Monday, February 23, 2009

Not Me! Monday


Hey, it's Monday! Time to share our Not Me! Stories... Please head over to MckMama's to read everyone else's, and play along. You'll feel so much better after you do. :)

Alrighty. Let's get to it...

This week, I did not go nuts cleaning my house with disinfectant spray and cleaners to make sure all the yucky germs from the past weeks' sicknesses were wiped out. Seriously, is it Spring yet?

I do not have a ginormous case of Spring Fever.

I did not let my 3-year-old run around the house half naked a few times this past week, since she is potty training and thinks that anything on her bottom is fair game to pee in.

I have not nearly memorized one of the Cambodian karaoke DVDs we own (even though I do not speak Khmer! No, I really don't!) due to my daughter wanting to watch "the Sing-ging" about 37 times a day.

I have not grown tired of listening to Elmo laugh incessantly like a little red maniac over and over this week.

I have not once mentally kicked myself for buying the Elmo Hot Tomato game for my daughter for her birthday because it was on clearance after Christmas and she likes Elmo... If only I could have foreseen my agony...

I did not spend nearly a half hour in my vehicle reinstalling my daughter's car seat on Friday after her doctor appointment when I learned she was only 18.3 lbs and should definitely not be front facing yet... We were not sitting in the parking lot with my daughter temporarily buckled into her older sister's car seat while I pulled and pressed and knelt on and fought with the seat belt to try to get her seat in properly.

The windows did not steam up, and I did not get any weird looks from curious passersby.

I did not let my son spend all day in his pajamas on Saturday, including him spending two hours outside sledding with only his pajamas under his snowpants, coat, boots, hat, gloves...

...and now, after not attempting for FOUR FREAKIN' HOURS to write this post on a Monday morning (now afternoon), I am not a bit bummed that I likely have ZERO hope of making it to the top 300 of MckMama's Mr. Linky...

And I do not need a nap.

Friday, February 20, 2009

At Least Two Words Besides Momma and Dadda...

Today Ruby had her 15-month check-up and shots. I'm a little late getting her in for this due to all of the sickness and crud going around our house. She will be 16 months in less than a week. But apparently that is just fine.

And so is she! She weighed 18.3 lbs, so she is still in the "less than 3 percentile". The doctor wants to see her back at 18 months, but seems to think she is healthy, but may be be smaller due to genes from Seth. (Sorry, Hon!) :)

The doctor then asked all the typical questions, like what is she drinking, how is her eating and sleeping, etc. All normal. Then she asked about her words. I told her that she says, "Hi, Bye, No, Momma, Dadda, Baby, All done, Ahwo (hello, phone use only!) Uh-oh, Tank-ooh, and perhaps a few more that I am forgetting. She said that was great, that at 15 months they like to see children speaking at least 2 - 3 words besides Momma and Dadda.

So of course I thought of Kibby, who had virtually no speech until about 21 months. I think she is still behind, and am still thinking of getting her evaluated by the school district. More on that later. But I just want to say that I don't think it is so much her speech as her language. I used to confuse the two, but I think she is fairly average (for her age) with her ability to say word sounds correctly, although she may need some assistance there, too. The main issue I see is in her use (or often non-use or mis-use) of language. I've used the example of when I ask her a question. Here is a typical conversation in our house:

Me: "Kibby, did you fall down?


Kibby: I fall down!


Me: Do you get an owie?


Kibby: I get an owie!


Me: Where is your owie?


Kibby: Where is my owie!


Me: I know you have an owie. Show Mommy where it is, please.


Kibby: Show Mommy where it is.


Me: Kibby, where is your owie?


Kibby: Where is my owie!


Me: Does your knee hurt?


Kibby: My knee hurts!


Me: Does your head hurt?


Kibby: My head hurts!


Me: Does your dinosaur hurt? (just to see if she is thinking about what she is saying or not!)


Kibby: My dinosoar hurt!


Me: (going for yet another approach, pointing to her knee) Does it hurt here?


Kibby: It hurts here!


And on it will go, no matter where I point to. So unless she has an obvious owie, I have NO idea! And she will often ask for an ice pack if she gets an owie, however I have noticed that she will always hold it on the back of her head, even if that is not where the owie is. I think it's her security blanket.

I wish she'd just ask for a hug or kiss! That one I can do! (and usually do anyway! I just wish that "fixed it" for her!)

