The Dayton Houghs: March 2010

Friday, March 19, 2010

My baby can walk?

My baby can walk. My baby can walk. If I keep saying it, maybe it will sink in....My baby can walk. Nope, not working. Ok, maybe it would be slightly more accurate to say, "My baby can take a few steps before crashing to the floor. " Regardless of how you put it, steps were taken and I know that there are many more to come. He will be running circles around me by his first birthday. (sigh)

Baby in a bag!!! I love this fun jammy bag!

Aiden and his favorite dog, Joey. That dog is an angel! He puts up with some major torture!

It's funny because with your first baby, you are in such a rush for them to roll over and then crawl and then stand and then walk. You just want them to move right along and learn all of these wonderful things and to grow up. Well, been there, done that! I now know that each step forward is a step towards independence and a step away from mommy. I have witnessed it first hand. They crawl and walk and then they start talking. Pretty soon it's time to start kindergarten and then sleepovers at friends houses...eventually high school and then driving and college!!! I might not be that far along yet, but I'm no dumby! I know that it's coming.

Seriously!?! This kid is getting into everything!

Well, as this little superbaby of ours continues to grow, his personality is really starting to shine. He is such a happy baby most of the time, but has started to master the art of shrieking when he's not getting his way. He is also into EVERYTHING!!!!! He is constantly chewing on things, including me! He is turning into quite the little biter! I have been bitten on my leg, elbow, nose and toes. He is kind of like a little puppy! This has been magnified by the steroids that he has had to take because of a recent bout with pneumonia. He has been very clingy and uncharacteristically cranky. This has just been made worse from his medications. It was about 10 at night and he was really hyper. He was crawling around and seemed happy for the first time that day. I figured he could just crawl around and burn off some energy before I put him into bed. I looked over at him and saw that he was eating something. No big surprise there, since he is always shoving something into his mouth. But as I was looking at him, I couldn't figure out what it was that he was eating. As I crossed the room to take it off of him, I noticed the poopy diaper that I had just changed sitting beside him...unwrapped and now empty!!! He was eating his own POOP!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I can honestly say that, well...that was a first even for someone with as many kids as I have! I screamed and ran over and took it off of him. I scrubbed his face, mouth, hands and teeth with a baby wipe and then a washcloth and then his toothbrush. (Which I threw away!) I just looked around at everyone. They were all just looking at me with their mouths hanging open. Apparently this was a first for them too. Jake just shook his head and said, "I thought that it was a no-bake cookie?!" Ummm...eeewwww! As if that made it ok?!

But look at his sweet little face! How can you not just melt when you look at him? Poop and all! He has made it quite clear that we have quite an adventure ahead of us with him and I couldn't be happier!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Tea Time

What little girl doesn't love a tea party? I know that I still do and my "little girl" days are long gone! There is something almost magical about putting on your fancy dress, sipping tea while nibbling on scones. My mother-in-law has been hosting American Girl tea parties for years now. It is a great way to get the girls to read and have a little bit of fun with their moms. This year I took Hannah and Gianna. We sat at a lovely table with my sister-in-law Denee and my two nieces Breanna and Kaylee.

The Girls and their dolls.

Denee with Breanna and Kaylee

Me and my beautiful young ladies, Hannah and Gianna

There was a parade of dolls, with each girl being announced by the butler..."I would like to announce Miss Hannah Hough and her friend Sandie..."

"I would like to announce Miss Gianna Hough and her friend Claire..."

Even Gianna, who was terrified of walking up in front of everyone, seemed to enjoy it!

Next came tea with a story about good manners. Breanna and Kaylee took turns serving the tea, while we had our book chat.

Gianna is my tea girl. She loved it! She drank about 4 cups of tea, which meant about 5 trips to the bathroom!

Hannah loved the fancy "golden tea cups" that were the favors for the girls. Very pretty!

After we ate finger sandwiches, scones and cookies, the girls did a few crafts.

Here is Breanna working on her "field journal" craft. The story was about Lanie, a young girl who loved to do scientific experiments and observations. The crafts and favors had to do with science and the environment. It was really cute.

