Back to Basics

Basically,  summer is over and we're back to school. Back to soccer. Ben started his first soccer season. I'm basically running back and forth between both of their practices, to support Matthew and watch tmy competetive youngest child as he yells at his teammates. When I can't take any longer, I'll run a few laps around the park to maintain some sort of sanity and health. Basically,  we're back to our basic life.  Thought I'd write a quick post because time flies and I don't want to forget these basic days with my babies. Reminding myself that the days are looooong, but the years are short.  #dontblink

SHELLabrating Megan's 7th Birthday!

Megan and everyone else was doing much better by the time saturday rolled around. Thank you Nana and Papa for letting us use your backyard oasis to SHELLabrate this little girl turning 7 years old.  Not many little girls get to see their daddy carry a mermaid into a pool.

Happy birthday Megan!

Happy 7th birthday beautiful girl. I love being your mommy and watching you grow. I love that you're my baby girl. You're spunky personality keeps us laughing constantly. Your bond with your brother Matthew is a joy to observe. You are interested in mermaids right now. You even own a mermaid tale of your own. You don't like the "fake" Disney mermaid, Ariel though. In your words, you like "only real mermaids." (You seriously believe they exist. And perhaps you are right. Perhaps, I'm the incorrect one.) Your belief in miracles and happy ever afters makes me fall even more in love with you.

You are sick with a stomach bug right now. The school just called me to come pick you up. So I'm on my way, baby girl, to  nurse you back to health so we can celebrate your 7 beautiful years this weekend, mermaid style!

Catching Up Part 2

looking back at the last few posts, I realized I never posted any of the kids starting the school year.

Megan Turns 5

Our lil Megan is the Big 5 now.



She'll start kindergarten come August. I put her in preschool but she missed so many days of it from being sick all the time that I pulled her out for a lil while to give her immune system a break. Yes....I like my kids to live in a bubble. The teacher wasn't very happy with me for doing so. But, guess what?.... I'M THE MOM!!!! HA! I am debating on putting her back in for the summer though; we'll see if I change my mind.  The kids got season passes to Raging Waters so we will definitely be spending our hot summer days between there and Nana's pool.

Elizabeth wanted to join band at school to play the flute; I assumed it was because her best friend wanted to as well. But, she's really taken to it and sounds pretty darn good at it too. So mom and dad surprised her last week at her band concert with her very own flute. She's happy she gets to return the rental one.

Emily has improved sooo much in school and the time it takes to get her homework done. It's been a relief for me! We still need to work on her weekly progress report comments that always come back to me saying: 'talking during class' or 'disrupting others'. What can I say.... THAT'S EMILY! Math and Science are great opportunities to catch up on girl gossip. All three older girls will be taking some horseback riding lessons over the next month or so as well as their cooking classes they seem to enjoy so much.

Brianna will be in high school in just a few short months. I'm scared to death. However, I do have to admit, it's pretty cool being a 'young' mom. Her and I were getting pedicures early this week and the lady doing her toes asked if I was her SISTER!!!! HA! Gave me a big head for the rest of the day. She is involved in a writing mentoring program that Papa found for her called WriteGirl. She comes home from those workshops excited and pumped up. I can't wait to watch her amazing talent for writing develop even further.

Matthew developed this intense love of reading pretty much overnight. He is addicted to a series called BIG NATE. I have to force him to put the book down at bedtime. I often sneak back into his room to find that he pulled the book out again the second I walked out. The relationship he shares with Megan is one that a mother dreams of. He is constantly looking out for her and she looks up to him and just adores every move he makes. He comes home from school and seeks her out. She waits all day long for him to get home. He is the absolute BEST big brother a girl could ask for. Those boys in kindergarten better standby. He ain't gonna put up with anyone messing with his little sis.

Benjamin is....well.... simply... BEN. The baby. My youngest child. Pure bliss. He puts a smile on my face when I am in the worst mood possible. The one who completed my baby carrying days. I am absolutely obsessed with him. The problem is...HE KNOWS IT!!!!

Oh.....I sold my first house!!!! And..... Sarah bought her first home! Can you guess who her ridiculously cool agent was?! Here she is on the day she signed her final loan documents. I'm so proud of her and all that she has accomplished in her life. All on her own. 

Time is flying by and I can't slow it down. This makes me sad. I don't want my babies to grow up.

Another One Bites The Dust

Guess who has pink eye now!
BEN, the latest victim.
Eye drop assembly line 4x a day now.

Pink eye

6 kids a plenty
5  o'clock it's dinner
4 Pete's sake.... is it bedtime yet?!!!
3 more months til summer
2 of them have pink eye
1 hormonal teenager
And a patridge in a pear tree!

Megan starts preschool

I recently got a new smartphone! Didn't know what i was missing!!! I now get to blog from my phone while waiting for the stoplight to turn green!!! Or from the gas pump like i'm doing now! Megan started preschool 2 weeks ago and I didn't want to forget to show u her pics from her 1st day.

