My Children Are Perfect...

They just haven't received the memo on all that perfection encompasses. Either that...or God was trying to remind me that no one is perfect...not even MY children...so I shouldn't set my expectations so high.

My children were perfect as of about 7:30 last night...that's at least what I told Chris as we were going to bed...

Me: Our kids have finally completed the circle of perfection...they've been sleeping through the whole night for a while now!

Chris: Perfect? What about all their fighting and screaming and not listening?

Me: Oh, that's just normal kid stuff...so that doesn't count.

2:30 a.m. rolled around and my (now decidedly) imperfect children decided to get me up not once, but twice.

Me: Honey, can you go fix them? I've already been up twice.

Chris: Remember your comment before you went to bed? Well, I think you jinxed us.

Well no sh*t! Seriously, I'm never saying a single nice thing about those kids again...because they'll just find a way to prove me wrong!

Here are my children being the perfect little posers for our Christmas cards...

Ayris looking happy, Asher looking annoyed...

Asher looking happy, Ayris being annoyed...

Mommy getting annoyed because Ayris won't shut her mouth long enough to take a good picture...

Asher making a face...at this point, I'm not sure we'll EVER get a nice family picture when we have two more kids to add and we can't even get our already perfect angels to participate. Bleh...perhaps perfection is overrated. That's what I'll keep telling myself while raising these children...

More pictures and a 13 week baby update

I told them to hug...this looks more like a strangle hug...

Not the best picture of Asher but I thought Ayris looked really grown up in this one...

And this one...

Asher not cooperating...

Being ornery...

Finally smiling...

These are Asher's model shots...here's his big smile...the only smile he knows how to give...

Here's the ride side of his face in case any photographers require that...

And here's the left...

Here's his...you know I'm cute pose...

And here's his weird tilt forward so his already ginormous head looks even bigger compared to his body...

And this is him giving up and rolling around on the floor...deciding he was done with picture time.

Baby Update Week 13:

How your baby's growing:
Fingerprints have formed on your baby's tiny fingertips, her veins and organs are clearly visible through her still-thin skin, and her body is starting to catch up with her head — which makes up just a third of her body size now. If you're having a girl, she now has more than 2 million eggs in her ovaries. Your baby is almost 3 inches long (the size of a medium shrimp) and weighs nearly an ounce.

Close range messes

It's one thing to be in another room away from your children and find out they've made a mess while you were gone...it's another thing to be sitting 2 feet away from one of them and discover this:

Chris is going to be ticked when he finds out Asher got into his stash while he was gone!

I'm totally kidding...it's salt. And luckily, the salt was free and I have about 5 more bottles of the stuff...but seriously...where did the kid find that? I don't remember it being on the table...maybe it was. The better question, is how in the world did I not notice it until it got to the point where he had chewed off the lid and made this mess on the cushion? I'm obviously not being very attentive today. Cleanup involved getting the handheld vac out which the kids thought was super fun so all in all, I guess it wasn't a big deal. I just can't get over the fact that it happened in such close proximity to me. I guess that goes to show that it doesn't matter if you're in the same room...crazy things are still going to happen...at least if you have me for a mommy.

A few things Ayris has said...

Mommy: Ayris, what is Asher doing?
Ayris: Oh, he's just coloring on everything he's not supposed to.

Um...thanks for telling me sooner!

Upstairs in the loft yesterday Ayris was "doctoring" me:

Ayris: Mommy, you have a cold, so I'm going to call the doctor and make an appointment for you to get a shot.
Mommy: Ok.
(Ayris gets out her fake phone and asks for the number...I tell her...this was her conversation thereafter)
Ayris: Yeah, Hi doctor. My mommy has a cold and I think she needs a shot. Yeah, that's right. She needs a shot. Uh huh. Yeah. That's no problem. No, she'll be fine. It's just a cold. Okay, yeah. Uh huh. I love you. Bye.

At that point, I just started laughing:

Ayris: Why are you laughing mommy?
Mommy: Because...did you know that doctor you were talking to?
Ayris: No, why?
Mommy: Because you told him you loved him at the end of your conversation.
Ayris: Yeah, because I love him.

