D-Man's 1st Party

Darren's first birthday party was wonderful. Though it was planed to be outside at the park we awoke to rain. Boo. So we texted people and let them all know that the party would be at our house. Turns out it stopped raining and though it threatened to rain the entire rest of the day it stayed dry, so we played outside and the kids had a blast and it probably was easier then lugging everything back and forth. Darren liked his Carrot-shaped carrot cake... didn't loved it, but liked it. I, on the other hand LOVED watching him like it. He was a mess. An adorable sticky naked kissable mess. Then he was asleep before we could open gifts. Seems like he had a great time, I know I did. It was low key and wonderful. He is such a happy boy and I think that he loved the attention! Go figure!

 

Home Ownership

Oh the joys of owning a home! When we bought this house we knew that the roof was bad... and we still brought it. Knowing that in a few years we would have to replace it. Turns out that we needed to replace it now. A few weeks back during the last big rain it started leaking and our ceiling started to bubble in the living room. So we got a few quotes for roof and gutters (since they were rusted through) and this week we got a new roof! Oy! The people were great. The roof looks great. It only took 3 days. But man oh man roofs aren't cheap!

Tooth Fairy and Doctors Visit

I know that I've said it before.... but these kids are growing up way too quickly. The nigh before last Mallory lost her first tooth... at age 4 1/2! It's crazy to me! Now with a little window in her smile she looks more like a 7 or 8 year old than a 4 year old! She was very excited to put her tooth in the little pouch that we sewed together and place it under her pillow. Sure enough the tooth fairy came while she slept and left a trail of tiny flowers, a tiny envelope that had a tiny note and was covered with fairy dust, a tiny sign that said 'Believe' and a dollar! Way to go tooth fairy!

 

 

All three kids had a doctors appointments today. That was an adventure. But everyone is doing great. Mallory just needed a health certificate to start Kindergarten (and is FINALLY over her pneumonia), Wesley needed his 3 year old checkup (and he needed a ward frozen off) and Darren needed his 1 year old shots. They did great though. Here are their stats before I forget them/lose the paperwork.
Mallory at 4 1/2: Height: 3feet 9.25 inches (98%)  Weight: 45lbs (88%)
Wesley at 3: Height: 3 feet 2 inches (58%)  Weight: 34.6 pounds (74%)
Darren at 1: Height: 2 feet 6 inches (54%)  Weight:  24 pounds (82%) Head: 45cm (19%)

Thanks for being such happy, healthy brave kids!

One!

How is it possible that my baby, my littlest man, my last (probably) is one today?!?!?! Where did the time go?
Oh sweet little D-Man, you are a treasure! A sweet and kind soul that loves to laugh, smile, growl and babble. You will quietly look at books but will also readily climb on top of your brother to wrestle! You love to eat! Man, do you pack it away. (Just like your daddy). When I think of you and picture your sweet face I want to cry and it gets heard to breath. I love you so much. You are an incredibly smart and clever little me. Always watching your older siblings and leaning all sorts of tricks (both good and bad). You have been a perfect addition to our family bringing joy and laughter to countless moments in each day.
I love you sweet man! Happy, happy, happy birthday!

 

Mom Guilt #2

Well, despite the removal of the moldy pillows, Mallory has continued you cough...Sad. And though I was annoyed by it, the guilt that I felt for letting her pillows grow mold kept me calm and compassionate. So last night I brought my stethoscope home and took a listen to her little chest. Her right side sounded clear but her left lung field was full of crackles all throughout it. I immediately got online and booked her a doctors appointment for the next morning (which my wonderful mom had to take her to, since I of course had to work).  Any way, after the doctor listened to her lungs she ordered a radiograph and poor Mallory Rose was diagnosed with pneumonia.
She is now on a course of antibiotics. Sigh. Hoping that she will be feeling better and be cough free in a few days!

