The Bad, The Good, and The Ugly

The Bad:
When my big brother feels like this....
The Good:
I get the skateboard all to myself!

And we get to watch lots of cartoons which I'm occasionally interesting in sitting down to watch. But really, this skateboard is much cooler to ride.
And the Ugly:

So Ethan has had a persistent cough on and off since March. He'd wake up coughing 3 nights in a row and then stop for 2 or 3 weeks and then do the same thing all over again. He also coughs when he's running around or when he takes a bath and the air is warmer/more humid. We haven't been able to figure it out. So when Taylor's work insurance finally kicked in August 1st, we took Ethan to an insta-care place (it was a Saturday). We weren't content to wait for Monday since we have a reunion to go to next week and we'll all be sharing the same bedroom so if Ethan coughs from 3-4am we'll all be awake together. Not so much fun. Since it's been going on so long the doctor prescribed both an antibiotic (in case it's some lingering virus) as well as an allergy medicine. If neither of those work then they're going to check for asthma. We'll see. So Ethan started him meds last Tuesday and was fine. Then Friday he woke up with a fever and was pretty lethargic all day but it was gone in less than 12 hours so I didn't worry. He was his normal crazy self all weekend so we just thought it was some bug he caught and Isaac came down with it too on Sunday was fine Monday morning. Then yesterday we were at a grocery store and I picked Ethan up to let him ride in the cart and noticed that he had a rash all over his legs... and then I was horrified to notice a rash on his arms, his neck, back and torso. We're talking a crazy rash- the pictures really don't do it justice. But he assured me that it didn't itch and indeed he seemed to not be bothered by it at all. So I consulted the family. Taylor's dad declared it to be Chicken Pox even though he'd had the vaccine. My mother thought perhaps hives but the bumps were still there this morning- and not itching at all. So off we went to our new doctor. And guess who's allergic to penicillin? Who knew? He's never had antibiotics before so I guess at least we figured this out at a time when it didn't matter too much. Apparently the rash will go away as we stop giving him the drugs. Tragically he looks like a leper (every time he hears me say this he announces that he is NOT a leopard, he's a tiger and then growls). Hopefully the rash will go down soon so I don't feel like yelling to every other mother at the playground- he's really not contagious!!!

Looking back at the BAR months

I'm finally catching up on some of the posts I've wanted to do since I have a little more free time. We're glad Taylor's done with the BAR but looking back it wasn't that terrible. Okay so they got to watch a little more TV than normal (mostly in the evenings when I needed a break). But see how cute they are together?
We did lots of baking together but that can probably be blamed just as much on my pregnancy as the BAR.

And whenever Taylor was around the boys followed him like little puppies and insisted on being included in anything he was doing- even if it was as boring as putting together a shelf.

Their favorite thing with him though was playing Guitar Hero. His normal schedule was to be up by 6, ready by 6:30 so we could do family breakfast and scriptures, and then he'd be to work by 7am where he'd put in 1-2 hours of studying before starting to work. He'd work from then until 6:30 and then come home and have dinner with us and play Guitar Hero for a few minutes with the kids, and then at 7:30 when they went to bed he'd head back to the office to study more, usually until after 11 sometime.
So even though I think there are better ways to interact with your kids, in his exhausted state, needing to just veg for a little bit I was fine with the Guitar Hero. And the boys fell in love with it.

Some of the good things about studying for the BAR were that he enjoyed doing almost anything but studying and so he'd procrastinate in fun ways like playing the piano.

And he started the tradition of making french toast for breakfast every Sunday morning. This seems like such a luxury since we were always rushing and invariably late to church in DC. Here we have an extra 20 minutes just because the church is around the corner! Love that! Okay so the picture is pancakes but you get the picture. Now that we don't have a gate up blocking our kitchen (which would be impossible since there are 4 entrances), the boys have taken to pushing chairs over to the counters to "help" with the cooking.

All in all we're glad it's over and that Taylor has a lot more time with us. Last night he was home at 5:30 and it seemed like we had so much time before the boys went to bed. They wrestled on the floor, read books together, and of course begged to play Guitar Hero which we obliged them and I even joined in a little on the action- although I played on the easy setting. This video is from June. Ethan cracks me up.

