Went to the pediatrician today. All was well.

Ethans stats are

Weight: 24lbs, 12 oz (60%)

Height: 33 in (95%)

Head: 47.5 cm (60%)

Gwens stats are

Weight: 9lbs, 9.5oz (25%)

Height: 22.5 in (60%)

Head: 37.8cm (25%)

They both got the same 4 shots. Ethan has had no reaction so far (he's never really had any type of reaction), but Gwennie did not fare so well. At first she was just sleepy, but about 4 hours ago her leg got all swollen where 2 of the shots were given and she was just crying and crying. She would relax for a moment, then tense up... her little eyes open so wide with fear, and start screaming. Scared me to death. Jason picked up some Tylenol on the way home and once we gave to that to her she's been ok. Sleepy, but ok. I hate shots.

Because of Gwens reaction, dinner was delayed till about 8. Jason had already eaten at his work BBQ, so Ethan and I had grilled pork chops with an italian relish and spinach on the side. This relish is basically an italian salsa. Chopped tomato, red onion, garlic, red wine vinegar, olive oil, basil, oregano. You're supposed to marinate the pork chops in the relish juices, but no time for that. Still turned out good, and Ethan ate tons.

Some strange thoughts lately. I read a horrible story yesterday about a 7 week old girl who was sexually abused. After I read this story, I felt immediately that I should see if she was available for adoption. Not just her, but her 2 year old brother (who had also been beaten) as well. I've never seriously considered adoption, but thought it might be something to consider in the far far future, so it was surprising to me that I felt such an urge to check it out. I even dreamed about it last night.

I did some checking today with the lady who reported the story, as well as the city that the girl lived in. She has recovered and is currently in foster care, awaiting adoption, no word on her brothers status. I was given information on contacting the adoption services if I wished, with the understanding that an interstate adoption (these kids are in Ohio) would be the states second choice. I mean, it could be all moot anyway. What am I thinking, two infants and two toddlers right? Its just bizzare that this has been in my thoughts constantly since reading the story. I don't want to say its a sign or something because heaven knows I often have random ideas pop into my head, but it was such a strong feeling... I've asked God that if this is something he wants me to pursue to have Jason bring it up the topic and then be open to the idea. I mentioned it to him briefly today and he said we'd talk about it when he got home, so I'm leaving it at that.

So, now that you all think I'm crazy.... ;) Today we didn't do much. It was a lovely rainy day. We walked to get the mail, and astonishingly, a man found it necessary to flirt with me as I was walking. Flattering! I guess two kids isn't necessarily a turn off, LOL! Good for the ego. Did a laundry, did a little cleaning.

We had a delish Tuscan-style grilled chicken sandwich. It had a pesto mayo, grilled chicken, tomato, artichoke hearts, mozzarella and baby greens. Had it with grilled yellow squash on the side. Very filling yet healthy.

Tomorrow we are off to the pediatrician for Gwens 2 month and Ethans 15 month appointments. Always a bit of dread since shots will be administered. I am very curious however to see how their growth has been.

We've been trying to firm up vacation plans. We can't decide if Lake Chelan would be too much work. Well, we KNOW it will be too much work, but will the enjoyment outweigh the work? My thought is that its only going to get harder since next year both kids will be walking. At least one of them is still completely restrainable :) If we do go, it would probably only be for a couple days. I hate to miss any time over there because it could either burn down or be sold at any time and we'd never get another trip :( That will be a sad sad day indeed.

Mom and I were talking about doing a camping trip too... Just a long weekend thing. Their church campout is the first of August and we may do that, since its so close to home. I'd also like to go to the Oregon coast as I love beach camping and Les & Karen live down there too. We may forgo the camping part and just crash at their house :)

Well, Gwen is fussing so I'd best be off.

Left the house very early this morning to visit with A. Daralyn & U. Greg before they headed back to Oroville. It was there first time seeing Gwen.

After they left, we had lunch at Mom's, then headed back to my house so they could watch the kids while I went grocery shopping. Mom, Michelle and Jenni stayed at the house and cleaned it while I was gone. It was the first time I left Gwen at home and she did good!

When I got home the weather started turning for the worse and we had quite the thunder and rain storm. It was nice because the air previously seemed very thick and heavy with humidity.

We had a different dinner tonight. We do not eat a lot of fish, but I was inspired by a recipe which called for Red Snapper (or Tilapia since I couldn't find Red Snapper) coated in pesto, with asparagus, yellow squash and tomatoes on top, finished with dollop of more pesto. You wrapped it up in a foil packet, in the oven for 25 min and you're good! Everyone liked it ok... May not make this exact dish again, but I'd like to try more fish to mix up the beef/chicken/pork rut.


Oh, I bought a pair of capris and got them a size bigger than I usually do and they FIT. I'm going to pretend that I don't notice they're a size bigger because its nice to wear something non-maternity :)

all for now, headed for bed.

