The cuteness - weekend edition

Bad Haiku Friday

Children Melting Down
Tears, screams, tantrums, flailing limbs
It's past their bedtime

Stanley Cup Finals
Hossa I think you screwed up
Go Pittsburgh Penguins

It is very long
With no hope of getting done
Husband's to do list

Stepped in something wet
Who the hell peed on the floor
Way too many cats

My darling children
I love you so very much
Please sleep through the night

20 Random Things : Me

After complaining that nobody ever tagged me in 20 random things, I still haven't bothered to bore everyone with ones about me.
1. I refuse to kill anything, it makes me feel way too guilty. I don't let other people kill things in my house either, karma people.
2. I am very very very squeamish
3. I take a picture of each of my children every day, God bless digital cameras
4. I dislike raw tomatoes
5. I am a grocery store nerd. I love checking out new stores. I wish I lived near a Publix, they are awesome.
6. I don't wear make up, I am too lazy and I have no idea what I'm doing
7. I was on jury duty once for over three months
8. I am scared of depths but heights don't really bother me
9. I didn't pass my driver's test on the first try. A school bus put on its lights RIGHT as I was passing it and I didn't have time to stop. The tester disagreed. Since then I have always been VERY paranoid when I see a school bus. F'real that kid would've had to jump out of a moving bus to be in danger...
10. I must have Chap stick with me at all times.
11. When I get stressed out my feet hurt. I'm not sure what's up with that one.
12. There were only 3 people in my senior class in high school
13. I'm very weird about medicine. I get a little nervous even taking Tylenol.
14. I love going to the beach, but don't particularly care for the sand. I prefer to sit on the deck and just look at it.
15. I wasn't allowed Happy Meals or Play Doh when I was a kid. My daughter gets both as often as she wants. Yes she gets the Play Doh in the carpet and no I do not care. :)
16. I can follow two conversations at the same time as a result of growing up in the same house as my parents who talk at the same time
17. I used to love candles, incense and scented lotion but since having kids can't stand the smell for the most part.
18. Only one room in my house still has white walls and I have plans for those.
19. I have only seen one episode of American Idol
20. I haven't been inside a movie theater in almost 2 years

Wordless Wednesday

Y'all gone make me lose my mind..

Cue tiny violins: I'm pretty sure I'm losing it. Most days are okay, some days great. But man the bad days really suck. I feel like I'm dragging myself along. We haven't gotten much sleep the last three nights. Weebs has been waking up super early and coming downstairs and having a really hard time getting back to sleep. Lots of crying and tantrums etc. It's like she wants to go back to sleep but can't. Last night I probably got a sum total of 4 hours of sleep with no two of those coming back to back. The two nights before were a little better but not by much. I cannot tolerate my baby being upset. I just can't and I know I'm going to have to get over it a little because kids will get sick, they'll be upset or mad or sad and I won't always be able to fix it as much as that kills me. When I got home from work today she wasn't feeling well. I took her to the peds and saw a Dr we'd never seen before. He diagnosed her problem as diaper rash. Do huh? I just took my nearly two year old to the doctor for a diaper rash. Admittedly she's never had one.. I don't know how because her skin is kinda fragile what with the eczema and all. And seriously it looks like some scary #$@*. But I still can't believe I did that. It's like the time I took my dog to the vet because I thought she had a mysterious lump and it turned out to be a tick. Helllooo dumbass. I'm pretty sure the vet still pokes fun at me behind my back over that one. Anyway, it was just a rough day. Not enough sleep, a total panic over Weebs feeling bad, I smashed my hand a few days ago and it still hurts so I'm figuring I might need to find time to get that looked at, oh and did I mention I'm crazy? I think that's where I was going with this. I'm thinking this PPD might be lingering just a little too long for my liking. I'm ready to kick the weepy days, the days where I cannot drag my sorry self off the floor, the days where I worry about everything so much that I find myself worrying if I'm worrying too much. But then again, I worry about trying to fix it too. I've never taken anything for my anxiety. What if it makes it worse?

Look out Jeff Foxworthy...

You might be a parent if:

Your blender is located on your back porch so that drinks can be made after the little ones fall asleep without waking anyone.

