The one downside to being a mom

I finally found the one downside to being a mom . . . having to leave my kids. I'm not going to get all sappy here or anything, but idea of being away from the kids for an entire week is a tough one to deal with. Right now it seems like everything, and everyday is about them, and the idea of having no worry about no one but my self is kind of weird. I guarantee at some point during the trip I'll see some little kids running around and I'll miss Ryan and Lauren and will wish they were there with us enjoying the beaches and pools. But, I can also guarantee that the minute those same kids start crying, or fighting, I'll be thankful Ryan and Lauren are safe and sound back home and not on the beach tugging at my leg. It will be tough sure, but knowing that we'll only be gone for a week, and I'll come home a better, well-rested mom makes it easier to deal with. In addition to the emotional side of leaving the kids, there is also the physical aspect too, which is just as difficult. Trying to organize, clean, and prepare the kids and the house for a week with the grandparents is hard work so I've spent the better part of the weekend getting ready. Trav took the kids to Gaylord for part of the weekend so I could have the place to myself and really go to town getting everything ready. First up, cleaning the house. The house hasn't had a good cleaning in a couple of weeks so it was time, plus, I don't want to leave it looking like a pig sty while Grandma and Grandpa are visiting - it might scare them off and make them never want to come back. After the cleaning spree was over, I decided to go and stock up on everything I could possibly think of that could run out while we are gone . . . toilet paper, diapers, soap, paper towels, you get the idea. I think it is safe to say that we probably won't have to buy anything for a good month or so. My final detail for the weekend was to write up a "help" sheet for Grandma Connie to assist her with the kid's daily routines, meals, and pretty much anything else I could think of. I'll start out by saying that yes, I know Connie has already raised four of her own kids, and is very capable of taking care of our kids, but I still think it is nice to have some background on what the kids do and don't do just to make things easier for everyone. Anyway, after much typing, I realized "help" sheet had turned into more of a "help" pamphlet. In my defense though, the majority of the first page is dedicated to helping Connie work all of the electronics in the house so she doesn't have to sit here for a week in total darkness not able to watch tv, or get on the computer - that would not be good. After the first page, I did get a bit carried away with all the details, but again, my hope is the more she knows about the kid's normal routines, the easier it will be - we'll see if this holds true. So sorry for the short novel Connie, if you get bored while reading it, just toss it in the garbage. Now I am in the home stretch of our trip preparation and just have the packing left to do. Unfortunately this is no easy task either, especially when little kids keep going in the spare bedroom where I have so neatly laid out everything, and move stuff around. I figure I have most of the big stuff done, so we'll just wait on little things like undies, socks, and toiletries until Tuesday night, after that, if it isn't packed, it isn't coming with. Enough of this blogging, I'm going to go check on dinner and then head out to pick up Trav and the kids.

Pictures

It seems like a lot of the posts lately have been all writing, and very few pictures. In order to offset that, today's post will be mainly pictures, and very few words. These are just random pictures from the other day of the kids playing. For some reason they love to sit behind the rocking chair in Lauren's room and read books so any picture you see that has a piece of wood sticking out, assume they are there, quietly reading away. Ryan is still helping me prepare meals. On this particular day, we made what we like to call a "gourmet" meal, others like to simply call it mac-n-cheese. And finally, it seems like the kids spend more time in our room, and on our bed than Trav and I do. They love to sleep in there, watch cartoons in there, bring all of their toys and spread them out all over the place, and best of all, jump on the bed. I'm starting to think they have forgotten a few rules, namely, DO NOT bring your toys in the room and leave them there. It drives me crazy when I crawl into bed at night only to roll over onto one of Ryan's little figurines, or Lauren's stuffed animal - two people in the bed is enough for me, we do not need any additional company. Enough on that, enjoy the pictures and the somewhat decent weather we are having today.

Miracle medicine!!

