Friday, August 28, 2009

This is what craziness looks like passed out on the couch. I wish I
could bottle his energy.

Z modeling his new grass-fire gear. I think we have too much fun.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

G decided to wear Auntie Em's wedges. He's such a fashionista...er
fashion boy...
This week has been all but uneventful so far. Like I mentioned before, the kids are really starting to interact with each other. The other morning when we were getting ready for work and the babysitter, I had them both on the bed and usually there is not so much interaction. Well, things went a little differently. L rolled right over to G and tried to swipe his cup of Cheerios. He was pretty polite at first, but after she continued incessantly he finally told her "na na sissy!". I couldn't help but spew a little bit of my toothpaste onto the bathroom mirror when I heard that one. He was being so patient with her and then he finally lost it and had to set her straight. Of course it didn't work. She kept grabbing and he kept scolding her. I wasn't much help because it was just too amusing to watch. Besides, it was funny to watch her torture him like he tortures us sometimes. But I'm sure there is still a disconnect for him there.

G got his first hair cut in 6 weeks the other day.

Needless to say, I was less than thrilled. He was finally starting to get his curls back, but was also looking like a hippie. So I was thinking that it would be a good idea to get a trim. Z took him in to Snippets (first mistake) and told the lady to trim it (second mistake). Well, as you know, 2 mistakes don't make a right...or more hair for that matter. I can live with it, but it's not what I wanted. Either way, I think he's a doll.

L ran a fever all last weekend. I couldn't quite put my finger on what she had until it hit me like a ton of bricks. She's teething!! She never came down with anything else for the entire length of her fever, so I chalked the 101.5 degree temperature up to teething. She acted fine, for the most part, but she was burning up and wanted to cuddle. For anybody that knows this child, knows that she is not a cuddler. She refuses to lay with me in the bed after she nurses or let me rock her to sleep. As soon as she is done eating she wants to be put down so she can fall asleep by herself. I know it's a good thing, but I want to cuddle with my baby!! All that work and I only get 6 months of cuddling out of it? Sheesh.

She is still getting started on baby food. Did I mention I hate baby food AND I hate trying to get a baby to start eating baby food? It stresses me out a bit more than it should. I never knew with G if I was giving him enough or if I was giving him the right thing or what. I decided this time that we will do self-led weaning. I will mash up what I want her to eat after we nurse. Then if she can get it into her mouth than she can have it, until then she can just play in it. That seems the most natural for me. I guess we'll see.

G did his first somersault the other day. Kaity and I were sitting on the floor playing with him. He put his head between his legs, trying to show off like he always is, and before he realized it he was tumbling over. I thought surely he would be a little taken aback and scared. Nope. He loved it. In fact he tried to duplicate it unsuccessfully many times. He ended up doing these weird sideways twirls on the floor instead. He looked sort of like an interpretive dancer. Highly amusing. But not as amusing to me as him laying on the ground in the playroom on his night night seemingly deep in thought staring at the wall. I thought to myself, 'self, good job, he has settled himself and is relaxing'. Of course G isn't going to sit and stare at the wall for no reason. Once I came back to my senses I snuck up behind him. He was concentrating so hard that he didn't even hear me. And then I saw them....yes, them. Lots and lots of tiny little ants crawling on the baseboard in the playroom. They weren't straying from the baseboard, so G was in no danger, but the whole scene was comical to me. I should have known that he had to be watching something!!! Lesson be learned: if your toddler is sitting still and it seems to good to be true, it ALWAYS is.

I got home from work last night (Z was working) and G decided he *had* to hold his sister right then. Keep in mind that he has never showed an interest in holding her, so what the sudden interest was, I'm not sure. He threw a screaming crying fit until I got her out of the carseat and let him sit on the couch and hold her. I have to say it was one of the cutest things ever. He was holding her around the chest and her little arms were stuck straight out to the sides. haha, to cute. Then he decided that he wanted to lay on his back so I layed her on his belly. They just layed there and played for the longest time. Of course, in true G fashion, he grabbed her and rolled around with her. Got to love these kids.

10 Lessons Learned

Last week was an interesting one. I learned a few things.

1. Toddlers don't understand what you are doing when you kill a fly. So the rest of the day they go around hitting random objects as hard as they can. I mean, duh, that's what "mommy" did all morning. Monkey see, monkey do.

2. Never hang pictures with a toddler present. As soon as you lay the hammer down they will pick it up and smash a hole in the drywall.

3. Little plastic fireman toys *will* live through an entire normal cycle in the dishwasher. They won't even become disfigured.