Oy vey! We had a rough evening. The day went fairly well, but as soon as Jason came home things started going wacky. Gwen wouldn't stop crying, and thusly woke up Ethan who had only been napping 30 min. He decided that he wasn't going to go back to sleep, so I lost my 'free' time to get laundry and housework done. Because of his missed nap he whined constantly.

It was toasty in the house, so we had egg salad sandwiches for dinner, which Ethan hated (one of the few things he's ever completely rejected). Afterwards, Jason mowed the front yard and gave Ethan his bath. Once he was done, I went to bathe Gwen. I had her in there and was soaping her up when all of a sudden a shoe came flying over my shoulder and landed on her, compliments of her brother. Grrr! Complete havoc ensued, with all the kids screaming and crying and ugh. No one was hurt, but everyone was scared.

Yesterday we went out to Mom & Dad's for Fathers Day. We had a good time and Ethan played himself nearly to sleep.

I'm struggling again with not feeling well. It starts simply, perhaps just a broken glass or someone not taking a nap, and it takes a free-fall from there. All of a sudden everything is unbearable and horrible and depressing. It gets so bad that I'll end up crying all day. All day, constantly. Sometimes leaving the house helps, but a lot of the time the thought of having to find clothes that fit, etc makes it even worse. And I can feel the cloud of depression come down on me as I head back to home anyway.

Tomorrow morning I'm leaving very early to go see A. Daralyn and U. Greg at Mom's house. Should be fun to see them.. They haven't met Gwendolyn yet.

What a day! It started out well, with Ethan sleeping in till 8. He had been quite exhausted by the night at the beach.

We called Becki to come out and watch Ethan while we went to see Batman Begins with Gwen in tow. I was rather uncertain how it would go, but she stayed asleep in the pouch for the first half and only made a tiny cry once when I was startled by something in the movie. I fed her right there in the theater and she ended up sleeping the rest of the movie. Easy enough! After the movie was over, the row behind us (which was an entire family) started asking us how old she was, how well behaved she acted, etc. The husband even said, 'I heard your baby cry and it was so great! I loved hearing that!'. Jason and I were amazed that we would happen to sit right in front of people who LOVED to hear little babies cry :) We went to that new theater at Alderwood and were very impressed. Its enormous.

When we got home, Ethan was happy as a clam with Becki. We invited her for dinner, but she had to go. We had eggrolls, rice and carrots. One of our favorite meals!

Unfortunately dinner time is when things started getting rough. Gwen did not want to left alone, and wanted to be walked. I, again, had to scarf down my dinner to get to her. She wanted to eat and eat and eat. I got Ethan bathed while Jason worked frantically to keep Gwen entertained. Ethan got dressed in his jammies and I was feeding Gwen again and we had a moment of peace. It didn't last long though. Ethan had reached up on the table and grabbed his food bowl. It fell off the table, and, along with it came a cup of soy sauce that we had used for the eggrolls. The soy sauce spilled all over his face. He was completely coated in it. He started screaming like the dickens... much more frantically than I'd ever heard him cry. Scared Jason and I to death. Jason rushed him to the bathroom and started washing out his mouth. I put Gwen down and ran in there and started splashing his eyes with water. Poor little Ethan thought we were drowning him I imagine, but that salty stuff had to come out or he wouldn't feel better :( He cried and cried and cried the poor little guy. Ethan clung to Jason for a while after that, sobbing miserably. After he calmed a bit I changed his pj's and saw that the soy sauce had caused him to break out in a bright red rash all over his tummy!

Anyway, we got him tucked away to bed and all was calm again.

We'll be heading out to Mom & Dad's tomorrow for a little Fathers Day celebration. Hopefully no more painful events will happen with our children this week. Between Gwens fall and Ethans soy sauce soaking, we're really on a streak!

Quite tired so I'll make this quick. Spent all morning (from about 5:30am to 12pm) cleaning up Jasons bathroom for Fathers Day. It was really bad, but its quite spiffy now. You might say, 'Kristi, cleaning a room for someone is not a good gift'. Well, if you'd seen this bathroom you wouldn't think that!

Before:





After:




I also have another small gift for him as well, so it wasn't JUST his bathroom :)

This evening we went to 'Kite Night' run by Mom's church. We had a really good time. Ethan totally loved the beach. He went in the water and played in the sand and chased birds and generally had an awesome time. We have some really cute pics that Jason will put up on the site this weekend (too many to post here). We do however have this nice family pic that I may get framed. Unfortunately, Ethan was in a pretty tired mood at this point (this was right before we left) so this was the closest to a smile we could get





Anyway, we are all extremely tired, so thats all I'll type for now. More pics and stuff tomorrow!

