Lauren, the nudist

Ask anyone we know and they will confirm it. Lauren (3) hates to wear clothes. I'm not sure how it happened, but if at all possible she prefers to wear nothing at all. I think it started with potty training. For all the kids, it seemed to work best, esp. in summer, if you let them run around pants-less and they could make it to the bathroom easily and then if they were outside (we live in the country) they could just go. That of course has started another set of problems--WANTING to pee and poop outside all the time!! (That's a whole other story) Anyway, it has gotten to be a huge problem---it is a HUGE fight to get her to put on clothes each day. Right now it's summer so she will deal with a dress, but hates the underwear. I literally have to hold her down and forcefully dress her some days--while she is kicking and screaming!! It is not fun. Then we'll head to the car, if we're needing to run some errands, drive to Wal-Mart, when I realize that somewhere between the house and the car, the underwear has come off!! I've started keeping extra pairs of underwear in the car specifically for those reasons. Then, there have been a few times we missed that she didn't have underwear on--like just this Sunday at church. Nice dress, hair fixed, cute shoes, NO underwear--which we don't even notice until we're buckling her in her car seat--AFTER church. I can only imagine what the Sunday School workers think!!! Even on the days we are home, I'll manage to talk her into getting dressed in the morning, but she rarely makes it through the day. At some point suddenly she appears naked at a jay bird. She has no qualms about it AT ALL!! She'll run around nude no matter who is here and be perfectly happy to climb up on your lap to say hello. It was cute when she was 2, now I really need to figure out how to make clothes appealing. Hopefully with cooler weather coming, the idea of being warm will encourage clothing:)

I feel itchy all over

o.k.--tonight I got a dreaded phone call. My son's best friend, who he spends hours with everyday, and just left our house, after hanging out in David's room, on his bed, playing X-Box, has LICE!! God, please let this escape our house. I know it's a common child-hood thing, but I just don't want to have to deal with it. I've heard awful things about how hard it is to get rid of. And I'm itching all over just thinking about it. So.... I checked everyone's head--no sign that I can tell. Then stripped the bedding, pillows, etc and stuck it in the wash, bagged up other things and am praying I can prevent it from infesting the house. I gave David an extra short hair cut and stuck everyone in the tub, scrubbed them down, rinsed with vinegar (I read on the internet that that can get the eggs out of the hair), and blew dry each of their hair (I also read that the little nits don't like heat) hoping, hoping that I can nip it in the bud before the darn things hatch---if they are anywhere, I'm gonna do my best to kill them now. I've heard you rarely make it through raising kids without lice at least once, but I would sure like to try.

Will I ever sleep 8 hours straight again?

O.K., we've had sickness progressing through our house. It's August, kids and hubby are back in school and we've caught everything that's going around already!! It's going to be a LONG winter if things continue on this way. Anyway last night, Natalie woke up about 1:30 am, yes not too unusual, except last night she just decided it was time to be up. She was very fussy at first and had a terrible stinky diaper, so of course my first thought is that she is sick. No, I'm not sure what her deal was. She wandered the house, played, sat in my lap, played with wipies (one of her favorite things) all while I watched TV. Sadly or maybe fortunately, I was having trouble sleeping, so getting up with her went over o.k. with me. I think she finally fell asleep about 4 a.m. How, her or myself are functioning today, I don't know. No sign of sickness for her yet today. And here I am again, thinking, "Will I ever get 8 straight hours of sleep again?", Will I ever feel rested?" I should be used to it, none of my kids have slept consistently through the night until they were about TWO-- no exaggeration. I know it's partly my fault, I've never been able to let them cry it out. It just never made sense to me. Nurse them and back to sleep within minutes or lie there in bed, awake, listening to them cry, waiting for them to stop--wide awake for LONG lengths of time. And yes, at our well child visits, when the pediatrician asks if the baby has her own room and sleeps in her own bed, I flat out lie!!! She's my fourth kid, I've done it the same with all of them, why change now?? I just look forward to the day when they are teenagers and want to sleep. I'm going to be right there with them.

Ewww

Lauren was sitting on my lap looking up my nose and said "EWWW, you have hair in your nose!"
Yes, I said and someday you will too. Love the honesty of children.

Natalie, the biter

Since the moment Natalie was born, older sister Lauren hasn't liked her too much. Almost from the beginning Lauren was mean to Natalie--hitting her, pinching her, trying to pull her off me or pull her off the couch or bed when she was sleeping... the list goes on. Well, the time has come when Natalie is fighting back. And she has learned from the best. Today Natalie and Lauren were laying on the ground, watching Dora and suddenly I hear an ear piercing scream!!! Natalie bit Lauren's leg for no apparent reason. Lauren now has an awful mouth sized bruise on her leg. These two are 2 years apart and have definite sibling rivalry issues. They fight over me all the time. I have plenty of room on my lap, but next thing you know they are pushing, pulling hair, pinching, biting, fighting for my whole lap to themselves, until, I eventually can't take it anymore and get up, leaving them both crying on the couch. I can only hope that this won't go on forever.

poop

Lately I've been surrounded by the issue of poop. My husband and I have somehow both caught the same bug at the same time and have spent endless hours on the toilet. Yes, this is a lovely way to start my brand new blog, but oh so fitting for how life at our house goes! Then this morning as my husband is heading out the door, he yells at the dogs for pooping in the sunroom, but doesn't have time to clean it up because he is late. So I head out to take care of it, distracted from the fact that I was in the middle of changing Natalie's diaper, she was squirming and fighting to not get a new one on, so I had given up. After being outside only a few minutes, I come in to find more poop--plops of runny, disgusting poop trailed from one end of the living room carpet into the kitchen, ending at the source, Natalie, looking up at me, legs and bottom covered in it. UGGGHH!! So off I go to grab our spot steam cleaner that I use daily. What an investment...Dan and I had bought it about 6 years ago, after the "yogurt incident". It has been a life saver. After I stick Natalie in the tub, Kaylee comes down saying her stomach hurts and so begins round 2 with the diarrhea bug-- The next few days could be lots of fun and filled with more poop clean- up duty--yeah!! You have to laugh or you would always be crying.