time outs and ear napkins

We have a rule that the little natives have to stay in their room until 7 am.  That means, if you wake up at 6:30, you find something to do quietly in your room.  It does NOT mean that while your older sister is sitting on the toilet, you punch her in the face.  Aubrie came downstairs holding her face in her hand crying that Emilie punched her while she was going potty.  Adam looked upstairs to find Emilie standing there looking down at him.  He asked her if it was true and she nodded her head and said, "uh hu."  Timeout at 7:01 am.  NOT EVEN A MINUTE into the day!  

A week ago she got one because she walked up to Aubrie, acting like she was going to hug her, and head-butted her instead.  Time out at 7:15 am.

Adam diagnosed her with CBC.  

Chick Be Crazy.

She looks like me, but totally acts like her dad...

We love her, but she's crazy.  She does something daily that makes us scratch our head.  We find ourselves saying, "That's your daughter."  "She takes after you."  "She acts just like you."  "Where do you think she learned THAT from?!"  She frustrates us but makes us laugh all the time.  We had a hard time not laughing in front of Aubrie when she was re-playing the bathroom punch story for us.  A morning punch in the face wakes you up a LOT faster than a cup of coffee!

Adam has had to do a little bit of traveling lately and one day after dinner, diagnosed me with PTTSD.  Post Travel Traumatic Stress Disorder.  I may or may not have been a little stressed out.  After he gets home from traveling I find myself not able to speak in complete sentences, dipping my chip in the jar of jelly instead of the jar of salsa, stuff like that.  He seems to think he's a doctor lately, I guess.

We love when he's home, though.  Books are better when read by Dad.

And naps are better when you wake up with Dad.  Kyle's latest hobby is getting into the pantry and helping himself to snacks and pushing the start button on Roberto the robot vacuum.  

I think he's a better coach than a doctor.  He has been spending the evenings working on the kids' athletic skills.  They run down the long hallway upstairs and practice their jump stops with a trey bop.  Then they move on to their volleyball skills.  They run down the hallway and Adam tosses a small ball up and they jump and spike it.  I'm usually downstairs cleaning up dinner or doing laundry and I'll hear things like...

 "That's a weak sauce throw, Dad." 

"THUNDER!" 

"In your face!"

"Get that outta here!"

In your face

Last night we had a special treat at dinner.  We were in the middle of eating and Aubrie told us her ear hurt because there is a napkin in it.  What do you mean?  She said that when we were at a restaurant, she cleaned her ear with a napkin and it got stuck.  So. Adam turns pale and starts drilling her on what restaurant she is talk about and how big of a napkin are we talking...meanwhile I'm getting the flashlight to see the damage.  Sure enough there is this huge orange gob in her ear.  Way down there.  So we try with tweezers and a baby snot sucker thing to get it out and we have no luck.  By this time, she's sobbing and telling us she doesn't want to go to the doctor and it doesn't hurt anymore.  Adam's dialing the pediatrician and planning what route we are going to take to get to the hospital.  I'm thinking we can wait until tomorrow so I sit down and finish eating.  Sure enough, when the after hours nurse calls us back (and Adam isn't home to take the call because he walked over to get the orthopedic nurse, who is our neighbor, to come look at it) she tells us to wait until tomorrow and take her into our Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) doctor in the morning.    

Napkin-in-ear girl.  I love this "I'm practically an adult and can do anything" phase.  

After we put the kids down and I'm reflecting on why Adam was so quick to freak out over a napkin in our daughter's ear, it finally hits me.  This situation hits a little too close to home.  You see, when he was "between the ages of 5 & 8", (aka WAAAAY too old to know better) he was at the bowling alley with his sister and some cousins and they were playing zoo.  He got assigned to be the elephant.  And when he does something, he gives it all he's got...he went ahead and put a peanut UP his nose.  So much so, that it stops his father's bowling game and they go home to get the rest of the family and head to the hospital.  Thankfully, Granny got him to keep trying to blow it out of his nose and was successful and they avoided an evening at the ER.  

It's all fun and games until someone has to pay a co-pay.

So THAT is why Adam was so jumpy.  It was a childhood flashback.  

Well, everything was successful today and we got the wad of napkin out of her ear with minimal foaming at the mouth and screaming.  I had all three kids by myself and headed to this appointment but Adam insisted on meeting me there.  Aubrie has this reputation of kicking, screaming, and foaming at the mouth at people when she doesn't like what is happening.  Her first haircut was AMAZING.  She is so mild mannered and sweet, but she slapped at that lady, foamed at the mouth, screamed and kicked, and yelled "Get her out!"  

The second incident happened to be at the ENT doctor's office.  I don't know if he was an associate of our usual doctor or some kid fresh out of school, but he grabbed Aubrie's ear and shoved his little looky thing in there and it pissed her off.  I had to hold her in my lap and restrain her by wrapping my legs around her and bear hugging her upper half.  It took her a good year to get over that incident and let doctors look in her ears again without swinging punches.

Spring cleaning...I promise.

I've been doing a lot of spring cleaning lately even though winter came back through and gave us some more snow days.  After I stripped the beds, I had the kids jump on them to kick up any dust and then vacuumed the mattress.  I'm washing curtains and vacuuming under beds.  Finding those missing socks and flipping mattresses.  I enjoy it way too much.

We stopped by to see our buds.  Clockwise starting at the top, we have lovely Lily, Trace, Emilie, Kyle, Aubrie, and Teague.

My kids are going a little stir crazy.  They smell the spring, soak up the warm days outside, and then are mad when we get a couple of cold days and are stuck inside.  Like a bunch of caged animals.  I'm ready to unleash them and start planning my garden and prepping my flower beds and getting the grill out regularly for meal times.  

And yes, I still cook.  :)  I hope everyone is doing well and staying warm.  Stick it out, my friends.  Warmth, flowers, and green grass are right around the corner!

Love to all!

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