Just me, myself and I!!!!!

I have been super busy this week trying to get all laundry done and food made for all the boys (even the 6'4" one!) so they will at least have food while I am in Chicago over the weekend, YIPPEE!!!!

One of my best friends lives there and we have been so busy having babies that we haven't seen each other in almost 3 years....isn't that sad? :-( when I think about it, it makes me sad. We still talk all the time so it doesn't seem like long and it has flown by! She has an older son Gavin's age and also a younger son who I have been asked to be his Godmother :-D I finally get to meet the cute little guy, I can't wait!!! We met in college, worked together, went on a life changing spring break cruise (where she met her hubby and why she now lives in Chicago, hehe) and two months later I met Marcin. Who would have thought?! hehe

So I am super excited to finally get to see her!!! And I get to go by myself =0 I have not flown by myself in at least 4 years. The last time I flew by myself I was pregnant with Gavin. We flew a couple of times with Gavin. I am not going to know what to do with myself. I think I just need a suitcase to carry on and my purse. This is strange to me....I am rarely out of the house with a big ole bag to contain all the boys stuff :-) I haven't gone anywhere overnight by myself since Gavin was born. Marcin and I haven't gone anywhere together overnight since Gavin was born....I know, I know it is high time for us to do that. We are going to in June :-) Just an overnight at the beach to celebrated our 10 year meeting anniversary! We also have 2 weddings this year that we will be staying overnight! EK!

Anyway, back to my fun weekend....Marcin will have the boys all by himself for the first time ever....well overnight at least. I am sure his parents will be here to help :-D I can't blame him there.....our 3 sweet little angels are alot of work and well he is not used to it like I am :-) I mean no one can do it like I can, right?! (answer: right!) I know they will have alot of fun....as long as Marcin has plenty of patience juice (beer...once they are asleep of course!) and the boys all sleep well for him. here's hoping because I will be in Chicago, hehe! (Love you honey!)

Life at our house is crazy as ever! I took Gavin to ENT after Easter, he is going to have his adenoids removed and tubes placed on May 4. I hope this helps him feel better and gets rid of all the congestion, constant ear and sinus infections :/ He also starts speech next week, I think he is at the age where he will really enjoy that! Just 30 minutes once a week.

Jakob is doing great since his adenoids were removed. His breathing sounds much better! However he has had an ongoing cough the past couple of weeks. When we were seeing the specialist before his surgery, the allergist did suggest he had mild asthma symptoms and for us to keep an eye on it. I know nothing about asthma....I took him into pediatrician today to make sure his ears were ok since he was pulling on his left ear yesterday and crying. The pedi suggested it could be the asthma and/or some environmental allergies. She suggested a steroid nasal spray...I just didn't feel comfortable with a daily steroid 2/x day. She then suggested singulair...this sounded good to me because I take that for my allergies and it is also a asthma medication, so we shall see if that helps him out a little :-)

Kaleb is just silly and loves to eat!! It is so much having a kid who will eat or at least try just about anything! I love it! He loves to try new things and this makes my life much easier! Jakob is a little picky but not as bad as Gavin :-P We still battle with him to try new things *sigh* Kaleb also likes to yell....alot. Even if you answer him the first time, he still yells! He doesn't quite grasp the whole 'inside voice' thing. He also likes to throw and take things from Jakob, just to be spiteful. He just wants it to make Jakob upset. He will take it, run away with it, then come back with a big grin on his face and give it back. Of course, by then Jakob is over it and has moved onto to something else...the cycle then repeats itself. I figure this is a teachable moment and they can learn some problem solving techniques on their own because let's be honest...I cannot possibly follow them around all day long and watch every single move they make. it is impossible!!!

We are having fun! I am not so stressed when we all go outside. My heart stops when I can't see someone immediately but they are good at climbing the playset, learning to stay in the back yard and if we are out front they are pretty good at staying out of the street (HEART ATTACK!). J&K are becoming more independent and also listening better which is a huge help! So we won't be getting a fence after all... I can manage one summer. By next summer, they will be fine for the most part when they decide to listen :-P

Must finish my cooking!!!

hehe we got a fun car today!!!

