10 month pictures

Alex turned 10 months on the 25th. Where did the time go? I mean, how FAIR is it that in just two months, she'll be a year old? It's not fair, not fair at all. She seems to be finally getting on her hands and knees to crawl, but something is just wrong, because she's wobbly and quickly goes back to creeping on her tummy. We've also noticed some depth perception problems, which seem like they probably go along with her nystagmus. I'm not entirely sure the two aren't related, but it still doesn't seem like she's got a neurological problem. She's taken to zerberting me (which for those of you who don't know what that is, it's blowing on the skin to produce farting noises.) Then she grins at me fairly slyly, as if to say "Did I make you laugh, mom?" Or I'll laugh and she just gets the hugest grin on her face. She seems like she's TRYING to make me laugh. My point being, she's smart enough. There's intent there to get a reaction from me, thankfully a positive reaction, because man, when she was "nipping" at my breast, I was ready to quit breast feeding her, and just dreading when she actually got teeth and started doing that. I think I got her broke of it, because she stopped doing it.

Well, I am going to post this. I'll attempt to write more later.

These are from Bec's birthday. She made her own cake, and it was in the fridge for a couple of days, since she made it Friday night, and we didn't eat it til Monday. Here it is on Monday on the pantry shelf. It was put there because Sammi kept wanting to dig her fingers in the oh so yummy thick frosting and eat it. You can see where she's put a pretty big hole into the side of the cake. She was really making Becca mad with that.
I won't relate the story of the candles on the cake... we finally managed to sing her happy birthday, and had cake and ice cream. It was yummy.

Later on that night, Shabree was reading to me from a baby book we got for free when Alex was born. It's a cute book. Shabree is doing really well in school, her teacher is very happy with her. Sydni is doing slightly better, we got a new scrip for her Ritalin today, which seems to be helping her immensely, so we're pretty happy about that. Not sure about Bec though. Looks like we'll be home schooling her. Syd and Shabree really want to be home schooled. Could be fun, could be a nightmare. I think if we do it, the tv has to be gone...except maybe for math DVDs.

I went to Open House on Thursday with Shabree, had Alex with me as well. Sammi was with her daddy, and Bec and Syd were at their Job's Daughter's meeting, which actually didn't meet, so they ended up going to Denny's for french fries. Jerry got Alex and Sammi a fisher price gym at Goodwill for 2 dollars and they are LOVING that gym. Oh my goodness. 2 dollars well spent. The guy who rang him up even gave him batteries for it, so even better. I need to spend more time at Goodwill. I am willing to bet I could come up with some really good, cheap toys for birthdays and next Christmas if I did that. I just can never go there without the girls, and then it's gimme, gimme, gimme. Sigh. The last time I went to Goodwill though, I scored Shabree a new bike for 9.50 and the lady behind me in line gave me a 5 dollar off coupon from the Penny Saver... need more of those, for sure. Mostly what we got that trip though, were clothes. Becca needed pants, Syd needed pants. Shabree didn't need anything, but got it anyway.

I'm going to wrap up and go to bed already. It's gotten very late on me.

Pictures from John's Incredible Pizza in Roseville, from the Saturday before Becca's 14th birthday.

My Quiz from QuizYourFriends.com

How well do you know me? 1) When is my birthday? March 23rd May 25th July 10th June 29th