To be clear, this is just one example - its not that she gets hurt all the time!! However, I admit the slightest bump seems to call for an ice pack in her mind...

More news and updates are coming... and hopefully some more pictures. :)

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

If I Can Just Stop Coughing Long Enough to Say...

Ah, sickness. When it hits, it likes to stick around. None of this one-day-visit type thing. In my last post (which should have been a funny "Not Me! Monday" post, but was sorely lacking on the humor) I talked about how we're all sick around here. How we've been sick for the past week.

Well, we're all still sick. No more tummy viruses, thank you, God! Just some yucky colds with red noses, hacking coughs and blocked sinuses that steal our sleep at night and make us walking zombies during the day. I'm sure you all can relate. After all, they don't call it the "Common Cold" for nothing, right?

So I haven't been blogging much yet this month. Partly because of the sickness and partly because I've been spending some time getting some much-needed reorganization done in my kitchen. I'd like to paint it next month when my sister and her family come to visit. (My sis has offered to help! The men can handle watching our 4 kids while we spend a day painting, right???) Maybe I'll post some pics - you know, before / during / after shots.


So, last Friday I cleaned off the area above my cupboards (wow was it dusty up there) and washed and reorganized all my cupboards. I have a box of stuff ready to go to Salvation Army. Which is still sitting in my garage. Even though my neighbor works there at the dock where they accept the donations and could probably just take it along with him to work some day if I asked him, But have I? Nope. And Seth hasn't taken it in, either. So it sits.

But at least it's out of my kitchen!

Yesterday I hung new curtains in there, and I think after I get the room painted, it might actually look nice. My house needs some color. Except my bathroom, which is two-tone purple. I've been wanting to re-do that room since we moved in. (It's next on my list!)

Ok, enough about boring house projects. If you're still with me, wake up, stop snoring... I'm gonna talk about my kids now. :)

I probably don't write enough about them on here. So I'm going to try to be better about recording their milestones and such. After all, that is one of this blog's main purposes! But oh, how I get distracted! (My sister calls it ADOS - "Attention Deficit - Oooooh Shiny!" We both seem to have it!) So, without further ado, here is the latest on:

Ethan: Six-and-a-half (and don't you
dare forget the half, my goodness). Loves school. Loves stories. Loves movies. Starting to love Pokemon (not so sure I like that a whole lot.) He is not so fond of onions, peppers, mushrooms... well, it's easier to just write what he does like - Mac N Cheese. Peanut butter and jelly. Fish sticks. That about sums it up. Oh and corn dogs, but I haven't bought them in a while. It's so hard to get him to eat anything else. He will sit at the table for hours if we don't keep encouraging him to eat his food. He always whines about something and asks why he has to eat it, and why can't I make him a PB&J sandwich... Yes, it gets frustrating. Somedays we set a timer for 20 min (after he's been sitting there for 10 - 15 min or longer, not eating) and say when time's up, you're done, and the kitchen is closed. Is that mean? Seriously, anyone got any ideas for us??? I don't like the idea of him eating a separate meal from us all the time, so we've been making him eat what we eat. And it's nothing weird, I assure you! :)

