What's Nifty About Today??

Maybe it's the fact that it is Friday the 13th?  Nope. 

Maybe it is because I was right about Idol and Mike was wrong?  Nope. 

Maybe it is because the temps are above normal and it is SO nice out?  Wrong again!

Although all of the above are true.

Did you notice that I am sporting the BLACK today?

You want to know why?

It's because today

MY MOM TURNED 50!!!

But, even though it's my mom's birthday we are celebrating, it is the girls that are benefiting!  When Dad asked Mom what she wanted for her birthday this year, she decided that she didn't need anything for herself.  Instead, she asked for a.......

SWING SET!!!

She and Dad bought the girls a swing  for our back yard!  They LOVE it.  I think Gramma J's birthday has bumped ahead of Easter on their list of favorite days of the year!

It is positioned perfectly in our yard so I can see it from the kitchen.  I know that Jaden and Taylor will be begging to go out and play on it every day!

Finally, J has a slide that she can sit at the top of and NOT have her feet touch the bottom :o)

Have I mentioned how much they love it?

Yeah, that's love!

Even Taylor can brave the BIG slide!

Thanks, Gramma J!! 

Happy Birthday!  Looking forward to a fun weekend of celebrating!

So, yeah... It wasn't all rainbows and butterflies though.  We were all hanging around, playing with the girls on the swing set.  Jaden was playing with Mike on the slide and he was pulling her up it when all of a sudden, she started screaming bloody murder.  Seriously, if you had been within a 10 mile radius of my house last night, you would have heard her screaming.  She was holding her wrist and saying that Daddy hurt her arm.  We looked at her wrist and it wasn't swollen or bruised.  We iced it and she could move it so we figured she must have bruised or twisted it.  She cried and cried and cried.  We also figured that only having a 15-minute nap that afternoon was adding to the drama of her twisted wrist.  We carefully tucked her into bed and checked on her often.  She fell asleep, only to wake up at 11:00 in pain.  Oh, and keep in mind that she was still wearing the blue fishy dress because she wouldn't let us touch her arm to help her out of her clothes, into the bath, and into bed.  We avoided a fight by letting her sleep in her new dress.  Anyway, she woke up crying so I decided to take her to the ER.  I carefully got her out of the dress and into a T-shirt and shorts.  When I was trying to get her into the car, I realized that it was most likely her shoulder or elbow that was hurting because she screamed when I tried to pick her up to get her into the car.  Sure enough, we get to the ER and find out that her elbow was partially dislocated -- Nursemaid's Elbow is what they called it.  The doctor rotated it back in and Jaden stretched and bent her arm and said, "It's almost as good as new!"  I felt SO HORRIBLE that we didn't take her in when it happened but like I said, she was complaining about her wrist... She is  fine now and is feeling MUCH better!  I'm just happy that she doesn't have to spend the summer in a cast!  The moral e story is: DO NOT EVER lift or pull a child (especially under the age of six years) by his or her arms/wrists/hands.  They dislocate very easily!

Have a great weekend!  Stop by and play on our swings :o)

You are NOT a mother...

I am so tired of hearing these sick stories of people that are abusing and neglecting their own children! Here are a couple of recent news stories that have happened in Fort Wayne (names and addresses have been omitted).

Published: March 22, 2011 3:00 a.m.

5 home-alone children found near rat poison
The Journal Gazette

Five young children were left alone for more than two hours inside a south-side home with an open container of rat poison within their reach early Sunday, court documents show.

Fort Wayne police found five children ages 3 to 9 unsupervised Sunday in a home in the ### block of [street name]. Four of the children lived at the home with their mother, [mother], and the fifth was left in her care.

[Mother] was arrested on an initial charges of public intoxication and five counts of neglect of a dependent.

Fort Wayne police responded at 3:20 a.m. on a report of a burglary alarm. A 9-year-old boy living at the home said the alarm was sounding, according to court documents.

The boy told police his mother left two hours earlier and didn’t know where she went, court documents said.

Police said the home was filthy, an iron was found plugged in and set to high heat, an empty .45-caliber handgun case was on the dining room table and an open container of rat poison was found within reach of the children, court documents said.

[Mother], 28, called home about 45 minutes after police arrived and told them she was out back having a cigarette and her alarm went off, court documents said.

When [mother] returned home, police said they could smell alcohol on her breath.

[Mother] was booked into Allen County Lockup at 4:20 a.m. and was later released on $12,500 bail.

She left an iron on, a gun on the table, and an open container of rat poison within reach of the children?!  She obviously wanted her children to "accidentally" hurt themselves.  I am wondering what it was that pushed her over the edge.  What could have been SO bad to do this to children??


