I haven’t blogged in a while and figured I might as well since I have a chance.

I just thought I’d share about all the wonderful fun I’ve been having running my daycare.
Solomon is potty training. Okay, rewind. Running a dayhome I knew at some point I’d have to come to grips with the fact that I’d be helping someone else’s child learn to use the potty. I don’t like accidents (potty accidents). When Joy was potty training we started with keeping her diaper on and just putting her on when she said she needed to go, or every few hours (she can hold her bladder for longer than I can when not pregnant). Once she got used to actually using the potty we removed the diaper. Sure she had a couple times when she was playing and realized a little too late she had to go, but most the accidents were in the bathroom. If she did have an accident she’d come tell me (or cry).

Solomon has been doing great potty training at home (so I’m told). Day 1 here potty training. He asked to go on the potty but didn’t do anything. After 3 attempts I decided he needed to go just wasn’t able to so I put him in a diaper. Come nap time. I decided to let Sol stay up a bit later, while I put Olivia down (maybe 10 minutes). I heard him go into his diaper bag and figured he was looking for his teddy. I was wrong. After I had Olivia tucked in all nice I received a surprise I just never expected.

I walked into the living room. Sol sat in the middle of the carpet wearing his underwear sitting on a clean diaper (I think he was trying to figure out how to put it on). Next to him sat a poop filled diaper with about half a package of wipes inside. Poop smears encircling him and the diaper. He changed himself. Thank goodness we’d just done a toy cleanup or else it could have been worse. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but it’s worse than anything I expected. I stopped and counted in my head so I wouldn’t explode. I picked him up and set him down in the bathroom, I told him not to move a muscle (he didn’t). I told Joy to stay away from the living room and picked up the diaper (tossed it). I then went into the bathroom and cleaned Sol up (poop on shirt, unders and bum). I didn’t exactly know what I should do… I know what I’d do with my own kids, but he’s not mine. So I grabbed out the spot remover and told him he had to sit there and watch me scrub the carpet. He did, and Thank goodness it was ‘fresh’ enough the spot remover worked great!

Day 2 (4days later), again he comes not in a diaper. He has a small pee on the living room carpet. Again I put him in a diaper. He did end up peeing again later on the potty even though he was in a diaper.

I’ve decided he can wear a diaper here. I’ll ask him if he needs to use the potty, and he seems okay at telling me when he needs to. I just don’t enjoy potty training. I think I’ll keep him in a diaper until Christmas (I watch him 2-3 times a week), then after the Christmas break (if I get one) he’ll probably be ready to not need a diaper. He’s my first experience in potty training a child that’s not mine. When  I watched Grace they took 2 weeks off on holidays and she came back potty trained (1 accidental pee when playing), Gabe came already potty trained (although I did have to get used to the ‘standing to pee’ thing ~ eww!). I’m also not used to little boys peeing. I know 100% my son will sit to pee at home, because that’s just gross (especially when I have to sit and clean). I hope I can train Sol to always sit while here….

Well that’s my fun Thinking about running a day home? I could talk you out of it, or into it

I have been (just slightly) stressing over our upcoming holiday. Trying to figure out what to pack, and trying to make it as light of a load as possible! I thought I would wait until Thursday to pack, however strongly feel I need to pack NOW. Don’t know if it’s the pregnancy, or God whispering, but I’m going to listen either way! So tomorrow, I’m going to pack most my clothes that I plan to take (other than the clothes I still need for this week), along with kids toys, movies and some of their clothes. I may have the boys for a few extra hours, or an entire extra day this week that is completely unexpected so perhaps I do need to pack now and stay on top of this just in case!
My belly is growing at a very quick rate! I can’t believe it!! Orlund took some pictures of me standing (ones that were later deleted, so I didn’t stand pretty) and WOW talk about looking pregnant already! I’m hoping Wednesday at my Doctors apt I’ll get to hear the little heart beat! (14weeks!).Well, during all this stressing, We did take some time out to have some fun! Check out Orlund’s latest blog entry for one picture. And here is another (not the best quality, but still fun to take!).

