Stop the madness.....

Ok......do any of you do these kind of things? I am beginning to wonder if that fact that I am turning the big 4-0 next month is an indication of my ever growing insanity. Or perhaps my multi tasking skills are lacking in some sort of way. I am constantly and I mean CONSTANTLY leaving the water running in the sink. Usually I turn it to the left to get it hot. Well.......minutes go by before I remember that it is running, and I usually hear a shout of "Mom you left the water running again". And I know it true when I walk over and my windows above the sink are so steamed up and I can no longer see out of them! Then there is the bagel issue. I pop that puppy in the toaster, move on to other things while it is toasting only to realize that it is burning because of the smell that is moving it's way through my house...once again I forgot I put it in! Darn it.....now the decision to either eat it or toss it and start over! UGH! Then apparently the other morning I thought I should put the lotion that goes on the counter in the bread drawer! Then I kept asking myself for the next 3-4 days....Where is that stupid lotion?!?!?!? Hello......I like moist bread, but really Stefanie.......SIGH......I think my brain is on over load! Either that....or I am in big trouble! lol And these my friends, are just a few of the crazy things that go on in our house!

Bloggers meet......

I was so excited when I found Kimberley's blog online....not to mention the fact that we

both live fairly close to each other. We started emailing besides commenting on each others blogs and an online friendship took off. We finally decided to meet for a celebration dinner once I was DTC.

Once I called Emmie to reassure her that I wasn't meeting some "wacko nut job" as she put it....our evening started off like we were old friends that had known each other for years. Our waiter Chow, said he couldn't believe we were meeting for the first time. Kimberley was everything that her blog expresses. She is artistic, kind, funny and her heart is already longing for her daughter to come home. She has Motherly wisdom and she always shows genuine concern for anything I need to talk about. We thought it was interesting that both of our families had been dining at Yen Ching's for years. Lucy who is in the picture with us, is the owner's daughter. David and I have held several parties there in their back room and I even went into labor there with Emmie. I'm looking forward to watching Kimberley's adoption journey unfold as we walk this long wait together.........

New Blog

Yes, my Blog Fairy struck again, only this time we worked together and I was more than happy to make a donation towards her second adoption. I'm sure that I do not have all the blogs listed that I did before, so if you don't see your blog listed or if you are passing by and would like me to add your blog, please let me know.

Have a terrific week everyone!

Can I say "Enough Already?"............. Isn't it time for winter to be over yet? I am so tired of....... worrying if the kids are warm enough at night, being concerned about slipping on the ice while holding one of the little ones, constantly checking both thermostat's in the house, unloading the groceries in the freezing cold weather, my car looking dirty from the slush, driving white knuckled , school delay's, the pipes bursting because they froze, going into the ditch driving, having to wear so many layers of clothing to stay warm that I look like a cow, the bitter wind chill, feeling trapped in my house, the lake being froze over......I mean c'mon people, need I say more?!?!?!? lol Summer.....where are you????? Now this.........this is what I'm talking about! SIGH ;)

Left or Right....

I'm gathering my thoughts this morning while eating my bowl of granola cereal when I smell it.......if I turn my head left, I can smell it coming out of the living room. That means Daniel has done his "morning business." He doesn't care, so he continues to jump up and down in his exersaucer smashing it into a nice flat pattie........ However......if I turn my head right.....I can smell it coming from the playroom......followed by a loud......"Mom, I'm stinky, I poopy pants......Eeeewwwww......yucky gross"....... Sophia then comes prancing out of the playroom announcing that she needs to be changed. "Sobea all clean, peez." Talk about a double whammy! lol

And the drink of choice shall be?

