What would you do?

We have a babysitter/nanny who we like.  She loves our kiddos, is willing to come ridiculously early, and we pay her peanuts.  It still ends up be a lot every month, but it's better than some alternatives.

Anyways, lately a few things have been coming up, but honestly I don't know how to bring everything up.  Some of it isn't even big deal stuff, just stuff that'd make my life easier.  But since she's here with 4 kiddos (my three and her 2 year old boy) I hesitate to bring anything up because it'd all just be more work.


For one, clean up.  We have 2 toy boxes w/ shelves on top, a 9-cube bin organizer, 4 or 5 separate plastic bins of Colby's stuff, and then several larger toys (play tables, walker, ball pit, etc) all in our living room.  We have things separated pretty well.  The girls toys are in their toy box, Colby's are in his.  Then in the 9 bins we have smaller toys & I have made hanging picture labels for all those bins to help Colby put things away.  His plastic bins are the same way with picture cards on them to help him.  The shelves above the toy boxes are filled with books.  My point is that everything has pretty much been in the same place for the whole time she's been with us (since Feb. last year) and everything is picture-labled.  Colby can tell you where something goes and he's amazing (and maybe a little OCD like Daddy) about putting things only where they go (and getting annoyed if cars and up with trains and so on).

But every single day I come home and everything is completely mixed around.  Now the larger toys don't bother me, but when I find tiny Legos in the bottom of the toy box, or puzzle pieces hanging out in the block bins I get a little frustrated.  I know things can get put places accidentally but it's an every day thing.  It's like at the end of the day she just quickly scoops things up and then throws them in the nearest bin, so everything is completely random and every night I feel like I have to go through everything to separate the blocks again and the small baby toys and the balls and so on.  I guess my main issues with this are that I know Colby knows how to put things away because we worked SO hard on that this summer so I feel like yes, she's the nanny, but she should be helping to teach him the right way.  (Or continuing it in this case)  My other issue is the small pieces.  We have special bins for legos and puzzles and small cars to keep tiny pieces out of the way of the babies.  They're getting much better at not eating everything, but I'm not aways home so it makes me really, really nervous.


Another thing that's bothering me is broken toys.  There are always broken toys.  I know (KNOW) my kids aren't perfect, but toys rarely get broken.  If they do Colby brings it to me immediately (in general, I'm sure some have gotten past me).  But almost weekly we find a broken toy somewhere-- lately they've been hidden behind the couch.  But I think what bothers me the most is that she doesn't tell us about them or take care of the pieces.  Which I guess leaves the chance that she doesn't know, but that raises the whole issue of why doesn't she know what's going on?  And there are always chewed on books and DVD cases, too.


And meal times.  She has a little boy who is just younger than Colby so I think she feels very experienced with raising kiddos- which she is.  But I think that translates into her thinking she knows best.  After the summer I had the kiddos on a pretty amazing routine which we needed with the girls.  They'd eat around 8.  They're down to 1 nap, so I keep them up in the AM- sometimes they get a little whiny, but they can be pretty easily distracted.  Around 12/12:30 they'd eat lunch.  Around 1/1:30 the girls would go down.  They'd be up around 3/3:30 and then that'd be the afternoon.  I explained this all to her when she came back in September, but every day lately I'm coming home and she's feeding them lunch at 3:30.  And of course that means they don't really eat at dinner.  And I'm pretty sure she doesn't really feel Colby meals.  Instead he eats a lot of bread and cheese (which he likes)... but it's not a meal.  With fruit and veggies.  And they're (Colby and her son) always eating on the couch so we always have milk and squished cheese and broken crackers on the couch.  I've mentioned that we're really trying to keep Colby to the table, but it hasn't seemed to change.


Lastly is something I know I can't control, but it's her son's behavior.  If you're trying to get him to do something he doesn't want, he screams in your face & tries to hit you.  If you pick him up, he will try to bite you.  These are things I see him do all the time and Colby had never once done any of them.  Until the end of August when I had the nanny and her son here for a few days while I set up my classroom.  We're working on it and I know he'll pick up bad habits (and hopefully good) from other kids as he moves on to preschool and school in general.  I know it goes with the territory, but right now with him in our house it kills me that he's picking these things up.  It's just so frustrating when you can target where it's coming from and you're powerless to stop it.  Colby realizes now after he says something he shouldn't and will usually give a quick "Sorry, Mama," but still.

And the last thing her son does is throw toys at Colby.  I got home on Thursday and I was on the floor talking to Colby when L came over with a car in his hand raised over his head and looking at Colby.  These two love each other, but Colby got hysterical.  He started crying and yelling "No no no.  Don't throw!" and tried to hide behind my back.  His mom told him not to throw it, but didn't do anything.  I ended up taking the car away from him and telling him that he can't throw things because Colby was so upset.  Later on after they left Colby told me that L throws things at him.  I can only guess that it's fairly often by Colby's reaction.


I'll stop there because I really do like her, but I'm nervous to approach her because I don't want her to feel like I'm attacking her and because I am nervous that she'll say "Fine, you don't like what I'm doing?  I'm gone."

