Mommy Brain

OH Boy. Man, I've got it BAD. Well, I have HAD IT BAD since 2005, really. I have accepted it as a part of my life. *Sigh.* I wanted you all to benefit from the fact that I delivered my brain with the placenta when I had Daisy. It's a shame, really. I have entertained the masses with my Mommy Brain. Here are a few examples (as if those of you who know me well even need these!):

1. I went out to MNO (Moms Night Out) with my MOPS small group at our Mentors home this week. We had a fab time. When I went to leave, in the POURING RAIN mind you, my car wouldn't start. Wanna know why? Left my lights on. Awesome. Why were they even on when I went at 6:30 pm when it was still quite light out??? So at 10 pm the SUPER KIND man of the house went out and jumped off my car in the monsoon.

2. Last week I stressed out one night before school about not having eggs for Daisy's egg hunt the next day. I was a quick thinker, used some kids tattoos I had and stuffed some eggs. I put Daisy's Easter basket in her backpack so we would remember it. Whew...that was a close one.

The next day I packed her lunch and just as I finished I thought, "Oh yea! They don't need a lunch. It's party day!" Then off we went to school.

When I got there Daisy asked where her lunch was. I smiled and kindly explained in front of the teacher that she didn't need one today. Then the teacher kindly reminded me that the Easter party/Egg Hunt/No-lunch-box-needed was for NEXT week. Had I read the flyer closer OR thought for one second longer...I woulda figured it out. I had to go home, get her lunch (that thankfully I had already made), and lug Colbie back in to drop off the lunch. AND the teacher had noticed her basket in her backpack...and kept it at school. She knew it was a miracle it made it there...early! :) (In my defense the info went home earlier than usual. Stuff like that normally comes home the week before. But still, I coulda read the dates!)

3. I frequently mix up my right and left. Really? You'd think after all these years that one woulda stuck. When driving Daniel will say "Take a left up here"...and on goes my RIGHT blinker. What is wrong with me? (btw...I have to drive these days cause Daniel can't fit in the driver seat with the baby seat behind it.)

4. I mailed a key (that goes to our Orlando house that we have not sold yet) to someone in Orlando. It turned out to be the WRONG address. Had I made a copy of that ONE KEY WE HAVE like Daniel said to before mailing it? NO. I was too busy patting myself on the back for getting one task done in a day. (Thankfully, it was returned for wrong address!)

5. Daniel and I were trying to think of a name of a character on 24. What was her name??? He said it was Audrey. But it wasn't ...I knew that much. We went on for about 10 mins while we cleaned up the kitchen. We both kept throwing out names and resisting the urge to just Google it. We had moved on in conversation. And a few minutes later I randomly shouted to Daniel in the next room, "AUDREY!" confident that I had found the answer. Daniel came around the corner and with a half smile/half smirk and he said, "Are you serious? That is the one you just nailed me to the wall for even mentioning." HAHAHAHAHHAH...we laughed pretty hard at me. I even chuckle now just thinking of it. (btw...it was Renee Walker.)

6. I backed in to Daniels car IN OUR DRIVE WAY. Scraped right down the side. That was cool. Especially since he was IN the car with me. Ugh.

7. The doozie that prompted this post was this...I went to my 6 wk postpartum check. I was getting ready and Colbie was fitful. But I got all ready, grabbed Colbie and headed out. I got to the Dr and was called back soon. I walked back to the scale, stepped up on it....and saw this.....(took this pic later to share the fun)...

Did I really do that? I mean really? It's not even 2 black shoes...it's obvious. When I saw them on the scale, I looked up at the girl weighing me and said, "Look at my shoes" with a flat look on my face. "I guess this is my life now." She was laughing pretty hard. But helped me feel better when she said that one girl came in not too long ago with 2 different boots on. HA.

Anna Caulley, remember when I said "I am laughing with you" when you did this? I told you this is SO something I would do...and here it is.

