Makes my Monday

Ten things that make my Monday:

10.) Peanut only waking up once last night. And then slept in a little this morning!

9.) Getting a package from Wubbzy in the mail today!

8.) Watching the two babies have a shriek off and crack each other up.

7.) When Peanut gets the giggles while nursing.

6.) Upcoming three day weekend

5.) Finally getting around to washing the car seats. Whooo FTW!

4.) Nothing has gotten peed on so far today... This is HIGH on the list my friends.

3.) Managing to stay on points two days in a row.

2.) Cooler weather - less humidity

1.) Summer veggie dinner *nom nom nom*

Playground

Andrew decided we should take the kids to the playground this morning since it wasn't eleventymillion degrees for once. It turned out to be an awesome trip. The Weebles' really got into it for the first time. Running up the steps of the big kid! play structure and going down the slide by herself. There were lots of other kids there in her age range and the dads all sort of worked together. Andrew manned the top of the slide and other dads hung around the bottom. I managed to give the van a good baby wipe detailing.. heh. Sigh.

Andrew wanted me to blog about my near adventure at lunch but I'm still feeling super grossed out and its almost dinner time. Let's just say that Japanese salad dressing looks not totally unlike something you might find, oh let's say, in my son's diaper now and again. And that when you pick up your baby who has NEVER had any sort of blow out it might still be worth checking your hands before continuing to eat your salad. I came THISCLOSE people. Oh my hells.

Four. Four o'clock. Not six, not five FOUR A FUCKING CLOCK. A.M. This is when my son woke up this morning. He has always been a champ at sleeping as long as it is dark outside. For months and months he only got me up once to nurse during the night. Bliss. Now all of a sudden he's waking every two hours again. Last night Weebles' woke up and threw a gigantic temper tantrum in the middle of the night and kept us up for nearly two hours. So I'm already exhausted. I'm already frazzled. So to go upstairs thinking I'd be nursing him and hopefully tucking him in for the last time tonight (shit at this point is it last night? hell i don't know) only to have him stay wide awake and start rolling around and babbling... oh.hells.no. I put him back in his crib, that lasted a few minutes until he got bored of crawling around in there. I tried rocking him, nope. I tried nursing him again, no thank you mama. I was so groggy I knew I couldn't even stay awake with him up there so I brought him downstairs and put him in the bouncy and tried to turn on the TV. Somehow I hit the wrong button and not only turned the menu information to Spanish instead of English but also turned on picture in picture. I couldn't have done that if I'd fucking wanted to.

When you have a newborn you're ready for this kind of sleep deprivation. Sure, you're tired but you have a newborn and at least for the first few weeks you get by on sheer excitement. It is the sleep regressions that hit when you least expect it that really knock you on your ass. Now if you'll excuse me I need to go find the Tivo remote... Classical Baby needs to be restarted...

Doooced

Okay seriously. I get that I am still in a "way too many babies and way too little of me" fog. But I just don't get what the BFD is with this whole Dooce thing. I guess maybe because I'm not out to make money or get free stuff or sell ads or do reviews yada yada yada bullshit I just don't see it the same way. There are people all over the internet that bitch about Maytag.. and front loaders in general. I know because I recently spent about two weeks googling front loading washing machines to figure out which ones to buy. And it seems that the two main complaints are a.) musty smells and b.) error codes and a bitch of a time getting them fixed, even new. So when I saw her original tweets I knew what the problem was. I didn't need her to explain it to me. And even if I didn't does she really "owe" me that information? I don't care if everyone on the planet follows Dooce, it shouldn't matter. We can all use our brains and our typing fingers just like anyone else to research something. I'm not going to choose a washer and dryer solely based on what she said in 140 characters... or even 1,400 characters if she tweeted 10 times about it. And even if I was that much of a lemming.. them's just the breaks. Too bad for Maytag. If they fixed the problem for her like they should do for any customer, then I would hear about that also and then maybe I'd be all impressed with them. Whatever. I happen to have ended up buying a Maytag, one a hell of a lot less nice than Heather's. It works just fine, as a matter of fact I lurrrve it. Some days more than my kids cause they refuse to sleep at the same time.

