Erin's birthday !

Erin turned three! It sounds crazy that my baby is not a baby anymore. Time seems to be flying and at the same time just crawling by...That does not make sense, but it feels both ways simultaneously. It's been a wonderful ride and I would not have it any other way!



Pook was waiting for her party the entire week and as her birthday fell on Saturday this year we had it on her actual birthday. She got her first real party complete with decorations, cake and friends. Six little girls came, two five-year-olds Dwen and Jasmine) and four three-year-olds( Cecily, Arianna, Danielle and Alliyah). This number of guests turned out to be perfect! Everyone enjoyed themselves, including me and Andrew, he he.

For her birthday Erin got a backyard pool party. We blew up a pool and put out a slip and slide.

The put the slip and slide on the hill and turned it into a water ride that seemed to work better for our guests than the traditional run and plop on your belly lay out. Andrew was the lifeguard on duty and the ride attendant, though he said he is not sitting on that hill again pouring watter for almost an hour, he he.



Here is the Birthday girl!



After everyone had plenty of fun in the water we had Papa Murphy's pizzas, soda ( a special treat for Erin, he he), a veggie, cheese and fruit tray. It is a miracle what a toothpick does to a piece of food. Someone as picky as Erin will actually eat it!

The dinner was culminated by devouring of the cake. I made an out of scratch chocolate cake with homemade frosting. The cake looked pitiful ( I am not being modest here). I tried to make a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake with all eatable decorations for which I used rice crispy treats. I molded the clubhouse and the glove balloon out of the treats and covered them in frosting, but it turned out to be trickier than I expected, plus the hot temperature outside made it collapse. Nonetheless, it tasted good and Erin was super pleased with my efforts.



We sang the happy birthday song and Erin blew her candle out three times during it. I had to keep lighting it up which she thought was a great fun. Erin ate only her ice cream and the cake icing.



The next day however, Erin ate the cake, thus expanding her bread like food consumption beyond pizza crusts, raspberry muffins (it has to be specifically a muffin with raspberries), crackers and pretzels. For some reason bread just does not tempt her. Every time the sacrament bread comes by on Sunday she says out loud : "Bread! Yuck! Blew!"

Here is the entire gang!



After the cake it was time to open her presents. I attempted to take photos of Erin opening her packages, but Pook was surrounded by her guests (some of whom had wayyyy too much zeal helping her open all the presents) to such a degree that I could get nothing but the shots of her head. I gave up after a couple of shots!

Erin was thrilled to get her presents. Some of the highlights were a pack of bubbles and chalk, Mickey Mouse movies, a new baby doll, a Mickey Mouse pillow and dishes, a Little Mermaid swim suit, flip flops and a beach towel, and a Mickey Mouse clubhouse wall hanging. She also got some clothes, which was greatly appreciated by me, but Erin is not a girly girl so she did not ooh and ah over them, he he.

The wall hanging was a hit with Erin. Taking in the account that it cost just 6 buckos, it was a hit with Andrew and I as well.



To summarize this party experience I'll quote one of our three-year-old guests who declared: "This was the best party ever!". Have an amazing third year our wonderful Pook!

PS: Things I learned while making the cake:
1. Don't forget to flour the pan! Duh!
2. Make the cake the day ahead
3. Use climate appropriate frosting
4. Let rice crispy treats cool down completely before sticking everything together
5. Wear gloves while using food coloring
6. Invest in proper cake decor equipment
7. Enjoy the cake despite its looks!

A not so perfect night and a perfect day

You would think that an almost 3-year-old would enjoy a rodeo. I guess not our Erin. She would have enjoyed it IF she was the one riding horses and anything else on four legs participating in the show. We found that out on Wednesday night when we took her to the Strawberry days rodeo.

The weather was kinda nasty. The wind blew and rain loomed on the horizon, but I figured we'll just dress warm and bring umbrellas. Erin appeared to be excited to get close to all the animals. It is too bad that mine and Andrew's understanding of close was not the same as hers. She kept running along the fence trying to find the entrance into the arena until she saw how all other BIGGER kids got onto the rodeo grounds to catch that cash cow and ride the sheep. At that moment she darted in the direction of the gate. By the time Andrew got to her she was ready to swing her leg over that 4 foot entrance gate. The kid is fast! The next half hour was spent by Erin attempting to get into the enclosure with calves or sneak back onto the arena. Pook kept crying, kicking, whining and so forth. At that point Andrew took her home and I decided to stay by myself to "get out of at least one of our tickets some value back". I enjoyed it, though it would have been way more fun if Andrew were there.