Hovering over Mommy! OH What fun!!

Oh the wonderful questions this 5 year old comes up with during lunch time. Today I answered these questions~
1~ Why are bugs insects?
2~ Why do bees sting?
3~ Why does there have to be a God in heaven?

My answers? haha, he at least figured they were good enough.
1~ Just like there are different kinds of Dogs. There are big, little, medium dogs and they all have their own kinds (insert different breeds here), however they are all called a DOG. So all the different bugs (insert bug names) are all called INSECTS, it’s their ‘scientific’ name.
2~ They only sting to protect themselves. They think you are going to hurt them so they sting you. They don’t do it to be mean, really some bees die after they sting someone. (he then proceeded to ask how bees fight, they sting each other).
3~ If there wasn’t a God we wouldn’t exist (oops, now to explain exist). Finally he kinda got it, I told him we wouldn’t be anywhere. But God created everything from nothing, we can’t do that. He then told me he wanted to be somewhere else….where? Still in him mommy’s tummy…….guess he’s got my pregnancy on his brain too! Earlier somehow I explained that Jesus had God’s blood and Mary’s, but Joseph raised him like he was his own (Gabe kept calling Joseph Jesus’ fake dad!lol). Yeah, well then somehow it got to that Gabe has his daddy and mommy’s blood in him……but then he wanted to know how his daddy’s blood got in him when he’s not in his daddy’s tummy ever…..oops… I told him that Daddy’s have an important role in helping get a baby in the mommy’s tummy ~ He prays for God to put the baby in there….LOL… phew. He dropped it…I sure know how to dig myself into deep holes!! LOL.

I wonder if he asks his mommy and daddy these kinds of questions? I hope so. I explained to him the other week that his new school wont teach him about God. I don’t think he liked that idea, but I told him it would be okay and told him he can help teach his classmates/teacher about Jesus and God

We took Joy in a while ago to have her speech assessed (don’t know if I’ve blogged about that or not?), well either way, she is a bit behind where she should be so we’ve been working with her. The main part is sounding out the first consonant. The other day Joy said “happit” for rabbit. Gabe piped in and said “no Joy it’s not happit, it’s wa wa wabbit” “no Gabe it’s not” “it isn’t?” “No it’s rrr rrr rabbit”. He was very surprised he was saying it wrong. He’s been trying to help Joy with her words as well, however I find often he’s giving the wrong example! LOL

Then yesterday during lunch he said to me “Jenn, tell me if you can hear me when I do this” And lets out a big sigh. “Yes Gabe I can hear you sigh” “WHAT!?!?! You can??” His mouth dropped open in an astonished look “but, but how could you? I was plugging my ears!” LOL  It took a great deal of explaining to get him to understand why I could hear him even though he was plugging his ears….and I still don’t think he fully understands (or perhaps he doesn’t believe me?).

I really should post more pictures… unfortunately I can’t find my camera…I should get on that eh?
Today was a good day. I started off not feeling the brightest, but it turned around quickly with a nice walk. The boys arrived at 8:20am, while I was still wishing my AMAZING mom a happy Birthday on Skype. After we signed off and the girls and I ate breakfast I loaded up the strollers… That’s right strollers. I had promised the kids once summer hit we would take a walk to the local 711 for slurpees. So I got the double stroller (picked it instead of the bike trailer as it has cup holders), then strapped an umbrella stroller to the side of it. So I only had to push 1 stroller but I could have 3 kids riding. Joy doesn’t like to walk when it’s really hot out. Strapped the 3 littles in, made sure Gabe held on and we were off. It is a short walk, about 15/20minutes. I then learned a VALUABLE lesson…. little itty bitty slurpee’s cost only about 10cents less than a gigantic huge slurpee. I paid $10 for 4mini slurpee’s, 1 large slurpee and 1 pack of candies. Next time (if there will be a next time) I will bring our own cups, buy 1 huge slurpee pour the slurpee into our cups for the kids and I’ll drink what’s left over. That will cost around $2. I might grab extra straws from 711 but otherwise it’s to expensive for them each to have their own! I told Gabe my plan, and as I started to explain I said that each of the kids would have their own sippy cup (straw kind) and he blurted in “NOT ME”… Yes you too! I told him to listen until I’m done talking, once he finished listening he thought it was a smart idea.
Well I am happy that summer has finally hit. And although it took it’s time getting here, it seems to have hit over night.
Olivia loves pushing limits and is constantly testing me right now. Joy loves talking back…… sigh… Good thing they are so cute eh?