I'm not sure what I'm missing here. If Michael Jordan can go out and pimp Nike and get paid for it no less shouldn't Reebok have the same argument? It's just not fair that somebody so popular isn't liking our brand. But in Heather's case she's actually telling us her experience with it... and she isn't getting paid to do so. Not to mention for Chrissakes' it's TWITTER people. I know there are people out there that tweet all this nonsense about "hey buy my seminar" and "hey shop at my online business" but for the most part I thought God intended Twitter for pure time wasting and bullshitting. I really think people are getting their "no specific brand" of undies in a bunch over this for nothing. And for their sakes I hope they have functioning washing machines.

Indecision '09

I just can't decide on furniture for the Weebles' room. It is killing me. I have a lovely quilt that I had made for her room and I know what color we're painting the walls.. if I can ever get the motivation to actually paint it. But the furniture is proving to be a sticking point. We don't have much in the way of local places to choose from. Ashley furniture and Rooms to Go (not even a Rooms to Go Kids..) is all that we have close by. Neither had anything that really jumped out at me at first glance. I guess part of my problem is that I'm torn between something super cool like bunk beds which she is way too small for and doesn't have the space or need for anyway and just your basic furniture. I guess I know we're going to go with basic furniture but it is hard to let go of the idea of something like a fairy princess castle bed or the like. I found some furniture, on sale no less!, at Pottery Barn Kids that I liked online but when I went in the store I realized that the dresser was teeny tiny. So it would only be functional for her for a short time and that seems silly. There is a set at the Land of Nod I like also and I'm pretty sure that's what we'll go with but $350 in shipping alone is hard for me to come to terms with. That's more than some of the furniture! This isn't the only thing I'm having a hard time with. It is like my ability to make a decision has completely left me and it drives me nuts. But today I am motivated. Since handing down (or handing over really) the nursery furniture to her little brother last week, the Weebs has been bunking exclusively with us. I love co-sleeping. LOVE IT. But I don't particularly love it exclusively. So, this weekend it is. Painting, furniture to be ordered.. I can do this. Right?

Wordless Wednesday

Babble from a sleepy Mama

The Peanut pulled up to standing today. So that wasn't terrifying or anything. He's not even eight months old! I cannot believe how much faster he is progressing at the gross motor skills than his sister did. Today was the first time I've ever seen her jump with both feet. Something she no doubt learned from watching me play EA Sports Active. He still is behind where she was on fine motor skills but I hope he'll turn his focus to those soon. Sleeping in the full size crib isn't going well. He was up the first night three or four times and up every hour last night. I think we must be in the midst of a sleep regression for both kids at the same time. I'm too tired to figure out if it is better to get two over with at once or if it would be easier if at least one of them was sleeping. Last night I was tempted to just turn the TV on and plop them in front of it and go back to bed. I'm going to bed while I can. :)

A few quiet minutes

I don't think it really sunk in before I had kids exactly how little time there would be in the day to do anything "kid free". I love my kids to pieces but in order to stay sane I really do need some time to just zone out guilt free. For those readers that see me twice a week at Johnny, understand that sometimes that is the ONLY time I spend that entire day (as in a twenty four hour day here people) without a child within arm's reach. Today was one of those days. The Peanut napped right before I got home. He didn't so much as close his eyes again until he went to bed a little after seven. That is a really long time for someone as little as he is. I spent in the neighborhood of three hours today trying to get one or the other of them to sleep. I hate it when that happens. I feel like I spent the entire afternoon trying to get Peanut to nap and therefore all my energy for him went to that instead of to fun stuff like reading books with him or playing. And I just don't know what to think about Weebles' sleep these days. Things have improved a little bit in that she isn't waking every couple of hours crying anymore but it takes an act of congress to get that child to sleep. She is happy at least, singing and telling stories and snuggling around under the covers and pillows but lying in the dark with her for an hour plus each night is seriously eating into the two hour window I am generally left with at the end of the day. Plus, it is kind of hard to get up and do things after snuggling in bed forever that late in the day. At that point I feel like going to sleep. And to top it off she is in our bed all night now, Andrew had quit even trying to move her to her room so that sort of takes a lot of options off the table for me. Like reading in bed, or twittering in bed, or blogging in bed.. you get the idea. Now of course her room is a shambles so we couldn't put her up there even if she would sleep up there. Hopefully we can make some good progress this weekend on getting it back in order. Going to bed when she does would make a ton of sense in that I could finally catch up on some sleep but I find when I go days without an hour or two to do something totally non-kid related my morale takes a serious hit and when dealing with the PPD that can be a treacherous place to go. Luckily I get to go to work in the morning, heh.