My Bipolar Day

Sometimes my days seem to just fly by and while there may be minor annoyances like endless food and toy messes to clean up and kids whining or crying, the day really is enjoyable. And then there are those days where I go from the complete bliss of being with my fun kids to locking myself in the bathroom so I can count to 10 and calm myself down. I hope I'm not the only crazy one out there who occasionally gets driven more crazy by their kids.
So here's a recap of my up and down, bi-polar day today. Well first I'll have to begin a little before that. Ethan has never been interested in coloring or drawing or arts and crafts of any kind. But suddenly within the last few weeks he has fallen in love with drawing. I was very excited about this development until he started copying Isaac. Isaac has always loved crayons and basically any writing utensil he can get his hands on. Tragically, he doesn't like paper. I think it's because it slides around on the table so he prefers to just be rid of that annoyance and draw right on the table, or the side of the chair, or the floor under the chair, or the wall next to the chair, whatever's convenient seems to be to his liking. So my solution has been to hide every writing utensil in our house and then watch him like a hawk if I do let him have one to make sure he's only drawing on paper. I haven't really punished him for it. Maybe I should. So apparently Ethan has picked up on that and has decided that he likes to color on things other than paper. So 2 weeks ago I found huge pen stick figures on his sheets after his nap. There was a subsequent time out and a lecture and I thought the problem was solved. He certainly seems old enough and smart enough to understand this.
Then yesterday he was napping in our bed and apparently found some white-board markers leftover from Taylor's BAR studying and since he found no paper, he decided our bed sheets would work well. He's very into treasure maps and pirates right now, can you tell?
Since we'd already thoroughly covered that this was inappropriate behavior the previous week, Ethan was given a longer time out and then made to help me clean up the weekend's mess for the next 2 hours since I told him I'd have to wash those sheets and clean up his mess so he got to clean up other people's messes. (Trust me he thought this was absolute torture)
While we were cleaning, I was also making homemade rolls which are worth it but sure take a lot of time rising. So I had 36 lovely dinner rolls rising very peacefully on the counter and to my surprise, came back to find half of them squished into playdough like shapes. Ethan's explanation was that he liked them better in the shapes he made. I put myself in a time out after that one. And tragically since he squished them they weren't as fluffy when they baked and came out very dough-like in contrast to the others that were perfect.
Once I got over that, we had a fine evening and Taylor kept saying how penitent Ethan was about the sheets and the rolls and how he kept telling him how sorry he was and how good he was going to be in the future.
So I had high hopes for today. My neighbor brought me the book they're reading for the book club this Thursday so I lingered a little longer in my pajamas this morning to start reading. I will admit my children were neglected in the process and Isaac even came in the room naked from the waist down because he decided that his diaper was too full and he'd rather go kamando- but really there are tons of toys in the house to entertain them and it was only 8:15 when I stopped reading. Apparently this was too long and during this time, Ethan forgot the torture I put him through yesterday and did this to his bedroom wall:
And this to the laundry room door:

So when I did stop reading and started in on the week's laundry, I naturally found both drawings and my lovely, peaceful morning went in the opposite direction. Ethan even tried to blame Isaac for these drawings although I'm sure you can see why I didn't believe him. So he got to spend the next 2 hours scrubbing off the crayon. And being mean I didn't let him use a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser until the end. So the morning wasn't so great.

Then I had a doctor's appointment at 1:50 and my wonderful next door neighbor volunteered to watch the boys for me. She called and asked if she could take them to a movie with her kids and naturally I said yes so she ended up taking them 2 hours earlier than my appointment so they could go to the one they wanted. And suddenly my day was back up on cloud nine- I got to read in peace and quiet!

And then I went to the doctor... which really was fine. Taylor's cousin gave me the name of her OBGYN doctor that she loves and just raves about so I trusted her and went to him. He seems like a really nice guy and was very thorough in questions and answers and all was going well until he paused, and said "so you're a Woodbury, who are you related to?" and when I replied Taylor's dad, he stopped again and said, "I'm actually in your ward, we live on the street behind you." Utah is suddenly WAY too small! Anyone else think that's weird? I mean sure, Matt Pinegar our Elder's quorum president did my epidural at Georgetown when I had Isaac but that was just a naked back and at that point I just wanted the drugs and didn't care who was dispensing them. This seems a little more weird. Seriously he's going to start checking how far dilated I am in another month and then I'll see him on Sunday and when I'm out on a walk in the neighborhood. My mom thinks I should just buck up but I'm still a little weirded out. So the day went down- or at least in a weird direction for a while there.
There were several more ups and downs that I won't detail too much- getting to chat with my neighbor while the kids played so nicely together, then having Ethan yell, kick, and scream his way back to our house since he didn't want to leave. Then a nice family dinner where Isaac literally ate 3 full bowls of chili and sides to go with it and every bite he took he smacked his lips and made an "arf" noise as he chomped down on it and then smiled at us and he held his little fists in a ball when we told him it was time to pray but then wanted to eat so badly that he kept one hand up in a ball and snuck bites with his other hand. Great entertainment.

