The rest of the story . . .

So, here is the rest of the story . . .
Tali brought me the bottle of Childrens' Tylenol and I videoed her demonstrating just how she got it down by herself. She is our little monkey . . . make that our third little monkey. So, I shut the closet and Matt posted the video online because her dialogue was just so funny.

My mom immediately e-mailed me to say I should probably move the medicine. "Of course," I thought, "I will do that soon. But it's probably okay for now because it's all childrens' medicine and now the door is shut!" So, the very next day, Tali brought me a bottle of Childrens' cough medicine. But this time it was OPEN! And all over her shirt and FACE!

So, we did some calculations and decided she drank about 1/4 of the bottle - yummy! We made our first call to Poison Control. (They are very nice, by the way.) The lady on the phone said she was not in danger, but that there would be side effects.

So, this is what happens when your toddler drinks four servings of Childrens' cough medicine:

• First she becomes very sleepy, but you have to keep her awake for at least an hour.
• After an hour, you will probably lay her in bed. By then she will be SO tired, but also VERY restless and unable to fall asleep.
• So you'll get her up and she'll become very grumpy and whiny and keep saying she feels yucky.
• Finally, after two more hours, she will start to calm down and act normal.
• Then she will fill her diaper with a substance resembling a runny chocolate shake (but warm).
• Then you will try to put her to bed again and she will become very angry.
• So you'll rock her and sing to her and she will start scratching her arms and legs uncontrollably.
• So, you'll give her a blessing.
• Finally she'll go to sleep and wake twice during the night, once a little poopy and once very disoriented.
• The next morning she'll wake up poopy, again, but happy and VERY hungry.
• Finally, if she's not smart enough to learn her lesson about drinking directly from the medicine bottle and goes looking for drugs again, they will be in a medicine cabinet . . . locked!

Tali Self Diagnoses and Retrieves Her Own Medicine, Thus Saving Us Time.

You can certainly see how ill she is.

Christmas Eve-Eve

For our Christmas Eve-Eve celebration, please refer to
www.aksmeds.blogspot.com

Confessions of a Shopaholic

This post is going to make us sound like poor, deprived Alaskans. But we're not, I promise. Okay, maybe a little bit.Today Liz and I went to Target to finish up our Christmas shopping. I love to take Liz shopping with me because she loves to shop. What made this even more exciting is that our Target is new. It was built a few months ago, clear across town. I've been there once, but Liz has never been. I didn't realize how exciting it would be for her. It all started with, "Liz, you've never been to this store before." Her eyes and smile huge, "Really?!"

When we walked in, she looked like Isla Fisher in the preview for Confessions of a Shopaholic. Of course, we went straight for the concession stand. She was in awe of all the choices and just couldn't choose between an M&M cookie and an Icee. When it was our turn she said, "You pick, mom. I can't decide." What would you pick for a girl this cute? I got both and she was on cloud nine when I told her they were both for her.

We shopped for over an hour and Liz was still in heaven. As we were leaving, I noticed she had just a little bit of melted Icee left in her cup, but she stopped me before I threw it away.

"I'm saving it. What is it called?"
"An Icee"
"I'm saving the rest of my Icee for Josh."

I love it how they save things for each other. And I love that an Icee was so new to her.

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 11th anniversary! It's hard to believe we've been married that long. I mean, we both look like we're 21, right? - haha! (As a side note, why do wrinkles and grey hair look so much better on men than women?)For our anniversary celebration, we did our favorite thing - ski and stay the night at Alyeska. Alyeska is nice little ski resort in a nice little ski town called Girdwood, about 40 minutes from here. We skied all day yesterday, with a short break in the middle to eat lunch and sit in the hot tub . Matt gave me some new ski goggles and I got him a BYU sweatshirt. (They're playing basketball and football today!) Then Matt broke the rule about going easy on the anniversary and gave me another gift. He bought me a string of pearls. I love them! And I have already gotten Liz excited abou wearing them to her wedding (in about 20 years). But they'll still be in style - pearls never go out of style.

Then we did something we haven't done for approximately eleven and a half years. We ate dinner at Seven Glaciers - a really fancy restaurant at the top of the mountain. We last went there when we were dating and I visited Alaska for a week. Matt must've been trying to impress me then. And it worked! We were married six months later. Bit we've had to save our money for this long to be able to afford it again :) If you measure in cost per calorie, McDonalds is about 1/2 cent per 100 calories. Seven Glaciers is more like 7 cents per 100 calories. Sometimes you want to stop by McDonalds after eating at a fancy place like that (because you're still hungry). Seven Glaciers was actually very delicious and we even got full. We made reservations to go again in eleven and a half years.

This morning we slept in, had breakfast at the Pond Cafe and then headed home to our three little ones. Thank you for an awesome weekend, Matt! I'm so glad to have been married to you for 11 years. And the three kids are a nice bonus! I love you so much! Sometimes I forget to say thanks for all the awesome things you do for me. Maybe this one big thank you can fill in the cracks where I forget for the next year. Thanks and I love you!

Look what else Matt did!

We love to drive around on Sunday evenings and look at Christmas lights. Matt and I both did the same thing with our families as kids. I'm sure it's a pretty common December activity - any why not? You get to drive around all warm in the car, ooh and aah at the lights, and chit-chat with your spouse for an hour while the kids are securely buckled, or at least confined to one space.

