Difference is Personalities

I have always known that my girls had quite different personalities, but an experience this past weekend, made it even more evident. We have been battleing a few different sickneses around our house this past week. One of them being the stomach flu. Alexis had it first. She awoke in the middle of the night feeling very sick, and so she cam in my bed and slept with us moaning and groaning all night long, finally throwing up. On Saturday we had a big family picture scheduled so I got the kids up and gave them a bath, did their hair and we were about ready to go, when Tori said "mommy, I threw up last night" This caught me a little off guard. I said "what do you mean? where?" She said "on my bed, I will show you" We walked into her bedroom, and sure enough, there it was all over her bed and the floor. I said "How come you didn't come and get me??" She answered by saying "I was still tired so I went back to sleep." I asked if she had a tummy ache, and if she cried. She said "yes" but wasn't the least bit sad or anything about. I on the other hand felt like the worst mom ever, and was so sad imagining my sweet little Tori alone in her bed, feeling sick, without her mommy to comfort her. When we moved into this house, I decided the girls didn't need the baby monitor in their room anymore seeing that they are 6, and almost 4 years old. I think I will be rethinking that decision now.

Swimming Lessons

We just finished our fourth straight week of swimming lessons. They were every morning Monday through Friday Tori's were from 9:45-10:15, and then Alexis's were from 10:30-11:10. This being a very hot summer made it close to torture sitting out there in the hot sun, but it was well worth it. You see, last summer Alexis had a rather tramatic experience. She went swimming with her best friend, and took off her water wings while they were eating lunch. She saw a ball floating in the water and decided to reach in for it. The next thing my friend heard was her daughter screaming "she's drowning! she's drowning!" My friend told me that all she could see were Alexis's big eyes above the water. She had to jump in and get her. Ever since Alexis has had a little bit of fear when it comes to swimming. The reason I know this was so tramatic for her is because we will be driving in the car and randomly she will say "mommy, why do I keep thinking about when I almost drowned that one time? I just can't get it out of my head!". So our goal this summer was to get her to be able to swim by herself, and not be afraid. Well the first session she would not let go of her teacher, and if she thought the teacher was even thinking of letting her go her grip just grew tighter and tighter. One of my friends from high school was actually her teacher and she was really great with her, but day after day I would watch as all the other kids could swim quite far to the teacher unassisted, and I didn't know how that could ever be Alexis. She was just so scared! So even though I hated sitting out in the scorching sun day after day, I decided to sign her up for another session. So the next week started out pretty much like the first, and the first week was over, and there was no change. That Friday night we decided to take her to out gym and work with her. It took a lot of crying and water in the nose, but by the end of the night she was swimming back and forth from Brandon to me. After that day she was a completly different child at swimming lessons. When the teacher was working with someone else, she would practice swimming all by herself along the wall, and when it was her turn she swan by herself to her teacher!! I was sooo proud. When we got her report card on the last day, and there were all checks, she passed! I had tears in my eyes, because it had been such a long process, but it was so rewarding to see her with so much confidence, knowing that she could swim! Out sweet Tori loved swimming lessons. The first few days I had to bribe her with different things to get her to go near the water, but after that she was fine. She absolutly loved her teacher, and we were lucky enough to get him for both sessions. He was so sweet, and his personality was perfect for Tori. The thing that she struggled with was getting her hair wet. She would not get it wet at all, and don't even think about asking her to do a bob. So on that same night we took Alexis to the Pool, we took Tori too, and worked with her on getting her hair wet. By the end of the night she had it mastered, so I thought for sure at swimming lessons the next day she would do it. But, no she still didn't. I culdn't beleive it. The next day her teacher worked with her for a long time, and he got her to go under. Her teacher was so proud of her, as was I =) I was very greatful that they opened up the baby pool for sibling to swim in while waiting for their brothers and sisters to finish swimming lessons. It was truly a lifesaver with Levi. So swimming lessons proved to be a success, and I actually got a pretty nice tan as well =)

"The Fan Blew It Over"

I sadly admit this is one of those "I told you so moments" Brandon and I have a t.v. that sits on the edge of our dresser. Our desk is directly across from the dresser, but the t.v. is turned the other way so we can see it from the bed. Well I have to work from my computer, and lately I have been getting scheduled until 1 am. Sometimes the only thing that keeps me awake, is turning on the t.v., and since it is turned the other way, I have been turning it my way so I can see it, and then turning it back after I am done. Well the other night Brandon walked in and saw me doing this. He told me it wasn't a great idea to keep moving the t.v. because it would scratch up the dresser. Well...the next day while Brandon was working, I was cleaning things up in our bedroom, and I started to turn the t.v. so that it would be facing the bed. Well I am not sure exactly how this happened, but nefore I knew it the t.v was leaning forward, and I could not hold it up. It crashed to the ground with a thud. Not only did it scratch the dresser, but it took a big chunk out of the top drawer. I totally started freaking out, thinking, oh my gosh what have I done, Brandon is going to kill me(not really), this was such an expensive t.v., how can I fix this. The whole top cracked in two, and the screen got seperated from the tv itself. I tried to get it to work for about an hour with no avail. My girls during all this were saying things such as, let's just not tell daddy, maybe we can hide it! And they came up with what they thought was a brilliant plan. They got some blankets from their room, and covered it up, and Alexis wrote a note to put on top saying "the fan blew it over" What clever little girls we have lol. Well my worrying was for nothing, Brandon was very understanding and not mad at all. He didn't even say "I told you so" But how could he have been upset after he saw what the girls had thought up. Now my tv is gone, and I am left to think up other ways to keep myself away when I have to work until 1.