It totally made sense in her mind to just say I love you at the end of the phone call because that's what she does with all the grandma's and grandpa...I just thought it was super funny at the time. Maybe it's not? I don't know but it made me smile =)

I knew my kid was special...but this is pure talent...

Warning: Totally awesome yet somewhat disgusting picture below. I'm just so amazed at my son's ability, I had to share it with the world....and honestly, I don't think it's something he'll look back on and be embarrassed by when he gets older...because I think there are very few people who possess the skills that Asher does when it comes to making a chocolate/vanilla poop combo!

Pretty impressive, right?

Is it wrong to vacuum sheets?

So my husband has been gone for 40 minutes and counting...he offered to take our rentals back to redbox (and is probably regretting it now because the first two he's gone to have been "full" and won't accept any more discs...so he's hunting for one that will take them) AND offered to take the kids with him. In the 40 minutes that he's been gone, I have done the dishes, vacuumed the entire house (upstairs and downstairs), done a load of laundry, had a conversation on the phone, tried to clean out stains on the couch from a red permanent marker that Asher no doubt left on there, picked up the kids room which was no small feat considering the 100 stuffed animals strewn about and the 15 minutes I spent with the vacuum hose sucking up little white pieces of ceiling (off the floor, under the bed, on the beds/sheets, etc) that the kids like to scrape off when I'm not watching them like a hawk. Which brings me to the question of this post...is it lame if I just vacuum my children's beds instead of actually washing the sheets like most moms would? It's a total pain in the butt to make bunk beds! AND, I had a conversation on the phone. All in 40 minutes! With the kids here, it would have taken three times as long to do all of those things and upon completion, I would have found about 10 more things that needed cleaning up because of the lack of supervision on my part when I was cleaning to begin with! (Like the marker all over the couch!)

Well that was short lived...he's home...so I guess I'll stop cleaning =( It was a nice 40 minute reprive though!

A few photos, and a baby update!

So I had my mom take some pictures of myself and the kids yesterday...tell me which ones you like...I had issues trying to get the kids to take some good pictures with REAL smiles on this first one:

This one would have been perfect minus the tinkerbell couch in the background and the fact that Asher looks like he's completely over taking pictures at this point...

I don't' know why I liked this one since no one is looking at it but again, Asher looks like he wants no part of it while Ayris and I look like we're having a good time.

Again, Asher isn't feeling it =)

Asher decided he'd at least perk up a little bit...

This is the face of a resigned mom at this point...one kid is making crazy faces while the other just can't look at the camera...how am I EVER going to get 4 kids to be in a picture together?

These individual shots with the kids turned out the best...

Although I had to tickle them to get them to smile!

It was worth it though...everyone looks so happy!

Also, I had my 12 week appointment yesterday...heartbeat was 150 bpm. Still no weight gain after three months...I'm still down 2 pounds...woot woot. Wonder if I can keep that going the next 28 weeks. (Well that sucks. 28 weeks? After I wrote that number out just now, I thought, that can't be right...that sounds like forever!! And I thought three months down was good). I'm kidding about not gaining weight by the way...it's not like I'm dieting (unless you count lots of pizza, buffalo wings and french fries dieting) and I sure as heck haven't been exercising. I have this goal to not go over 170 though with this pregnancy as 170 is exactly what I weighed at each birth with Ayris and Asher...so yesterday I asked Dr. O'Neil if it was feasible to only gain 18 more pounds in the next 6 months...she said yes but that it would be hard...which probably means I'd actually have to make an effort to only gain that. That's probably not going to happen so we'll just be counting on a miracle.

Baby update 12 weeks:
The most dramatic development this week: reflexes. Your baby's fingers will soon begin to open and close, his toes will curl, his eye muscles will clench, and his mouth will make sucking movements. In fact, if you prod your abdomen, your baby will squirm in response, although you won't be able to feel it. His intestines, which have grown so fast that they protrude into the umbilical cord, will start to move into his abdominal cavity about now, and his kidneys will begin excreting urine into his bladder.
Meanwhile, nerve cells are multiplying rapidly, and in your baby's brain, synapses are forming furiously. His face looks unquestionably human: His eyes have moved from the sides to the front of his head, and his ears are right where they should be. From crown to rump, your baby-to-be is just over 2 inches long (about the size of a lime) and weighs half an ounce

Just a few random thoughts...

