So, things have been busy as usual. Jenevieve has decided sleep is a thing of the past. Last night she woke up at 3am thinking she desperately needed some play time with Daddy. He obliged because in his words, smiling is better than crying. Well, he does kinda have a point. We both dragged our butts out of bed this morning dead to the world. Tonight needs to change or else we won't make it :)

So, I found out something great. Nutramigen makes cans of this Ready To Feed formula. Well, you just add equal parts formula and water. No shaking. Her gas has been WAY better. Although it's somewhat more expensive than the RIDICULOUS cost of Nutramigen is to begin with...if you're not paying $20 a week for gas drops it's actually a savings AND the baby is less fussy. The things you learn as a second time Mom. Honestly I don't think I'll ever go back! The only problem is that the RTF stuff needs to be kept cold once it's opened and THAT is a real PITA. Still, let me weigh my options: Less crying and cheaper or has to be kept cold? Hmmm

Jillian is doing wonderfully st school. She gets a sticker every day for good behavior. We try to praise her for it but we expect it of her as well. Well, at least she doesn't pop her mouth off at school. So tonight, at dinner, it was just her and me. I made this beef stroganoff roast thing and you put it with rice. I really winged it on the rice and it was organic so it had a little different taste. Plus I didn't use any butter or salt because we were using the roast gravy to flavor it. Jason got home late and was not home for this lovely event. Jillian decided she was done with rice. She said she didn't like it. Earlier this week she decided she didn't like spinach even though she's like in in the past. Ugh! So after telling me she doesn't like the rice, I instruct her to finish her meat only. She claimed to have done this but I saw little shreds, lots of them. So I told her to finish those and she said "but they have rice on them!!!" I told her one piece of rice was not going to kill her and of course she immediately rebuttles with the fact that it WILL kill her. Now at this point if the rice doesn't kill her I might! So I repeat that the rice will not kill her. She objects AGAIN. Finally I told her to stop backtalking me. She looks at me with this really patronizing look on her face and speaks to me like my IQ is a 17, and tells me that "I'm NOT backtalking you, just telling you the facts." Lord help me please.

Jason is doing well. He said that he had a good demonstration tonight and a customer is seriously interested in a new line of products. He never tells me anything so for him to tell me this, it must be big.

We are leaving on Saturday to head to Iowa for Thanksgiving. I know Jillian is going to have a blast. Jenevieve will just not sleep so for her that's fun too.

I'm way behind

So, the sad truth slaps me in the face: There is no way I can blog daily. As hard as I try it's not going to happen.

The end of the week passed uneventufully, except that we got a note sent home saying Jillian chose to dress up like an Indian for her Thanksgiving Feast which is next Friday and so we need to send her dressed like an Indian. What do I do? Cut up a brown towel and make it fit her?Give her a feathered headband? Good Lord this school thing is hard. I need to do some research on dressing like an Indian.

Thursday night was horrible because Jenevieve who REFUSES to eat peas wouldn't eat them at dinner. Of course she's used to going to bed on a full belly of solids AND milk so she was up like 57 times throughout the night. Jason and I considered killing eachother. Friday morning Jillian had to wear the color PINK and bring something to school for show-and-tell that began with the Letter Of The Week, which was the letter I. So, we printed a map of Iowa. She decorated it with corn kernels, a picture of a cow, and some cities. Jason pinpointed Laurens and Des Moines and she told her friends at school who lives in each place. She thought it was great. When I picked her up, her teacher did say that the GT teacher got her some materials, so I guess that's a step in the right direction.

Today we rose at the bright hour of 6 am. The baby can't seem to tell that it's Saturday and we want to sleep in until 9 or 10. She is on the dot 6:00 for her morning bottle. Most of the time she doesn't really want it so much as she's ready for everyone else to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed just like she is. I am NOT a morning person and I have considered harming everyone who crosses my path, but it's hard not to smile when you have those big fat cheeks smiling at you, even if it is 6 am. Jason took Jillian to the driving range with his Dad and I saw a video of her swinging the club. Her arms looked great and she did really well.Amazingly well. I can't even connect with the ball and I end up whacking it like you would a hammer so it's really something. Jason said a car drove by with loud music on and she stopped getting ready for her swing and shook her rump several times. When the car drove off and the music died down, she got back down to business. That girl is NUTS.

