No ... we haven't fallen off the edge of the earth ...

I'm a horrible mom. I've been thinking about this blog just about every day and was trying to keep a mental list of things I wanted to post ... but time, stress and the kids have taken over my life and it just didn't happen.

Unfortunally, it won't happen now either ... (ha ha) as I'm just doing a drive by post before I head to bed. I wanted to make sure everyone knew we were still alive. Ryan and I are supposedly on schedule to head out to San Diego tomorrow. Yeah, surrounded by wild fires ... but we're still going. Grandma and Grandpa are on their way down, the tickets are paid for and Ryan's conference is still on ... so we're getting on a plane tomorrow as long as they're still landing in San Diego. Say a few extra prayers for us in the next few days, kay? :)

And just to prove I'm not heartless ... I'll leave you with a picture. I managed to get pig tails in Miss Paige's hair on Sunday. They were the cutest darn things and I couldn't stop laughing when I looked at her. They lasted about an hour ... until her little hand wandered up to the top of her head and found that something was strangly sticking out .. and *poof* she had them out in no time. Enjoy!

It's FINALLY Friday!!

After what seems like the longest week of my life, it's finally Friday! With sick kids, a sick daddy, a sick mommy and now a sick daycare provider ... throw in some dust and a flooring job that took 9 days instead of the two it was supposed to ... and you have a mommy who is REALLY happy it's FRIDAY!

Two quick kiddo updates ...

On Monday, I picked Riley up from daycare and was bringing him back to my mom's for dinner when we had the following conversation ...

Riley: Mom, if I'm good Santa will bring me real toys!
Mom: Real toys? Instead of what?
Riley: Instead of rocks!
Mom: Oh, yes, you need to be a good boy or else Santa won't bring you toys ... he'll bring you coal!
Riley: YEP! (pause) Mom, I'm going to be a good boy for the whole WEEK!


Paige ...
In just five days, Miss Paige will be 11 months old. It's SO hard to believe I need to be working on her first birthday party invitations. (And before you ask ... YES, they will be princess themed ... it's against Ryan's better judgment ... but mommy won out on this one!)

It's at this point when, as a parent, you begin to realize that your child is probably smarter than you give he/she credit for. You want to believe that your child is still a small baby ... in no way could she be growing up at all. Paige proved this very point to me last night.

Ryan and Riley had gone out to get dinner (can I just say how SICK I am of eating out!) and I had started cleaning the house. I was working on the trim work by the steps and Miss Paige was trying to "help" me. She's been pretty good with keeping her distance from the steps but she still makes me nervous ... especially now that there's no carpet. To distract her, I asked her where her baby was. I watched as she looked around the room and suddenly her eyes lit up when she found it. She turned back towards me in a "it's over there, mom" kind of way ... and I told her to go give it a smooch ... at which point, she took off crawling as fast as she could across the living room, picked up the baby and gave it smooches all over it's head.

It was such a small thing but it hit me like a ton of bricks. She's really starting to understand what we say to her. She's not my totally helpless baby anymore ... she's growing up. :(

Want to feel better about your life right now? Warning: talk of bodily functions ahead!!

The past 24 hours for the Knudson's ...

Last night ... Paige has mulitple "runny" dirty diapers. Poor girl has a sore little bottom.

3:00 a.m. ... Paige wakes up, mom gives her bottle, Paige vomits twice in her pack and play.

4:00 a.m. ... Ryan checks her diaper because she's stinky ... but, hummm, she must have just been tooting because there's nothing there .... WAIT, yep, there it just happened ... all over the carpet.

5:30 a.m. ... Mom runs into work to get her computer ... she obviously isn't going to work today.

6:00 a.m. ... Paige is dry heaving while laying on dad.

7:00 a.m. ... Ryan is going to take Riley to daycare in the truck ... but WAIT ... it won't start. Mom has to drop dad off at work because mom needs both cars today (pre-school pick-up issue).

8:00 a.m. ... Mom makes appointment for Paige on the recommendation of Mayo nurse ... of course the only time they have open is RIGHT when I'm supposed to be picking up Riley and Isaac from pre-school.

10:00 a.m. ... play taxi by picking daddy up before we head to the doctor.

11:30 a.m. ... finally able to pick daddy up and take him back to work ... doctor doesn't have anything to say about Paige.

1:45 p.m. ... Mommy takes a nap at Grandmas while Paige naps too. (We were over at Grandma's the whole day because they didn't get our floors done last week like they said they would. So our house is a disaster area and workers where here today.)

3:15 p.m. ... Daddy calls mommy and says he isn't feeling well. Off to pick him up from work. (in all today I think I went back and forth from either Byron/my mom's to Rochester 7 or 8 times.)

6:00 p.m. ... After a nice dinner at Grandma's, we come home to look at the floors which were supposed to be done. I guess telling two people and calling to double check on making sure that the old hardwoods would be refinished wasn't clear enough ... they instead just "rescreened" them ... which from what I can tell is just a buff and a topcoat.

7:00 p.m. ... After two phone calls from me, Ryan calls the flooring place and says that "no" this isn't acceptable. We were warned that it'll be a big mess because they don't know if they can just re-do the old part ... well, YEAH, have you SEEN our house already? What difference will another inch of dust make?

9:00 p.m. ... Paige seems to be doing much better. Hasn't gotten sick since late morning ... she's hasn't had a messy diaper in a while. Daddy is out cold on the make-shift bed we created for ourselves on the family room floor FIVE days ago (this was supposed to be a two day process), Paige is sleeping and Riley keeps telling me he's not sleepy ... and mommy ... well, mommy wants to pretend today never happened.

Does that make YOU feel better about YOUR day? :) Hope so!