Our family critters

I realized that I have not written much about our pets. Here is their story...

Ellie

When I lived by myself in Canada I got a dog from the SPCA, she looked like a black Benji dog! We used to go on long walks and she pretty much went everywhere I did. Here is a picture of her running in the snow, she loves to run!

When Arlan & I were going to get married I told him that Ellie & I were a package deal. When we went to SanDiego he even had to move so that we could be in an apartment that allows dogs! Well, it did not take long and Ellie decided that he was the best thing to come into her life. She quickly became his dog!!! Her life changed drastically going from being a "farm" dog to a city dog in SanDiego to a beach dog in Huntington Beach. Then we had kids, Ellie tolerates them and occasionally shows them some puppy love.


She does like a soft place to lay! If there is anything to lay on, such as clothes, blankets, or bodies then Ellie will be laying on it.


And she always patiently waits for her turn. I started calling them my furry vacuums because they clean up the floor under the table so nicely.

Ellie is getting pretty old, I have had her for almost 7 years and they guess that she was 3 or 4 when I got her. But she has been a great dog and I hope she has some good years left in her yet!


Matty
Then there is Matty! Poor Matty is not the smartest dog on the block! We inherited Matty from hubby's grandparents and brought him home a couple months before Sam was born. Matty is a miniature poodle and chiuaua mix and because of the poodle he needs frequent grooming. After about 5 weeks he is just a mess!


Matty loves to be near people, but especially Daddy, I guess he hasn't figured out that Daddy really doesn't like him all that much hahaha! Just kidding, he does like Matty, he will just never admit it!



At first Ellie wanted to have nothing to with him, but eventually they grew to be friends.


Matty ended up being quite an expensive little addition to our family. He has had both back legs operated on to correct problems with his knee joints. During the recovery of his surgeries that were about a year apart, he was not able to exercise much. And this was about the time that we started to feed table food to Sam, and not long after to Ben & Carlee. Poor Matty is now nicknamed Fatty Matty. The good news is that he has lost a bit of the weight since we moved here and he has room to run.


Boots the three legged cat!

Within the first few nights of being in our home we met Boots. He was a stray cat that introduced himself one evening when we sitting on the deck enjoying the quiet of the evening. Of course it was hubby (the old softie) who just had to feed him. I told him that if he feed him he would never go away. Well hubby hoped that he would catch mice and that it would be good to have a cat around the yard. So we started feeding him, and discovered that he didn't mind the dogs and really liked the kids. he has these cute white paws and so I immediately started to call him Boots.



A few weeks after Boots started hanging around I found him under our deck with a badly broken leg. I took him to a vet and decided that he was a nice enough cat that we would see if we could fix his leg. The vet's opinion was that cat's generally heal really well and he would probably only need a splint. So I brought him home with a splint and had to keep him indoors. A week later the vet checked his leg, but it had been too bad of a break and the leg was dying. It needed to be amputated. I had already put money into the "stupid cat" as I affectionately began to call him. What was a few hundred more! And so the stray cat became our three legged house cat.

He gets along just fine with just three legs. In fact I have seen him with a mouse and a bird! He is never too far away from the house, comes when I call him, and is quite often where ever the kids are. The best thing I love about him is that he always goes outside rather than using a litter box!!




Now here is the strange thing about our pets...Talk about coincidence!!!
I got Ellie from the SPCA on July 4, 2001
We brought Matty home from the Grandparents on July 4, 2005
I found Boots with a broken leg on July 4, 2008


And then there are the add-ons...There are a couple of dogs in our neighborhood that have figured out we are suckers for cute, friendly dogs. And especially when it is cold outside and we are suspicious of how they are treated at home and they are cute and they are good with the kids... I know I am trying to justify the fact that the other day we had as many critters in the house as people. But Trixie makes her way over here nearly every day, usually around the time I am feeding the other critters. She has good timing! She is a cute lovable little dog who loves the kids. Ellie and Matty tolerate her but her and Boots get along really well.


And the latest add-on...One day there was a big brown dog that showed up in our yard. If you know a lab, then you know that they are just the sweetest, most lovable dogs. And this dog was no exception. We think we know where he lives, but we don't know his name. I started to call him Bob the big brown dog. When he shows up he comes in the house for a snack and a snooze. He was sleeping on my feet while I typed part of this post! The kids love him and he loves, well everything! He even wags his tail while Ellie growls at him, while Matty barks frantically at him, and while Boots hisses and swipes at him. I think they are jealous hahaha.