All members of the Quast household, are dare I say it, in pretty good health. Trav has pretty much recovered from his illness, although I am still keeping him at arms length and on a strict no kissing on the lips policy, as not to infect anyone else. Lauren is also on the mend. Gone are the days of the non-stop screaming which, if heard by anyone walking past the house could have been mistaken as the screams of a child being constantly beaten. Also gone are the days of Lauren's "drunken sailor" walk. With her equilibrium back in tact, there are no longer the morning crashes into the hallway wall on the way to breakfast, or the multiple falls that caused some of the endless screaming. After our visit to the doctor on Monday, we came home and immediately put the meds to work. Within a half hour of being home, Lauren was out cold and stayed that way for a very long time - 15 hours to be exact. I put her down on Monday around 4pm and she slept straight through until 7am the next morning - do you think the poor little girl was tired? I checked on her periodically just to make sure she was still breathing, but other than that, she finally got the uninterrupted sleep she so desperately needed. Now, two days later, she is doing much better. The prescription from the doctor plus a little Tylenol as needed, and she is almost back to her normal self. She is still sleeping more than usual, but that is to be expected after going almost four days without much sleep - she had a lot of catching up to do. With Lauren sleeping more during the day, I have finally had an opportunity to spend more time with Ryan. We've been reading books, playing games, drawing some cool pictures, and playing with Play-Doh - lots of fun activities. Now it is time to focus on our upcoming trip. I have a lot of cleaning, packing, and organizing before our week of relaxation begins. I'm trying to get a little something accomplished each day so it is not a mad rush on Tuesday.