 We have been talking about this for a loooonnngggg time! We sold Marcin's 4-Runner because I think he may have put 1k miles on it last year. He has a car for work that he drives during week. If you know my hubby, he takes meticulous care of his cars. The Runner was a 2004 or 2005...I can't remember which but it looked brand new! So we knew once the 4 Runner was gone, we would need another car to have when we needed it if someone was gone with the van, we we are going out, taking one kid some place and another somewhere else, etc.

We have the big ole family car, the swagger wagon and we decided it would be fun to have a small car....you know, now...while we are young instead when we are retired ( I am sure we will get another fun car then also unless we are broke from 3 kids in college, oh vey!). We didn't want another family size car...we wanted something smaller that would be fun for us to take out and also has a backseat for the kiddos should we need to load it up with carseats :-P So Marcin has looked and looked for months. He was on some car website just about everyday going from one car to another that he liked. This was more or less his pick, I gave my two cents but ultimately I said my only requirement was it have a backseat and be within the budget we set for a car. He brought an Audi A4 home a couple weeks ago but it wasn't in the best shape. However, my friend and I got to take it out the night we borrowed it to have mechanic look at it and it drove really well. It was sturdy...I expected it to feel light while driving it. I was driving around yesterday after dropping Gavin off at school because J&K needed a quick car cat nap and drove by this...I stopped, checked it out and spoke with car salesman. Marcin went to look at it and here we are!

It is so much fun to drive a smaller car! It was odd at first because in the van, I am used to being pretty level with the SUV's and trucks but I felt so small and low, hehe! Gavin is in awe of watching the top going up and down.....full out meltdown yesterday when we told him he could open/close it anymore, sheesh.

Could we have put this money towards something else? Sure but we do that all the time! We are careful with our spending, put away for savings and college so we wanted to do something fun for us :-) I am pretty sure this qualifies !! YAY!!!!

What a great way to end a fun week!!!! I just don't think it will fit in our Easter baskets :-)

This week has started off great!!!

 For one thing...it is a sunny day!! That alone makes me happy!!!

I have been looking at foyer lights for almost a year!!! we found one we liked at Home Depot but it was expensive and we didn't want to spend that much on a light :/ But I have a strong hatred for the one we currently have so something had to give! Being the bargain hunter that I am, I started searching Craigslist and Ebay for a light. I found this one on ebay,

Simple and not the right color but I can easily fix that for the cost I got it for :-) And again, a good deal!!!

We have also been looking for a new table for the kitchen area. Our current table has served us well. We bought it for our first home almost 9 years ago, from Ikea of course. Where else do you go to furnish your first home as a young couple?! lol It is becoming a little worn out and let's be honest, I could put a table cloth on it but with 3 boys....do you really think the tablecloth and whatever is on it will stay on the table? LOL absolutely not! We did not want to spend a lot of money on a new table. 3 young boys = destroy table. I just didn't think it would survive much longer and we needed something to get us through the next few years that we would allow the boys to eat on, hehe I was just perusing Craigslist earlier today and  stumbled across this table,

It's an 8 piece set for a great deal! The couple selling it are moving back to KOP and don't want to take the table! Only two out of the 6 chairs have been used and it has a leaf for holidays and other partay's we may have. So I called and crossed my fingers it wasn't some crazy person trying to sell this lol I got myself and the boys ready and in car in record time, ran over to check out the table and was back home all within 30 minutes and right in time for naps, whew! She was very nice and we are hopefully going to be able to pick it up tomorrow!

So very excited about these purchases!!!!! I guess it does pay to be patient but when I see something I like...I want to get it, like yesterday so I don't miss out on a good deal :-P

Our weekend was lots of fun despite the dreary, rainy weather. I really hope the weather is nice this weekend for Easter. The past 2 weekends have been cloudy and rainy, ew!

