Move over Paris, Nicole and Lindsay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We're raising ourselves a real party girl!!!!!! She was go, go, go all weekend and still slept so well even though we had a couple of events and daylight savings time going on. First big event was Halloween at work. At Southwest Airlines this is a HUGE event including lotsa skits, decorations and everybody in costume. She went down for her nap 2 hours later than usual, but that didn't seem to be a problem for the nighttime : ). Second big event was Saturday.....SWA Team BBQ from 12-4 (12-2 being usual nap time). We figured since Friday worked out so well we would just put her down for a late nap again, but she had her own strategy and fell asleep on the way to the BBQ and slept for her standard 2 hours in a guest room. Third big event was Daylight Savings Time and "falling back" an hour. Regardless of all the partying Jensen did great as you can see on the BIG Weekend Scoreboard below.....

BIG Weekend Scoreboard:
Total number of nights Jensen slept through - 3
Total number of good naps taken - 3
Total number of nights Mommy laid awake worrying about Jensen's sleep with all the events and Daylight Savings Time happening the same weekend - 6
Happy, healthy, well rested child - Priceless

The Special Guest Star

After a full week (Wed to Wed) of a picture perfect routine of:
- 7:15 Mommy wakes Jensen up
- 7:20-7:40 Mommy does her hair and dresses her while she watches Hi-5
- 7:40 pack up, tell Oscar goodbye and blow him a kiss
- out the door at 7:45ish
- to daycamp by 8:15

......today was a bit different. Jensen decided for whatever reason to wake at 5:35am. Mommy doesn't even get up until 5:50 and Daddy is well into his routine by that time so we had to punt. Sooooooooooo for the first time in awhile Jensen got to be the Special Guest Star on Oscar's weekday morning walk. Unfortunately it was dark so she couldn't see much. But that was ok since she was so tired from waking up so early she most likely didn't care about that and was in a mostly vegetative state anyway.

So here was her new (but not improved) routine today more or less:
- Jensen wakes at 5:35
- Daddy spends 25 minutes trying to get her back to sleep. She's having nothing to do with going back to sleep....hey it's Daddy! It must be the weekend....time to play!!!!
- 6:00 Daddy starts first Hi-5
- 6:15 Daddy pauses first Hi-5 so Jensen can be the Special Guest Star on Oscar's walk
- 6:38 Daddy starts a new Hi-5
- 7:00 Daddy sneaks out (whew!)
- 7:03 Mommy starts a Blue's Clues
- 7:20 while watching Blue's Clues Jensen gets changed, dressed, hair done, and teeth brushed
- 7:40 pack up, tell Oscar goodbye and blow him a kiss
- 8:10 get to daycamp but since she's sound asleep Mommy lets her sleep 10 more minutes in the car

She ought to sleep great tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or so we hope considering we have Halloween at SWA tomorrow and she'll need her strength!!!!! And not be crabby!

Home Alone Part III

Mommy and Daddy went on their 3rd date since Jensen blessed us on 4/28/05 this past Saturday night. Whenever we go out we tell Jensen that she's going to be home alone and she does the home alone face...you know Macaulay Culkin and his hands on either side of his face with his mouth wide open looking surprised. She wasn't really home alone of course....Ms. Lauren from daycamp came to play. They had a ball!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We ordered them the usual Home Alone pizza dinner. Jensen colored us a picture and Ms. Lauren colored her one. Ms. Lauren dated and wrote personal messages on both. We got home and our little angel was asleep without her Binky!!!!!!!!! Somehow Ms. Lauren put her to bed without it and added an extra special touch of repeat play on a lullabye CD Jensen has. Everything was so wonderful so we're gonna get busy planning Home Alone Part IV. ; )

Goth Day at Daycamp

The teachers asked the parents to dress the kiddos in black today to commemorate the kids that are moving on Monday (oh yea did I mention 1 of them is the Mullet? ; )). I thought that was a strange way of commemorating the move...black? Isn't that for funerals and Goth members? I mean how about cupcakes or somethin'? And oh yea how many black little girls' clothes can you find? Not many! However Jensen just happens to have 1 pair of black jeans and 1 black shirt so she's wearing 'em today. And just because I'm so darn happy about the Mullet moving I dressed in black too!!!!!

