Jello

This past weekend, the boys wanted to make Jello. Of course they have to help with everything, so I had to decide how to evenly divide the job. I decided that Nathan would be less likely to spill, so I had him pour in the hot water (with my assistance) and stir until the gelatin dissolved. Then we passed the bowl onto Darren and I poured in the cold water and Darren got a chance to stir for a little bit. Both boys were happy with their participation.

Over the weekend, we had Gavin's baptism and we all ate lunch at Mom & Dad's. After Dan's family left, we all hung around. Of course Bruce, Dan & Bill used the excuse that Bruce needed to go home to take his Nexium and pick up the jello so they could leave for a few hours. At dinner later that night eating Jello for dessert, Nathan proudly announces that him & Darren helped make the Jello and he explained what roles each of them had. Of course Dad, Dan & Stacey start giving Nathan a hard time. They are saying things like, "Whoever stirred the hot water sure messed it up" and "The Jello tastes funny; whoever added the hot water screwed up." Nathan, who had his back up a little bit, said that the Jello tastes fine. He realized that they were picking on him, and he told them that they were all crazy!

As we were driving home last night, Bruce and I remarked how crappy the weather is. It was raining, sleeting and snowing all day with high winds. Nathan pipes up from the backseat and says that the sun is on a vacation. Bruce and I take a moment to digest what he says, and I said that hopefully the sun's vacation is over tomorrow.

Tent in the house

Like most kids, my kids constantly want to make a tent with blankets draped over something. Because we have a bar in the kitchen where we eat, we seldom use the dinning room table. The other night the boys (specifically Nathan) talked Bruce into making a tent. They turned all the chairs around and threw about a half dozen blankets over the table and chairs. So now I have this "tent" set up in my dinning room, no blankets to spare, and no flashlights left.

Nathan refuses to play in there by himself, and Bruce and I are to tall to sit in the tent comfortably with Nathan, and Darren doesn't like to sit still for more than a minute. He does like crawling in and out of the tent because Bruce used my quilt rack as an "entrance" so the boys have to crawl over two bars that are about six inches off the ground.

Outside

Yesterday morning, my Mom calls and said that they have a heifer giving birth that has a calf stuck and they can't get ahold of my brother Bill. So we all rush out to the farm and watch as Bruce, Mom and Dad struggle with pulling the calf out. Finally, the calf comes free and since Bill is not around, we all decided that Nathan gets the honor of naming the calf. The calf is a male calf and we think of several names like, "Dammit Bill" "Late Again Bill" or "Stay Home Bill." Nathan decides to name the bull calf "Sunday" and we all agree that it is a good name.

Since it was such a nice day, we stay outside and the boys are playing and having fun. Nathan then decides to give Darren a Hummer ride and so they are off checking things out on the farm. While making his loop, Nathan discovers the steer in the trailer that Bill bought at a sale Saturday night. The trailer is by the Nebraska building and Bruce, Mom and myself are standing by the bike shed when Nathan starts yelling at us. Dad walks out from the back hog stable and we walk from the house to see what Nathan is yelling about. He was apparently so excited to see a steer on the trailer. Bruce and I decided that we needed to go home and get some laundry done, so we tell the boys it is time to leave. Nathan asks if he can stay on the farm and if we would come back and get him later. Grandma says it is okay, so Nathan stays and the rest of us go home to get something to eat and get some work done around the house. Darren does manage to get a 45 minute-1 hour nap in before we head back out to the farm.

When we get back to the farm, Nathan has helped Grandpa build a pen for the new steer and she is in the pen. Apparently Grandpa let Nathan drive the skid loader all by him self, and he filled up the water for the steer and he was having a ball! Nathan tells us that he is naming the new steer that Bill just got, and he comes up with the name, "Pedal to the Metal." After Nathan was done helping Grandpa, he just played outside with Darren. Those boys had to be exhausted as they were outside from about 10:30 until about 8:00 at night. It was a great day for the boys as they had a blast!

Show-n-tell

In Nathan's preschool class, when they learn a new letter, most of the time they are asked to bring something in that begins with that letter. At the beginning of the year when my Dad heard of this, he immediately told Nathan that when they get to "P" that he should bring in pig poop and pig pee. Last night when we were trying to figure out what to bring in for the letter "P", guess what Nathan suggests? Yep, pig poop and pig pee. I told him that it wasn't happening but maybe we could call Grandpa, and he or Grandma, would bring a pig in for him. Of course he manages to sweet-talk Grandpa into bringing a pig for his "P."