Even though your wallet has tons of spaces for cards etc, everything is crammed into the large section because your toddler has taken everything out so many times and left it on the floor you're tired of putting it back.

You do at least two loads of laundry a day. And that's a slow day.

You have about a hundred magnets that go on the fridge, but the majority of them are on the kitchen floor. Why is it so fun to throw them on the floor? I hope to be able to get an answer on that one of these days.

Finding chicken nuggets on the floor of your car isn't the least bit unusual.

Your home is a veritable wind tunnel of white noise to prevent this one from waking that one from waking you.

You consider a good night's sleep anything over four hours.

You haven't had a bath that was over 100 degrees in months because you are usually sharing it with someone two feet tall. Adding insult to injury are the fifty bath toys in the tub with you. And occasionally stickers. And occasionally food.

It takes you a minimum of thirty minutes to get out the door to do anything, even walk to the mailbox.

You have a minivan and are able to fully realize what a fantastic invention it was.

A case of the blahs

I'm having a hell of a time getting up off my ass these days. And then I feel incredibly guilty that I haven't done anything superfantasticfun with the kids and then I feel like a horrible mom and then I want to crawl under the covers and hide. Which doesn't help with the getting up off my ass any. I don't know what is wrong. I really want to do fun things with them but I'm either lacking the energy, motivation or intelligence to come up with and execute them. I take them to the park pretty much once a week but sometimes we only stay five or ten minutes. The Weebs loved it the first few times but now spends the entire time we are there having a fit to do something else. On the slides? SWING SWING she demands. So I put her in a toddler swing, OTHER ONE OTHER ONE she insists. So we move to the next toddler swing... nope. Then I swing with her in one of the big kid swings. She wants us to swing in a different one. And on and on it goes. I end up exhausted and she seems dissatisfied every time. I've also been taking her to the library every Friday. This seems to be going well. They have puzzles she likes to do and we get half dozen new books to read each week. The girl loves her books. We easily read twenty five or thirty books a day. But still this outing only really takes about half an hour. I don't have my kids in any of the myriad of toddler classes, Gymboree, Little Gym, Kindermusik. Are they worth it? I don't know. I guess I should look into it. I've been meaning to, really. Some days it seems like I manage little more than basic house maintanance, keeping everyone fed and in clean diapers and updating twitter. Priorities people. So is it persisting PPD? Laziness? Do I need some meds, a pep talk, a drink, a nanny, a kick in the backside? Or maybe just some good ideas?

Bad Haiku Friday

Crayon on the walls
I'm still in my pajamas
Thank God it's Friday

Happy Hour

I'm not sure mere words can do yesterday afternoon justice. Things had been going along just fine. My mom was here hanging out with the kids and giving me the chance to work on the Peanut's room a bit. I knew that the owner from the air conditioner place was coming out between four and five to inspect his men's work and leave the bill. I was planning on making Mac and Cheese for dinner. Everything was under control...