See, up and down, and up and down. Thankfully the day ended very well. One of our local grocery stores is doubling ALL coupons so I begged Taylor to put the kids to bed so I could go shopping by myself since I knew it would take forever standing in each isle looking through my monster stacks of coupons to find the right product and then decide if doubling it really made it worthwhile and then making sure to buy the correct number of items in the correct sizes. It was worth it in the end, and actually a lot of fun if you're crazy and cheap like me. So I ended up with 15 cents off my next gas purchase which never hurts and I saved $51.69 in coupons. And now my pantry and toiletry closet are stocked for the next month.

See how long my crazy receipt is. I have to admit I felt bad for the poor cash register guy who scanned over 25 coupons for me- twice each since they got doubled.

And to top off the night I decided to run to Rite Aid where they have a free rebates program. It's awesome if you've never done it. Basically the Sunday Ad tells you exactly what the store will charge you for the item and then what the rebate is and I just stick to the absolutely FREE ones. You buy it, go to their website and enter your receipt and store numbers, and voila, 6 weeks later a check comes in the mail for the exact amount you paid, minus tax. That easy! And it's stuff I'll use so it's great.

I have high hopes for tomorrow too. Office Max has major school supply sales which I can hardly resist having been a school teacher. This is this week's ad so I haven't actually gotten the 1 cent rulers or 10 cent packs of computer paper or 10 cent packs of notecards but last week they had 1 cent crayons and 20 cent eraser packs and 20 cent kid scissors. They do limit you to 3 of each item per customer so I have to admit that I gave each of my kids their own pile of 3 crayons, 3 eraser packs, and 3 scissors which they were happy to throw at the store clerk along with the dollar bill I gave each of them. Come on? My mother used to use all of my siblings like that and there were 6 of us. We were quite the sight all lined up with our exact number of items and cash in hand- annoyed we were being used but my mother loved it. And you have to admit less than $3 for all the stuff in the picture is pretty great. And the best part is that since we don't honestly need all of it, we're making a care package for our friend Jessica who helped paint the baby's room last week and I know her 4th graders will use all the supplies up.

It's good to know he loves his brother

In DC since we only had a 2 bedroom apartment, of necesity the boys slept in the same room. This was generally a fine arrangement and they rarely woke each other up. They also went to bed easily at the same time because Isaac was so little he wasn't that interested in playing and usually passed right out and we also had black-out curtains hung so they really couldn't even see each other.

Once we got to Salt Lake, we took over 3 bedrooms on the main floor that are very close together. Because there were 3 we decided to put Ethan and Isaac in separate rooms- partly because it doesn't get dark here until 9:30pm and partly because Ethan has had a persistent cough that wakes everyone up. So it's been nice to have the extra space. But with the baby coming and me painting the room I had to move Ethan back in with Isaac last week.

The new development that I hadn't realized would be a problem is that Isaac has recently discovered how to climb out of his crib. This is a whole new ballgame for us since Ethan even at 3 1/2 still slept in a crib and never once tried to climb out- he doesn't even climb out of the bath tub on his own. Isaac is a much different child. He frequently climbs out of the tub and now the crib too. So the past 2 night we've heard small banging noises coming from their rooms and have gone in thinking we need to lecture Ethan about going to sleep and instead we've found Ethan passed out completely on his bed and Isaac rolling around him, banging into the wall trying to get under the covers so he can sleep next to him. His efforts are hampered by his insistence on dragging his binky and monkey along with him.

While very cute, we've had to put Isaac back in his crib or we know neither of them would sleep very well (Ethan kicks a lot in his sleep). Finally after 3 times of doing this last night I brought in my camera and this is how Isaac ended up sleeping since we wouldn't let him sleep next to his brother. I guess the monkey will have to do for now.

The good side of Isaac learning to climb out of his crib by himself is that I now don't have to get up to let him out when he wakes up in the morning. It was lovely to wake up at 7:15 this morning and walk into their room and find them both up and playing happily with their cars. I don't know what time they woke up and I really don't care. I slept in! (at least that's sleeping in when you have kids)