I have had one of those days........one of those stressful, pulling your hair out kind of day. Daniel wakes up and it is very clear he is not happy. Chugs down his bottle and 30 minutes later wants cereal with blueberry buckle, followed by puffs, while watching his favorite DVD....Wiggly, Wiggly Christmas! Lucky me! (note to self.....find another video and SOON)

Sophia wakes up crying! Not a good sign. After we change her, we come downstairs. I ask her what she would like to drink. "Yummy milk" she says. So I get her milk and give it to her. "No, juice." I reminded her she told me milk (saying this with a big happy smile on my face to make it really look good) "No, Mama, o-wange juice." Sigh.........I give in.

Daniel is in his exersaucer during this time.....crying I might add. Why????? Because he wants me to hold him. Story of my life with this child. I look at him and say "Daniel, you are fine", in some what of a stern voice. He cries harder. He is very sensitive. So, I pick him up and start singing "You are my Sunshine". This stops the crying nearly 95% of the time. I sang this song to him quite a bit I think when he was really little. It must have been the only song I could think of in my delirious, sleep deprived state. (note to self.....don't sing this to the next one)

Get Sophia in her chair for her cereal. It amazes me what I can do one handed.

Get Daniel calmed down, put him back into his exersaucer. Go Diego Go is on, and he seems interested. Sophia is now on the couch watching as well, with baby and o-wange blankie. I have already decided that a shower is out of the question for this morning, so I stick my head in the sink and quickly wash my hair. Daniel is crying before I get the shampoo on. Sophia gets down off the couch and comes over to me and says "Mama, Deedal sad". (sigh to myself)

Blowing drying the hair is not an option. We go for a comb out and the air dry look today!

"Eeeeeeeew.........Deedal's stinky". Yep...she's right....can't seem to mistake that one! Up the stairs we go. Daniel finds stinky pants, burping and tooting quite amusing. When he does any of these things, he laughs. I can hardly believe it. He's already been doing that for months. I'll say "excuse you" and he laughs. (must be a boy thing....totally out of my element)

Sophia is in one of her feisty moods. She is throwing bracelets over her head, and over the couch. I go and pick them up......while Daniel is on my hip, bring them to her and say "Let's not throw our bracelets around, you might lose them. Put them on the table please". She looks at me and throws them on the floor. I take a deep breath........"Sophia Elaine, I'm going to count to three"........ 1, 2 off the couch she jumps, picks them up, puts them on the table, looks at me and leaves the room! (note to self......hide those darn bracelets)

Sophia is in the playroom and then I hear it! Ahhhhh-chooo........and it is the sneeze that makes all Mom's cringe. You know the one I am talking about! The sneeze that has a foot long snot ball coming out down to their chin! I'm yelling...."don't touch it, don't touch it, Mom's got a tissue". Then she wants to see it. Why anyone wants to see their snot or boogers is beyond me, but the child insists! (cringe)

I put Daniel back into his exersaucer hoping I can run upstairs to get a load of laundry. Come back down.........................UGH.......the kid has pooped again! This child is a pooping maniac!( he must get it from his Father)! Up the stairs I go again. Sophia comes along with us. She likes Daniel's room and his tool bench. We then have the argument of who gets the hammer. Sophia or Daniel. No one....... we come back downstairs.

I send Sophia upstairs to torment Emmie. She was already up! Darn it!

Ahhhhhhhh...two more hours until lunch. My left arm is killing me. So we try the playroom for a while, then the Johnny Jump Up, back to the playroom, Wiggly Wiggly Christmas again......more singing of You are my Sunshine........C'mon everyone...sing it with me!

12:30pm, Daniel is in bed! Pleeeeez.....let it be a 2+ hour nap! (it was)

Finally by 1pm, I am cleaning up Sophia's lunch mess and we head up to her room . I leave the water in the sink running as I go upstairs to put Sophia to bed. I'm always doing that! Leaving the water on.....WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME???? Emmie laughs at me as I come back downstairs. Mind you, "she" is blogging! UGH!!!!! So unfair!

