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.

 

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*.

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.

Random Happenings

It has been too long since I wrote. Hence, we have some catching up to do.

L must have been going through a crazy growth spurt. She was getting up literally every 2 hours at night to feed...or should I say snack? Her sleep pattern has seriously been a roller coaster, not a terrifying one, but a good one. She seems to be settled back down now. I put her to bed around 9pm and she is usually up by 5am to eat. Sometimes she wakes up because she has wiggled down and gotten her legs stuck in the crib slats. Luckily she goes right back down after she eats and will sleep for another 2-3 hours. On the other hand, G is starting to snap out of his temporary sleeping strike. He is doing quite well these days.

G is doing great these days. His favorite food is still m&m's. I know, I'm a stellar mom. He piles them into his mouth super fast and then drools chocolate. He will then sign 'more' to anyone who will look at him. But I can tell he's not done bc his cheeks look like he just got his wisdom teeth removed. He is learning to use a spoon and fork. And by learning I mean that he uses it very well for a moment and then he uses it to fling food everywhere. I figure he realized food gets better air with a sling shot than just by throwing it. He loves to hold the leash when we go walking with the dogs. Picture Santa's sleigh if you will. That is just what we look like except that "Santa" has a little brunette elf in the back and instead of 8 reindeer there are 3 giant dogs. His new favorite word to say is "MIIIIINNNEEE"! We can thank his Nana for that one. I'm personally amused because he says it in his scary voice, almost as to warn you that it is in fact his and you shouldn't touch or you will face the consequences.


We took the kids to Sarah's pool to swim. L got to hang out with baby Lola...well, as much as two infants can hang out. It was nice for Z and I to get to relax in the pool and have a little drinky poo. I guess it wasn't exactly relaxing. First of all it was hotter than the dessert. The kids were slathered in sunscreen. G broke many rules that day. First, he enjoyed running around the pool, and everybody knows that is not okay. Than he threw food in the pool, that is also a no-no. Than, just for icing on the cake, he decided that he loved running and jumping into the pool. He has no fear of water, scary. So we literally had to keep our eyes glued on him the entire time because you never knew when he was going to want to jump in. As long as we were watching it was pretty darn cute. I shudder to think of what it would have looked like if we weren't watching.

G still loves to play outside. He straps on his Dora bicycle helmet and runs up and down the driveway. It is hilarious. His face is completely relaxed when he runs so his cheeks jiggle like crazy. And he goes "uhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuh" the whole time. The spelling really does not do the sound effects justice. Every now and then he plays with the soccer ball. For instance, the other night the neighbor boys were outside playing soccer across the street. G imitated (or tried) to imitate everything they did. When they would miss the ball, G would run and go get it for them...sound effects and all. One of the boys went to go get the ball one time and slipped and fell. So what did G do? He laid down in the street. I know, I know, I'm terrible. But the way he did it and the sound he made was priceless. As awful as it may sound, we often hose him down when he is done playing, but he is an active participant. He runs over and grabs the hose, which he knows how to turn on, and tries to water the plants. Well, watering the plants turns into watering mommy which turns into watering himself. He will hold the hose straight up in the air and laugh hysterically when he gets wet. And voila...there you have yourself a nice country bath!


Mornings without Z there are getting pretty hectic. G follows me around with my shoes and whines. He wants me to stop getting ready and sit down so he can put different shoes on me. I really want to play along, but not when things are crazy and rushed in the morning! Things are so crazy that the other morning I actually drove to work only to realize that G and L were in their car seats in the back. Sheesh. And for the record, I check every morning after I drop them off because I don't want to be one of those moms who left their kid in the car all day. So sad.


On a closing note, I just want to add 2 random things:
1. We found a cozy cruiser on the street the other night by some trash cans. It's ours now!
2. Z sprayed bear repellent in our garage when we were packing to move out. Just for reference, it burns like a.....well, you know.
3. The house is sold and closed on!!

Omaha Trip '09

For the first time in.....I don't know how many years, we were headed to Omaha for the Fourth of July. We were so excited. Grandma and Grandpa B have a big party on the 3rd with their neighborhood fireworks...they live on the lake, so it's pretty awesome. We were so excited that we decided to leave the evening of June 30. That way the kids could sleep for the 4 hours we drive at night and then we would get a hotel. We would simply lay the little angels down and they would drift into a quiet slumber when we got to the hotel.



AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! WRONG!!!