The moral of the story is that we love our pets, and even our neighbors pets! I believe that having pets teaches our children gentleness, kindness and compassion. And I also believe that we will always have pets.

funny things I heard

I must start this post by warning you that if you are offended by certain natural bodily functions, then you should not read any further.

Okay, now that that is out of the way we can continue with a couple little stories that me laugh so hard I nearly peed my pants.

First Sam's story...

We were playing with Bob (the neighbor's dog - a big lab mix), it was cold out and so we let him in for awhile. I am writing another post to give you all the details of the critters in our life. Anyway, we were having fun with Bob, the kids are used to small dogs so this big dog was quite a novelty. Until there was a strange and horrible odor - I forgot that big dogs can have big smells!! This is the conversation that followed

Me (groaning) EEWWW BOB!
Sam What? What did Bob do?
Me UUUGGG can't you smell that?
Sam Yes! What is it?
Me ooohhh Bob has really bad gas!
Ben (joining the conversation) What Mama?
Sam (to Ben) Bob ran out of gas

To that I practically fell off the couch I was laughing so hard!



Now Carlee's story...

We were finishing bathtime and Carlee was still in the tub but with no water left. She was having fun slipping around when all of a sudden she tooted quickly loudly. She was very surprised and then looked confused. Of course I chuckled and said "Carlee! What did you do?"
She said "I farted!" Then she got a huge smile on her face and said with much excitement "Just like Daddy!!!" Well I started to laugh so hard I cried! Daddy came in to see what all the fuss was about, when I told him what she said, he grinned proudly and said "That's my girl!"

Things I Love Thursday - Wipes

Head on over to The Diaper Diaries for more "Things I Love Thursdays"

Today I found "Things I Love Thursdays" I love wipes! All kinds of wipes. I cannot live without them! Oh yes I have developed a very serious addiction to wipes. I use them for everything. Baby wipes are generally used on our bodies and for quick table cleanups. Cleaning wipes are used for everything else other than dishes - I still use a dishcloth and dishtowel for dishes. At the moment I can only think of three other times when I do not use wipes. 1) windows get windex and papertowels 2) diaper rashes - wipes burn on diaper rashes so I use facecloths 3) bleeding children get to sit on the kitchen counter with a cold facecloth (this is a frequent event so I now keep a stack of facecloths for this purpose near the kitchen sink).

I don't have a favorite brand of wipes - I use Huggies baby wipes, Lysol, Clorox and Costco's Kirkland brand for both kinds of wipes. I usually buy from Costco and get whichever is the cheapest with whatever coupon I happen to have. Still they are somewhat expensive and I would guess that they are my biggest luxury item, at least on an ongoing basis. But I do not care - I love them and cannot do without them.

I love them so much that a babywipes box is the centerpiece of my table! There is are babywipes boxes in both bathrooms, at least 3 babywipes containers in the diaper bag, a cleaning wipes container on the kitchen counter and one in each bathroom. At all times I have a full box and an opened box of babywipes - the huge Costco sized boxes. From Costco the cleaning wipes come in packages of three or four containers so I keep a full and an opened package. When I use the last container in the package or box I buy another one on my next trip to Costco.

I go through alot of baby wipes and cleaning wipes every day. I really have no idea how any mother survived without wipes. I know that they must have used alot of various kinds of cloths or rags. Imagine the extra laundry - no thanks!! I also simply cannot imagine that everytime I needed to wipe something I would have to run to the sink, wait for the water to warm up (our water is very cold this time of year), wet and rinse a cloth and then chase down whoever it was that I was supposed to be wiping. I would also have to wipe all the surfaces that messy child came into contact with. Not gonna happen - not when I can have three kids and the table wiped in under a minute using wipes. Okay, so I can rationalize using wipes for body parts. What about for cleaning? Well, it was gradual but the use of baby wipes crept into using cleaning wipes for cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms. Pulling a wipe is simply much easier than wringing out a cloth!

I used to use rags for general cleaning and dishcloths for daily kitchen surface wiping. Until I saw the commercial where the woman is wiping with a sponge and then they say she might as well be doing this.. and it cuts to her wiping with a raw chicken. YUCK!!! I have read the label on the disinfecting wipes and it says that to sanitize the surface has to stay wet for something like 30 seconds and to disinfect it has to stay wet for 4 minutes! Okay so I am obviously not disinfecting the surfaces I am wiping, but still - I am not wiping around a possibly germ infested cloth, who knows what hubby used that cloth for while I was still sleeping!!!