Sick Weekend

We had a sick weekend at the Quast household, and I don't mean it like, "man, that was sick," I mean it in the literal sense, there were sickly people in our house this weekend. Trav hadn't been feeling great since Thursday, and by Friday, he was feeling straight up crappy (and trust me, he let everyone know how awful it was - typical man, his illness is always worse than anything anyone else has ever experienced). On Friday, Lauren also started to show some signs that something wasn't right. I took the kids to the play area at the mall on Friday afternoon, and instead of playing around like she usually does, she opted to just and cuddle the entire time. When we got home from the mall, I took her temp - nothing unusual there, so I laid her down for her afternoon nap, and by the time she woke up, she was flushed and very warm to the touch. I took her temp again, and this time it showed 102 - poor babe is definitely not feeling good. The rest of Friday went something like this . . . Trav gets home from work and goes directly to bed Lauren cries continuously unless she is being held, and poor Ryan is left to fend for himself all the while I am running around trying to keep everyone happy - not a fun Friday night. By 6pm both Lauren and Trav are sound asleep and Ryan and I get to spend a little time together with no interruptions. Saturday was supposed to be a fun day for me as my future sister-in-law, Ann was having a wedding shower and her bachelorette party,but as luck would have it, I wasn't able to attend. Trav woke up that morning feeling better, but not great, and Lauren woke up in a crib full of vomit - a great way to kick start any day. I take Lauren out of her crib, strip her down, and get her in the bath (the vomit is on her face and in her hair). Then I grab Trav out of bed and have him sit in the bathroom with Lauren while I strip her bedding and get it in the wash. Where is Ryan during this time? Poor kid is still being neglected, but as a reward for his good behavior, he gets to watch "Hercules." I feel bad, but my options are pretty limited at this point - I'll be sure to make it up to him later. After the events of the morning, I call to let everyone know that I will not be making it to the shower - oh well, at least I still get to go to Mexico for the wedding. By 9:30am, both Trav and Lauren are sleeping again so I decide to get out of the house with Ryan. We headed over to the gym where Ryan could run and play, then ran some errands, and top off our outing by picking up some lunch - no time to cook so KFC will have to do. When we got home, I found Trav and Lauren in the basement. Apparently she woke up about 20 minutes after we left so Trav decided to bring her downstairs and rock. His efforts paid off as Lauren was sound asleep on his chest, but he was less than comfortable. The first thing he said (actually whispered so he wouldn't wake Lauren) when I walked in was, "turn off that fucking fireplace, I'm so fucking hot." The combination of Lauren (who was a little hot box herself), and the heat from the fireplace was too much to handle. He was roasting, but couldn't get up and do it himself at the risk of waking up Lauren - now that is some fatherly dedication. After lunch, everyone was up for while and Trav was starting to feel better. By 5pm Lauren was sleeping again, and I was getting ready for work. Trav said he was fine to handle Ryan so I headed out for the night. When I got home (shortly after 11pm), I walked into a dark house - yes, everyone is sleeping, now I'll have a little time to myself. Just as I'm crawling into bed, I hear a sound from Lauren's room so I wait, listen a little longer and finish getting into bed when I don't hear anything else. Five minutes later, the relaxing is over as Lauren is up screaming. After rocking for about twenty minutes, I decide to being her into our bed so we can both try and get a little sleep - good move for me, bad for daddy. Lauren was moving quite a bit and manages to wake him up, and when he gets woke up, it is not pretty. He proceeds to freak out and say, "god fucking damn it" (he really like the "f" word this weekend). In no mood to argue, I tell him he can either deal with it, or go downstairs and sleep - he takes the second option and leaves. I'm actually kind of happy because now I have a little more, and it was better sleeping for both of us in the end as Lauren was up two more times that night. By the next morning, Trav comes stumbling upstairs to find the three of us (Ryan, Lauren, and I) in bed watching some toons. The first thing he says is, "sorry." He then proceeds to tell me that he took some Nyquil the night before and was pretty out of it, but he remembered freaking out and felt bad. No sweat off my back, but I do tell him that for future reference he probably shouldn't take Nyquil on the nights he is alone with the kids - god forbid one of them would wake him up, I can't only imagine what would happen! By mid Sunday morning Lauren's temp was finally back down to normal and she seemed to be getting back to her old self. But, by nap time, she was starting to get very crabby again. I knew she was tired, but every time we put her down, she would sleep for about 15 minutes and then wake up screaming again. The rest of Sunday was pretty much the same; Lauren gets tired, falls asleep for 10-20 minutes, then wakes up screaming - god, please make it end. And then there is today. Lauren woke up this morning still obviously tired, and very, very crabby. I also notice that whenever she walks, she is very unstable and falls down a lot. This got me thinking that something else was going on. After thinking about it for a while, I called the nurses line and told the nurse about Lauren symptoms and my new concerns with her walking, or lack there of. She said it was probable that Lauren could have an ear infection so I should bring her in to be seen by the doctor. The earliest appointment they had was 1:50pm so I took that and spent the next couple of hours just trying to get through the day. Lauren's ear infection was confirmed by the doctor so she was given some meds to take care of it. I couldn't get home quick enough to give her her first dosage. Within a half hour of giving her the medicine, she was out cold. It has now been 45 minutes since I put her down and she is still asleep - hallelujah! So there you have it - our sick weekend in review, consider yourself lucky to have not been here. Ryan has never had an ear infection, and this is Lauren's first so the whole thing is new to me, but for those parents out there whose kids are prone to ear infections, I feel so bad for you. If your experiences are anything like our last 4 days have been, you deserve a medal for still being sane! I'm hoping the medicine will help and we'll have Lauren back to her normal self soon and hopefully everyone else will stay healthy.

Mexico

In preparation for our trip to Mexico (in just 12 short days), I have changed the background of the blog. Now all I have to do is look at the blog and picture myself on the beach under the palm tree sipping a margarita - oh, I can hardly wait!

Our little lady

Lauren continues to test the boundaries of "lady-like" behavior. And just so we're clear, I know I'm not the most lady-like role model in the universe, but trust me, the behaviors I'm about to write about were not learned from me - her daddy and brother get to take the credit for these!

