It has been a long road for Evan and for me too. My reluctant little guy has resisted any attempts to potty train for the last year. His stint in the hospital left him with some PTSD and a major don’t mess me with attitude (thus the hippie hair do, he won’t let us touch his hair and neither of us has had the energy to pin him down for a hair cut yet.) So I have been patient. I have been very patient. I knew from experience with the first two not to push it. And FINALLY he is peeing on the potty. We’ve been going comando and we haven’t done training pants yet. But when he’s home he will go pee in the potty on his own! WOO HOO… we’re making progress. I have to chuckle when I see him on the little potty because he is so big now, and tall. The long legs sticking out. I’ve gotten him to use the potty seat a couple times, but he much prefers the little potty for now. Just for posterity I had to take a picture. Something to blackmail him with later in life!

I made a great find today! For some time I’ve been looking for some old architectural elements that I can use as photo props. There is an architectural salvage in Portland and every time we drive by it I beg my husband to stop, to no avail, I think he knows better. But I found a lady here in town who has lots of rusty, weathered, pieces which she turns into wonderful pieces which she sells in her shop Madison Moore’s Having collected pieces for years to make over she has found herself overstocked and I scored two gorgeous weathered barn doors. She also gave me tips on how to paint (color) them but keep the weathered look. I’m just so excited to have these and have the opportunity to play with them, and if I get antsy I know where I can get more!

So here are my tattered, weathered, beautiful doors:

And playing around a little to use them as photo props:

I have wanted to make more Pinny Aprons since I did the first two last summer, but my design time has been so limited that I haven’t gotten back to them until now. When it comes to every day dressing for my kids I personally love things that I can add to a pair of jeans and plain shirt to dress it up, but still be practical for play. So for me the Pinny is a perfect item. It can be casual or dressy, it can be worn year round, and it can be taken off if play becomes too messy and I want to save the outfit from stains!

The first two Pinny Aprons I have made this season are reversible. You get two outfits in one and it is perfect if one side happens to get dirty, you can just flip it over and voila…. a whole new clean outfit! I have more designs cut out and one the way, I hope that you love them as much as I do! Right now I have my first few listed in my shop on Etsy, but I hope to have some listed in our webshoppe soon!

Zoo Boo Reversible Pinny

Rainbow Sherbert Reversible Pinny

Once again we are restocked on the Dex Dura-bib. We can’t seem to keep these in stock lately and I finally figured out why! Kate featured these with her kids on the fabulous TLC show Jon and Kate plus 8. One advantage from ordering from us is you can PICK YOUR PRINT! I have them listed by design, print the ones you like best. And we offer FREE SHIPPING on all US orders and very reasonable shipping on international orders.

I can’t say enough about how wonderful these bibs are, they wipe off easily, they catch everything, they snap so baby can’t yank it off, and they LAST! Mine have been through 3 kids and they STILL have wear left in them.

We had a beautiful day here in Oregon, but I … I mean the bunny… hid the eggs inside b/c its been so cold and foggy in the AM and the eggs get all wet and nasty.

Kyle (just turned 6) is questioning all the mythology. I finally just said in answer to like the 100th question about all the logistics. “you can believe what you want to believe but your brother and sister still believe in the easter bunny (and tooth fairy and santa) and you need to let them keep that magic.” AND I’ll kick your butt and you won’t see your Nintendo DS for 2 weeks if you go around telling them that the easter bunny isn’t real. LOL! There must be some wild stories flying at kindergarten.

I bought the wrong PAAS kit. It had spackle paint and my kid’s hands are all dyed green and blue from it. Poor Evan was beside himself that he couldn’t get it to wash off (and god forbid mommy try to help him do anything these days, I send him out to the car 15 minutes before we leave b/c he has to climb in and buckle himself in the car seat and it takes forever. Huge fits if I do any part of it).

AHHH…. the joys of motherhood are without number.

Now who is going to eat the 24 eggs we dyed today???? Thankfully I have good cholesterol! I only hid 10 of them b/c I was worried they’d leave stains on my carpet. I don’t think anyone will notice.

Hope you all have a very good day with your families. I’m sick and feel really crummy, but my motherly duties for Easter are done in regards to the rabbit, so WHEW… and we have no family coming over… pretty easy!

Amy has learned to ride a bike on two wheels! When Kyle learned we went out front to ride bikes one day and he said “mommy take off the training wheels!” I went and fiddled around in the garage to find some tools that would work, took the training wheels off. We have a nice flat grassy side yard so I got him started there and we quickly were riding up and down the sidewalk. He was so ready to be on two wheels. The biggest thing they have to learn is to put their feet down when they stop. Pat came home from work and Kyle was zipping around on two wheels and daddy felt a little left out!

Unforunately we had a repeat. Amy declared training wheels gone! I took her to the side yard, daddy came home from work… I told him I’d let him teach Evan how to ride a bike! But when they are ready, they are ready, it doesn’t take much to get them riding. Daddy did get to help with learning a few of the other skills.