Published: April 13, 2011 3:00 a.m.

Mom hurt baby girl, 6-year-old tells court
Rebecca S. Green

With his head about a foot above the wall of the witness chair, [son], who had just turned 6, testified he saw his mother punch his infant sister in the stomach.

The little boy’s testimony came at the end of the first day of testimony Tuesday in the Allen County Superior Court trial of [mother], 26.

Johnson is charged with battery causing death of a child, neglect of a dependent causing death and neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury.

She was arrested late in the day on Dec. 9, hours after she took the lifeless body of 4-week-old [daughter] from the [name] home in the #### block of [street name] to the home of friends [friend] and [friend], who lived in an apartment on [street], more than three miles away.

Along with the infant, [mother] had her three other small children in the car and told [friend] she thought the baby was dead.

[Daughter] was dead, having suffered a fractured skull and bleeding on her brain. The Allen County Coroner’s Office later ruled her death a homicide.

According to court documents, [daughter] had obvious injuries to her face and chest area, including burns in different stages of healing.

An unidentified substance was found in her stomach during the autopsy and the pathologist believed the burn to the chest appeared to have come at a different time as the facial burn.

[Mother]’s friend [friend] wiped tears from her eyes as she described how [mother] did not want [daughter], the youngest of her four children, either before the baby’s death or afterward.

[Friend] said [mother] seemed to have an “attitude” about how she felt about the baby, telling everyone she only had three children though she obviously had four.

“I told her she needed to accept her daughter,” [friend] said. “I don’t think she had any attachment to the baby at all.”

At one point [friend] saw an obvious black eye on [daughter], who also seemed to have bubbly saliva. The baby’s condition was so striking [friend] took a picture of her with a cellphone camera.

The picture clearly shows a black and blue left eye and the infant’s lips coated with saliva.

“I don’t know, I just had an instinct something might happen,” [friend] said of her decision to take the picture during cross-examination.

When [friend] asked [mother] about [daughter]'s black eye, [mother] told her the other children had hit her.

But when [son] took the stand Tuesday afternoon, he put the blame on his mother.

In his small-child’s voice, he told the court he once saw [mother] twist the baby’s legs and tell [daughter] she was ugly.

[Son] said the baby slept in his room – sometimes in a car seat – and other times sleeping in the bed with [mother].

During cross-examination, [son] said he told [mother] to stop when he saw her punch the infant and “bend her legs.”

Throughout much of the day, [mother] sat calmly, but was obviously saddened, occasionally wiping tears away from her eyes and clutching a tissue in her hand.

The trial is scheduled to continue through Thursday.

How sick is this?!  I can not believe that somebody could do such horrible things to a child... an infant... HER OWN daughter!

Sorry for such a downer post today but I just wanted to share these stories.  In the second one, the friend admitted that she thought something was up and even took a picture!  She might have been able to save that poor baby if she would have went to the police.  It's just so sad.

She's out to get me!

Have I NOT said before how Taylor is my "wild child"??  Well, I was cleaning up after dinner yesterday and the girls were playing in Taylor's room.  When they are in there, I close the other bedroom doors, the bathroom door, and shut the gate so they (Taylor) stay in one room only.  Well, last night, Jaden needed to go potty.  I put the trash can up on the sink because Taylor has been known to dump it.  I'm back in the kitchen and Jaden starts yelling, "Mom!  Taylor is in the bathroom!"  I tell her that she is fine because I DID put the trash can out of reach... no problems, right?  Seconds later... "Mom!  Get Taylor!"  "She's fine, Jaden!"  Once again, "MOM!!!  TAYLOR HAS THE PAPER TOWEL!!"  ohdeargod.

She TP'd the bathroom.  I start cleaning it up and before long, I hear a crash of magnets in the kitchen. Crap!  I left the gate open.

She is so skilled in magnet removal that she can get them all in one swipe!  So, I start cleaning the magnets up and I notice Taylor is not around.  Sometimes quiet isn't a good thing...

Good thing she's a cutie or she'd be OUTTA HERE!

In other news...

I'm on day 3 of feeling like crap.  Mike and I were laying in bed last night and said, "What the heck was that?!?!"  um yeah... The noise he was referring to was most definitely my stomach attacking my insides.  Whatever kind of bug I have NEEDS to be gone by this weekend!  Ugh...

Also, check out this hand!

Somehow I bruised the heck out of my hand!  That picture was yesterday.  I think it might be looking a little better today...

I don't understand how I got his bruise or why it is shaped like a "C" but it hurts!