The Brickers: January 2010

Tis' the season

Well, following last weekend's puke fest the rest of the week was just about as fun. That lovely trinity of the responsibilities of your job, the responsibilities of being a parent and the guilt that seems to come with each of those things. It's like the Bermuda Triangle of parenting and instead of some missing plane, you lose two years of life from stress and gain a dozen gray hairs.

By Wednesday I was ready to pull my hair out from the fevers, the puking and the diarrhea. And by Thursday morning I no longer had any sinks that weren't being used as a soaking tub. (And may I just take a moment for a HUGE shout out to OxyClean!)

Wednesday also brought some nasty weather. This was the view from our living room:

And can I just say again that I would take ten feet of snow over 1/4 an inch of ice any day of the week!

Thankfully, by the time I went down to work the roads were much better than they had been in the morning. And even though I spent most of the morning agonizing over all the work I had on my desk down at the office, in between the panic attacks I was able to enjoy some time with the girls.

On Friday night I picked up dinner and hoped for a nice relaxing evening. After dinner I sat at the piano to play for awhile and soon I looked over and an audience had shown up!

After the girls had heard all their requests they moved to their normal position when I'm playing. I think Ella wants to play a duet!

I went into work very early on Saturday and by the time I got home the kids were already down for their afternoon nap. Of course, about ten minutes after I fell asleep they woke up and realized mom was home.

Josh had a birthday party to go to on Saturday night (yes, I remembered) so we all got ready and headed out to get the birthday boy a birthday gift. After a few more errands we were minus one kid! It is amazing how much different it is with only two children!! Dinner was quiet, relaxing and, dare I say, enjoyable! And at dinner I was reminded how nice it is to have a child that is potty trained! Seriously, is it too soon to start with Ella?

After dinner we rented a few movies and Dustin dropped me and the girls off at home while he went to pick up Joshie. And once again I was reminded how exponentially quiet it is with the removal of one child.

You would think that given the fact Lauren asked where Josh was just about every 20 minutes on Saturday night, and given the fact that she HAD to sit next to him and church and given the fact that she followed his every move at breakfast on Sunday, that she would always love him being around her.

Yet that is obviously not always the case. Case in point:

When I look at this picture all I can think of is that Elton John song from the movie "The Lion King", called "Can you feel the love tonight?"

That one picture sums up what it was like at our house all of Sunday. From the moment we got home from church until they fell asleep last night it was fighting.

In fact, Josh put his ability to write sentences to work yesterday and made a new sign for his bedroom door.

Somehow someone took my sweet little six year-old and replaced him with a bratty sixteen year-old.

I want my sweet, little Josh back.

At some point during Sunday, Lauren thought she and Josh were playing hide and seek. Shortly after that I decided to take a nap. I awoke 45 minutes later and went into Lauren's room to find that her lights and tv were on so I shut them off.

I went downstairs in the basement and Josh had locked himself in his room and Dustin and Ella were folding laundry.

Me: Dustin. Where's Lauren?
Dustin: She's up in her room playing.
Me: UH, NO SHE'S NOT!
Dustin: Well, check in Josh's room.
Me: Josh? Is Lauren in your room?
Josh: NO!
Me: She's not in there Dustin!
Dustin: Well, I don't know where she is!

That's about the time I freaked out and immediately thought of the Iowa family who's two year-old died from exposure out in Montana during Christmas. I started screaming for her and ran upstairs to her room.

Me: LAUREN!!!
Me: LAUREN! Where are you?!!?!?!?

I ran into my bedroom and ripped the covers off the bed, I dropped to the floor and looked under the bed and as I was running into the bathroom I heard...

Lauren: Mommy?

I ran into her room to find her wedged between her dress up trunk and her hamper in her closet!

Me: Lauren! Oh, thank God!
Me: What were you doing?
Lauren: I p[l]ay hide and seek. But I falled asleep.

She fell asleep playing hide and seek because no one was playing with her! It's like that episode of Roseanne!!! Oy vey!

Shortly after dinner the two of them were back to being the best of buds and our house was back down to a normal level of loudness.

If every Sunday is going to be like that...I'm just going to go into work.

When did that happen?

Every once in awhile, as a parent, you take a pause and look at your children and realize that they've changed, they're growing up and they look so much bigger. That usually happens right after tax season for me because I haven't seen them for months.

However, this week it was Lauren's turn to give me pause.

Not only did I register her for preschool **sniff, sniff**, but she was accident free all week!! So I think it is safe to say we are officially potty trained!!!

I feel the shackles of diapers releasing and it feels GREAT! Not to mention the extra money each month.

I wonder if 10 months is too early to start Ella potty training! ;-)

Sounds like...

Lauren is talking up a storm now and just so I don't ever forget, here are some words she says...and the adorable way she says them.

Hamburger sounds like "hi-ga-ma-burger".

Alvin and the Chipmunks sounds like "Alvin and the chick-a-munks".

When she talks about our house she says "us house".

Ella Bella Cinderella sounds like "Ewwa Bewwa Cindewewwa".

You can add Ella to the list...

because now she's throwing up, too.

Lauren seemed to be doing better last night but then this morning she woke up with a 101.4 temp. Now both girls are home with Dustin - which means in about 8 to 10 hours I will get a call from him telling me he's sick, too.

**throws hands in the air**

We must be making the stomach flu an annual January event. If you don't remember the joys of it last year...you can refresh your memory here.

Waiting for Daddy

If the crown fits...

Up to something

I'm not sure what it is...but you can tell she's thinking about it!