Big boy... Crib?

We finally got around to moving the Weebles' crib down the hall into Peanut's room. He had been sleeping in a mini crib but he'd started to pull up on the railing into a sitting position and so it was only a matter of time before he decided to take it one step further. Plus Weebles' hasn't allowed us to so much as set her down in it (even completely asleep) in a month or two so really there wasn't any point in waiting. We're coming up with a plan to transition to her to a "real" bed sometime in the near future and she can just continue to co-sleep until we get that figured out. I'm happy to finally have his nursery pretty much put together. He's only eight months old after all. Poor second children.

Engagement Fun

Today was the big day for Gypsi and Derek's engagement party. I endlessly debated what would be best in terms of a get together. I thought I had settled on having it outdoors on my parents' brick patio and had even set the menu with a caterer and ordered invitations. Then at the last minute I chickened out on the idea. How would I be sure how many plates to rent? What if it was a million degrees? What if it rained? All of that plus the fact the bartending company never got me a final quote led me to return to my original idea, having it in a restaurant somewhere. There are surprisingly few restaurants in the area that would work I found. I worried a sit down dinner would be a little too stuffy for the crowd we were inviting. As it turned out a reception at a restaurant seemed to be just the thing. Everybody appeared to have a good time and you'd better believe I was breathing a sigh of relief that we weren't outside when it ended up storming all day. Now on to the bridal showers!

Life with kids

There is no denying that children change your life. However there are the little things that I don't even really notice anymore. For example:

Want to take a bath?



Yep, that's a watering can in the tub. It used to be outside but I guess the Weebles thought she'd have more fun with it in the bath. We've actually cut down the # of toys she keeps in there believe it or not.

How about wash your hands or brush your teeth?



Since she doesn't always have time for a bath, the sink makes an acceptable substitute. Since we taught her to wash her hands we've had to keep a close eye out for faucets left running. Speaking of, I HATE my faucets. The people that built this house must have owned stock in the shiny brass fixture company because it.is.everywhere. I'm slowly purging it from the house.

You can just repeat for the kitchen, bedrooms, back porch and the living room? Oh my goodness, the insanity that is our living room.




And this isn't even the half of it. I've already been picking up toys off the floor for probably half an hour. I used to go in houses where there were no pets and marvel at how untouched their plants were and how quiet and still everything seemed. Now I go to houses with no children and wonder "where is all the stuff?"

Anger Management

My dad and I went and picked up Cracker Barrel for dinner tonight. Got caught in a HORRIBLE rain storm and I couldn't see anything on the interstate. As we got closer to home the rain let up and dad started in on how he bet after driving in that monsoon for fifteen miles it was going to be completely dry at his house. Damn if he wasn't right. I was afraid he was going to have a heart attack right there in the car screaming about the lack of rain in his neighborhood while it poured everywhere else. I couldn't help but laugh, really who goes off on rain?

Wubbzy Wednesday

I remember when the Weebles was probably 9 or 10 months old we discovered Wubbzy. We didn't turn the TV on much but she would sit and stare at it if I had it on and a mama has to get stuff done around the house every so often. So it was on one afternoon and this show came on that reminded me of a really cool video game (speaking of... Wubbzy peeps, come on! I need a video game here) and I told my husband about this crazy bouncy yellow cartoon. A couple of weeks later he was home when it happened to come on. "Oooh! Here's the show I told you about!" My daughter was hooked. Ever since then she has watched "Wow Wow" every evening from 5:30 - 6. If Noggin ever moves it from that time slot I am going to be SO mad because my husband gets home from work at 6 and it is perfect timing for me to finish up dinner. Last year for Christmas my husband thought it would be cute to get her the three beanie babies (Daizy wasn't around yet) and she immediately started carrying Widget everywhere. Widget was her first lovey and I even have a back up hiding in my closet should anything ever happen to her. A few months ago she took up carrying Walden and "Wow Wow", as she calls him, everywhere too. So now all three have to go with us on all our adventures. I'm just grateful she didn't fall in love with Oobi... yet.