Saturday Gavin started swim lessons. Initially he was not crazy about it when he found out I wouldn't be going with him. Then he met his swim teacher and the 3 other children in the class and warmed up pretty quickly. So quickly that he felt comfy enough to get out of pool to check out the door...only gavin :-P

I also discovered while there that there is a Mommy & Me swim class going on at the same time as Gavin's swim class. Next session, I am hoping to alternate weeks with J&K while Gavin takes his class. I spoke with the manager there and she said it would be fine to do that, yippee!!! I know Jakob will love it...not so sure about Kaleb :-P

After swim Gavin and I ran home for lunch and then went to his school for an Easter Egg Hunt. Gavin has no clue how an Easter Egg hunt goes. Last year we attempted but he could have cared less. This year, he got ONE egg :-P He was much more interested in the "BIIIIIIIGGGG bounce castle" and " GIANT slide" than anything else. He had a blast and I went on the giant slide also, I have to say....it was fun! Then he finally warmed up to the fire truck. I do want to mention that it has been in my mind to do a fire truck party for Gavin's 4th birthday. After seeing him spend at least 30 minutes on this fire truck, I am thinking that is what we will do :-) He had so much fun exploring the fire truck. Not to mention the amount of doors on a fire truck....trust me, he found them all! The firemen thought it was great :-)

Love this pic, even his silly smile :-)

=0 A DOOR!!!!

He had such a great time!!! This also got me to thinking....a couple of years ago a neighbor had a fire truck come to their house for the kids to come see. And a friend had a similar party last year in chicago (hi keeley!).  I wondered if we did the fire truck party if I could get a fire truck here as a surprise for Gavin! So I called around this morning (yep....I am fully aware of my issues and the fact that it is only April and I am already thinking about July) to the fire houses to inquire about my idea. I ended up speaking with the Deputy Chief who said they would be happy to come to our house for 30 minutes or so, so the kids could see the fire truck! AWESOME! I am so excited!!! My dad was a fireman and I have such great memories when it comes to things like this:-) And yes, I will admit.....I will be starting on invites and all party related things soon. Don't judge....this is how I work :-P

yesterday i got my hair cut, highlights and i was talked into bangs! I havent had bangs since i was 14...15. my bangs were teased up really high and alot of hairspray ;-) After all that nervousness, I like them :-) I will definitely be keeping them for a bit. I posted pic on FB yesterday but for those of you not on FB, here ya go :-)

J&K are waking up from their naps but I'll leave you a couple more pics of J&K from this morning. Whenever Gavin is sitting with me watching a show, J&K spot us and instantly run over to sit with us too. so cute :-) Usually they will both try to sit on top of Gavin. Gavin sometimes tolerates this and other times, not so much. This morning he was not in the mood. Jakob picked up on this pretty quickly and decided it would be a better idea to tackle Kaleb, hehe!!! And the funniest part is that Jakob has done this for a few months.....Kaleb will run away after taking toy from Jakob, only for Jakob to catch him from behind and take him down to get his toy back. Kaleb is not a fan of Jakob doing this or sitting on him. Just recently Kaleb has started sitting on Jakob...Jakob also not a fan but so cute to watch them interact and snuggle with each other. So this morning, Jakob got Kaleb and being the awesome mom that I am, I had to snap some pics hehe

whew! been a while!

Sorry for taking such a long break :-P Busy as usual at our house :-)

March has been a great month so far!! Marcin got a little guys weekend and went to South Carolina. They just happened to plan this over St. Patricks Day weekend so they could go to Savannah. hmph, NOT FAIR! They seemed to have fun attempting to relive their college days...you know those days that were just about 10 years ago! I'd say they put in a pretty good effort but when I asked Marcin why they were back at hotel so early (2:00 a.m.), he said it was too many people and they were tired. hehe OLD!!!! I am not saying I could hang much longer but I can recall quite a few St. Patricks Day in Savannah where I rarely slept and drank for about 48 hours straight. Good times :-) Now I have 2 glasses of wine and I call it a night. My alcohol tolerance is non-existant and who wants to take care of 3 young kids while hungover?! no thank you! Maybe when they are old enough to take care of Marcin and I, we can have a few drinks :-)

I survived just fine all weekend with the kids :-) We had a pretty busy weekend ourselves! We had some friends over that Friday morning. Saturday we went to the Bunny Brunch at Brio with some good friends and then headed to their house after naps to hang out some more with other friends that joined us :-) Sunday afternoon, Marcin was home :-) I was exhausted keeping up with everyone but aren't I supposed to be taking care of 3 kids? (Answer: yes)

I started back on my diet this week. I was getting a little tired of the Medifast food so I took a month off. I didn't gain weight while off of it but I didn't lose either, hmph. Although I got in a organizing mood yesterday and started going through my closet and dressers to see what fits/doesn't fit. I was pleasantly surprised when I put on my favorite jean bermuda short from 2 years ago and they FIT! whoop!!!! I did not expect them....at.all. I was SO excited!!! It really gives me that much more motivation and appreciation knowing that my 5:30 a.m. workouts are paying off because while the scale may not be reflecting any weight loss, I am obviously losing some inches for those shorts to fit, yippee!!!! 10 more lbs....I can do that.

