To Infinity and Beyond!

Chad found out that the closest Lego store to us was having a grand re-opening.  He took Jordan because they were building a huge Buzz Lightyear out of Legos.  I stayed home with Danny and let him crawl all around, he's getting really good at his army crawl.  It's cute to hear his little grunts as he scoots himself closer to whatever toy he's got his heart set on.

Jordan got to put together a few big blocks that they then used on the big Buzz.  

Here he is picking out some Legos to use:

 This was a mini-Buzz up on the bigger Buzz that was almost completed.

 My sweet boy so proud of his block!

 Here's what Buzz's head looks like.  I love the eyebrows! 

We are huge Buzz Lightyear fans around here.  Jordan was Buzz for Halloween and wants a Buzz birthday party this year.  I can't believe he'll be four soon!  My favorite part of Toy Story 3 is when Buzz goes into Spanish mode.  It's just too funny!

Weird Wondering...

I've got another weird wondering for you...because sometimes I get to wondering and I feel like what I'm wondering is just kind of goofy and I have to share.

I bought a new can/jar/canister of sea salt recently and it seems like I try my hardest to close it up just right but then every time I go to use it I realize I didn't close it quite all the way...and now I'm wondering if it's me or these lids to these contraptions that just barely leave you any room to be off.  Here's a pic of what I mean:

Sea Salt

Sprinkles

So tell me, because this is what I'm wondering...is it that they just barely make these lids capable of being in their closed state, or am I just not coordinated enough to get it to match up exactly most of the time!?!?

What's In The Cards for Valentine's Day?

I love Valentine's day!  I'm a lucky mom to have three boys in my life to love!  Jordan and I have worked on his Valentine's already and I'm hoping we can dye some carnations some time this weekend.  We did make this fun decoration last week and I love how it turned out:

I found this activity from No Time for Flashcards where she has great ideas for kids.  I was excited because Chad and I had just played cards and as I was looking for a deck to play with, I found an old pack of Coca-Cola cards that were missing three cards.  This not-quite-complete pack was exactly what we needed for this project, bonus for us: no cost!

Jordan helped me sort through the cards and find only the heart cards.  Then we put them in order and counted the numbers on the card.  He helped me punch holes in the cards and I cut some heart shapes out.  Next, we strung them all up.  Jordan did pretty good for a few of the cards and then he got tired of it so I ended up finishing it up but that's okay!  I think it looks so pretty on our mantle.

I need to do more projects like this with Jordan.  Luckily, he works on projects all the time at our sitter's. He comes home with coloring pages, paintwork, things he has glued, cut, glittered, you name it.  It makes a huge difference to have such a great sitter who does all of this, it just makes me feel so reassured that he's there with her.

What are your favorite Valentine's Day crafts?  Do you have any Valentine's Day traditions?  What kind of Valentine's are your kiddos giving - homemade or store-bought?  (Either is okay...just curious!)

PSA - Nose Suckage

It's been a about a year and a half since I felt I had a valid public service announcement to make...but this one is an important one to anyone who has a baby!  Are you ready?  It's all about using a nose sucker to get those boogs out!  What's snot to love about this turkey baster?

Ahem, excuse me, it does have a formal name: a bulb aspirator.  It was a proud moment when Jordan was in his big brother class and the nurse held one up and asked the kids if they knew what it was called and he proudly exclaimed that it's a nose sucker.  That's what we call it!  

For Chad, getting to use this thing is therapy.  He loves the sound and the feeling of clearing out those nostrils. Weird, maybe, but when you're kiddo is sick and can't blow his or her nose it's important.  Babies breathe primarily through their noses.  

Okay, so our most recent stint in the emergency room/hospital with Danner gave us a nose sucker refresher course and I'm here to share our expertise with you.  We are pros now at nose suckage.

In preparation of nose suckage you will need: a bulb aspirator AKA The Nose Sucker (we brought one home from the hospital when both kiddos were born and now that we were back in the hospital again...I've heard multiple people claim the ones from the hospital are the best but you can buy them in stores also), some kind of tissue, and saline.

Step 1: Lay baby down on his or her back.

Step 2: Put the babies arms over his or her head and hold them down.  This prevents the babe from jerking his or her head from side to side to avoid nose suckage.  Tip: If you have to do this alone (like I did today...) you can use one arm to pin his or her arms down and the other arm to suck the boogs.

FYI: This will likely cause some (or a lot) of unhappiness from the baby, but it's worth it to get that nose cleaned out.

Step 3: Spray saline into each nostril.

Step 4: Squeeze the nose sucker.

Step 5: Place the nose sucker into one nostril and let the ball part open up.  This will suck those boogs out.

Step 6. Squeeze the boogs out onto the tissue you have.

Step 7: Repeat steps 4-6 with other nostril.

Step 8: Release babies arms and quickly gather him or her up in yours and kiss, hug, squeeze, rock, soothe baby.

Phew!  I feel so much better now that I got that out there.  Seriously, all anyone even told us was to make sure to squeeze the ball part before you stick it in the nose otherwise your forcing boogs further in and that's no good.  I'm sure this isn't the only way to get boogs out but so far it's the most effective I've seen.  Do you use the nose sucker?  Do you have a good system for nose suckage you would like to share?  What do you affectionately (or maybe disgustedly) call you nose sucker?