In addition to bringing in something for the letter that they are learning this week, they are learning about the food groups and they are currently on the dairy group (what I call it) or the milk group (what Nathan calls it because it was probably easier for him to remember it that way). They were supposed to bring in their favorite dairy/milk product for their class. Nathan of course picks ice cream.

Because I forgot all about bringing in something from the food group, we were at Wagner's this morning at 7:10 to buy our ice cream. Of course the boys wanted donuts and they had to get them themselves; I wasn't allowed to help them. Nathan & Darren had to carry their own donut around the store, and I thought Darren was going to drop his several times. He had to carry it out to the van, and then into daycare when we got there. He then got his chair to sit down and eat his breakfast but the donut just sat there. I got the boys something to drink and signed in and did all the necessary things and when I went to get my goodbye kisses and hugs, Darren still didn't touch his donut. I broke off an piece and tried to feed it to him, but he didn't want anything to do with it. I asked if he wanted a Pop Tart and he said yes. So I got him a Pop Tart and I ate the donut on the way to work this morning!

Doctor appointment

This seems to be the week for doctors appointments in my family. Today was my regular appointment with my ob/gyn to see if everything is progressing normally with my pregnancy. I had gained more weight at this point than I wanted to. With the first two pregnancies, at twenty weeks I had either not gained anything or just a few pounds. When the doctor commented that my weight gain was normal, I complained that I had gained more this time than with the other two. He made a comment like, "We know you have big babies, so your weight gain is okay." Of course since my pregnancy has been normal, I have no complications and it is my third pregnancy, I only meet with him for a few minutes. I have to do my sugar/glucose next at my next appointment in four weeks, so hopefully everything turns out okay with that. With all three pregnancies I have gotten dizzy and seen black spots in my line of vision and the doctor contributes that to low blood sugar. I just have to make sure that I eat healthy and eat often and the problems go away.

Bruce also had a doctor appointment yesterday to follow up with his cat scan. He had been getting such sinus headaches that he was missing work and throwing up all the time. The antibiotics didn't seem to be working so they ordered a cat scan. He got the results yesterday and they basically said that because his nose was broken several times, there is something in his nose that is bent and won't allow his sinus's to drain properly. They gave him a nose spray to help during allergy season, but if he continues to have problems they will have to do surgery. Hopefully it doesn't have to come to that.

2 year checkup

Darren had his two-year check up today. He still is a little skeeter. He weighs 25 pounds and is 35" tall. That places him in the 70th percentile for height and 15th percentile for weight. They ask me if he eats, and I always tell them that he is a better eater usually than his big brother. Then they asked if he has a clear runny nose and when I said yes, they said that you burn a lot of calories when you try to fight your allergies. It sounds like I need to develop a few allergies!

Nathan was along because Mom picked the boys up from daycare and you can't leave Nathan behind when Grandma is around! He kept opening up the drawers trying to find the suckers and stickers. I told him if he didn't straighten up I would have Grandma bring him back to daycare, and of course he would behave for a few minutes.

Darren's party

We had Darren's 2nd birthday party yesterday, but Bill showed up almost late. Apparently he was out to late, so he was tired and couldn't get motivated. Darren ate like the typical pig he can be, while his cousin Jenna only ate her chips and cheese. I figured that when it came time to eat his cake, Darren would pick at the cake and only eat the icing. He did just the opposite. He ate most of the cake and picked at the icing. When I was decorating it, he kept climbing up on the bar and sticking his finger in the icing. I made him a pig cake as it is a lot of work to decorate the tractor cake and I know that is what Nathan wants for his birthday. When it came time to open gifts, his cousin Jenna wanted to help. They would rip off an inch section then had to throw it away before they could proceed. Then they would fight over the gift. It was pretty funny because Darren is used to fighting for his toys with Nathan.

Nathan never ate any dinner and he wouldn't eat any cake. I don't know if he wasn't feeling well or if he just had to much to drink and it filled up his belly. About the time when everyone was getting ready to leave (7:30-8:00) he then asked for a piece of cake.

Work "restructuring"

We had our layoffs late Thursday afternoon, and were told what everyone else had to sacrifice on Friday. We "laid off" Kevin, a service technician, and Angie, the inside parts girl. All hourly employees had to take a reduction in work hours while salary employees had to take a 7% pay cut. That stinks, but what are you going to do?

Filled with dread

I am filled with dread for two reasons. While they are both legitimate reasons, only one should have me really concerned. Darren's birthday is this weekend and you always bring in treats to daycare when it is your birthday. Since his birthday is on Saturday and there is another girl there whose birthday is on Sunday, I figured I would bring in the treats on Friday because I am guessing that they will bring theirs in on Monday. That means that I have to make something tonight, and I am thinking about making Monster Cookies, but I know the boys will want to help. They have the best intentions but all they do is make a mess, fight over who gets to do what and get in my way. I have to be very careful that no one tries to stick a finger in the bowl while it is mixing so they don't mangle a finger, and keep them from eating all the dough before I can bake it. We all like a taste once in a while, but they would eat the whole batch if I let them.