Powered By: QUIZYOURFRIENDS.com Make A Quiz - Take This Quiz - View Scoreboard

Sorry for the delay between posts this week. I don't have a layout to share, either, unfortunately. Sammi had another intake this last week, this time with a speech therapist, and she is definitely being recommended for speech services When she turns 3, she'll switch to the school to get speech services, and I'll have to take her up there to get them. I think that's probably a good thing though, because then I can talk to them about Shabree's speech services as well. Though Shabree is still making pretty decent progress, but she needs to work on keeping her tongue behind her teeth when it comes to saying her S's.
Syd seems to be doing pretty well on the Ritalin, she's definitely focusing better in school, according to her teacher, though it seems to be wearing off by the time she gets home from school, because homework can still be tough to deal with, so I will probably have to speak to the doctor about that.
Becca sprained the tendon in her foot, so she cannot jump or run, which means no karate for 6 weeks, and light activity in gym. Bec wanted crutches, but the doctor said no, which I agreed with, because if she favors it, it'll have a harder time healing. She just needs to go easier on it than she has been. She's glad to be out of karate for awhile, and there are times when I want to take her out and put Shabree back in, because I think Shabree would enjoy it more at this point. Becca doesn't practice, and hates going, but we're contractually obligated, and besides, she's paid up for awhile longer, though I don't remember how much longer. Once that runs out, we're going to have to re-evaluate whether or not it's worth it. For now, I would have to say no, it's not. Why waste our money on it? Though I gotta admit, the girl sure does have fast reflexes and a HARD kick. She's hurt us all kicking us in play. She doesn't even know how strong she really is, and she doesn't really pull her punches, though she THINKS she does.
I got a layout done this week, a paper one of Alex's 14th week. I have a number of pictures printed out for her, and page kits made up so all I should have to do is put them together. I'm not going to do a lot of journaling in her week by week book, that'll go into her other book. It should be very nice once I'm done, but I need to cut out more titles on my wishblade, and I'm almost afraid to do that, because the blades are 40 dollars, and it's a good question whether or not I'll have that to spend.
I've started writing this past week, but I haven't put nearly the effort into I should have. I asked the girls what they'd write, if they were writing a novel, Becca said vampires, Shabree said princesses. Well, I don't think I can write about vampires, there are too many vampire stories out there as it is, but I think I could write about princesses, I was thinking I could make each girl into a fairy princess with her own special powers. Princess Alex's would be the power to charm, lol. Princess Rebecca would make beautiful things, Princess Sydni would have the power of speech, Princess Shabree would have the power of friendship, and Princess Samantha would have the power of "No!" LOL... I'm still working on this obviously. Jerry said I should switch the power of speech to the power of persuasiveness, and that Sammi has the power to ease other's suffering. Other than that, he liked my ideas.
We went to John's Incredible Pizza last night to celebrate Becca's birthday, we ended up taking Jane and Steve and their kids, by going to John's, I then dropped Jerry and the kids off, except for Sammi, and we went and picked up Jane and Steve, then came back, stood in line FOREVER, finally ate, then Jerry took Jane and Steve home. Then... LOL... Jerry got LOST on the way back, he overshot the exit, and couldn't get back over to John's, so despite leaving at 8:30ish, he didn't get back to John's until 11. But that was all right, he had Alex, who managed to get a nap, and all my girls are little Energizer Bunnies, so they were happy to just play and have fun, plus we had a second meal. They got all kinds of prizes, and I ended up finding a card that had almost 1500 tickets on it, so I got an Ariel checkers game (tic tac toe, too) and some cute little things for Sammi, a wand, and a headband with pink fuzzies on it. It wasn't QUITE as good as the time we got to play for free for 2 hours (we actually overlapped the cards a bit and only got to play for an hour and a half, but dang did we have fun then! Best hour and a half EVER) Becca got an MP3 player from her mom, and will be getting Twilight for her birthday, plus we will be getting her a bike sometime today.
Speaking of bikes, I got a bike from freecycle, and Jerry's supposed to fix it so I can ride it. It's a nice enough bike, ugly color though, but we have to take the rear derailer off it so it can be ridden. It'll be nice once it's fixed up and repainted though, and I'll have a bike to ride with the kids. They're supposed to be building a Wal mart over here, a super Wal mart, and I was thinking I'd ride my bike over there instead of taking the van. Well, of course, that would only work for small trips, but it'd be good exercise. Who knows when they'll get it built anyway? I can't wait though for them to build it. If I ended up going there every day on my bike, then I could probably get that day's dinner, and it's not like I could buy a whole lot of extra, for one thing, because I'd have to carry it home on my back mostly likely, but also, since I'd only be buying for that one day, it might actually save us money. But who knows how that would actually work out? It's a nice thought though. I would probably discover things I'd have to go home and grab the car for, lol... knowing me.
Well, Becca will be 14 tomorrow. 14! I've known her since she was 4 (come June), which just AMAZES me. I love that girl. I love her like my own...well in my mind, she IS my own. I mean, just because I didn't give birth to her doesn't make her my daugther. We've got 10 years of a mother/daughter relationship with all its ups and downs. When I set out on this journey, I set out to never have her thinking she was any less to me just because I didn't give birth to her, and I think I have succeeded. I DO have people who don't even realize she's my step daughter, so that's proof right there that it's working. Even as crazy as she makes me/us sometimes, and how often I have to remind myself, she's a teenager, and this too shall pass, and that I have to be her parent, as much as I'd love to be her friend, I think she's a great kid overall. And I've told her that, too. I've told her that she means the world to me, I've told her that she's just a really great kid and I am proud of her. Sometimes when you're worried about a kid's disrespect, you just have to be grateful that disrespect is the extent of the troubles with a kid (well, her grades too... ) but she could be into drugs, boys, she could be killing us with worry, she could be doing a lot of really bad things, and she's just NOT. She's a really good kid with a few flaws, and who doesn't have a few flaws? Okay, she grumbles about doing a few dishes...but she eventually, with some prodding, does them. So yea, all in all, I'm happy with her.
Well, I'm going to wrap up. I think I need to go talk to Jerry about going to Walmart to get that present. She's not going to be very surprised though. She thinks she may be getting a bike, but she'll have the satisfaction of knowing she was RIGHT. LOL. That's worth a lot right there, I know it was to me when I was a kid. I loved guessing my presents and knowing I was right. It was fun.
All right, I'll try not to go so long between posts, and I'll do my best to get a layout done and up, though I'm not getting the feeling that anyone cares. But I do enjoy doing them to an extent anyway. I'd rather do paper ones though, and even those I haven't had much time for lately. Oh well, enough rambling!