The Cuteness

One for the baby book

Over Christmas our refrigerator quit working. Just totally quit cooling whatsoever. Now keep in mind that A.) I was nine hundred months pregnant and B.) As a result of A. we didn't travel for the holidays and instead had everyone here. Which of course translates into the fact that it would have been really keen to have a functioning refrigerator what with all the food that generally accompanies guests and holidays. So I did what any crazy person rational pregnant lady would do and calmly screamed that we needed a new fridge rightthatveryminute.

Nooo nooo said my darling husband and father in law. Not only did we not need a new fridge, hell we could fix it ourselves. This little comedy actually landed me in an appliance parts store seconds before they closed to purchase some whatchamadoohickey in my extraordinarily pregnant state. The lady running the store was not amused at the fact I was preventing her from closing on time on a Saturday coupled with the fact that I had no freaking clue what I was buying. She actually looked at me and without a hint of a smile said "I sure hope you don't let them talk you into delivering the baby themselves too." Egads.

I seem to recall going off on sitting down with my husband and discussing the fact that a baby would be arriving any day now and that by God there'd damn well better be refrigeration in this house because I would need food and plenty of water and possibly somewhere to store milk for the baby. While I enjoying roughing as much as the next gal I wasn't having much fun going out on the deck to get ice out of a cooler for the twelve gallons of water a day I was drinking at the time. That just wasn't gonna fly when there was a newborn to be cared for on top of everything else. I was assured things were back in perfect working order.

Fast forward one week and my inlaws swing by the hospital with our 17 month old to bring us and our new family member home. Have I mentioned before that our new little boy screamed? Not like "Heh babies cry" oh no. We're talking MOTHA EFFN SCREAMED. I knew it was unusual because even the nurses would kind of avoid us and made snide comments. So to say I was a bit of a train wreck would be an understatement. On the way home with my SCREAMING infant and my toddler who hadn't seen much of her mama in two days and was overdue for a nap I overheard my father in law say something to my husband. Now I was in the waaaay back of the van and there were two kids, one of whom that was SCREAMING, in between us so I couldn't make out much. But you'd better believe the words "oh by the way, the refrigerator quit working again" loud and clear. If I wasn't so knocked on my ass from the delivery and SCREAMING baby things would have been far worse for my poor husband. As it was they had some old guy come out and fix it before I killed someone. The ice maker still doesn't work, for the record.

TV = Fail

What show is this? Who are these people? - Me
I think it is Big Brother based on the 800 logos - Andrew
Oh - Me
I don't get it, why can't these people just live together. What is wrong with them? Do they just get a bunch of dysfunctional people and stick them in a house together or what? - Andrew

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We also tried to watch Iron Chef (the ingredient was corn people, I thought finally an ingredient I might eat. I had to change it when they busted out the sea urchins.)

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Who is the guy that the guy you like for the world title beat? The Canadian one. - Andrew
What? - Me
You know, that guy? I think that guy's Canadian. - Andrew
What are you talking about? - Me
That wrassler - Andrew
You mean Heartbreak Kid? He's Canadian? - Me
No, no the one he beat... - Andrew
What? - Me
Hart? Maybe? - Andrew
Bret Hart? - Me
Yeah, I think he's Canadian. - Andrew

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Who in the hell are these Kardashian people that are all over TV these days? - Me
I dunno - Andrew

We don't watch TV. As in, not at all. We used to watch a Tivo'ed episode of the Daily Show during dinner but we started doing the whole family dinner in the kitchen thing so that cut out what was left of our TV. And apparently that's not such a bad thing...

Promotion

So I was happily zoning out today, checking my email for the eleventeenth time when my eye caught on a subject line. Your Preschooler this Week. Um. What? I think I actually looked over my shoulder to see who this nonsense could have been directed at. Certainly not me. I checked, it was from my old friend Babycenter. The same Babycenter I've been getting weekly updates from for nearly three years.

First they updated me on my pregnancy. Your baby is the size of a kumquat and is growing eyelashes this week!

Then it was on to my newborn. Your two week old can now almost see as well a farsighted octogenarian!

And then of course after her first birthday it went on to toddler updates. Your sixteen month old may now decide that eating is no longer for her, lucky you!

Honestly I pretty much quit reading them awhile ago. Especially since I've been getting double updates for the last year and a half. It was just too much simultaneously seeing what one child wasn't up to speed on while wondering if the I needed to call the pediatrician for the other. A couple of times I've honestly had to double check which child the update was for. One recently said At this stage your child may begin to give you those long awaited baby kisses! I was all thinking, "hey cool my two year old just started giving me those big smacking sounds when she kissed me this week, right on schedule HIGH FIVE." Then I realized that was referring to my seven month old. Right. My seven month old drools on me if I press his face against mine. That's kind of a kiss right?

