Hug O’ War

I have been reading a lot of Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends to Carter at night.  These are fun little poems that are sometimes just silly and meaningless. There are others that are cute and have a point.  Regardless, they bring back lots of childhood memories.

My favorite is Hug O’ War.

I will not play at tug o' war

I'd rather play at hug o' war,

Where everyone hugs

Instead of tugs

Where everyone giggles

And rolls on the rug,

Where everyone kisses

And everyone grins

And everyone cuddles

And everyone wins.

- Shel Silverstein

Do you have a favorite Shel Silverstein poem?  If so, what is it?  Or do you have a favorite from another children’s author?

Baby Girl Dresses

I have already purchased two dresses for our little girl.  I just can’t help myself.

The fact that I only have two articles of clothing for her proves extreme restraint on my behalf.  Clothes for baby girls are just so cute.

The Nursery

So with a little girl on the way in less than 4 months, we ought to be making plans for her nursery.  In theory, we don’t have *that* much to do as we are using everything from Carter’s nursery.  We are using the Chamois Lambie bedding that we used for Carter and using the same furniture. Really we should just be able to paint the room and be ready to go, right?

Of course not.  There are a couple of key things standing in our way. 

First of all, this is what the room looks like right now. (sorry for the poor quality photo.  My camera batteries were dying and I was too lazy to find fresh ones to put in it)

It’s currently Carter’s Lego room / an extra guest room.  On a daily basis the floor is totally covered with Legos.  Believe it or not, this is after I tidied up the room.  When the cousins come visit, I sweep all the Legos into the closet and open up the futon for the kids to sleep on.  Please note Shelby coming out of the blue & red storage bucket to peek out the window.

We are working on finishing the basement but really only just started. Ben is doing most of it himself (with a little help from his dad) and so he can only work on it nights and weekends.  He’s given me a completion date of xmas 2011.  So we are a long way off from having an appropriate place for Legos in the basement and for the cousins to sleep down there. 

Secondly, Carter is still using the furniture.  OK, not the crib but certainly the dresser, bedside table, and the book shelf.  We are looking to purchase a new bedroom set for Carter but can’t get over the sticker shock.  Besides, where are we going to put the old stuff when the new furniture comes in if the baby’s room is still covered in Legos.

And finally, the paint color.  I’m not sold on painting the walls green like we did with Carter.  I’m thinking I should soften the look and maybe go with a soft pink. 

Here’s a closer look at the pinks.  I’m not sure the camera / computer is doing justice to the shades correctly.

What do you think?  Would the bedding colors look OK with pink walls?  I’m thinking the 4th one from the top. 

Or should I rethink the greens?

Super Bowl XLV

This pretty much sums up our Super Bowl watching experience tonight:

The whole family is wiped out from our “eventful” night last night.

PUKE!

Carter puked for the first time ever last night.  He actually puked two three four seven times.

Seriously…this kid is 5 1/2 years old and has never thrown up before.  Were we the luckiest parents in the world or what?

OK, so that’s not entirely true. He threw up once when he was roughly one year old. He had a double ear infection and was given the antibiotic Augmenten.  It made him sick to his stomach and threw up once, we never gave him anymore of the stuff, end of story.

So anyway, back to last night (as if you are dying to hear all the details).  Shortly after putting Carter to bed, he came out of his room complaining of a tummy ache. I snuggled with him for a while and so did Ben.  Being totally exhausted from driving in hazardous snow conditions all afternoon, I went off to bed.  Ben woke me around 11pm saying poor Carter threw up everywhere and he needed help cleaning up.  

Ben was awesome. He had already stripped the bed and gotten Carter out of his nasty PJs and was tending to Carter in the bathroom.   Me? I’m terrible with vomit.  I violently gag if I have to clean up cat puke.  I absolutely cannot handle the sound of someone else throwing up.  And now, with my overactive sniffer (thanks pregnancy hormones) I have to go into a room and clean up birthday cake laced puke from the carpet? Yikes.

Suck it up, Carla!  What kind of a mom are you??

I got the room all cleaned up and Ben got Carter all cleaned up.   Having never done this before, Carter did not understand what happened.  He said something to Ben along the lines of, “ Daddy, that was terrible. I didn’t like that at all.

I spent the rest of the night running between the laundry machine and Carter’s room.   Fortunately, he picked up pretty quickly to the concept of getting it into the bucket.

Sometime around 4:30 am, he said to me, “I’m having a pretty rough night, aren’t I?”

Poor kid.  If he/his room hadn’t smelled so bad, I might have snuggled longer with him.

PS – I don’t recommend realizing you are missing a critical piece to your carpet steam cleaner AFTER your child has thrown up all over his bedroom carpet.