Lana - my little miss sweet and innocent

Lana playing nicely at the train table

The boy has jaundice. He was looking a little yellow yesterday, and I called the doctor about it, since none of my other kids ever had jaundice, I wanted to make sure everything was ok. Well they sent me (ok him) for bloodwork yesterday, and told me to come to the office today for a visit. So I loaded everyone minus Jordan (who was at school) into the van and made the trek over to the doctors office.

My kids love the doctors office . Not only do I have an awesome doctor, but in the waiting room there is a train table set in the end of the waiting room for all of the kids to play with. So when we opened the door, the kids all went running to the train table. After we were there for a bit (we were really early, as usual) this woman walks in with her son Owen, and her daughter. (I know his name because I heard her say it when she was talking to him). Now the first thing out of Owens mouth when he walked in was "I wanted to play with the trains!" so she told him to go ahead and play, but to play nice and share. Then she sat down and began to talk to another lady sitting in the waiting room. Well Owen walks over to the table and grabs some of the train peices that were sitting in the middle of the table (of which there are 30 total - plenty of peices to go around) and starts pushing them around the track. (this is a picture of the table, but not of Owen)

As he is pushing his train around the table he is doing the choo choo train noise at the TOP of his lungs. Seriously screeching as loud as he could. Right by the train table is the secretaries desk - where she is making phone calls. Did his mother tell him to shut up? Nope not at all. She continued to talk to her new friend in the chair next to her. After about 5 minutes of this, I was so ready to smack the kid and tell him to shut the heck up, (only not in such polite words) because his screeching really was plucking my last nerve. Then he gets tired of his screeching and decides that all of his train peices that he has is not enough. So as he passes each of my kids who are playing as well, he is yelling at them to move out of his way, and he would take a couple of their train peices too. For some reason none of my kids said anything to him. (with the exception of Andre, he was bigger than the rest of them - about 6 I would guess, but still my kids know how to say no - trust me, I hear it enough, I know they know). Mickey went against the wall to sulk, Andre just watched him take his trains - I am assuming that since Andre is twice the size of this boy, he just let it be, Johan was playing with a car, so he didn't get anything taken from him, and Isa just went to play with something else. So he is amassing this huge line of trains (they are wooden trains with magnets on each end) and is just taking over the entire table. Then he gets to Lana. He yells at her MOVE. GET OUT OF MY WAY I WANT TO GET BY. And as he is yelling he is trying to push her out of the way with his body. She looks at him, and gets in his face and screams AAAHHHH at him. So he stops for a second and then starts it again. This time as he is pushing her with his shoulders she takes her right hand, which has one of the train peices in it, and hauls off and hits him - HARD, I heard the thunk as it connected - right in the forehead. I have never been so proud of my little girl. (a picture of the trains)

He started to cry, then they called his sister to the back. Well since it was time for him to go back, he did what any other bratty child would do. He grabbed all of the train peices he could get and shoved them in his shirt. (he made a pocket like thing by lifting up the hem of his shirt) His mother told him he couldn't take them all to the back and took one. ONE freaking toy from him, leaving him with 20, and leaving 10 on the table. So as he is going to the back he is screaming at the top of his lungs because he needs that last one. While he is in the back of the office, you can hear him screaming non stop. After about 5 minutes his mother comes back out and asks for two train engines because he didn't have any in his pile and he needed two. Come on woman give me a break. You son is a pain in the you know what, and needs a good old fashioned spanking, and to be taught some manners.

After Owen left, we were still sitting there (I told you we got there REAL early, LOL) and another family comes in. I see this family and I think MAN, this family is HUGE. I count the kids while trying not to be noticed, and they have 9 kids. Then I think - wait a minute - 9 kids, that is only two more than I have. Do I really look like I have this many kids - or close to it? When I went to the back, I asked the doctor if it was another large family, or if it was a day care. Nope its a large family, she actually ahs 10 kids, but only 9 of them were there with her today. So in the two rooms, betwen her and I we had 17 kids. That made me stop and laugh about that. The more I think about it, the more I think I want a number like 10 or 12. I dont know why, maybe its hormones talking, but that number sounds like a great number.

