A bunch of nothing!

I hadn't posted in a while so I thought I would give it a shot! Yesterday was very chaotic and today is a lot calmer, so I feel like I have a minute to post something. I had to babysit the little 18-month old boy from church yesterday. I need to tell her that I can't do it anymore, but I know she's having a hard time finding anyone else so it makes it harder. Right when he gets here, my kids morph into terrors. Ema and Eli want to play with him, but if they get too close, he slaps them in the face. Elena seems to be jealous of him and will take anything away from him and clamor for my attention. So from 10-6, I feel like I just say "don't do that, don't hit, get out of his face, you can go potty by yourself, don't eat that dried up piece of macaroni you found on the floor." (That last one was to Dalton who finds anything that you don't want him to, and tries to eat it.) Yesterday was a little better than most of my days with him because Ema actually took a "nap" for me. I don't try to make her go to sleep anymore, but she has to stay in her room and rest, coloring or whatever. She started cutting out pieces of different pictures and making a new picture out of it which I thought was very creative and cute. She only called to me a couple of times because the glue was coming out too fast and even when she called me, she wasn't too loud and then waited patiently for me to come in. I was so proud of her. So I got payroll done, and some other things picked up, and then went and played dolls with her while the others still slept. I always need a few minutes in the day where I can have some quiet time away from the kids, even when I'm working on something. It makes my mood much better.

I was also very proud of Eli because he ate his dinner so well last night. I made some of that wacky pasta and added hamburger and sauce, and green beans on the side. Eli fed himself-nobody had to jam it in his mouth-and he didn't cry and throw a fit. He ate his whole or most of the portion of green beans and probably 7 bites of the pasta mix. Then he got some jello. I know this doesn't sound like much, but we have made big strides since I starved him last Tuesday. He could only drink water and eat the supper that he didn't eat the night before. He slept for 4 hours that day because he was upset, and finally at 4:00, he ate the warmed and cooled, warmed and cooled, then warmed up supper! Last night, he wasn't real enthusiastic about chewing the food, but Daniel is a great encourager and Eli really likes to please him.

After supper, my body was aching so bad that I asked Daniel if he would help the kids clean their rooms while I took a bath. He gave me one of his "that's good for you" smile looks, but he let me anyway. I felt SO much better and the bedrooms were mostly picked up when I was done. Ema likes to have "help" so I pointed out the things that are hard to see, like the cards strung out on the floor, and the toys that had climbed out of the toy box.

So today I am staying in again for most of the day anyway to try and get my laundry done. I've got so much that I could pile it up and the kids could jump in it, but we won't today! Sorry I can't give you all anything more exciting, but this is my life! Tomorrow will be our "going out" day because I'm going to get so much done today! The free kids movie is "The Waterhorse" so we are going to meet some friends there. Then our 4D ultrasound is in the afternoon. I'd kind of like the kids to go with us, but I don't know how many they let in. They love to feel the baby move and Elena likes to "take it out" of my belly button and hold it in her hand. I tell her it's too tiny, so she'll have to put it back and let it grow some more. I'm sure she's thinking like everyone else, "how can it mom, you're hUGE. (The silent H thing is for Shellie!) Oh-one more quick thing. I was talking to Ema the other day about one of our spats. I was having to physically move her and put her on the bed over and over. So afterwards we were clearing the air and I told her as a sidenote that she weighs 60 pounds plus this big belly adds 25 pounds so it is too hard on me for her to be acting that way. She looked at me real skeptically and said, "that baby can not weigh 25 pounds." She wasn't challenging what I was saying, she just couldn't imagine a 25 pound baby. I just thought it was kind of funny. Elena keeps turning my chair around which really annoys me, so I better go!

Your opinions

I just wanted to see what everyone thought about this subject. We are still trying to figure out names for the new baby. It's not consuming our every thoughts or anything-just a nagging, we-need-to-get-that-done kind of thing. First of all, I'm a little irritated that we have gone with the whole E thing because it's hard to find something that works all together. We didn't intend to have all E's. When I was pregnant with Eli, we had the name Elena picked out for a girl and something else for the boy. But that didn't work out and we ended up with Eli. Then we still really liked Elena so now we have all E's. Here is the main problem though. After Elena was born, Shellie was so kind and insightful to point this out! We have Ema Cheri, Eli Douglas, and Elena Elyse. EC, ED, & EE which was completely unplanned. So the question is, should we continue with this and use the initials EF for the next one. I think it's kind of neat, but at the same time, no one will really know unless we point it out. Plus it's hard to find a good E and F name. But I don't want someday to be saying "well we did have EC, ED, & EE but then EJ came along...." and have that one feel like they messed it up or something. Maybe that is over-thinking it, but you never know. So what does everyone else think? If you'd like to contribute ideas for E names as well, you can and they will be considered!

The other thing is-I'm feeling totally overwhelmed with my tasks now and the task ahead of me (raising four children) and I feel like my head is not screwed on straight much of the time. So the other day I was thinking maybe a palm pilot would help me to be a little better organized. I am a crazy to-do-list maker. I just have to see things. I would also like to use it for things like grocery lists, budget and money type things. I don't need it to stay connected to my clients or email or anything like that. Does anyone know what to look for with that? I found one called a Palm Z22 I think and that looked like what I was wanting-it also is compatible with our mac and pc so that is nice. Just curious if anyone had any insight on that.

I've got a lot to get done to get ready for our trip so I guess I better end here. Thanks for your opinions!