Oh my. Well this three kids thing is pretty hard work! (Jeralyn and Carla are laughing right now I just know it ). Sorry for the delay in posts. I keep taking lots of pictures and maybe some day will get to write out all the fun adventures that go with them. Kevin is as much of a dream come true as any baby could be. He eats well, is gaining weight well, and slept almost 6 hours last night. He is also so far a very good natured little thing – easy to hang out with and entertain. I am feeling good too – the recovery has not been as bad as last time and the nursing is going well and I seem to be through the painful part there. I am beyond blessed with this one because his easiness leaves me time to deal with “the problem”, aka: Lilly. More about that in a later post – I expected her tough adjustment but its still hard

Clemm! Party of five!

Anyways, I promised I would post what happened since so many people want to know why he came a week early. BE WARNED: There is some TMI here – birth is messy business so if you are squeamish look away my lovelies – LOOK AWAY!

So the long and short of it is that on Tuesday November 17th, I went into labor. For some background here, please note that I have never gone into labor before. Molly was a failed inducement that ended in an unplanned c-section, and Lilly was a planned c-section. And also, as I have with all my pregnancies (and the rest of my life really) I was running low on iron the whole time that Kevin was living in me. Towards the end, my iron had fallen “dangerously low” according to my doctor and they had put me on iron pills twice a day on top of my regular vitamin and threatened to postpone the c-section (planned for November 23rd).

Ever been on Iron pills?

No?

Lucky.

Well there is no nice way to phrase this – they BLOCK YOU UP like nothing else. And I was VERY uncomfortable.

After his first bath at home!

So when I woke up on the 17th and felt what I would spend my day calling “waves of pain” (because I am an idiot), I thought it was just bad constipation. Now in my defense, the ummmm “location” of these pain waves (very low in my abdomen and concentrated in the back) made me truly think it was a digestive issue. I found out later – 18 hours later – that it was back labor.

So what would you do if you were moping around the house feeling like something the cat had dragged in and feeling sorry for yourself? I decided to not stew in my misery and get out. So I went to the outlet mall to get Matt a Christmas gift and made plans to meet my friend Chelsea and her little daughter Lilli (who will be my lilly’s best friend whether they like it or not) for lunch at Burger King so we could score ourselves some “Team Edward” crowns in preparation for our trip to see New Moon that weekend. If Edward Cullen could not cheer me up and make me feel better – nothing would. Also, Burger King often gives me, ummmmm “digestive disturba” and I thought that it might solve my “issue” if I had a big fat greasy whopper and some onion rings.

While at the outlets I began to realize that these pain waves were coming about every 30 minutes and were very uncomfortable.

At lunch, my friend Chelsea told me to go home and call my doctor because I was in labor. I laughed at her and thought it was so sweet that she was so worried about me!

"Oh my gosh please do not EVER do that to me again I really really did not like that!"

When I went to pick Molly up at 3:30 that afternoon (after a nap where I woke up every 15 minutes with these darn waves of pain!), my neighbor watched my belly for a few minutes and then reached out and grabbed it and said, “Holy crap – you are totally in labor”. Oh no no I told her – I don’t go into labor! I had a c-section planned in a week and I had no clothes washed and no bag packed so see? I could not be in labor! And besides, I was just really really constipated – thats all!

At 4:15 my neighbor called me to make sure I had called my doctor.

At 4:16 I called my doctor.

When my doc called back and told me to get to labor and delivery to be checked out I was a total brat.

“Do I have to!? How annoying! its so cold there and the TV’s never work and all they will do is put me on a monitor for an hour and then send me home and who will watch my kids? Well fine then, I will go at 6:15 when matt gets home and not a moment sooner and *blah blah blah whine whine whine*”. The nurse was annoyed with me. I IM’d my friend Jamie to complain to her about how I had to go to the hospital and how irritating it was.

"The only thing I like about this kid is putting all his clothes on my head. I do this 24/7. I especially like to take these clothes that I put on my head from all the freshly folded piles of laundry my mom makes."

So I got to the hospital about 6:30 pm and got on a monitor (I brought my own blanket and a book because OF COURSE THE TV WAS BROKEN IN THE ROOM I WAS PUT IN!), and I waited for them to send me home. They had to check me, which was HORRIBLY PAINFUL and noted that while I was effaced and the baby had engaged, I was not dilated at all. SEE!? How could I have been in labor all day if there was no dilation? My doc agreed that it must just be severe constipation then and sent me home. I stopped on the way to buy some prune juice. Then I IM’d Jamie again to brag about how right I had been.

