Spring has sprung and sprouted a newly redecorated bathroom

The towels that Grandma embroidered. Will insists that his "owl towel" (as they've come to be known) has one owl and one bird. Little does he know that an owl is a bird...

The main part of the bathroom. The new shower curtain that inspired the new paint color and new decorations. Gotta love Target! Some of you may be saying "I thought that bathroom was already green?" Well......it was. I just painted it a better shade of green. A little brighter and yellower. Much better.

Sorry for the late update. Last week was spring break and we had a fun filled and busy week. So, that is really my only excuse.....

Even though I was off from school, the kids still had preschool (which was a great bonus for me!). So, I got lots of errands taken care of and the kids had fun at preschool. The weather was great early last week, so we spent a ton of time outside on Monday and Tuesday. We hit 2 parks on Monday and a bike ride in the evening. We got to play with Sebastian a little on Tuesday, then Wednesday was off to Grandma Ellen's as usual. While the kids were at Grandma's, I took that opportunity to repaint the hall bathroom. I got it all painted in one afternoon, although, I will say that painting a bathroom is a huge pain. Painting around the toilet, shower and mirror is not fun. But, I did get everything done, cleaned up and put back together. Thanks Ellen for doing the new towels and watching the kids for me! Thursday, we had a nice lunch with Aunt Lisa, the boys and all our girlfriends. Friday was a great day (for me, especially). It started with a quick trip to the dentist (Grandpa Mike's office). The kids had checkups and did great and their teeth are fine. Then, Grandma Pam took them to her house for the day and I went to a scrapbook convention at the Event Center with Aunt Lisa, some multiples club friends and some of Aunt Lisa's friends. It was a great time. We scrapbooked all day Friday and Saturday. I don't know if I got as much done as I would have liked, but it was sure a fun time!

Grace did develop a sinus infection from her cold that never went away. I took her in on Thursday afternoon last week and she has happily improved on some antibiotics. Will had a pretty bad bout with his asthma last week. Sunday, he started coughing a lot and really never stopped. His treatments that were supposed to last 4 hours were only last 2, if that. We gave him a treatment that afternoon at 4:45, 6:45, 8:45 and 11:45 and he was just coughing his brains out. Couldn't sleep (no one could sleep) and he was just miserable. I was pretty close to taking him to the emergency room for a shot of steroids. Fortunately, he finally calmed down around midnight and lasted until 4:45 when I got him up and gave him another treatment, then he slept until morning. I called the asthma doctor that morning and they gave him oral steroids and an appointment for the next day. He thankfully got a lot better that day and we only got up once for the treatments the next 2 nights. I had been hoping we would make it a full year with no oral steroids (his last dose was last May!) but we didn't quite make it. Although, I think 10 months is pretty good. It would seem he is pretty under control. That same virus that gave Grace a sinus infection and Will the asthma attack also kept Brian under the weather for 2 weeks. It was pretty nasty!

I can happily say that our behaviors have improved somewhat around the house. As I reread my last post I realized how negative it sounded. That was because it was how I was feeling. I really was upset, angry and tired of the way they were acting. So, once I changed my attitude, I think things got a little better. We are still not totally there yet, we still have many time-outs in a day and lots of little problems, but overall, things are better. Grace especially has gotten better. It is still a huge battle (everyday) to get her hair and teeth brushed. I don't know why she chooses to fight over those, but she does. She even voluntarily makes her bed everyday!

Xander is another story. Boy, is that boy stubborn! He just has a one track mind and will focus on one thing and not let it go. Example: We had a jello salad for dinner on Thursday. He wanted a second helping. We told him when the piece of zucchini on his plate was gone (2 bites) he could have more jello. He absolutely did not want to eat that zucchini and he just kept pointing at the jello and saying "jello?" in his best baby voice. After a bout 3 minutes of this, we told him for the last time that he wouldn't get anymore jello until the vegetable was gone. He kept crying and baby talking. So, we just got up, cleaned up dinner and that was that. It would have been so easy for him to gulp down the piece of zucchini and get the coveted jello, but he had to be stubborn about it. I think he cried for 15 minutes about no jello. Will listens pretty well most of the time. He has occassional bouts of time when he will just purposely lay around and not do what you ask him. One time out usually does the trick for that.

A couple of funny things from Will's mouth:

(When Xander is crying over jello at dinner)
Will: For the love of Pete, Xander!
Couldn't have said it better ourselves, Will!

He woke up crying early this morning. Later I asked him why he was crying.
Me: Will, why were you crying this morning? Did you have a bad dream? Were you scared?
Will: I don't know. I don't have an answer.

They read a book about a girl finding oil in the ground. Will asked what oil was and Brian explained that people used it to make gas to run cars. I got gas in the van today and as we were pulling away Will said "Oil turns people into gas to run our cars". Not quite right. I said "I think you mean that people turn oil into gas." He cracks me up!

And the best one.....

The boys were on my bed acting out the scene from Lion King where Scar and Simba fight ont he cliff at the end. Xander was Simba and Will was Scar. Xander was hanging over the edge of the bed and Will had his hands over him and was pretenting to throw him down like Scar does. Then, Xander jumps back up and begins to fight Will (like Simba does). Xander tackled Will and they started rolling around. Will yells "I'm jealous of you Simba." I started dying lauging, which made them stop playing to see what I was laughing about. It was so funny to me, because Scar never directly says that to Simba but that's exactly what he was. He was jealous and wanted to be king. I don't know where Will comes up with these things! By the way, I keep trying to remember when Xander or Grace says something funny, but they never seem to come up with quite as funny of things as Will does. I'll try harder to get funny Xander or Grace stories in here soon.

So, that's about it (thankfully, right?) That was a huge post. Sorry about that. I'll do better next week (meaning, I'll make it shorter next week). Enjoy spring and Happy Easter everyone!