Pork Chops

We had pork chops for dinner last night. I can't even remember the last time we had pork chops. That was probably the first time since we've been in this house for sure. Anyway the kids were asking what they were. Rachel thought it was ham, and Kent called it chicken. Rachel was funny and asking me funny questions about it. One question she asked was why was it red? We told her it wasn't red, its white, and the top is brown. Her response left us cracking up.

"Oh, I didn't know it was brown. I looked at it and thought it looked exceedingly red. It looked red, like the top of a hurt finger."

Jacob and I were cracking up over her use of the word exceedingly which she got from reading scriptures, but then her comparison of her pork chops to the top of a hurt finger, left us dying. Seriously this girl is funny!

Lately she has been in the "Why?" stage. She asks why about everything. Sometimes (okay most of the time) I don't even know how to answer her questions. Yesterday she was thinking about Frozen and was asking me, "Why do they say 'the clumpy way he walks?'" and then she asked me, "Why did the troll say he had a fire crystal?" She asks me things that don't even make sense to me a lot of times. Sometimes her questions drive me absolutely crazy, but then I have to take a breath and just think about it. There are so many things about the world that she doesn't know, and she just wants to understand all of it. The only way she knows to find things out is to ask. I love that she is curious and wants to know. Every night during family scripture study, she asks after everyones' turn, "What did mine mean? What did Dad's mean? What did yours mean? What did Kent's mean?" It makes our scripture study last soooooo much longer, and sometimes I just want to say, "Just listen! Let us just read! I'm tired!' But I love that she wants to know. Now after Kent "reads" his verse he will turn to me and say, "Mean? Mean? Mean? Until I answer him and tell him what his verse was about? I love that Rachel wants to know about the scriptures and the example she is for her little brother.

My visiting teacher was talking to Rachel's primary teacher about Rachel. Rachel's teacher told her that she wished she had a class full of Rachels because she makes teaching fun. She is a 3-year old that actually wants to learn and wants to listen and asks real questions about the lessons.

Every so often on Sunday's, Rachel will ask Jacob for a blessing. She says she wants the blessings to help her with her home school and with her math. She makes me laugh because she has such a thirst for knowledge. She wants to learn and read and write and do math and everything else. She even wants to do laundry silly girl! I sent her upstairs to get in jammies one day and came upstairs to find her sorting a basket of laundry that I hadn't folded. She was looking for jammies to wear, but got distracted by sorting laundry. There was a pile for her underwear, Kent's underwear, socks, and washcloths. She was sorting it and when I came to check on her because she was taking forever, she told me, "Mom! Laundry is fun!" lol I love my funny one of a kind girl!

Rough Day

Its a rough day at the Bulloch house today. Actually its been a rough weekend. Kent came down with croup on Friday. I've dealt with croup before but I've never had a kid this sick. He had raspy breathing all day long. He would wake up from his nap after only a half hour just gasping for breath. He was doing anything he could to keep from coughing because it hurt him so bad, and when he did cough it would make him cry and he would need a hug. He was having super high fevers and wasn't drinking anything because it hurt his throat. I tried to take him into the Urgent Care on Friday but got there a half hour after they closed. That night was so scary. My poor little boy could hardly breath. I spent the first night sitting in a chair holding him so he could be upright and could breathe. The next day he was just as sick. I could hear him breathing and struggling for breath all day long. We made it into the Urgent Care that morning where they gave him a breathing treatment that didn't work and a steroid shot that helped. He was able to get a good nap in that after noon and while he still woke up a lot during the night, and I spent the night in his room (mostly sleeping on the floor) we both got better sleep. Sunday, I left him home with Jacob while Rachel and I went to church. He was doing better enough that I felt I could leave him. He still had (and has) the raspy breathing, but is doing better, except he is super grumpy. I know he still feels awful. I can see it in his eyes, and hear it in his voice, but it is harder to handle when he is so awfully grumpy. Rachel has also been kinda grumpy. I know it is because she hasn't had much attention because Kent has needed so much attention. Today, I have a major headache and not as much patience as I should have with my kiddos. I caught myself yelling at Rachel (which I absolutely hate). I yelled definitely more than I should (I shouldn't at all) and more than she deserved (no one deserves to be yelled at.) I put myself in a mommy time out in my room. I locked the door, took deep breaths and said a prayer. I was in my room less than 5 minutes and in the space of those 5 minutes, my son had taken an almost new bottle of nail polish outside to paint with. He painted his shirt, his hands, his feet, and...the cement outside. I got him cleaned up as quick as I could so he wouldn't paint anything else with his fingers that were covered, and went out side to see the damage. He used the entire bottle of fingernail polish. And I used an entire bottle of fingernail polish remover. Our cement is still slightly pink. How grateful I am that he took it outside before he opened it. How grateful I am that I took my 5 minutes time out. It is true that he probably wouldn't have had the chance to get into the nail polish if I had been downstairs with him, but he is tricky. Maybe he would have gotten into it anyway. I would have completely lost it, and all because my 1 year old was curious and trying to paint his nails like mommy and Rachel. I really love my kids, and it breaks my heart when I stoop so low as to yelling at them. They are 1 and 3 years old. Just little. They don't deserve to be yelled at. Not for anything. They just deserved to be loved. They are learning, and they need someone to help them learn instead of someone who will yell at every mistake they make. They need a parent who is trying to be like Jesus, and teaching them to be the same instead of making them cry and feel bad just because they are having a rough day too.  Here's to hoping our day starts to get better.

Sweet sleepy kids

What is it about sleeping kids that just melts my heart? They are just so sweet. 

Feed the birds

I took the kids to feed the birds today and we had so much fun! The birds came swooping in from all directions as we walked up from the car. It was like they could sense we were going to feed them. Some of them took the bread right out of my hands and it totally freaked Rachel out to have them that close. It was pretty funny. By the end, Kent kept telling them to "go on!" "And scoot back!" Because they did get a little to close for comfort. After we fed them, we had a little picnic and the kids chased (and got chased) the birds for a while before we went home. Rachel kept trying to pet one but that wasn't til we were out of bread and they weren't interested anymore. 

4-6-9!!

My kids keep climbing on the bottom stair in our house and jumping to the bottom over and over again. Rachel started it of course, and Kent is doing it to be like her. She had to show her daddy her cool tricks and the Kent would do it and ask dad "cool?" Rachel started counting and saying, "1,2,3 JUMP!" So Kent started jumping and yelling, "4,6,9!!!" He wants to be just like her. I love it!