Mommy's Little Helper...

He may have spilt more dirt on the ground, than he got in the the pots.

It may have taken me five times as long to plant my flowers.

I may have a few broken stems.

More dirt may have landed in our laps, than made it into the pots.

He may have tipped over a pot full of potting soil.

I may have a lot of planting still to do.

I may have made more work for myself.

But my little helper had so much fun.

And Mommy loved having a little helper.

I may miss having a newborn, but I love, love, love that Karson is old enough to help me plant flowers!!
Even when having a helper, makes any task take ten times longer.

Our Week...In Cell Phone Pictures

Karson woke up from his super long nap on Easter with a 103.3 fever.  He has a nasty viral infection, and a mouth full of blisters. Plus, he is cutting his 2 top teeth.  He has been miserable!!  We spent the entire week in the rocking chair, while he snuggled in, going to town on his paci & clutched to his blanket.  He watched movies on my computer, while I kept up with the Royal Wedding buzz.  Many people are sick of it.  I love it!  And for the record I have not been able to stop singing the theme song to Signing Time.  If you hear me mumbling 'its singing time with Alex and Leah...Its signing time with Alex and Leah...' ignore!  Please!

This is how Karson spent the majority of his Easter.

 Monday morning.  One of the rare moments on Monday he wasn't either screaming, or sleeping.  Probably because I was letting him play with a thermometer.  Mother of the year...

 He cried and cried 'num num num' and signed 'eat.'  That is, when he wasn't crying or sleeping.  He wanted so badly to eat, but every time he put food in his mouth, he took it back out.  Smoothies did the trick, and he drank a lot of them!

 Our best friends this week...blankie and paci!

But, even when your sick, there is still time for loving on the dog.  Who was sleeping, before Karson decided he needed to snuggle with her, while Mommy made him a smoothie.

Easter 2011

My Mom & Dad have video of me when I was Karson's age, coloring Easter eggs in my walker.  With a black hand, crying every time they took my dyed egg away, and laughing when they gave me a new one.  So no, I'm not crazy for coloring eggs with my 13 month old.  My parent's did it too.  And Karson loved it just as much as I did at his age.  He too had a black hand by the end of it, and cried every time we took his dyed egg away, and laughed when we gave him a white one to color.

 he also learned that egg dye doesn't tasted good. neither does sucking on a colored egg.

 I had only had prepared 12 eggs for Karson to dye.  I was getting worried, by his reaction when we took his dyed eggs that he would flip out when we didn't have any more to give him.  But alas, when he had just 1 egg left, he decided he had, had enough.  And he was done.

On Easter morning, I had plans to get up early, play Easter Bunny, and hide the eggs he had dyed the night before.  I had my alarm set, and I was so excited to have everything perfect before Karson woke up.  But alas, he woke up 2 hours early, 5 minutes before my alarm went off. And he woke up on the very wrong side of his crib!  We cuddled in the rocking chair, and I took his temperature.  98.6  He was fine.  Just really crabby!  We managed making a big breakfast, and getting ready for church, with taking care of a crabby Karson.  My Mom & Dad played with Karson in a different room, while DJ and I played Easter Bunny.   I only hid a few, as his mood wasn't very promising.

 He loved it, and had so much fun finding his dyed eggs, and chucking them into his special Easter Basket.

 blurry picture...sorry...still cute though.

 He loved emptying out his Easter Basket, with his goodies.

We went to church, and Karson was acting a little off.  He fell asleep on our way home, and took a 3 hour nap.  He woke up with a 103.3 fever.  I knew it.  I knew he was sick when he first woke up, but that darn thermometer misled me.  He was miserable!  We spent the rest of the day snuggling in the rocking chair.

I took him in on Monday to find he had a mouth full of blisters.  No wonder the poor thing wouldn't eat a thing!  He is finally feeling better today, but still has quite a few blisters in his mouth.  We are enjoying a lot of smoothies, and snuggles on the couch!

Our Day

up early
crying
sad baby
lots of cuddles
crying
fever
praise baby
napping in the chair
crying
call to the nurse
cuddling
crying
clutching paci & blankie
higher fever
visit to the pediatrician
viral infection
mouth full of blisters
cutting teeth
crying
cuddling
napping
begging for 'num num nums'
sore mouth
can't eat 'num num nums'
crying
cuddling

tired mommy
miserable munchkin

Our Week...In Cell Phone Pictures

I am well aware how cute it is that DJ and Munchkin are reading a book on the floor.