Happy Goth Day!!!!

Christmas in October

Last night after letting Jensen watch two of her favorite shows I was like um let's do something other than watch TV or play with one or two of your 5 million toys over and over and over. Sooooooooo......I started taking out all of her toys that are stored in the built-in entertainment center in the family room and organizing them. I'm telling you she didn't remember alot of them since she hasn't seen them in so long and I think she thought Santa had come early. We had a ball playing with things we haven't seen in months. Now let's just see how long they stay nicely organized!

Unrelated tidbit.....she's on the cusp of talking we think because she's been getting extremely frustrated with herself alot lately for no apparent reason.

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Goodbye (Mullet)

Found out this morning that the Mullet is out of Jensen's room as of next Monday 10/23!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I felt the need to ask this morning after watching her hover over Jensen's breakfast like a homeless hungry hairy troll.

Slip N Slide

Remember those slip n slide toys? Basically a garbage bag like thingy that you get wet with the hose then you slide down it? Well that's not what this is about. ; )

More "fun" than that rather. Jensen was outside playing with her bubbles last night while Daddy and I prepped food and did dishes in the kitchen. We could see her from the kitchen blowing bubbles and then suddenly she was "gone". Daddy went to check on her and gasped when he got to the door...........I turned to look out the window when I heard his gasp...just in time! Just in time to see little Miss J sliding down her slide backward on her tummy!!!!!!! Two emotions overcame me....1) pride that she could climb the rain soaked and therefore slippery ladder all by herself and get situated on the slide in such a manner by herself and 2) the horror that she did all that by herself and what could have happened had she fallen at any point and time. The top of the slide is pretty high!!!!!!! Whew!!!! I can hardly explain the mixed emotions I felt when I saw my little girl flying down the slide on her tummy backward. And because it was raining the slide was extra slick so her entire body slid off the slide and she thudded onto the wet grass. When she got up, from the look on her face I can only assume she too had the same mixed emotions about what just happened...1) pride that she did that all by herself and 2) horror that she slid off the end, thudded to the ground and was soaked from head to toe.....she clearly didn't know whether she was going to cry because she got a little hurt or cry because Mommy and Daddy were going to be mad at her for doing that solo where usually she has a spotter, and both were now standing there staring at her speechless.

Only in Texas....

.....would a high of 66 degrees on the 12th of October be considered a cold front!!!! Yep weathermen across the Metroplex were warning us this morning about the brrrrrrr cold front!!! Hey at least we'll be able to take a nice long family walk this evening and we can all enjoy the outdoors!! Back up in the 80s by the weekend though.

Irresponsible Parents Beware!!!!!!

Lowdies Mommy is spitting mad!!!! Talked to daycamp today and they didn't post that there was a case of HFMD because some irresponsible parent didn't bother to let them know that that is what her child got excluded for!!! They sent a child home on Wednesday because she had a fever. The parent was asked to call and let the teacher know what the doctor's diagnosis was on Thursday. This wonderfully compassionate parent never called!!!! She showed up with her kid on Monday and told them what the diagnosis was. If I ever find out who this parent is that caused my girl to be miserable all weekend I'm not quite sure what I'll say to them, but it won't be pleasant!!!

Now me being a responsible parent called daycamp this morning to let them know we would be late because I let Jensen sleep in and told them the diagnosis. And guess what??? There was a notice dated today about HFMD having been in Toddler B by the time we arrived. Now that's how it is supposed to work all you irresponsible parents!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now if anybody else gets it the parents will know what it is immediately and can start following doctors' and WebMD's orders!!!! Their kids won't be subjected to unnecessary pain and misery like mine was!

Head, shoulders, knees and toes......

and hand, and foot, and mouth disease. After being miserable all weekend and Mommy and Daddy not knowing why, Daddy took Jensen to the doctor this morning. I called daycamp to let them know that she would be late or not there at all today, and the teacher tells me that there was a confirmed case of Hand Foot Mouth Disease in her room last week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok first of all why wasn't that posted on the door??? Then we would have been able to research what we could do for her because apparently there's good reason why she's been crying and screaming in pain!!!! Dr. Mac diagnosed her with this lovely HFMD and showed Daddy all her painful sores in her mouth that are keeping her from eating and keeping her in constant pain. I'm so mad at daycamp for not communicating this!!!!!!!! Three days of unneccesary pain and nonstop worrying could have been avoided!!!!!!!!!!! Oh yea and we were Sleepless in Flower Mound again last night because Jen was so uncomfortable.