I took the 4 youngest to McDonald's today, but ended up wishing I hadn't. Syd scratched some girl, and wouldn't apologize in a way that seemed like she was repentant. We left. I think in the future, I'll do my scrapbooking here and forget about trying to do it at McDonald's. It'll probably be better to do it that way anyway. I told Jerry I'd take the oney I saved on eating there and spend it on scrapbooking supplies instead, and he said it would be a better use of the money. I think if it were more of a special treat instead of something we always just do, it wouldn't be so taken for granted. Maybe I can do with Sammi what I used to do with Shabree, and take her by herself for awhile. That was pretty good bonding time for Shabree and I. Pretty much all Syd did while we were there was watch the tv they have. WHY bother? They can stare at the tv at home, and I don't have to spend 8 dollars on chicken nuggets. Especially if I have a place to scrapbook at home.

I think I'm going to go to bed. I went to a bunch of stores today, though I didn't actually do that much shopping. I need to get myself a little spending money. The scrapbooking supplies I want are seriously expensive. I love brads and I love ribbon. I have found really expensive paper I love as well. I want to buy more. So yea, I need some spending money. Of course, it would be nice if I could just... use what I have. And I will try to do that. But, I was thinking I didn't want Alex to get Sammi's "seconds" I want her to have stuff I bought JUST for her book. And there is some awfully cute baby girl stuff out there. I went to Joann's today, and I am just in love with the Debbie Mumm baby lines. They're adorable, and I want it all. On sale, of course. LOL. I'm exhausted. I cleaned the table off, I'll scrapbook tomorrow.

I am just getting a few pictures taken to have something to show... though they're NOT that different from the last few pictures... but it is nice to see a weekly growth sometimes. You can see the incremental growth in the baby especially.

Sammi had her intake yesterday. She's at about 36 months for social skills (about half a year ahead), but as I feared, at about 18 months for speech, though about 30 months, or more for what she understands. So she will receive speech therapy. I also got an appointment with the pediatric opthamologist, who can't see her til April 29th, but said they'd call if he came in another day. Since our days are pretty much free, that will probably work out. It's a LONG time to wait though. And the insurance had it approved on March FIRST. I wonder why, on March 9th, they didn't know this? Grrrr. I guess some things you just have to do yourself. Pisses me off though.