Sisters

Tori had a bad dream a few nights ago. She said that she went out our back gate and went into the neighbors yard and a fox and a bear started to chase her. Well she was really quite distraught over this, and throughout the day she kept brining it up. Last night we were driving back from the gym, and the girls were talking in the back seat. This is the conversation Brandon and I overheard:
Tori: "Lexi, whenever you have bad dreams what do you do
to not be scared"
Alexis: "I just try to think of happy things, and then I
don't feel scared anymore. Sometimes I go into mommy and daddy's room too."
How sweet, it was that sweet little Tori turned to her big sister for advice. =) I just had to share that tender little moment between sisters. I hope they will always be close, and able to confide in eachother, when they need advice.

Never a dull moment

Well just when I think things are going smoothly something crazy seems to happen. Today Levi would not take a nap. He always takes a nap. Every day. Same time. No problem. Well today I made plans with some friends to take our kids swimming right after Levi woke up from his nap, so of course he refused to take one. I was actaully planning on taking a quick power nap as well, since I have to work until 1 am every night this week. Well I heard him in there playing around for a little while, and finally he started crying, and it became obvious to me that he was not going to go to sleep. (my girls were having "quiet time" watching The 12 Dancing Princess.) So I went in and got him. I brought him into my room and layed him next to me thinking he would fall asleep, because he loves to cuddle. Well that worked for a few minutes, and he eventually wriggled loose. He quickly hurried to the stairs and slid down them to go find his sisters. I got up and followed him down and quickly realized that he now had a poopy diaper. I brought him back upstairs and changed it, and then I set it on the top step of the stairs for when I went back down, so I wouldn't forget to take it out to the garage. Levi walked out of the room, and Alexis came in wanting to play one of her computer games on my computer. I proceeded to help her with this. I then started getting a load of laundry together, and here comes Tori upstaris quite anxious saying.."mommy! Levi went poopy all over the floor!" My first thought how is this possible..I just changed him. I followed her out, and then noticed...the diaper was no longer sitting on the top step. As I neared the bottom of the stairs I saw Levi standing there with poop all over his arms, legs and shoes, and the dirty diaper opened. I then turned around and ALL over my brand new light colored carpet, was poop totally smooshed in. I kid you not..it was EVERYWHERE. Well at this moment I admit, I freaked out a little. I scooped up Levi and brought him into the kitchen and tried to wash him off. I then proceeded to fill a bowl up with soap and water, and for the next hour tried to scrub it out of my floor. The whole time my girls were, bless there hearts, just trying to be helpful, telling me where every little spot was...but I was just not to thrilled with the situation already so I made them go upstaris and play. I put Levi on time out (we just started that) Our time out is our stairs, so he was watching me this whole time, with the same look that he had in the picture of him from my last post. Well I finally got finished. It is still not out all the way. I am going to have to borrow Brandon's Mom's steam cleaner to get the rest out. So after I finished I walked outside to throw away the diaper, and I walked back inside, not even 30 seconds later, to see that Levi had dumped the whole bowl of dirty water that I had been using to clean everything up, all over the carpet. So yes..there is never a dull moment at our house, and the moral of the story is: Throw the dirty diaper in the trash as soon as you change it.

Candy Canes

Tonight we went to dinner over at my Mom and Dad's house. Alexis always seems to find something new she wants, and this time it was an old box of candycanes. So of course all of the kids had to have one. Levi had one, and after getting it all over his hands and face, I finally had to take it away. Needless to say he wasn't too happy about that and proceeded to scream at the top of his lungs for a few minutes. He eventually got over it, but right as we were getting ready to go, he came up to me with another candy cane that he had found. Me being the mean mom that I am said, "no more candy canes honey" So of course he found someone else he knew could not tell him no (that would be grandpa) So I walk into the front room, and there is Levi happy as can be sucking on his cany cane. I didn't want to have to go through the screams from earlier in the night, so I put off taking it away from his as long as possible. But I finally did take it away when I buckled him in his seat, because I didn't want him to choke on the way home. So of course then came the screams. He stopped right before we got home, but he was still quite mad at me. I couln't resist getting camera out to capture his cute little pout. But mommy knows her Levi..all I had to do was say "tootie!" to get him giggling and back to his normal self. I was glad I had my camera handy to capture how quickly his mood changed. haha

I think I am in for trouble......

The other day my good friend Dara and her daughter Elisabeth came over to hang out. Elisabeth is exactly 2 months to the day younger then Levi. they always have so much fun playing, except for the occasional push and shove. They were playing at my kitchen table, and Elisabeth pushed Levi. Dara told Elisabeth to say sorry and without thinking twice, she gave him a big hug and then a great big kiss! Dara and I thought it was the most adorable thing ever, so of course I had to run and get my camera. They didn't mind doing it once more for the camera =) Then at the end of our visit, we said "say goodbye guys".. and they gave eachother another big kiss, without us even telling them too! We are already planning a future yearbook photo for this one. LOL =)