At around 9:00 pm, I was eating 3 PB&J’s (a light snack at 37 weeks pregnant) and noticed the waves of pain were getting REALLY REALLY painful and coming much closer together – like 10 minutes apart now. Oh good right? That must mean that the prune juice is working and this little “issue” would resolve itself soon. Maybe a nice warm shower would help things along?

Guess what – warm water can increase labor and help move it along. Did you know that?

I didn’t.

Kevin looking VERY handsome in the very sweater Lilly had on her head in the photo above.

So by 10:30 pm Matt had begun to quietly set up the bassinet and get a load of baby clothes going and he also began charting my contractions.

“NO MATT they are NOT contractions they are just waves of pain from the constipation!”

And that was when I realized they were 5 minutes apart and that they really really really hurt now. Like I could no longer walk and was kind of starting to cry. And hmmmm… you know what these waves of pain reminded me of? I was in labor for a few hours with Molly during the failed inducement and this felt an awful lot like those contractions and….OH CRAP I AM IN LABOR!

Welcome to the party Kerry.

So we called the neighbor next door who came to sleep on our couch while we went back to the hospital at around 11:00pm. We owe her SO BIG. By 1:30am they had checked me twice more (@$#@#^@#@ horrible pain! its like torture!) only to find that I had still not dilated even a cm, but the baby was way far into position now and there was no stopping this labor. My doc decided to do the c-section immediately and that is how I ended up having Mr. Kevin on November 18th at 2:41am. He was 2.5 weeks before his due date, and he was still a whopping 9 lbs and 20 inches long.

And oh yeah – he was/is perfect

Kevin's first tummy time was attended by Molly and Lilly who were very concerned that he might not like it. But he did great!

The next few hours were hectic. My mom had to find a new flight in the middle of the night to get here as soon as possible, Matt had to go home and tell our surprised family what had happened overnight and get Molly to school and Lilly off to my WONDERFUL friend Julia’s house for the day, and I had to lay in my hospital bed – hemorrhaging. Oh it sounds so dramatic now but it was just a tiny little hemorrhage! However, on top of my already low iron, and on top of the fact that I had just had major surgery and lost a lot of blood that way, it was kind of not the best case scenario. And so here I sit 2 weeks later and now on prescription iron pills – twice a day for the next 2 months – and in the EXACT SAME scenario I was in before I had Kevin. I swear I am so sick of constipation it is not even funny. And the fatigue and forgetfulness from the low iron is complicating things. The little dude better appreciate this, even though he is totally worth it. I would do it a thousand more times to have him

Aren’t you glad I shared all that with you now????

Did I mention this one takes a bottle AND a pacifier!? Such a luxury after Lilly!

C-sections are no fun, but this recovery has been easy compared to my last one which was very painful for some reason. Honestly the hardest part of the whole thing was being away from the girls for 4 days. They could not visit me or their new brother due to the H1N1 craziness, so it was so painful not to see them. And then when I got home Lilly was so upset because I could not hold her. OMG I am not ready to write about that moment yet. One of the worst mommy moments of my life was the look on her face when she came frantically tearing out the door to me when I came home and I could not pick her up. I am seriously misting up even thinking about it. I will carry that little face and how it looked with me for the rest of my life I just know it.

Anyways, all is well that ends well! My mom was here within 24 hours and got things done for me that I had not gotten to before the birth and I may never let her leave. Kevin is a dream come true as I mentioned above. Matt is in love with his longed for son, and Molly is so smitten I fear she may smother the poor kid. And Lilly? Well that is a post for another time…..

"I hope you are ready for me family - because I am only 11 days old and I just rolled over! BOO YAH!!"

Molly’s class did an art project today where they had to make a thought bubble and write inside of it the thing they are most thankful for. When she brought this home I burst into tears (which totally freaked her out LOL). I just think its so amazing how much she can love something that pretty much has turned her whole world upside down.

I am going to frame it and put it in his nursery

just a few minutes old here!

Surprise indeed! Mr. Kevin has been a bit of a surprise his whole existence. First when we found out he was coming (happiest surprise of my whole life!!!), second when we found out he was a boy even though the odds were overwhelming that we would have a 3rd girl and we had started planning for that scenario, and third when he decided to go ahead and come on out a full week before my scheduled c-section.