What have I done????

Pardon the grainy cell phone pic.

A Message from Santa

Don't be jealous, but Santa sent Meggie a message all the way from the North Pole. What's that? You want one of your own? Don't worry, he sends adults messages too! Click on Miguel's to see what he said. If you can't contain your jealousy anymore, make one of your own... follow the directions after watching the videos.


Meggie's Message

Daddy's Message

I'm Thankful for...

I've had curly hair my whole life and around the age of 12 I started HATING it. I've done everything imaginable to get it to look 'pin straight'...flat ironing, blow-drying, and even chemically straightening it! Now, I'm suffering the consequences of all those years of abuse. My hair is so brittle and every day I lose more and more, haha. But still,  for some reason, curly, frizzy hair is just not as cute on a 30 year old mommy as it is on a little girl!

Mejia Updates

Brianna had her first Jr. High Dance on Friday night. What a moment that was for me. She went with a group of girlfriends but it was still hard for me to swallow that she was 'old enough' for something like this. It was right after school and only lasted about an hour but it was still a DANCE nonetheless.

Is This A Dream Come True?

 Maybe she's been watching too many fairytales lately, but this is exactly what Megan asked me the other day. As usual, this girl keeps me on my toes with her random comments and questions. Yesterday, she tattle-tailed about a dozen times on her siblings telling me that they "breaked her heart" and they were "hurting her feelwings". Can she be any more precious?

We went to the annual pre-4th of July carnival in our town last weekend. At the end of the night they had about a twenty minute firework display. As beautiful as it was,

Stop and Smell the Roses

Wow! What a week this was! From Monday to Friday we were on the go. I think the only time I sat down was in the car while we were on the road driving to our next destination!!!! We started the week off with Matthew graduating from kindergarten and Elizabeth receiving an Excellent Reader award.

When Life Gives You Lemons

When life gives you lemons, do not throw them in your neighbor's face!

We just got a treadmill. I used to have one then I sold it. I quickly regretted it and just bought another one. Now if I can only locate some motivation to get my butt on it. I know it's there somewhere. I just gotta find it.

Megan had a dr. appt yesterday. The day before her appt. Matthew kept teasing her about getting shots and of course she freaked out until she was distracted with whatever was going on in the room at the time. The next day we arrived at the dr. Just her and I. It was a scheduled annual check-up and I really didn't expect any shots to be given. That is until the nurse reminded us that we were behind 4 immunizations!!!  Oh yeah, I seemed to have forgotten that I was one of those wacko delayed immunization believers. At least I am when I forget to schedule shots, haha. Anyhow, this upset me because I had just got done telling her she didn't need shots. I don't want my child to lose her trust in me thinking I lied to her. We made the best of it and I promised her an ice cream cone afterwards which she gladly ate up. Her personality has blossomed lately. Some of the stuff that comes out of her mouth leaves me in disbelief. You'd swear she was a ten year old, not three.

Anyhow. during our visit the nurse asked if she was allergic to any medications. Out of habit, I instinctly said "no". But then I immediately remembered she was, I corrected myself. The funny part was, it initiated a conversation about her medical ID bracelet. This is how it went:

Catch Up

It's been kinda busy around the Mejia house lately. I'll try to catch you up. I'll be posting some pics but of course I don't have the time or patience right now to put them in order of occurrence so everything will be all mixed up.

Wordless Wednesday

Or alternately titled... "Boys will be Boys"

Happy 3rd Birthday, Megan!

Earlier this month, Megan turned 3! We had a bbq for her at the park.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Megan, right now you have just about mastered potty training. You are a bossy little thing yet you give orders in the most irresistible way. You LOVE taking Ewok for walks all over the house. He HATES it yet puts up with it. You are so stinkin smart it's ridiculous. The other day you had a conversation with Elizabeth and I about races and people of all different colors. You're laugh is infectious and your smile is beautiful. We are so in love with you. Thank you for being our baby girl!

A little early for a NOT ME MONDAY

but I had to share!

I was NOT getting ready for bed the other night and excitedly pulling back the covers on my bed with a devious grin because alas the most favorite time of my day had arrived! I did NOT pull back my sheets to find a whole weenie waiting for me! And it was NOT the kind of weenie you all are thinking of!!! Get your dirty little minds out of the gutter, bloggie readers!!! (I'm talking about a hot dog weenie.) I still am NOT sure how that got there or even how long it sat there. I surely do NOT remember it from the night before, but then again by the time bedtime arrives I can hardly see so by all means it could have been there for a whole week. But no worries, it did NOT have fuzz on it.
 

