Pee, Poop, Blood and our First Snow!

I swear it goes in waves in our house.  Everything will be going fine and then BOOM we have pee and poop and blood everywhere.  What!?  It's been a crazy morning....

I was lucky enough to go out with my girlfriends last night to celebrate one of our friends' birthday.  We had a a fun dinner filled with lots of drinks, stories and many many laughs.  I love that I have the kind of hubby that totally encourages me to take advantage of going out with the ladies...because after a morning like I had today it was great to think about the night before and be grateful that I got to recharge!  So here it goes...

Braden came in for a visit in the middle of the night last night.  I hadn't gotten into bed until one a.m. so his visit not so long after that wasn't what I was hoping for.  In my sleepy fog I let him snuggle for a few minutes and then sent him on his way back to his bed.  Back to sleep for me only to be awakened again by Mr. B-man.  At this point I didn't care about our "kids don't sleep in our room" rule and told him to pull up a pillow and sleep on the floor.  Done.  Then Fenway apparently decided to join the party.  Mind you, this dog is not allowed upstairs in our house but for the last few weeks he has completely stopped following that rule.  In fact, this morning B told me that Fenway actually had gone into his room while he came into our room and was sleeping in his bed when he went in there.  What!?  Crazy Fenway.  Anyways...long middle of the night story short, Braden got in bed with me when Pete got up for work.  We slept nicely until suddenly he jumped out of bed and stood there staring at me.  He had peed the bed.  I was really, really hoping to stay in bed but unfortunately my little guy was soaked - as was our bed.  Bummer.  Out of bed I got, stripped the sheets off the bed and headed to the bathroom to help the little guy undress.

I put B in the shower.  I hear Gracie girl start yelling, literally, yelling at the top of her lungs for me.  Moooommmmmmaaaaa!!!!  So I grab her.  Figure she can get in the shower now too.  The three of us take a shower, they play on the floor with their boats and cups and everyone is happy.  I decided to get out first and let them keep playing.  I'm not sure why when I leave it opens up the door for complete chaos to ensue but it does.  Braden starts taking toys from Gracie, Gracie starts trying to bite him for doing it.  Gracie starts to open up the door over and over again allowing the water to come out onto the floor.  I didn't even have a chance to get myself dressed while all this was going on!

Finally Gracie had enough and she wanted out.  I took her out and let her dry off.  I don't know what possessed me to let her "air dry" a bit while I checked my email on my iPhone.  I left her in the bathroom playing and "drying" while I sat on my bed (where Fenway was laying on the ground next to again - after being told to go downstairs - no one listens to me, not even the hound!) reading emails from my girlfriends about our night out.  Pretty quickly Gracie appears next to me and I immediately smell something that reminds me an awful lot of her poop smell...

She had pooped.  All over the bathroom floor.  Apparently while she was standing because she must have landed on it when she sat down and then proceeded to crawl from the bathroom, through my closet, into my bedroom.  Can you say, poop trail!?  Uuugh!  The amount of poop that was smeared on the bathroom floor was horrendous.  It was one of those clean up situations where I was thinking, "is there any way I could not deal with this and someone else will?"  The only help I got was from Fenway.  He decided to eat a little poop chunk she had left behind on the carpet - absolutely disgusting.  After that with the help of some paper towels, Target bags and lots and lots of bathroom cleaner later the floor was clean again and Gracie was having shower number two of the day.

Post-showers - B was SO thrilled to see the snow on the ground that I quickly dressed him in his snowsuit, sent him out the door and started to get Miss Poopy ready to go out.  She was eating a Graham cracker in her diaper, happy as can be and this is when I saw the blood.  Somewhere she was bleeding.  Her face had blood streaks.  Our hardwood floors had blood streaks.  The Graham cracker she was eating had blood on it.  I couldn't figure out where it was coming from - was it her lip? her hand?  Finally I saw her little middle finger had two little slits in it.  I have no idea how (maybe playing with the shower door?) but she had cut her finger and she was bleeding ALL OVER THE PLACE!  Uuuugh, again!  I couldn't get her finger to stop bleeding.  I couldn't keep her still so she wouldn't get blood anywhere.  I couldn't get her to keep the little band-aid I was putting on the tip of her finger on.  I literally did not not know what to do.  When I picked her up she bled on me.  When I left her on the ground she crawled everywhere leaving a blood trail (similar to her early poop trail!).  Eventually I just sat there wrestling her with a papertowel on the tip of her finger. I tried raising her little arm above her head.  Aren't you supposed to do that to stop bleeding?  Or is that for swelling?  A nurse, I am not.  Fenway decided to add his help to this clean up, too.  As I'm wrestling the little lady I look over to see him licking each little blood streak off the hardwoods.  Gross, but helpful. :o)

Just another little misadventure (remember this?) for the Foxes and our Hound...I think hubby's glad he was at work for this one again...

post-shower daydreaming about playing in the snow

My Week in iPhone Pics - week 1

Our week began Tuesday because Pete and I were away for the first couple of days of the week....

