Our Baby Wears Blue...'Cuz That's What Slide Girls Do

Berean mostly wears pink when she is out, but when she is in for the night- she wears blue.

Every night when I put her in a "boy" sleeper I tell her she is my Slide Girl.

Let's back up to 1998.

I went to a National Youth Conference and there was a band there called "Lost and Found". And they sang a song called Slide Girl . They had made it up after they noticed a picture of a girl wearing blue on their slide projectors and no one knew who she was or how to get her image off the big screens.

Silly, I know.

But the boys have caught onto it and now Berean is our slide girl who wears blue, cuz that's what the slide girls do.

And the bonus? This morning Lincoln "said" (even though only I could understand him): "That's what slide girls do". His longest sentence yet. How sweet.

Sense of Humor, Anyone?

Deacon to his aunt, "If you have twins do they both come down the birth canal at the same time?"

Yes. My 6 year old said "birth canal". He then went on to make a joke about the twins needing boats since it is a "canal".

I also came to find out this week that since we have been a family with no girl-children up until 3 weeks ago, that my lovelies had been...um...shall we say uneducated in certain anatomical differences.

2 weeks ago: Deacon discovers that Berean does not have a penis when he walked in on a diaper change. Announces to his Grandma that she does not have one.

I think I get everything clarified.

This week: Deacon and Roman are shocked to discover that Berean still does not have a penis. They are even more shocked when I make it perfectly clear that all girls do not have one- including their aunts, Grandmas and every other girl they can think of. Roman in his cute Roman way wondered "How in the world do they pee?"

We were down the block at our friends today and Roman had to pee. Unfortunately we were a block away from my friend's house and when Roman suddenly announces he has to go, he needs to go. In addition he had clothed himself today over his footie pjs. (don't ask, I don't know). I let him pee in the grass. Lincoln did too. This is a problem because now Lincoln thinks that it is just what we do. But we don't. Really.

Do you notice anything about this post? All of this baby stuff, and me breastfeeding, and diaper changes, and potty training Lincoln, and peeing in the grass...is kind of leading to a sudden overabundance of potty talk at our house. I am trying to curtail it, but it is not going so well.

Any ideas anyone? How do I curb this impolite (and disturbing) habit?

Controversial Monday: Taxing Alcohol

It's been awhile since I have posted a controversial Monday post. I miss it.



And guess what? You actually get a post today that does not have anything to do with the fact that my children played dodge ball with a pee-soaked diaper yesterday, or that we had to start a "penny jar project" to improve our "obeying the first time, everytime" averages or that my husband got more excited about UNI beating Kansas State than he did about the whole NFL season.



Remember how I shared with you all that I get a little crazy when I am not working? Well, I have now been off for over 3 weeks and I have started a new project: couponing. Why? Because I am nuts. Really.



Pretty sure that Noah is already tired of me explaining my coupon strategies and the fact that I made 28 homemade cinnemon rolls for between $2-$3.



Where am I going with this? Oh yes, tax on alcohol. So since I am into coupons right now (pretty cheap hobby, if I do say so myself), I decided to order the Sunday paper. (don't tell my dad that I ordered the enemy paper, 'k?)



I clipped coupons today, reviewed ads and let the children practice their cutting on the toy "catalogs". The boys were enamored with the Sunday comics, and of course Noah laughed out loud- because that it just the way that he is.



But the funny thing is- I enjoyed reading the actual articles in the paper. I get most of my news online, but because of that I miss editorials and well, pretty much anything else that does not appear as a headline on the local news website or the MSN homepage.



Which (finally) brings me to the topic: I read an editorial on Taxing Alcohol.



I.love.this.concept



Basically, the author of the article, Stephen Simon, states that increasing the alcohol tax 10 cents a drink would generate around $260 million per year. That is a lot of drinking going on, people. Can you believe that in our state they estimate that in a year alcohol use and abuse costs us $4.5 billion dollars?!



I believe it. A huge percentage of the patients that I care for at the hospital abuse alcohol. Somehow these people have money for booze, even if they don't have any money to pay their hospital bills. This way they would just be contributing toward "prepaying" their hospital bills a little at a time.



