Cruisin' By...

It has been a whirlwind of activity around here. Of course, it always is, but the wind picked up a little this week.

On Monday, Eli and I went to the dentist for our regularly scheduled cleaning. The dentist's office is a very popular place to go in our house. For one thing, he has a fish tank in the waiting room. And for another thing, there is a well-stocked prize box for well-behaved children at the end of the visit. PLUS, some of the dentist chairs have flat screen TVs overhead so you can watch Spiderman or ESPN or HGTV while you're getting your cavities filled. Very cool and fun. Eli was planning what he was going to get from the prize box while we were still driving to the dentist. The sticky slappy lizard shaped thingy that sticks to walls and car windows and hair. It's lifespan is all of about 10 minutes, but oh the joy it brings to little boys. By the way, you haven't truly experienced a dental examination until you've been lying in the chair with the dentist tapping your teeth with the sharp pokey thing and suddenly feel the chair start to sit up and the dentist waving his elbows trying to get the pokey thing out of your mouth before it pokes you and Eli behind the rising chair giggling his head off. Truly an event to experience.

Autumn had her 4 month checkup. She is a solid 14 pounds 2 1/2 ounces (75th percentile for weight) and 25 inches (90th percentile for height). She is one of the sweetest babies I've ever been around.

And now I sit here blogging when I should really be packing. Packing for what, you ask? Chris and I are going on a C R U I S E ! ! WooHoo! I never in my life thought I would get to go on one, and yet in 2 days I will be on a big boat cruising towards the Bahamas. You know, there are some places on earth that just seem so far away from my world. The Bahamas is one of them for me; that's the place that I grew up hearing preacher's joke that they'd been called to be missionaries to. It never felt like a real place. So even though most people on the cruise ship won't know it, I'm actually embarking on an expedition to see if the land of the Bahamas is for real. I'll let you know... I hope I remember to pack everything. I made a list, but I might have forgotten to put something on the list... Well, I always tell the kids that if you've got your underwear and your toothbrush then you'll be good to go.

Doghouse

I'm back! I've blogged mightily in my brain over the past couple of months, but have not had access to the internet. I will be posting soon... :) In the short meantime, I hope you enjoy this video... Kinda like Santa Claus - wouldn't it be a hoot if it were really real??

Tags

*This post has been updated and corrected.*

I've been twice tagged. So here goes...

Tag #1 from Amy at My Blob
The rules are:
1) Link to the person who tagged you.
2) Post the rules on your blog.
3) Write 15 (I am doing 10) random things about yourself (see below).
4) Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them.
5) Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6) Let the tagger know when your entry has been posted.

My List of Random Things:
1. I have freckles in my eyes.
2. I almost always have my toenails painted.
3. I had asthma as a child.
4. I wear contacts - glasses give me a headache.
5. The only man I've ever kissed is Chris.
6. I'm not very good at rollerskating - I have horrible balance.
7. My favorite Thanksgiving foods are stuffing and pumpkin pie.
8. The game show I want to be on is Wheel of Fortune.
9. I haven't seen my sister in 1 1/2 years.
10. We have a house that's been for sale for 2 1/2 years.
11. I sing alto.
12. I wish I had a different hairstyle, but I don't know which one I would want.
13. I don't think comedians are very funny (usually).
14. There is truly no place like home.
15. I will always choose Jesus over anything/anybody else.

Phewph! And now onto Round 2...

Tag #2 from Susanne at Truly Captivating
Here are the rules:
1) You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2) You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
3) At the end of your post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.

Okay, my middle name is:
R - Red Rover. I've been clotheslined enough in my life to hate this game.
O - Octopus tastes like fishy rubberbands. I know. Don't ask.
S - Soccer is my favorite sport to play.
E - Eggplant is the dregs of vegetable life.

And now I'm going to break the rules by not tagging anybody because I'm hoping that Autumn just fell asleep for the night and I'm going to go crash... Besides, rules are meant to be broken, right??