Tuesday: We went with our friends to Drumlin Farm to see the animals, go on a hayride and eat a fun picnic outside.  Braden loved running around with his buddies and Gracie was thrilled to show off to my Mommy friends that she can walk a little bit now! Pretty soon she'll be standing at the fence and running with the boys just like her "little sister" friends!

Checking out the animals at Drumlin Farm with our friends

Poor Gracie can't keep up on foot yet - so she gets a ride in the stroller. 

The kids climbed all over this long tree after our picnic!

Gracie was ready for a nap and not pleased that she kept falling while attempting to walk after lunch (she's also probably jealous of the older kids running around when she couldn't do it!)

Thursday: Braden had swim lessons in the morning (he did AWESOME again!!).  After nap time we played outside in the sunshine.  Gracie loves the "wee" (slide) and the "wing" (swing) in the backyard.  Braden loves sliding down the slide with Gracie on his lap.  He also had learned to pump on his own big boy swing!  Yay!

Playing in the backyard after naptime - Braden was pretending to be unhappy - silly 3 year old!

Friday: It was a plan free morning so the kids and I went to the playground and had it all to ourselves! Gracie crawled around and enjoyed all the equipment!  She's getting so big!  The three of us had a blast on the swings together.  I even showed off by jumping off - which resulted in me ripping my fleece jacket - oops.

We had the playground to ourselves!

Gracie's 1st ponytail - Friday night fun!

Saturday: We went to the Fall Festival with my parents (Nana and Granddad), Aunt Crista and baby Anna.  Braden rode the pony, fed the animals at the little petting zoo and got his face painted.  Gracie loved playing on the toys they had set up.  It was fantastic!

Gracie enjoyed a cookie while watching her big brother's face transform into a tiger

I'm shocked he let someone do this to him - he's such a neat freak!

He loved it until he saw it - then when we got home he made us wash it right off - I knew he was a neat freak!  Ha ha!

Sunday: It's  quiet day here at the Fox household.  We spent the morning sleeping in, watching Tangled and doing yard work.  Gracie found some chalk to entertain herself while her big brother rode around in circles on his bike.

Just a little chalk drawing in her socks while Daddy did the yard work and Braden rode is bike- no big deal!

So that's our week.  I have been looking forward to doing this "week of iphone pics" ever since I began reading this blog.  She does it weekly and I love it!  Hope you enjoyed and I'll see you tomorrow for my big 31st Birthday!! :o)

Attempting to Hobby Myself

Lately, I've been trying to find things to do for myself that I enjoy.   I realized one day recently that I don't have things that I "do" that I enjoy for myself.  I plan my days based on my two adorable children. I make plans to go to farms, playgrounds, friends' houses.  I plan the day around meals and naps and preschool.

I enjoy all the pieces of my SAHM "job".  I love caring for my children.  I love preparing the meals for everyone in the family.  I love that I am the "CEO" of the house and take care of everything financially.  I love, as Pete puts it, I'm the "social coordinator" of our life.  I love caring for our house and knowing that I'm the one taking care of everyone.  This is my absolute dream job and I am forever and ever grateful that my husband works his butt off so I can do this.  I'm so lucky to be able to do this that I feel bad even saying that I want more in my life.

By more I mean this: I want to knit and crochet and learn to use a sewing machine.  I want to become a better photographer/photo editor.  I daydream of being crafty like this.  I want an area of my house that is for me to work on something that I will be proud of.

I think one of the reasons I love blogging so much is because it's something I look forward to doing.  I'm proud of what I write.  I am happy to share with people out there that are blog readers (you're out there, right?)  I love thinking about something that I am going to "do" - as in - I look forward to sitting down and writing about what I've been thinking about what I wanted to write.  How's that for a confusing statement!!?  The long and short of it is that I'm the type of person that loves having something to look forward to.  I love having something that gets me excited.

So...where does that leave me?  Mostly daydreaming still...but instead of just wishing and hoping I've vowed to light a little fire under my crafty side.  I have no crafty talents as of yet but am begging my inner creative crafter to come up.  I spent the afternoon yesterday watching youtube video after youtube video on how to crochet.  By the time Gracie woke up from her nap I had managed to teach myself how to do a slip knot, single crochet and double crochet, turn and add lines.  I was proud to show my hard working hubby three double crochet lines when he got home last night!  I crack myself up that I think I can make a hat today after my learning yesterday.  You never know - maybe I'll be really good at it and start my own little hat business on etsy...stay tuned - but don't hold your breath!