So what do you all think? Am I missing a negative in all this? Or is it is a concept that is really as good as it sounds?

This Girl...

... is so sweet, the rest of us just like to sit and look at her.

The Boat Relocation Project

So I've got these boys.

Who can be very industrious when they want to be. And very unindustrious when I want them to do anything.

Obviously, it is just lack of ambition and not lack of ability.

See in the picture above how they just noticed the obstacle of a gate? Yeah, Deacon is telling them all that they are going to have to come up with a plan to get the boat through the gate.

I love watching them assess and discuss situations

Deacon decided that the boat would probably need to be tilted. He has watched us move a lot of furniture in his little life.

The younger 2 were losing interest. They are into quick results and not a lot of sweat.

Oooo...I think he finally got it.

Or maybe not.

Try again.

Got it. To his credit, Deacon included the other 2 in his proud statement that they had figured it out and got it through the gate- even though the photographic evidence shows that it was mostly him and not them.

Roman is back on board once the hard part is done.

The baby has been distracted, however, and remains in the green tube.

Ahh, free sailing.

Onto the empty lot!

Can't wait until they are big enough to do actual work around the house and yard! It is going to be great!

2 Quick Links

This post from the Pioneer Woman made me laugh out loud. "socially acceptable shoes"?! That is blogging awesomeness. The underwear and mismatched clothes...that is my life on Sunday mornings too. Trying to get the (un)tidy baby anywhere without spit up, Roman anywhere without inside out pj pants on...well, it is challenging. Love it. And maybe one day I will see my 4 men all dressed in coats, jeans and cowboy boots. But probably not.


And then there is Amy Lawson. I started running this week, but I haven't taken all of her suggestions to heart. I guess I will be heading out this week for some high calorie cupcake goodness and some super sports bras.

I love that there are other people like me in this world.

The (un)Tidy Baby

The nurses at the hospital like "their" babies to be tidy.

At least that is what one of them told me as she changed Berean's sheets and bundled her up like a little burrito for the umpteenth time.

I had never heard of a baby being "tidy" before and it amused me greatly.

So now whenever Berean has spit up on her face, snot in her nose or poop in her diaper we dash upstairs in order to make the baby "tidy". And I giggle.

I watched carefully each and every nurse who tidied up my baby. They all had great skills in the burrito technique, but they each put their own spin on the process. Some used 2 blankets to wrap. Some used one to wrap and than tucked one over and put the ends under the mattress. Some snugged up the arms real tight, some left a little more freedom. But I marveled how every style made the baby truly look tidy. It is a definite skill. Every time I tried it the baby looked like a rumpled mess.

It must be subliminally taught in nursing school- this need for our patients to look "tidy". No matter how a patient feels, they must look like they feel good.

We certainly do it in the ICU. We are pros at linen changes- of course doing so with the patients still in the bed and just rolling them side to side- and every nurse has their own style. Some put the pad at a diagonal. Some put two pads on. Some horizontal, some vertical. Some use powder, some love lotion. Everyone has their own way.

And can you imagine the horror of a drop of tube feeding landing on a newly placed sheet? The twitching starts and the nurse just can't help but replace the sheet- even if it is only a drop.

No matter what, the patient must be tidy.

But there is a point of ridiculousness. For example you can't keep a withdrawing patient tidy. That, of course, doesn't stop a nurse from boosting the patient up 2 minutes before change of shift and than apologizing profusely for how untidy the patient continues to look. We reached that point of silliness at the hospital with Berean.

Berean is a spit-up-er, and although it has gotten much better in the last 2 weeks, her first couple days of life were rife with spit up.

So the nurses kept changing her. Because, of course, above all else, she must be tidy.

And they would give me new ninja shirts and blankets so that I could make her more tidy.

But here is the thing: I am not hung up on tidiness, nor did I think she needed to be changed when 5 cc of spit up would hit her blanket. See, here is my secret- ICU nurse or not, I believe that unless there is a massive disaster, linens only need to be changed every 2 hours.

So I thanked the nurse for the extra blankets, gave Berean a kiss on her untidy forehead and let her sleep until her 2 hours were up.

And then, and only then, I got down to the business of tidying her up.