Why I hate Kirby salespeople

When I was in 5th grade, my mom and stepfather at the time bought a house. We lived in that house for 15 or so years. In that time period, we had a neighbor move in and we became really good friends with that neighbor. Then in early 1998 my mom sold the house, and everyone moved out. I remained friends with the next door neighbor, and I am now living in that house. (next door to where I grew up) Our friends are still the owners, so my landlord is a really good friend of mine. I love the fact that we are such good friends, but sometimes that good friendship can be annoying.

Sometime on Monday the Kirby vacuum people called my landlords house to set up a demonstration to see if they could sell her one of their vacuums. So she says sure, come on out. Well they get out and want to clean her carpet. The problem is that in 90% of her house there is no carpet. Its all ceramic tile or hardwood floors. So she says well you can go to our rental house and clean a room there. Doesn't call me to ask if I am interested or anything like that. She just sets up an appointment for 6:30pm for them to come and give ME a demonstration. Well around 3:30ish she calls me and tells me that she has someone coming by the house around 6:30pm to come and clean the living room capret upstairs. So I need to move the couch and get everything out of the living room. (ok remember now I am 4 days out from having a baby) Thank God the only thing in the upstairs living room is the couch, otherwise I would not have moved anything. She didn't tell me that they were there to give me a demonstration of the vacuum or anything else, just that they were going to clean my carpet.

So 6:30pm the guys show up, and he starts his demonstration. Scarlett (my landlord) doesn't come up to watch the demo, I get to do that. Well part of the stupid demonstration is participating in cleaning. I got to vacuum my ceiling fans, vacuum the carpet for a bit, vacuum my couch (they wanted to vacuum the matress, but I was NOT taking them to my bedroom, or any of the kids bedrooms either) and other misc. things. at 7:00pm it was time to start putting the little ones to bed, yet for some reason none of them wanted to go to bed. Could it be the strange man in my living room with the neat silver shiny thing that makes tons of bubbles (oh thank you so much Hudson for showing that to my kids - and showing them that they can pick up the bubbles and rub it all over them and what not because it is a safe product. I finally got Mickey, Isa and Lana to bed, now I just had Andre, Jordan and Johan. Johan was well behaved and sat right beside me on the couch watching the guy work. Andre and Jordan would not calm down. Jordan did her chores, then sat on the steps enthralled by all the things this stupid vacuum can do.

(did you know it comes with a leaf bloweer attachment, a pipe cleaner/blower thing in case your sink gets stopped up you can blow that clog right on out of there. It also has a bulletproof motor that if you accidently suck up a dime or other coin, it wont hurt the motor, it will actually just get bent in half? He showed us - which if he was smart he would have known you dont show something like that to kids like Andre, because that is the quickest way to not make a sale. Because if we bought the stupid vacuum he would go around blowing the pipes, and bending change)

Andre on the otherhand was like a kid in the candy store. He couldn't sit still. He was all over the place asking questions and just really getting on my nerves.

It was now 8:30pm and guess what, this guy is still here. I now want to send the older two to their rooms for bed and I wanted to go downstairs to my room to just veg and get ready for bed. I also had some tv shows on TiVo that were calling my name. He has yet to start cleaning the carpet too.

Now its 10:00pm and HE IS STILL HERE. And my kids - THEY ARE STILL UP. Jordan NEEDS her 11+ hours of sleep otherwise she becomes the evil devil child in her attitude. I kept sending them to bed, and they kept making their way out. We had company, so I really couldn't threaten them like I wanted to, LOL. It was about this time though that he gave me the price sheet. Do you know how much these stupid vacuums cost? $1684.00 PLUS TAX. That is over $1700 for a freaking vacuum. Who spends that much money on a vacuum? I mean I understand they are neat vacuums, and they may last a long time, I don't know. I understand they get crap up off the floor that other vacuums don't. But really my $45 vacuum from walmart gets the big stuff off the floor, and my floor *looks* clean. Isn't that all that really matters? If you can't see whats in/on the carpet who cares. If I vacuum and you come over, it looks like my carpet is clean. And really, its all about the appearances now a days isn't it?