Today he is 6 days old and doing very well!! I can not wait to sit down and write out the story of his exciting birth. I have a whole new appreciation for c-sections because man labor hurts – especially when you spend the first 12 hours of it convinced you are having digestive issues and refusing to admit the possibility that those “waves of pain” just might be contractions…. but more on that later because I am pretty much nursing 24/7 right now (its going so well thankfully!) and my little piggy has just awoken AGAIN and is trying to latch on to Matt’s shoulder, so I better go!

Here are a few pics of Kevin Charles Clemm, and of course, the stats:

Name: Kevin Charles
Born: 11/18/09
Weight: 9lbs even (making him our SMALLEST baby!)
Length: 20 inches even

Of course.

Matt is a very proud daddy for the third time!

Thank GOD y'all! This one takes a pacifier!!! (and a bottle!)

Its weird now to think of life without him, even though I realize tonight that I was supposed to be prepping for surgery and packing for the hospital right now because he was supposed to have been born tomorrow!

More pics and stories to come – including the girls reaction to him which has been very positive! (Lilly is REALLY mad at me though and it really upsets me even though I was prepared for it. I am still too hormonal to even write about it because I just start crying even thinking about it).

It may have been 80 degrees out the day I did this, but I was COVERED!

Oh how I love my house. I admit it. Its our first house and the minute we pulled into the driveway with the realtor over 4 years ago I fell completely in love with it. I turned around to look at Matt with a HUGE grin on my face. I just loved it right away.

And I still love it. Everyday. But sometimes being a homeowner can kind of suck – like when you have a wasp nest just outside your front door that you have been trying to pretend you don’t see for the last month, but then the darn occupants of said nest start attacking the mail man and you have to actually DEAL WITH IT. UGH.

Look who made themselves right at home above my front door!

Normally insects don’t bother me too much – as long as they stay outside. I have never been the type to scream and freak out when I see them. I am more of the “Let mother nature do its thing” mentality and happily work away planting my flowers while those cute fuzzy kind of bumble bees work on the flowers next to me. I am forever “rescuing” lady bugs from the cat’s fur and letting them free outside. Centipedes kind of creep me out, but I am not above gently trapping them in a container and releasing them somewhere safe as well. The insect kingdom in general really does not bug me much (pun intended) – and good thing because here in my subdivision we have a REAL PROBLEM with wasps and yellow jackets. They can get pretty annoying.

(I admit I have a big problem with spiders, but see, they frequently break the “outside only” rule so what are ya’ gonna do?)

I also happen to be married to a man who is TERRIFIED of anything that flies and stings. Oh he says he is allergic to them because he had one reaction when he was 8 years old or something, but I gotta say – between you and me only of course – that I think he is just plain scared to death of them.

So that is how I seem to have just been given the lovely job of pest control around here. And that is how dealing with the wasp nest outside our front door became the job of this very pregnant woman.

The pictures dotting this post are from attempt number one to get rid of the nest – my non chemical attempt. I thought I was a genius to position a bucket of water right beneath the nest, knock it down with a broom handle so it landed in the bucket, and then run like hell.

Suddenly I am NOT so sure about my brilliant plan....

Thank God matt took no photos of the run like hell part. I am too knocked up to look graceful doing that!

But a week later the little suckers were back, so I ended up spraying them down with agent orange that will cause cancer in my children (or whatever is in that can of stuff) and they have not been back since. Sorry environment – I tried.

It seemed like it worked at the time! Look at the little wasps all floating in there next to their home! MWAH HA HA HA HA!

Of course I should have known the wasps were laughing at me. Oh they let me think I had my victory, but then last week when all the leaves had fallen off the tree out front, we found this:

Its about 6 inches in diameter and has two stories - I am not joking.

Unoccupied thank God. But I bet those little jerks watched me walk by the front door and think how cool I was to have gotten rid of them every day, and had a good laugh at me from their perch high up in that tree.

So from this and other experiences over the last four years, I guess it turns out that home ownership has its eccentricities but I still love it. And I am dedicating this post to my friend Jeralyn and her family who have just bought their first home after the longest most stressful process ever. I am so happy for you guys – you deserve it!

(PS: You don’t even want to know about the hedgehog that was lounging on the front step when I got home the other day – right next to our totally ineffectual and lame cat. I think they are actually friends.)

The (empty) nest has been cut down from the tree and is bagged up tight and on its way to Molly's Kindergarten class tomorrow!