Bunco and Swimming and HTML...oh my!

You might be wondering - What have we been up to since Tuesday?  In my ideal world I have all sorts of followers wondering what we've been up to and hoping for a new post today.  Ha!  I know that's probably a little far fetched since this is, what, my 5th or 6th post since I "re-joined" the blogging world?  Well with all the efforts and confusion and complaining I have put on to my poor husband about figuring out the layout and menu bar and links to my blog I certainly hope that this is interesting to somebody out there :)

I owe my husband a little shout out for being so awesome.  He knows EXACTLY what to say to talk me off the edge of insanity when it comes to just about anything.  I admit I have the tendency to *freak out* here and there.  I get fixated on things being clean or organized or looking the right way.  My handsome, hard-working hubby manages to remind me to "not sweat the small stuff" and he ALWAYS offers to help out!  Is this lucky or what?  Anyways - his most recent awesomeness happened yesterday when I was freaking out about how much I didn't understand HTML and fonts and links and uploads and all the things that I envy about other people's blogs.  He listened (or read - since we were typing to each other - you can still be awesome over the computer!!) and then reminded me that he was going to help and that we'd figure it out together and to remember all the little things.  And most importantly he reminded me that this is blog v1.0 and that the "upgrade" v.2.0 was going to be even more awesome.  So, with that said people...I promise this blog will be more entertaining that just us Fox stories soon enough. I want links (pintrest, other blogs, recipes, DYI projects) and fun fonts and pictures edited...we'll see one step at a time!

Alright a quick summary of where we've been...

Wednesday: Braden had school so Gracie and I went to Target.  Love that store.  After preschool pick up we had lunch, naps, I did too much blog reading/editing/envying.  We had spaghetti for dinner, kids went to bed and then Pete and I watched waaay too many episodes of Sons of Anarchy.

Thursday: Braden had swim lessons and SWAM by himself for the first time.  He is literally a FISH suddenly.  I'm in love with watching him do it.  He's so proud of himself and it makes me so proud to watch.  Afterwards we went to Stop and Shop and bought these seriously delicious looking cupcakes that I sometime want to be able to make (picture to follow).  Then I was a crazy lady throughout nap-time and spent the entire time trying to change my layout (do you like it!?) and add a menu/tabs bar (clearly not successful yet!).  After nap I cleaned and cleaned and chased the kids around to get the house all set up for Bunco - which I was hosting.  We ate pizza for dinner (I had big cooking plans but then realized that I had cleaned the house and wasn't about to mess up the kitchen!), kids to bed and then the ladies came over to play Bunco.

A couple pics from the last couple of days...

Gracie's enjoying a few snacks and smiles at Target

yummy cupcakes - clockwise Braden's, Momma's, Gracie's, Daddy's

Business as Usual

Our first day of the week usually is all about being la-la-la-lazy: snuggling in bed in the morning, cleaning up the house, watching PBS, eating breakfast all the while still in our jammies!  This all changed when Braden started going to preschool on Monday and Wednesday's this fall but luckily for us this week we didn't have school because of Columbus Day so our "first day of the week" was a Tuesday and we were back to a la-la-la-lazy start to the week.  Gracie slept until 9:45 (from 6:30 the night before!).  Braden was up later than usual too - must have been a result of the sick weekend.  I spent way too much time reading blogs, editing mine, facebook stalking, and tweeting.  Somewhere in there I managed to feed my children, fold laundry, pay some bills, and clean up the kitchen - and yes, I was in my jammies the whole time!

Anyway, the highlight of my day was playing Candyland with Braden during Gracie's nap.  It was the first time he'd ever played it and he was so excited.  We made it through two rounds and he won both of them fair and square.

Braden's first Candyland

Post-Gracie's nap we headed to Roche Bros for the few ingredients I needed to make dinner that I didn't have.  Typically Monday mornings while Braden's at school I try and do my grocery shopping and I was reminded of why yesterday afternoon.  If Braden wasn't yelling or whining or taking produce off the shelves (someday he is going to pull the wrong apple and the whole display is going to end up on the floor and when that day comes I'm going to pretend I don't know him!) he was hanging onto the cart trying to be dragged along.  Honestly, I find it impressive how well he knows how to push my buttons.  It takes all the composure I can muster up to not totally lose it in public when he behaves like that.  I bribe, I beg, I plead but no matter what...he still acts like a punk at the grocery store!  Oh well, another shopping experience in the books.  We all survived.  Unfortunately, I wish I could say the same for my dinner...it was awful and I feel terrible that I made my husband eat it....don't worry, I won't share the recipe! 