The weather last week was amazing! 70 degrees in March in this part of the country is not normal. I don't know what mother nature is drinking but she can keep on with it because it was awesome to open the windows, take the boys outside and just made my feel better with the sunny warm weather. This week is not so nice.....chilly and rain later, boo!

I am still working on many projects around the house.....I seem to start and then be able to finish because well...I start something else :-P Marcin and I were discussing that we really just need to take one room at a time and focus on that from cleaning windows to giving molding a fresh coat of paint. There are some spots on walls that need to be spackled and repainted. We have lived here almost 5 years so it definitely needs to be refreshed :-) We will get there.....we both would rather things to be finished shortly after they are started but that is just not possible with the 3 crazies running around and leaving a path of destruction LOL Not to mention, some of these projects cost money and unfortunately that doesn't grow on trees and we have yet to win the Mega Millions which Marcin tells me is up to $363, go get your tickets!

The boys are doing great!!! Everyone has been healthy....we have not been to the doctor for a sick visit since february! That has to be a record! Jakob's breathing sounds much better after his surgery, YAY!!!! And ::knocking on wood:: no ear infections either!

The boys were all evaluated for speech in the past couple of months. Gavin qualified and I am meeting with coordinator next week to develop his IEP and schedule his therapy sessions. Kaleb didn't qualify and was right on target with his development at the time, he was 17 months 3 weeks. Jakob qualified most likely because when he was evaluated he was 18 months 1 days. The evals testing brackets run 12-17 months and 18-24 months so Jakob's scores weren't quite up to par with his expressive language. I met with the coordinator last week to develop his plan and I am expecting a call to set up his sessions. They will come to our house, thankfully!!! And it is free, thank you Delaware :-) Of course, J&K have all sorts of consonants and 'words' now but I think it will be beneficial for them both (you know Kaleb will be right in the middle of Jakob's sessions!) and myself to learn some techiques to help them :-)

Gavin has really developed a huge imagination! I love it! He loves to pretend his school friends are here at the house. He often 'teaches' during his quiet time while twins are napping. And he seems to be learning so much at school! Speaking of school......I changed him from the 5 half days of preschool next year to 3 half days. The other week when we had all those doctor appts, it was so tiring getting everyone up and out early in the morning. By Wednesday, I just realized I did not want to do this next year every week :-P It's just too much. So we feel good about changing him :-)
I feel like Gavin is also starting to level out with his meltdowns....unless he is tired, he is pretty reasonable when we tell him no. He is also listening better when it comes to sharing with his brothers...again unless he is tired. If he is tired, all bets are off!!! Most days he does not nap...he has quiet time in his room for 1.5 hour. Sometimes he goes to sleep, other times not. It doesn't matter to me as long as he is quiet, his brothers nap and I get some time to myself :-)

Kaleb has become quite the comedian! He loves to jump out from behind a wall and play peek a boo :-) He is the quiet, mischevious kid. He is usually up to something but you aren't going to know unless you go see what he is doing. He loves to go outside to slide, swing and run around. Very social with everyone.....wants them to pick him up :-) even the fridge repair guy that was here last week...Kaleb was reaching up so he could pick him up. He is going to need some Stranger Danger speeches! He is working on top 2 eye teeth, ouch! He still sttn but cranky during day :-(d And the child will eat just about anything! I love it!!! It amazes me to have a child that is so excited to eat :-) Gavin and Jakob make it seem like such a chore! Kaleb goes after food with a gusto! even new things.....he will at least try it, if he doesn't like it...spits it out. Gavin flat out refuses unless we bribe him with something full of sugar. Jakob clamps his mouth shut.