We (Ryan, Lauren, and myself) were sitting at the table the other morning peacefully eating our breakfast. Lauren of course was the first one done (as she is almost every day) so I got her out of her highchair and let her roam around for a while while Ryan and I finished up. So there we are enjoying our delicious bagels when Lauren walks right next to Ryan's chair, stops, goes into a mini-squat position, puts on her determined face, and pushes out the loudest fart I have heard from a baby, needless to say my very own precious daughter. Ryan and I both look at her in complete shock - how could our little girl make such a loud, disgusting noise? Apparently impressed with herself, Lauren starts laughing like crazy. This was not just a casual laugh, no, she was doing her deep belly laugh which she only does when she thinks something is really funny. She literally stood there laughing at herself for an entire minute. Because we were both still in shock, it took Ryan and I a little while to register what she was doing, but before I knew it, we were both laughing as well. I know this will probably just encourage her disgusting behavior in the future, but it wasn't like I was laughing at her farting, I was just laughing at how funny she thought it was - what a crazy little babe we have. Now, just so you know, her father has a tendency to pull the same little stunt on occasion. Actually, it seems like he does it almost every morning (he says that is when he has loud, funny farts that aren't stinky - I beg to differ). I've told him to stop it because the kids would pick up on it, but he always just blew it off. Well, now it is too late - he has officially turned our little girl into a farting, laughing machine - I hope he is proud of himself.

The other bad behavior Lauren has picked up on comes straight from Ryan. I don't know why, but lately Ryan will just randomly pull out a fake burp, and then say excuse me- not sure why he is doing it, but whatever. So this time we are at lunch (on the same day as the farting incident) when Ryan decides to do a fake burp. Lauren sees this, and starts imitating what he is doing. Pretty soon they are going back and forth pushing out as many burps as possible. With each burp, it gets funnier and funnier to both of them and pretty soon they can hardly burp because they are both laughing so hard. I must say it was pretty cute to see them both laughing, but also kind of gross when I thought about the reason behind the laughs - oh well, whatever makes them happy. As long as they don't do it in public, I guess I can deal with it.

After going through both of those incidents, I decided it was time to give Lauren a little reminder of her feminine side. We took her back into her bedroom and dug out some of her bows, headbands, and barrettes. The only thing we could get her to leave on her head was the bows so we took full advantage and put on every single one she had. Ryan said her hair looked very pretty, "just like a rainbow" - I couldn't agree more.

As you can see, the bows didn't last that long either, about five minutes after getting them all in, Lauren proceeded to pull all of them out - oh well, at least I tried.

Homework

Ryan got his first homework assignment today at preschool. Yes, apparently they have homework in preschool. Oh wait, that only happens is your kid is like mine and doesn't have time to do the project in class like all the other kids. Here's the story. Lauren and I are waiting outside Ryan's classroom to pick him up when the classroom door opens and a sea of orange (it was orange day at school so all the kids were dressed in orange) comes running out the door. Ryan, as usual, was towards the back of the line and took his sweet time making his way over to us. By the time he got to me, Mrs. Olson (one of the teachers), was heading my way too - uh oh, this can't be good. I've seen and over heard the teachers talking to other parents outside the classroom before and it usually wasn't about how great the kid did in class. No, it was usually about how little Johnny pushed somebody and made them cry and then had to sit in timeout. I guess every kid has his bad day, and I assumed this must have been Ryan's day. So I trying to act casual as I see Mrs. Olson heading my way, and then she is there, right in front of my face. I slowly lift my head up (I was getting Ry's boot on at the time) and make eye contact, and to my surprise, she has a smile across her face. She reaches out a piece of paper towards me and says, "Ryan has homework to do tonight." I take a look at the paper and see that it is a sheet with a bunch of things that are supposed to be orange, but notice that there is no color on the paper. Mrs. Olson goes on to tell me that when it was project time today, all the kids were sitting at the table, but Ryan was still off playing. When she went over to ask him to come to the tables, he said, "no thanks, I'm too busy playing." She said he was so sweet with his decline that she just smiled and said okay. After all, he was very polite and skipping one coloring lesson wasn't going to be the end of the world.