Friends, I left it like this all day. I was not going home to preserve my dignity! NO WAY...that would waste way too much time. :) And what was left of my dignity was yanked away with delivery and all associated with Baby 3. :) Where did I go? OH let's see....I went to lunch with Dan. To the cleaners. To the pharmacy. I picked up the kids from school and we went straight to the library. I know all the moms in the library were feeling so bad for me as I nursed Colbie, read Daisy a book and checked Isaac for a poopie diaper (which he had, which we ALL had to load up and go change). Ahh....good times.



And a few from farther back:

I had a Mommy Brain incident from when I just had Isaac. I had invited a friend to come over for lunch. She was going to pick up lunch and bring it to my apt. We planned this on Sunday...and it was Friday. I TOTALLY forgot. And at noon I heard a knock at the door while I was nursing Isaac and watching THS (True Hollywood Story) on Cher. Who is that?? When I looked thru the peep hole and saw her...my WHOLE BODY flushed with embarrassment. I said something like, "HOLY MOLY!" out loud. My house was a wreck. I was in my pj's and so on. Oh man. It was bad. She was SO kind.

OH...and I spelled MY OWN SONS NAME WRONG on my first blog post about him. I think it was more of a typo. But still. We were afraid of that with his name...and then his OWN mom did it. Can't throw that stone anymore. (Seems the older I get the less stones I get to throw...ha! Yeah, I know mom, I shouldn't be throwing them to begin with.)

And then this was a doozie as well....almost burning down Tanglewood.

Did you get a good laugh at me? Fabulous. You're welcome.

Coloring Eggs with Jamie and Shelley

Jamie was home for Spring Break so she and Shelley came to see us. YAY! Company and extra arms! :) We did the Egg Dying Kit that Jeeg sent in the mail. It was great fun. And messy. It was hard keeping CoCo from turning colors as well. So glad to have help! They loved it. I think this was Isaac's first year to do it.

(Jamie has Colbie in the background.)

Sweet Daisy.

Sweet little Isaac Jones.

After they were colored and dry...we hid them in the backyard. Not too many things to hide them behind...we had to get creative. ;) It was a beautiful day and we had fun. When I turned my back for one second...Isaac smashed one by stomping on it. It was all down hill from there for the eggs. Eventually each egg...but maybe one...met their doom (and our tummies!). See below. :)

YUM.

favorite pics lately....

Colbie at 5 wks (btw...she has smiled...but have yet to get a pic!) btw...is Colbie kinda giving a Freddie Prinze Jr face in the pic above? Eh, She's All That and 24 watchers? She has a great Bob Newhart face too. I will try to catch it for you. ;)

Me and my babies!!!

This is a funny pic...above is Colbie and Ryan...who were born on the same day! My friend Kelly Wagner (that I have mentioned MANY times...Reid and Riley's Mama) and I had our babies on the same day. Isn't that crazy? She was due on Feb 4th and I was due on 12th (or maybe earlier according to how I measured). I love that our babies share birthdays!
Above: now here it seems as if I DID, in fact, catch a Colbie smile. But it was a fluke...but glad I got it! She was not smiling yet when I took this pic. She was stretching and maybe thinking, "Hey guys, get off of me!" Story of her sweet little life.

Above is Sarah Schmidt with Colbie. She is our sweet friend from Orlando. We miss Ben and Sarah!! Btw...she sells CAbi clothes...if you are familiar (or aren't and wanna be) and want some...I can hook you up with her. SUPER cute clothes. I hope to partake later when "things" get back to normal, if you know what I mean. :)

I love this pic for 2 reasons. One: they are playing so sweetly together in their pjs. Two: CoCo has his firemans hat on backwards. HA.
A Colbie coma. She LOVES the carrier and usually conks out in it. It's awesome for peace and terrible for our lower backs. :) I thought her limp body looked hilarious in it as Daniel walked around the house.

Daisy's Penny at Church

This morning after worship, I went to pick up Daisy from class. She got a penny in class today.

"A penny? What is this for, Daisy?"

"It's supposed to remind me to pray, " said Daisy.