The next day was Andrew's company's annual picnic at the Lagoon. Erin was coming with us for the first time. I really hoped that the night before was not an indication of how our fun Thursday would go. Despite the fiasco at the rodeo Lagoon day was absolutely perfect and wonderful. All three of us had a wonderful time!

We went later in the day as Erin would not last from morning till evening. For the first time I planed for everything, forgot nothing and came organized. At least that's what I though until I got out of a car in the Lagoon parking lot. That's when I realized that the tickets stayed on the kitchen counter at home! My glimmer of hope that Andrew grabbed the tickets died the moment I inquired about them! Andrew did not have the tickets. I was ready to cry and curse at the same time. To put it in the words of Ann of Green Gables - I was in the depth of despair. Erin was chirping about getting on the ferris wheel (where on earth did she learn what it was called and that you could ride on it?)and just beamed with happiness and curiosity. I could not crush this happiness by pointing out that buying new tickets was out of the question. However, the day was saved. Another set of tickets was delivered for us by Andrew's coworker in charge of the event and after a 15 minute delay we entered the park. The rest of the day was perfectly splendid.


I love her delighted expression! We started by riding the ferris wheel


Erin got to ride with papa




She stayed on this ride for a few turns. I love kids rides! They have NO lines!




Andrew got to get catapulted. Though it turned out to be not as adrenaline rushing as being slingshotted last year


Andrew also got to drag race


We all got to ride the carousel


Erin came back to this ride three times

We also went to the water park, the picnic and rode a train through the zoo. By the time we were done it was getting dark. I really can't think of anything what would have made the day more perfect.

Ta ta for now!

Hmmmm

This morning I had my fourth ultrasound. Erin was super excited to go look at the baby in mama's tummy one more time. She kept yelling out that her brother's foot was cute and that his toes were cute. That cracked Andrew and I up, it was just way too adorable.

The reason for me having another ultrasound at almost 31 weeks is "placenta previa". Basically the thickest part of the placenta where all of the blood vessels are concentrated is in the way of baby's exit. That puts me at a risk of bleeding to death. As you can imagine, that is undesirable, hence we are looking at a C-section as soon as our dude's lungs are developed. At week 36 I am getting a needle inserted through my abdomen to get a sample of amniotic fluid to test whether his lungs are mature enough. As soon as they are they'll cut me open, he he. I won't be able to wait for full term because the bleeding can happen, thus most likely our baby numero dos is looking at a July birthday.

Off course there is a slight chance that a shift will happen and we can avoid the surgery. However, I have an inkling that nothing will change. Though, whatever happens is fine by me as long everyone is healthy and sound.

Erin's first B-day party invitation

Today Erin got to go to her first B-day party. It was for her friend Jasmine, who turned five. Erin could not decide what gift to get and to every one of my suggestions (books, dolls, clothes or an electric drill) said NO. We were walking through a store and finally Erin chose a monkey beach towel and I chose a craft thingy set. Erin was so thrilled to take her present to Jasmine. When she saw her at the party she took the present straight to her saying "Happy B-Day!" and expecting for Jasmine to open it on the spot and jump from joy after seeing the package's content. She was a little bit disappointed that Jasmine asked her to put it in the present pile. For the next half hour Erin made a number of additional attempts to deliver the present right to the birthday girl before she finally gave up.

This was a pizzaless birth day party! There was mac 'n cheese, which I thought was brilliant, as it is currently one of Erin's favorites. Off course she was too excited to eat. Even cake did not impress her. To summarize the entire experience-party favors (the blow thingy in particular and a balloon) were the hit and off course the bunch of kids to run with. Pinata did not extremely impress our child. Pook got to whack it, but did not even care about swooping on scattered on the floor pinata's goodies. In fact there were so many kids there that I am not sure she noticed that something spilled out of it. Anyhow, we are deffinetely doing a pinata at her B-day, because mama wants one.

We both had a great time and went home when we both had enough of the festivities, he he. We are definitely following a recommendation from a child's shrink that I heard a long time ago on Oprah. We are inviting as many kids as years our kid is turning, that is three. Otherwise it is too overwhelming for the kid. Oh, and Erin requested a Mickey Mouse cake.