It takes Sophia 1 hour to finally stop talking, singing and jumping up and down in her bed. "Inkle, Inkle, itlle star" is her favorite. Along with yelling out "Mama....I'm happy.....you happy too? MaaaaaMaaaaa.....I'mmmmm Haaaaaapppppyyyy! (ok I get it! )

Yesterday I made my Chicken Chili. Yum......I put some in a bowl........and what??????? the chips to eat with it are gone????? Hmmmm, well I take a bite and set the bowl by the sink. Not hitting the spot w/o the chips. Emmie is laughing and suggests we go to the store when the kids get up. She says "I'm bored, I need to get out". Who.......YOU?!?!?!?!?!? I roll my eyes! She informs me we have to make a dessert tonight for one of her classes! Oh great....more mess in the kitchen.

Now......I have to make myself presentable to go to the store. SIGH.......I go do a little make up and curl my hair so I don't look like a freak!

Daniel is actually happy when he wakes up. Made a small bottle to hold him over until dinner.

Sophia decides to rip out every flap of her Little People at the Farm book today during nap time. I go into her room and there are about 25 pieces on the floor along with her two pony tail rubber bands that I told her NOT to take out! SIGH........(note to self...give her the same book for the rest of the week and hope she finds it BORING!!!!!! HAHAHA to you spicy girl) I did take a picture and a video as well.

I ask her "what does mommy say about the flap books?" Sophia: "No, no whipping out." "What do you say"? "so-see, so-see (sorry) Mama" I then made her get her trash can and pick up every piece off the floor.

In the 30 minutes while we are trying to get out the door, the pooping maniac has pooped again........ twice! Changing boys is sooooo different then girls! I'll take girls ANYDAY!!!

To the store we go. What a sight. Two carts and three kids. Mom pushing baby, Sister pushing baby sister. Food going into both carts! Mom making weird noises to occupy Daniel. Teenage daughter telling me to stop it. "Am I embarrassing you?" I ask. "YES!!!" "Good, I say, I'm doing my job." (note to self....NEVER, EVER got to the store with kids again)

Ride home consists of "Old MacDonald, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and ABC's" and Sophia telling us she wants cup cakes for dinner. We don't have cup cakes Emmie tells her....she then says ok......cooooookies, yes, cookies cookies! Oh brother......won't she be disappointed tonight! (note to self......shoot anyone that asks a two year old what they want for dinner)

Unload all the groceries when we get home in the cold nasty weather that I hate! Emmie does help! Thank you! :)

Daniel is watching "Big Red Boat" and Sophia is on the couch eating a few pretzels. Daniel starts complaining. It is his dinner time......warm up veggie and fruit. I make the mistake of getting the toaster out. At 9 months he knows that if he sees the toaster, that means Mommy is going to make him some cinnamon toast. He totally fusses about dinner until he get his cinnamon toast. I am now feeding Daniel with my right hand while he is in his high chair and helping Sophia with my left hand while she is in her sassy seat. Emmie is making her own dinner. She is very self sufficient....thank goodness.

6:30 pm.....1 hour countdown until Daniel gets his bottle. I'm nearly bald at this point, not much hair left on my head.....he is not happy about anything. I think he is getting his other front tooth. He is gnawing on everything! 7:15pm I send Sophia up to Em's room and I holler up that I am giving Daniel is bottle. "Ok" Em says. She is a big help!

Daniel drinks all 8 ounces and is upset there is not more. I sit him up to take his bib off and say "Daniel" just a little too serious for him.....and he cries.....and I.......(sing it with me).....sing and hum that darn song again for the um-teenth time! He passes out!

One down, one to go. It is finally Sophia's turn to go to bed. Hugs and kisses to Daddy I say. We stall..........she grabs baby and her o-wange blankie and heads up the stairs at a turtles pace. I say "Ok....you can go a little faster"......she turns and looks at me and says "just a second"......... "What....where do these statements come form?!?!?!?" Then we have to go through hugs and kisses with sissy......several times...really stalling now.......get her jammies on....no story tonight...sorry I am too tired.......Night Night....love you, you are my special girl, yes I am happy, see you in the morning....I love you! WHEW!!!!