4. Never leave a diet coke where a toddler can get his hands on it. This can lead to the toddler having the bright idea to take the diet coke, climb into sissy's glider, try to drink it and end up spilling it all over the glider and carpet...and himself.

5. Sibling fights begin as early as when the little one turns 6 months old. The little one will pull the toddler's hair unmercifully. She, also, will not stop. Nor will you be able to pull said locks from her Kung Fu grip.





6. I can now do a 30 minute nursing session with a 6 month old's finger jammed up my nose the entire time. It really isn't so bad until she starts wiggling it around. Let's look at the bright side, I'm breathing easier these days.


7. It is not impossible for an infant to have the smelliest and sweatiest feet in the world even though they don't wear shoes or socks. I'm convinced these feet will become the eighth wonder of the world.




8. Toddler's will try to feed their infant siblings anything they can get their hands on. Not limited to Cheerios, but including dish soap.

9. Toddler's WILL figure out the water dispenser on the refrigerator. Invest in one with a lock. You will thank me later.


10. It's never too early to notice sibling love and adoration. During the 'finger up the nose' nursing session, G rubbed L's head the entire time in a completely loving fashion. *sigh* Makes my heart happy.

L cuddling up with Mr. Froggy.

G climbing into his cabinet.  Nutty, I say.
 



Friday, August 14, 2009

G the Sailor

Yes it is true, that day has finally come. And we all knew it would. G has officially said his first cuss word. Makes mom so proud *sniff sniff*. Much to my horror, he decided to test it out for the first time in front of his daycare provider, Elisha. Apparently he dropped something and said "oh shit". She said she did a double take because she thought she had misunderstood him. Well, apparently she was right on the money because he said it all day long. She said that anytime he would do ANYTHING all day long he would look at her and say "oh shit" and then do his evil grin and maniacal laugh. I'm still waiting for him to say it in front of me, but apparently the mood has not struck him yet. I guess I need to *really* frustrate him.

On a much cuter, more violent and less controversial note, he did the CUTEST THING that made me and Z's jaws drop to the floor. We have been working so hard on getting him to stop hitting. It has been a long and frustrating 6 months, but we had a breakthrough the other day. Well, when I say breakthrough I mean that he still hits and throws things, but he learned how to say "I'm sorry"!! Now, at least he can apologize for it!! LOL. He threw a shoe at my head, so I went through the routine. I told him no, took him to time out, sat him down, said 'we don't hit', walked away, went back after 1 minute, stood him up, told him that we do not hit (again), made him sign 'sorry' and then we kissed and hugged. We went back to sit down and finish playing and Z said "G, tell your mom 'I'm sorry'". He turned around, I ducked, and much to my surprise he said "I'm sorryyyyyyyyyyyyy" and then he flashed me his toothy grin. Z and I were shocked. He probably thought he did something wrong because we just sat there...seriously for at least a minute. He had to hug me to snap me out of it. Progress!!!! He can now apologize for offenses!!! Now if I could just teach him how to NOT hit or throw things at my face.

Other random vocabulary note: He is obsessed with his sister. Whenever she is napping or in another room he WILL NOT stop saying "where diddy?" He will walk around the house until he figures out where she is. If she is napping he will walk into her room and shout "DER DIDDY!!!!" Needless to say, naptime is over at that point.


It's been kind of a busy week. We started it off by going to church on Sunday. We were, of course, in the cry room. They were doing construction right in front of the room, so we got to stare at a big plastic sheet the entire mass. I guess I should have prayed a little harder last week. I love the looks we get when we go anywhere. If I could read people's minds I think it would go something like this "Oh my, what were they thinking", "Those poor poor parents", "Thank goodness that's not me", etc. So when we walk into the cry room, we always get surprised looks. We all got situated and G got his trucks out to play. He was minding his own business, not running around like a maniac, and here came this little boy. Much to my surprise, G stood up and handed him one of the trucks so they could play together. Wow, I guess daycare isn't so bad after all. It definitely taught him to share, and might I add I was shocked that he didn't throw it at that kid's head? Well, it didn't turn out so well being that the other kid wasn't quite the sharer that G was and G ended up with no trucks. So obviously he will never share again. Poo.

Later that same day we went to Wal-Mart. The only noteable thing that happened was when we were leaving. G wanted to ride in the little "Barney car" with his favorite purple dinosaur, or maybe the *only* purple dinosaur. Anyways, he hopped right on up there and we put in the quarters. $.50 by the way. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. He loved it! He decided it would be more fun if he could get closer to Barney. So he stood up, sat in Barney's lap and wrapped his arms around his neck. Mind you, I was cringing from all the germs he must have been absorbing, but he had such a blast.