So, sometime around 4:45 Mr. Matthews calls to say he's running late but will be here shortly. I think to myself, hmm better go ahead and get dinner going in case I get stuck talking to him a bit. I started a big pot of water for the noodles and preheated the oven. I also ran the Peanut's bath so it would be ready for us. Then I started on a quick white sauce. No problem. I see Mr. Matthews has driven up and I hear him talking to Weebles through the screened in porch. He yelled to me that he was going under the house to check things out and he'd be in soon. Great. Weebles was happily playing on the porch. Mom was holding Peanut. I run into the living room to grab the checkbook to the equity line off the mantle where I last remember seeing it. I had gotten it out Friday thinking that the A/C would be finished then and I'd need it but of course no such luck there. I can't find it. Uh.Oh. Hmm ok. Mr. Matthews lets himself in and starts trying to talk to me. I remember nothing about what he said because I was busy thinking oh shit oh shit where did I put the damn checkbook. I ran into the kitchen and saw the white sauce was bubbling so I switched it off. I started to sift through the massive pile of replaced register covers, catalogs, baby clothes, painting supplies and anything else you can imagine that has decided to magically cover my kitchen island and desk. Seriously where did all this crap come from? Is it always so crazy messy in here? The Weebles runs up to me MOMMY MOMMY UP UP she said anxiously. She's nervous around strangers these days. I tried explaining to her that mommy was busy right that minute and couldn't she go play elsewhere? Meanwhile Matthews is still prattling on about something but I can't hear him all of a sudden because my baby decides to start screaming his tiny little head off. Really it was reminiscent of the colic days. I don't know what in the bejesus got into him. I frantically called Andrew to see if he knew where the checkbook was but couldn't hear a word he said over the screaming. To make a long story short, this went on for a solid twenty minutes while Matthews suggested that he could take a credit card... yeah buddy, I have a credit card with over $4k on it. Weebles screaming UP UP MOMMY and hugging on my legs, Peanut wailing, me calling Andrew over and over asking if there was any other way I could pay the man all the while throwing all manner of clutter around looking for the elusive checkbook. I run back in the kitchen to ask Matthews if he'd be okay with Andrew dropping off a check at his business to find the man at my stove stirring my white sauce. He said "uh I turned it off, it was boiling over" HUH? I thought I turned it off. He said he thought it had burned "whatever it was.." Sigh. I had turned off the damn water for the noodles instead. OKDOKIE, square one on dinner then. I grabbed my wailing son and ran into my closet to look one more time on my desk. Sure enough under an envelope of ultrasound pictures I found the stupid checkbook. How did it get UNDER ultrasound pictures? I know I haven't looked at those lately. Ugh. I literally cried when I saw it. Meanwhile Matthews was helpfully looking through things too. "Hey lady I found a checkbook" he said. Thanks buddy, that's for my checking account. Again... no four thousand dollars there. I scribbled out a check as he was saying "I commend you lady" After he left I noticed there were three bottles of liquor right near the stove that were out when my inlaws were in town this past weekend. Sigh.

Not so wordless Wednesday

Why my son needs a room of his own. In response to my mother who seems very anxious that I am insisting upon finally getting around to clearing a space for the Peanut to have his own room, because you know he's not almost five months old already.

I nurse Weebs down to sleep. At night Andrew is able to take her up to her room and tuck her in. I am not up to the challenge on a regular basis so I let her nap on my bed. When both kids nap in my room the Weebles naps about an hour and a half. When the Peanut is out of the room and out of earshot, she naps about three hours.

Case. Closed.

Wordless Wednesday

Best Day

Being a parent is a series of moments where you think "this is the best day of my life, this moment right here I'll remember forever." Unfortunately I've already long forgotten hundreds of these moments. Tonight we sat on the kitchen floor in our PJ's, Andrew the Weebles and me, eating warm Rice Krispie treats I'd just made right out of the mixing bowl. We each had our own spoon and ended up getting marshmallow all over ourselves. Yummy, Weebs said grinning. Waking up this morning with one of my peacefully sleeping children on either side of me is another. It is impossible not to feel overwhelmed by the blessing of your children when you watch them sleeping so innocently. Or after naptime today when the three of us were on the bed, I took turns tickling my son and then my daughter and both were giggling and eating up the attention. My son kicking his chubby little legs and my daughter rolling around hiding under the covers. My mom just watched us and told me I was the best mom. Everytime she says that it doesn't ring true to me. I just love my kids, that's all. Just like any mom should.

A conversation

I remember as clearly as if it was yesterday. A month or so ago my husband was on his way out the door with a dozen or so beach towels.

Me: What are you doing with those?
Andrew: Covering up the plants. They are calling for a frost tonight. Don't worry, I'll wash them when I bring them back in.
Me: Um..

This afternoon I was attacking the pile of cardboard that has accumulated in my garage thanks to my little online shopping addiction. What did I find but a giant box full of damp musty beach towels? Hmph.