Hannah with her magnifying glass...

Gianna was observing her monarch butterfly.

After the crafts were all finished and the cookies were all gone came the part in the evening that all of the girls were awaiting...the drawing for the doll. The new doll for this year was Lanie and everyone wanted her! Each girl received a chance for her and they were all dying to know who would be the lucky girl to take her home!!! When Joan announced that it was now time for the drawing the room grew very quiet. As she held up the basket full of the tickets for the doll, Joan explained that she would have somebody else pull the ticket because her granddaughters were there. Luckily she did because the winner was.....

Gianna!!!

She was sooooo beyond excited! Lanie hasn't left her side. She has changed her clothes about a thousand times and fixed her hair (with the special brush of course!) and played with her. She even ate breakfast with her.

The down side to this was that Hannah did not win...

This is a picture of a very sad little girl. Thankfully Gianna told her that it wouldn't be fun unless she could share with Hannah. That seemed to help the situation. Well, that and the fact that Joan had bought each of the girls a new outfit for their dolls. Gianna picked out a Dorothy outfit complete with ruby slippers. Hannah opted for an ice skating outfit with little skates. They were adorable.

Gianna and her Babee, Joan, with Lanie

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

When is Spring?

Is it really March already?!?! I can't believe it! We have had five days in a row of sunny(ish) weather and the piles and piles of snow are finally melting! Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the drama of the blizzard. At least for the first week. That first week we were prepared. I had gone to the store and stocked up on milk, toilet paper, diapers and wipes. You know, the essentials! I had lots of ingredients for baking bread, cookies, making homemade soup, stew...all of the fun wintery type foods. And then the second week of insanely cold temperature and ridiculously heavy snow fall set in. The magic was gone. The kids got bored and snarky. And I am sorry to say it, but I got really cranky. The fun of playing in the snow wore off after the third time of trying to track down gloves and hats and scarves for the little ones. And lets not forget about the battle of the snow pants! We have a trillion pair of snow pants in various sizes. Unfortunately, the only purple pair was in Gia's size so I handed Hannah a black pair. Not good!! "Why can't I have purple pants?!?! Why does Gia get pretty girl pants!?!? It's not fair! UUGGGH Life isn't fair!!!!" Seriously?! I finally said, "Do you want to go outside?" "Yes." Hannah sniffed. "Do you want to be wet and cold?" I asked. "No." Hannah sulked. "Then put on the black pants please." I calmly said, secretly begging in my mind. "Fine...but they are ugly." Whatever. It is next to impossible to reason with a diva, especially one who is six. But occasionally practicality will win out over fashion....ok, maybe not occasionally, probably more like rarely. Whatever the case, I was truly thankful that it all worked out in this case!

There was also the drama of the dryer. Of course in the middle of all of this our dryer died. It was a slow and painful death. Although we knew that the end was near, we were still unprepared. RIP dryer, you had served us faithfully for 11 years! In this house that averages at least 3 loads of laundry a day, that's a good long time. But it doesn't change the fact that we were pretty much hosed and in desperate need of a replacement. Brian and I headed to Sears (the only appliance type place around) and bought a new dryer. My joy over our purchase was unfortunately very short lived. The salesman informed us that they wouldn't be able to deliver it until Wednesday and it was Sunday. Again, my response was...whatever. We had made it a couple of days by making a few trips to the laundromat and by taking a few loads to our parents' houses. We could handle a few more days...at least we could until round two of the blizzard hit on...you guessed it WEDNESDAY!!! They finally delivered our dryer on Friday. Yes!!!! I was so excited, at least, I was until the delivery man explained that our new dryer wasn't working. Seriously!?! Apparently the electrical receptacle was bad. Sadness again...until my brother-in-law came to the rescue. (Thank you Chad!) While he was replacing the receptacle, Brian realized that the old propane line from our old gas dryer was leaking propane!!! Thank heavens the new dryer hadn't been working or we could have blown up our house! We are back in business and laundry is finally caught up! The kids are back to school! The snow is finally melted... SPRING here we come!!!