Erin loves balloons! After they somewhat deflate and do not float anymore she stores them under her bed until she decides to pop them. At the moment she has about three. When we were reading books tonight ("Hooper Humperdink...Not Him!" by Dr. Seuss is being requested every single night) she noticed that the balloons were gone. I think they were put in her toy bucket or something like that. Erin came up with her own theory of what happened to them.

"Oh, NO! The balloons gone!" (theatrical gasp) Pook looks around the room until she notices her white bunny. "Bunny popped it!"
"Erin, do you think that the bunny took the balloons and popped them?"
"Yeaaaah...Bunny popped it... and pink bunny... and green bunny popped it too"
"Bunny, don't pop Erin's party balloon!" (pointing to her balloon from the party)

I love being a witness to a miracle of imagination growing. She uses it more and more. It just makes my day every time!

Not every day this past week has been this lovely. Erin got in trouble last Sunday for scratching another kid in nursery at church. The scratch was superficial and minimal damage was done, but earlier that day I emphasized to her that we do not scratch, bite, push or spit in nursery (or anyplace else for that matter) and if she broke the rules than we would have to go home. We had to carry out the threat and Erin was not happy. Pook loves going to the nursery! There was much screaming, pleading and attempts to bite and scratch both Andrew and I. For this behavior she was put under arrest in her room with all the toys and fun things removed from her quarters. Our dear child was told that she was staying there until she would say "Sorry". The kid spent about four hours in her room with us dropping by to see if there was an apology coming our way. Nope! She stayed there until the dinner time without expressing any remorse. Believe it or not, she found ways to entertain herself for the time, but oh, did she hate being not allowed out of her room!

I don't know if this discipline method was the most appropriate and effective, but it seems to have worked. I told Erin that tomorrow is the day we are going to church. She got very excited and told me "No pushing in nursery!"

"Will you scratch in nursery?"
"Noooo"
"Will you bite?"
"Noooo"
"Will you give hugs?"
"N...yeaaah"

I have been constantly reminding her of the "no biting, scratching, spitting and pushing" policy and she seems to be doing great. Super nanny is right! Set the rules and make sure kids know what they are. THAN expect them to follow them.

Bah! so much more to tell about, but my head is too tiered.
Ta ta for now!

Back again

I took a long posting break even though this stretch of our lives can not be called uneventful. Blame my absence on the pregnancy :), which by the way is the best case scenario easiest pregnancy possible. I am happy and content. The baby remains being a boy. Erin is getting more and more excited to have him with us. She has already pulled out all the baby toys, keeps looking at his clothes and tells me how she'll take care of him. The big sister plans being on binky duty. Pook is currently practicing her "put that binky back in the mouth" technique on her best fiend's baby sister. She is also practicing on how to be gentle and soft with a baby. Kinda nice that she gets to learn on someone elses's baby, he he. Sorry Karina!

I am not even going to try to catch up with all that has happened in this month and a half (we had a visit from Gemma and Papa, it snowed on 24 May, we planted our garden, Erin got her first professional haircut, etc.). We have been growing and having fun. Erin keeps amazing us every day by spitting out new words and full sentences. I can kinda reason with her now days.


Erin decided that the pack of toilet paper worked great as a tower building material

When we run out of something or she thinks that we need something she informs us that "We need to buy more... [fill in the blank with soda, candy, potatoes, eggs, apples, milk, toilet paper, etc]". We were at a store and daddy gave her a quarter to get some candy from a machine. After she was done with the amount that came out she approached Andrew with a request for another quarter. Upon being told that he did not have any more she told him that he needed to buy more. So we have been working on the money concept.

Today we opened the pool season, though the water was too cold for even the most excited and bravest of all toddlers. Thus Erin and a bunch of her friends sat in the hot tub. She practiced swimming with her doughnut and was so excited that now she can get around in the water without my help. I am thrilled about it myself, maybe even more than she is. Our previous management company (that got fired) ruined the pool heating by poor equipment care. So the new company got it fixed and the water is taking it's sweet time warming up. It should be good to go by Monday though. Speaking of the new management company. Remember my dog battle? The dog piles are not an issue anymore, the place is clean and taken care off and the offenders are punished. Life outdoors is great again, he he! By the way, Erin calls pool-cool, shirt-shirk, splash-slash and there is more. I ask her to repeat p-pool and she says p-cool. It is adorable!

