Helpless...

Nothing pulls at this Momma's heart more than a sick child...

As I sit here with Nina waiting to see the Doctor again I have to wonder how we ended up sick, AGAIN...

She is in a wonderful preschool here in NOLA that she loves...

However, the only drawback is that the majority of the parents, for whatever reason, feel that it is ok to send their not so well child to school...

So on more than one occasion when helping out in the classroom I have had to wipe a disgusting green snotty nose or remind a little one to please go wash their hands that they just coughed into, GROSS!

I know that I can't imagine sending my child to school when they are feeling under the weather, (Nina missed an entire week last week for this very reason!)

I feel so sorry for the kids, you can tell just by looking at them this is the last place they want to be...

So hey, parents, do everyone involved a favor, keep your poor, sick kid home till they are no longer contagious and they feel up to being back in school...ugh.


Ok I feel better now, off to go whip up a pot of chicken soup...

Never grow up...

With Nina turning 4 and Benton starting to walk and talk I am finding that I am super emotional about them growing up. I try hard not to wish away each stage that they are in because they grow and change so fast it is heart stopping.

I was given a CD this Christmas from Pete that has a song titled Never Grow Up...the first time I heard it searing hot tears sprang to my eyes...It is that dead on about how I feel about my babies growing up...

Benton is starting to sleep more regularly through the night, nurse with less frequency and started walking on Christmas night--really walking--he almost never crawls anymore and the days of him belly crawling are a distant memory. He comes up with a new word at least weekly...Over the weekend I gave him a big boy haircut. It took all the curl and almost all the blond out of his hair--he looks so much older now!

Nina is getting more independent all the time, she is starting to really want to help me around the house. She loves to help me cook or bake, if I pull out the vacuum she insists on helping, and she has helping fold some of the laundry down pat :) She is turning into such a sweet young lady...

I guess what I am trying to remind myself is, no matter how long the day is, the years are short...try to take it all in.

2010 was a year of change here in the Morisseau house...
we had just recently added a new member to our family, making us a gang of 4
in January we celebrated Nina's 3rd birthday

February brought a wonderful snow day

March was full of dancing and dress up fun

April took a lot of weight off my shoulders

May brought us tutus and flowers and our 6th Anniversary

June was full of grass stains
July
August we found fishes and boxes galore


September was spent exploring a new city, starting new "projects" and watching Pete get pinned Lt. Commander



October brought us goodbyes, pumpkins and 1st Birthdays
November was full of ballet princesses, family and thanksgiving
December was a quiet family Christmas...just the 4 of us and it was good :)

Winter in NC??

Normally winter in the south does not involve snow, it doesn't even really involve too much freezing weather even...so for there to be snow in the forecast for last weekend was shocking!

This past weekend it snowed here in Wilmington, not just a dusting of snow but 5 inches of snow! It started Friday night after my parents arrived to spend Valentine's Weekend with us and didn't stop until Saturday morning.

We had just been up in Rhode Island with Pete's family before Christmas and Nina loved playing in all the snow there so I knew that I was in for some work! :) Friday at about 8 pm when the snow started to fall I bundled Nina up and harassed my Father into joining me out in the cold. We put Daisy the Dog on a leash and off we went to check it out. We walked and Nina ran all the way down and around the cul de sac with a quick stop at Bob and Lois' (no trip around the cul de sac is complete without a stop there) Nina was ecstatic with the thought of the fun that was to come, so needless to stay it was so hard to get her to go to bed!

Saturday morning was off to an early start, Nina woke up at 5 am and wanted to go out to play--I took her to potty and let her look out the windows and the front door however I am NOT a morning person so it was back to bed for her for at least another 3 hrs...the snow could wait.

About 9 Nina was back up again and Benton was just finishing up his morning nursing session so it was back to bed for him and a fast warm breakfast for the rest of us before hitting the snow! After breakfast we grabbed the disc that Nancy gave me when she found out that I had never been sledding that I can remember and hit the small hill behind the neighbor's house...

Nina wasn't really into sledding so she promptly moved on to starting a snowball fight...She pegged me, Mom, Dad and Daisy within the first few throws! She was having a blast--squealing and laughing up a storm.

After playing for a bit she was ready to build Frosty, and yet again this is a first for me...we started in the back yard rolling the balls and there is a small incline--but let me tell you, that small incline was kicking my butt!! This was really wet snow, and wet snow is great for snowballs and snowmen but WHOA is it heavy! We made a HUGE snowman and then were promptly put to work trying to find this Frosty accessories...He ended up with one of my sun hats, green leaves for eyes, a baby carrot nose and pine bark for a mouth...he only lasted about 1/2 the day :( much to Nina's dismay
We ended up playing outside for about 2 1/2 hrs before I decided that Nina should go back inside to warm up/get dry--we don't own snowsuits! Since we were out for so long Mom decided that she had enough fun and headed back in to spend time with Benton...when he woke up from his morning snooze she brought him to the door to check out the fun

Why Start a Blog???

I have been playing around with the thought of starting a blog for a while and I finally took the plunge because I now have 2 kids that are growing at the speed of light, and a husband that is sadly missing lots of it. My husband, Pete, is in the Coast Guard and is stationed on a Ship that deploys for about 2 months at a time and he was missing out on so much that I thought that this would be an easy way for me to give him a glimpse into our everyday life while he is gone.

Nina is our firstborn, and is a spitfire in every sense of the word! She recently turned 3 but is refusing to acknowledge this until her Daddy is home to celebrate her big birthday. No matter how many times she has been asked how old she is since January she answers: "2--I will be 3 when my Daddy comes home for our birthday." Pete has promised her that they will have a big birthday celebration when he gets back, I wonder, do I have to buy her more birthday presents??...

Benton is our baby, he was born in October and is my real motivation for this blog...He has changed so much since his Daddy has left, I am sure that Pete will be shocked at how much bigger he is and all that he is doing when he gets home. When Pete left Benton was still spending most of his day happily snoozing away wherever we put him...now, Not So Much! He has found his voice (which he practices using at 4am every morning for about an hour), his fingers (which he chews on like he is going to cut teeth tomorrow!) and spends most of his day watching and laughing at his big sister.


Tonight I have time to work on starting this blog because Nina is at my Parents for a few nights. They came up to NC to see all of us for Valentine's Day and when they were getting ready to leave today Nina begged them to take her with them...so after about 2 hrs of trying to convince her to stay here, they gave in and I packed her suitcase! When I told Pete about her going for a few nights he was amazed that she was mature enough to make this kind of decision on her own...She really is growing up fast.

Hopefully she will have a great time at my parents and I will have a short break to recharge and be the great Mommy that I strive to be on a daily basis when they bring her back. :)

So here I sit with just one child again...wow, it is soooo much easier! LOL He is already in bed for the night! I celebrated my little break from being a Single Mom of 2 with a trip to Target during "nap time"! Let's keep our fingers crossed that I haven't just cursed myself to a night of every hour on the hour waking...