I also enjoyed the one that said At this age your baby may begin testing your authority by refusing to follow your simple directions... This one also refers to my seven month old. F'real? That's what that little turkey is doing? Well I'll be. And all this time I thought he had no farking clue what I was saying. Guess it's time to roll out the time outs for that kid.

Anywhos there was a point here somewhere, ohhh right my eensy teensy was just born like yesterday precious little baby daughter is a PRESCHOOLER. I need a good cry and a drink.

ETA: This post has been written with two spaces between sentences in honor of wbgookin and his old school typing mah-chine etiquette.

For better or for worse?

So this morning. This morning was the first time I can remember where I honestly considered leaving my husband. Nosomuch on a permanent basis, but for a few days to cool off and hopefully get the point across that asshat behavior is not to be tolerated. I had put away most of the laundry directly out of the dryer because if I don't do that and I put it in a basket or on the bed you can just forget about it ever making it to the closet. I'll wear wrinkled stuff until its almost all gone then I'll just throw the rest back in the hamper and start all over. Anyway, so there were only a few things left in there. Things that couldn't be folded. Things like, oh say, dress socks. Now, I don't wear dress socks. Or really any socks 90% of the year as I'm a barefoot kinda gal. So it is safe to assume these all belonged to the tall member of the family. So I was distracting the kids this morning so husband could get ready for work. He left the room and came back with a pair of socks. I wondered and then figured the ones he likes must have still been in the dryer. Fair enough, weird but not unusual for him. Later on I went to put the sheets in the dryer and lo there were about eight other dress socks in there. Nothing else. Just damn dress socks. WTF!?!? So he deliberately picked up 2 out of 10 socks and walked directly back to his closet to put them on. The closet where his EFFN dress socks live out their days when they are off duty. He shouldn't be the least bit surprised when he gets home from work to find all his socks on the lawn. Nope, not a bit surprised.

Pfffft

Some days I feel like I am dragging myself through the day. Like I weigh a thousand pounds (shut UP!) and my legs aren't working and I'm pulling myself towards some imaginary finish line. Some days I don't see how on earth I am going to make it another six hours, the rest of the afternoon or even ten more minutes. Yesterday was one of those days. I will lie down on the floor to retrieve a block or my car keys or a chicken nugget out from under a table and I think to myself how nice it would be to just lie there. For hours. I feel completely exhausted even when I wake up. My funk rubs off on the kids. There is no other way to explain why the days I am struggling the most they refuse to nap, they cry and fuss and wake each other up. Luckily I haven't been having too many of these days the last few weeks. I can't link them to lack of sleep because hell I never get any of that. I'd love to figure it out though because those days really suck for me and I can't imagine they are much better for my little ones.

Wordless Wednesday

(Not so) Solid Foods

So. Baby food. I don't particularly like it. I don't like having to buy the eight million tiny jars*. I don't like having to clean out and recycle the eight million tiny jars. I don't like having to fight with my son over who is going to hold the spoon. I'd really rather just go straight to finger foods. Ah finger foods. When mealtime can mean a few minutes with my hands free to empty the dishwasher. Such relaxation...

Now that my son is going on eight months old I thought it would be a good time to break out the puffs and see what he does with them. So far he picks them up, they get stuck to his hand so he has no idea where they went and eventually they fall off his hand into the chair or on the floor. Today I got impatient and figured if he knew the tasty goodness that was Happy Baby Organic Puffs then surely he would make the effort to go the entire tray to mouth distance. So I did what virtually every parenting source says not to do and popped one in his mouth. You'd think I'd given him a slice of lemon. He has this face he does when (I'm guessing?) he doesn't think much of something. He does this with peas and other assorted offerings. He actually makes a gagging gesture with his face.. then he squints his eyes shut and shakes his head back and forth as though trying to remove the memory of the awful taste. This is what the puffs got. Sighs. He does at least seem to enjoy a good teething biscuit...

*Thank you in advance for the advice on frozen baby food. I have a whole freezer full of it. The Happy Baby organic pears and sweet potatoes are so good I actually finish his leftovers. Unfortunately he gives them the "yuck face" (see above)

I have to come back and amend this post because I just tried one of those Happy Baby Organic Puffs and they are, in fact pretty gross. Think rice cake with less flavor. Sorry buddy, back to Gerber and all their added sugar we go.