I am starting to plan her Birth Day party. We are going to have an actual party and invite some of her friends. I am even considering a pony, but we'll see. We will definitely have a pinata though. I can not say that this three years just flew by , but at the same time I can not believe that my baby is turning three. How come my tiny baby low on all pediatric charts (she was 5lb 11 oz and 19 inches at birth) has turned into a rambunctious toddler, who never sits still and is taller than any other kid her age. Even on those days when I want to pull my hair out and break something, when I tuck her in and she puts her little arms around my neck and gives me a kissy I am the happiest person in the world and would not have it any other way. How precious it is to have a privilege to raise a child, see them grow and bloom. Some days are tough, but that is okay, they are not the ones that stay in your memory forever.



Ta ta for now!

What a glorious week it was, he he.

On Easter Sunday Erin got to go on an Easter egg hunt. We had to hunt inside as we woke up to 2 inches of snow. I do not recall seeing snow on Easter in this last 10 years, by the way. Andrew did an excellent job concealing all the plastic eggs around the house and a few on the porch and in the back yard. I am glad he did it 'cause I would have put them all in super obvious places, but papa had more faith in Erin so he made her look hard. It was amazing how the kid has a chocolate radar in her brain. Even those well hidden were discovered by her. We made a video of the Easter fun, but had to cut it short as the battery began to die. I will post it as soon as Andrew get's around figuring out how to compress it.

Erin was as excited as can be searching the house for eggs and adding more to her bag. You can only imagine her "sore throat voice" beaming with happiness and joy. By the way all the eggs were labeled with our initials. I hoped that Erin would collect all the eggs and than we'll sit down and have her separate the loot into three piles. Naive me! After the hunt was over we explained that the bunny brought some eggs for mama, papa and Erin and that now was the time to divide everything. Pook found one egg with "S" and one with "A" and told us that was it! The rest were for her. Parental lesson: what makes into kids Halloween or Easter container does not come out! Or in the other words, finders keepers-losers whippers. We ended up gutting the eggs and putting all the chocolates in one pile anyhow. The candy was kept safe from Erin (but not so safe from mama) on top of the fridge and fortunately it is all eaten by now.

By the way this Easter was a General Conference weekend and this made our Easter celebration perfect. What is the better way to remember Christ's atonement and resurrection than being reminded of it the entire weekend.

We completed the day with the dinner at aunt Theresa's. As always food was delicious and the company excellent. When we came home Erin had a super tantrum and I do not even remember for what reason. She went into "Tasmanian devil" mode as I call it. Eventually, I ended up sitting in the hallway with my little Pook on my lap sobbing and refusing to say "I am sorry". Eventually she just drifted off into sleep. I do not remember when was the last time she actually fell asleep in my arms, probably when she knocked her teeth in more than a year ago. I did not want to move to put her in bed. I was savoring the moment as this could be the last time my baby slept in my arms. She is getting too big and is never interested in that anyways. One of the fascinating things about life is how something ordinary what we are used to happens for the last time and we have no idea that this is the last time...

Anyhow, Monday came. Erin was not getting any better, but colds come and go and are a part of any childhood. Poor little Erin's nose was sick and tiered of being wiped and she herself was sick of me following her around the entire day asking if she needed to blow. By the end of the day she wanted to have nothing to do with me and just used her sleeves and hands to tame the snot coming out ( I know, gross!) By the way, did you know that the ancient Egyptians thought that mucus coming out of your nose was nothing other than your own brain leaking out. Silly them!

Tuesday...Pook was sick as a dog. All she wanted to do was lay in mama's and papa's bed and watch Curious George back to back to back. She refused food and drink. Most of the time she slept and whimpered in between. I was getting worried. Her nose was not doing any better, plus she felt super warm, though she fought my every attempt to take her temperature. I also noticed that she was tugging on her ear. I remembered reading somewhere a couple years ago that that was an ear infection sign. I made an appointment with her pediatrician and off we went. Better safe than sorry as they say, I am willing to pay a co-pay to make sure this is just a cold. It turned out to be a full blown left ear infection. Her fever was 103 and even the doc said she looked miserable. It was her first ear infection. We got her Amoxicillin prescription and of we went. What a relief it is when the issue can be easily fixed. I wish this was always the case...

The next day after just one dose Erin was herself again. No fever, tons of energy, some sort of appetite, following mama as a tail and getting in trouble as usual. The only problem was taking her medicine. Erin would not voluntarily do that even though her pink stuff even smelled and tasted good. What else do yo need, kiddo? It tastes like candy. Grrrr! So what do we do? We lace her drinks with it and than we follow her around the house telling her to finish her juice or coco. She must think that both Andrew and I are nuts. We have never forced her finish her food and now all she hears is : "Chug it down! Drink your juice or papa will drink it (that one works)! One more sip! You are almost done!" and etc. We finally figured out what to mix it in to make her just drink it in one sip-SODA, the forbidden drink.