I went to Sears to get new tires and an alignment on my car. As if that wasn't bad enough, we ended up purchasing a High Efficiency Washer and Dryer and an upright freezer. Although we shelled out some serious money, in the long-run it will be worth it. We will use 1/4 the water and electricity. The freezer means we can get the fridge out of the garage and stock it with meats purchased from Sams. So, we'll be saving electricity but also grocery money as well. We are looking at the purchases as investments. We got the 5 year warranty because if anything goes awry it will be too expensive to replace.

Jason was taking measurments in the laundry room with the yellow measuring tape and I was holding Jenevieve and all the sudden she started CRACKING UP. I mean full out belly laughs. She would laugh so hard every time Jason moved the tape measure, for 5 or 6 times. Then all the sudden she got afraid. We don't know if it was the tape measure or she scared herself but it was kinda cute in a sad way LOL

Last night we had a girls night at my neighbor's house. There were 5 of us Moms. It was nice. So nice. It was potluck with lasagna, bread, salad and dessert. It was wonderful and we all enjoyed the kidless time.

Jason only called me twice to clarify some things about what he was supposed to do with the baby. I am impressed. I got home at 11:30 and everyone was asleep. What greatness. This morning, we are waiting for the appliance people between 9-11 am and we need to do some cleaning in general. How exciting.

Pics from Tuesday

Tuesday November 7th

So, just as I thought our morning might make a comeback, I was standing in the closet and I hear Jason yell "We are HORRIBLE parents". Before this I had been changing a diaper, had her all cleaned up, stuck the new diaper on and was about to fasten it when she had diarrhea all over the nice clean diaper. Now, me, being the Positive Pam that I am, I think on the bright side that at least I had a diaper under there. Soo, Jason is yelling and at this point I start thinking that something tragic has happened. Little did I know...it had.

As parents, we are responsible for our 4 year old's homework. Who REALLY gives homework to a 4 year old I was thinking. Then I started thinking about it and got over it because we have a WONDERFUL teacher and her intentions are to get the family together for some "fun". Undoubtedly I'll look back on this and see it as fun but as of right now I am in Turkey Hell. Yes, Turkey. Mrs. Moore sent home a Turkey on thick white paper that had to be cut out and camouflaged. As in, dressed. Of course, it was due Monday. This is why we're horrible parents. It's now Tuesday and surely she's putting these Turkeys up on her bulletin board outside her room and now my kid is going to be the only loser without a dressed up turkey out there. So, I frantically get dressed. It's 7:20. I have to leave in 20 minutes. I run to the garage and blindly grab art supplies and run back in. I tell Jillian to move aside while I work on HER turkey. She decided she wanted a Princess Turkey. Someone PLEASE tell me what goes on a Princess Turkey. We scurried through the Princess Turkey but still made it look cute and she actually got to color a few things herself. Now it's 7:45, we're 5 minutes late and we manage to dash out the door. I have no idea how we'll get there on time. I manage to only get the van up on two wheels one time. I took a short cut to beat a bus I saw coming and left the sorry sucker in the car behind me, behind the bus. I bet next time he takes the short cut. The last thing I needed was to stop a million times. Jillian managed to get to school on time, thankfully. Man, this parenting thing is not for the faint of heart.

So, I ran home, did my hair and got dressed kinda cute because we had the mishap playdate at Chuck E Cheese. I definitely didn't want to LOOK like the Mom that never takes time for herself....we all know one of these, don't we?? I mean, I AM that Mom but I can't appear that way. This SAHM thing is cut-throat. You're supposed to hold it all together all the time. So we showed up at CEC and she had the time of her life. There were 6 little girls all from her class and she thought that was so great. She did the skee ball without managing to get me sued for medical bills by some unsuspecting kid...and she won lots of tickets that resulted in 3 things I'll be throwing away while she sleeps.


Poor Jenevieve was really struggling with her teeth. Her gums are hard and swollen and the drool is non stop. She has to be given tylenol and teething tablets pretty often and I can't WAIT for this to be over. Ok, so it will be awhile, don't burst my bubble.

Last night I actually made dinner. Normally Jason does it. I'm not sure how it's evolved this way but if you eat his food you'd know why I prefer it. I can cook decently, but he cooks exceptionally well. So, I made Tostada's and he made the guacamole. It was delicious. Jenevieve had a repeat of the Squash and Oatmeal. I tried it without the oatmeal and it was a no go. Oh well, who really cares anyways.

We put the girls to bed and all was well until Jenevieve's pascifier fell out of her mouth and hit the bed fram with a loud clanging noise. It took me awhile to get her resettled but then all was quiet in the Hernandez casa. I am going to post some pictures of the girls I took yesterday. They are both so insanely adorable I just can't believe I am so lucky. Even better, they are both SO smart.