Friday - Weekend

My daughter has taken up saying "Friday - weekend" at random times. And I don't blame her. I realized that with so many fun things taking place recently that we've asked her several times if she knew what the next day was. "It's Friday sweetie, the weekend!" She said it again this morning when I asked if she knew what day it was. It got me thinking, I spend an awful lot (and by that I mean nearly every minute) looking forward to something in the future. It is like the non-weekend days just don't matter. It is all about the days we get to spend as a family. Even just an ordinary weekend sometimes gets overlooked. Right after the baseball game I started looking ahead to two weeks from now when my inlaws will come back to town and we are having Gypsi and Derek's engagement party. Living in the present has been a big goal of mine for awhile now. When Andrew was away at law school is when all this mess started I think. I would essentially close my eyes and just rush my way through each week until the weekend when things could be normal again. Unfortunately I didn't stop it once he came home. Pregnancy didn't help any either as it seemed like I was constantly looking to the next midwife's appointment or milestone. I do feel like I have made a lot of progress in recent months. I try to enjoy the long afternoons coloring and playing blocks with the kids. I realize they are growing up quickly and I already miss the days that are behind us. And really nothing makes you slow down quite like a toddler does it? :) Even a walk to the mailbox is riddled with stops to investigate a new leaf on the ground or an ant scurrying by. Somedays I'm pretty sure my daughter is smarter than me...

Bx3 Weekend

Saturday was the Weebles' birthday party. Pretty much everyone she knows on a first name basis (er.. any name basis I guess) was there. We are so blessed to have family and friends that care so much for our kids that they would kill a Saturday night to celebrate a two year old's birthday. She got so many great toys, she didn't know what on earth was going on. I think "present" is her new favorite word. Blowing out the candles on the cake was another big hit for her. But by far the highlight of her evening was an impromptu concert where she managed to get at least half a dozen adults to give her their rapt attention. She danced around the middle of the room assigning different instruments from her new band set. It was quite a racket... I'm not sure how the Peanut managed to sleep through it. The neighbors are quite certain that a bunch of hippies live here now. My composter and eighteen recycling bins already had them whispering.

Then today was the much postponed Baptism for little Peanut. We put it off because he was so fragile at first. He did great. Lunch was great. Everything was great. Even my dad's somewhat inappropriate and totally unexpected prayer on abortion didn't manage to get me worked up. Whatever. After a much too short nap we were off to a company baseball game. Not that we play baseball, mercy no. Nobody give the boss that idea please. The Weebles enjoyed a huge waaay too red snowcone and crashed as soon as we got home.

There's nothing quite as sweet as the exhaustion from a well spent weekend is there?

Takes the cake

The Weebles is allergic to eggs and therefore can't have a regular cake from a regular bakery like most other little kids. This means she automatically misses out on those garish airbrushed Disney designs you can order from the local grocery store. Last year I baked her her very own small cake using applesauce as a replacement and got a regular cake for everyone else. Applesauce works okay but it really does make the cake a little too moist and crumbly. It is tough to eat and a nightmare to frost. Plus, I really suck at decorating cakes. So this year I went with a local high end organic store with a bakery and ordered a vegan cake. I explained to the lady in the bakery that it was for my two year old's birthday and she said no problem. So, I sent my poor husband to pick it up yesterday only a couple of hours before the party. As requested, it said Happy Birthday. At least that is what I think it said. Because the letters looked like they had been written in ice cream and had all totally melted and pooled together. The cake was chocolate, so it was all brown. With some brown icing around the border. And this lettering was in white. And that was it. For a two year old. I'm not sure where the communication broke down but I've ordered dozens of cakes in my life and I've never gotten one that looked more inappropriate for the situation than that one. Not even a flower or something? I.lost.it. My husband saved the day by using a toothpick to remove the illegible white goop and replaced it with colorful candles that spelled out Happy Birthday and some fun pink icing he picked up at the store. Otherwise everything went great. Will post on the big weekend tomorrow.