So there you go, my very own rationalization for my very deep rooted wipes addiction that I am not soon to give up.

Must be a good show

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funny thing I saw today

I was helping the kids get their coats and boots on to go outside this afternoon. Ben had thrown his boots across the porch, he had a fit about something (that was not the funny part by the way!).

Anyway, he finally decided that he was ready to get his boots on so I told him to go get them and bring them to me. He went to the first one, picked it up and then put it mouth, held it with his teeth and brought it to me. I took it out of his mouth, he gave me a big grin and turned to go get the other one. But this time he crawled over to it, picked it up with his teeth and ran with it in his mouth back to me.

I kind of chuckled and asked what he was doing, he told me he was a puppy. LOL

This cute little incident sort of made up for earlier...

Sam came running to me and said "Ben is getting into trouble! He is spraying everywhere!!!" I thought maybe he had taken off his pullup and ...well. So I ran into the living room and saw him spraying all right. He had managed to find a bottle of Goo-Gone and was spraying it on the floors, the trunk, the windows, the TV, and the leather furniture! Now for those of you who do not know what Goo-Gone is, it is a wonderful product for getting stuff like sticker glue off of things. It works really well, but is not supposed to be used on leather, I didn't want to think what it would do to the laminate floors. I was not impressed and it took a long time to clean up. But after he told me "I made a big big mess Mama, I'm sorry" then he gave me a big hug and one of those delightful slobbery toddler kisses!

funny things I heard today

This is not really funny, in fact it nearly made me cry! This morning when I was making breakfast Sam came up to me and we had this conversation...

Sam Are you making breakfast Mama?
Mama Yes
Sam What are you making Mama?
Mama Waffles
Sam YUM I like waffles
Mama Me too!
Sam (after a brief pause) Mama...
Mama Yeah Sam?
Sam You are my best friend!
Mama Oh that's so nice!
Sam (before I could say anything else He hugged me around the waist and said) I Love You Mama!!

All I could do was hug him back, say I Love You too Buddy, and choke back the tears! He is such a cute kid, but I love that he is so sensitive and loving!


Then later I was helping him to put on a sweater and we had this conversation...
Sam Thanks for helping me with my sweater Mama
Mama You're welcome, and good job having such nice manners today.
Sam (very proudly) Yes I am! I say thank you when I get help!

A trip down memory lane - newborns

Here is an email I just got from my cousin who will soon have her first baby...

Well my dear friends the countdown is officially on....Thus, the anxiety is starting to set in. I am trying to get prepared for the lil bambino to arrive. I am starting to make a list of all items to buy and have on hand for at least the first few weeks. I thought who better to ask then all my beautiful friends whom have already experienced this. Please let me know everything from the kind of diapers, lotions, bottles ( incase the old naturals dont work...lol) to strollers you would suggest!!!!

I look forward to hearing from all of you!!!!


Thanks a mil!
T

This response is written directly to her, but I posted it here for the benefit of anyone who is about to have their first baby.

Wow, T, you have really got me thinking! I wasn't working and had alot of time on my hands so I ended up doing soooo much planning that really didn't mean much once Sam was born!! Life is now so chaotic around here that I forget how quiet and peaceful it was before we had Sam. Well except for moving three weeks before he was born haha I do not recommend that unless your mom will be there to unpack your entire house!!! My mom and hubby literally did unpack everything. I just watched, I was so huge and tired by then that I couldn't do a thing!

I seriously cannot believe that I am going to post these on here, but what the heck.... it is what it is! This was me right before we left for the hospital to have Sam. If you haven't been taking monthly pictures of your belly (which I didn't do) make sure you take one like this!


Or like this!!! Right before we left for the hospital to have Ben & Carlee. I was 58 inches around - I am only 60 inches tall!!!!!!




Quick scroll really far down so you can get these horrible images out of your mind!!! Think about what I produced - BIG babies... Sam was 9lbs 11oz. The twins were big on their own: Carlee was 7lbs 7oz and Ben was 7lbs. Whew that is 14 1/2 pounds of just babies!!!!!! No wonder I look so miserable and uncomfortable in that picture - I WAS!!!!!