Mom Guilt

I'm not sure if ANYTHING is as strong as mom guilt. You know the guilt trip that we lay on ourselves. When everyone else has long forgotten, we beat ourselves up over it....again....and again...and again!
So I know that SOME of this is just mom guilt... but on the other hand, I might just be a horrible mother.
Here's the back story. I hate coughing. It's like nails on a chalk board to me. I know that everyone has to cough but I HATE that continuous, forced, non-productive cough. For the past week and a half that's what Mallory has been doing. I was sympathetic for a day (or two)... then she started it up at night and Matthew and I were getting up with her 3 time a night to give her water, honey, cough meds, or just try to calm her down because she was FREAKING out. Needless to say my patents was wearing thin. I was tired and man was I sick of that 'fake' sounding cough.
So that's what Matthew and I figured it was. Fake. So we just kept telling her to stop coughing. Stop faking it. Stop forcing it. STOP! I started really feeling like I was losing it when she started 'fake' coughing so hard that she vomited...twice.
See! Doesn't this sounds soooooo bad. Bot honestly, she  wasn't always coughing. It was random. She was acting fine, no fever, good appetite, just a stupid cough...and now coughing induced vomiting.
It was driving me bonkers! I even had a talk with her about if she couldn't settle down and stop these freak-out coughing attacks I would start taking something from her (a toy or something like that). She IMMEDIATLY stopped coughing (so I was sure that it was fake and that she was doing it all for attention). But the coughing picked up again. This time only at night/bedtime/wakeup time.
Now is when the bad mom part comes in...
Last night Matthew and I were downstairs (kids already asleep in bed) when I heard Mallory yell out for me. "Mommaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" I ran up the stairs and opened her bedroom door. There is my sweet little girl squatting in her bed, hands cupped in front of her and overflowing with vomit. Through her tears she said "Momma, I tried to stop coughing. I really did!" Poor girl!!!! I started cleaning her up while Matthew got a bath going. As I was stripping her bedding I found a pillow of hers (one that my mom made when I was pregnant with her). It was really damp and COVERED with a layer of mold!!!!!! YES!!!! MOLD!!!!! In her bed. Right next o her face. Her sweet little nose and tender lungs getting filled with mold spores with every sleepy breath. There were also about 100 small little mold colonies on her regular pillow too (under the pillow case). I promptly threw both of those away and soaked her bedding, blankets and stuffed animals in hot water and bleach.
24 hours later the coughing has all but stopped! Praise God! And she's running around like nothing ever happened. But I feel so bad! How could I have not checked her bed? How could I have let her sleep in that? How could have been mad at her for MOLD?!?!?!?! Darn me! Darn Mom guilt!

Gag!

Wesley has a wart on his finger. A little one that the doctor said we should just apply a little 'wart remover' to every night. So we do. Every night. It's the slow way to remove a wart...apparently less traumatic then freezing it off. Any way. We've been doing this for 6 months now and it has waxed and waned in size. Last night though I noticed it had a hard tan/brown cover on it, tonight that little cover was gone. ..and the wart was pink and considerably smaller in size and height.
'Wesley! Your wart is almost gone!' I said to him as I was applying the wart-be-gone liquid.
Wes looked up at me and with a look of pride said 'Yeah. Me ate me wart.' And walked away.
I guess that's one way to get ride of it! Gag!

Wesley's Three!

Holy cow! Wesley is THREE! I can't believe how time has flown by! Moments ago it felt like I was rocking him to sleep, now he's running around the house reeking havoc on everyone and everything in his path. There is a reason that his nickname is Dump-trunk!
Wesley is a blessing... a high-energy, constant motion, stubborn, tender, loud, funny, sweet blessing. He keeps us on our toes! He is in the stage of ignoring what we say or pretending not to hear us when we tell him what to do. It's frustrating, (but normal for his age). Sigh. He is also so sweet. He loves playing with his sister (and has finally learned to stand up for himself... and BOY oh BOY has he figured out how to push her buttons)! He LOVES his little brother. I feel like I'm always either saying 'ahhhhhhhhh how sweet, Wesley's hugging Darren' or  yelling 'WESLEY! stop hugging Darren you're chocking him!!!!!' He makes us laugh and pull or hair out all at once! He is 98% potty trained which is SOOOOOO lovely! And man, can that boy melt his mommas heart with those baby-blues!
I love you my sweet, wonderful, crazy little man!!!!!!

Wesley's Lego party 

Mothers

I got an email from my mother-in-law tonight regarding 'Why God Made Moms...'. It was answered by 2nd graders with cute little non-logical but endearing answers. I thought that I would ask Mallory (to see the difference between her 4 year old and the 7 year olds brains)... not a shock, her answers were more logical for the (most part).

1) Why did God make mothers? Because they are one of his creations.
2) What ingredients are mothers made of? Skin, blood, bones, eyes, nose, mouth, muscles. And hair... I almost forgot about that one.
3)Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom? Cuz he thought that I loved you most.
4) What kind of little girl was your mom? A mother. Like her skin right now, just little.
5) What did your mom need to know about your dad before she married him? If he played rugby.
6) Why did your mom marry your dad? Cuz she loved him.
7) Who's the boss in your house? Daddy and Momma.
8) What's the difference between mom's and dad's? Daddy's skin is different. It has hair on it and mommas doesn't. Daddy doesn't wear glasses. (after re-wording it to what is the difference between boys and girls? Mallory said 'Boys have a penis, girls like us have a Fagina).
9) What does your mom do in her spare time? She goes to work (sigh... how sad is this truthful answer)
10) What would it take to make your mom perfect? Love her more.
11) If you could change on thing about your mom, what would it be? To put her back into a little girl, like me!