My little Weebles,

Today you turn two. TWO. As in TWO YEARS. How can that be? We named you Weebles when you were still in my belly, before we even knew you were a she. When I was pregnant I was a little ambivalent I admit. I was happy to be having a baby for sure, but I wasn't so convinced that there was, in fact, a baby in there. But you were in there all right. Shoving things around until you got your space just how you wanted it, only to decide that's not what you wanted at all and demanded that you were ready to be born. Sounds about right.

When we brought you home I loved and guarded you ferociously. I couldn't sleep if you were not within reach. I remember the first night that I moved your bassinette three feet away from the side of the bed so it would be easier for me to get up at night and I woke up and totally freaked out because I hadn't had verification you were breathing for thirty whole minutes. I remember talking to Andrew about how I would never, ever, ever be able to put you in your room at night. That it felt ten thousand miles away from me. Of course we do put you in your room at night now, but lots of nights you still come down and snuggle next to us for at least a couple of hours. And you still feel ten thousand miles away when you aren't right next to me.

You have learned so much. You can walk and run and climb. You can talk and ask questions. You have wonderful manners and love to chat with people in the grocery store. And my God do you love to sing and dance. Sue Faulkner is going to just eat that up with a spoon.

I am still fiercly protective of you, but now that your little brother is here it is different. All my fears and worries and anxiety are not centered only upon you, now I fret over both of you. So you get a break which is one reason why I wanted to have at least two children.

Speaking of your little brother, you are the world's best sister. You never even batted an eye when he came home. You bring him toys and try to show him how to do things. You tell him "it's otay buddy" when he is upset or frustrated. The first thing you ask when you wake up from your nap is "where's drew?" and then when you hear him wake up over the monitor you get all excited and say "brudder's up!" and tug me towards the gate to go upstairs and get him.

The next year will bring many new changes I am sure. I can't wait to see all you learn and how much you grow over the next twelve months. Some days I am sad, I miss you being a baby already. But it is fun to see you branch out on your own and get glimpses of the little girl you are becoming. Just be sure to come back and check in with your mama every now again, kay?

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Full plate

Who had the bright idea to go for NaBloPoMo when I have a million and one things to do? Me? #(#$! After being out and about all last week it has been a mad rush this week to get everything ready for the big birthday/baptism, or B3 as I've started calling it, weekend. I'm assuming I'm not the only one that completely tears everything in their house apart, cleans it and puts it back in a more orderly fashion before company comes right? Right? Sigh. Add to it testing recipes for the pre-baptism breakfast plus trying to care for two kids and an unruly stray dog... and I'm a basketcase. Not to mention finalizing the plans and mailing the invites for Gypsi and Derek's engagement party. I am sooo happy to have finally made decisions there. When did I lose my ability to make a decision? I swear. And my precious little boy has decided that he doesn't want to lie still on his back at all these days. That makes sleeping a little tricky. Poor fella is totally consumed with crawling and can't think about anything else. Unless he is totally out when I tuck him in, he'll flip right over and wake himself up. Classical Baby just ended so on that note, I'm outta here!

Trust but verify

Those are the wisest words I have read in quite awhile. It is all well and good to trust your loved ones. But, when you hear something that doesn't seem to ring quite true or when two people you thought you could trust are telling a different story then you need to make sure you verify it with facts. You know, like the kind you go and get yourself. Not the kind you are spoon fed by one side or the other. So while I trust my husband if he came home after being missing for two days and told me he was "working late" the whole time you'd better believe I'd be seeing some hard evidence before taking his word on it. A whole lotta trouble in this world could be avoided if those words were heeded....

Wordless Monday - Because I'm too tired to write

Seven months

Seven months old! You are getting so big. You almost kinda sorta but not quite got the hang of crawling this week. You went swimming in a real pool and loved it. Your napping is getting so much better and we are hoping to move you to a big boy crib soon. Daddy drew you some awesome dinosaurs for your room. I hope you will be a good enough sleeper to enjoy sleeping downstairs with us soon. I miss getting to wake up to both you and your sister's giggles. You are getting the hang of eating but still insist on shoving your little fist in your mouth with every bite. Your first two teeth finally appeared a couple of weeks ago but you have been a champ about it. We are just starting to really have fun. I know it will only get better and better. I love you little man.

NaBloPoMo

Here it is, August 1st. The first in a month's worth of posts. There is lots to look forward to this month, Gypsi and Derek's engagement party, The Peanut's baptism and of course the Weeble's Second Birthday. But for now, its time to go get some pancakes. YUM!