Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Monster Hat

So, I decided that I could probably take the concept of owl hats and start making other kinds of hats for kids. My nephew Carlitos is really into dragons, so I thought I would try making a dragon hat. But, the hat ended up looking like a monster, not a dragon. Oh well, he still loved it.

front of the hat

back of the hat

Hat on my hand

Nicole modeling the hat while rolling on the ground
I gave him the hat for his birthday and the first thing he did was stick his fingers in the nostrils. Then, all the kids wanted to stick their fingers in the nostrils. Who knew that that would be the big hit. But, of course, since he is a little boy and really rough, within the first few minutes of obtaining the hat, he had pulled on the horns and stretched them all out and strings that were hidden started to come loose. I just do not know how to keep those strings in. I tie them off on the inside of the hat, but children seem to find ways to pry them all loose.

I neglected to get pics of him with the hat, but I think I will do a Kimball niece and nephew hat post sometime because I've almost made a hat for all of them. I only have to make a cat hat for Lucy and then I've gotten them all.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

What the Heck!

So, after having the stomach flu go through everyone in the house a week ago, I thought we were in the clear for a little while. Obviously, I was mistaken because I woke up at 5am to the sound of Dan retching in his bed. My poor little man is sick again!

He retched and retched, but there was nothing in his stomach that early, so it was just dry heaves. Then, we gave him a little pedialite, which we had on hand from the last week. He fell back asleep and then woke up at 6am to throw up the pedialite. My poor Dan was so pale. But, he is in good spirits, so that is good at least.

I feel like we just can't catch a break. I do everything I can to keep my kids healthy, but they keep catching stuff. Arg! Matt has a final project presentation today, so he can't miss school and I have no days off left, so I can't miss work and we can't send a sick baby to a sitter... it is so frustrating. I wish that I were a stay at home mom so I could just be home with my kids when they are sick and we wouldn't have all these crazy complications every time the kids are sick, which seems to be often.

Anyway, we will do the BRAT diet for Dan right now and see how that turns out. He was just barely getting his appetite back from the last time that he was sick. Now we have to go through it all over again. Curse you stomach flu! *shakes fist*

Monday, November 28, 2011

Preggo Comparison


Marie at 36 weeks

Matt and I at 36 weeks with Nicole

Sarah at 36 weeks

I think it is possible that my sisters are the tiniest pregnant women. Sarah looks less pregnant than Matt. If Sarah does a 38 week pic, you are in for a treat in that comparison.

Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving with the Kimball's this year. We were going to have Thanksgiving with my family this year as it was their turn (we rotate holidays every year) because we had Thanksgiving with the Kimball's last year (at my house). But, my parents went out to Pennsylvania to have Thanksgiving with my step-brothers, so it was dinner with the Kimball's again this year.

This year, thankfully, it was at Momma Kimball's house. We hosted last year because Mom and Dad Kimball were in a rental and there wasn't a lot of space. We showed up earlyish on Thanksgiving day and I helped by peeling ten pounds of potatoes. Some may say that is too many potatoes. Momma Kimball says it is not enough and Matt peeled five more pounds for her.

The food was great, but apparently, the Kimball's are very big on dessert. The dessert spread was something like this: apple crisp, apple pie, apple cake, 3 pumpkin pies, pecan pie, lemon meringue pie, banana cream pie, 2 hershey bar pies and ice cream. It was insanity. There were only 10 adults and 4 children there. Way too much dessert. But, they all felt like it was regular. 

Mamma Kimball wanted pictures of the grandkids in their Christmas outfits that she bought them because she is one of those Christmas card people (I'm not). So, after dinner, we attempted to get a picture of all the grandkids together. These were the best shots (and none of them are good).






We got all the kids sitting together (not an easy feat) and started taking pictures and trying to get them to smile and then we broke and let the kids go wild again. But, then Momma Kimball asked who was taking pictures with her camera. We all responded that we were using our own cameras and thought SHE was taking pics with her camera. But, she wasn't.

So, we attempted to set up all the kids again for another round of pics WITH Momma Kimball's camera actually taking photos. But, the kids had had it and did not want to sit for more pics. Dan started crying, the kids were making funny faces, it was not fun.




Getting six kids under the age of 5 to all sit together and smile is impossible unless you are a photographer who is used to doing this. I don't know if anyone else taking photos got a better picture, but all of mine were kinda crappy.

After really crappy pictures, we played minute to win it games that Momma Kimball and Anne had set up. The little kids loved it! I thought it was fun to watch, but not the funnest to do. Probably because I'm not very good at shaking ping pong ball out of kleenex box that is strapped to my back.