This year, Matt wanted to contribute to the festivities, so he decorated our front yard. And he really went the extra mile! Here is a picture of his beautiful work:

The big tree really is as tall as our house! Matt leaned a 30' ladder right against the tree and then hung on for dear life. Actually, he's pretty handy with a ladder, being a roofer and all. He ended up stringing about 20 strands of lights up, which required 5 extension cords, which all had to be burried under the snow as to not obstruct the kids' snow-machine path. It was a big job and Matt is a hard worker. Thanks Matt! You've really made it feel like Christmas!

Look what Matt did!

Matt is the kind of husband that shows his love by doing whatever I want. Sometimes I ask, but most of the time he just keeps a lookout and does all the hard work I seem to avoid. I don't like to call myself spoiled, but I definitely am.

Cleaning the bathrooms is my least favorite chore. But I rarely have to do it because whenever the bathrooms start to get dirty, they miraculously get cleaned by the "daddy fairy" before I ever get around to it. I never have to take out the trash or shovel any snow. He always helps me with the dishes and hangs out with me when I'm doing something I don't need help with. He never complains when I make Subway or Mac & Cheese for dinner. And when it's after 9pm and one of us decides we need ice-cream or something from Blockbuster, he never complains when he's nominated to be the runner.

But, most importantly, Matt does all the things I really couldn't do myself. Unfortunately for him, I come up with lots of projects of this type. He has crawled through the crawl space to hide wires I wanted hidden. Once I went to all the hard work :) of buying the kids a swing and rings that I imagined them swinging on in their bedroom in the wintertime. Matt happily crawled through all the insulation in the attic to make the mounting hardward secure and pretty! He hangs up everything that's above my head (and I'm only 5'3" on a tall day). Every winter he builds a snow track around the house (complete with jumps) for the kids to ride their snow machine on. And when he's home, he doesn't watch out the window like I do. He goes outside and rides with them. In the summer he trims all the Pushki and Devil's Club in the greenbelt so the kids can explore without getting itchy. He tunes up my bike and waxes my skis before I even know they need it.

The most recent job I commissioned him for was a big one and he did it beautifully. We needed a new light in our dining room and I wanted new lights in our bathrooms. I did the easy job of picking them out and he hung them all up! Each one took at least an hour and there are seven. I love the result and I'm so glad he does it all happily, for me.

Downstairs bathroom & Master bathroom

Dining room

Our Advent Calendar

This is for Lisa. Matt's mom gave me this really cool advent calendar a few years ago. The kids take a little ornament out of a drawer everyday and hang it on the little tree. They don't know that advent calendars are supposed to have a treat in every drawer :)

Bombs Away!

Liz's friend had a birthday party at Arctic Gymnastics. Liz and Tali had a blast the entire time. Tali saw the bigger kids jumping off of this platform into the foam pit and really wanted to do it herself . . . but she was scared. When she finally got up the nerve to do it herself, she kept doing it over and over and over again.

This is what happens . . .

. . .when you're almost out of lunch money.

The Church Christmas Party

Liz insisted that all the kids dress up for the Church Christmas Party. What a great idea, Liz. You three sure do look cute together!

No chairs, please!

Remember my post about Little Liz who doesn't ever sit in chairs? I have more proof, and another child to add to the anti-chair list.

Christmas Countdown Chain

The other day I was reading Lisa Smedley's blog and I was so inspired that I skipped my workout and spent the time stealing her idea. Thanks Lisa, I think.

Here's the jist - all stolen from Lisa, of course. We have an advent calendar with little drawers. In addition to the little ornament in each little drawer, put in a little strip of paper with a fun Christmas activity on it. Lisa put a strip in every drawer. I printed a bunch of strips, put them in an envelope, and I reserve the right to put a strip in whenever I please.

Here is a combo picture of our first two activities.

#1 - decorating the tree. Josh hung around for about 30 minutes and then put on his snow clothes and headed outside to find something more exciting to do. Liz, on the other hand, hung around to the bitter end and was disappointed that I hung up the rest of the Christmas decorations without her supervision after she went to bed. Tali tried to "help," but Liz and I eventually bundled her up and sent her outside to play with Josh.

#2 - the Christmas Countdown Chain. There are 21 days until Christmas, so 21 links. I planned on red, green and one yellow at the end, but Liz talked me into "more yellow" and Tali said, "I want pink and purple." Josh approved the extra colors - He's very good at accommodating his crazy sisters. So we have a chain of many colors.

The kids' trees:

Uh oh!

She's almost two and half. I guess she can't sleep in a crib forever. I was just hoping she would.

Silly kids

A few things my kids said this week that made me laugh:

Liz on what will happen if you put a plastic bag on your head - "You'll fussocate."
Liz on Obama - "He's not very smart because he smokes."

Josh & Matt having a conversaton about the birds and the bees -
Matt - "Josh, where do babies come from?"
Josh - "Heaven."
Matt - "But how do they get here?"
Josh - (points at my stomach and puffs up his cheeks, then smirks)
Matt - But what's the dad's job in getting a baby here? How does he help?
Josh - By loving them and helping with things like doing the dishes and changing diapers.
(Not time for sex-ed yet. Just checking.)

Tali on why she didn't use the toilet - "I don't wanna fall in."

Lastly, this one didn't make me laugh; it just made me happy.
Tali at 7:45pm - "Mom, I wanna go ni-night in my bed."

Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles!

The girls figured out that if you turn on the jets and put in lots of body wash, the bubbles are endless! The bubbles got so high Liz & Tali couldn't even sit down. So high I started to worry about a flood! But they obviously had a great time.