It was announced yesterday that there will be layoffs, work reduction, and salary cuts on Friday. While I know I am safe from the layoffs this time, I am not safe from the salary cuts or work reduction. If we have to have another round of layoffs, I can't guarantee that I will make it through the second round. I think my saving grace at this point is that I will be taking off six weeks with no pay once this baby is born, so they are saving some money there. I am not on their health insurance, do not drive a company vehicle nor do I utilize uniforms. If they have to layoff in the service department again, and they want to get rid of overhead, I know that I would go before Jon because he has all the compressor knowledge while I do not. I guess there is no sense being too concerned at this time because there is nothing that I can do, but work the hardest and best that I can.

Sunday family dinners

Last fall we had decided to have Sunday family dinners about once a month just to catch up with each other and have everyone visit. Yesterday was that particular Sunday. It was nice hearing how Mom's California trip was, when we were going to celebrate Easter and catching up on the extended family all in one sitting. It wasn't so nice to hear how Susan lost her job or how Carla's department has been eliminated so she is now a part-time employee.

The three cousins who were all born in 2007 had a good time playing together. They got to sit at the little table and they were all drinking out of each others cups. They would play with toys, sit it down, and then get mad when their cousin would pick it up and play with it. Darren had fun stuffing his face. Every time I turned around he was eating some fruit, some chips or some "snacks." They even managed to sucker Stacey into taking them outside for a while and playing. Nathan was willing to give everyone Hummer rides until his battery died.

Sleeping habits

One of our kids takes after Bruce's sleeping habits and the other takes after me. Can you guess who is a mini-me sleeper? Nathan has my sleeping habits. You are in a deep sleep, and little to nothing wakes you up. You are hardly ever up in the middle of the night, and if you are, you do what you have to do and go straight back to sleep. We both enjoy and need our sleep.

Darren on the other hand, I think he enjoys waking up in the middle of the night. Last night for example, Nathan woke me up because he had to go potty. So I get up with him (our bathroom does not have a night light, and with no windows it is pitch black. I have to turn on a flash light so that he enough light to see so that he can pee in the toilet and not on the floor) and lay back down when we are done. I hardly get comfortable when Darren wakes up. I let him cry for 5-10 minutes to see if he will end up falling back asleep. After a while Bruce tells me that he is not getting up as he just finally fell asleep after throwing up most of the night from his sinus headache. So at approximately 2:15 am I get up with Darren. As soon as I get him up he says he wants something to drink. So I get him a sippy cup of milk and he decides that he needs his juice also. He sits on my lap pretty calm sipping on his juice and milk. He then asked where Nathan was. I told him in bed sleeping. He asks where Dad is, and I tell him in bed sleeping where I am supposed to be. At 3:30 am he is no closer to sleep than he was over an hour ago. I, needless to say, am about ready to drop over so I just put him in bed and shut the door and let him scream for a while. At 3:45 he is still screaming bloody murder so I get him up again. I submit to his demands to turn the TV on, and like his Dad, that must be the magic formula. He was sleeping within 10 minutes. Darren and Bruce will both wake up in the middle of the night because they are thirsty or hungry. They will wake up in the middle of the night and are wide awake, they both fall asleep very easy in front of the TV.

Hopefully number three will be a sleeper like I am because I don't think I can handle being awake for two hours in the middle of the night times two.

Swim lessons

Both the boys had their first swim lesson this past week. Nathan loved it and Darren has mixed feelings about it. Darren is in water babies, so Bruce has to get in the pool with Darren to keep him afloat. Darren likes to splash in the water, but he doesn't like to be help out of the water as he gets cold. By the time he was done with his class, his bottom lip was shivering so hard I thought he was going to dislocate his jaw! His lips were blue and so were his hands. His problem is that he has no meat on his bones!

Before we got to the Y, we told Nathan that he had to listen to the teacher and pay attention. He asked why he had to listen to the teacher. I think he thought that he was going to get in the water and just play the entire time. To give the Y credit, they do keep the classes to just four kids at a time, so there is more "one-on-one" time. Of course Nathan is the biggest kid in his class and the first to volunteer to jump, or swim to the teacher, or whatever she asks of them. While she is working with another child, the kids are to sit on the ledge. I was only zoning in on Nathan, but he was splashing the boy he was sitting next to or flicking his ear. This is why I don't think he is ready for kindergarten yet!