Jakob is just silly.  He has the most infectious laugh. You just can't be mad at him. Even when he manages to sneak in the bathroom, pull out all the towels, put them in toilet to get soaked and slings it out resulting in wet walls and puddles of water everywhere. Yes this just happened last week. good times. Thankfully there was nothing in the toilet but water. You never know with Gavin if it is flushed or not, ek! Jakob has become very bossy lately..he will come over to you, grab your hand and show what he wants to do. Normally he is taking you to the closet to get his shoes because he wants to go outside and play :-)

The boys are pretty much set with their spring/summer clothes! I had already ordered some things on clearance at end of summer last year (great deals!!!), we have Gavin's old clothes and then I found some good deals this past weekend at a resale for Moms of Multiples club :-) I am really hoping the sandals and flip flops we have will get us through the summer. Kaleb is husky like Gavin was at his age, so he is mostly wearing 2T and some 18-24 months. I am pretty sure I can get away with some of the 18-24 shorts and t-shirts since I don't have to worry about the lengths. He wears a 7W shoe...also like Gavin did. Remember, Kaleb is in the 90% percentile for height and weight, not exactly your average size 19 month old :-P

Jakob is a slim little guy and some 18-24 months things fall down his hips because his waist is smaller :-P Kaleb's 12-18 months shorts from last summer fit him great! If the waist are adjustable, he can wear the 18-24 months. I see a lot of adjustable waists in his future...thank goodness for those! Jakob was in 50% percentile for weight and 75% for height, so he is tall. His feet are small compared to Kalebs though. Jakob is in a 6 regular...so he cannot wear anyones hand me down shoes right down, which means I have to buy new ones. Thankfully I found 3 pairs of crocs at the resale Friday night for $3-4 a piece!

Must finish my list of calls to make....trying to get all my appts. scheduled before I forget! Gyno and mammogram taken care of :-) Now I need eye, dentist, massage and hair. I am thinking it is time to freshen up and get some highlights again. I will be complaining about keeping up with them by end of summer but oh well, it seems to have become a summer tradition for me lol

SIX?!?!?

Doc appointments this week :-) I am sure some of you got all excited thinking we were adding a 6th family member, HA!!! Not so much!

To say we have been busy is an understatment! I am so glad for this week to be done!!!! Here is a snapshot of the past five days:

Monday - Jakob speech. All is fine, bring him back in 6 months if we see no improvement by age 2. Same with Kaleb, he went last week.
Tuesday - Gavin ear recheck. Still has fluid on his ears, doc gave him a daily dose of antibiotics to get us to his ENT appt. in April
Wednesday - Jakob hearing test, normal procedure after tube placement. His hearing is great! In the afternoon, I went to see an allergist about what I thought to be allergies. More on that later....
Thursday - J&K 18 month appt, all went well!!
Friday - mammogram for me! I do believe I just felt the need to torture myself this week :-P

Whew....I had to stop and think to even remember this week. All of this on top of the regular daily craziness = EXHAUSTED!

So the allergist, interesting two hour visit there. The doc wanted to do some skin testing so I got 30 glorious pricks on my forearms. All that and nothing, mildly allergic to mold and bermuda grass, who isn't?! So then he suggested we do a 2nd round of skin testing which is injecting the said allergen under my skin....yep you guessed, I was able to experience that 31 times on my upper arms. And it didn't even come with a glass of wine! Sheesh!!! All that to find.....nothing. He also looked at my tonsils and said they were unusually large for an adult :/ And he agreed with what I told him that I had a lot of drainage in my throat, EW! Very, very annoying. LOL and then he says based on Gavin's x-rays (enlarged adenoids!) and the fact that Jakob had his adneoids removed that he would guess my adenoids aren't in the best of shape either. So he ordered a cat scan of my adenoids and sinuses :-P I have yet to get that xray because as I mentioned....been busy! So how knows, we shall see what Cat scan reveals.