I'm so tired of dealing with baby body fluids. Gwen, for the second time in three days, had some major projectile vomiting in bed this morning. Bed, baby and I were soaked. Then I got Ethan up and as has been HIS way for the past week, his diaper overflowed and he was soaked head to toe in urine, as was his bed. I'm gonna have to go another size up for night-time diapers. Then later he had a poopy which, thanks to him pulling at his diaper went on the floor (luckily, the wood). He hates having a diaper on and if you don't have pants on him the first thing he'll do is remove the diaper. I'm sorely tempted to give potty training a try.

After a miserable morning, I packed up the kids and headed to FM to get some things for Fathers Day. I can't say much since Jason will read this, but hopefully he'll like it. I just hope the kids cooperate enough so I can get it done!

While we were shopping, I got massively overheated (perhaps cuz I had Gwen in the pouch?) and I started sweating like mad. I'm not a sweating type person, unless I'm REALLY working hard and its warm out. I was so embarrassed! My forehead was damp and my shirt under the sling was damp too. So weird! The checker was like, 'Hon you don't look very well, do you need some help out' and I felt like saying, 'It only looks like I'm dying, I'm really fine!'. Even in the car with the air conditioning blowing on me I could not cool off. Bet it was those darned hormones!

I also washed all of Ethans big lego things today. They hadn't been washed since he got them and they were icky from being in his mouth, all over the floor, in the dogs mouth, and thrown outside. Washed all the bins for his toys too. Lots o' dog hair.

Had homemade chicken noodle soup with toasted bread. One of my favorite soups. I even made a homemade chicken stock for it. I have a cool recipe that makes GREAT stock in 40 min, as opposed to the hours it usually takes. If anyone wants it, let me know!

I just realized that perhaps people do not care what I have for dinner. I find this hard to imagine, as I'm always interested in what people have for dinner! Well, if you are not interested, too bad, cuz this is my blog and I like keeping a little record of my dinners ;)

A most dreadful thing happened this evening. We keep Gwen on the table all the time while we're on the laptop or eating dinner. I even like having her up there when I'm in the kitchen so that I can keep an eye on her. Unfortunately, Ethan somehow was able to reach all the way up there and pull her down to the floor :( Luckily, she landed on her blanket, which was soft and fluffy, but she screamed like the dickens. She has no bump on her head and she seemed to be acting fine, so I'm assuming all is ok, but it scared everyone to death. Bad Mommy :(

Ethan has started liking his two chairs (both Spongebob, one is cushy, one is hard plastic). In fact, he now likes to climb in them and STAND on them. Then he can't figure out how to get down so he'll stand there and call for help. Its pretty cute, but we are trying to discourage it.

I took some cute pics of Gwen today... here are a few:

Smiley!


What are you saying to me Mom?


Look at those big blue eyes!


Tonight we had spaghetti, garlic bread and peas. It was ok. Ethan liked it well enough to spread it all over his face, and it left a little stain on his face so he kinda looks like a clown!

We were supposed to go to the Childrens Museum in Everett tomorrow, but today was draining and I haven't done laundry in AGES so I think we will stay home.

that's all for now!

Nearly every morning I wake up and recall something that I forgot to put in the blog. Then I have to try and remember to put it in the next one. For instance, Ethan now has a molar! I noticed it a few days ago when he was screaming and there it was :) That explains his recent bad behavior. We used to be able to stick our fingers in his mouth to see if he was teething, but he no longer allows it.

Today we went on our regular Tuesday walk. It was two miles, and this time I did not get a McFlurry afterwards ;) I'm hoping that we may be able to do our walks twice a week to get even more exercise in. I know that its much to early to expect my 'baby tummy' to be gone but I hate it so much. Seriously it makes me totally depressed. Sigh. God must be trying to teach me patience. If I live through this year, I will be the most patient person ever.

We had Tortilla Soup tonight. It was good.

Well, thats all I can think of to say for now. I'm sure that once I'm in bed I'll think of 10 more things though :)

I absolutely must remember that any meal that takes 3 hours to make and 5 minutes to eat is not worth it, especially on a weeknight. We had a roasted turkey breast, mashed tats and stuffing. As is her normal way, Gwendolyn woke up just as I started eating, so I had to gulp it down quickly and take care of her. She does this every night, which is rather tiresome. I would like occasionally to eat my meal slowly.

Managed to get some housework done today, which was nice. I had the urge to make something, so I ended up making chocolate chip cookies, which is not good. Choc chip cookies are not helping my diet. But what else can I make when I have the urge to bake? Its truly a curse for a person who loves to cook and bake to have to diet as well. Cruel.

Yesterday we went to my Moms house for a little get-together with Dad's cousin and his wife. We had never met them before, but they were very nice and easy to get along with!

Ethan has discovered his tongue and its always sticking out. Its pretty cute when he's trying to do something requiring concentration, he'll stick that little tongue out, as if its helping him focus. He'll even stick it out and touch it when you ask him where it is. Unfortunately, he also likes to go after other peoples tongues, and generally, people do not want dirty little toddler fingers in their mouth :D

I feel a headache coming, so I'd better log off. Cross fingers that it won't stay with me overnight!