I am working on Alex's week by week book. I've got 14 weeks printed out, now all I have to do is scrapbook them. I'm putting them together as page kits now, but I have to cut out some more titles with the wishblade, and I'm just hoping everything works. I haven't turned on the wishbalde in ages.

The other day, Jerry had to take the battery for my camera away from Sammi, he put it in my office (practically where it had been before) Well, when I went to turn the camera on later that day, the battery was dead. I wondered if Sammi actually KNEW? Or was she just playing with the camera battery?

I guess I need to get some pictures of the older girls. Syd's getting to the point where she won't let me take her picture, though I REALLY ought to get one of her in her new jeans we got the other day at Goodwill... SO cute.

Well, I put Alex down for a nap, so I'd better make the best use of my time. I WANT a nap, badly, but I guess I won't get one in today.

I took the girls clothes shopping tonight, at Goodwill in Lodi. I even scored a bike for Shabree, for 9.50. I spent 50 dollars on the clothes, and for that, Syd got 6 pairs of pants, Shabree got a pair of overalls, 3 or 4 pairs of pants and a shirt, and Becca got 4 pairs of pants and a shirt. The woman behind me gave me a 5 dollar off coupon because she couldn't use it, so I ended up with 5 dollars left over, which I gave to Sydni to buy a Hannah Montana bead set. Good lord, I hope I don't regret THAT purchase! She was pouting hard when I said I wasn't going to buy it, and I just didn't want to see her so sad, though I told her she really shouldn't have such an attitude, because I nearly didn't give her the money because of her attitude.
There wasn't much there that would fit Shabree, but we managed to find a few things in a size 7 or 7/8 that worked. I may have to keep looking. Becca seems to be wearing about a size 12/14. We're thinking about getting her a bike for her birthday, actually, the plan is to get her a bike, so she can start riding to school again. Hopefully with the exercise, she'll slim back down a bit. I told Jerry if they build the Walmart over by our house, I am buying a bike for me, so I can ride over to the store. It's SILLY to drive when it's that close, but I'd want to get there quicker. I do hope they build it over here, that would be awesome. So I'll just ride my bike, get my exercise. I MAY just buy a bike anyway, it would be nice to have when I need to go down to the school for whatever, and I could ride with the girls. Though it might be a hard sell, so I might have to settle for a used bike. But that would be all right... I could live with that.