Olivia just wandered over to me showing me her soil covered fingers. The look on her face said it all “please mom, clean this off I don’t like it”. The soil around her mouth told me she didn’t like the taste. Told her to stay out of my plants. Perhaps now that she’s tasted it she might listen. Joy was a child who wouldn’t push the limits, at least not often. Olivia is a child who lives to push the limits. We have fun.

I have a list, rather simple list, but none the less a list. The list is of everything I need to do this week. With the exception of keeping on top of the chores once done ~ example; I have Clean kitchen on list, well I will have to do this about 3/4 times a day, but it’s just written on the list once. I could get the entire list done today. TODAY. Will I? Probably not. My mind is ready to do the list, my body is not. I’m going to have to push through and get at least some  more of the list done. It’s nap time. Nap time slows me down. If I could put the girls down and come out to work on things it would be fine. But I lay on the floor, getting Joy to lay still enough to fall asleep. I usually fall asleep. I wake when she’s asleep, but then I usually have a hard time getting motivated again.

Hard day's work.

Well it’s time to get Joy on the potty and Olivia drinking her bottle. Just felt like sharing my day today. I have the boys every day this week (other than today) from 8-4. Please pray for my sanity….. On a more serious note, but about praying ~ Please pray for Charlotte. She’s going back up to Calgary Children’s for some scheduled tests, but she’s been having a rough few days, please pray it passes quickly and she’s healed!

Oops. I’ll back up before I’ll explain my oops moment.
Today has been one of those, test your patients, drive you nuts, is it over? kind of days. The only thing that helped me through was knowing that tonight is Mom’s night out. A night that mom’s from our Church (and their friends ~ out reach opportunity) get together and enjoy a hot dinner without the hubby or kids. It’s nice. It REALLY is. Well the boys just got picked up so I started to get ready. Well Joy and Olivia started begging for a snack (sad to say it that way, but they sound like they are begging). So I sat them up with some Cucumber and Tomatos to munch on until Orlund gets home and makes them dinner. I also told Joy that once she was done the veggies then she could have some Cheese. Well I went to the bathroom and got myself ready, makeup on, hair done, dressed. Joy came in and showed me she was chewing a cucumber (yummy), so I followed her out to the dining room. Figured she was telling me she was eating it. Well I wish I had of had my camera. I came in to discover OOPS I didn’t buckle Olivia in! She was sitting cross legged in the middle of our dining room table! She had found a pencil and looked like she was looking for a piece of paper to draw on. Guess I was to excited to get ready and get going! She is now happily eating her food, safely strapped into her highchair. Joy is harassing me asking for more cheese….sigh…. 2hours… just 2 more hours…