Back to the grind! and 10 weeks!

This week we had 4 days of school - 2 teacher days and 2 days with the kiddos.

I have 21 first graders, though only 19 were there this week.  One comes Monday and the other comes in October after her month long trip to India (!  the first month of school?).  It's been a pretty good "week" with the kiddos.  They're chatty, but they're 6.  And they're cute.  I think we'll have a good year once I can get the constant talking under wraps.

But I caught a cold, so I struggled today.  Colby & Syd had it Tuesday night when I got home.  Zoe caught it Wednesday.  And I started to feel it Thursday.  I just want to feel better because I'm already tired enough without sickness thrown in!

Speaking of tired... I am so exhausted!  I'm itchingly close to the second trimester... and I don't want to rush this because I do love being pregnant, BUT some extra energy would be amazing.  I was a little chicken to tell my principal this week, but I really have to because my appointments are coming up fast and I'm already showing.  A lot.  Like in lunch line I was talking to my old first graders (now big second graders!) and one little boy touched my belly and said "How's your baby doing Mrs. J?"  I played it off that he was talking about the girls, but he long since stopped calling them babies last year!  And they're babies not baby.

This week I'll do it!  :)

Cerclage is booked for October 4th.  Bonus-- I'll take the 4th and 5th off which are Thursday and Friday.  Then Monday is Columbus Day!  Extra long weekend!

Well, Hello there.

Oh, life.  You're so busy.  I had grand intentions of being better at writing all summer because I wasn't working... but then again, I was home with 3 adorable kiddos so I was really working so much more.  BUT, let's see where we have been....

Last I updated was around Colby's 3rd birthday.  He had a great birthday and is an amazing 3 year old.

We buzzed his hair a few weeks back.  Or Johnny did after begging me to agree, but I wasn't too sure because I love his hair.  But I gave in and he cut it and it was so short and I was a bit heartbroken.  It's growing out already so I'm surviving.

The girls are both full-on walkers.  They're in to everything.  Syd's always on the go just wandering here and there, but in new situations she'll hang around and want to be held while she takes it all in.  Zoe's more of the adventurous one.  She's a climber and always exploring everything.

We've been spending a lot of time at parks and splash pads and outside enjoying the beautiful weather.  

And me?  Well, I've been a bit preoccupied with these kiddos.  And the newest one due in April.

... I'll let that one sink in ...

We are amazingly, surprisingly pregnant and due in April.  April 6th to be exact.

No IVF.  No meds.  Nothing.  Except thrilled.

To back up... after we had the girls (and the boys at the time too) we said we'd try on our own (meaning no birth control), expect nothing, but plan on the next round of IVF down the road.  We were thinking December 2012.  And I haven't had a spontaneous period since... maybe before the boys?  I haven't had a single period since having the girls.  But I also didn't want to be one of those people on "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant," so even though the odds were seemingly zero because I don't ovulate on my own, I would test every month or so just to be sure.  I never expected anything, but would always get my hopes up a little.

So in late July I asked Johnny to get tests one day on his way home.  Again, I knew the odds weren't in my favor, but I was just feeling different so I let my hopes get up a little.   I was breaking out like crazy, my back was killing, I wasn't feeling well, I was exhausted.  You know, the symptoms that could mean just about anything.  But I tested the night of July 24th and got the the faintest line.  The kind that made me squint and ask Johnny if I was crazy.  Still not sure, I tested a few more times over the next day or so and the lines got darker, so the 27th I went for blood work and it came back at 88 and my progesterone levels were good.  I went back in on 30th and my levels had risen up over 300 and things were looking good.  

At this point I was convincing myself that this couldn't really be true because we had been through so much and what are the odds?  And all that.  But I went in on August 13th for an ultrasound and found myself at 6w2d (because I had no clue because of not having a period).  Then I went to see my doctor on August 24th and measured 8 weeks exactly with a good heartbeat.  (HUGE sigh of relief)

We told my parents and one brother at about 7 weeks.  I called my brother in Texas a little while later and then we told my other brother this weekend when we finally saw him.   Mostly everyone was a little shocked, but happy.  They might think we're crazy, but that's all okay.  :)  My oldest brother and his wife- I had Colby tell them that I had a baby in my belly and I got zero reaction from them.  Nothing.  No congrats, no questions, nothing.  It was a bit weird.  Johnny just told his parents this past weekend (9 weeks) and he told his brother tonight.

I go in at the end of Sept for a high risk consult to discuss a cerclage and whether or not I should be on preventative Lovenox this time around.  My OB is doing a cerclage no matter what high risk says, but he just wants that second opinion.  (I love my doctor... I could go on and on about that, but I won't)  I might have to go on Lovenox because of that clot I had after having the girls.  That one I'm not positive about, but I have a feeling I'll be on that after the cerclage.  

That same day I also have my 1st trimester screening.  Assuming all of that goes well, my cerclage will follow shortly and then a perfectly happy, healthy, fabulous *singleton* pregnancy will follow!  :)

And with that, Colby's begging for Thomas videos on my computer.