There are definately 3 steps to learning to ride a bike:

1. Balance and stop. They have to learn to put their feet down when they stop.

2. Turn, the training wheels make the turning radius much different, they have to learn to judge space and turn within it.

3. Start, I think this is the hardest, the have to learn to push off, pedal, and balance at the same time. Of coure the little kids bikes you can’t rotate the pedals backwards (because that’s breaking) and that makes it more of a challenge in some ways.

Amy has plenty of bumps and bruises from learning to ride, but she is so proud of herself! Here is my little Amy Belle zipping around the street!

We are way behind on our blog. Little Evan gave us a good scare by developing pnemonia. It started out as, we think, the flu. He is prone to the croupy cough and he woke up crouping one morning and we knew he was sick. But he kept getting sicker, spiking high fevers I couldn’t get down and just so lethargic. When he saw our family doctor…

Evan got himself admitted to the hospital! I will admit I suspected it was coming, he was so sick, and I had packed a bag “just in case.” You know that old murphy’s law, I figured packing a bag and being prepared would be a sure way NOT to get sent to the hospital. Our family physician is organized with an urgent care unit so he was able to send us downstairs for labs, a chest xray, and an IV infusion. They put him on Rocephin and he was dehydrated so he needed fluids. Our doctor was borderline whether to admit Evan or send him home with us to monitor closely, then they did a blood oxygen read on him and he was at 85%. Which got him a fast ticket to the the hospital.

We did three nights at our local small town hosptial and Evan just wasn’t getting any better, they did another chest xray and his left lung was almost completely occluded. He had been on some pretty heavy duty antibiotics so to see that he had made no progress was very scary. Our family doctor then made the call to transfer us up to Dorenbecher chidlren’s hospital in Portland, he just felt like we weren’t going to receive the care we needed in our small town hosptial.

Evan and I had an ambulance ride to Portland and he was admitted to Dorenbecher. And I have to say after 3 nights in our small town hosptial Dorenbacher was like being admitted to the Hilton. The staff and facilities were wonderful. Evan ended up having surgery to drain fluid off his left lung and they removed an abcess. He had a chest tube for 2 days to drain off his lung. When they grew out the cultures from his lung he ended up having MRSA, which would explain why he didn’t get better once admitted. The antibiotics he was on don’t cover MRSA. As soon as they got him on Clindamycinwhich covers MRSA he started to improve.

We ended up doing six nights at Dorenbecher and it was a happy day when Evan was released! Nine nights in a hospital is a lot and having my baby so sick. (I know he’s almost three but he’s still my baby!) He is up and running around and seems to have recovered from his ordeal just fine. And we are just now playing catch up with our lives too!

I can’t keep these in stock. Dura-Bib really is the best bib ever, if you don’t believe me order ONE and try it, you’ll be back for more. I found 4 was the right number to rotate through the wash and keep one in the diaper bag, etc… It snaps at the neck so baby can’t yank it off. The thick vinyl wears so well, and you can throw it in the washing machine or dishwasher! The snap together pocket catches droppings, but it unsnaps to wash off and store. And best off all these bibs are durable. Buy 4 for your first child, you won’t need more again any time soon. Mine lasted through 3 kids and got passed onto someone else.

Best of all FREE SHIPPING on the Dura-Bib within the domestic US.

I would have been shocked about it, but Kyle lost his first tooth when he was 4 too. Amy will be 5 at the end of march. Right around Christmas I was helping Amy brush her teeth and noticed that the bottom two teeth were wiggling, one of them quite a bit. And she got to wiggling it and poof! Within 10 days it was out of her month and she had her first tooth fairy visit. The other one is dangling (as you can see in this picture) and Kyle has a couple about to fall out too. I think I better go get a roll of presidential dollars at the bank. The toothfairy is going to be very busy at our house!

In honor of Amy Winehouse….

They tried to make me get a hair cut but
I said no, no, no.
Yes I’ve been blind, but what I can find
You wont know, know, know.

I ain’t got the time
And if my daddy thinks I’m fine
He’s tried to make me get a hair cut
I wont go, go, go.

I’d rather be at home with Mom
Shampoo can’t be so wrong
Cos there’s nothing, nothing from my hair mass
That I can’t learn from my train Thomas!

Didn’t get my diaper changed so much
But I know my hair don’t cloud my sight much

They’re tryin to make me get a hair cut
I said no, no, no
Yes I’ve been blind, but what I can find
You wont know, know, know.

I aint got the time,
only Lala and Dipsy need to rhyme
He’s tried to make me get a hair cut
I wont go, go, go.

The man said, why you think you here?
I said, I got no idea
Im gonna loose my hair?
So I keep my kicking feet near!

Said, I just think you’re too young!
Kiss me, yeah baby
And go have fun!

I’m tryin to make me get a hair cut but
I said no, no, no
Yes I’ve been blind, but what I can find
You wont know, know, know.

Did you know I hid my sippy cup
In a place that will make it just mucked up?
Mommy says pee on the potty
But I just think she’s being naughty.

It’s not just my pride,
You see my hair is so divine!

They’re tryin to make me get a hair cut
BUT I said no, no, no….