2 Month Old Autumn

Strawberry

We have a new addition to the family. For Eli's birthday, he got a pet fish. He named his pet fish "Strawberry", because it looks like a strawberry. He feeds it every morning, and blows it a kiss when it's bedtime. We've also explained that fish have to stay in the water in order to live, so I'm sorry, but we can't take him out to pet him. But that's okay, because Strawberry swims over to the side of the tank when Eli calls him.

Shopping Cart Drop-Out

I do a lot of grocery shopping (as I've frequently mentioned). A family with lots of people eats lots of food. Each of my sons can eat way more food than me, and they are just 7, 4, and 2. (Just a side note about Eli, the 4 year old. He just had his yearly checkup - he's in the 50th percentile for his height, and the 25th for his weight. We are excited about his weight progress - he was in the 10th percentile last year. Poor guy has such a fat-free diet because of his food restrictions! But he loves chicken skin, and we let him eat all he wants when we are having chicken for supper!)

So, back to grocery shopping. You can imagine I'd have to be in a bad way to take all 5 kids to the grocery store. For one thing, the cart would be too full of kids - no room for the food. So, I usually wait for Chris to come home from work, and then I take 1 or 2 kids with me.

I have a specific route that I usually take so I can get the best deals at several grocery stores. At most of the stores I visit, there are parking spaces right after the handicapped spots that are for "pregnant/small children" parking. Soo convenient! Whoever's brain storm that was hopefully got a big bonus. But this is what baffles me...

Why are the shopping cart corrals so far away from the "small children" parking spots????

Do the grocery store people really think that I'm going to unload my groceries into my car, and then take the buggy all the way across the parking lot, and then walk back across with my young children in tow to my car? Umm, I can think of several reasons why this would be unreasonable, especially if it's Seth with me who likes to run away fast and when I call him he likes to grin and run faster. Plus, it's just not safe. I know. I watch America's Most Wanted (Saturday nights at 9:00 on FOX).

So, I admit. I am a leaver of shopping carts in the middle of a parking lot. But only if I have my small children with me. And I'm not parked next to a buggy corral. I don't leave them in the middle of a parking spot. I angle them so they don't roll. But I do value my safety and sanity. And when Bi-Lo, Harris Teeter, Lowe's, and Food Lion decide to install buggy corrals next to their handicapped spots and "pregnant/small children" spots, I'll be glad to fulfil my civic duty and park my cart in them!

Allergy Update

Yesterday we loaded up the whole family and took a trip to the pediatric allergist two hours away. I know that's a long ways, and there are allergists here where we live, but where we go is at the forefront in pediatric allergy research and discovery, and I kind of like having access to the top allergists in the nation - especially when it's my kids I'm concerned about. :) This was Eli's third yearly visit. He had his annual skinprick test for dairy, eggs, and peanuts. He's still just as allergic as ever. Poor little guy! We will get his bloodwork results next week to see if his allergy levels are on the rise or decline.
Eli was "the strongest and bravest" when they took his blood. He only cried a little bit, and he told Chris that he was going to look in Chris' eyes when the nurses were sticking him if he needed to cheer up. He was very offended and worried when he realized they actually took blood out of him - until Chris told him that his body would make some more blood.
Since Seth has been such a wierdo with knowing what and if he's allergic to anything (last year, we took him to a local allergy Dr. who was not very thorough), we had him tested as well. He is allergic to eggs and borderline to peanuts, according to the skin test. The dairy was negative. However, the skinprick test is 90-95% accurate, so we will wait until we get his bloodwork results next week to truly celebrate!
It took 4 people (me and 3 nurses) to hold him down to get his blood drawn. Dude, that kid is strong! It is a sad thing to be the traitor holding him down with a needle aiming at his arm. He was calling for his Daddy by the end. Afterwards, I gave him a sucker and then he liked me again.
I'm sure we looked pretty funny, 5 kids and 2 parents crowded into the Dr.'s office. But at least we only have to go once a year...