Yep, I Suck

I can't believe how long it's been since I blogged. :::hanging head in shame::: Not sure what happened there. I guess the holidays screwed me up because I was doing SO well there up until Christmas. Speaking of, Christmas was great! The weather cooperated so my parents were able to come on Christmas Eve and go to church with us and Joe's parents. Then we all went to Joe's parents for dinner and the kids opened their gifts from the grandparents. Then back to our house where the kids opened their PJ's delivered early by "Santa" while we were at church and in to bed with them after putting out milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. My parents spent the night (obviously), so they got to be here for the Christmas morning mayhem....which actually turned out not to be nearly as bad as I was expecting. Truthfully, it went WAY better than I thought it would. They each got a few gifts at a time to open at their own pace and when they were all done with those, the paper was gathered up and stuffed in a garbage bag and it was on the next set of gifts. I think they had just enough that they didn't feel overwhelmed and not want to finish unwrapping and just enough that they weren't asking if there were more.

The kids left with my parents around 2:30 to be dropped off at their dad's. They stayed there until New Year's Eve day. That was hard for me. I mean, I was happy for them to be able to spend extra time with him since they only see him every other weekend, but I really missed them. A lot. I think that's where part of my blogging slump came from. And then once I hadn't blogged in like a week, it just became easier and easier to NOT blog. Not to mention, I STILL haven't even uploaded the pictures from Christmas (or since then) to my laptop yet :-X. I know, I know! Slacker. So anyway, we picked the kids up New Years Eve afternoon and headed to my parents house (to spend the night) where we ate dinner and then played the Wii for about 6 hours straight, turning it off just in time for the ball to drop. And then my sister and her hubby went home and we all went to bed (the kids went to bed around 9). Party animals, huh? We had a lot of fun, though.

Not a lot exciting has happened since then, I guess. Except...Brooke is finally almost 100% potty trained! And it only took 3 months. No, I'm not being sarcastic! She still has the occasional pee accident (but usually catches herself and finishes on the toilet), but I no longer have to tell her when to go to the bathroom and she hasn't pooped her pants in WEEKS. ::::happy dance:::: Except...I can't dance, sooooo.....it's an imaginary happy dance :-P.

If I seem a little loopy it's probably because I didn't get much sleep last night. Ryan woke me around 1am to tell me his belly hurt and that he threw up in his bed. I got him and his bed cleaned up and then (since he sleeps on the top bunk) I made him up a bed on the couch (covered it with a sheet and also the floor in front of the couch) and gave him a bucket in case he had to throw up again. He came up 3 hours later, around 4:30, to tell me he threw up again. (In my sleep-hazed state it didn't occur to me to camp out on the couch WITH him...shame on me....but really, it never occurred to me until this morning. That's kind of terrible, huh?) I came down and switched out the sheets because, while he hit the bucket, he also managed to get some on every other surface around him (sheet on the couch, sheet on the floor, AND the pillowcase)...poor kid. I got him settled back on the couch and went to try to get a little more sleep. But Brooke decided to get up about an hour later and kept crying, so in to bed she came with Joe and me. She was extremely restless and I didn't sleep much with her beside me. Ryan came back up at 6:20 to ask for a drink (specifically milk...um, no!) and I told him I'd be down in a little while and he should wait a little bit longer before drinking anything. Brooke woke up around 7 and wanted to go pee, so I took her in the bathroom and thought her lips looked really pale and I got nervous. We went back to lay down for just a bit longer and she started coughing a bit and then kind of gasping like she was trying not to puke and I sat her up a couple times. Finally, the 3rd time I heard her stomach gurgling and I picked her up and raced her to the bathroom where we arrived just in time for her to puke in the toilet (which she surprisingly did without fighting me and didn't cry afterwards.....this is an issue with her when she is congested with a cold and throwing up mucus). I thought for sure she was victim #2 of this tummy bug, but it appears that this was just one of those congestion issues (her nose has been a little stuffy/runny the last few days) because she's been totally fine all day. Ryan has kept down everything he's drank (Sierra Mist....a lot of it) and eaten (some crackers, applesauce, and a couple bites of chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner). He's perky and in a good mood, but he is running a fever now. Hopefully the puking is over and tonight will be a better night. Please. I need some sleep. And I'm tired of washing pukey laundry.