"Pray for what?"

"Pray for Isaac."

"JONES?" I asked, shocked. :) After confirming that by way of a double checking glance at the teacher....yes, in fact, it was Isaac Jones. How sweet is that? Pray for her little brother that just last week said she was his best friend? The one that plays with her all the time and that 60% of the time (kinda generous I know) they get along swimmingly and play well together? So sweet!!

well....

Later while talking after church I glanced at the "homework" paper Daisy has from Bible class this week. I was excited about doing it with her...when I read this....

and this....

Is that hilarious???!!! He is her best friend and enemy. He can certainly be a "difficult" person to her. Isaac can be so sweet and play with Daisy....and other times can be SUCH a pesky brother.

I remember my brother, Scott, being the SAME way. My mom would even say, "He is not doing it to bother you." BUT OH YES HE WAS. AND HE KNEW IT. HE STILL KNOWS IT. :) I also remember her saying, "If you would ignore him/not react he would stop." Well, that was not humanly possible for me. Everything he ever did pushed my buttons/jumped on my nerves/got WAY under my skin. Again, he knew it. :) And each day when Daisy and Isaac fight...my mothers words come bursting out of my mouth! :)


(btw...note the words in the white part of the blue ticket in the pic..."Departure: Today Destination: Heaven" WOAH. Hold on there Bible Homework. Today?? Really?? I will be sure to remind Daisy NOT TO DRINK the Koolaide in class next week just to be safe. Sheesh! :) HA!)

Happy Clover Day!!!

That is what Daisy calls St Patrick's Day. :)

We went to a St Patrick's Day thing in downtown Ocala on the square. It was a fun little festival. There was a REAL LIVE Irish music playin' band. They sounded great! It was a very blustery day....I was finding pieces of things blown off of a tree in my hair all night! The kids got some fun craft clay from a table sponsored by Michaels. We opted out of paying for the bounce house, the sand candle and other various kid magnets. And with very little opposition I might add! :) Hooray! Good times, good times.

Super Dad

*WARNING* Cheesy alert. Proceed with caution. :)


Had mastitis last weekend. It was terrible. I was running fever and felt miserable. I could not get warm (chills). Not to mention the other issues with this infection...not a pleasant time. But you know what? My husband stepped right in. Took care of the kids all weekend while I rested and even had a great attitude about it!

Ladies, we all know that this is an AWESOME feat. It was amazing especially considering we are new at this 3 kids chaos. I mean I got to sleep late and nap. Unreal. It was so nice to be able to relax and rest while my kids were taken care of by their Daddy!

Dan has really taken this "being selfless" thing to a new level! (Which is what we have heard makes for a FAB marriage.) I have to admit, and some of you may have noticed, that Daniel is VERY involved with the kids. He does more "playing" with them than I do! When he gets home from work...he is 100% Daddy. Sometimes I have to remind him to kiss me when he comes home. :) But honestly, it's a "kiss" to me when he comes in, swoops up the kids and takes over. :) He changes diapers, bathes them, dresses them, rocks and soothes Colbie...basically everything I do, so does he. Even with newborns! It's awesome. Some of you complain your husband won't help you? I complain he is telling me WHAT to do (i.e. Mel, are you sure you wanna use Butt Paste and not just Vaseline on that diaper rash? YEAH, DAN, PRETTY SURE (add big eyes and flared nostrils for effect.)! But that stuff gets balanced with him supporting me in staying home, with his comments about how it's hard to stay home with 3 kids and he doesn't know how I do it (me either honestly....wait, yes I do...THANK YOU LORD!). It makes me feel good and validated in a "job" that does not always lend that encouragement on a daily basis.

I know I may come across as bragging here. I really don't mean to be. I just want to brag on Daniel for being a HUGE reason why we are (so far) surviving this 3 kid thing.

Daniel, you are the best. Thank you so much for being such an involved and loving Daddy. I am so glad you are my partner in this parenting thing. I love my life and what I do. Even on the hard days I wouldn't change it for anything. Thank you for making it possible for me to stay home. You are my hero. :) I love you!!