Hospital
Decide what you need at the hospital - you don't really need that much, I took way too much stuff that I never even used! Once the baby is there you will not be interested in anything else. Just remember the essentials - brush, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, chapstick, etc and comfy clothes to go home in (not pre-preg clothes!! Your tummy will take a long time to contract).

Okay - here is something that maybe no one else will tell you!!! But I will share because you are family and I love you!!! Make sure you have lots of super duper max strength maxi pads at home. They will probably supply you with some while you are at the hospital, but you will need lots at home. It is kinda nasty but goes with having a baby!! You will have a major period for probably weeks. I was surprised I never knew that it would be so heavy or last so long - with both pregnancies it lasted a full 6 weeks. YUCK I recovered quicker from the csection!! The first few days are the worst and then it will gradually get better.

As for baby stuff at the hospital - I didn't use anything of my own. They had all the supplies and kept him dressed in a hat, shirt and diaper and wrapped in a blanket. They don't want them in "real" clothes because they have to take regular vital signs. Yes, I asked! LOL Here are some pics from the hospital showing their fancy outfits.
This is Sam, only a few hours old!


And here are Ben & Carlee about a day old.


Of course you have to have a car seat. Don't bother with the extra padded stuff you can buy, just use the headrest that comes with the carseat and roll up receiving blankets along the sides. This was Sam's first trip to the doctor.



Okay, now I will try to think back to when it was just Sam. This is difficult by the way! It is hard to remember what they were like as tiny newborn babies when right now I need earplugs to drown out the noise. And I don't even want to know what kind of devastation the Hicks Hurricane is creating while I am trying to type this.

Anyways! The first couple days were all about settling into a routine. I was so very fortunate to have lots of help. Hubby was home for a couple weeks, his family were visiting for about 10 days, and my mom was there for quite awhile too. It was really helpful and made it easy for me to get the rest that I needed to recover.


Setting up your home - basically think sleeping, eating, changing, clothes, bathing

Sleeping
You don't need the fancy bedding sets, you can't have all that stuff in the crib anyways! Get a few nice crib sheets and a waterproof mattress pad and you're done! I always layered the mattress. First a sheet, then the waterproof pad, then another sheet on top. Makes it much easier if you have to change the bedding in the middle of the night - just take off the wet sheet and pad and you are left with an already made mattress!

We had a crib set up, but not the bassinet where he would sleep for a few nights. I didn't really like that he was all the way in another room, but I got over it once I realized that I would jolt awake at the first cry. If you can, put the baby to sleep in the crib right from the start. And keep regular sleep patterns as soon as possible. For example, if it is day time open the curtains, have the TV or radio on and go about your day. Your baby will sleep when he or she is tired and will learn to sleep through the noise. When it is night time, the lights are off and it is quiet. Feed and change when necessary then put them right back to bed - I never talked much and even limited eye contact (usually I was still half asleep LOL). Soon they will learn to eat and go right back to sleep. Ben and Carlee slept in the same crib until they were a year old and started to wake each other up by steamrolling over each other and stealing pacifiers right out the other one's mouth!
Here is a picture of them a few days old in their shared accommodations.


Feeding
I was not able to breastfeed, so we were using bottles right from the start. The hospital sent some home with us and that ran out very quickly. I don't know why I did not buy some formula before he arrived! Hubby was sent out on a very quick trip when I realized we were very low. We had easy babies that took to whatever bottle we gave them - no problems there. I would recommend having a few bottles in case you also cannot breastfeed or if you decide to supplement with formula. There are many kinds and brands, cheap and expensive. To start it makes no difference, if your baby has trouble, that's when you would need to experiment with differnet bottles. When you are looking watch the number for the flow of the nipple. Make sure you get ones that are for under 3 months old. At first I made up a batch of bottles, then I got smart! I measured the water (at room temp - no need to warm it), measured the formula, dumped it in and shook it well. Bottle ready in less than 30 seconds.


Changing - Diapers
I recently figured out that we have changed over 16,000 diapers! YIKES!!! There are newborn sized diapers, but the baby probably won't be in this size very long. Sam never was, he started in size 1.