As if we wanted to torture ourselves some more, we decided to go to Chuck E Cheese's with my parents and my niece K. It really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. G ran around like a crazy man. Every time I would put a token in, he would play or ride for 5 seconds and then jump off and run to the next thing. If one of those toddler's were smart they could have followed us around and gotten a lot of free rides. He got to ride everything, and then it was time to eat. My mom bought him one of those cups that had the mouse mouth attached to the straw. So every time he drank it looked like he was a little mouse. I must be immature because I laughed every time he took a drink. meheheheheheheheheh, I'm still laughing. I digress, so while we were eating he became fascinated with the robotic *ahem* real Chuck E Cheese on stage. He watched him the entire time he was eating. When we were all done eating I decided to take him up onto the stage to play with Chuck. Well, he wasn't having that. He did his 'deer in headlights' stare, and that was my cue to get him as far away from the mouse as possible. After our close encounter with the mouse, G decided that he was determined to get up into the big tube thingys. Makes sense, heh? So after much engineering, he figured out that he could in fact climb up the slide and get into the tubes. Now, as cute and adorable as this was, it became a little concerning as to how we were going to get him down. He was having a blast up there. He was crawling through the tubes looking down through the see-through ones and laughing hysterically. After much bribing, we finally got K to climb up there and go get him...she was the only one that would fit. Much to her dismay she climbed up there and after a good 20 minutes managed to coax him out. All in all, it was a good night...other than my unfortunate air hockey injury...darn you Dad!!




So, I had the worst nightmare ever the other night. I dreamt that my 5 month old daughter figured out that if she rolled over several times in a row, than she would be able to *actually* get somewhere. AND THEN I dreamt that she was trying to crawl. Like, seriously trying. She wasn't playing around. The worst part of the dream was that it wasn't a dream and she is doing all these horrific things. God love her, but I just don't know what to do with 2 mobile children. No longer do I have a baby that I can lay on the bed while I get ready...I only got to do that for 5 months!!! Oy, now I will have to rework my morning strategy. Thanks a lot terribly gifted daughter, sheesh. *wink wink*.



Friday, August 7, 2009

Finally, we are moved in. Can I just say that I freaking love this house? It fits all our needs perfectly, at least as far as I can tell. The kitchen is great and the granite is just delightful. The kids rooms are perfectly placed as is the master. The master tub and shower are fantastic, and the backyard is perfect for the dogs. Okay, I know, I'm a little out of control with house love right now. But I'm sure that will wear off when the first mortgage payment is due. G was cracking me up at the closing. He kept picking up my purse, putting it on his shoulder, starting to walk out the door, stop turn around and say "Byyyyeeeeeeeee" and wave. I could have peed my pants. Seriously, it was that funny. So not only does he like shoes, musicals and lip balm, but now he wants to carry my purse on his shoulder. Love it!!

While I'm talking about G, we better cover his recent word explosion. New to the ever expanding vocabulary:
"Byeeeeeeeee"- although I think we already covered this one. He likes to drag out the 'e' at the end as long as possible. He also adds his signature wave a.k.a. lobster claw clasp.
"shews"- This is what some people would refer to as shoes. He says it allllll the time and if I say shoes he will go grab his and bring them to me and say "shewsssss".
"shhhhhhhh"- He likes to use this one if sissy is sleeping, or if he thinks anybody is sleeping, or frankly, if anybody sits still for longer than 30 seconds.
"diddy"- In 2 yo language, this means sissy. He knows exactly who she is and what her name is, er, what we call her. We haven't quite worked on the full L name, but he gets the sissy thing.
"day deeeeeeese"- This one I just taught him last night. It is actually 'say cheeeeese', but I like the way he says it better. He pairs it with a big toothy grin.


L is doing great. She is such a happy baby and so mellow. She wakes me up each morning with cute little coos and giggles from her crib. We are still nursing, WOO!! That is a huge accomplishment for us after all we went through. I broke down a few days ago and decided to give her a little sample of baby food. She had some banana in one of those mesh feeders. To say she loved it would be an understatement. She devoured it and then sucked on the mesh feeder for 5 minutes. G never did anything like that, so I was shocked. After I knew that bananas would be safe we tried green beans. She wasn't too thrilled about these. However she did learn how to blow one heck of a raspberry, or would that be spitting it out...not quite sure about that one. Either way, it was a spitty, slobbery mess. At least she looked cute doing it! She is quite the little roller now. Not only does she roll from belly to back, but now she rolls from back to belly with just as much ease. It really makes me curious to see if she will hit other milestones faster than G...but trust me, I'm in no hurry.




All is well in our little house and we couldn't be happier.