Dr. Mom

Okay, so we all know one of the many hats worn by a mom is nurse, right? Well, I'm taking that a step further and putting on my doctor hat today. Err- maybe that would be putting the stethoscope around my neck cuz I guess doctors don't ever wear hats.

Remember Sawyer had that fever? I never did take his temp., but he was pretty hot without any ibuprofen in his system. That went on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Then Monday it seemed the fever finally was gone for good, but by that evening his chest, tummy, back and neck were covered in a tiny bumpy red rash. I probably wouldn't have thought much of it, what with all this kid's skin problems anyway. But I noticed it right away because his skin has actually been totally cleared up lately. I at first chalked it up to heat rash. Sawyer's skin is so sensitive that if he gets too worked up or warm he breaks out in heat rash all over his torso. But then when he woke up Tuesday it was all the way up to his forehead. The face is not a normal place for a heat rash. He was almost completely covered. So I'm diagnosing him with Roseola. If I remember correctly from all my days as a preschool teacher, I saw it quite often in my two year old class. Three days of fever followed by the same textbook red non-itchy rash for anywhere from one to three days. No treatment, no worries, just let it ride. So that's what I'm doing.
I'm not even calling the pediatrician (does that make me a bad mom?), just still keeping an extra eye on it all. He's in much better spirits since his fever's been gone.

Savannah's been saying some funny little things lately. I just realized yesterday (shows how closely I pay attention to my daughter I guess) that when she says the word dolphin she says dolophant. Apparently the dolphin is related to the elephant. HAHA!

It's snowing again today. (The latest forecast said there's still a possibility of snow showers all the way thru Sunday. I would have never imagined Savannah would have a snowy birthday. Enough already!!) Anyway, Savannah saw the snow and asked (for the millionth time) why it's snowing in the spring. I told her Michigan was a little mixed up about the seasons this year. She said, "It's mixed up? Maybe it shouldn't be called Michigan... maybe it's name should be Mix-agin."

Speaking of mixed up, they called a two hour delay for school yesterday. For what, no one has any idea. It was pretty foggy and a bit frosty, but the roads were bare and dry and I have no idea what was so dangerous about that. I would have thought if they called a delay at all this week it might be today. It's much slushier with that yucky mix of rain and sleet and snow. Ryan just called and he's not to work yet... he said the roads are not good.
Anyway, the two hour delay yesterday meant Savannah's morning preschool was cancelled. After last week's spring break, she was crushed not to be able to go to school again yesterday. Especially since her gramma and grandpa were going to go and help in her class yesterday. She was very sad about that. So it was a really good thing that we had her friend birthday party planned for yesterday, so she still had something to look forward to. The Birthday Party! I thought it went really well and turned out super cute if I do say so myself! I need to finish editing pics from yesterday and I'll get some on here to show and tell. I tried last night, but I was just too exhausted when we got back from the airport. Ryan and I were in bed at 8 o'clock, can you believe that?! We went through a few pictures on the laptop, watched a catch-up episode of LOST on the laptop, and then played a few games of Idiot, and were asleep by 9:30 I think. And I still had a hard time getting up this morning, some 9 hours later.

Okay, I'm off to actually pay attention to my kids and maybe get some pictures edited and uploaded sometime soon. Happy Wednesday!

the worst day of the whole year

That's what Savannah said to me shortly after we left the airport today.

In a very dramatic voice, "Mom, this is the worst day of the whole year."

"The worst day? Of the whole year? Why is that, honey?"
I'm thinking she's upset about missing her daddy for another four days; we had just dropped him off at the airport and she'd been dreading him leaving all day. So I'm prepared for the umpteenth pep talk of the day... you can talk to him on the phone, he'll be back after three more days, etc.
But no...

In just as dramatic of a voice, "It's the worst day because it's not Valentine's Day yet."


Silly me.

Haven't had much to say lately... not much going on around here.
We've been snowed in; not really because of the snow, but because of the cold. They cancelled school here yesterday because it's just so freezing cold out there (minus twenty-something with the windchill). It's warmed up a little today (I think it feels like right around zero today) and I'm getting a little stir crazy, cooped up in the house with the kids, but it's just too much work to get everyone bundled up to go out and do what... walk around Target for awhile? I have nothing I need to do around town and nowhere fun to go.

Savannah missed her first day of school due to illness today because she's had a fever and a real bad cough the last couple of days. She's pretty much lost her voice. So we've mostly just been vegged out in front of the tv today. Fun, fun.