Then, everyone started watching movies and eating the massive amounts of dessert. It was a good day full of family fun. I really enjoyed myself, but I missed my family and missed my own family traditions.

We spent Christmas with my family last year, so we are doing Christmas with Matt's family this year. It is good to give the Kimball's Christmas, especially since my sister Sarah won't be here for Christmas, but I feel like I'm missing out on my family's holidays this year. Hopefully, next year, Sarah will be able to come out here for Christmas with her baby all big and grown. Her baby is due a few days after Christmas, so there will definitely be no travelling for her this year.  I miss her!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

I'm a Mommy!

Nicole came to me last night and said, "I'm a mommy."

Me: "Oh yeah? You're a mommy?"

Nicole: "Yup. Where are my brets?"

Me: "Where are your whats? Your barrets?"

Nicole: "No, my brests? I forgot them."

Me: "Your wrists? Your breath?"

Nicole (getting upset): "No, my brests!"

Me (still not getting it): "Okay, I don't know where they are, where are they?"

Nicole: "Upstairs in your closet."

Me: "Okay, lets go and find them."

(upstairs in my closet)

Me: "Okay, where are they?"

Nicole (pointing to one of my shirts): "Right there, my brests. I'm a mommy."

Finally, I realize that she has been saying "breasts" this whole time and she thinks that being a mommy means having breasts and that breasts are in my shirt. So, if she puts on my shirt, she will have breasts.

Me: "Oh, sweetheart, you're a little girl, you don't have breasts yet."

Nicole bursts into tears.

Nicole: "I need my brests!"

Me: "Nicoley, you are just a little girl, but someday you will have breasts and someday you will be a mommy."

This did not seem to console her. So, I held her and sang songs to her while she cried about not having breasts.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Sick Weekend

Nothing is worse than having a sick baby. My normally happy, smiley, little man was sick with the stomach flu over the weekend. He started with the diarrhea on Thursday. Over the weekend, Dan, sadly, went through 45 poopy diapers. My poor little baby has a very sore bum!



Dan was really whiny and sad on Saturday and started throwing up that night. It is very sad to watch your little baby throw up... a lot. I remember doing this with Nicole when she was about 9 months old, but she was still nursing at the time, so she was getting food that is softer on a little tummy. Dan stopped nursing like 2 months ago.

Luckily, we had some of my milk frozen in the freezer. So, we thawed out the milk and Dan got mama's milk for a day. He went through it in no time though and then it was all gone. But, he didn't throw it up, so it was a success. But, once we were out of it and tried to give him the formula again, he was pretty mad. That is what he gets for giving up nursing. I wanted to keep going, but my little man was done a while ago.

So, Saturday, we pulled out the bed downstairs and camped out all day Sunday.


We stayed in our pajamas and were very lazy. Nicole loves it when we pull out the bed. She thinks it means that she can sleep downstairs (which we do not allow). But, it does mean that we can all snuggle together and watch tv. Normally, I would snuggle with my kids on my bed, but after Dan threw up on my bed, I was done with that. I would much rather that he threw up on the pull out bed (though he didn't, my bed is the lucky one).

Oh, and did I mention that I started feeling nauseated just after Dan threw up the first time? I didn't ever throw up, but I did feel sick to my stomach all day on Sunday. It hit Matt Sunday night. Luckily, it happened on a weekend and we were able to trade responsibilities with the kids depending on who felt better.

Dan is down to just 4 poopy diapers a day, so hopefully the worst is passed and his bum will heal. And, hopefully Matt and I will feel better soon too. I'm at work today either way.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Not Feeling It

I'm super busy lately and I'm just not feeling the blogging right now. All is well in Kimball land and I will post something relevant soon, just not feeling it today.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Monday, November 14, 2011

Returned!!!

I'm back! And now I shall update you on my less than exciting business trip.

I flew into Oakland on Wednesday morning. The travel was early and uneventful except for the ever exciting BART ride. I was taking public transport while traveling and I traveled the BART (subway) from Oakland to SanFran. BART shouldn't be that confusing, but because I don't know stuff, I did accidentally get on the wrong BART once. But, I just got off at the next stop and hopped on a BART going the other direction and I was fine. BART is not as scary as I thought it would be, but I definitely would not use it alone at night (which was my original travel plan).

I got into the city, walked half a mile to my hotel, dropped off my bags (without seeing my room) and then headed to the office. I had to walk .7 miles to my office, but luckily it was down hill. There are a whole lot of hills in San Fran and I had to do a whole lot of walking. Walking isn't entirely my thing. Especially when I am lugging around a laptop bag.