HI! My goodness – almost a month since I last blogged. I think that may be my biggest gap ever. October is always the busiest month – so much to do around here and so many fun fall festivals and activities. And on top of that I am just REALLY tired y’all! Being pregnant with two little kids to chase around is pretty hard it turns out!

So I am always taking pictures of all the mundane everyday things we do and I have lots of random stories and pictures to share, but I thought I would still give all those their own posts as I get to them, and just get one big Halloween themed post out of the way since I know what everyone really wants:

Did you know Wonder Woman and Pooh Bear hang out? I heard they're even facebook friends.

A pic of the girls in their costumes Molly decided to go as Wonder Woman this year which was a nice surprise and required very little work on my part. And Lilly of COURSE went as Pooh Bear! Actually, I have to confess that I was going to dress Lilly up as either a Koala bear (since she is one; riding around on me all day), or as Hillary Clinton. It turns out I could not find a Koala costume that was cute and cuddily like she is (they were all a little creepy actually), and as far as the Hillary idea went, they just DON’T make pant suits small enough to fit her! Darn it all – and I was looking forward to making her say “My husband is not the Secretary of State – I AM!”, at each doorstep.

And I also found that pooh bear costume at a resale for $3.

SOLD!

Here is one of all THREE kids in costume – I could not let “the boy” miss out on all the fun

But besides our obvious dressing up and trick or treating on Halloween, we had a few other fun events this month.

At the beginning of the month, my Mothers and More chapter had its annual Halloween party and it was our chance to try out our costumes for the first time:

An extremely accurate idea of what my whole day with Lilly is like - caught on film.

Dodging bullets with those amazing wrist cuffs! Good thing no one ever seemed to aim anywhere but at Wonder Woman's wrists!

We also enjoyed a day at the annual St. Charles Scare Crow Festival. As you can see Lilly was really feeling the matching shirts I had them in this year:

She threw a pumpkin about 15 feet during this fit. It was impressive.

It was SO COLD this year at this festival! We could only stand it about 40 minutes before we had to leave.

But 40 minutes was enough time for some cider donuts so it was all good!

We were grossly unprepared for the cold - Look at matt wearing two sweatshirts he found in the car!

And of course no October would be complete without the annual Clemm family trip to Sonny Acres Pumpkin Farm:

Lilly, Daddy, and Molly at the pumpkin patch

It was hard to pick out the right pumpkins - they were all kind of blighted.

Girls and some hay

This did not go so well. Lilly would not sit up and wanted me to hold her the whole time so we had to abandon our horse and leave ($3 down the drain!). That is Molly the old pro on the horse behind us!

Molly fell in love with this ugly gourd the minute she saw it and picked it to be her pumpkin. Its still sitting on our front step.

We also hit up the Westmont Autumn Festival with Lizzy and Trisha the weekend before Halloween. At this point in the month, I had lost the Wonder Woman costume (later found, after hours of looking, put in a perfectly reasonable and safe place that made total sense. No wonders I could not find it!), so Molly is dressed as belle at this event. Not that it mattered WHAT we wore that day since it was FREEZING like almost every other day this month. Such a COLD FALL we have had! Its just plain unfair after a long winter and a cool summer!

These three have been friends since they were 15 months old!

I just love Lizzy's stance here. She is totally HBIC and you know it

Cute And they had not seen each other in almost a month!

Matt was kind of disturbingly excited that McGruff the crime dog was going to be at this festival.

On the way home in the car, Lilly is way to busy to waste time unwrapping her candy!

And even though I feel like we got a little jipped out of fall, we were lucky to get a day here or there to play outside in the leaves. Its one of my most favorite things – raking the leaves and jumping in them with the kids. But of course, this year there is not a lot of jumping going on for me while so pregnant, so I got to kind of sit and watch and nail Molly in the face with hidden fistfuls of leaves when she would run by me. Very therapeutic!

WHEE! Fun for Molly!

And a little later on, some fun for Daddy (I hope its funny in hell matt!)

The best pic I got of the two of them in the leaves...

...Because most of the pics came out like this when I tried!

My beautiful Molly Such a big girl now - so mature and sure of herself!