Changing - Wipes
Funny now when I think back to those first days. I remember not having the changing station set up properly. I was in the middle of changing the first poopy diaper at home and did not have wipes within reach OOPS!!! Good thing there were 4 other people in the house LOL. I have used about a bazillion wipes and continue to use them without a second thought to how much they cost. I do not care, they are the best invention ever! Having said that I have to tell you they are not good when your baby has a diaper rash. Do not ever ever ever use wipes on a rash - even the mild ones still have some chemicals and your baby will scream in agony. Use a wet, warm facecloth instead. In times of bad rashes I used a changing pad on the bathroom floor so I could be near the sink.

Changing - Creams
There are lots of diaper rash creams, but few are worth anything. For diaper rashes I use Desitin Original and I bought Zincofax in Canada too. The brand does not matter, the ingredients do. This was advice given to me by a wonderful pharmacist - Always use a cream that has at least 40% zinc oxide. It totally works, most rashes are gone by the next day. For dry skin I sometimes use a lanolin ointment.


Clothes
For the going home outfit, of course pick something cute but also something that looks easy to get on. Trust me on this one - some of those little baby clothes tested my intelligence and patience!! I no longer have a photo of Sam in his going home outfit, we lost nearly all of his first nine months of photos and videos when our computer crashed. BACK UP your photos and videos people!!!! I now upload everything to Snapfish! I also do not have a photo of Ben & Carlee in their going home outfits, but there was alot going on and taking pictures was the last thing on my mind that day!

Oh yes, and make sure that the outfit you chose can be quickly changed. Both Sam and Ben were soaked through and through by the time we got them home. You should also have a couple sizes, Sam was a big baby and never even fit into the newborn sizes!

As cute as all those little itty bitty baby clothes are, most of them are impractical. You want things to be very easy in the first few weeks. Also, newborn babies are quite difficult to dress. Choose things like these:
- footy jammies, but make sure they snap up both legs. The ones with snaps only on one leg are hard to get on the leg that doesn't snap. And with footy jammies you don't need socks - socks are useless for little babies, they never stay on!
- sleep gowns, I didn't discover these until Ben & Carlee. They are awesome, especially while you have them wrapped up in a blanket, just unwrap and change!
- If you want to dress them up a bit more chose outfits that have simple pants and a onesie. I liked onesies when they were little because it stayed in place when you lifted them up.

Bathing
I had a little baby tub that fit right into the sink. I rarely gave a bath when I was alone, they are just too slippery. I never liked to take them out so I always bathed them in the evening when hubby was home to hold the towel. I only ever used baby wash and baby lotion after. No specific brands, just whatever smelled the best the day I bought it. Sam's umbilical cord took forever to fall off so it was awhile before he even had a submersed bath - this was his reaction LOL


Other stuff
Okay, so you have fed and changed the baby, now what?? After the first few days of doing nothing but holding and staring at your precious baby who is FINALLY here, you will realize that there are things that need to be done. What do you do with the baby? Well, you must have a swing and you must have a bouncy seat. I used both with Sam, but these things truly saved my sanity when Ben & Carlee arrived.


This was when they were about three months old. After my parents abandoned me and went home I had to come up with a way to feed them at the same time, they were always hungry within minutes of each other! As soon as one would start to eat, the other would wake up starving and scream, then the first one would scream in horror if I stopped feeding to get the other. Propping seemed like a solution, until I found Sam stealing bottles!! It was a nightmare, until I solved it with bouncy seats!


Strollers
Best advice for strollers is to go to a store and push some around. I am short so for me, most of the bars were too high and uncomfortable. Make sure you also test out how to collapse them and how heavy they are to lift. If you will be using it alot in the first month or so you want to make sure that the backrest lays completely flat. The one I bought was not that expensive and was a stroller/carseat combo. Worked perfectly for alot of miles! Until Ben & Carlee - then we had to get "The Limo"



Pictures
Take lots of pictures. They really do grow quickly and you will forget how little they were until you look at a picture. One of the things that I did, and still do is make sure I have a good picture of each of them and one of the three of them together every month. Then I use Snapfish to create picture books for the year.

Well, T, that is probably way more information than you were expecting, but I hope it was helpful. I pray that you have a safe and easy delivery and a beautiful healthy baby. I am sad that we live so far away but maybe I will be able to make it home this year. Until then keep us flooded with all those pictures you are going to be taking!!!

PS.. I have heard that it is possible to get pregnant while breastfeeding! I wasn't breastfeeding, nope just not paying attention (or God's plan!!) and was pregnant before Sam was 3 months old!