Germs

Have I ever mentioned that I am a germaphobe?  You probably could have guessed since I am phobic about vomit that I wouldn't like germs, but I mean I REALLY don't like germs.  If you were to peek into my belongings, you would be likely to find antibacterial gel in my purse, my car, my nightstand... basically anywhere that you will find me.  And yes, I do know that antibacterial gel actually doesn't kill stomach virus germs, but hey, if it makes me feel a bit safer, then why not right?

Well, today, I ventured into a very frightening place, armed only with my antibacterial gel.  An indoor child's adventure playground, complete with sticky padded walls and dark tunnels lined with who-knows-what.  I try to avoid these places in general but it is Mylie's 4th birthday tomorrow and since we held her birthday party so early, I felt like we needed to do something a bit festive for her, and this was what she wanted to do.

We met up with a couple of their little buddies and their mom and let them loose onto the playground, which brings me to a question.  Why on earth, do parents take their obviously sick children out into public and risk infecting other people with their germs???  I mean, I am not talking about colds... I fully understand that.  This time of year, we would have to hibernate if I never took my kids out when they have runny noses.  And I also understand that there are just times when you have to get something done and you have no choice but to drag your sick kid along.  But what I really don't get, is why someone would take their child who visibly appears to be sick and is shivering from what appears to be fever out to an indoor playplace?  It was all I could do not to rush around and gather up my little troops and leave.  It is almost like knowingly attending a chicken pox party (the idea of which I am not entirely against, lol!) and throwing a sick child in with a bunch of healthy ones to see what kind of results you can get!

Anyways, enough with my germ rant... here are my pictures for the day!  First up is Mylie, who had just mildly injured herself on the trampoline at our house.  Even though she is almost 4, she still does this thing where she sucks on her lower lip while she rifles her hand around on her Bobby (that is her blanky's name... and for the record, he is a boy.)  She was doing that here.  Mylie brings new meaning to the phrase, "Turn that frown, upside down!"



And this is her, laid out on the ground on a makeshift bed made by Laina and covered by Bobby.  It was all very dramatic, Laina the drama queen acting as if a major injury had just occured and she (the heroine) was in charge of making Mylie comfortable until help arrived.  I was obviously being unsympathetic by standing around taking pictures when such an emergency was taking place.

And here are the girls doing lunch with their BFF's at White Spot.

Little Chick and Chickadee

We decided today that we should start a New Year's Day tradition of going on a nice family walk at a nature park near our home.  After bundling up the kids against the minus degree weather, we set out on our walk.  It started out innocently enough with Laina feeding chickadees some bird seed out of her hand, and Mylie spotting ducks walking across ice and diving into frigid waters.  But soon, all three girls had descended into whining, snotty and cranky little beasts begging to be carried so we turned back halfway around the trail.  I am thinking maybe this won't be a New Year's tradition after all.  I'm not that sadistic.  But I did get a few cute pictures before we left.

This is my gloved hand with the chickadee in it.



On another note, I finished the skirt/ top combo with the japanese fabric I showed off here.  This was the first time I have attempted machine applique EVER on the shirt.  It was fun and I will definitely try it again!
Laina was my model today and she definitely has her ideas about how models stand and pose.

I was worried this one was going to turn into a strip tease.

Just as I was typing this Evelyn decided to eat (and choke a bit) on a whole coffee bean.  This doesn't bode well for tonight's sleep!

Happy New Year!

Wow, it's almost time for a new year!  I could easily fill this spot with well-meaning resolutions about what I will do differently in the new year but I will keep those to myself.  I am bound to fail on them anyways! I set too many and have too high of hopes, I need to learn to set myself more achievable goals.

So instead, I will tell you what problem arose tonight.  For the past 6 years or so, Adam and I have let our kids stay up until "midnight" on New Year's Eve.  And by midnight, I mean Eastern time.  But we are in the Pacific time zone.  So we watch the last bit of what used to be the Dick Clark New Year's Eve special (don't even know what they call it now?) and we watch the ball drop at midnight Eastern time, then we go outside and bang pots and pans and yell "Happy New Year".  And the girls would always wonder aloud, "Why isn't anyone else making noise?"  Last year, we had friends over with their kids and so when we went outside with our noise makers, we were so loud, we could see a neighbor across the street peering through their curtains, probably wondering, "What the hell are those fools doing?"

The dilema this year was this.... Laina can tell time now.  So either I had to 'fess up and admit that we had been lying all those years, or genuinely let her stay up until midnight (which I was NOT about to do, I need my alone time!!!), or sneak around changing every clock in the house a little bit each hour until the clocks said midnight at 9pm.  We chose to admit it.  And she was not impressed.  She said, "No wonder no one else was ever making noise when we did!"  But even though the jig was up, we still went outside at 9pm and hollered and blew noisemakers.  We felt no sillier than usual.

So Happy New Year!

(P.S. Adam bought me a Cricut Expression today as a surprise.... so expect to see that featured heavily in the next few days!)
(P.P.S Tomorrow I intend on having a huge closet purge of the kid's clothes.  So expect to see some giveaways on here or on GF!)

Random

I don't have anything cohesive or interesting to say today, so this post and pictures will be totally random!
I don't think I am even going to bother with sentences today!