San Francisco is a whole lot more city than I am used to. There are buildings and streets and nothing in between. Buildings are just smacked right up against each other and all the buildings are enormously tall. But, there are places to eat like every 30 feet or so. It was all a little intimidating because I'm a Utah girl. But, the walk to my work was uneventful, so I guess the city can be safe even when it is intimidating.

I got into the office, which is a mighty tall building with a lot of security. And, I worked, which is not entertaining at all. Unless you find research entertaining. Everyone there was very nice and very helpful and I was able to get the stuff done that I needed to do. And we will leave it at that.

By about 5pm (pacific) I was exhausted! Probably because I had been going since 5am (mountain). So, I trecked up the hill to my hotel and missed my babies and cried and watched tv and fell asleep. I get emotional when I'm super tired.

The next day I woke up (at 4am) feeling less than good. I woke up a LOT during the night because I'm used to getting up 2 or 3 times a night with Daniel (I really need to sleep train that boy). And, then I just woke up super early and couldn't get back to sleep. Maybe I had pushed myself a little too hard the day before with the long day and the travel and the excessive walking. But, I went into work, did my thing, and cut out early. Even though I was only in the office for two days, I still cut out early because I'm awesome and had gotten everything that I needed in a short amount of time. That is just how awesome I am.

I went back to my hotel (another .7 miles when not feeling good) and took a little nap. Then, I headed down to the lobby to meet my brother David. David took me to Castro for dinner with his husband Eric. Luckily, I was feeling a little less exhausted by this time because I had gotten my awesome nap.

We ate at this comfort food sort of restaurant and it was really yummy. I tried Okra for the first time (and didn't care for it) and I tried Gumbo for the fist time (and didn't care for it). But, Eric was kind enough to swap his pot roast for my gumbo and the pot roast was super yummy! It was so fun to catch up and spend time with David and Eric, who I rarely see. This was definitely the highlight of my trip. And, it got my mind off of missing my babies so much. Even though I talked about them an awful lot during dinner.

David and Eric drove me back to my hotel (yay, no walking!) and I crashed not long after getting there. I woke up at 5am the next morning and retraced my steps back to Oakland airport (walking, bart, shuttle, walking). I got home around 3pm and spent the rest of the night kissing my kids cheeks. I missed those kids so much! I would rather be home with them than anywhere else, but I survived the trip, they survived the trip and, most importantly, Matt survived three days alone with them (which is not an easy task).

Many of you mommies out there have husbands who travel and you know that it is not easy watching the kids alone, with no break, for many days. But, Matt was a champ and took good care of those kiddos. Special thanks to my Mom and Momma Kimball who helped with the kids while Matt was in class. Grandmas are awesome.

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Intense Potty Training

Before I leave, I wanted to do a quick post on Nicole's potty training status. On Friday, I was reading one of the mommy blogs that I always read and I saw this. Her post on potty training her son inspired me. I decided to steal some of her ideas and do an intense potty training with Nicole over the weekend.

Here is the plan that I devised:

  1. Saturday morning, when Nicole woke up, I switched out all her diapers for size 2 diapers. When, I went to put the diaper on her, and couldn't get it on, I told her that she was too big, that her diapers didn't fit anymore. Then, I told her that she would have to wear her big girl underwear instead.
    She, of course, was too smart for my trick and said, "Those aren't my diapers Mommy, those are Dan's!" I need to learn how to do potty training for too intelligent children.
    I convinced her to wear the underwear any way in spite of her inability to be tricked.
  2. Then, once she was all dressed, I told her that we were going to have a potty party and that she could eat all the chips she wanted and drink all the pop she wanted. (Chips to make her thirsty, pop to make her pee!)
    She was very excited about this and said, "Yeah! A potty party with cake and balloons!"
    Because, apparently, party, to Nicole, means cake and balloons.
    So, she ate all the chips and pop and juice that she wanted too and we didn't worry about her snacking too much or her finishing her meals. We let down on the rules A LOT!
  3. Then, every 10 minutes, I asked her if she felt the pees coming out. We discovered a while ago that this was the way to talk to Nicole about using the toilet. Asking, "Do you have to go potty?" did not make sense to her. We took many trips to the toilet and she successfully peed many times. She was rewarded with 3 M&Ms every time she peed.
    If she pooed on the toilet, she got 5 M&Ms. Which did not happen on the first or second day of training, but that was the deal.
She did really well the first day! We had one poop in the underwear incident on the first day and one accident at the table while she was eating, but other than that, she made it to the toilet every time. Matt and I even went on a date on Saturday night and she went to Marie's in a pull-up and even peed on the toilet for Marie. Marie has aided in potty training multiple children now, so I bet she will be a pro when it comes time for Damon to train.