Well after my last post I should write that today was a much MUCH better day Thank you Jesus!
Last night I found I couldn’t sleep. I was wide awake. WIDE awake. I haven’t felt that wide awake since before I got pregnant with Joy!! It felt great…. the only problem was it was after bedtime. I couldn’t make any noise. I couldn’t use this wide awakeness for progress. (yes awakeness is a word in Jenn Land). We went to bed at 11pm. I stayed up wide awake until 1:30am. I made a prayer list (specifically of babies, mommies and pregnancies ~ the devil sure has been attacking). I prayed over the list as a whole and individually. I spent some time with the Lord. Then surprisingly enough I was still wide awake (you know what I mean if you’ve ever tried to pray before falling asleep, you usually fall asleep before you say Amen). So I turned my computer on in hopes mom would be online. Nope. So I emailed her. puttered around online. The girls were up a bunch of times, so they also kept me going. Finally I decided I should try going back to sleep. And I did rather quickly, and slept GREAT!
This morning the girls and I went in the back yard, hoping to play in the pool ~ ice! So we came inside. I thought I had the boys at 10am, but nope, it was 11am. So I baked bread. Today was my day to take a meal to some new parents in our Church (Baby born on Tuesday! He’s so cute!). Once the boys arrived I made lunch while baking a desert (turns out using whole grain flour doesn’t work so good in squares). I gave Sol a bunch of time outs but over all it was a good day with them.
My Dad popped over just as the boys were being picked up. So I scooped his car to drop off the meal, then returned to enjoy dinner with him and the girls. (Orlund went on a hike with buddies until 10pm). Then we enjoyed a coffee and he headed home just as I put the girls down. They went down surprisingly well. Bonus! Then I went to have a bath, and decided the tub REALLY needed a scrub, so I scrubbed it. It was draining slow, so I dug out gunk from the drain. While I was doing that my mom called on the phone! It’s always an extra special treat when she calls. We visited then decided we should Skype as it’s free. So we did that, while I enjoyed a bubble bath (I know weird to do, but whatever. I needed the bath). So after a rather short soak, and a good visit with mom I decided to watch a movie. I didn’t like any of the choices I had, but decided on “how to train your dragon”. It’s a ‘kid’ show. My kids wont watch it until they are like 13, but none the less my brother gave it to me. And I like it! It’s cute! Orlund came home, he’s looking at his hiking pics, and all in all it’s been one of those days that at the end of, you wouldn’t mind repeating tomorrow…..Tomorrow will be even better!

Random, but cute. Our little helpers.

~~ I learned a few new things this week, 1- before promising a meal to someone, make sure you have the car to deliver it. 2- not everyone can be so last minute as me (which is completely okay!). 3- it’s more work than I thought to plan the meals, but I think next time I’ll be better prepared……Wish me luck! I do truly LOVE being able to bless others in this way, it’s just been a BIG learning curve for me these past few days.

Well this past week has been a busy one. Worked everyday except Monday. Tuesday and Thursday we even walked Gabe to School…. that’s 1.7Km walk, Google say’s it should take only 21minutes(walking). I timed it. Just walking there with kids, without stopping, would take us 1hour!  We took a picnic lunch and had a leisurely time getting there. That was fine. The walk home, not so fine. I had the bike trailer as the stroller. the 3 little kids all weigh roughly 20-30lbs. It can hold 2 children with total weight at 100lbs. I figured I’d stick all 3 in there. NOPE. not going to happen. I figured I’d carry Olivia (lightest) as they were all to tired to walk. Joy refused to go in. We were outside a high school (that I might add was on it’s lunch break ~ so yeah, lots of people watching), Joy was screaming 1- she wanted to go to school with Gabe, 2- she was to tired to walk, 3- didn’t want to go in the stroller. Olivia was screaming, well, because she felt like it? NOT cool! I finally strapped Olivia back in with Solomon, told Joy to hold on or she’d be left behind and walked quickly. It worked, Joy was so busy trying to keep up (while holding on) that she couldn’t cry. Finally she said “mommy no run run. No run run mommy”. awww. Broke my heart. So I carried her. Yup. We had only gone maybe 5minutes before she was to tired to run anymore. So I carried her, once in a while she would throw a fit kicking and screaming. (once in a while is more like 3/4 of the way home). And Olivia was crying/screaming because she was tired but didn’t want to go to sleep. Lets just say I wasn’t very impressed by the time we got home. But they all slept good. Thursday I attached an umbrella stroller to the front of the bike trailer (sure I looked goofy!) but it worked. I convinced Joy to sit in it and get strapped in, and away we went. Unfortunately I didn’t drink enough on this walk, so although we made it home with less effort I was done in. Even zonked out for a couple minutes while the kids were down!