Let's see, what else...
Sawyer's back to not sleeping ever.
Waking up at all hours of the night, taking one way-too-short-nap every day, acting obviously tired and cranky all the time. Not sure what his deal is. I'm thinking maybe he's cutting more teeth, and I hope it's not something more, like an ear infection. He goes in for his 15 mo. check-up this Friday, so we'll see if there's some other reason for this insomnia.



A couple of SJ quotes for you:

I rearranged the living room furniture, yesterday...
"Mom, why are you moving all the FUN-CHAIRS all around?"

Bedtime prayers last night...
"Don't forget to pray for Porter since he left his shoes at our house last night. We need to pray that he can come back and get them."


Well, if I think of any other breaking news or find anything else of any entertainment value around here, I'll be back. In the meantime, I'm off to release Sawyer from his crib and his non-nap, put another movie on for SJ, and maybe figure out what we're having for dinner tonight.

one week till we're off!

...to Portland that is!

Today's to-do's

• take down Christmas tree
• pack away Christmas decorations
• laundry (when do I ever NOT have laundry on my list???)
• pack away baby bottles ('cuz they've only been sitting in the cupboard unused for two whole months already... it's not like I don't need the room in my kitchen cupboards or anything...)
• start organizing lists for our trip

Savannah really has just been cracking me up lately. Maybe it's just me, but it's getting harder and harder to keep a straight face during conversations with her. And it's not even always funny ha-ha kind of stuff... it's sometimes just funny how a three-year-old's mind works.
Here is a conversation from this morning:

I came into the toyroom to play with her, sat down on the floor and immediately she brought a book over.
"Will you read this to me, Mom?"

"I came in here cuz I thought we could play for awhile before Sawyer gets up. Don't you want to play something?"

"Well, reading IS playing Mom." (like, duh!)

So we read, and when we were done she moved on to her kitchen:
"What do you want me to make you to eat? Do you want a sandwich or some toast?"

"I'd like some chocolate cake please."

"Mo-om, cake is not for eating. Cake is for after eating."

"Oh, sorry."

"Now would you like a sandwich or some toast."

"I would like some French Toast please."

"Um... I can't french my toast. I don't think I have any frenchies. I can't make you french toast without frenchies today Mom. Would you like a sandwich?"



p.s. Happy 30th Birthday to Ryan King!!!
Wish we were there with you to celebrate!

Morning conversations

I haven't posted any SJ quotes lately, but here’s the conversation we had this morning when she came in my room to wake me...
a sampling of how random the thoughts of a three-year-old.

“mom, can I wake up at 6?”
“no thanks, go back to bed and I’ll see you at 7.”
“okay. can I wear my underwear from yesterday with doggies on it again? I like those”
“no, I think it’s a good idea to wear new, clean underwear everyday”
“mom, why did all our grown-up friends and all our little friends have to go home last night? I wanted them to sleep in the guest room.”
“everyone went home to their own houses for bedtime, now you need to go lay down until 7.”
“okay. can you make me breakfast right at 7? I’d like regular oatmeal this morning.”
“okay, at 7”
“can we go to the turtle park today?”
“we’ll see. now go back to bed please, it’s not time to wake up yet”
she leaves the room, makes it halfway down the hall, and comes right back
“mom, I don’t know how to sew yet. Maybe dad can teach us when he gets home from work today”
“how to sew?”
“yeah, I don’t know how to sew a quilt or a dress to match like gramma Debbie. So maybe dad can teach me”
“maybe not”
“I turned off my fan, mom, do you want me to turn off your fan for you?”
“SAVANNAH!!!”
"okay, I'm going"

Quotes, quotes, and more quotes

Ryan was a little trickier with his post yesterday and threw two movie quotes in there. Gabe was the first to guess one of them: "carnie, smells like cabbage, small hands" is from Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. So Gabe effectively threw off the Laughlin's winning streak, but there is one more quote from a movie in there. Any other guesses?