We drove to Concordia, KS and to be completely honest, the kids were dolls. And by dolls I mean they made no noise because they slept the whole time. haha. We arrived at the hotel about 11:30 pm. Z checked in and I got everything rounded up that we needed to take inside. Somehow Z and I managed to wrangle all the baby gear and two babies up the stairs to the room. I knew I would have to nurse L, but I had not anticipated on G waking up. And you know the ironic part? It's like he knows the sound of the pack-n-play being opened, and he hates sleeping in that thing. So he woke up and started exploring ever trash can in the room. After I fished all my flip flops out of the trash he had moved on to stealing his sister's blanket and throwing it. We got everything set up, I nursed L, and then we put the kids down. G was not having any of that. He hates the pack-n-play (and who can blame him, it's like laying on plywood). He screamed and cried. Being that we were in a hotel I gave in and put him in bed with us. I thought that we could snuggle and fall asleep together. Needless to say, that did not work. He rolled around and kissed and cuddled and hit and even recited the "little piggies" on his toes. As cute as it was, by 1:30 I had had enough. I kissed him and put him in his bed and surprisingly I didn't hear another peep from him until the morning.


We got up and were headed to load up. G decided that he was suddenly interested in the sprinkler system at the hotel. What does he do you ask? Does he look at it and study it, no. He stuck his head in it. Yes, his entire head soaked from the sprinkler. He was a little shocked at first, but then thought it was hilarious. He cracks me up. The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful. We listened to Weezer and sang along. L slept and G played with his clicky giraffe and probably drank 4 cups of juice...woops.


When we got there Gma and Gpa B were super happy to see us. L fell asleep again, so we lathered G up and took him out to the beach. He wasn't quite sure what to think about the sand. So we set up a chair and a bunch of sand toys for him. His favorite game soon became 'sit and point at the toy you want'. He didn't want to walk in the sand because he didn't like it squishing between his toes. He really loved swimming with Z...and he looked so adorable with his little red 'Crocodile Dundee' hat. He was very tentative about the water AND the sand. But all in all, he liked it. So imagine my surprise when the second day we are out there he takes off for the lake and dives it falling face first into the lake. Yes, my 20 month old son jumped in the lake without me there to catch him...and he didn't have a life jacket on. I scored an F on that one. No worries, we were right there to fish him out. Was he hurt or scared? Nope, but he was determined to keep doing it. We were all on our toes after that. L was awake on the second day. We took her swimming for the first time and she loved it. She loved it just like she loves everything else. She is so easy going and happy. She reminds me so much of G when he was her age. Very mellow and giggly.





Our 4th wedding anniversary was the 2nd. So we got all dressed up (not really) and went to our favorite little Omaha restaurant. It was really nice to get some alone time with Z. Did we do anything romantical after that? Nope, we went to Nebraska Furniture Mart and looked at appliances. haha. It was just nice to do that together without having to worry about G getting rambuncious and trying to find a place to discreetly nurse L. So all in all, it was a great anniversary. We didn't even do cards this year...that shows you how busy we are. We got home and Gma B was telling us how G was mirroring Gpa B by putting on his reading glasses and holding up the paper. ahhahahahahhaha. That one really made me laugh. He is so into mirroring everybody. I wish I could have seen that one.


L really started to get spunky on this trip. She is talking non-stop these days. She coos and coos constantly. She gets really loud and we can hear her all the way across the house. She is so cute.




Cousins C and M were in town that weekend. G had a great time playing with them. Their Gma and Gpa bought them swords and they fought with them. I'm not going to lie...Z participated. I think I even got a few limbs hacked off in the fight. I was surprised at how upset G would get if somebody swashbuckled me. If C or M attacked me, he would run over and jump in my lap and hold onto me. So sweet. G also discovered the dollhouse in the playroom. He brought out this teeny tiny doll chair and sat it in the living room. We weren't really sure what he was doing. He patted the seat of it and then looked at us. Hmmm, what is he doing? And then he proceeded to back his little bootie into it. We caught him just before he sat on the chair crushing it into a million pieces. It was so funny. I think we all laughed so hard we were crying. He knew that was a chair, he just didn't get why it was so small. haha.

On our way back home we stopped at a McDonald's so that G could play and eat and I could nurse L. Well I quickly found out that she was not having a nursing cover anymore. She refused to let me tuck the receiving blanket in my bra and drape it over her. She kept ripping it off and then hollering at me (yes, she hollers now in an angry tone). So I gave up. There I was, sitting in McDonald's with my boob hanging out and my daughter feeding. I think it bothered me for a split second, but then I was over it. What was I going to do? If anything, I wanted to show the other kids in there how normal it is to nurse a baby. Maybe that would desensitize them to a nursing woman. It's all a part of my master plan. Z decided that it was time to go when a 200lb little girl climbed up onto the play tunnel that was hanging over our table. I agreed.

It was a great trip and we can't wait for next year. Now we need to get moving with the house!!!