Erin was so sad today because she could not go to church. She coughs like a smoker and would get every kid in the nursery infected, which is rude (yes, you! this is a hint to keep your kid at home if he/she is infectious:). Andrew stayed home with her, plus he was on call this entire weekend. Of course, when others in his department are on call no one bothers them. Andrew had three phone calls starting at 6 am on Saturday and had to work a good chunk of the day. Poor dude! As you can imagine the same happened on Sunday. Grrr! Now he gets an extra day off at least. We just can never plan anything for those on call weekends, but hey, I am not complaining, I am just whining, he he. We are super happy with his job!

Ah, the toddler bed. Tell me, how is it possible for a 2-year-old, who refuses a nap during the day, to stay awake even after 10 pm. Pook has a talent for stalling-another book, fix my blankey, where is my binkey, did you get my bunny, where is the piggy bank, I need a drink, here is my empty cup. We were already in bed, and all of a sudden I hear Erin's door creak, than pitter-patter, pitter-patter, than our door creaks and Erin appears (Surprise!). She makes it for my side of the bed saying "Blow!" meaning blow my nose even though I haven't let you do that since the beginning of the week. That same episode repeated another 4 or 5 times. Every time I got up to get some toilet paper and oblige her nose and than walk her back to her room and tuck her in. Grrrrrr! Finally when she appeared again I told her to go get her paper herself, which she did IN THE DARK! In the morning it looked like a wild cat had attacked the toilet paper roll, he he. Anyhow. I made her get her paper and told her to go tuck herself in herself. She finally went to sleep.

Erin is developing a relationship with her little brother. She puts her mouth on my belly and blows finding it very hilarious. One day that kid is going to kick her in the mouth, he he. He moves a lot and hiccups all the time. At this point it is still amusing to me. We have less than a half of pregnancy to go. We can't wait to meet him.

Latest

I feel like I need to post about something, but this past week or so has been rather uneventful. It snowed and it rained, so we watched too much TV. I have been sick with a cold for last while and that made it a little bit more boring. By the way I was very impressed that neither Erin nor Andrew were getting sick from being around me. That was the case until this morning. They both caught some bug.

Erin woke up with a cough and roughness in her voice. Poor kid is sick and sounds rather pitiful when she talks even if it is something fun she is talking about. We did not have any meds in the house other than kid pain reliever so we made a run to Walgreen's.

This was my first time when I was embarrassed but ,at the same time, barely managed not to laugh out loud at something that Erin said in public.
We were making our way to the cash register and I was pondering whether or not we had enough Easter candy in the house (is it ever enough?) as we passed the candy isle. All of a sudden I hear "Mama! Big! Big!" yelled very excitedly and loud. I look up and to my horror discover that Erin is pointing at a huge lady in line unloading her chips, sodas and other junk onto the conveyor belt. The lady's size was unusual and Erin was gladly pointing that out. I don't think this mother-daughter conversation was overheard by anyone, at least I hope the lady did not hear it. As I said it was embarrassing and funny at the same time. It sounds cruel to the lady, but I could not help myself, blame pregnancy. The whole situation seemed to be comical to me.

Talking about embarrassing and funny, this is more funny than embarrassing. They (again those mysterious they) say that during your pregnancy hormones go haywire and you exhibit unusual emotional patterns. Never happened to me before until lately. Something that was absolutely not funny made me laugh like a maniac and than the laughter turned into uncontrollable tears. Andrew was looking at me not sure what to do and creeped out. Now that was one of the weirdest things that ever happened to me in my life. Both emotions had no ground, but there I was, a textbook case of mental instability. He he!

We planned on attending our ward Easter picnic today, but had to cancel so not to get other kids sick and Erin should have stayed home anyhow. So no egg hunt for Pook. I will hide a bunch of eggs for all of us around the house or outside if the weather permits. It will be fun as long as Pook does not get any sicker. Hopefully we can make it to Easter dinner at aunt Theresa's.

Here is a photo of sick Erin though she looks just fine :). This is her laundry basket. A while ago we invented a game where Erin sits inside and I roll the basket around trying to shake her out. Erin calls it "Go, baby!Go!" It's a hit in our house.


Ta ta for now!