-Have Legos that need washed? Put them in a pillow case tied up and throw it in the washing machine with bleach or white vinegar.
-For the beginning of a diaper rash, cornstarch if it is pee related, olive oil or bag balm if it is poop related. Use regular diaper cream if it is a full blown rash.
-The Just Ask Series of books by Chris Arvetis are a wonderful. They explain things simply for children to understand. Some of the titles include: Why Does It Thunder and Lightning, Why Do Leaves Change Colors, etc.
-When giving kids a Go-Gurt, rip the top off yourself and have the kid open their mouths', then put the Go-gurt in yourself, so that when they are finally grabbing it, it doesn't spill all over them or the floor, it just goes straight into their mouths'.
-Teach the kids about death, please. No need to traumatize them, but let them know. Mark caught a minnow the other day, put it in a bottle with water and rocks. Left the bottle in the car during the 90 degree weather and when he saw it again, it was belly up. After looking at it, he simply said,"It's dead, isn't it?". No drama, nothing, he still wanted to show that he had caught it, to his cousins, but that was an easy to live with thing.
We are doing pretty well. Ethan is busy with work, but is starting to look for a different job, he is very tired of customer service. If you know of anything, give me a buzz. I am getting annoyed with the union/company negotiations over the contract, which have been going on for over a year now, so as long as he can find something that pays well enough, he can change it to whatever he wants at this point.
Recovery from Ryan has gone smoothly and now it is just time to take advantage of the nursing and use it to help me get back into shape. Ethan, as encouragement, said he would by this dress for me if I reach my final goal weight/size. It's a specialty dress, because it from a company that specializes in busty women, so it is pricey, but it is so cute!
Mark is still obsessed with bugs, as ever. I wish I could accurately portray his obsession, but until you see him in action, he is always underestimated. Aunt Kate took Lyssa and Mark with their cousins to the pool the other day, and as much as he loves water, he is easily scared. He kept calling himself a 'fraidy cat', which I still don't know where he got that one from. There is a slide at the pool and after his cousins went down, Lyssa went down, but she was a little too little for the slide and and ended up flipping on to her stomach on the way down, which he saw and it freaked him out a bit. Kate asked him if he wanted to go down still, he did, so she sent him down. Right at the first bend however, he slams his hands against the sides, stands up and promptly walked back up the slide. Kate talked him into going down again, she sends him off and he got farther, but did the same thing again, only he was too far down to get back up by himself, so she had to walk down the slide to get him. (Kate is a lifeguard at that pool.) She asked him why he was scared and all he would say is," I'm not scared, I 'fraidy cat'!" It was pretty amusing. I told him next time we go, he'll be bigger so I hope he'll try it again.
Lyssa has been a growing weed this year, she has had so many growth spurts, she is close in height to Mark. People keep asking me if they are twins. She has always been a girly girl, but she doesn't have issues with getting dirty. Lyssa loves to dote on Ryan, but I'm always telling her to be more gentle, she smothers him with her love. Kisses and wanting to hold him and trying to get him to stop crying by covering his mouth, yeah, wonderful things like that. She changes her clothes as often as she can. She is sneaky, that most of the time I don't see her doing it, if I do, I keep making her change back into the original set of clothes. She doesn't approve. Loves to wear dresses, and she and Mark play wonderfully together, even with all the fighting. They stand up for each other and if one has been punished and is crying, the other comes to ask me why I made said person cry and that I need to fix it. I got Lyssa her first Barbie at a yard sale a couple of weeks ago and ended up having to get another so Mark would have one to play with, with her. She is talking very well, and is about the same level as Mark. I am trying to potty-train her, I didn't really try earlier, due to baby coming and I know most kids regress in that area with a new baby around, so we are trying to now. She'll do number 1, usually, but she is constantly telling me 'it not working' for number 2. She is my adventurer, very few fears, occasionally she'll need encouragement, but she'll do and eat just about anything.
Ryan is getting big, he was 6lbs 12oz at birth and was at 9lbs 12oz at his one month and his 2 month is next week, we'll see how big he is then. I just switched his clothing into 3-6 month. He is jabbering and very attentive when awake. Hearty appetite, I finally am getting to the point where he is going longer between feedings. He was like clockwork, down to the minute, of every 2 hours. Ryan has a gift. He is incredibly strong, physically. Hold his neck up well and for a long period of time. He also is able to stand on his legs for long periods of time and loves it when we make him do it repeatedly. About two weeks ago, he threw me for a loop, I put him on his stomach on a blanket in our dining room and walked into the kitchen, come back out and he had rolled onto his back. Figuring this was just a freak occurrence, I put him back on his tummy, and watched him consciously roll over again. I watch him do it 3 more times and now he does pretty much every time I put him down. He doesn't do back to front yet, but he'll get it soon enough. Ryan is getting consistent about his sleeping habits at night, does a 4-5 hour stretch then 2.5 hours afterwards. He does have his bad nights, but what babe doesn't. A new thing, he just started, is sucking his thumb. I need to get some bitter nail polish and I hope that will stop him. My brother was a thumb sucker and I remember how hard of time my Mother had trying to get him to stop. Ryan is a very lovable little guy and we are very pleased with his presence in our family. We had his baby blessing at home on July 1st, it was beautiful and nice, but if we have another kid, I want to do it at the church. We went camping that weekend with the rest of Ethan's family up to Erie and knew we wouldn't be back on Sunday until the afternoon, but we wanted to do it while Auby and Patrick were in town.
I saw an ad on our local flea market page on FB for a photography deal so the kids and I went the other day while Daddy was at work and got some new pictures with Ryan. I originally had no plans to be in the pictures, but Ryan wasn't having that.