The girls went with Renee to a Job's Daughter's function, just watching movies together, so that's why I was in Lodi, picking them up. I was wishing I had Kim's number with me, because Renee had SAID she'd be there at 3 or 4, but she'd call...well, I went down there arriving at 3:40 thinking she'd be there soon, and let the kids play at McDonald's...well, it was 5 before she got there. I went to Wal mart in the meantime, because the kids were begging so hard for food from McDonald's, and I THOUGHT we were going home soon... HA. We didn't make it home til 7:30. It would have been better to do the Goodwill thing a different day. But then we've been putting this off and putting it off. It just would have been better if I could have done it a different day. And I went 6 hours, yet AGAIN without feeding Alex, and if I keep that up, my milk's going to dry up completely... which would make me feel terrible. I am really hoping to go a year, but lately, things are conspiring against me. And Jerry doesn't want to go clothes shopping, it's just too much to ask. I did try to be business like about it, but it's hard when there's only 3 changing rooms, and you've got 3 kids trying on clothes... I had Syd and Shabree using the same room. And Sammi...she STUNK up the place, yuck. But we did pretty good, and I think next month, I'll get another 50 or 60 bucks, see if I can locate another coupon, and go again.
I've been doing piles and piles of laundry, trying to get the hallway cleaned up so the lady coming on Tuesday for Sammi's intake doesn't have to see all the clothes. It's CRAZY. So I've done about, what, 6 or 8 loads? I went into Becca's room, and without going into TOO much of a rant, because she really made me mad, I found a load of towels, a marked up shirt that *I* gave her because she took it and ruined it too much for me to clean it and wear it again myself, no less than SIX blankets. I took 4 and left her 2, and Syd was using one of "her" blankets... so Becca TOOK it back, and guess where it was tonight, along with one of the blankets I left her? On the floor. Of course. She was using ONE blanket. Grrrr. Since I washed all but one blanket, Syd used one of those instead. Becca has got a pretty bad selfish streak. I also found a bunch of dishes, a baby spoon stuck in clay (when I bought the baby spoons, I said, NO one is to use these spoons except for the baby... do you ALL understand? I guess Becca didn't understand), an empty can of mandarin oranges... sigh.
So I did a bunch of Becca's laundry, and a bunch of blankets, and a bunch of towels, and made Syd and Shabree get all their dirty clothes from their rooms, and cleaned up Sammi's room, so got all the clothes from her room, and I think I've done at least 8 loads of laundry so far. Maybe only 6. Actually, I need to go work on it some more. And I need to feed the baby, so I guess I will wrap up here. I'm getting pretty tired, I had a crazy night last night of sleeping from 10 til a little after midnight, then being up til 6, and sleeping until noon. So I'm tired...but my sleep schedule, as usual, is screwed up. I will have to finish up the laundry tomorrow. But I also have got to make sure the main bathroom is clean, and the stairway is clean. I put away all the clothes the neighbor gave me, and since Alex outgrew her 9 month clothes in a month, I am VERY grateful that there were a bunch of 12 mo clothes in that pile, though she gave me the CUTEST little 9 mo tennis dress (it was a Ralph Lauren polo! OMG!) and it barely fit the poor baby. I had to take pictures just to prove she was able to wear it once... though it was really way too short. The 12 mo clothes barely fit her, the pants fall off her, though they're only just a little too long. The way she's been growing, she'll grow out of them in the next 3 months, and be in the size 18 months. She's 75th percentile for length/height, so she's tall. Crazy. She's still not crawling, it's more of an inchworm thing, and it worries me a little. I hope that comes along here soon. Well, I've GOT to get going, so will go ahead and post this. Actually, I loaded the pictures, so the ones of Syd and Alex, Alex is wearing the polo dress. It's adorable (and so is she, they both are.)

Stray dog

So there's been this dog hanging around the neighborhood, it pretty much sticks to the street in front of our house (according to Jerry). He's really skinny, so the kids gave him some dog food. Poor thing. He ran away from Jerry, probably been beaten. Shabree and Syd are GAGA for this dog. They want to keep him. Jerry said no. I said no. They were absolutely pitiful about it! I told Syd she doesn't take care of the dog we HAVE, and she told me she does too! That she feeds her when she doesn't have any dog food. Now, this may, or may not, be a lie. Because I think SYD believes it's true, but she does NOT feed the dog. She feeds the dog maybe about as often as *I* feed the dog. It's Becca's job, and even Jerry has to remind Becca to do it. If I happen to notice that she's out of food, I'll feed her, or if she communicates that she needs food. But that's actually not very often. So until they start treating the dog they already have like she's important to them, no more dogs. If I decide I actually want to take care of a dog (don't get me wrong, I love Paula. However, I AM allergic to her), I will get a hypo allergenic dog that I intend to be MY dog, that I will take responsibility for. However, I look at it like I have 5 children and their dog, I don't have time to take care of a dog, so I have no intentions of getting a dog right now. Becca claims that Paula is hers, so that's why she's been put in charge of her food and water. But she's still not real good at remembering to feed her. I think Jerry does it quite a bit (because after all, we can't let Paula starve, poor doggy.) So the stray went on his way after awhile, Syd was with me and her mom, shopping, and Shabree stayed here, but got tired and cold so came in to watch a movie. She wanted to bring the dog in with her, but Jerry said no. I suspect that when the dog gets hungry, he'll be back... and I suspect that my children will feed him. He's a sweet little thing, I must say. The kids, however, may very well drive me NUTS with wanting to adopt him.

Just a few pictures