Here's what babycenter.com says about HFMD
"If your toddler has HFMD, he'll first have a mild fever. You may also notice that his appetite isn't what it usually is, and he may have a sore throat and feel lousy in general. A day or two after the fever starts, he'll develop painful sores in his mouth — on his tongue, gums, or the inside of his cheeks. He may also develop a rash on the palms of his hands, the soles of his feet, and maybe his buttocks. The rash, which isn't itchy, starts out as small, flat red dots that may turn into bumps or blisters."

Poor Jensen!!!!!!!!!!!! She's exhausted from not sleeping and in pain something fierce. And since her doc appointment was at 11, she's past due for lunch and her nap. Which means Daddy has to go put her right down and can't go get the meds for the pain until after naptime. : ( Other than pain meds there's nothing we can do except soothe her and make sure she doesn't get dehydrated. I hate feeling so helpless.

A Mullet Bite and a Black Eye

Oh my! We got two, count 'em two, Incident Reports from daycamp in one day yesterday!!!!! First the child we refer to as The Mullet bit Jensen for the 3rd time!!!! They called us around 10:30am to let us know that she had been bitten and to tell us that she was getting lotsa TLC so not to worry. Then they called us again late afternoon to tell us that Jensen had tripped and fell and when she fell she smacked her face on a book shelf. They iced both the Mullet bite and her eye. Daddy warned me that her eye looked pretty bad and I asked if I was gonna cry when I saw it and he said possibly. But when I saw her she wanted to hug on Mommy so was obviously ok, but just wanted some more TLC. She's such a tough cookie.

This morning her eye looked really bad....turning that nice purpley green color and swollen, but it doesn't seem to be causing her any pain. Daddy and I talked about teaching her some defensive karate moves for the next time The Mullet decides to chomp on her arm. Good news is The Mullet is currently transitioning to the next bigger kids' room!!! : ) Couldn't happen soon enough considering she's bitten about everybody in Toddler B with her big 'ol snaggle teeth!!!!!

I Can't Believe It's Butter!!!!

Is this weird like eating dirt weird????
Recently on two occasions Jensen has gotten into our freezer (drawer low to the ground kind), grabbed a stick of butter and started eating it!!!!! Huh????????? And ewwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!! Then last night I opened the fridge to get her some milk and she pointed to the butter and wanted it. I let her grab it and she took her a little nibble. All I can say is she is definitely her grandmother's grandchild!!!!!!

Punky's Pumpkin

Punky = yet another nickname for Jensen

Last night while Daddy was at Jui Jitsu Jensen and I decided to start decorating her pumpkin. So I got out the washable markers and Halloween (yes Halloween not FALL FESTIVAL...that's so dumb...don't get me started) stickers we bought for the occasion and she went to town. Daddy said it was awesome and we're just getting started! She had a ball doing it. This weekend she's going to help Daddy and I decorate ours.

Additonal Halloween vs. Fall Festival rants. I think it's absolutely retarded that teachers can't even put up decorations of witches, ghosts, etc. Hey, religion fanatics note: that does NOT mean the teacher is evil and practices witchcraft. It simply means that the teacher was brought up to enjoy Halloween as a kid and wants her kids to be able to do the same. I for one am very glad I didn't grow up in Texas where such a lame restriction/concept is in place. Fall Festival!?!?!?!?!? We don't even get a damn Fall in Texas!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why don't we rename it to We Live on the Sun Festival and call it good!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok off soapbox.

Oscar Squared

This weekend Troy swears Jensen said Oscar twice. I wasn't there when it supposedly happened, but why would he make that up right? I mean yea he can be an overzealous Daddy sometimes but still. So the rest of the weekend...you guessed it......nonstop prompting to say it again. She never did. : (