Photos of the cutest cubs in the world!

Signal to let Mom know it's time for a diaper change:


Woe is me:


Watching for Daddy:


Daddy's home!!:


I know it's fuzzy, but too cute to not post:


Our little work-horse:


Suffering from cabin fever and wanting to be outdoors:


Our precious little man:


Our future meteorologist. Zach LOVES watching the weather reports:


Rather than using her fork Emily has opted for the full hand-shove technique at lunch time:


So sweet and handsome too!:


He fell asleep in Mommy's arms. I cherish these moments!:


A rare moment. Emily Bear snuggling with Mommy for a little nap:


She even put her arm around my neck! These moments don't happen often enough!:

We are homeless and we're happy about it....temporarily.

What a week. We are officially homeless....or between homes...or apartment dwellers, not sure which term I feel like picking today. We closed on the old house on Wednesday. What a relief to have that over with. We definitely know how lucky we are that we found a buyer and at the perfect time. They could have easily bought a newer house for less money in our neighborhood, so we are counting our blessings. That night I treated myself to a celebratory margarita at Mi Pueblo with some friends. We jokingly call it our "scrapbooking meeting". Ironically because none of us scrapbook, but it was brought up in conversation and just stuck. So now I tell Steve I have a scrapbook meeting to attend and he just rolls his eyes at me.

It finally started raining on Wednesday afternoon, several days after my knees began to let me know that it would be raining soon. Stupid knees. They are great indicators of a weather change, much to my dismay. I'm too stubborn to see a Doctor for it even at Grandma Bear's constant urging (I love you Mom!). I'll try to squeeze it in between later and never.

Zach had a therapy appointment on Thursday. Although it went much better this week I am still a bit aggravated by the whole thing. I had to take Emily with me but this time I was smart enough to put them in their stroller. I was determined to keep them contained. I even fed Zach in the stroller which is the main reason I think this session went better. He didn't have to sit in that little wooden chair which automatically induces a thirty minute screaming session. I was most irritated with the fact that while I was feeding Zach, the therapist was busy playing with Emily. HELLO!!!!! I'm here to get help with Zach!!! Emily was perfectly fine playing with her toys on her side of the stroller, she didn't need to be entertained. UGH. This morning I called the ECI program in Denton County. The therapist comes to your home so that the child is in his own surroundings and I have a feeling that will work much better for us. Plus it's a flat monthly cost share based on our income so it will actually be cheaper than paying our $40 copay for each visit.

Our Thursday play date was cancelled due to the weather. It was supposed to be at a park that I have not been to yet, but word has it that it is gated so it would be a little safer for the cubs to run around and easier for me to keep an eye on them. I'm looking forward to trying it out as soon as the weather improves.

Steve brought home a rhinovirus this week. Isn't it nice of him to share with the rest of the family? It's either that or allergies, but I have been mopping up noses for the last day and a half. I'm feeling pretty lousy myself. I declared today a PJ day and the cubs and I remained in our jammies most of the day. We were stuck inside due to the crummy weather (what happened to our 70 degree temps from last week??) and the runny noses anyway.

Emily now calls for Zach by yelling "ACK". When I tell her to go get her brother, she turns and yells "ACK". NICE! She also repeats me when I say "uh oh" except she's a little lazy with it and it comes out "uh uh". Close enough I guess. For now anyway. Good thing she's cute.

Steve is supposed to work both days this weekend (of course) so we have nothing planned. We are supposed to do our final walk-through for the new house on Monday so I'm looking forward to that. It just puts us that much closer to moving day!

Parenting classes

I am not too proud to admit that I have signed up for parenting classes. They start on April 6th and are on Mondays for 8 weeks. You may be thinking that with my little angels how could I possibly need parenting classes?!...HA! Let's see which of the sessions I need most....

Session 1: Handling Misbehavior Without Breaking a Sweat (This one runs a very close second.)
Session 2: Teaching Kids to Listen...the First Time (Ding Ding Ding...we have a winner!)
Session 3: Avoiding Power Struggles
Session 4: Limits Create Happier Parents, Happier Kids, and Happier Families
Session 5: What to Do When Your Kids Leave you Speechless

I'm looking forward to learning new tactics for dealing with the cubs' temper tantrums and selective hearing. Best of all, it's free! Where do I sign up???

Things that happened in between fevers....