Daisy dresses Colbie

Here are some pics of Colbie when sweet Daisy dresses her.

Here we are going with an "all patterns" look.

How funny is this head band with 2 orange bows??? Daisy said, "Mama, she does look like she does karate." I was thinking Lebron James...

Found her one day with the pom-poms stuck next to her in the bouncy seat. So we added the hat...Roll Tide.

But seriously, my little Daisy is a HUGE HELP to me. I can't even express it! She is great. Usually the outfits are matching. She LOVES her baby sister. I think she is finally over the "she has a boy name" deal. :) She loves to hold her. She sits by her in the backseat (that's another blog post of them all crammed in the back of my Honda) and puts her paci in, wipes her spit up, talks to her, sings to her, covers her eyes with the sun shade, gets the head band off her eyes when it slips down....it's SO awesome and helpful. (Can you imagine if CoCo was next to her? HA! It'd be a different story. He is so much sweeter to her now. Now he strokes her head with his chubby little dimpled-at-the knuckles hand and says, "OH Fweethaaaaaart! (sweetheart)" So sweet, big brother. :) ) There is so much more that sweet Daisy does. I am so proud of her. And I have to be careful not to wear her out and remember that she is still just a 5 year old little girl and not a grown up! :)

Uncle Jim's Gifts

Y'all, I have the coolest Great Uncle. His name is Jim Thompson. I am going to pause here in my writing about him and give you a chance to get a pen and jot down his name.

Done? You are going to need to remember it when he is famous. I am feel fairly certain that one day his writing talent and creativity will be discovered. And like Shel Silverstein, Dr Seuss and so on...he will be a household name in fun, creative writing. Just wait. You'll see. :)

SO...on with the story. He sent us the really cool package after Colbie was born. I took pics of most of it. I will tell about it with those.

Colbie got a cute bib, 2 sets of cute booties all made from organic cotton. I got a beautiful handkerchief with the letter M on it. Isn't it so pretty?

Below is a note to Daisy that reads: "Dear Daisy, The gold box is for you. Inside it are three little bird eggs and they will hatch pretty soon I think. Also, there is a little notebook for you and some gardenia soap. Love, Uncle Jim"
Notice in the little gold box below the note there are 2 eggs and a bird! Daisy was SO THRILLED to see that one had "hatched"!! And she could NOT wait for the others to hatch as well. HA.

Here is part of the email I sent to Jim about Daisy and the eggs:

Daisy has carried around her little gold box of bird and 2 eggs for days. She was so surprised to see that one had hatched. She was telling us all evening she couldn't wait for the others to hatch. I had to finally tell her that they were not real and that you had put a bird in there...but that it is still so fun to pretend. She seemed like she bought it...until...yesterday she came up to me telling me she had "accidentally" broken the 2 other eggs when she dropped them. I knew that wasn't true cause I had seen her drop them on our tile floor like 9,000 times already and they were fine. So I asked her if she was telling me the truth. She paused for a long time and said, "I, um, accidentally bit them." I think she still wanted there to be baby birds in there! And she was not convinced by me telling her they were not really going to hatch. So she took matters in to her own hands...or dentition rather. :) So I will spend part of this morning super gluing those eggs.

Above is Daisy with the beloved Bird. :)

....and she loved note pad. My mother-in-law translated the french on the notepad. It says, "I take my time."

Above is the "Instant Balloon Family. Just add air." And that we did. (You can see one of the family members behind Daisy in the bird pic.)

Loved this: Pocket watch with no hands...and a note taped to the top that says "Don't worry about the time." Great reminder for a mama of 3 small kids.
Jim sent Isaac a REAL goose egg from Iowa! :) It said, "This egg was laid especially for Isaac Jones and is guaranteed real by Mother Goose." :) Isaac also got a small truck that goes fast and a little giraffe.