1.) I don't feel good...and this is the first time I've gotten "sick" since over a year ago when I decided to stay at home with the kids. I miss my sick days where I could still bring the kids to daycare =( So if anyone would like them for the next day or two, you just let me know. (Although I must warn you, Ayris requires timeouts and a few spankings from time to time but the ease of Asher makes up for that...)

2.) The surround system/DVD player remote has been lost for the past two days. Two seconds ago, the sound of Tom and Jerry came on which sent me frantically digging for the remote where I was sitting or where Asher was standing since SOMETHING had to have turned on the DVD player. There it was...laying on the down comforter right next to me. How in the heck did that thing just "turn up" on it's own after being lost for two days? Whatever, it's just going to be nice to not have to physically get up to turn on the sound (not sure how anyone EVER made it without remotes!)

3.) Asher's two new favorite sayings as of late: "I'm hungy!"...and he says this with such seriousness that you'd think he was going to drop dead of starvation if you don't produce something right then! His other saying is "Be nice mommy!"...today I ssshhhuusshhed him so he'd be a little quieter (since I don't feel good and have a headache on top of my cold!) and he turned around and emphatically told me to be nice. Glad I'm being schooled by my two year old in the manners department.

4.) How do you get the taste of onion out of your mouth without waiting what seems to be a 24 hour cycle time before it goes away on it's own? I just had half a bag of funyuns for lunch (those were for me...I had cottage cheese and pears for the baby) and now my mouth tastes gross and will continue to until sometime tomorrow morning (regardless of brushing and using mouth wash.)

5.) Speaking of lunch, I guess I need to start buying napkins...Ayris has started using the tablecloth as her napkin. Which I guess is better than her shirt (like normal) or more recently her underwear. I thought she was digging in her butt at the dinner table the other night but she informed me that she was "wiping her hands on her underwear because she didn't have a shirt to wipe them on!" Yeah, ghetto is how we roll in this household.

6.) This is what my house looks like right now...and suffice it to say, this is probably what it's going to look like through the weekend. Probably worse...

Fortunately, I'm the only one who cares about keeping things picked up/clean...so the kids and Chris should be fine with this arrangement.

P.S. It's driving me nutso to see baby Addisons' progress in the 200 days mark...can't wait until tomorrow when I will only have 199 days left =)

New Word Submission for Webster's...

Intator - 1 dictionary result

In-tuh-tor
-noun
"a person who doesn't feel like themselves...like they would rather go and play but their mommy and daddy won't let them."

Ayris informed me tonight as I was putting her to bed that this was what she was...an intator...and then she proceeded with the above definition.

I guess that makes Chris and I dictators? Would that suffice as an antonym for an intator?

In other news...

Baby Update: 11 weeks:
How your baby's growing:
Your baby, just over 1 1/2 inches long and about the size of a fig, is now almost fully formed. Her hands will soon open and close into fists, tiny tooth buds are beginning to appear under her gums, and some of her bones are beginning to harden.She's already busy kicking and stretching, and her tiny movements are so effortless they look like water ballet. These movements will become more frequent as her body grows and becomes more developed and functional. You won't feel your baby's acrobatics for another month or two — nor will you notice the hiccupping that may be happening now that her diaphragm is forming.

Halloween 2009 Pictures...

Here's a little video of Ayris trying to say Happy Halloween with an unparticipating Asher.

In other news, Chris and I were talking last night and our conversation went like this:

Me: Well you know, it's way harder to be a girl than it is to be a guy.

Chris: I think you're right...until that is, the guy gets married to the girl...then it's harder to the be guy.

Ha ha ha...so funny...and probably a little true. Guys get to be all basic and simple while they're single, and then they get married...and things get all complicated and crazy at times =) And we all know women are more equipped to deal with complicated and crazy...