5 minutes downstairs and she is screaming through the monitor that I didn't give her a hug....up the stairs I go. Now.....all is well.

Mind you, I have left out several details of the day due to my brain being mush right now. I need a drink! I have never been much of a drinker! But I'm beginning to think that with all these kids and another one on the way....I can't afford NOT to drink! lol So, as I end this post, I am going to go and make make myself a low fat Root Beer float.

No School

Yipeeeeee.................it's a snow day and we don't have school! It's really icy here and that is the problem. We have a few inches of snow, so it does look "pretty." But hey...... we can sleep in! (yes, I'm going back to bed) Good night!

Drives me bonkers

I keep asking myself why I allow certain things to happen in my life on a daily basis. I really do my best to simplify, stay organized (minus my bedroom) and keep things tidy downstairs. And yet it never fails, that I am frantically searching for that darn sippy cup! Of course I have no one to blame except myself for letting Sophia carry it around with her. She loves sipping OJ or milk on the couch while she watches a video, or maybe it's having it on her play table while she is coloring, or better yet, taking it out of her refrigerator while she is playing in her kitchen. And yet, at some point during the day I will hear that upset voice saying "juice cup????? Mama juice?" So off I go, looking where I think she had it last. The play room, the living room, maybe inside one of the cupboards of her kitchen.......and by golly, I can't find that darn cup! The complaints are getting louder and now my chances are pretty good that Daniel is now complaining because Sophia is complaining. For sanity sake, I usually go and get Daniel and place him on my hip which is his usual means of transportation right now. I will also confess that I am probably muttering all those words that we never want our children to hear at this point! lol ( or not!) Why not worry about it you ask? Why don't you just go and get another sippy cup? It's the fear of her finding that grosteque cup hours later, or maybe even a day later that keeps my frazzled search going for that darn cup. I've often thought about coming up with a sippy cup locator, you know....like the ones they have for your car keys, remote and such? Wouldn't that just be dandy? Press a button to locate the child's sippy cup! I think that would be awesome. Why don't these companies think of these things? Anyway.....once I do find the cup, it always seems to be blending in with all the colors of where ever it is. (like the above picture) Or maybe......I'm just getting old and my eye sight is failing! Ugh! At least when I tell Sophia I found it, I get a "oh thank you Mama. I'm happy." Guess that makes it all worth it! :)

Who rules the Roost?

Well it is Saturday morning and the Princess wants a Power (flower) Cookie for breakfast. So, I will admit, I cave! A "power" cookie and milk it is. Daniel found the silk tags under his bib about a month ago, and will reach under, pull it out and around, while he sucks his thumb. I think it is so cute! Both of my munchkins love satin. Sophia is still VERY attached to her silk blankets as well. Hope everyone has a relaxing and fun Saturday! :)

I'll be back soon

Well girls (and blogger friends) Daniel threw up all over the kitchen this afternoon! :( I am just so worried about my little guy. I won't be posting as often until he is better. When he is up, he wants me to hold him and stay very close to him. My sense of humor right now is at about a zero! However, please know that I am keeping up with your blogs and will be enjoying your pictures and stories! We have never struggled this much with sickness at our house before! Emmie was such a healthy child and Sophia has been pretty healthy since she has been home with us as well. I'll try and post again before the new year as I have some thoughts that I would like to share! Continued health and happiness to you all! S*

A barf free day!

Wow....the past 7 days have been tough ones here at the Beckering's. First off, I want to say thank you to everyone that called, emailed and blogged asking about Daniel. He was a pretty sick little guy until today. We finally had a barf free day! I took all three to the Dr.'s office this morning. Daniel to get checked over, Emmie was put on the Z pack and we think Sophia had the flu as well due to some hideous diapers, but she managed to not vomit. We did have a wonderful Christmas morning. The kids had a ball opening their stockings and presents from Santa. I'm just glad we are on the "up swing!" Hopefully I can catch up on my blogging. My techno smarty pants friend now has pictures on her blog, so I need to figure that out as well! :) Thanks to everyone again for all your concern! I love you all! S*

Go away yucky flu!

