Tuesday, March 31, 2009

March Madness is Almost Over

Well if you thought this was about the NCAAs, you are wrong. It has been March Madness in our house all month long, not basketball but illness. I will be happy when the clock strikes 12:00 am April 1st and that this whole month has been a cruel joke. The Boy and the Girl are both finally getting better, I may be turning the corner after being sick all month long and hopefully my wife will start to get better as well. So if you are in the stock market I would suggest buying up Reckitt Benckiser stock, as we will be disinfecting our house (for those saying "huh?", they make Lysol products). I will certainly be happy when March is over and hopefully on to a much healthier April.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Who Really Needs Sleep?

Seems like a silly question, but it has come to light quite often in our home. With kids and taking care of them, "Who Really Needs Sleep?" is what I am asking. When The Boy was born and we brought him home he had trouble eating at first so my wife and I were up pretty much 48 hours straight beyond all the lost sleep in the hospital and what not. We felt like sleep was overrated and were both functioning quite well, until her mom came over to care for the Boy and we crashed hard. There have been other times when we have questioned needing sleep, like currently with both kids sick (actually the Boy is back at school today - YIPPEE!!) we have been up a lot at night while trying to recover ourselves. The Girl has needed aerosol treatments every four hours for at least two days straight. The first night I handled it at 12:00 am and 4:00 am and it went rather smoothly. Then last night I took the 12:00 am and my wife took the 4:00 am, only problem was she was up at 2:00 am, finally getting her back to sleep by 3:10ish am and then the Boy was up 3:30 am to go potty, then the Girl woke up again at 5:40 but just wailed for a moment and went back to sleep. So the question remains, "Who Really Needs Sleep?"

Monday, March 23, 2009

Sickness

A nice cough-cold combination has taken over over house. I had it for two weeks and am hopefully getting over it finally, My wife just started getting it early last week. The Boy got it and has had a fever for four of the past five days. The Girl has it and needs to do breathing treatments ever four fours for the next two days. Usually just one of us gets it and it is passed from person to person, not all at once. There is nothing like trying to give breathing treatments to a 10 month old who doesn't understand what is going on, the fun ones should be in the middle of the night, hopefully she just sleeps right through them. The Boy and this fever are killing me. He just wants to go back to school and I just want to send him. The doctor and the school say once the fever is gone, no problem except that the fever is hanging on. Well Hopefully we will all recover soon and quickly so we can get back to arguing about nap time and trying to make the kids eat their veggies.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Shooters, Cardboard and Ikea

I realize it has been a bit but I have been fighting off a cough and cold which I have now passed to the children. At least this time I didn't get it from them. I just hope we can get through it quickly, although after a week I am still having a hard time shaking the cough.

Recently my wife and I went to Ikea to purchase a new table for our kitchen redo along with some other accessories. It is probably a good thing there is not an Ikea right near by as we love that store. We went to go look at and probably buy a particular square table with pull out leaves but we ended up getting something completely different although we both love it. It is a counter height stainless steel table with four stools with washable covers. It is, as the boy would say, "Awesome!" Now maybe it is not the most practical for our 10 month old, but sometimes you have to have something for yourself instead of the kids. The Boy loves it and thinks it is neat that he gets to sit so high.

Once the table was picked out and we were starting to get into accessory mode it was go time. We had a lot of fun picking out new stuff and then even buying new dishes because we wanted to. I think the best part, besides helping the economy, was just getting what we wanted for a change.

With Ikea stuff there is a lot of cardboard. We bought the Boy some stuff and he was more interested in the cardboard. so after recycling about 90% he is busy playing with the other 10%. Sometimes I think Why not just buy all the stuff I want in cardboard packages then we both win... I get stuff and he gets fun cardboard. This leads me the final part of the title which is actually the first part, "Shooters." The pre-school my son goes to does not allow weapon play of any kind (as I am sure most schools are the same), but the kids are vary creative in the sense of they know they can't play with toys a certain way so they come up with different ways and words to accomplish the same thing. There was a long cardboard tube and this is what the Boy had to say, "Dad, look at my shooter. It is a shooter that shoots things but it isn't gun." I laughed and appreciated his creativeness.

As for the Girl, she is really starting to motor around on the hands and knees as well as pulling herself and walking along furniture. She has also developed some great facial expressions. And occasionally she gets the name "Miss 'Tude" as she is developing quite a personality sometimes with a little attitude.

Finally, the kitchen redo is almost done, we just have to figure out flooring so hopefully I will be posting pictures soon.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Daddy, Do you know what uranus looks like?

This is the question I was asked out of the blue from The Boy. I almost burst out in laughter, but then quickly remembered they were studying space, the solar system and the planets in preschool. After I responded to have him tell me, he explained that Uranus has rings that go up and down and Saturn has rings that go side to side.

He had his second ice skating lesson and did it all almost all by himself the whole time. So if he shows this kind of improvement each lesson and practice I figure he will be ready for the NHL by age 7, making him the youngest NHL player ever. Although if he plays for our loved Red Wings then it may take a few more years to actually play in the NHL as their depth in their minor league team is very deep.