Or how ironic it is that Karson is playing with DJ's hat.

he is terrified of hats

I should have taken a picture of the clock as well.  It was sometime between 12am and 4am.  Because we were up from 12am to 4am Friday night.  Karson screamed from 12 to about 2.  At 2 am we finally put him in the car trying to get him to sleep.  We got gas & topped for some french fries.  When clapping and cheering came from the back seat, we knew it wasn't going to work.  

 Thus: reading and playing with Daddy's hat until 4am.

I am a huge tradition person.  I am excited to start Easter traditions this weekend.  I wanted to make Karson's Easter basket, and one for our Easter Egg Hunt. Karson will hopefully be collecting Easter Eggs in this basket for many, many, many years.

Karson loves chocolate covered strawberries just as much as Mommy!  The left overs from the shower on Sunday didn't last long!  Everything is better covered in chocolate.  Except bacon, that just sounds disgusting!

Problem: Crabby Karson, Crazy Molly, Stressed Out Mommy

Solution: WALK

While you southerners are enjoying 80 degree weather, we Michiganders are still wearing gloves at the end of April.

Moll is not wearing a muzzle, it is a Gentle Leader, and I highly recommend them!  

After fighting the Milk battle for months, I finally found a way to get Munchkin to drink it.  A way that is still healthy, and that doesn't upset his tummy.

we originally used Kefir, but it really upset his tummy (remember the 12am-4am night of screaming?!  Pretty sure Kefir was the culprit)

The 4 wheel drive on my Envoy has been acting up.  Karson and I got to spend a half hour at a mechanic this morning to have it looked at.  Thank goodness for Nana's portable DVD player & Praise Baby! 

And of course, there is absolutely nothing wrong with my car.  Mystery...

Mommy & Karson had a lunch date, to celebrate not having to pay an arm and a leg to fix my car.  We decided to go to Panera, and split a strawberry smoothie. 

complete with a mommy straw & a munchkin straw

We may have to make Mommy & Karson lunch dates a weekly thing.

Auntie Leesh & Uncle Brian got Karson one of these balls for his birthday.  We had a major meltdown in Target when he couldn't have his ball.

Linking up with Life.Rearranged for InstaFriday

I am not really sure why I pick up toys.....

 ...because a certain little boy seems to think books belong on the floor, not the book shelf.

Personal Shower

Over the weekend, Alycia and I threw a "Personal Shower" for Katie.

in case you are confused: insert 'lingerie' in place of 'personal.'

We had so much fun planning, and crafting for this shower.

I am pretty conservative, so everything was very tasteful.

We found a zebra ribbon at Hobby Lobby, and knew we wanted to add hot pink, and the rest just fell into place.

Considering the fact that we are currently homeless, we decided the best place for the shower was at Alycia's house.

We used the same idea with the circle punch-outs as we did for Munchkin's Birthday.

Super easy & cheap, and so cute!

Alycia sewed them with hot pink thread.

Alycia found this frame at a thrift store, and spray painted it black.  We used pink sheer ribbon across the center, and clipped some of Katie & Shawn's engagement pictures to them.  Like I said, everything was very tasteful, but I have not gotten permission to display her pictures on my blog.  Thus, they are blurred out.

The glass vases were left over from my wedding.  We added some pink and black ribbon to them, and the gerbera daisies were left over from Leesh & Brian's wedding.

On the bigger vases, (also from my wedding) we wrapped black card stock around, and laced it with pink ribbon to look like a corset.  We found the zebra & black gerbera daisies at Hobby Lobby, along with the pink feather.  The little mason jars were from Karson's birthday. 

I think we had 5 of the skinny vases, with the gerbera daisies, and 8 of the little mason jars.  

We redecorated one of Alycia's shelves to add some shower decorations.

 

In the invitation, we asked that everyone wrap their gifts in pink, black, and white to go along with the theme.  We had Bath and Body Works soaps as gifts for games.  The zebra packages were the gifts Katie's won, by just being the bride.

The food table.  

YUM!  We served fruit, chips and salsa, turkey roll ups, veggies, and spinach and artichoke dip.  Spinach dip is a staple whenever Leesh, Katie, and I get together.  The three of us can polish off an entire batch in about 10 minutes.

And of course, chocolate covered strawberries were the perfect dessert to go along with the theme of the shower.

Plus they are pretty, and so YUMMY!

 On the food table we also had one of Shawn and Katie's engagement pictures framed.  We used a pink table cloth, and put black rose petles left over from Leesh & Brian's wedding around the frame. We also used one of the gerbera daisies vases, and a mason jar.

Alycia and I had so  much fun throwing this shower for Katie!  I can't wait for their wedding in June!!