Joys of Motherhood

The kids and I have been sick for almost 2 weeks now.  I have felt like I might be getting a sinus infection.  The kids both have nasty coughs, runny noses and on and off fevers.  Finally I gave in and called the Dr. yesterday and they wanted to see them.  Taking two sick kids to the Dr. is no easy feat!  Luckily it was late enough in the afternoon that Tom left work a little early and met me there.  Both kids wanted to be held so it was a good thing he was able to make it!

Diagnosis:  Zac has a fever and sinus infection.  Tyler has croup, a fever and sinus infection!

So...chances are I also have a sinus infection.  The boys are on antibiotics now and I need to get to my Dr. for some.

The worst part though is that Tom is leaving town today for work and coming back tomorrow!  I will have two sick kids to care for all day and night alone while I am sick too!  And somehow I've got to get myself to the Dr. with the two of them in tow!

Oh the joys of being a mom...

Welcome Hennessy!

We have a new addition to the family!  Yes, I know I had written that we had put a deposit down a boxer puppy for later this fall but we got rethinking the whole "puppy" thing and I began to look into Legacy Boxer Rescue here in Dallas.  We were approved to adopt and we met a few different boxers that were in foster care.  We actually met a 9 week old puppy and although cute, really showed us that that would be FAR too much work right now with the boys being so young and needy themselves. 

We met this 7 month old boxer boy who looked eerily like Hurricane and fell in love with him!  He is already housebroken and very good with the kids.  We officially adopted him last night and named him Hennessy.  He is already 52 pounds and has feet like a horse so I think he's going to be a BIG boy!  He seems to really enjoy our crazy family!

Grandma Pam

So in the effort of fairness, here is an entry about Grandma Pam! She was feeling left out since Grandma Gail and Grandpa Gene had recently had entries and she wanted one too! Zac made sure I could create a funny good one!

She got him up from his nap today and he tends to do his poopy business at that time because he's still refusing to use the potty for that! Sure enough, he had pooped so Grandma Pam was cleaning him all up. She was wiping underneath his "stuff" and he said "Grandma, do you like my balls"? She was silent for a moment trying to process what she had just heard and then she noticed that Zac was looking in the direction of his bedroom wall. His room is sports themed so we hung a whole bunch of different sports ball up there and that was actually what he was referring to at a very inopportune time!

Questions from a 3 year old

The Great Wolf Lodge was awesome and Zac LOVED it!  He went down all the water slides that he could!  He was pretty nervous about the biggest one (for his height) that he went down with Tom in a double inter tube but he finally did it and loved it!

We stayed over night and Tom slept in a bed with Zac who woke up at 5:30 in the morning all ready to hit the slides again!  (They didn't even open until 9am)  He was laying in bed and it was quiet and all of a sudden he asked Tom: "Does Grandpa have gums?"  

Tom told us about this after we all got up and we asked Grandpa to smile and sure enough, you don't see his gums!  First of all, I didn't even know that Zac knew what gums were and second, how observant of him to realize that he couldn't see Grandpa's!

Once Upon A Time...

Zac will be turning 3 on April 21st so to celebrate his birthday, Tom's mom and my parents all traveled from NY to TX earlier this week.  One of Zac's favorite things to do is read a story in bed before his nap and bedtime as well, followed by a made up story by one of us that he calls a "Once upon a time".  Yesterday, he wanted Grandma Gail to put him down for his nap and asked her to tell him a Once upon a time.  The lights are off and they were laying in his bed while Grandma told him the story of Goldie Locks and the Three Bears.  Zac must have really exhausted her earlier in the day because she would fall asleep in mid sentance and it would be quiet for a second.  Zac finally spoke up and said "Turn the page"!  She would wake up, start the story again, fall asleep, and Zac would say again "Turn the page"!  How funny to think that he believed she was reading a story out of a book and kept forgetting to turn the page and keep reading!  

This afternoon we are all headed to the Great Wolf Lodge for two days of watersliding and swimming for Zac's birthday so there should be some interesting pictures when we return!

Ask the Landscaper

Tom and I have been in disagreement regarding just about everything lately!  For example, I think it would be very rewarding and helpful (especially for housebreaking) to adopt a boxer puppy from a rescue organization and Tom wants only to get a puppy of his choosing from a breeder.

We've been discussing planting trees in our yard ever since we moved in two years ago and have yet to plant one!  Some of that is because we never have the money to do it and also because we need to know what trees are best for this area as we both grew up in New York!  Tom has decided that we need to hire a landscaper and pay them to draw up a plan for the backyard so that we know exactly what type of tree to plant and where and what other types of things to do as far as gardens go.  I'm of the belief that if we're already hurting for cash we shouldn't be paying a landscaper to tell us where to plant a tree!  We could go to a nursery, obtain the info that we need about types of trees and plant them where they do the most as far as adding shade in the yard.  Quick, easy and cheap!

Anyway, that is what we were talking about as we lay in bed last night.  We're both pretty stubborn so we both believe we're right and we were laughing about it.  Then we changed subjects and started talking about what would name the puppy (something else we can't agree on)!  Our neighbor is getting a puppy this Saturday and he's been building a temporary outdoor pen to train the puppy to go to the bathroom in that spot only.  Tom asked me where in the yard I thought we should train our puppy to go and I told him as I started to laugh that I thought we should probably ask our landscaper!  He didn't really think that was as funny as I did and I know he'll kill me for writing this entry!

Took the plunge!

We must be certifiable!  We went ahead and put a deposit down on a Boxer puppy that isn't even conceived yet!  The breeder will be mating the dogs this month sometime and she'll keep us updated often so I'll try to do the same through the blog here.  It's nice to have something so positive to look forward to again but who knows what we're getting ourselves into with adding a PUPPY to the mix!

I had the boys all to myself Sunday and Monday for the first time without any help.  Tom had to travel to Denver for business and although EXTREMELY exhausting for me, we all survived!  Zac is starting to get a little better about being a little more independent and helpful.  To make matters more difficult, Tyler is teething!  He would wake up from his naps just screaming and inconsolable but Tylenol and orajel took the edge off a little bit anyway.  It's amazing how much energy two little boys can suck out of one adult!

Zac had to go potty at one point while I was breast feeding Tyler and I am trying to get him to try and do more on his own so I told him to go ahead and call me if he needed any help.  The bathroom is right off the living room so I could hear everything.  He's a little afraid of the dark so he told me that he needed the light on but he can't quite reach it yet.  He has a stool to stand on to pee so I told him to pull the stool over and turn the light on by himself.  There are two switches, one for the light and one for the vent fan.  He accidentally hit the switch for the fan, fell over backward and started to cry.  At this point, I put Tyler down and went to check on him.  As I had suspected, he wasn't hurt, he had just scared himself when the fan turned on and toppled over backward!  I thought it was pretty funny though!  I'm such a nice mom!