Sleep, or lack thereof

Most nights have been good around here lately. I haven't had to watch Oobi or Gullah Gullah Island in a couple of months, so that's progress. However, some nights are still quite challenging. Lucky for me I went to bed early last night because my evening went something like this:

1 am The Peanut wakes up to eat. I plop him in bed beside me, feed him and doze back off.
2 am The Weebles calls out over the monitor. I tuck the Peanut back into his crib while Andrew goes to fetch her. I snuggle her back to sleep.
3 am The Peanut wakes up again. I think he must've been cold because this is unusual. I drag myself out of bed and nurse him while I check out Facebook. Big mistake. Do NOT look at the internet while awake in the middle of the night. It got my brain going around in circles and I laid awake for an hour.
4:30 am The Weebles has moved over so close to me I can't move. I've had one cat sleeping on my pillow all night and another sleeping in the center of the bed on top of the covers so I can't pull any over to cover up with. The Peanut starts to fuss again. At this point I manuever my foot around the cat and kick Andrew and tell him to go calm him down. I wake up again at 5:45 to the sound of the baby crying in the living room. It seems poor husband has been up the whole time bouncing the little guy and trying to convince him to go back to sleep. I take Peanut and settle him in bed with me (on Andrew's side since there's some room over there) and everyone goes back to sleep.. for about 15 minutes until cats start making a ruckus to be fed. Finally at 6:30 Andrew gives up and gets up to start the day. I stay in bed with both peacefully sleeping children for another half hour or so then get up. As my dad likes to say "doesn't it feel good to be so needed?"

Laundry Room Makeover

I think the pictures speak for themselves....

Playing Favorites

I have heard different opinions on this from different parents and my own personal belief is that *if* I did end up finding myself feeling a closer bond with one child over the other I would go to the ends of the earth to not let them find out about it. Some parents swear they love their children equally and others make no secrets that they have favorites. After being the parent of two for a whopping four months I am starting to form an opinion on the subject. If you had asked me six months ago, or even three months ago if I was going to have a favorite I would have said absolutely not. But secretly I felt that I would never love anyone like I love my daughter. Now that my little man is here I can easily see how I will love all my children enormously but in different ways. As for a favorite I don't think that is a question that will be answered the same all the time. For example, right now the Weebles is at a bit of a difficult stage. The Peanut is just now really coming into his own and showing his little personality. He's at a super fun stage so parenting him is easier right now. In a matter of weeks or months it might change again. And then there will be those blissful times when the planets align just so and they are both at awesome stages of development. Of course I suppose there might also be times where they are both at difficult points... let's not go there 'kay?

Dr Wha?

I asked my pediatrician today about EMLA cream to help with the pain of vaccines. I'm not crazy about vaccines in the first place but I'll refrain from crawling up on my organic free range hippie soapnuts box for the time being. But, it seems to me if there are methods that can make it less traumatic for the kids then why not? She said that she was fine with writing a script for it but that I also might want to look into this really neat plastic thing called a shot blocker. Basically she said it goes over the shot site and puts pressure in spots that disrupt the pain signals. She went on and on about how neat it was. Meanwhile I just stared and nodded not knowing how to avoid the obvious question. If it is so great, WTF don't they use it?

Whiplash

All of a sudden I live with a crazy person (well one besides myself). I'm constantly thinking must remember to blog about this and then I forget. But here are just a couple of examples recently.

* I was eating some toast and Weebles saw me. Toast Toast she insisted. So, I got up and made her a piece of toast. All the while she stood there in front of the toaster yelling and screaming TOAST TOAST TOAST as though her very life depended on getting that piece of toast. Finally it was done and I handed it to her. HOT! She said and dropped it. And that was that.

* This morning I set her ball pit back up. The one with 200 plastic balls. Who on earth had that bright idea? Anyway she was frantic for me to get them all in the tent. Because, you know, she had dumped all 200 of them out on the floor while I was setting the damn tent up instead of waiting and dumping them in the tent. As soon as I got them all in she happily threw herself in with them. Immediately she got agitated and started screaming OUT OUT and throwing all 200 back out of the tent on the floor. Once they were out she looked at me pitifully and said Help ? Help ? To put them back in. Nosiree, I don't think so.

The tantrums in general. OhmyGOD the tantrums. I took some video the last couple of days. We have a new thing where every day after naptime is a good half hour cry and throw ourselves on the floor-fest. I can't figure out what is going on there.