And with that friends...another day with the Foxes is complete....

Fevers and Trains

Thank goodness Monday was a holiday for Pete.  On top of the kids both being sick all weekend, so was he.  The poor guy had to rally all weekend for the kids that I think he probably is happy to be back at work today....

Sunday was less than "Funday" for us.  Gracie was an all out disaster...

our (failed) attempt to play outside during this "indian summer" sunday

Braden on the other hand had slept all day Saturday and for more than 12 hours Saturday night and his battery was mooooore than charged!  So by Monday morning when Gracie was drugged up and seeming a little on the up and up we packed up the mini and headed to Carver to Edaville Railroad for "A Day Out with Thomas".

Braden was seriously beyond excited.  This kid LOVES trains and more importantly LOVES Thomas the Tank Engine.  This was one of those crazy mom moments when you knew you were making your kids dream come true and all you can do is grin from ear to ear for the three hours that you are there.  The day for him was filled with going on the ferris wheel with daddy, riding on the airplane ride ALL BY HIMSELF, riding Dumbo with Momma and most importantly taking the 2:10 trip on the Thomas Train as a family of four.  It was a dream come true and I am SO happy that we woke up Monday and forced ourselves out of the house, germs and all, to provide our little guy with something he couldn't even imagine!  Here are a few pics...

Merry Go Round

Daddy and Braden on the big Ferris Wheel

All of us on Thomas's Train 

Gracie enjoyed "most" of the ride

Thomas!

Momma and Braden take a ride on Dumbo

a happy little boy...

A Wash of a Long Weekend...

We have a house full of sickies and a weekend full of botched plans :o(

At dinner time last night our weekend looked quite bright!

Friday looked like this:  We had friends over last night for steak from Whole Foods prepared by grill master fox (aka my handsome husband), a random assortment of side dishes and s'mores to be devoured by the fire-pit.  A great start to a long weekend that we were in much need of!  Before bed Braden started complaining that his belly hurt.  Gracie was a little cranky but has been for the last few days because either she has a. a virus and/or b. her molars are cutting through...poor baby girl.  Both were in bed easily and our fire-pit fun commenced.  Unfortunately that was the end of the fun.

Saturday was supposed to be: a trip to Honey Pot Hill Orchards for our annual apple picking with Pete's cousins.  We were then planning on driving down to Chatham to stay with Pete's grandparents for the night to help close up their house for the winter and to enjoy a sunny Sunday by the beach.

Instead Saturday is looking like this:  Gracie woke up in the middle of the night crying and miserable.  Pete and I took turns rocking her and finally she was transferable back to her crib.  When she woke up this morning she spent the entire morning with her head on my chest sucking her fingers.  She had her fingers in her mouth so much that when she took them out they were all pruney.  When Braden woke up he mentioned that his ear hurt, which he's never said before.  We still (not smartly) got in the car as a messy family of four and headed to the orchard.  As each mile went on we realized our mistake.  Braden was crying a little harder and begging for us to hold him as each mile drove on and Gracie dozed in and out as she was clearly not feeling well.  By the time we reached the parking lot Braden wouldn't even let us put him down and was in complete meltdown mode.  We didn't pick a single apple.  We turned the car around and headed back to the hospital where the pediatricians were waiting for us.

Poor Braden is terrified of the doctors.  He screamed and begged and cried the entire walk to the office.  He was saying things like, "please don't do this to me" and "don't let them touch me".  My heart broke.  As I handed the receptionist the $20 co-pay my eyes were welled with tears.  I cannot stand the idea of my little boy feeling like we were doing something to harm him.  It was so sad.  Needless to say he has a bad ear infection.  His first that I can remember.  She said for him to take Motrin and amoxicillin.  The poor guy won't take medicine so I was quite nervous about attempting this but magic Daddy was the ticket.  He said it took 20 minutes of negotiating but eventually he swallowed the pink stuff and now looks like this....

for now, that's the way things are looking for our foxes this weekend...we'll see what tomorrow brings.

One year later...

It's been a year since my last post.  I would never have guessed that if I hadn't come back to my blog today to start again.  I would have thought maybe it'd been 6 months, 9 months at most!  Well look how fast a year flies by when you are busy, busy, busy.

I've spent the last few weeks reading lots of other SAHM's blogs.  I have even become quite the follower of ones such as A Good Life and Baby Moo Hoo and It's a Wonderful Life.  These mom's have inspired me to blog again and I am so grateful!  I have no idea how much it really matters to anyone out there but honestly, it matters to me and that is all that counts!  I look forward to reading their posts and seeing their pictures and I have really wanted to do the same with my crazy little world.

So welcome back Four Foxes and a Hound!  Looking forward to posting again...