sitting at the table and Kristen was standing behind me and Lauren came in to ask a question. That's when I knew it was worse. I didn't know if she was asking me the question or Kristen. In fact, it didn't really look like she was talking to either of us. That's when I mentioned it to Paul and he said he could tell. I knew this possibly meant she would need surgery.

Both Paul and I agree that it should be done sooner rather than later. It will only get worse and would eventually affect her vision. It will be an outpatient procedure and the doctor will go in and weaken the muscles in both eyes to try to even things out. There is a possibility that she would need another surgery to tweak it, but more than likely she won't. She will be given anesthesia, which is best because she would do none of this willingly....but that is the part that scares me the most. There are just so many horror stories and Lauren is still very tiny for her age. All sorts of bad scenarios have run through my mind and since her surgery isn't scheduled until June 24th, I am sure I will have 100 more horrible scenarios added to the already growing list. 

Just thinking about this gives me anxiety. What's that saying? No one can pray and worry at the same time....