It seems like for every action there is an opposite and equally intense reaction. Everything that makes her really happy these days then causes a total fit when it is over. A trip to the park? Pure glee until time to go and then we must endure screaming as though she is being poked by hot needles. Popsicle for snack? Once it is gone and she realizes her demands for mo' mo' aren't going to be met she instantly goes face down on the floor howling. But the most puzzling is the tantrums where she really really wants something and as soon as I give it to her she acts disinterested. She must've asked me for yogurt fifty times this morning before I could get to the fridge and hand it to her. Then she set it down and walked off. Wonder how long this phase lasts?

A Plan

Any plan really. I'd really love a five year plan. Where we'll live, what school the kids will go to. That sort of fun stuff. However, at this point even a plan for dinner would be something to go on. Special days tend to get tense around here. And here is why: My husband doesn't plan. Oh sure, he'll frantically have something express shipped a day (or hey, maybe even two!) in advance. But as far as a plan for the day? Not a chance. I think he is well meaning. I really do. I think he assumes "hey we'll do whatever she wants!" But this doesn't work. Moms know what I'm talking about here. Because basically that dumps the meal/activity planning right back in my lap and I get the pleasure of doing that every day thankyouverymuch. I don't want to plan. Come up with something. And you know what? If you are so convinced I won't like it, come up with TWO options and I'll pick. But don't just let the day lolly gag around with me expecting that you have some sort of surprise going and you just sitting around waiting for me to say "hey honey, today we're going to the store! Won't that be fun?" Because at some point I'm going to be hungry and cranky and then we'll be stuck in a panic trying to squeeze some sort of meal in before the kids fall apart all over the living room floor in exhaustion. If you want my input ask me a couple of weeks in advance. If it is Mother's Day or my birthday (conveniently located in close proximity to each other) assume the ball is in your court.

Where is my blog list?

I just got a new laptop and haven't transferred my bookmarks yet. So I've been relying on my blog list to keep up with the ones I just can't live without. For some reason today they aren't showing up. How annoying. That is all.

Five minutes of my day:

Overheard by the staff as I pulled up to the drive through window at McDonalds:

Weebles : WAAA NUGGETS NUGGETS! WAAAAAA! NUGGETS!
Peanut: AWA, AWA, AWAAAA
Me: Nuggets are coming honey, I promise. It's okay baby, we'll be home soon. Thanks have a nice day!

Wordless Wednesday - The difference six months makes...

October 2008

April 2009

One less thing…

Since we have been dealing with our first real sickness, I have been spending way too much time with the googles trying to figure out what might be wrong. The list of possibilities is scary. Of course it could just be a run of the mill virus like the advice nurse suggested. The fact that the Weebs seems to be feeling so much better today is helping me to believe that. Another sign that it isn’t something really serious is that now I am feeling sick too. It’s funny how that queasy feeling constantly sends little pings to my brain… a flashback to the last two summers. I have to keep reminding myself that this time I’m NOT pregnant. THAT would be serious indeed.. the mere thought makes me feel a little sick….

Sick Day

We have been very fortunate when it comes to our kid's health. Aside from her very scary trip to the ER thanks to an egg allergy, the Weebles really hasn't had so much as a case of the sniffles. However, on the last night of our trip she woke up restless and ended up being quite sick to her stomach over the course of the next couple of hours. She seemed fine the following morning and even had a piece of toast and some corn flakes but then halfway through our six hour trip home I made the super smart suggestion to give her some applesauce and that did not go over well. Let's just say that three hours in a car that smells not so nice with a toddler that doesn't feel well isn't my idea of a good time. On the plus side I finally was motivated to take the Britax apart and wash it... When she isn't actually throwing up she has seemed to be in a fine mood, no fever no other symptoms. However, today she is refusing to eat. Reason number 1,354 that I am thankful for breastfeeding. At least she is getting some calories and hopefully enough fluid to stay hydrated. I have a call into the advice nurse. I'm hoping this is just a perfectly normal virus and that I am just spoiled that this kind of thing hasn't happened sooner. Keep your fingers and toes crossed that this isn't something that gets passed around. I really would be a mess if the Peanut was sick too.

Va.Ca.Tion.

Fruity drink?

Enjoying the beautiful weather and many days in a row with Andrew and the ohsowonderful grandparents. The kids are having a great time and as all momma's know if the kids are happy its not too hard to assume we're happy too. I'm looking forward to catching up on everyone's blog though, not having high speed is killin' me.