Sunday, October 24, 2010

My Birthday

Today is my birthday. For my birthday I am collecting baby items for a dear friend, Robin Hancock, who is the founder and director of Acacia Tree in Uganda. She has always loved babies and now saves lives every day.

"We focus on giving loving care to abandoned, orphaned and severely malnourished children under 3 years old. Whenever possible, we try to help infants stay with their families by providing formula, bottles, clothing, etc. AcaciaTree will also provide a home for up to 10 babies who have no one to care for them." -AcaciaTree.com



I will be picking up baby items on Friday, Oct 29th, then delivering them to Robin's family in Fairfield on Saturday. If anyone has things I can pick up please let me know.


I asked for a list of items from Robin and here it is:
we have babies 0-3 years. Most of the kids are so malnourished when they arrive that they wear size 3-6 or 6-9 months no matter how old they are. We could use sleepers in that size. Boys & girls.
Here are a few other things:
-toys for 6-18 months
-FuzziBunz cloth diapers size Large (a dozen)
-bibs (for babies just starting to eat but with plastic backing to stop food soaking through!)
-toddler bibs with the pocket to catch food
-travel swing

Also, we are fundraising to pay for our rent a year in advance. Right now we are paying every three months and struggling a bit since its $2400 at a time. We'd love to pay for a year and not have to think about it until next year! So if people you know would like to get involved that would be a HUGE HUGE help to us! Our rent for a year is $9600. We'd love to have their contact info so I can send them my monthly email update too!!


If you don't have baby items you can give, you can make a donation here- http://www.zembakids.blogspot.com/

http://acaciatreeuganda.com/#/home

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

La Ti Da


Sometimes when I have so much to do, I get stuck. Right now I have so much to do and I am stuck. Since I'm stuck I'll just write a little.
Things have been so crazy. Seriously during the day I don't have a spare second. Nothing ever gets finished. I can't remember what I was doing or what I was about to do or why. Luckily Michael swoops in at the end of the day and does the dishes and helps bathe the dirty babies and gets them to bed. Total life saver. I wish the pace wasn't so frantic. I honestly try to maintain a calm peaceful atmosphere at home, but sometimes there is no use. At dinner this evening Michael, Rex and I dined to the ear drum splitting hysterical over tired wild animal lunatics that had invaded my children's bodies. We had a soccer game @ 5:30 on a school day and lets just say they were beyond coo coo. They both decided that they weren't hungry and decided to play out the last drops of energy they could muster at full throttle. I didn't realize how loud they could be left un-shushed. Michael did the close-the-eyes-with-a-slight-upward-head-tilt and said, "Pencil me in for later. We can talk then."
Our weekend was nuts. The highlight being that we had our family photos taken by Kelly Pollard. We love her! She is an amazing person that happens to take phenomenal photographs. Sometimes I get a really specific idea in my head and I did for these photos. I chose a new location and didn't even really have a chance to tell Kelly what I was wanting. But no surprise, she captured the exact feeling I was hoping for. The kids were beyond exhausted and didn't perform as well as they could have but the results were still so great. I got a phone call from a decorator friend today complimenting me on the photos and she used all of the buzz words I had in my head. You have no idea how that made my day. She totally got it. If she's the only one, I am happy.
http://www.lala-photography.com/blog/

This weekend Stella was eating pez out of a Jesse from Toy Story pez thing and she said, "Daddy how does this work?" Michael said, "You tilt her head back and... wait! What do you mean? I see you eating them. You know how it works." "No Daddy, I mean the construction and the gears! How does it wooooork?!?" I don't know if I have even seen a daddy beam like he did.

Corn Dogs at the Fair...

She honestly neeeever stops talking and I physically can't hear it all. Other people talk sometimes too. Last night she was going on and on and on about her new "hair salon" she was opening. She's never even stepped foot in a "hair salon". But anyway, everyone was going to get a job. "Mommy is going to help me design the hair. Daddy is going to be in charge of putting the sign up so people will know, you know, where we are and if we're there and stuff. Yates is going to cut the hair. Daddy can also brush the hair. Bop can comb the hair. There's not going to be a 'payer' though. Its free." Great. Free hair cuts. We will all work for you for free while you boss us all around. Sounds like every other day of my life. I mean its this non stop!