I also had the the very lucky opportunity to help out with Molly’s Halloween party at school. It was SO FUN. I love going to her class – I wish I could go every day! The kids are so cute!! But I do have to say, it turns out I am getting way to pregnant for this stuff. I had been running errands all morning, did not eat or drink much, and had Lilly with me during the party because the babysitter did not show up. So when I left the school, I was having contractions and came home and threw up and had more contractions for about 3 hours. I had to ship Molly off to a neighbor and lay in my bed watching baby Einstein videos (and listen – I don’t care if they make my kid smarter or not – they keep her quiet!) with Lilly while I drank lots of water and ate salty pretzels to get the little boy to calm down. Sorry baby! Message received – Its time to slow down and rest more!

Decorating Trick or Treat bags!

Playing "pin the nose on the pumpkin". We did not have a blindfold so we told the kids to use the honor system and close their eyes. Trust me - there was not a lot of honor going on this day!!

Wrapping up Mrs. Chernick (who is a very good sport) as a Mummy!

Molly and her good buddy Libby making a spider web!

And last but not least, a few more pics of the BIG night – Halloween and trick or treating! Lilly held on longer than I thought she would – she did about 10 houses and kept her hood on almost the whole time which surprised me. But you don’t have to be very big to understand that people are giving you FREE CANDY and you better take full advantage of it!

Wonder Woman skippin' on down the road to get some candy!

The Diva's getting carted around in style by their daddy!

Lilly trying to keep up with her big sister!

Edward Cullen came trick or treating to my house and was nice enough to take a picture with me (this seems to have embarrassed Lilly ha ha), thanks to our teenager baby sitter who is aware of my Twilight obsession.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you: Lilly's first ever peanut butter cup. She is obviously in total bliss here - almost coma-like.

For today, Lilly has taken over the writing of my blog…..

“okay so listen right? I mean its a super rainy day and me and mommy have nowhere we have to go (at least after coming home from that HORRIBLE target place where I just refuse to be happy even if they give me free cookies), so I just want to chillax and veg-out you know? So I mean what better way to do that than be naked? There is just nothing more comfy than being naked. I think the best part really, is just getting to scratch at my bottom the minute that diaper comes off because I NEVER have access to it and it just plain itches a lot you know what I mean??? Have you ever WORN a diaper? Mom says we don’t have to change it every time I wet it because it has this “absorbent core” they talk about on the package. Whatever that is. But the bottom line is that absorbent or not, it still kind of itches to sit around in a sort of wet diaper all day and now that I have figured out how to take it off myself, I can just scratch to my heart’s content – as long as I can get my pants off first. AHHHHhhhhh”.

“But the problem here, is that this nudity thing seems to be one of those things my mommy really gets a bee in her bonnet about. I really have to work hard to get myself into this naked state, and when I finally succeed at it I have to make sure I stay JUST out of arms reach of her (which has gotten easier because I don’t want to be rude but the woman has just gotten plain FAT lately and it seems to have really slowed her down) or else she forces me back into those horrible things called “clothes” and she especially makes me wear the kind that have these dreaded things called “sleeves”. UGH I HATE SLEEVES! You all feel me on this right? I can’t be alone here…”

“But you know what I do love? I LOVE LOVE LOVE these white shoes that I always see in the back of my closet. They are the cutest! They are so clean and have pretty laces. I really want to wear them and so every time I come across them (and I find them in the weirdest places by the way – almost as if my mommy is intentionally trying to hide them from me), I BEG her to put them on me. But, you know how mommys are am I right? I mean I love mine so much that I never want to leave her side (like ever. I mean EVER), but if you will allow me a minute to complain, she says no to the weirdest things! Why do moms care if you put your finger up the cats nose, or plan to eat only cookies all day? Why is it bad to put my mouth on the shopping cart handle? I just don’t get all that, but anyways she says no to these shoes EVERY TIME I ASK – something about them being “2 sizes too big” or something. Whatever that means.”

“Anyways, this morning I worked for a good 20 minutes to get all my clothes and diaper off, and Mommy must be in a really good mood because she said to me, “you know what kid? You worked so hard for that I don’t have the heart to put your clothes back on you so live it up for awhile until I have to get in the shower”. Then when I brought her the shoes again (cautiously, because I am not sure I trust that she does not have something with sleeves hiding behind her back and this is all just a trick), she said “really? you want to wear JUST shoes? well okay then – its your party!”, and she actually put them on me and tied them for me!!! I was SO EXCITED! I will have to approach her more to ask for things when she is on her hands and knees using that loud vacuum thing to get Molly’s pixos off the carpet, “for the millionth freaking time and I am never buying these again,” as she said. Whatever that means.”