That isn’t all that happened this week, but that was the part that took the most effort! It was a long week, as they all are when I have the boys until 5:30pm. This next week I have 2 days off (in a row!) and they happen to be the days that Orlund is in Vancouver for training. So I have the car. I have WAY to much I want to do. lol. Got a project (or two, or three) at home to do and some much needed shopping (grocery/needs) that I need to do out. Going to have to pick and choose I guess!  (I have a few pics of my stroller contraption, I will add later tonight ~ hopefully).

Wow, the weekend is over! I got a bunch of stuff accomplished that I hadn’t planned to. And a bunch of stuff NOT done that I had wanted to. I had Friday off work, so I decided to go through the girls dressers and closet. I re-boxed all their clothing (had put in those vacuum bags, however they didn’t stay vacuumed, so had to put back into boxes). A Big job and I did it spontaneously! Hadn’t planned on doing that (although it needed to be done). That was the ‘big’ job I did Friday and I don’t remember most the rest of the day…. although it was productive.
Saturday we went to the Wildlife park. That was a lot of fun! There was a puppet play going on and Olivia thought it was the funniest thing she’d ever seen! She kept looking back at Orlund and I (she was sitting on Orlund’s lap) with a huge grin and would giggle! SO CUTE. Joy found it entertaining, but she just stared. That took up most the day, and I honestly don’t know what I did the rest of the day (geez I’m forgetful).
Sunday we went to Church (1hour early as Orlund was ushering). After Church we headed straight out to Orlund’s Brother’s house to celebrate his birthday. *Happy Birthday Virden*. Enjoyed a fabulous lunch and a good visit. Missed the hockey game (except for a few times we checked the score). I LOVE hockey right now, never really have before. We headed home after a good visit, the girls slept the drive home… as did I. We got home Olivia went for a nap and Joy refused to. I put a movie on for her and decided to take a nap of my own….. well that didn’t last long and I got up and decided to declutter my bedroom. I went through all my dresser drawers, the closet, and even the bin under my bed. I have a laundry basket full of clothes for ‘Sally-Ann’. It felt good to purge all the stuff. (Orlund was working on repairing our fence~ Thanks Honey!).
Today, Monday, I dropped Orlund off at his Dad’s place and went grocery shopping with the girls. Orlund and his dad got more wood for the fence and used their van to haul it. After grocery shopping Olivia took a nap, Joy and I put the groceries away then visited Orlund and Hugh when they arrived at the house. Joy played while I made lunch for us all, and Olivia woke just in time to eat. After lunch I put Joy down for her nap and took Olivia downstairs with me. First I went through the upstairs toys and hauled the unnecessary ones downstairs. Then I went through all the downstairs and crawlspace toys. I gathered some for a garage sale I’m helping out at, in June, and tossed a few others. Then I switched the toys around so the ones from the crawlspace are now out to play with, and vise versa. I also moved the ‘baby’ toys downstairs ~ exersaucer, baby swing etc. Oh I see another toy I forgot to move down, I’ll do it tomorrow.

Well I need to head to bed. It’s after 10pm and I have the boys arriving at 7am tomorrow! yikes. That’s early… I’m usually awake at that time, but not with rambunctious boys! ~Side story, the boys were at Joy’s birthday party and one of the mom’s that was also there asked me the other day “are the boys always like that?” (high energy, rambunctious) “YUP” I replied…. “Wow” she said “that’s a lot of work!”. it sure is.