Meet Ivy

How could I have forgotten to blog about this! I am such a horrible aunt.

I am very proud to have a new niece, Ivy Gwendolyn Freeman, born September 26, 2013. She weighed 8 pounds 11 ounces and has "my" giant V birthmark across her forehead.

If it is truly a genetic inheritance she will not lose it until she turns 12 and her older siblings will constantly trace it with their finger to make her super mad. Not that this happened to me, my sisters were all very loving to me as we grew up together. Nor did anyone try to shove someone in a closet or encourage another to get closer to the table fan until our hair wrapped around the blades, while it was still powered on.

Oh, right, this post is about Ivy....here she is:

Music preferences

A few weeks ago Evan made a mix CD for Liam on our road trip to Indianapolis. He put many kid songs on it such as, "Mahna, mahna"; "C is for Cookie" and "We are the dinosaurs."

Liam asks to hear his dinosaur song every single time we are in the car now. I really liked this song at first but now it's getting a little old. I can't even distract him with a different really fun kid song because he just wants to hear the dinosaur song.

Evan also put a few other songs on this CD and the one that comes on right after the dinosaur song is "Blitzkrieg Bop" by The Ramones. I think we are finding out I am not much of a Ramones fan because everytime I reach for the skip button in the car, Liam yells, "No, Mom, I like that song don't skip it!"

So now I get to listen the dinosaur song which is starting to creep under my skin and Blitzkrieg Bop right afterwards. Which I already can't stand. At least the next song is Grover's "Monster in the Mirror" to bring me back down into a relaxed state. Or maybe I should have Evan add "I wanna be sedated" by the Ramones. I can listen to that one without cringing.

And so you can suffer through enjoy the music that I hear every single time we are in the car...

We are the dinosaurs

Blitzkreig Bop by The Ramones

Fires and odors

Our furnace is out for the time being which means a house that is in the 50 degree range. We should be getting a new furnace on Monday but for the time being we are managing. With multiple layers and blankets and me being a very grumpy wife and mother. I hate being cold. It is why I love summer so much because there is little chance of being cold.

So, we have lived in this house for 5 years now and never once used our fireplace. We were told that the previous owner used it very often and even had a chimney guy come out last year to see if we could use it safely. We were given the green light but no matter how many times I have suggested it, my husband has not been up for building a fire in the middle of our home. We may not be 100% sure that the flue is open but 90% for me is good enough. Especially when I am freezing.

So last night we had a fire in our fireplace. It was very nice. Liam and I had a fire picnic, where we just read books on a blanket in front of the fire. And Evan filled up a bucket of water that was nearby in case things got out of hand. Seriously.

Unfortunately that flue may need some looking at. After a 3 hour fire it began to be very obvious that not all the smoke was exiting out of the chimney as it should. Which has resulted in a home that smells like Evan and I smoked 2 packs of cigarettes last night, each. Yuck.

This morning I was lighting fragrant candles and spraying Oust to neutralize the odor and exclaiming how it really stinks in here.
Liam said, "Did someone poop in here?"
"No buddy, remember the fire we had last night? The smoke from the fire stinks!"
"The fire pooped?"

Oh brother.....

Arrrgghhh!

This potty training thing is the worst. Last week was such a difficult week for Liam. Accidents numerous times throughout the week, with one time in particular at the babysitters where she could clearly see that he had wet himself as his pants were soaked, asked him if he had had an accident, and he said, nonchalantly, no.

Sunday was a particularly challenging day because we drove up to Joliet to meet Ivy. I thought Liam would be able to hold it for a 90 minute car ride but 10 minutes from our exit, he announced that he needed to go and we had no choice but to just let him do his thing in his seat. Luckily, there wasn't enough to soak through his pants and the car seat was spared.

After insisting that Liam try to use the restroom before our drive home we weren't but 10 minutes into our drive when he again announced that he needed to go. This was the moment that Evan told me that he had not been successful the last trip at Aunt Stephanie's. So, the question was what do we do? We were just getting into the horrible construction traffic which meant we were at a stop or going 5 miles an hour and who knew how long it was going to take to get to the next exit. At which point we would most likely be too late anyway.

So, I did what an desperate mother would do (I think) and climbed into the backseat with an empty cup in hand. I figured 'he's a boy and should be able to do this, right?' Well, I explained to Liam what we were going to do, pulled down his pants and prayed that this would work. With a giant grin and a couple of giggles, Liam peed in the cup and I put him back into his seat. Since traffic was still moving rather slowly and we were down to only one lane I think we were able to do this without anyone knowing what was going on.  Well, it's possible that the people behind us thought we were being extremely odd but I'm just going to pretend that they didn't know what was happening.

Did this help us get all the way home dry? Unfortunately not but at least it made a pretty good story.

We now have a potty chart hanging on the fridge with 5 boxes that Liam can put a sticker on if he stays dry all day. At the end of 5 days he gets to pick out a toy, book, get ice cream or basically we will do anything his little heart desires. We need some goals and momma is tired of doing laundry every other day.