“So of course the main thing I wanted to do while having my naked day of pretty shoes and relaxation is brush my teeth. I LOVE to brush my teeth. My toothpaste tastes really good and you know my Dad is English right? So I have to really be on top of my dental care. I brushed my teeth 4 times this morning because its that important you know.”

“So anyways, eventually mommy had to get in the shower and she told me I had to put a diaper on because I have not pooped in awhile. That’s unfair. I can’t help that! I just really like bananas okay? And I recently starting eating cheese. And both of those things are really binding you know? But whatever, the old lady was being such a peach about letting me wear the shoes that I decided to go ahead and be good about the diaper and just lounge on her bed to watch Dora and read my elmo books and brush my teeth some more while she took her shower. Now on a side note about that shower thing – again I do NOT want to sound like a complainer because I love her so much, but maybe she should do this showering thing a little more often. I’M JUST SAYIN’!!! The funny thing is, I have heard her tell people that she can’t do it as much as she would like because it has something to with me always using the cat bowl to scoop water out of the toilet and pour it on the floor AND some of my other awesome science experiments I entertain myself with while I am waiting for her to get out. Personally, I don’t get the connection but whatever.”

ahhhhh. Fridays are just so relaxing aren't they?

“So that is my story about my naked day of pretty shoes and relaxation. Alas, all good things must come to an end (or so my mommy told me after she tracked me down and put some clothes on me). I totally got the last laugh though because I found some really pretty shoes to wear and my mom seemed bothered that they did not match. See what I mean about her worrying about the weirdest things? They are both sparkly and pretty so WHO CARES? And I don’t want to be a complainer again, but did you notice she put me in TWO things that have sleeves!??? WHAT IS UP WITH THAT!?? She said it had something to do with the fact that its only 45 degrees out today. Whatever that means.”

“Well anyways, its been great chattin’ and I hate to blog and run, but I need to catch up with the latest episode of Mad Men before me and pooh bear head up to bed. So I’ll just talk ta y’alls later! “

- Lilly

Typical of the floor in Molly's room. I am forever tripping over books books books!

I always joke that Molly was born with a book in her hand. She LOVES books and always has. We read to her from day 1 (which I wish I could use to take credit for her success in reading, but the truth is we have done nothing different with Lilly and she could care less about books). As a baby and toddler, Molly never really attached to any sort of lovey. She just ALWAYS carried a book with her. Everywhere we went, every night in bed, etc.. she had at least one book with her. Sometimes she would sit on the couch buried in books and yell, “MORE BOOKS MOMMA! I NEED MORE BOOKS!”. And when absolutely nothing else worked when we went through the terrible twos, the big turning point in this house was the day we got so fed up with her behavior that we took every single one of her books away and made her earn them back one by one (and then eventually 5 at a time because I was just so sick of all these piles of books on top of every high surface in the house!).

Now, at the age of about 2.5, Molly came downstairs one morning and sat down in front of her bookcase (which she has EVERY morning from the time she could scoot up until now), opened up “That’s not my Puppy”, and said, “GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! i still can not READ THIS MOMMA! WHEN WILL I BE ABLE TO READ!?”, to which my response was, “oh my – maybe in like 4 years?”, at which point she burst into tears and begged me to teach her.

Teach? SURE! I love to teach things! And really – how hard can it be to teach a kid to read right? Especially a really motivated one? There have been many times over the years when I considered going into teaching. I come from a long line of teachers and was always a tutor and still enjoy tutoring all the neighborhood kids when/where I can help. The best part of having kids for me has been teaching them concepts and watching how they apply them to their world and discover things. Its just fascinating to me. So I assumed this would be a cake walk.

She even takes them into the bathroom while she's doin' her bizness, and we of course have many many plastic books for the bath tub as well.

So for 2.5 years I tried so hard to help her. I taught her her alphabet, checked out special books to help her with phonics, attended a class at the library for parents of emerging readers, wrote her stories and poems using only the words she knows to encourage her, got tons of writing sheets off the internet, etc… and we made LOTS of progress for sure. Molly has been memorizing words and figuring out sentences through the context of the photos they are near for quite awhile, but the actual process of READING – of sounding out words longer than 3 or 4 letters and understanding the flow of sentence structure, has eluded us. I just assumed it was an age thing. I kept reminding her, “for goodness sakes child you are only 3!” (and then 4 and then 5)!”, etc.. and she would just glare at me and ask if we could “hire a professional”. Gee, thanks kid.