Turn on a dime

No, the title of this blog is not describing the minivan's driving capabilities. ;-) It describes how life can change in an instant.

Sunday night after dinner the kids took a bath and we all headed to Target to purchase a game for Josh's Nintendo DS. He had saved his Christmas money and helped with chores all weekend to earn the last few dollars he needed to buy his treasure.

We all piled in the car and headed off to Target. It was 6:30.

Lauren fell asleep so the boys decided to go in on their own and the rest of waited in the car.

I was just playing on my phone and thinking what a nice day it had been and then Lauren coughed.

I stopped what I was doing and then realized she wasn't coughing; she was throwing up in her sleep.

I whipped out of the front seat and opened the side door to see all of dinner run down the front of her coat and pool in her lap. I stood there in disbelief for a second and then realized I didn't have anything for her to throw up into. So I grabbed Ella's blanket and tried to catch everything spewing out of her mouth. But she was still strapped into her car seat and couldn't lean forward to get everything out of her mouth and was consequently starting to choke.

About the time I reached to unbuckle her top latch she looked at me and coughed with a big heave and I was covered. I'd say from head to toe but it was really more like head to waist. ;-) I couldn't even see through my glasses and even in all that chaos my first thought was, "thank God my mouth was closed" because I could feel it all over my face.

That's when Dustin and Josh came out and Dustin took one look at me and said, "What the...?"

I screamed, "GIVE ME THAT BAG!"

And Lauren proceeded to lose the rest of her stomach contents into a Target bag.

As I attempted to clean myself up Dustin kept asking me what happened. I said, "It's not hard to understand, Dustin. She was sleeping. She puked. She woke up. What are you missing?"

"Well, what made her puke?", he said.

My puke covered face said it all.

So there we were driving home - me covered in vomit, Dustin hanging his head out the window, Lauren crying, Josh playing his new DS game and Ella sleeping - frantically trying to figure out what we were going to do about daycare.

I approached the intersection and out of the corner of my eye I saw a van coming. I slammed on the brakes, hit the horn and reached over to hold Dustin back. I looked up at the light and I had green. We sat there in the middle of the intersection, at a complete stop and looking at each other like we couldn't believe what almost happened. The driver who ran the red light had pulled over and was probably as shaken up as we were.

I pulled out of the intersection and immediately started crying at the thought of what could have happened. If I had gone only one more mile an hour down that street my husband and sweet Ella would have been seriously injured.

There are moments in life when you can literally feel someone watching over you...and that was certainly one of them.

The moral of the story is...nothing like a near death experience to make you forget all about the chunks of beef stew in your hair.

Spaghetti House

Tax season is officially in full swing and I was at work by 3:00 am on Saturday morning (boo!). So by the time I got home from work the thought of making anything for dinner that was more complicated than boiling water gave me a headache.

Thankfully...Ella enjoyed her first experience with spaghetti.

"SPAGHETTI!!!!!"

"It's sooooo good!!!"

"Get in my tummy you yummy noodles!"

"I never knew eating could be so much fun!"

"You want some, too?"

"I'll share!"

"Give me a Y!"

"What? It's all gone!"

"Mom? Can I have more?"

"What do you mean there isn't any more?"

"Please God, bring me more of this stuff!"

Fortunately, she's not the only one who loves Spaghetti in this house!!

Personality in a picture

This one picture exudes Ella's personality - full of energy, full of joy and always ready for some fun!

Tea time

Well, the time has come. Lauren is beginning to express her own sense of style more and more each day. And Sunday, as we were getting ready for church, I brought her her new dress, her new tights and her new boots and she said she needed her pearls and her gold headband, too.

I still laugh at how I, of all people, have such a girly girl. Although, I must admit, that even Dustin and my father laugh at how I've only really started acting like a girl in the last few years. I guess Lauren is rubbing off on me.

I look at Ella and wonder if she will take after her sister or if she will start out like her mom.

Anyway, we went into church charged and ready for a good day. We left church feeling like we had run a marathon and ready for a nap. Not a good day for the Bricker girls in church on Sunday. Whoa! Lauren threw a fit that required her removal from the sanctuary and Ella wanted to walk up and down the pew the entire time.

Sadly, I cannot even tell you what the sermon was about and the fact that I can even tell you the Holy Gospel was about Jesus' baptism is nothing short of a miracle in and of itself.

Once we got the children fed and their sugar levels back up to normal levels, the rest of the day was fine.

Dustin and I did make a large purchase this weekend. We bought what every corner lot homeowner needs in Iowa:

We pooled together all of our Christmas money and decided to get it. The 100+ foot lot line is too much for the four-wheeler and the blade when we get a heavy snow. And since I don't know how to use the four-wheeler and the blade I end up using the shovel all the time. And I do not like using the shovel with this much snow.

I do want to point out, though that everyone owes us because thanks to our purchase...you can guarantee no more snow this winter. ;-)

The rest of Sunday was our usual routine of laundry and cleaning.

Except, of course, for tea time - which was served promptly at high noon.

What a Southern belle, huh?

Thinking about it...

Ella is standing on her own more and more these days and sometimes she just "looks" like she wants to take that first big step. She's taken a few shuffles...but that's about it. Either way...it's funny to watch her try to get her balance and coordination working together.

Bouncy! Bouncy! Bouncy!

We worked hard at taking all the Christmas decorations down on Saturday just to turn around and tear the living room up again to put up the bouncy house! Between all the kids' hard work with the Christmas decoartions and the fact that they have a bit of cabin fever from all this cold, I figured we could all use an evening of play.