In meantime, I got my boobs squished today and all is well with them :-) Thank goodness! While I have no reason to stress, I still stress while waiting to see doc and hear about results. He said nothing has changed with my last mammo which was before the twins so almost 2 years ago, I was surprised :-P I figured my hormones would have caused from rucus after that pregnancy hehe

We have ZERO plans this weekend, WOO HOO!!!!!! Love those weekends :-) I love having things to do but usually january and february are slow months allowing me time to recoup....this year, not so much! Those months were crazy! So I am much more appreciative of my free time these days and well for other obvious reasons :-)

Last weekend we met some friends in Philly for a delicious dinner at the Dandelion Pub. It was great company, food and our server was fantastic! He was so funny and quirky, I loved it! And I had a fabulous pinot nior, maybe I am last person on earth to discover it because let's face it, I don't get out much but it was yummy! It was a Chilean wine, Leyda

http://www.leyda.cl/site/en/wines/single-vineyard-3

It had such a smooth taste to it, loved it!!! Must find in my area! We parked in a parking garage next to restaurant and when we were driving out on our way home, a group of people were standing by the BROKEN elevator....yes we paid $21 to park in an garage with broken elevators. You would think they would offer a discounted rate, hmph. So this group of people (drunk lol) were begging us to give them a ride down to the street. Mind you in their drunken state I don't think they realized the street was only one level down, LOL It was 7 people that all crammed in the backseat of the 4 -runner!!! The 4- Runners last hoorah! They were very nice and funny, they had kids too and couldn't understand why we were going home at 11:30, um....because our kids will be up at 6:00 a.m. :-P

Now for our house projects!!! I feel like there is so much I/we want to do ;-) Gavin's room is almost done. Still need to repaint the brown stripe and order the pics for his frames. Then I REALLY want to start on our bathroom! I think we are also going to install a storm door, YAY!!! We had one at our townhouse and it was so nice, loved it!! AND...I am so excited about this one!!! We switched from Comcast cable to Verizon and as an incentive Verizon was giving $300 visa gift cards for new customers.....that means I can get the foyer light!!!! WOO HOO!!!! I cannot stand our current light...it is brass and ugly. I would paint it if I could but the brass runs through the glass and there is no way I would deal with that! Everytime I go up and down the stairs (which is ALOT) I see that ugly thing and can't wait to smash it! Or sell it, whichever comes first :-)

The other day as I was carrying my FIFTH basket of laundry up the stairs, I had another brilliant idea!!! In our townhouse, our washer and dryer was on 3rd floor...loved that!!! In our current house it is behind the kitchen which seems to be the layout of alot of the houses in this area, at least the ones we looked at. So my brilliant idea was this.....moved our washer and dryer upstairs! We have a sitting room off of our bedroom and it would be a perfect spot! We coul build it in and put some pocket doors there to close it off. Then if future owners still want to sit around upstairs and drink coffee while reading, go for it! Honestly, what is a sitting room for?! Its just a waste of space screaming to become a laundry room, extension of our bathroom or a big, walk in closet!!! And of those three, I think a W/D up there would be the best! Not to mention, then our current laundry room could become a mudroom of sorts so we could use that for getting ready (shoes, coats, bags, etc), it would be great!!! Marcin didn't sound as thrilled as I was...well actually he tried to claim that he said this a long time ago, hmph. He is always acting like he came up with ideas and trying to steal credit. I don't recall this ever being mentioned until I mentioned it. I guess he didn't sound as thrilled because he would be the one doing the work, hehe! I am an excellent supervisor! I also will bring drinks and food, can't beat that right?!

I quickly want to mention how much my children ate last week because I was shocked.... I went to BJ's a week ago (btw....LOVE BJ's so much more than costco! It may be because they accept manu. coupons but there are some great deals there! Except for the shrimp....$18/LB, WTH?!) and I purchased many things but what stands out the most are the 3 gallons of milk, 54 eggs and 16 Chobani yogurt (they love the kids one!). By yesterday....all of that was gone. Granted Marcin and I eat eggs as well but still, sheesh! Gavin and Kaleb are on a pistachio kick and go through bags like you wouldn't believe. I am tired of shelling them so I thought I would look for ones already shelled. I found them....$9.99 for a 1lb bag. I looked at the bag and laughed...they would eat that in a day if they didn't have the shells to slow them down. I am sticking to the shell on pistachios!!
GAH! These kids are going to eat everything in sight when they are teenagers!!! Which scares me to imagine my grocery bills but I love to cook so I get to cook ALOT and bake ALOT which will be fun! They get to do the cleaning up afterwards :-)

ok my children are all napping and after the past 5 days, I need a nap as well....goodnight!

