I love being a stay at home mom! It has it's ups and downs but, I would do anything to be with my kids during the day. I am a stay at home mom, but I also have 2 jobs. I am an independent consultant with The Pampered Chef and I work from home doing internet stuff. I kind of stopped doing Pampered Chef...I am still doing it but I do not push it like I used to. I get some orders in from time to time, which is good. With the internet stuff, I make more than I did when I was working part time, taking the kids to daycare! I can stay at home with them and not worry about how they are doing in someone else's care.

Some people think being a stay at home mom is just sitting around watching T.V. all day. Ummm no! I am lucky if I get an hour of T.V. in a day. The day starts with getting the kids' breakfast, brushing their teeth, get baths (1 at a time), get dressed. Tues. and Thurs. Kiki has school, so we have to eat lunch by 11:30 so we can leave by 12:10 to get her to school by 12:30, put the kids in the truck, unpack them to take Kiki inside, pack them back up in the truck, unpack them at home (Aden and Tayg usually nap from 12:45-2:20), leave the house at 2:25 to be at school by 3, put them back in the truck, take them out of the truck to pick up Kiki, put them back in the truck to go home, then take them out of the truck to go inside the house..phew..I think I got it all :)

Mon. and Wed. are our relaxing days! It is the same routing in the morning (eat, brush teeth, baths, dressed), but around 10 a.m we usually go to the Y and go swimming. Then we come home, eat lunch, and Aden and Tayg usually take naps for a couple hours. Keira usually colors or does "homework" around this time. This is when I clean or do my internet stuff.

It can be boring at times, but that's the good thing about being at home, you don't have to worry about a time line. If we get bored, we jump in the truck and go swimming, shopping, or go to the park. The kids get a lot of "social" time. When we go to the Y, I take Aden and Tayg to the child watch and they play with their friends while Keira and I go swimming for 30 minutes then Keira goes in and plays with her friends while Aden and I go swimming. Keira has social interactions with her friends at school, swimming (at school and lessons), and dance. Aden has social interactions at swimming lessons, and child watch (3 times a week for an hour).

Taygen had her 9 month well child check up. She is 17 pounds ( My guess was a little off) 25-50 percentile. Her height is 27 3/4, 50th percentile. She only had to have one shot. I was a little concerned that Taygen is not crawling or pulling her self up yet, but the Doctor told me that if she is "mastering" other skills (such as language) then she probably will not crawl because she is working on one thing at a time. Her Dr. said she may not even crawl, she may just go right to walking.

She is a little turd butt! I had a cold last week and was coughing a lot, every time I coughed she would too, then she would get a really big smile on her face and start laughing. When daddy gets home, she smiles really big and says "dadda." Daddy opened the door of the truck the other day to get her out of her car seat and it sounded like she said "hi dadda." We both looked at each other and said "did you hear that?" Of course, daddy got a big kick out of that!

Keira turned 4 at the end of November. She got her ears pierced and loves her new earrings. She was such a big girl when she got her ears pierced, she did not cry. She jerked and her eyes got big because I think the noise scared her more than anything. We told her it was going to hurt and it was just going to feel like a shot, so she knew what to expect.

She recently had her 4 year well child check. She weighs 32 pounds and is in the 25th percentile, her height is 38 1/4 and is in the 10-25th percentile. Her blood pressure and pulse were good. She had to have 5 shots, which made both mom and Keira sad! She was such a big girl, she did not cry at all. She jerked a little when they stabbed the first needle in but she knew what to expect the next 4 times. They wanted to give her a flu shot, but I am highly against the flu shot!! When the kids have gotten flu shots in the past they get so sick. Taygen got her flu shot (because the Pedi. pressured me) in September and she was sick for 6 days after. She had a fever of 104. that lasted for 3 days, she was so weak, she didn't want to eat, and she just wanted to sleep all day (which is not good for anybody who is sick!)

I got some weird news from Keira's pediatrician. Everybody wants to think their child is smart, bright, and knows everything. But when a licensed physician tells you, it makes a big difference. The Dr. asked me if I thought Keira was getting "challenged" at school and I said, "I don't think so because everything she does at school she already knows and did at home before she started school." Her Dr. informed me that I needed to talk to Keira's teachers and get some more challenging work for her because she (Dr.) is afraid that Keira will get bored in school and that will cause problems in the future as far as liking or disliking school as she gets older. Keira is a very bright girl for her age group, but I am not going to make her childhood go any faster by making her learn stuff that she should be learning later.

Aden is growing up so fast. Aden is learning so fast and he is becoming such a bright kid! It seems like in the last few months he has went from 2 to 5. He is talking almost as much as Keira is. I love listening to their conversations because it sounds like two 5 year olds are talking. Aden has his 30 month check up in March.

Taygen is doing good! She is getting bigger and bigger everyday! She has her 9 month check up next week. I am guessing her weight would be about 14-15 pounds. She was about 12 pounds at her 6 month check up. She is so funny and so happy all the time, when she cries (which is not very often) then there is really something wrong. I have a little cough this week and every time I cough when I am around her, she will look at me, cough, and start laughing...like she is making fun of me. She's a little turd butt! The kids just love her. They get along with her so great. She looks for them all the time. If she is the first one up, she will go crazy looking for them. Then when she finally sees them, she gets really happy and starts laughing.

I can go on and on about the kids but I think I will stop for now. I will post updates on Taygen's Dr. appt.