A First ...

My little Sonny boy is a mover and a shaker. He loves to always be on the go. He even says "Go, Go, Go!!!" when he wants to be out and about. It's rare to ever get him to just slow down and sit, especially in my lap.

So this morning, it was complete elation and total enjoyment when he wanted up in my lap and lounged there for more than 5 minutes. Yes, MORE than 5 minutes. I couldn't tell you how long it was exactly, but it was a long time (for him) and I soaked it all up. I stopped updating things on the computer and just sat there with him in my arms.

I couldn't ask for a better start to the day.

Sickies Everywhere ....

Ugh, I hate it when my kids get sick.

1. I feel so bad for them because most sickies are things I can't do anything about. Most things just need time to pass.

2. (This may sound selfish) ... the stomach flu is utterly disgusting. Cleaning up vomit makes me want to ... well ... vomit.

And that is what I got to do tonight. Clean up projectile vomit from both of my kids. At least Gabriel got his on the laminate, so there was no upholstery to clean up. Aitana unfortunately got it on the couch and the rug. It's gross. To top it off, G has had the runs for a couple of days and that just comes with it's own gross factor.

I didn't believe her today when she said her tummy hurt. I thought she was just trying to copy brother so she could get whatever she wanted (which neither get when they are sick, but 3 year olds like to think they can get away with everything). She just laid around most of the day. She wasn't even interested in playing when I got on the floor with them. Both of them just wanted to sit on my lap.

As I was getting dinner cut up for the kids, it happened. It was only Aitana's 2nd time throwing up like that in her 3 little years. Gabriel has thrown up before after shoveling too much food in his mouth, but it's still gross nonetheless.

They both got baths and went to bed easily and then Aitana woke up screaming and crying ... her tummy was in pain. The kid won't throw up again though. I caught her before bed making a weird sound and putting her knuckle in her mouth and when I asked her what she was doing, she said "Stopping the throw up from coming." Uhhhh... (yep, speechless yet again).

A call to the doctor and a call to Mimi and we got Aitana fixed right up. For those of you who don't know, my sister Megan (Mimi) is a professional when it comes to tummy problems. She has Crohn's and IBD and a slew of other things, so if you have a tummy ache, she's the one to talk to. She and Tio Ry-Ry drove over her late tonight and brought some lemon ginger tea and made it with some honey and brought a warm cozy rice pillow thingy and we put it on Aitana's tummy and after a bit she fell right to sleep. This is the longest stretch she's slept all night. I hope it continues so I can get a bit of a snooze myself.

Gabriel seems to be doing ok ... he's sleeping just fine, so we are keeping our fingers crossed.

Hoping tomorrow proves better and the sickies just pass on through. Now to keep myself from getting sick :)

Sharing? Yuck!

The last couple of mornings have been interesting. I think the kids are a little off because they are not feeling well and as a result, they do not want to play nicely with each other. There has been a lot of screaming and fighting as we're getting the day moving.

Part of this is teaching Aitana the concept of sharing. She wants to play with her toys AND brother's toys, but brother can only play with his toys. If he touches her toys, all hell breaks loose. So, they were playing nice and quiet for a while and then I hear the screaming and I just yell "Stop!"

Aitana comes over and says "Gabriel won't let me play with his toys." And here comes the explanation again.

I'm not sure what happened, but something seemed to click. "If you want brother to share his toys, you have to share yours with him." "Huh?" "You have to let brother play with your toys if you want to play with his, that's called sharing." Then came the light bulb ...

"That's sharing?! YUCK! No way." And she walked away without another word.

Once again, my 3 year old left me speechless.

2011 Already?

Wow! Where has the time gone?

I have been a terrible mommy blogger and that is because I allowed craziness to get the better of me. How? Well, somehow in the second half of the year, I lost control. Control of my organization for the most part. Every little or big thing that came up seemed to get the better of me or I just took on WAY TOO MUCH and got in over my head and normalcy got left behind.

Things started picking up a bit for Doll Baby Bowtique, which is fantastic. I love creating ... I started getting into some new creations and it hasn't stopped since. I am always so proud of what i create because it feels like I'm completing a puzzle. And it is something that is all mine. I do it for others and my kids, but it is something I use as a creative outlet when I'm not sure what else to do with myself.

As part of this, I had 4 boutiques within a 7 week period. That was a lot and most of it was very last minute which left no time ... for anything. For MOST of them, I was offered a spot with only 2 or so weeks to prepare and that just isn't enough time for anything. To top that off, Kinwa seemed to have to work very late most nights for what seemed like weeks.

What does all that mean? My poor children got ignored - A LOT! I do not like that one bit, and it makes me feel like a horrible mother. I know in trying to move my business forward, I have to give it time and attention. I don't have the luxury of having one or both in preschool/daycare. They are 3 and 1.5 years old and they are both home with me 24/7. So it is all of it all the time and no quiet time to focus on "work." I'm trying to do more, better, bigger things for work so that I can pay off my start-up costs and make it profitable. I haven't figured out how to do it all at the same time. If I leave it for night, I'm pooped and just want to flop in bed, what something mindless and drift off.

I'm still trying to figure out what is best for that, but I know I can't give that part of "Me" up.

In October both Aitana and Kinwa had a birthday. Aitana's 3rd and Kinwa's 40th. I had to have a big party for them. It was a big shin-dig and I invited everyone, and they had fun. But I was just so busy and beyond myself, that I had a hard time having fun. I probably didn't need to do something so big, but I thought it would be fun. Come to find out, simpler would be better and that's how it will be from now on.

But go from that, to who knows, to prepping for a boutique to Halloween, to another boutique, to prepping for another boutique to Thanksgiving, to my birthday (which ended up being fun, but went by like it was just any other day of the year), to a 3 day boutique, to another boutique to TONS of orders to Christmas. And again, Christmas passed like it was just another day. I hate that feeling. We DID make cookies and see Santa and that picture was hysterical, but no Christmas lights or anything else we had planned.

Once Christmas was finished, things finally settled down. We had a get together with the Higgins Family and the Ericson Family, which was really relaxing and enjoyable. Then we had a snow day with my sister and brother-in-law (here-in known as Mimi and Tio Ry-Ry), and then we had the Calef Family as overnight guests for 2 days and that was crazy with 4 kids all under age 3! But we got to enjoy the zoo and from there had a wonderfully fun time for New Year's Eve. It finally felt like a Holiday. Ama and Pa, Mimi and Tio Ry-Ry, Tia Madeline and Tio John all came over and we played the Wii and Karaoke and ate lots and lots ... and LOTS of food. And Aitana and Gabriel had a great time.

And that was the rest of 2010. Crazy times. I'm glad 2011 is here because things WILL be BETTER!