Here's an SJ quote for you:
this morning...
me: "Savannah, you can watch some tv while I go take a quick shower now, okay?"
SJ: "Okay mom, but you need to not jump when you're in there, you might get hurt. You have to walk in the shower, okay?!"
**(last time I told her I was going to "jump in the shower real quick". Apparently she was really worried about that!)**

And I wanted to share a few funny mis-sayings from our little SJ.
She says
*hide & sink (hide & seek)
*just boring (just born)

and darn it, I had about a half dozen of these in my head this morning that I wanted to write down, but now I can't think of them. I'll add them later when I remember.


p.s. *Happy Birthday Mom!!*
**And to Little Jack! can't believe you're 2 already!**

One More

quote from SJ for you.
Not that it makes much sense to me, but I guess this is an example of perfect logic for a three-year-old.
Ryan was putting steaks on the grill outside...
SJ: what are those?
R: steaks
SJ: yuck. I don't like those
R: oh, these are good, you'll like these!
SJ: no... I won't...*sigh*... I wish I could like them, but I just can't because I'm still a little girl.

Guest Post by Savannah

Savannah wanted to write a bit today...


sssssssssssssssssss
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
nnnnnnn
nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

hiii
mmmmoommm
DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
11111112334445555566666677777899990000000000000000000000000000000000
cade
jjjaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaackkk
ssssydnnnnnnnnney
abbbccccccccccdeffffffffffghiijjjjjklmnnopq
1123456788888888890
ttthhhhe ennnndddddddddddd

As you can tell Savannah has a hard time having a light touch on the keyboard. I try to remind her to press just once, but it usually comes out as much more.
Savannah loves to "write" all the time now and is always asking us to spell things out for her. Most of her writing though only consists of H's, O's, T's and S's. She knows how to spell her name and can almost write all the letters in her name. I guess her eagerness to write has spilled over to the computer because she's always asking me if she can type and send a message to Sydney or someone else. So I thought I'd give in to her nagging and let her type for all of you.

I also forgot to add an SJ Quote to my post yesterday.
My dad had cut a hole in the wall of the guest bedroom in the basement to cut through to the duct work and add a heat vent to that room. He had left the hole to go get some flashing from Lowe's and at some point Savannah wandered into the bedroom. She came running back out asking (a little concerned), "Hey, who took a piece of the guest room?!"

"Sometimes I wish I didn't have a nose."

This is your SJ quote of the Day
"mommy, sometimes I wish I didn't have a nose."
This was out of the blue... I was coming upstairs from doing laundry and she meets me in the hallway with this comment.
"why?" I ask, wondering what made her think of that.
"because then I couldn't smell Sawyer's stink."
and as I walk into the playroom to check on him I smell it. It was definitely time for a diaper change!

So I hope you all were pleasantly amused by Ryan's hijacking of the blog last post. When I asked him if he wanted any input in this page and ever wanted to add anything, little did I know what I was in for. Apparently now he thinks he gets to be Mr. FunnyMan once a week.
Did anyone catch his movie quote? He's decided to throw a movie quote within his normal "conversation" each time and see who gets it. I told him he needs to let everyone know that so they can look for it and the first one to comment with the quote and what movie it's from gets... um... gets to be the winner each week I guess. So be sure and comment if you know the movie. Then at least we'll know that more than just our mothers read our blog.

Speaking of mothers, my parents are going to be here in less than 48 hours and our house is pretty much trashed. I have laundry everywhere, and Savannah has been on this huge toy spree through the house lately; there is play food or coloring books or puzzles or a baby doll and accesories in every room, I swear. And we've been spending alot of time cleaning up between activities or at least some before bed each night, but somehow she makes three new messes in the time it takes to clean one up. I don't know how she spreads things out so fast. And it doesn't help that Sawyer's getting the hang of that too now.
So I have a lot to do the next two days. There are still two boxes to unpack in our bedroom, I need to finish the laundry, clean out the fridge, and clean the bathrooms, to name a few. All the while trying to stay caught up with cleaning up after the kids.
Sawyer's been especially clingy and whiny the last few days, so we'll see how that all works tomorrow. Oh the joys of a stay at home mom!! Ryan, can I go to work the next couple days instead?

Like the outfit?

I just had to share with you Savannah's outfit today...

















SJ quote of the day:
Sawyer watched a Teletubbies video for the 1st time today...
Savannah: Mom, why do Teletubbies have the squares on their tummies?
Me: I don't know, isn't that how they see their special videos?
Savannah: No mom, I think actually they have those squares because
that's just how God made them.

Savannah Joy

Today was a true Monday.
I wanted to start the day over about twenty times today. The biggest bummer was that Savannah fell and bit through her lip and scraped up her chin. She's been on Tylenol all day since it happened (bright and early at nine this morning) and she was still whining/whimpering/crying all day "mommy, why does my lip still hurt?" She can hardly eat, and barely talk, and I just feel so bad for her. It's been a long day!!