Nicole was really excited about the whole things and was such a happy girl the whole day. Probably because we were letting her eat whatever she wanted and letting her eat candy and pop all day long. Plus, she got one on one attention from Mommy for most of the day.

On Sunday, we did the same thing, except that we put pull-ups on her because we were going to church. We said we were having another potty party and she was very excited. She did awesome! No wet accidents! Though she did poop in the pull-up every time.

On Monday, Matt was totally in charge since I was at work, but I was optimistic because she had done so well over the weekend with me. After the first poop in the pull-up, Matt switched back to underwear because he felt that she would be less likely to poop in the underwear because she has a fear of being dirty. And, he was right, it worked! She had zero accidents once she was in the underwear, pooping in the toilet and everything.

We are so excited! Hopefully, this trend will continue and she will be potty trained for day time completely in a week. Then, maybe in two weeks after that, she can use the toilet by herself without help from Mom and Dad.

For night time, we are still doing diapers. We bought a brand new pack of diapers and told her that they were made especially for sleeping at night because she can't quite wake herself up to pee yet. She did wake up at 5am this morning to pee, but she had already wet her diaper, but it is progress I suppose. Night-time will be our next mile stone once we get day time down.

The MOST important thing in this process was ME! The reason that we hadn't intensely potty trained in the past was because I was afraid. I was afraid of accidents. I didn't want her to pee on my floor or my furniture. I was unwilling to dedicate my time to taking her to the toilet 20 times a day, to drop everything that I was doing to help her on the potty. To get up from a nap to take her to the toilet. I was LAZY! I think that she has been ready for a while, but I was not ready.

I knew that to really potty train, I had to dedicate at least three days and I had to put her in underwear, which meant that she would pee on the floor most likely. I just was not prepared.

So, after reading that post mentioned above and reading the post that my aunt Deanne wrote about potty training her youngest, I decided to change my attitude. I had to ACCEPT that there would be accidents and be okay with it. I had to be positive about the experience and not resent Nicole from taking me away from whatever I'm doing to go to the potty nine times in an hour. I had to be excited for her! I had to be happy, no matter what so that Nicole would view this as a good experience. That was not an easy thing to do.

And, when Nicole pooped in her underwear the first time I just said, "Okay sweetheart, lets go and get cleaned up." Then, after she was clean, I talked to her about using the toilet in the happiest way that I could without any anger about the accident. Because I knew that if I were upset about accidents, she would have anxiety about having accidents and it would hinder the whole potty training process.

And, I was overly worried for no reason because it has been so simple the last few days. Extremely time consuming and sleep depriving, but easy other than that. Nicole has caught on so quick and can tell when she needs to use the toilet when she isn't distracted. I haven't even needed to clean pee out of the carpet yet (though I know I will need to at some point. No kid is perfect).

If I had just chilled out and changed my attitude sooner, perhaps I could have saved a lot of money on diapers, but I'm catching on now! I hope her progress with the potty continues.

Monday, November 07, 2011

Leaving on a Jet Plane

I am going on my very first business trip this week. My company is sending me to our San Francisco office for a few days. I work with them over the phone and via email a lot, but the higher ups feel that I need to fly out to get hands on experience with what they are working on.

I am travelling alone which is a little intimidating, but I've done it before, I can do it again. All will be well. I'm just going to miss my kiddos so much. I'm trying to pinch their cheeks an extra amount so that they will know that I love them.

So, you won't be hearing much from me this week. Enjoy the break from my blog!

Friday, November 04, 2011

Dan the Man

How cute is this little man? I love to pinch his super cute cheeks! Unfortunately, he stopped gaining weight since he stopped nursing. So, he is all the time becoming less of my fatty lumpkins. Darn you formula for not being as fatty as my milk.


Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Wordy Wednesday

My little ones watching tv together in the early morning. Yes, Dan loves tv already. Two little duplicate me's.

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Painting Pumpkins

We bought pumpkins while we were at Pumpkinland this year, so Nicoley and I painted our pumpkins one night while Matt was at school.

Nicole was really into it. She was very serious about her pumpkin painting. And, she didn't want to ever stop, but we had to when she started melting down about getting paint on her hand. I tried to tell her that when you paint it is okay to get paint on you, but she wasn't having any of that.





My pumpkin. He is very happy.

Nicoley's final pumpkin


I think we will paint pumpkins every year until she is old enough to carve a pumpkin.