Monday Nov 5th

Monday morning started off easily enough. The baby had slept well so we were actually starting the day off on a positive foot. Jillian even managed to eat her cereal in less than 30 minutes with minimal threats by us. Poor Jenevieve is teething to the point of ridiculous and I am feeling horrible for her. Still, we manage to get Jillian looking all cute and sassy in a pink long sleeved shirt, pink polka-dot skirt and pink tights. She put on her new shoes that Lupe got her and she was adorable. (The shoes are still a little big but you have to roll with the punches around here in the mornings). Life was grand.

UNTIL I realized this was picture retake day. I am going to upload a picture of Jillian's school picture and you'll know WHY we needed picture retake day. The day of pictures I had instructed Jillian how to smile. I wanted her chin up a little, her eyes focused on the camera and for her to show her gorgeous teeth. Did she do any of the above? Hell no. Of course not. This is MY child we're talking about. So, when she gets in the car and shows me how she smiled I take it in stride and suspect that NO photographer would let her make THAT face. Wrong again. We paid $38 for these photos and Jason opens them and starts bellowing and roaring about WHAT kind of an idiot would let her make THAT face. Her regular teacher was sick and at home or else we could have counted on her for sure. She knows us well and would have known we'd be mortified. I digress.

So, I realize it's picture retake day and I have NOTHING for her to wear. I have not ironed anything, her hair is already done and of course, we're low on time. I tell Jason we're going to grit our teeth and accept that this really is her Pre K picture. I'll get my paybacks soon enough when I dredge the picture out at her graduation or wedding or something. Hahaha. Things were fine until I nearly closed her in the door at the drop off line. Our car has those sliding doors, and we all know how little she is! How was I to know she'd be standing where the door was? She screamed and jumped, the Asst Principal was working the drop off line so I had to roll down my window and act like I had everything under control. Did I mention Jenevieve is screaming her gorgeous little head off? I went to Walmart to get Jenevieve some 14K gold earrings because they aren't ALL gold when they use the piercing studs. Gold is too soft to pierce with but I am so scared of the junk in the earrings I knew I had to replace them and this was my opportunity. Finally, home.

That's where this all began. I read my friends blogs and realized a regular person COULD blog. My cousin Sarah who leads this famous life as a missionary in Egypt (well, she's home now) was worthy of having a blog. a SAHM like me? I never thought I needed one. Anyways, me fellow Mother friend showed me hers and I started crafting.

Soon, it was time to pick up Jillian and admit to another Mother that I had double booked Tuesday for a playdate. She and I were supposed to go to Chick Fil A and two other mothers and I were supposed to go to Chuck E Cheese. I decided rather than being rude to either bunch I'd invite the original Mom to Chuck E Cheese. So I get out to the car with Jeneveive still in her terrycloth Carter's footed PJ's and realize she has baby food peas all over them. Oh well. No one will see her anyways. WRONG. The Mother who is the volunteer coordinator for the class is there, holding a file folder. Looking all put-together I might add. I look down and notice I also have dried peas all over my shoulder. Apparently she spit some up on me. I am definitely not pulling the wool over anyones eyes! So after some chit-chat she tells me she's here to plan the Thanksgiving Feast for the class which is a week from Friday. Lord, I just found out about the feast and didn't know parents were planning it. I suck. So, I see little Mia's car drive up and I'm going to talk to her Mom, she opens the door and gets in and I realize it's her DAD. This strange man I've never met and I now have to confess I suck (again). He was nice about it thank God and I took Jillian and hightailed it to the car so I could go home and shower some peas off.

Luckily the day progressed pretty uneventfully from there, Jillian and I played some games and then I went to clip the baby's nails and ended up taking off some skin off her finger when she jerked. Mother of the Year award #47,905. Those are just since Jenevieve has been born, btw. The good news is that although she cried a little it wasn't much and it passed quickly. That God for small miracles. So after dinner of dip (yes....dip for Jason and I....peanut butter graham cracker for Jillian and squash and oatmeal for Jenevieve) we put Jillian to bed and the world was right. The baby fell asleep quickly and there was peace. Ahhhhhh. Can you feel it? I know I could.

