Violet Beauregard

Remember her?

The gum chewing girl from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

I do not {heart} her. Or her gum chewing ways.

Not a fan. Nope.

I have banned my kids from chewing gum for the most part. My oldest daughters at ages 7 & 5 have only been allowed to chew gum a handful of times.

Until recently. I let up on my ban of gum chewing. If they were given some, I let them partake as they wished, as they finally seemed to have mastered the whole concept of CHEWING gum, not swallowing gum.

In fact I have occasionally allowed them to take a piece of gum out of my own pack that i keep in my purse for the occasional "wow, my breath is really bad, i need some gum" moments.

I did such a thing earlier this week....

THIS was the result:

Around dinner time I noticed DD #2 was messing with her hair a lot. As we sat down to eat, I asked her why she kept messing with her hair.

Her reply in a hardly audible whisper "there's gum in my hair."

"ugh, i TOLD you to keep it in your mouth and not play with it"

"i forgot"

"no, you didn't forget, you just didn't listen." muttering under my breath and big sigh.

"are you going to cut my hair like a boy?"

"maybe"

after dinner i google how to remove gum from hair. lots of options all including a lot of time and oily messes. considering my options, i get out the scissors.

snip, snip. problem solved. the top part of her hair covers where i cut. i'm sure the next time she gets her hair cut there may be some questions.

"so why did you put the gum in your hair???"

"i put it behind my ear. to save for later"

just like Violet Beauregard in the book we just finished reading together.

i do not {heart} Violet.

and as far as gum chewing privileges? the ban is back. (especially since my brutally honest DD #1 admitted to doing the same thing and just got lucky it didn't stick in her hair)

welcome Spring :)

all week we've been anticipating the first day of spring...

here they ALL are, excitedly waiting

(okay, not really, but i wanted to throw a picture in)

anyhoo, this morning i was being lazy, taking full advantage of it being saturday and was dozing in bed with miss baby. (since i am playing single mommy this weekend, i haven't been getting much sleep, so i think it is justified, right?)

i had heard my oldest two come stomping downstairs and was anticipating their invasion into my room demanding breakfast shortly.

however, i am suddenly startled into reality by a strange noise.

hmmm... there it is again.

what is that?

then it hits me. someone is knocking on my bedroom window from the front porch. SUPER! someone is here and i am still in BED and not at all presentable for visitors.

i cautiously peek through the shades to see who my intruder, ahem, visitor is. there is DD#2 grinning wildly at me. WHAT?

herding my two oldest children back into the house i exclaim "it's FREEZING out!" (in their defense they did have snow boots and winter coats on, but no gloves or hats or snowpants) they explain they were warm because they had put clothes on over top of their pj's. (nice)

after explaining the dangers of going outside without telling me first, i quiz them on what possessed them to go out in the first place.

"it's the first day of SPRING mom! we wanted to welcome spring."

All dressed up and no place to go....

lately our mornings have involved some drama (shocker, with 4 girls)

it will be a happy day (for her) when she gets to start Kindergarten and leaves the house with her older sisters.

as she watches her older sisters and daddy get ready to leave the house she finds her own shoes and coat and insists on putting them on. (sometimes we humor her and put them on)

(or she finds someone else's shoes to wear)

poor baby, it's gonna be awhile before you get to go too. but i'm not ready for you to go yet, so the little drama fit you throw when left behind is fine with me ;)

3 months

here she is :)

at 3 months, miss baby is:

*smiling a lot (except for at the photo studio to take her 3 mo pics of course)

*giggles when you tickle her belly and neck

*"talks" to you when you talk to her

*loves to be with people, does NOT like to be left alone in a room

*likes to sit up in the bumbo (please ignore the fact that the bumbo is up on an "elevated surface" despite the specific warning not to do so directly on the seat and my good friend's son recently flipped out of his bumbo and got a black eye. seriously, who puts their bumbo on the floor only?)

*likes to lay on the floor and is beginning to look like she might roll over (i can't remember when my other girls learned to roll... mental note to look that up in their baby books)

*we've had our ups and downs as far as sleeping all night. sometimes she does for a stretch and then she doesn't for a week or so again. not sure what is up with that. our other girls all slept through the night consistently by 8 weeks old.

*pretty much naps in the swing during the day (no judgements please ;) )

*is no longer "safe" up on the kitchen island as her sis has mastered climbing up on the barstools

*continues to grow like crazy although i'm not sure how big she is cause i haven't weighed her. (scary enough to see my own number on the scale let alone combined with her! ack.)

the days are flying by and despite my efforts to be "in the moment" and enjoy her i feel like it's all going too fast. there are not enough hours in the day (and some days can't seem to end soon enough) but every day i am reminded so often of how incredibly blessed we are.

"Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning, great is your faithfulness." Lamentations 3:21-23

i {heart} burlap

yep, i do.


i got this *lovely* lamp at a local 2nd hand shop for free. (yay!) isn't the gold just super? (gag)




and this is my DIY fix for it :)








isn't she pretty?



(linking to: http://asoftplace.net/2010/03/diy-day-with-purple-lemon-designs/ )
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lessons learned this week

it's been a long week. (and it's not even over)

the following are what i would like to take mental note of for future reference:

1) always put the diaper on straight.

you would think that after having 4 kids i would have learned this. apparently not. dd #3 + crooked diaper + poo = big gross mess. (i will spare you the details)

in my defense, it is often like trying to diaper an angry octopus with her limbs and body flailing about as she tries to escape so she can run wildly nekked through the house. just getting the diaper on is already an accomplishment.

2) have zero expectations when there is illness in the house. try to survive, don't worry about the thrive.

4 out of 6 of us have had a stomach flu bug this week (the two youngest have been spared -so far) dd #2 developed a "cough-cold" as she calls it and is coughing INCESSANTLY (drives me bonkers, but i know she can't help it) and dd#4 has been renamed the snuffleupogas a.k.a. snuffy a.k.a. her nose runneth over.

i had great goals for this week. i have a weekly routine of household tasks i take care of each day and have been a great big slacker in that since dd #4 came to the scene. my goal this week: actually take care of each task, each day. shouldn't be too hard. this week = impossible.

along with that i had several "home improvement" projects i wanted to do as well as start scrapbooking again and oh, yeah make a few cards. (still have a couple baby thank yous to get out)

NONE of those things have been accomplished. i have a lamp re-do half done, have not so much as glanced at my craft area, the "touch-up" painting is still needing to be touched up and as far a cleaning my house? lets just say i wouldn't let you near my house to see. my personal health goal of exercising 5 times each week... umm, yeah. the goal of preparing healthy meals and snacks for my family? we've had take out pizza two nights in a row and tonight will be.... (insert drum roll) leftover pizza.

3) find humor in the chaos.

phone ringing + dd#1 puking + dog whining at my feet to go out + dd#4 spitting up onto dog's back + dog shaking off spit up effectively spraying it everywhere + watching for extremely nice church member who is dropping off dinner for us (pizza!) and seeing him drive slowly by the house and then continue driving away = sit down and laugh and remember that someday i will look back at these moments and long for them,

and these moments too.

I {heart} bear butts

ha ha :)
(check out that bald spot)





aaahhh choo.

i also looove her little sneezing fits. she has them every day, usually multiple times a day and quite often she doesn't actually sneeze but "speaks" it instead. (you get that right? speaking a sneeze? makes sense to me. totally)