Yesterday, I did NOT decide that Matthew's hair was looking kinda bushy and could undergo a cut of some kind. I did NOT decide that I was NOT gonna waste my hard earned money on a haircut in a fancy shmancy salon or barber shop when surely I could do it myself at home! Mind you, I have NEVER taken  haircutting/cosmetology course of any kind. Mind you that I have mostly girls and am NOT sure how hair clippers even work. I'm sure you know where this is going... I did NOT almost make my kid bald by  accidentally using a 1 instead of a 4 when cutting his hair!



before

I did NOT start crying! I did NOT repeat to him and myself, "Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God. What have I done?!!!! Get a hat and get in the car, QUICK!" I did NOT drive like a bat out of hell to SuperCuts. The haircut lady did NOT laugh at me and she did NOT have to fix my attempts. I did NOT feel like the worst mommy ever. I could NOT resist imagining him getting made fun of by cruel, mean kids at school the next day and how that might screw up my kids self-confidence and surely damage him for LIFE! I did NOT make both him and myself feel better by buying him NOT one but TWO new pairs of shoes so that at least his feet would look decent! HE most surely does NOT look like an army recruit right now.

 

After



I was NOT running behind schedule last night with dinner and baths. It was NOT 9:00 when the little ones finally got into the bath. Benjamin did NOT sneak a mini stapler into the bathtub last night. Megan did NOT find it and pinch her little pinky with it. She did NOT need a band-aid at almost 10:00 pm because surely she was fast asleep in her warm bed. I was NOT thinking, "where the hell is my husband when I need him? I do NOT feel like a single mother when daddy's at work or worse - like the little old lady who lived in a shoe she had so many kids she didn't know what to do!"  Her pinky looks fine by the way so stop worrying.  I did NOT come downstairs after the kids were in bed to find Ewok on top of the dinner table munching their uneaten dinner. I did NOT picture my foot on his rear and his little doggy body flying through the air like this...

Okay, I did. But don't worry. I didn't really do that! I love that damn loyal dog. I did NOT ditch the gym last night and instead have a nice chilled glass of wine prior to going to bed.

Megs did NOT just remind me that she got a boo-boo last night in the shower and the ONLY thing that would make her feel better was a piece of chocolate (smart girl, eh? Takes after her mommy). She did NOT just bring me this Easter decoration that my father bought me last year and tell me to "open please."

 Something tells me she's thinking it's one of these chocolate candies!

I am NOT 13 days late on Brianna's birthday post!

Sigh. I need another glass of wine. And thanks to Meggies I'm craving some chocolate now, too- 

Hospitalized

The title says it all!!! Megan got worse before she got better. Her symptoms were severe enough to require hospitalization. When they told me they were admitting her I was overwhelmed with relief! I felt so helpless; It was such a long, miserable night. No matter what I did or how hard I tried to help her, it just wasn't enough for her. Prior to the day of hospitalization she was crying out in pain all night. Her ears were red, hot, and swollen. She complained of her ankles hurting. They were so swollen that the only relief she got was when I had ice packs on them and her silence only lasted a few moments. If she wasn't crying about her ankles then it was her tummy that was hurting her. She kept burping then crying, burping then crying. Then, she started wheezing. Daddy, mommy, and Megan were all sleep deprived. We ended up in the E.R. again that night and were sent home with Ibuprofen for her joint pain. We got home and maybe rested an hour when she started crying again because of the same symptoms. Her hives weren't any better and the itching was ever so present. By 8 o'clock in the morning we had maybe slept 2 hours total! She started vomiting and wasn't keeping down any food or meds.

We went to her pediatrician's office. Megan had a breathing treatment while her doctor called 911. She got her first ambulance ride and hopefully her last! Several tests were ran and lots of meds were pumped into my little baby. Little by little she improved.I'm overjoyed to have my Meggies feeling normal again. The overnight stay in the hospital was bittersweet. As much as I don't want my baby feeling ill, I enjoyed the alone time I had with her. I was ALL hers and there weren't any siblings competing for mommy's attention. No interuptions. Just quiet time to hold her and rock her and sing to her. It made me fall in love with my little girl all over again.

By morning, she did a complete turnaround. She woke up singing nursery rhymes to herself and talking the nurses' ears off. They fell in love with her too. We learned that she is now allergic to Amoxicillin. The doctor overseeing her care said it was one on of the worst allergic reactions he has ever seen. He called it Serum Sickness. He said that the burping and the tummy aches was because everything she was experiencing on the outside was also going on in the inside of her. In other words, her whole GI tract was swollen too!

Thank you Lord, Jesus for keeping my baby safe!!! Thank you everyone for all of the prayers that were said. Thank you Mimi, Alarick, and Brandon for the big pink bear (Megan named it: Big Pink Bear) and the balloons. She kept telling the nurses that it was her birthday party because she had balloons. Thank you Uncle Rigo and Auntie Aracely for visiting her in the hospital. Thank you Smith's for watching the kids. Thank you mom and Lety for keeping me sane! I have such an amazing support group. Megan smiling waiting to go home.