How cute (and logical) are those answers!!!!!

Beautiful Day

Happy Winter!? Fall? Heck, California's weather is just a little confused. And I'm ok with that. Look at how beautiful it is outside!!!!

With a BANG!

Runners, on your mark.... Get set.... BANG!
Julie and I started the new years with a little 5K race. It went great. Aside from the cold. It was 36 degrees... which for us sissy California folk that is REALLY, REALLY cold!  I made decent time (8:22 per mile, but was slower then I had intended... but I hadn't taken into account the COLD). My joints (knees especially) were yelling at me and so stiff post run that I we used my parents hot tub to warm up/cool down all at once.

 

Christmas 2014

Christmas was wonderful this year. Hectic. Overwhelming. Crazy. But very very fun! We awoke on Christmas morning at our house (I was up at 6 am too excited to sleep in)! The kids got up about 7ish and we did gifts and breakfast here before heading over to my parents house.

 

Once there we met up with the entire Reitz side and opened stocking and WAY too many gifts. Fun and craziness ensued. I felt a little bad for the kids since with each amazing gift that hey opened all they wanted to do was open up the packaging and PLAY! (but their mean ol' parents wouldn't let them because it would mean pieces would get lost/parts forgotten). Then we headed home for nap time, while I made pies.

 

Then it was off to Joyce and Johns house where the third round of gift giving took place. Wonderful, thoughtful gifts and a very yummy dinner! We also got to snuggle the growing baby in Rachel's tummy and find out that Matthews cousin Arron and his lady are going to be having a baby!
So needless to say it was a wonderful day!

December Update

I know it has been a while since I have updated the blog, needless to say we have been busy ('tis the season). So here is a little December update...
It had been raining...no, more like torrential down pouring here for the past 3 weeks.  Because of that there was no way that I wanted to pack the kids up and walk around outside looking for a Christmas tree. So I asked Matthew to pick one up on his way home from work. It just so happened that day Mallory commented that she wished that we could go get a tree. So with that perfect lead-in I told the kids that maybe if they could image the tree hard enough and with enough detail that MAYBE it would show up! So we sat inside the dry house conjuring up the most perfect Christmas tree! We talked about it's height. It's smell. It's color. It's feel. Even how it could arrive. Moments later Matthew arrived and we walked out too see that in fact they had imagined the tree into being (and I got to stay dry!)!!!!

 

Then I had my birthday. It was a great day. I didn't have to work, the kids were darn good and I was given some beautiful gifts. (check out those feetsie jammies... Mallory thought that I needed some like theirs apparently).

 

A week later Matthew and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary (the bronze year). Matthew, true to form got me a sweet, thoughtful yet unconventional gift to go along with the theme. The wine apparently was the 3rd place winner at the California state fair. He is so clever! I am so deeply in love with him. He is incredible! Thoughtful, sweet, loving, fun, even tempered (most of he time) and so supportive... not to mention an incredible father! I am very, very lucky!

Then Mallory had her Preschool Christmas show! It was about 10 minutes of the most adorable sing ever! She did great (boy, does she love to perform)!

Lastly, today we said goodbye to our beautiful and trusty Outback. Not only were we sick and tired of cramming the kids into the car, but Matthew brought up the fact that because each of the kids car seats were literally touching each other from door to door; if we were to get into a crash (heaven forbid) there would be no space/gaps to absorb the shock and it would literally be passed along through all the kids! Yikes! So with that we traded in the Subi (they offerend us a great deal of $ for it otherwise we would have kept it) and got a 8 passenger 2015 GMC Acadia! We drove it home today at 5. It is beautiful, clean and smells sooooooo good! And my of my the SPACE! Heaven!

 

34

Yesterday I tinned 34! I am now officially in my mid30s! It was a great day, I didn't have to work, the kids were darn near perfect (evident from this picture... which was the first and only picture I had to take) and Matthew  got my wedding ring fixed so the center diamond isn't lose anymore (I hadn't been able to wear it for over a year)! We went and liked at all the Christmas trees lit up in the town green and ate dinner at my favorite restaurant. This getting old thing isn't so bad!