I felt bad for the guy, as he did all of this, and I am not buying one. I never intended to buy one, and if they had called me to set up an appointment I would not have agreed for that reason. Let him find someone who really is interested. Plus I am moving to Honduras in 8 months. I don't need a $1700 vacuum to vacuum up a cement floor which I can SWEEP. ($1700 comes to L32,130.00. Can you imagine spending 32,130.00 Lempiras - the honduran money - on a freaking vacuum? That is almost what my wedding rings cost.)

It wasn't until 11:00pm that the guy finally left. I was so tired and so irritated and Andre and Jordan were still up. I could have smacked everyone, LOL. Plus my living room floor was nice and clean, but then you could see a line going into my dining room and hallway where he stopped, so that is always nice too.

My boy has expensive tastes - at 2 days old

Levi is going to be one of those people who likes things that cost money - I can already tell. At the hospital they give you formula in little 3oz glass bottles, and it comes with a funky nipple to attach to it. By funky, I mean the material its made out of. I can't think of what its called off the top of my head, but none of my kids ever liked those nipples.

Well, I have some bottles that I LOVE. With each of my kids (from Mickey on) I have used the Parents Choice brand bottles, and have loved them. All of the kids liked them best too. So in getting ready for Levi, I purchased a ton of these bottles (which by the way, are rather inexpensive - $2.96/3) and sterilized them. Or as Jordan told Mickey, I fertilized them, LOL. There were more than 20 bottles that I boiled the other day.

When we got home from the hospital, and it was time to feed Levi, I would dump the formula from the glass bottle into one of the bottles that I had ready to go. He would make a face, and drink it, but I could tell he didn't like the style of the nipple. Friday night he would be hungry, and when I gave him the bottle he would eat, but not to much. So come the 5AM feeding I finally took out the bottle that was in my gift diaper bag from the hospital. I had never used these types of bottles, and in all honesty, I never would think to use them. Except that in desperation for some sleep, you do what you can. So I poured the formula into this new bottle, and he drank it all like he hadn't eaten since he was born. So Saturday I went online and was checking out the prices for these bottles. The run about $3.33/per bottle. My mom went out and got me 5.

Now I have a ton of bottles that aren't being used, (maybe in a couple of months he will grow into them) and 5 that I am constantly washing. All because my son has to have the expensive things.

*sigh* to be a little baby/child and have everything go your way. What a life that has got to be, LOL.

In our house, its all about the baby. Sort of...

Everyone in the house is all about the baby. Everyone always wants to know what is Levi doing, where is Levi. Levi this, Levi that, Levi, Levi, Levi. Everyone that is, but Lana. When I came home Friday evening, she stood there in front of him with a smile on her face like ok, what is that? She wasn't sure if she liked the baby or not. She gave him a kiss and a hug, and was rubbing his back on Friday, but now she just wants nothing to do with him. LOL. She isn't mean to him or anything, she just ignores him.

I just wish Andre and Jordan would take Lana's lead. Not to ignore the baby, but to ignore eachother. I told them tonight at dinner, that there is a problem when I have 5 kids ages 4 and under, then an almost 10, and almost 12 yr old, and the oldest two are the only ones getting in trouble for acting like brats. And that has nothing to do with Levi, because this has been going on FOREVER. I keep threatening that I am going to make them share a room until they can learn to get along.

Just because I feel like sharing more pictures - here are some of the younger 4 getting along. Which with those four - they actually get along more often than not. So it isn't that rare of a thing.

Baby Levi is here!!!!

Arles Levi Santos Leon

• born 5:19PM on November 1, 2007 (after only 2 and a half hours of labor)


• weighing 8lbs 1.3oz,


• 19 inches long


• perfect in every way