Easter Program 2014.

We've been practicing for the Easter program at the kids' daycare Church for the last 6 or more weeks.  Lily would sing every song and do the hand motions and generally enjoyed the songs a lot.  Wanting us to play the cd all the time. 

 

The program was this past Sunday.  It was kind of a bust.  Mostly a bust.  Lily stood up there with her class the whole time but she never sang a single word.  Didn't do a single hand motion.  Tyler began to melt down about 1/4 of the way through the first song and ended up coming to sit with us.  Bummer.

 

The kids walked in all carrying palms (it was Palm Sunday).  It was really pretty cool. 

  

 

Meltdown in progress

I take it back, there might be a hand motion happening here.  Or she's just scratching her head.  Not sure.

And now we're burying our head.  In shame?

Tyler did end up doing a few of the hand motions while he was sitting on Joel's lap and it was pretty cute.

After the church service, they held an Easter egg hunt for the kiddos.  We were prepared this year!  Last year, we were slow to get out to the field and we missed the beginning of the hunt.  Which means we only got the leftovers.  And, there are these metallic eggs that have special prizes associated with them.  Last year, because we were slow, we didn't get any.  This year, the kiddos were ALL over it. 

 

We came home with a ton of candy.  And me, being the mean Mommy that I am, didn't let them have much of it at all and when they weren't looking I hid it.  And I will totally put it in their Easter baskets this Sunday so as to avoid buying even more candy.  Shhhh, they don't need to know.....

 

When we got back home, we took a couple family pictures.  We really really really need to come up with a better backdrop in our house for pictures....

 

The weather was gorgeous that afternoon and kiddos played outside for a while before, during and after lunch....hanging out in the play house, sharing a few French fries.  And that about wraps it up.

 

 

Lily's First 1.5K

Joel participated in a 5K this morning and the kiddos and I went along to cheer him on.  After the runners and walkers got out of our way (ha!), we set off in the double stroller to walk too - to pass the time while we waited for Joel to complete the race. 

 

Lily lasted approximately 7 seconds in the stroller before she decided she wanted to push.  And then she lasted about 20 feet before she decided that, "Mommy, I want to go fast and I just can not go fast pushing this stroller."  Yes, that's exactly what she said.

 

So I told her she could run in front and Tyler and I would follow her.  So she took off. And it was not easy keeping up!  She ran and ran.

 

At one point she had to stop and take off her jacket cause she got too hot.

After we'd been running for about 10 minutes, we turned around so that we could get back to the finish line before Daddy caught up to us.

On the way back, we had to stop a few times to catch our breath.  And to check out storm drains which are apparently full of spider webs??  I didn't know this until Lily told me.  Eew.

Shortly after we turned around, the police car that was in front of the lead runner was coming down the road so we had to move fast!  Then the woman in the lead ran past us and Lily said she was going to run like that lady.  So she did.

 

We got to the finish line and got out of the way until there was a gap in runners so we didn't screw up anyone's time.

 

Lily was pretty tentative about crossing the finish line at first.  But then she did!   

I just checked Google maps to see how far we'd gone.  It was one mile round trip (1.5k).  And Lily ran about 3/4 of that.  Holy cow! 

 

And Daddy finished right behind Lily!  25:24 was his official time - his best ever.  Way to go Daddy!

 

Joel just reminded me that this was actually Lily's second race.  I was about 1 week pregnant with Lily when I did the Mini Marathon back in 2010.  I used to joke that maybe Lily would be a runner because of that! 

 

(Lily looks a lot better running than I do.....)

 

Crossing over the bricks at the Speedway

Regretting my decision to run 13.1 miles

Ecstatic and in complete disbelief
over running 13.1 miles. 
In one day.

 

 

It's Not A Too-mah (Tumor).

I'm sitting here thinking that's a really clever blog title.  And then I'm thinking about the blog book and how in 20+ years when my kids are old enough (and care enough) to read those books about their childhood, they will have NO IDEA what in the hell that statement is referencing.  Instead, it will likely be further evidence that their mother is one wacky lady.  So, kids, Kindergarten Cop, Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Google it.  If that's even still a thing.

Anywho, why am I even talking about tumors?  Well because I seriously had (have?) myself convinced that I have one.  On my butt.  On my tailbone to be more precise.

Whenever I do yoga at the free classes at work and we do "boat pose," I find it horribly difficult due to the extreme pain I feel in my rear end.  

I chalked it up to the fact that I pretty much suck at yoga and was probably doing it wrong and/or my abs and gluts are just not strong enough to pull myself up out of my @ss.  And that's why it hurts.

But then, this past Saturday, we took the kids to the playground.  And I went down this slide which I've been down a dozen times before with no problem at all.  (Photo from March 2013 - look at all my chins!)

I about cried the whole way down.  My tailbone was raked across each and every one of those rollers for the whole 10 feet of slide.  I nearly blacked out when I got to the bottom I was in so much pain (I went solo - thank goodness - no kiddos on my lap).  I walked it off.  I was tough.  I didn't cry....from going down a SLIDE.

At the start of the weekend, I had told Joel that I really wanted to get the bicycle out on Sunday and take the kiddos for a ride (I pull them in a trailer).  But when Sunday arrived, there was this little nagging voice in the back of my head that tried to talk me out of the bike ride since my tailbone was a little sore from the day before.  However, I was worried I was inventing an excuse to not exercise so I squashed the little voice and took the kids on a 3 mile ride.  Probably 20 minutes total.  No big thang.