Turkey Slices and Febrile Seizures

Ugh, thinking back over the last two days I am just so thankful to be home with all my boys and for all of us to be healthy or on our way back to being healthy.  Sheesh.  Danner started feeling warm on Thursday night.  He wasn't super warm but he seemed a little warm to me.  He had a cough and a stuffy nose but we went about our life as normal.  Saturday night Jordan was at my parents but we brought Danny home with us since he wasn't feeling to well and had been waking up in the middle of the night.

Sure enough, we brought him home and he fussed when he was going to sleep.  Chad came upstairs where I was watching a movie on my laptop.  Chad fell asleep with the TV on...apparently hungry and dreaming about a few more slices of turkey.  I heard Danny start crying and left my movie - the 2007 version of Hairspray, if you're wondering - to go check on him.  I didn't realize Chad was asleep already (...it was a good movie...and I may love Zac Efron...).

When I picked Danny up, he was super hot.  His head was really hot and when I opened his jammies to change his diaper his chest was super hot.  I didn't even get to changing his diaper, I called for Chad to please get the fever medicine that was downstairs.  Danny didn't seem like he was breathing quite right so I picked him up and was heading downstairs to meet Chad.  Danny was kind of grunting and it didn't seem like he was getting good breaths in.  When his eyelids started to get heavy and then his head went limp and rested on my shoulder we were pretty much freaking out and decided to call 911.  As much as we tried to get Danny to respond to us, he seemed to be completely unconscious.  Luckily, he was breathing normally again, he was just not responsive.

To make a long story short, the ambulance came, he woke up, his fever was 103.7 and we got to ride in the ambulance to the ER.  They checked us in and did so many tests on my little bird.  Everything came back negative which leads them to believe he had a febrile seizure.  The doctors said it was fairly common (to them at least) and he just has a lower threshold for fevers and his body deals with it by having a seizure.  From now on we'll have to make sure to start Motrin as soon as he has a cold and at least we understand it might happen again.

Besides this newfound understanding of Danny and fevers, I learned that I should probably preface my request for medicine from Chad by telling him how serious it is and whether he needs to go to get the medicine directly or if he can grab a snack on his way to the medicine.  Oh yes, remember how Chad had been dreaming of turkey slices before I woke him up to get the medicine?  Well, when I woke him up he grabbed a few slices of turkey until he realized I was freaking out and sprinted up the stairs to get his phone.  Of course, I didn't know about these turkey dreams or these pre-medicine shenanigans until he found us in the ER, sat down next to me out of breath, and said, "I've got turkey slices in my pocket...you think they're still good to eat?"

I'm so happy we're home from the hospital.  It feels good to be home again.  Times like this make me cherish more and more the health that we do have and understand how fragile we all can be.

American Idol 2011...What Season Is it???

I'm not even sure what season we are in for American Idol...and I honestly am not worried enough about it to look it up...BUT we have been watching and I find myself eagerly awaiting it as usual.  As not-so-great as the singers were last season (minus Lee, of course), I still want to watch this year.  So far I think there will be some great singers this year.  I already have a favorite, she's young and I'm not sure how far she'll get, but I'm definitely watching for her and hoping she will get pretty far.  I think she's awesome.  Her name is Lauren Alaina and she was the very last audition last week on Thursday.  She was really sweet and her voice sounded great to me.  They wrote about her in this LA Times article, where I found this picture:

I'll definitely vote for her!

One thing that is different for us this season is that Jordan gets to watch with us!  He has always been in bed before Idol started OR we had DVR so we watched after he was in bed...now, we've cancelled the DVR to save some money and he's not in bed by 7:00 any more (sad as it is, it's true...).  He doesn't get to watch the whole thing and sometimes he's eating or playing as we have it on but when the first time we watched he watched, too.  He sat there and when I asked him what he thought, he would look at me, scrunch his nose, and say, "He doesn't get it."  Now that's his response no matter who is singing and if they are good or not, "He doesn't get it," as he shakes his head back and forth, like it's such a sad state.  It cracks us up!  I love it!  

Have you watched this season?  What do you think?  Any favorites for you yet?  You can watch Lauren Alaina here, too.  Do you think she gets it?

My Sports Hubby

In an effort to post something non-kid related I have a hubby-related post for you today!  He's a sports maniac, but I mean that in a nice way.  I love that he's so invested in the sports that he loves: football and basketball.  While he knows enough about other sports, too, he's the expert on football and basketball.

Now that "our" football season is done (the Bears lost in the playoffs the weekend before last), he's moved onto watching the Bulls.  I hear about all the players for the Bulls, but it seems like more and more I've heard him talking about Kyle Korver.  Kyle Korver is new to the Bulls this year but seems to be one of their go-to shooters.  Chad tells me all about how they get him open, get him the ball and how effective he is at making the shots when he needs to.  When I watch, I notice him running around like crazy trying to get open to get a pass and make that shot, but it's fun to watch.

If you haven't heard of Kyle Korver before there's one more thing to point out about him...and apparently, he's not so happy that people make this connection with him...but I have to talk about it.  He looks like Ashton Kutcher!  Not so important when it comes to his impact as a player, but for this Ashton Kutcher fan it's definitely worthy of being pointed out.  I, personally, think it's cool that we have a Bulls player who looks like Ashton.  What do you think?

This picture (thanks to TMZ) might not be the best picture to compare the two of them and if you're so keen you can type in Korver and Kutcher and you'll get more images of how closely the two resemble each other.

Like I said, I love that he's into sports.  I think it's great that he has something in his life that he is so invested in.  I have my books...mounds and mounds of books, which can be found all over the house, as Chad so nicely pointed out the other day.  What are you into?  What consumes you?  What could you not live without (apart from your family...)?