But I am feeling today like maybe Molly is right and maybe teaching is something it turns out I suck at and I will tell you why. Last night I walked in to say goodnight to Molly only to find her with the book she had just checked out of the school library that day (called, “The Crying Princess”), open across her lap while she read each and every word. Whole sentences! Multiple sentences per page! Sounding out the big long words ALL BY HERSELF! She then read me the book from cover to cover. I cried I was so proud and she was so proud of herself she was literally GLOWING from the inside. She fell asleep hugging that book.

I tried for 2.5 years to teach that kid to read. That school has had her for what boils down to just 30 days in the classroom. And yet there she is – off and running all by herself. Looks like early childhood education is out as a career path for me LOL!

Can you believe it though? My big girl is READING! I just am so proud and just SO THRILLED for her. What a world opens up when you can sit and really enjoy a good book on your own – am I right?

No Lilly – I mean enjoy READING a book – not eating it. SIGH.

The big girl and her big girl book. Look how proud she is

Only 3 candles on the cake. That was nice of them

So I turned 33 today (or “turty twee” as Lilly says it). Its funny how birthdays are not really a big deal once you get older. There was a time I looked so forward to the presents and being the center of attention! But this year I just really wanted to go on a date ALONE with my husband and not have to change any dirty diapers (I mean on my birthday – not on the date because that would be just weird but you know what I meant right?). I also asked for good behavior from the girls, and lots of cuddles.

Matt went above and beyond though as he always does. He got me breakfast at McDonalds and brought it to me in bed, had lots of gifts waiting for me once I got up (which he was not supposed to do because my replacement ipod for the one that was stolen this summer was supposed to be my birthday present!), and he took the girls all day so I could read, nap, eat without anyone screaming in my ear, etc… Then I would just call for them periodically as I needed a cuddle or a snuggle from them and send them back to him and go back to my book We had dinner at Sweet Tomatoes because we are a very fancy family you know, and Lilly ate her weight in their macaroni and cheese and cantaloupe slices which was nice to see since she wont eat anything here at home. I also got a lot of very precious home made cards from Molly and her friends in the neighborhood (6 year old Sean handed me a picture of a rainbow and eyeballs that he drew and told me he would have written me a letter and put a dollar in it if I had given him more notice. How freaking cute is that!??). Oh! And to cap it all off, we got a WICKED thunder storm in here that night which is my FAVORITE! I really can not think of anything else that could have made the day better – it was perfect!

"I suggest you back away from my cake. Slowly."

"This is my 2nd piece of cake this weekend! Also, I ate two cider donuts yesterday, had Mcdonald's for breakfast and had ice cream at Sweet Tomatoes. My parents are fabulous at this saying "no" thing!"

And as for my two big requests I mentioned above (adults only date, no poop): On Saturday night we saw a movie while his parents baby sat because they happen to be in town this weekend. So that was nice! We saw District 9 by the way, and while it was very good, I have to say it was quite depressing. It has a very thinly veiled social criticism of apartheid in Africa. This was REALLY random – especially when you are expecting an action movie about aliens – but oh so true and oh so depressing. It was powerful though.



And as far as the poop goes, I have to really give Matt big points here. Lilly had a lot of apples the day before at the orchard and was a bit, ummmmm, “plugged up” so Sunday’s diaper was a doozy indeed. And once I noticed it and saw what was in there, I went straight out into the front yard to flag Matt down WHILE HE WAS MOWING THE LAWN to ask him to come take care of it since it was supposed to be my poop free day. I have to say, a lot of husbands would have said, “Are you kidding me right now? I am mowing the lawn here while you are sitting and reading the paper!”, but he came bouncing right in and had Lilly happily back playing in a freshy in no time. Sometimes he is pretty dreamy

BEST part of my birthday!!!!

So I am now Turty Twee and life is good! Thanks for all the love on facebook and all the calls and all the emails. My goodness I am SO SPOILED!!!

The four of us on the hay ride. Molly did not like the hay as you can tell. She said it was gross and itchy.

Grandma and Grandpa Clemm are in town this weekend and we are always looking for fun things to do when they come that they can not necessarily do in California. This way they get the full mid west experience.

So on Saturday we decided to go apple picking! I have done this a few times before in the fall here – with Molly’s playgroup – and its SO FUN! There is just something about that fresh air, and seeing where our food grows and comes from! Oh – and of course gorging yourself on apples.