YAY for fun weekends!!!!

Last week is a blur...seriously if you asked me what we did, I would need some time to think about  it. As it is, I looked at my calendar to try and remember because I feel like there was a lot going on.

Of course we had Jakob's surgery earlier in the week. He was back to his normal crazy self the next day, no surprise there LOL

I also took Gavin to an allergist. The last two months he has had either an ear infection or a sinus infection. Meaning he has also been on antibiotics for the last two months, I hate that! And they don't seem to be even helping that much! They asked me many questions and did 20 pricks, 10 on each arm. Thankfully they gave me a script for the numbing cream prior to appointment so that helped with that part. The next part however...not much could help that :-( They did 14 injections of various allergens. Poor kid....I wanted to cry with him. All that just to confirm that he tested moderately allergic to ragweek which would not explain was has been going on because ragweed season here is in the fall. So the doctors suggestion had me laughing. Well I had giggled and felt silly because when one of the doctors came in, he introduced himself as Dr. Van Winkle. I giggled. I mean...really, wouldn't you?! Then the other doctor looked at Gavin's ear (still ear infection after week of meds *sigh*), looked at tonsils and said they were enlarged. He followed this up with, " I am going to have you get a throat xray to take a look at his adenoids." LOL LOL LOL He started to go into an explanation of adenoids, blah blah. I politely explained to him why I started laughing and that I knew all about adenoids! He said sometimes enlarged tonsils are combined with enlarged adenoids which would make sense based on the last couple of months and Gavin is snoring. So I took Gavin a couple days later to get an xray. He was thrilled to be getting and xray! No really...he was so excited!!! He has an alphabet puzzle and each letter has a career attached to it. The "X" is an x-ray technician. So I told him he would get to meet a real live x-ray technician AND get to see a really big camera take pictures of his bones. Oh and let's not forget the office had a cool door he could open and close. He was set! The tech was really nice and let him look around at the equipment, showed him his xray and gave him a sticker. Doesn't get much better than that in Gavin's world :-) I am anxiously waiting for doctor to call and tell me what it showed, so I can go ahead and make appt. with ENT if needed.

Friday night was a big night for me! I went to Target! WOW!! By myself...that's the best part :-) I can remember days, before children, when I would just to Target or any store but Target was best for this and just wander. Browse. Not for anything in particular, just look at things and buy things I do not need:-) I walked around the mall for a bit and then spent some time at Target where I actually bought things I needed!!! And a few I didn't :-) It would have been great except for two things, 1) a glass of wine to go with my browsing would have been great! 2) The screaming kids that were melting down at 9:30p.m. I am completely aware that some kids have later bedtimes and if that works for parents, great! However, if your child is clearly tired and you are at a store, do not expect them to be happy. And please, please for the love do not proceed to yell at them while the child is screaming (on the yucky floor) that you do not understand what is wrong. I would have to guess that the rubbing of the eyes would have been my first clue to their behavior. I walked by 3 parents doing something of this sort. Ok....stepping down off my soapbox.

Saturday was Gavin's first EVER sleep over. Yes you read that correctly...the child is 3.5 y/o and he has never spent a night away from me, ever. I am fully aware that my control issues are coming into play here so no need to point this out! Gavin's aunt has been bugging, eh hem...asking us for a while if he could sleep over at their house. I think two factors finally made me feel better about, 1) We switched him to toddler bed last summer. 2) School. Him being away from me for school has also helped me with my issues. We knew he would have a blast! And of course, he did. He has been talking about it since and asking if today is the next time he can go stay at Ciocia's house :-) We got some sushi take out from Sushi Yama in Middletown, delicious!!! I got a bottle of wine, Marcin got beer and we worked on Gavin's room!!! We listened to some old 90's music (Rumpshaker, Dr. Dre., Cranberries, Poison, etc.), it was great! Marcin put Gavin's full size bed together and the rails. I worked on painting the stripes behind his bed. I am not happy with the shade of brown. I will be redoing that once I get a new brown but over all, I think the stripes turned out great!