As expected from the first bike ride of the season, my hiney was tired and a bit sore after the ride.  But by Sunday night, I was in excruciating pain.  I didn't sleep.  At all.  The whole night.  Every time I moved, me arse hurt.  

Driving to work on Monday, I cried.  The pressure of sitting in the car and driving was more than I could take.  Working that day was misery.  I couldn't sit.  I couldn't walk.  Definitely couldn't do any yoga boat poses!!  

Tuesday I sat on a neck pillow all day.  Cause I don't have one of those arse donuts.  I'm sure my coworkers all think I have hella hemorrhoids.  But I don't care.

Last night, I'm lying in bed, not sleeping, still sore, feeling my tailbone.  And it feels huge.  Like seriously huge.  And lying there, I convinced myself that there is only one explanation for my huge tailbone.  I must have a tumor.  On my tailbone.  And boat pose, roller slides and bicycles were aggravating my tumor and bruising it.  

And then it hit me.  I'm one of THOSE PEOPLE.  I've read stories about people who have lost a bunch of weight and then freak out because they find a hard mass in their abdomen.  Which turned out to be a rib.  I think I had so much padding on my rear end, that my tailbone was previously not so exposed.  Roller slides were no issue for me because I had built in safety gear.  And yoga boat pose?  Hahaha, yeah, like I was doing any of that 65 pounds ago!

So, I'm pretty sure (pretty hopeful) that I do not have a tumor on my tailbone.  I've only just become reacquainted with it.  Hello there!

Pacifier. Weaned.

I think I've mentioned previously that one of our methods in the attempt to rid Tyler of the pacifier was to poke a bunch of holes in it and make it less desirable.  Well, that hasn't really worked.  He still loves his paci even though it doesn't really "suck" that well.
 

Last weekend, I noticed that the paci was starting to rip apart due to being weak from the holes we'd punched in it.  We'd been discussing cutting the tip off of the paci all together to continue down the path of lessening it's desirability.  Since it was getting closer to becoming a choking hazard with each suck, it was time to remove the end.  However, it was ripped so far down, that when Joel took the end off, there wasn't much paci left.  As in, Tyler couldn't even really hold it in his mouth at all, much less suck on it.

Needless to say, Tyler was not pleased with this. 

Saturday night (Sleep Event #1):
He screamed, S-C-R-E-A-M-E-D, his head off for about 30 solid minutes.  I think.  I kind of lost track because that screaming was going on at the same time that Lily was screaming and having her "Welcome Home from Grams' House Bedtime Tantrum."
 

It's hard to say how much of Tyler's screaming was due to him being honked off about his paci mutilation vs being kept awake and aggravated by his sister's meltdown.

That night, he woke up at 2am and cried, loudly, for about 20 minutes before giving up and going back to sleep without his paci.

Sunday nap (Sleep Event #2):
We didn't even bother to give him the paci at all during nap, since he couldn't hold it in his mouth anyway.  After 10 minutes of crying and jumping on his bed, he finally gave up and fell asleep.  Wow!  Maybe this wasn't going to be as bad as we thought!  Isn't it cute how optimistic I am?

Sunday night (Sleep Event #3):
Tyler screamed his head off for 40 minutes.  DA-DA!  DA-DAAA!  DAAAA-DA!  I finally couldn't take it any more and went in to him.  Which just pissed him off more because he wanted his Da-da.  I talked to him for a minute, told him we loved him, promised I wasn't torturing him and then I turned on his dog that plays music and left the room.  He screamed for 30 seconds and then laid down and promptly went to sleep.

I never heard him during the night.

Monday nap (Sleep Event #4):
I cut off the very tippy tip of Tyler's daycare pacifier and wished the ladies the best of luck.  Tyler's daily note from his teachers said that he fussed a little and threw his paci at nap time.  But then retrieved it and put it in his mouth and went to sleep with little problem.

Monday night (Sleep Event #5):
Tyler screamed "Da-da" for only 15 minutes before he fell asleep!  We're moving in the right direction!  But then he woke up at 2:30am and screamed for Da-da for 15 minutes before giving up and going back to sleep.  (I did not go back to sleep.)

Tuesday nap (Sleep Event #6):
He went to sleep ok, but woke up early from his nap madder than a hornet.

Tuesday night (Sleep Event #7):
As soon as I was done reading Tyler his story, he immediately started screaming.  He knew what was coming and he wasn't too happy.  I put him in his crib, started up his music dog and told him to listen.  "Listen!  Tyler!  Listen!  The doggy is singing to you!  Listen!"  He puts his little hand up to his ear when I tell him to listen.  So cute.  That calmed him down until I started to walk out the door and he started screaming again.  But by the time I got out to the kitchen, he had laid down and quite crying! 

He woke up at 3:30am and cried for about 10 minutes but then went back to sleep.

Wednesday nap (Sleep Event #8):
The daycare teachers told Joel that he spit the mutilated paci out after a couple minutes and took his full nap.

Wednesday night (Sleep Event #9):
Tyler went to bed NO PROBLEM.  He cried about 8 seconds and was done!

We've tried several times over the last 5 months to take Tyler's paci away and never made it past the first night.    But now we did it!  Well, let's call it 90% good.  He still has the holey paci at daycare but the plan is to let him have that the rest of this week and then take it away starting next week.

 

I'd like to give a little shout out to Lily.  She gave up the paci when she was 13 months old and only cried for a couple minutes on the first night that she didn't have it.  After that, it was a non-issue.  Easy-peasey. 

Rock My Baby.

Every now and again, the kids play together and it's super cute.  Lily insisted on rocking her baby brother.  He was in to it for a minute or so. 

 

And then he was over it.