And there are also apple cider donuts.

I had four.

nuf’ said.

On this day, I forgot my memory card for my camera, which for some people is kind of like leaving the house without a leg. I only have room on my internal memory for about 6 pictures. My father in law got some pictures as well and I will update this post with some of his if he sends them to me (this is a big hint Carl lol).

We had a really fun time! (After Matt and I got over hating each other for our argument over the directions anyways). So enjoy the following few pics I was able to get!

Ready to commence picking! And in a special apple picking themed outfit of course What if we adults chose our outfits every day to match the activity on our calendars? Wouldn't that be kind of fun? Molly always puts a lot of thought into these things.

"Look - I can not really reach the trees okay? So unless you want me eating the rotten ones off the ground (which I will do you know), then I suggest we do it this way: You pick, I eat. Any questions?"

Both girls together (thats Grandpa Clemm in the background there!)

Seriously, I think we all ate MORE than enough apples while we were out there. I know I had 3 or 4. Matt ate SO many I lost count - at least 6.

Me with both of my girls You can see Molly's acceptance of the hay did not get any better as the day went on.

And last but not least:

Seriously, I am not sure WHAT to make of this? We came home with about a peck of apples but these few are the chosen favorites of Matt and are not to be touched by ANYONE per the man himself. This makes me laugh because I can not imagine why he would even want any apples right now considering the amount of discomfort he has experienced over the last 48 hours due to how many he ate out in that orchard!

Awwwww - she is so cute I just can not stand it sometimes!!! (and her shirt very appropriately says "Cute but Crabby")

Yeah but see what I mean here? This was her 15 minutes later after feeding herself her own yogurt.

Recently, we have entered that “so this is why God made toddlers so darn cute” phase. Its a very mischievous and disgusting time in a child’s life. There is lots of mess, lots of dirt, LOTS of attitude and lots of dipping our popsicle into a tub of sand and licking it (that’s a fun diaper the next day – let me tell you). Lilly does not seem to care if her nose runs all the way down to her toes and screams like I am personally destroying her if I make her stop playing long enough to change a dirty diaper. But on the flip side, it sure is cute watching her explore, seeing her reactions to things (guess what? That sand dipped popsicle does NOT taste so good after all), and watching her really learning to use her spoon and fork. She certainly does NOT like the word no and thinks she knows best, so as a general rule I sit back and allow her to learn some lessons the hard way – but ALWAYS with the camera good and ready. So here is a recent collection of Lilly’s finer moments posted for your entertainment (and my revenge):

Molly left a bottle of blue nail polish on the stairs. Lilly got the top off and drank some (as you can see on her lips) which resulted in my 3rd call to poison control this summer. She also got some on her jacket, and you can't see it because she is standing on top of it, but my stairs are now blue as well. I was carrying in the groceries in case you were wondering.

"Did you say you were looking for these batteries mom?"

Far be it from me to criticize, but if I was going to go as far as taking the package of cookies out of the gracery bag and going around the corner to open them so mommy would not hear me, I would NOT then bring that hard earned cookie back into the room my mommy is in to eat it. But that's just me I guess.

I mean really. Its just disgusting. Who is supposed to be caring for this little girl anyways!?

"I like to do this lately - aren't I cute? The world is neat upside down! Though my mom does not seem to think its so neat when I do it in a public restroom or in the sand box at the park"

I momentarily forgot that it is not really worth it to go to the bathroom anymore. 30 seconds is all I was gone and while I was in there I was even thinking, "Oh thank God she is not trying crawl into my lap for a change". I should have known.

We really can not figure out why she insists on holding the fork while she does this, but you do NOT want to try and take it away from her. trust me.

"you think you're so smart this time mom? Well I hope someone makes YOU sit on plastic on a humid day without any clothes on - then tell me how smart you feel!"

Also, the following sequence is a daily occurrence around here these days:

"oh MY! What a lovely tower of blocks you have built! You must have spent a long time on that!"

"But I will CRUSH IT! just like I will crush any hopes you might have of rebuilding it! MWAH HA HA HA HA HA!"

"And you have no choice but to forgive me because I am so darn cute. Admit it! "

And one more – because even though she has her moments, she DOES try to pitch in and help where she can

"I'm helping! Just stay out of my way when I turn around because I don't really have much control over the top foot or two of this broom handle...."