We also have some cute construction truck/road way decals for the walls on other side of room. I hope to scan some of his school art this week and frame them for above his bed. I will post more pics once it is completed :-) I would love a couple of book slings but I don't have time to make those darn things! I wonder if someone on Etsy makes them......

Sunday was busy, busy but in a good way! Gavin and I met a friend and her daughter for lunch. Gavin was a little cranky so I didn't get to stay as long as I would have liked, story of my life with 3 little ones but it was still nice to see them. Lunch was yummy, we went to try out Bahama Breeze. Not bad....I saw a lot of frozen drinks in my future for the summer!

We came home and showed Gavin his new room! He liked it but like I said....CRANKY! sheesh, so the excitement was short lived until he woke up and then he was happy again :-) I got some cleaning done, ironing and then got ready for a Mom's night out at Aqua Sol!!! Great company and food, can't beat that!

Now I am excited to finish up Gavin's room so I can paint our master bathroom! It is already painted a light gray but I found a darker shade that I really like! I guess I should probably make sure Marcin likes it also, hehe.

This weekend will also be fun! We are going to Philly to meet some friends for dinner...it has been way too long since we gtg without any children with this group so it will be fun!

Oh and teething with 2 toddlers at same time = no fun, less sleep and cranky people! Jakob is cutting one tooth on the bottom and the way he acts, he is getting all 4 molars at the same time! Lord help us when his molars start coming...and the eye teeth, I shudder to think!

exhausted!!

I don't know why (ok....I know why but I haven't been any crazier than usual) I am exhausted these past few days! Jakob and I were at the hospital yesterday from 9:30-3:00! His surgery was scheduled at 10:45 and you have to be there and hour earlier. He was done with his surgery by 11:30 but then by the time he settled down and was able to rest, it was 12:30 and he proceeded to nap in my arms (LOVE...even though my arm was completely numb from being asleep but I wouldn't dare move and wake him up!) for two hours! They wouldn't let us leave until he drank something and kept it down.

Monday night, Marcin and I both were a little anxious for Jakob. We, of course, were wondering if we made the right decision by having his adenoids removed. And even on the way to hospital, I was still wondering but I kept telling myself it was just adenoids....it will be ok. We got to the hospital and they started getting Jakob all ready. He was immediatey thrilled with our nurse because she had bubbles. It's the little things :-) He was even more thrilled once they gave him the 'relaxing' nasal drops.....he was so funny!!! Here is a pic of him being goofy...you can see his eyes are all droopy lol

Once the doctor was done with the surgery, he came out to talk to me. This is same doc who did their tubes in September. He said Jakob's adenoids were 'massive.' That was word he used! He also said he was surprised by how large they were...he was not expecting that. Considering this doc is pretty laid back, Jakob's adenoids must have been huge!!! So once he told me that, I felt somewhat relieved that possibly we did make the right decision :-) The ear tubes were inserted fine. He said not to expect to see any significant results for a couple weeks. But when Jakob was sleeping in the recovery room....his breathing was already so quiet. Where as before, I would have continuous heard raspy, loud breathing (think of how your child sounds when they are congested....this is how jakob sounded 75% of the time). Marcin and I thought for sure we were going to have a long night last night because Jakob wasn't feeling so great. But he slept from 7:30-7:30!!! Today, Jakob woke up in a great mood!! He was chasing Gavin around and tackling Kaleb for toys. He doesn't have much an appetite but it seems like his throat is sore so he is milking it and convincing me to feed him only yogurt melts (his favorite!)

Kaleb however....did not sleep all night. I don't know if it his teeth or ear infection but he was up for a half hour last night. It must be serious if it wakes up Kaleb....nothing wakes him up! REALLY hoping it is just teeth but we will just have to keep an eye on him.

Now to somehow convince Gavin to not touch the numbing cream I need to coat his arms with so we can go to the allergist to see what is going on with him. I am being told allergies and ear infections go hand in hand. Gavin has had 3 EI's in the past 2 months, along with sinus infections and constant congestion. *sigh* I am pretty sure I have been to a doctor appointment at least once a week, if not twice, for the past 2 months. Maybe this has something to do with my exhaustion......