The next thing I know it's 2:15 AM and Grunty Bear (as we affectionately call her...sometimes with a Fuss Bucket at the beginning...FBGB for short) decided it was time to eat. So, Jason shook the bottle up and the of course the nipple clogged. I don't know what makes this child clog nipples. The Fast Flow one's don't clog but you give her a fast flow and she acts like you're amputating a limb. Anyways, So I go to twist the nipple and lo and behold the entire bottle comes unscrewed, while upside down. So, as if she wasn't mad enough that the bottle wasn't in her mouth, she was LIVID when she felt all this room-temp liquid all over her little body, the pillow, the blanket, oh my Lord. So I'm freaking out, Jason's so tired it's like talking to a drunk person and it's crazy in there. So, he makes another bottle, I manage to clean her up with some room-temp wipes which woke her up REALLY well and we manage to get everything calmed down...and then Jason and I were just talking. We talk sometimes in the middle of the night since we don't have time during the day. As a side note, Jillian's bed is in our bedroom. For one thing our room is big enough for it but when she found out the baby would be sleeping in there she was having no part of being left out. So we put her bed in the and have dealt with the teeth grinding and talking in her sleep for months now. Anyways, Jason and I are laying there talking, the baby is peacfully eating, and all is calm. Jillian pops off with " Can I get some peace and quiet around here?" Jason and I just look at eachother and start cracking up. She then pops her sassy mouth off with "How is ANYBODY supposed to sleep with all this noise?". Jason is trying to control his hysteria and I kindly (well, kinda) reminded her that HER bedroom was around 2 corners and down the hall and she was FREE to make full use of the bed should she decide to do so.

Little did we know what a precursor that would be to our real morning. Little did we know.

Videos

Here are some videos. Two are the first day of school...one in her car seat on the way there and one at her actual table. There's a video taken tonight with an Indian song.

More Pics

Some Pictures

Our weekend

We had a lovely weekend.

Friday, we went to Jillian's Parent/Teacher conference. Both her teachers are extremely impressed with her. She of course met all the PreK criteria with "3's" on everything which is where they want them by June. She missed only one problem on the Kinder TPRI and the 1st TPRI. I spoke with the Reading Specialist and found that the only reason she's on a level 20something is because she was instructed not to test further, so honestly we don't know what her DRA level is. The Principal called me per my request and after some heavy discussion, we ended the conversation on the conclusion that we were going to A) test her further to see exactly where she's at....and B) get the campus GT teacher to get some materials to both of her teachers, pronto. We'll see. Homeschooling is certainly not out of the discussion yet and the beauty of HS'ing is that she can be on one level academically and an entirely different level socially. Frisay night Jason got home at 7:30 and we made an early night of it.

Saturday was great. Jenevieve is letting us sleep more again. She had a 10 or 14 night stint where she wouldn't let us sleep but we are chalking that up to a growth spurt. All is right in the world because last night she slept for 8 or 9 blissful hours. Of course it started before we went to be so we didn't get the whole time but it was close enough. Anything over 5 hours and you start to wonder when the other shoe will drop! Poor Jenevieve is teething so she thinks her little world is crashing down upon her. She is so super sweet. We give her teething tablets and tylenol and make sure she has a bib on all the time to catch the drool. Saturday we spent most of the day trying to clean the house and catch up on laundry. We did pretty well. Jillian is such a big helper...she Swiffer's, moves laundry baskets, cleans the kitchen table (while kneeling on it!) and she of course cleans her toy room and bedroom. I am impressed with her and her work ethic is coming right along. It's something we wondered about there for awhile. Saturday night we cooked some steaks on the grill and had baked potatoes, salad, green beans and Pinto beans. JAson made a French Silk pie since he knows it's my favorite and although it was his first pie, it was astoundingly good! Really, ALMOST anything he touches in the kitchen turns to gold. He is an excellent cook and griller. We ate at the neighbors house and Jillian had the time of her life playing. Afterwards, the girls came over and spent the night. Jillian thought she died and went to Heaven. The girls slept in tents and sleeping bags on the living room floor.

Sunday Jason, Jenevieve and I headed to Sam's while Jillian stayed with the neighbors. Thank Goodness. Sam's with an almost 5 year old is never a good experience. We stocked up on meats and the usual stuff like paper towels and spent way too much money but you know how it is....it will be used! We opted to turn on the fridge in the garage since it is getting cold now, we don't think it will really do much to the electric bill in the winter time. Tonight the firdge will be all cooled down and we plan on cutting up our meat and packing it in the freezer out there. One of our favorite Reality shows started last night and we gleefully watched it while the girls slept. That is very exciting for old folks like us. It was another early bedtime and Jenevieve slept so well that we feel like kings.

The Beginning

So I decided to start this blog so everyone can keep up with us. Of course we are extremely busy and so are you....so now you can check on us anytime, when it's convenient for you.