Kaliyan ("Kibby"): Three years old. Is just starting to learn that her name is Kaliyan, but we still mainly call her Kibby. (For those of you who don't know, Ethan gave her the nickname Kibby when she was only 2 weeks old, and it stuck. Her given name, Kaliyan, is Cambodian, and is supposed to mean "sweet, morally good, charming" and is pronounced more like "kaul-ee-yahn" with the "K" sound sort of a cross between a K and hard G sound. See why we call her Kibby? Seth is the only one who gets the pronounciation perfect, but that's just because he's Cambodian!)
Ok, getting back on track (remember the ADOS, people, give me a break here...)
Somedays her speech / language still concerns me. She doesn't answer questions well still. She will either respond with yes or no (if a yes / no question) or just repeat the question back to me. It gets frustrating. For more on her speech / language issues (my concerns) see here.
Some new or current phrases she uses:
~~ "Kin Wooby hug Wooby, Mommy?" Usually when she is being "tormented" by her little sister. She means "Can you hold Ruby, Mommy, (so she will leave me alone?")
~~ "Hup abow, _________?" Fill in the blank with any Disney princess movie. Means "How about, ________?" She will say this repeatedly, trying to get me to switch movies for her halfway through one. Or if I refuse to put one in for her to watch. (So terrible to just color, or play with toys / Mommy / sister...)
~~ "Doh wowwy, Wooby!" Meaning, 'Don't worry, Ruby." She says this when Ruby cries.
~~ "Oooooh, I nee ice pack!" When she gets an owie. Or when Ruby gets a bump, she says, "Ooooh, Wooby nee ice pack, Mommy!"
~~ "NOOOOOO!!! Dohn' you unerSTAN?!" ("NO! Don't you underSTAND?!") Um, yeah, we hear this one a LOT. Poor little girl! :( Although I have to say she has been using this more lately with the meaning of, "I didn't get my own way, and I really
should have, don't you know that?"
~~ "I be a pwincess!" She says this while parading around in whatever, a pink blanket, my nightgown, or one day, it was my bra around her middle. Nice. So glad we didn't have company then...
Some other Kibby stuff... She loves pink. Anything pink. She is a picky eater, but loves fruit. And always wants to eat Fruity Pebbles cereal. Except she calls them "Pimples". I'll have to remind her when she is a teenager that she always said, "I wan PIMPLES!" as a 3-year-old!
She also refuses to share her favorite things with anyone. She screams when Ruby gets near her My Little Ponies, Care Bears, or anything else she happens to hold dear at the moment.
What else? Oh, potty training. Ugh. Not going well. She hasn't gotten it that she needs to let me know before she wets... and whenever she does tell me I think it's just to get a piece of candy. Which reminds me. Another favorite phrase of hers is, "Go potty get candy!"

Ruby: 15 months. She's learning so many things! Words she now uses: Momma, Dadda, No, Hi, Bye, All Done, Go, Baby, Awo ("hello" - while holding play phone to her ear). I can't think of any more right now, so that may be it. But what a difference from Kibby, who started to say Dadda and Momma a little (very
very little) around 1 year and then didn't start talking again until she was 21 months!
Ruby also is learning to feed herself. Such a messy time! She loves to play with Kibby's tea set, and like to play in the bath and to stack cups. She has learned how to unzip a zipper (thanks, Dad...) This has made it more challenging to keep jammies on her! :)
She runs, loves to be tickled and chased, she climbs up on things, and loves to tug on (and chew on) the speaker wires in our living room. Much to our unliking...

So that's the latest scoop. I'll try to be more prompt about updates in the future, to avoid another overly-long post.

Anyone still reading? You deserve a medal! I'm done! :)

Monday, February 9, 2009

Not Me! Monday



It's Not Me! Monday time!

Hey, if you're new to Not Me! Mondays, head over to MckMama's blog to play along. She created this fun "blog carnival" for all of us to share all of our great and not-so-great moments each week, being "brutally honest" as she puts it... Ah, Mondays. Free therapy and belly laughs. What could be better on a Monday?

This week has not been a week of sickness in our household. Ethan did not get the stomach bug and have to come home from school on Wednesday. He did not puke in the hall at school while tying his shoes. He was better on Thursday but I did not keep him home anyway since he had been sick the night before... However, on Thursday his little cough that he had had for a few days did not suddenly worsen and I could not see the start of a possible full blown cold. (Which for Ethan usually does not mean asthma with it.) Wonderful. So I did not keep him home Friday, too.

I did not ponder when I had my last cold, and I certainly didn't get a little happy when I realized that I can actually take medicine the next time I get one! (No nursing baby = NyQuil here I come!)

I did not wake up with a scratchy throat and congested sinuses this morning and wonder what the heck I had gotten so excited about... sick is sick, and its never fun, medicine or not. Duh.

Kibby did not wake up at 1AM Sunday throwing up in her bed. This was not extra disgusting because she had eaten a bunch of rich chocolate cake at her cousin's birthday party earlier that evening. I was not irritated that she threw up during movie time with the hubby. She did not scream like a panther when hubby had to give her a shower to wash the nasty stuff out of her hair.

I am not praying that Ruby is spared of this yucky bug. (Well, no, that's really not true, I feel terrible typing that! I really am hoping and praying she doesn't get it. She's so tiny, she needs all the calories she can get!)

What did you not do this week? Jump over to MckMama's to find out how to play along!