SJ quote of the day...
I asked Savannah if she wanted to go to Target with me. She answered, "No thanks, I'll stay here with daddy and Sawyer.
You need to go by yourself and meet some new friends."


So other than her traumatic morning, what has Savannah been up to?
Well, she's a busy girl these days, as full of energy and questions and obnoxious giggles as any three year old.
She loves our house and especially her new room, even more so now that we got the stripes painted in there. She tells everyone that the different colors of paint smell like different things- the blue stripes smell like blueberries and the pink smell like strawberry. In fact all the different rooms have different smells according to their colors, and I can't remember what they are, but she'll rattle them off for anyone.


Savannah has loved having the visitors we've had stay with us this summer. I forget how "social" we were back home and how often we visited with friends and family on a regular basis. She was in heaven with more people here than just us to talk to and play with. I think she's pretty lonely here spending everyday with just me and Sawyer. We went to a couple's house for a barbeque last weekend and they had a friend there who had a 4 year old little girl. Savannah got hurt numerous times playing with her, some accidentally, some not so accidentally (like being smacked with a plastic baseball bat for just one example!). Well, most of you know that Savannah can be kind of a baby when it comes to getting hurt; she likes to let everyone know and it takes her awhile to get over it. Well, we barely heard a peep out of her when she was playing with this child... I think she was so desperate to have a friend her age to play with, she didn't want to complain about anything! She talks to everyone now, every child we see in the grocery store is a potential friend, and she's more than willing to initiate a conversation or even just a wave. I'm glad she's taking the more outgoing route than becoming more shy not knowing very many people here.
But she talks about all her friends back in Oregon all the time. We saw a blonde haired little boy today in the store and she said "look mom, that boy looks like my friend Cade. Do you remember Cade mommy? He's my friend and he's going to come visit me." She wants anyone and everyone to come visit her.
And she thinks everything happened "last night". "Remember just last night when we..." even though it was last week or last month. But she does remember EVERYTHING. Everyday there's something she remembers that we are just amazed with.
The other fun thing (usually fun anyway) about Savannah lately is that she is very into picking out her own outfits. It's almost always a dress or skirt or some combination of both. To top it off, she does her own hair with her own hairspray (detangler), water, and about two dozen hair accessories. She also puts lotion on like she's pretending to put make up on at least twice a day. It's pretty funny. But she always asks before she starts..."mom, can I put on some lotion and do my hair by myself in my bathroom?"
Is this girl three or thirteen?

Daddy's got hairy armpits?!

Savannah is just full of the most hilarious one-liners these days, so to share a small portion of her tidbits of wisdom, we've decided -for your enjoyment- to start including an SJ (savannah joy) quote of the day.
This was today's random thought, as Ryan (shirtless) had Sawyer on his lap getting him into his pajamas:
"Daddy, under your armpits matches Sawyer's hair!"

So glad it's Friday!!!
Ryan has half days on Fridays during the summer and that makes Fridays even better!
We're planning on heading out to visit the beach tomorrow. No, it's not really the beach, but that's what they call it here, and it really does look like the ocean beaches. And compared to the real beaches back home in Oregon, it's warmer weather and the water is actually swimmable, so that'll be nice. We're headed to Michigan's "west coast" (otherwise known as Lake Michigan) which is just about two hours from us.
Even though we have some more work we want to do on house stuff before my (Heather's) parents come, we decided we need to get out and see a little of this great new state we live in. We've heard of tons of supposedly great camping places, hikes, lakes, beaches, and other wonderful places to visit. So we thought we'd take off this weekend and get away from our house. We've had plenty of projects and plenty of visitors to keep us busy so far this summer and I can't stand the fact that it seems like the summer is slipping by too fast. So we're packing up the car and going out to see what we will see tomorrow. Plus it's supposed to be in the 90's tomorrow and it's been real humid the last two days so it'll be nice to spend the day in the air conditioned car and at the lake beaches instead of our hot house. Also there is a Chick-fil-A in Grand Rapids that Ryan is dying to get to, his Michigan mecca has been calling him.

By the way, as a little bit of an agenda; I was thinking I should update everyone (or those we haven't been so in touch with) a little bit about the goings-on of us Morrisons over the last month or so and what I was thinking was I would just kind of do a quick run down of the latest on each one of us but just do it one at a time every few days or so. Don't worry, I'll do the kids first cuz I know that's what the families want to know. So I'll start with Sawyer and what he's been up to and busy with in the next installment. Stay tuned.