He also sent a list of some of the names of women in our family's history. It was so neat to know some names of relatives. The names are quite unique. Here are some I didn't know: America, Lucinda, Eugenia, Topsy, Jolly...and many more. Jim is our family historian. I am so glad he does this. I hope someday to compile all this cool family info.

I will have to post some of his writings and riddles sometime. You all will be very impressed. :)

THANK YOU UNCLE JIM for such a fun and thoughtful gift. We loved every bit of it!!

Mimimo to the rescue!

I am so behind on all the things I WANT to blog. Sheesh! But I am not going to give up. The problem is that I really like to blog in order...so being behind has stopped me from blogging what is currently going on. UGH. But I have to keep going. This is therapy for me. :)

OK.

I have been meaning to blog this for a long time. But I would like to take some time and brag on my mother-in-law. She came to stay with us for almost 2 weeks! It was GREAT. Thank you Buddy for sharing her with us for so long! It was a life line for us. She did it all! Anna (Dan's older sister) said she was like Mary Poppins when she stayed with her after Caleb was born. Well said, Anna. Well said! She entertained the kids, held and bounced Colbie, cooked, cleaned, did the laundry, changed the sheets, not to mention great conversation and advice. I do wish she could have held my hand and jumped me into a chalk drawing (of a spa) like Mary Poppins! HA!

One day we went to lunch while Dan watched Daisy and Isaac. We ate at the Veranda House while sweet Colbie slept the whole time. :) We had a fab time. Lunch was delicious. And we even enjoyed dessert with tea/coffee. So nice.

We really, really enjoyed her being here. As we told her goodbye early one morning in our pj's , I shed a few tears (of sadness and FEAR of the future without her) . It was a bummer!

I KNOW how blessed I am to have in-laws that I love. And I am very thankful for them! Believe me, I do NOT take them for granted. :) I feel confident that Eryn, Don and Chris would agree. :)

Thank you so much, Maurine, for coming and staying with us. We will have to come up with another excuse to have you for so long again (cause I am thinking it won't be a baby next time...). Maybe you can come help me potty train Isaac this summer? I am thinking that is going to take a while. And I KNOW I will need support for that. :)

(This pic was after church when we took Colbie for the first time. Excuse #1: Daisy's hair was how she requested it to be done...she has been diggin' the high-school-cheerleader-competition-squad hair do including the bow on the tip-top of the head. At least she isn't sporting the make up for that look yet. If she could, she would though! Excuse #2: Co-Co was doing "funny face" for the pic which always seems to be preformed when we DON'T want it. )

Ocala Snow Day

We heard from our neighbor about a Snow Day happening down the road from us in Ocala. We wanted to get out of the house...so we went to check it out. I fed Colbie and left her at home with Maurine.

Dan, Buddy, the kids and I had fun! It was some what humorous. I think they were not prepared for the number that showed up. The lines were ridiculous! It had been so cold here (yes, I mean the 40's/50's and yes that is COLD for us...we are in FL for cryin' out loud!) but this day was 70. So here we all were looking for outdoor plans on this fun, warm, sunny day. HA! Not good for the fake snow dumped in this field. :)

There were several piles of "snow" that people waited in line to "play" in. We waited in the line that you can get on the snow, make 3 snow balls....but then wait in another line to throw the snowballs in a baby pool from behind a line. But guess what happened when we waited for that fun part? Yup...the baseball sized snowballs were marbles when we got to the front. And the kids were flippin' out that their hands were cold from holding said melting snowball! HA.

Ocala snow

sweet kids

marble toss

We went to a tent where you can make "snow crafts" and the kids made these little snowflakes out of pipe cleaners and beads. I was impressed that Isaac could do that craft so well on his own.

I love the above pic of Buddy. I feel like this hand gesture is very Buddy. I am glad I got it in a pic. :)

Daisy was beggin' to stand in the SUPER LONG line to go down the snow hill on a sled. The other line didn't take as long as I thought so I said I would take her.

BOY WAS I WRONG ON THAT. AN HOUR LATER (past lunch and nap time!) we were still in line. Unreal. And here was her reaction to the ride....