Tuesday night was my monthly LCMOM meeting. We had dinner and a white elephant gift exchange. I always enjoy getting out for an evening. The Doctor had given the "all clear" for Zach to attend his therapy session on Thursday even though he still had the lingering fever. She said as long as he wasn't exhibiting any other symptoms it should be ok. One of the moms from my LCMOM group graciously invited Emily over to her house while I took Zach to his appointment. Emily played with Kim's boys, Nathan and James, while I sat with Zach in his therapy room while he screamed at the top of his lungs for 30 minutes. Emily obviously got the better end of the deal. This was the worst session yet. Last week he managed to eat his yogurt in the middle of all the screaming. This week was nothing but screaming. Except he would stop screaming if you put a toy on the table. Of course afterwards he ate his yogurt up in the car without any problem. So frustrating. On Thursday night I went to dinner with the girls from THC. We went to Rio Mambo for mexican food and a nice strong Margarita. A desperately needed Margarita after that therapy session. My dear friend Debbie invited us over for lunch on Friday. She took time off for the week because her daughter was out of school for Spring Break. Sydney is seven and just the most beautiful little girl...Debbie is going to have her hands full when those boys start knocking on the door. We spent most of our visit outside. I'm glad it was pretty outside because I was very nervous that the cubs would break something if we stayed inside. The cubs are very curious and have to touch everything. On Friday evening we took the cubs to the Cotton Patch for dinner. It is pretty loud there and even with all the noise I think Zach's squeals were still the loudest. He loves to hear his echo even when the rest of us don't love it so much. Matt and Beth Ann came over on Saturday. It has been too long since we saw them last. We all went over to the old house together for one last look. It was a bit sad. I remember being so excited when we first bought the house and now I am so excited to sell it. I actually gave my keys and garage door opener to Steve today so he could give them to our realtor for closing. Closing is scheduled for 1:00 on Wednesday. Zach did impress me this weekend by trying some new foods. He ate a Pringle potato chip. It sounds silly to blog about that, but it really is huge for him. It was only one half of a chip and it took about 10 minutes, but he ate it on his own and that's all that matters to me. On Sunday he actually put a Mum-Mum (a rice cracker...Emily loves them) in his mouth. He didn't really eat any of it, but he put it in his mouth numerous times. Even Steve had to admit that it was exciting to see him do this. We had Taco Bueno for lunch on Sunday and Zach gobbled up his refried beans. I even added some sour cream just for the added calories. Last night I made chicken with pasta for dinner and he tried some of the pasta too. He has learned to push things out with his tongue if he doesn't like it. This is huge progress because before he would try to swallow it, gag, and throw up everything. I'd much rather he spit it out than throw it (and everything else) up.

Saturday Monday night fever

Last Monday evening Zach came down with "the fever". "The fever" was 103.4 when we called the on-call Doctor. Our instructions were to continue medicating him and call in the morning for an appointment if the fever persisted. Zach was extremely fussy. He wanted to be held, but when I held him he would squirm and was never able to get comfortable. So I'd put him down and he'd cry to be held again. Tuesday morning "the fever" was still here, so I called and was told that our Pedi was out for the day. Not a big deal except none of the other Doctors in the office accept our insurance (BOO...HISS!!). Our options were to take him to the urgent care clinic (No thanks) or wait until Wednesday morning. After our last urgent care experience I decided that we would wait for a Wednesday morning appointment with Zach's favorite pediatrician. Tuesday afternoon I thought "the fever" had finally broken. His temp was down and he was playing like it was any normal day. We decided that if "the fever" stayed away, we would just cancel our appointment, but on Wednesday morning "the fever" was back up to 102.2. Just great. I loaded the cubs up and headed for the Doctor's office. The fussiness was back. He screamed when we tried to get his weight and when the Nurse tried to take his temperature. Our Doctor came in and checked his ears, nose, throat, and listened to his chest and said that she couldn't find any reason for his fever. I thought maybe it was due to his teething, but she said it would be very unusual for his fever to get that high from just teething...there had to be something else going on. She decided to do some lab work. This was my first experience with Zach getting his blood drawn. Steve always handles this, but I guess I forgot to mention that I was by myself with both Emily and Zachary, and this was not going to be fun. The following five minutes seemed like five hours but she finally got what she needed from Zach's poor finger. The results came in that afternoon....everything was perfectly normal. However, we still had "the fever". We had "the fever" on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. By Saturday morning "the fever" had finally broken. FINALLY. No more waking up in the middle of the night to give him medications. And then, when I thought all was good, on Saturday Emily screamed and cried all night with "THE FEVER". UGH!!!!!

Our little exhibitionist.

I put Emily in a casual little dress this morning. Isn't she adorable?



Apparently she didn't like it too much, because during her "naptime" she unsuccessfully tried to take it off.


I'm sure you'll also note her cheesy grin. Every time I aim the camera at her, she squints her eyes (I guess she's anticipating the flash), gives me her toothiest grin, and says "eeeee". She drops everything to give me this look. I'd rather catch her regular and much cuter expressions, but all I'm able to capture is her "eeee" face.

New casa progress

Every Monday the builders call to give us a report on what's happening at the new casa. They usually call Steve but he's been so busy at work that we have asked them to call me instead. Today's report was full of all the little punch-list items that need to be taken care of. The big news is the carpet is being installed on Friday. The carpenters will be working on trim details and the painters will be in this week. Our final walk-through is tentatively scheduled for the afternoon of March 30th. The best news of all: we are still on target for our April 3rd closing date! Woo Hoo!