Well sure enough.....the Beckering's are fighting the flu! I came down with it Thursday in the middle of the night, slept on the bathroom floor, which I might add is NOT very comfortable!! Spent some time driving the porcelain bus.......yuck! Slept all day! Friday I felt like I was on the mend....barely. Even managed to take Sophia to see Santa with Emmie.(trying to be a good Mom) Sophia hated Santa of course and screamed like bloody murder when Emmie carried her up there! She made such a fuss I couldn't even get a picture with my own camera. I carried her off to the side and Santa came up to her and gave her a candy cane. She batted her beautiful almond eyes at him and said "thank you, Santa" in her sweetest voice. I'm thinking to myself.......you little stinker.

That evening little Daniel got the flu. I'm not doing well with this one. He's only 8 months old and it makes me so nervous. At least he goes about 6-7 hours between throw ups. I'm just so worried. He has been able to keep some water down with a tad bit of formula. I thought we were on the up swing today, and then tonight before bed, he tossed up his 2 1/2 ounces. So once again, he goes to bed on an empty stomach. My poor, precious baby boy!

Emmie isn't feeling well either. She hasn't tossed her cookies yet and I'm hoping she and Sophia can survive through it. I'm prepared for them if they do get it! And to top that off tomorrow is Christmas Eve. :( All my children will be staying home from church and staying close to their Mommy! Special prayers for my little angels!

Urgent SOS

Last night I was up for over 3 hours with Daniel. I'm currently on my 2nd pot of coffee this morning, hoping that my caffeine buzz will kick in soon. Otherwise, I fear nothing will get done today! However, I have on my Victoria Secret Pink sweats, I have applied a little make up, and I did manage to brush my hair! Since I am near a delirious state at this point, I have a request for all my travel mates! I need to see "Mr. Happy." Does anyone remember who "Mr. Happy really is and where he can be found? I have given you two clues! The first one who posts a picture of "Mr. Happy" will be the true blogger queen! And for those who don't have a blog, if you send it to me through email, you can play along to! I'll announce the winner to everyone! Believe it or not.....I do not have a picture of "Mr. Happy." I guess I was too busy laughing! PLEASE.......give me a good laugh today! Sigh.......I am one tired Mama! I think I'd better dig through my cupboards for the B12!

Wiggles

Well, I must admit that not only does Sophia love The Wiggles, but Daniel does too! It seems like some mornings this is the only way to enjoy my first few cups of coffee! While I know that this is not a highly educational show...........all the Mom's out there with small children who need their coffee in the morning will understand! ;) We do have other favorites we watch as well. It's only when the theme songs start playing through my head that I get nervous!

What lurks in the next room

So, it is a nice peaceful morning. I'm downstairs having my morning coffee, planning out my day, and yet I know what lurks around the corner. I'm doing my best to ignore it. Telling myself that I have plenty of time, what's the rush? It can wait just another day......don't worry I tell myself. Besides, there is so much more I have to do for Christmas besides what is lurking in that room. And yet, I can't fight this funny feeling inside, telling me to not wait much longer. Especially when UPS and FedEx arrive at my door daily! :) The Christmas presents! It is the wrapping, the scotch tape, bows, more wrapping paper, the sticky name labels, scissors, oh and let's not forget all the boxes that the stores give you to cram in all the things you bought, which you then have to tape the box shut on the sides because they are never big enough, hence your child getting a "box cut" Christmas morning due to sliding their finger underneath the tape to open the box. SIGH........... :)I'd better get wrapping! Because I must confess, that we have more upstairs in our bedroom as well!