That's So Silly

This morning I dressed Darren in a shirt that says 'Champ' so I naturally was walking around the house singing the Queen song, We Are The Champions. Mallory asked what that song was and where I learned it (probably hopeful that whoever I learned it from sung it better then me).  I pulled up the  music video of the song. Yes the one where Queen is belting it out on stage in one oh his many black and white full-body Uni-tard! After the song was over I told the kids that the bands name is Queen. Mallory started to laugh and shake her head side to side and said "Momma that's so silly, they should be called King because they are boys!"
Oh Mallory you have such logical ideas.

 

A Dream Vacation

We just got back from a wonderful almost dream-like family vacation! It was amazing! Friday night after I got off work we loaded up the kids and headed down to Poway, which is a 9 hour drive, so we figured that driving through the night with 3 kids would be easier. (I did learn a few things about traveling with kids though... NEVER switch cars seat for your baby right before you leave for a long car trip; not only will you have a crying baby, but your car doors may not close without some major finagling. Oh, and Norah Jones can sooth said crying baby EVERY time)! Poor Darren had long since outgrown his carrier-type car seat and we just had not gotten around to switching it to his rear-facing big-boy seat... until that night. Ooops.

Any way, we got in safe and sound early Saturday morning and spent Saturday through Tuesday at my aunt and uncles ranch. We rode horse, went to the farmers market, played in the ocean, sat in the spa, watched movies, slept, talked, ate, visited with family, rode more horses, had a few riding lessons and had a all-around wonderful time! Now thanks to my Aunt Alicia both Mallory and I have a BAD case of horse fever!

 

 

Tuesday morning we loaded up the kids again made a quick stop at my Aunty-M's new home and then drove to Palm Desert where we met up with Joyce and Johnny-boy at their timeshare. It was a beautiful condo/resort, with a huge multi-room condo to stay in, multiple pools, a water-slide, movie theater, activity center and golf coarse! One day we all visited the Living Desert, another day Matthew and John played 13-holes of golf but we spend every day in the pool. And Mallory in now officially able to swim on her own!!!!! The kids had a blast and Matthew and I even got to head into Palm Springs for a date! I wish that we could have found a way to extend it all! It was heaven! Thank you all who made this trip such a ragging success!

 

 

Fractured

Last night while trying to do way to much all at the same time (kids into bath, teeth brushed, Wes into the potty, keep Darren from falling down the stairs...) you know, normal mom things. I baked my little toe into the bathroom door frame. The moment it happened I knew I broke it! Worth Matthews help I iced it, wrapped and elevated it and this morningi took a radiograph when I got into work. Yup. It's a fracture. Boooo. Mom convinced me to go to the doctors (I brought the radiograph with me). The doc confirmed the break and has me in a small walking boot. I'm bummed. Stupid foot. Stupid me!

Standing Tall

I can't believe it... just 11 days after learning to crawl Darren is working on his newest accomplishment STANDING! What a strong little stinker! This little man need to stop growing up so quickly and realize that his momma needs something that is stagnant in her life.
Sigh! But way to go buddy you are growing by leaps and bounds!

Perfect

O.k. let's all breath in a deep cleansing breath and praise God that Wesley's heart is just fine! Today Matthew and I took him to a cardiologist in s.f. They did an ekg and an echo and they informed us that he has what is called a 'Stills Murmur' (named agreed Dr. Stills). It is a innocent musical murmur that usually shows up around the ages of 2-7 and should cause no problem and should disappear by the time he is a young adult! 

Oh and for the record... there had never been a better boy! He lay there perfectly quiet and dogs everything they asked. Even the doctor commented over and over again on how good he was! Afterwards we took him or for ice cream to celebrate and spend a little personal time with him.

I can't even tell you how relieved I am!

Dedication Day

Yesterday was Darren Matthew Klein's Dedication Day! Yesterday morning Mallory and I walked around the house saying "It's dedication day! It's dedication day!" (said to the voice/tone of Anna in Frozen when she said "it's coronation day! It's coronation day!')
It was a BEAUTIFUL dedication, we had so many local friends and family there...we packed the church! I feel so blessed to have such a large and loving support structure all around us!  My Beena, Aunty M and my cousins children (so my first cousins twice removed) Courtney and Josiah also made the treck up from southern California. The dedication itself was wonderful. It was so fun to stand up at the front of the church with our family of 5 along with Darren's god-parents Aaron and Michelle promising to raise this precious little boy to be a loving man of God!
After the church service everyone come over to our house for a wonderful brunch/lunch. It was great! Great food, Great family and Great friends! Plus for the first time EVER all 6 of Beena's great grand children were in the same place at the same time... photo op!