Mr Yates Grabham is a nut. He is super sneaky smart and has us all confused... just the way he wants it. He is a major tidy bowl and I hope its not going to fester into crazy lint roller guy or something. Now that I say that he does lint roll the couch for me... Today after picking him up from school he said, "Mommy can we wash our jeep?" (Referring to the toy escalade parked alongside my car in the garage) "Sure. How do you want to wash it?" Y: "I had a broom that went like this and it didn't get it." M: "So do you need a wash cloth?" (He carried a wet wash cloth around for about 4 hours yesterday cleaning... the floor, the wall, an army man the ottoman...) Y: "Yeah!!" M: "Ooooo-k" 30 minutes later... still at it.


And Rex. He is a different kind of dude. He looooves to throw balls and chase them over and over. He eats like nothing I've ever seen, ravenous. I mean in one sitting he will eat an applesauce cup (adult sized serving not baby), an adult yogurt, 10 grapes, 20 cheez-its, 4 chicken nuggets off someone elses plate, a cheese stick... whatever I can throw at him. I eventually just take him out of his hair chair. I think he'd sit and eat all day. Yesterday he had already had an applesauce, grapes, strawberries, goldfish, pasta and blue berries and he was screaming b/c he wanted Yates' peanut butter and jelly. I thought. Ok fine. I'll make you one. If you don't like it or have a reaction and have to be rushed to the ER I'll just eat it in the car. He ate the whoooole thing. Crust and all.


Saturday, October 16, 2010

?

Can I blog from my phone?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Thursday, October 07, 2010

who are these people?



Yates and I were running into CVS yesterday to drop off a prescription. The drive through window was "broken" of course. So Yates' no shoes situation became an issue. I had forgotten that he didn't have shoes until he made his way to the car door to climb out...
Me: "Yates! You don't have any shoes! Oh well, come on. I'll just have to carry you."
Yates: "Ooooh maaaaan. Now I'm not going to be able to do any man stupf in there."
...really? I wonder what that was going to include...

Fancy Nancy Party, and thats Kelly Raspberry in the corner!!!

Stella was wearing super hot fuzzy footed pjs the other night and said, "Look these pjs have stoppers on the feet. Like tentacles, made out of scratch."
...what?... what?

"Gun Safety" in the house with Daddy...?

Yates: “Mommy, why are you putting your makeup on?”
Me: "Because it looks pretty."
Yates: "It doesn’t look pretty. It looks like you have yucky stupf all ober your face."
...thanks.

S and Y playing outside used to include them coming in and out every 30 seconds whining and tattling. I didn't realize playing outside needed a how to lesson. But it did. First I told them not to come in until I told them it was time. Then I locked the door. It sounds harsh, but it was and is now glorious. (and I don't have to lock the door anymore)

Stella: "Mom, is there any way we could have like breakfast for dinner, like pancakes and fruit and stuff?"
Me: "Well, we don’t have pancakes or fruit b/c I am going to the grocery store tomorrow, but we do have waffles, apple sauce and orange juice."
Stella: "Ok, fine. That will work as long as you’ll agree to letting me have syrup on the waffles. Will you agree to that?"
Me: "Yes, I will agree to that."
Stella: "OK. Great."
...this girl is all business.


Rex has been fighting sleep a little lately, so I was trying a technique I saw on Super Nanny about 10 thousand years ago. I was desperate to keep him quiet b/c I had just gotten Yates down for a much needed nap. So I laid down on the floor next to his crib. He was very amused by this and began launching toys at me. The first couple I thought were no big deal. But then I realized he was really throwing toys AT me on PURPOSE repeatedly. He would drop down in his crib rummage around and come up with something new... push, pull, drag it over the rail and bombs away.
... I seriously underestimated this little baby. He's probably thinking, duh, mother. I can totally strategize and execute all by myself. I'm 8 months old...

not good... but he loves it!

Mr. Food Foot. Take a bite, rub some on your foot, another bite, more on the foot, at every meal.
...Why? He has been a foot propper upper since day one. I guess I will look back at this and remember that he has always had to put his feet up on things, me, the highchair, hopefully not his desk at school.

Me: "Aaaaahhh!"
Stella: "What is it mom?"
Me: "We just hit a bird!"
Stella: "With what?
Me: "Our car."
Stella: "Where?"
Me: "On the windshield."
Stella: "Cool."
... what? cool? I don't think so.

Stella's school had Blessing of the Pets Day yesterday, St Francis Day. We took Sasha and Oscar to school and Sasha got an extra special blessing from Chaplain Rhonda. Hopefully she'll be 100% very soon.


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