*first random... I found a group of ladies online today who I can learn photography stuff from and I am stoked!  I have so much to learn, but hey, what does a SAHM have if not time? (snort! That is what Adam thinks anyways)

*second random, on that group of ladies, I happened to find a gal who lives within a half hour drive from me, who ALSO has emetophobia!  I may actually get to meet someone in real life who "gets" what I go through!

*third random, I made the yummiest cinnamon buns today at the recommendation of Tamara in her blog here.  She was right, they are soooo good!  And when I was taking a picture of the cinnamon bun, suddenly a tiny little hand appeared in front of my lens as Evelyn made a grab for the gooey, delicious bun.

*final random, I am sewing a skirt right now that I should finish tonight with adorable Japanese fabric.  It has deers and mushrooms and flowers and butterflies.... what more could I want?

Pj Day

It was a good day today. All of us stayed in our pajamas the ENTIRE day, and I didn't even step foot out of my house once!  Part of the reason it was such a good day was because after my scare last night with Laina, she woke up this morning sick, but thankfully not with a migraine, and not with a stomach virus.  Just the nasty little cold her sisters both have.  The big girls were both in good spirits and played surprising well together too which is always a bonus.

Evie was a different story... she was a clingy, gooey, drool-y, snotty mess all day long.  At least until her beloved Daddy got home from work, and then she cheered up.

I really don't have much to say today!  Nor did I take many pictures, but since I promised myself to post every day with pictures.... here is one of Evie in a rare smiling moment today.  And in the background, you can see The.World's.Ugliest.Fireplace.  It won't show up in many of my pictures because I avoid that thing like the plague.  It looks... medieval or something.  It's ugliness is second in the house only to the orange countertop.

Sickies

You may have noticed that just last night, I added a couple of tabs at the top of my blog, one of which is a little section about who I am.  In it, I talked about my emetophobia and anxiety and how I don't want to let them rule my life anymore.  And now, less than a day later, I am sequestered in my room with my house smelling like a pool.  Let me explain....

Mylie and Evelyn were both quite sick today with fevers coming on this afternoon in addition to the coughs and runny noses that they already had since Christmas Day.  Towards the evening, Laina complained of being very tired and also alternating between feeling hot and cold but without actually having a temperature.  I was okay with all of that because I thought she must be just getting what the other two have.  While it sucks to see them sick, I can handle them having colds and true flus (as opposed to a stomach virus).  But then after dinner Laina seemed to be feeling worse and worse, and soon admitted that she had a migraine and a stomachache.  I don't use the word migraine lightly.  She has suffered from pediatric migraines which can last for days and include light sensitivity and vomiting since she was 5, and has frequent headaches as well.  She has been hospitalized for treatment due to the migraines in the past and so we take it seriously when she tells us she has a migraine.

So she went to bed feeling quite sick.  I have no idea what tonight will bring and I am scared out of my mind.  When there is a threat of sickness (vomiting) in my house, I clean obsessively and with nothing less than bleach.  I clean every surface I can think of that the possible sickie could have touched.  So now that I have cleaned until my house smells like a chlorine-treated pool, I am holed up in my room, hoping that she won't get sick, and that her migraine won't last until morning... hoping that she won't end up in the hospital... just wishing she never had to feel this much pain, and wishing that I wasn't scared.  Wishing that I wasn't letting my anxiety rule my life.  I guess all I can say is that tomorrow is another day and a chance to do better than I did today.

Although I wouldn't say these pictures accurately capture the tone of the day, I took them this morning when we went to visit Adam's grandparents and before the kids started feeling really crappy.  Mylie isn't wearing pants in the pictures because well, I guess that should have been my first clue that she was feverish... she was too hot, so she took off her dress and insisted that what she was wearing underneath were leggings even though they were really footless tights.

Evie in Janie and Jack Penguin Winter and her new pink Chuck Taylor Converse that she got for Christmas (oh and her skirt was twisted backwards here!):

Laina in a Mini Boden top, Target jeans, and Ugg boots (and in case I haven't explained on here before, she is growing her bangs out, so expect her to look shaggy for months to come!):



Mylie in Janie and Jack Penguin Winter footless tights (and she WAS wearing the dress too, lol!) and a TCP top, Ugg boots.



And on the drive home, this is what happened with my sickies:

Poor little thing can't keep her soother in her mouth because her nose is so plugged up!

Wish me luck with the night!

Valentines Already?? Yep, I am crazy.

I couldn't resist trying out this new pattern that I bought off of etsy today.  It is called a Peek-a-boo skirt and the pattern was made by LittleLizardKing.  Here is the link on etsy, I have made several of her patterns now and they are great for beginners with lots of pictures to guide you.  I am going to attempt a shirt of my own design to go with it, but I will have to get back to you on that, it may be a disaster!

Evie was my model today, and she is sick and fairly non-compliant (not that disobediance is unusual for her.... she is like that even when she is feeling good!) so the pictures aren't well styled.  Also, the settings I used were obviously not right because the lighting looks like crap in the photos.  Now that I am done apologizing for my shortcomings, here are the pics!

I fed her a cake pop in hopes of bribing her into good behavior.

I would have loved this picture if it wasn't so blurry and she should have been wearing a diaper cover.