2 1/2

Weebles,

Today is your half birthday. Which is sort of a silly milestone I guess but given that you have a summer birthday it will probably come into play for school parties and the like. Plus, I love any opportunity to celebrate you. You have grown up so, SO much in the last six months. You are most definitely a little girl now. You no longer wear diapers, you sleep in a big girl bed (sometimes mine!) and you go to preschool three mornings a week.

Admittedly 2 1/2 is a tough stage for all of us. Some things have been getting better, you have been having fewer tantrums and had a great day with your Mana and Papa. For the last month or two you wouldn't have anything to do with them and would sit in my lap the entire time they were here. Bedtime has become a huge struggle lately and it is making things hard on all of us. But I know we will come out on the other side. Hopefully soon. Very, very soon.

I miss your baby days. It is hard for me to look at you and realize how far you have come in such a short time. Of course it is exciting to see you learn and grow but you are growing so fast it scares your Mama. My precious little baby girl. Please don't rush to grow up. And please, for the love of God go to bed.

Love,
Mama

Sleep deprivation

My plan this weekend was to run the kids from one activity to the next so ensure they would be so tired at the end of the day that they would sleep properly. Coming off basically a month of being sick we have been cooped up in the house and everyone was bored, restless and not sleeping worth a damn. Andrew and I are both at a breaking point we are both so tired. We haven't slept the entire night in the same bed in a month. Poor Andrew has slept sitting up on the couch more nights than not holding the Peanut who can't breathe very well lying down thanks to the gift that keeps on givin', RSV. Last night I spent several hours in the chair in our bedroom with BOTH children asleep on my lap. So, I went into the weekend with an iron resolve to wear these little people out. The secondary goals were to a.) have a TV free weekend (again, cooped up in the house, way too much Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, it was time to go cold turkey) and b.) get them out of the house so that Andrew could have several hours at a time without anyone around so he could catch up on work, sleep and drawing.

So here I sit. Nearly 10 on Saturday night listening to my two year old freak out over the monitor at her dad. I've already been in her room with her for well over an hour and the girl just isn't going to sleep. WTF? I am so exhausted I'm not entirely sure I'm awake as I write this. How in the hell can a two year old still be going strong? And the real kicker is that even when if she finally does go to sleep her little brother will be up.

Oh bottle of wine in the fridge... will I ever get to spend some quality time with you?

Toddler - "Mommy what's this?" holding up a ball of play doh

Me - "Hmm what do you think it is?"

Toddler - "Poop! It go in potty, I get special treat!" Runs towards bathroom

Happy weekend!!

Prompt #4 : Ten Seven things I never knew until I was a mom

Just how damn useful baby wipes are. I will never be without them again. Need to detail the van? Baby wipes. Stain on your shirt? Baby wipes. Want to wipe of the bathroom counter or dust the top of the TV? Baby wipes.

How insane children make you feel. They are totally irrational little beings yet you can't help but try to reason with them which leaves me feeling like I'm losing my marbles most of the time. "Honey if you don't take your antibiotics you'll never get better and will feel like hell much longer than necessary." - me "NO!" - Toddler

Just how little sleep parents get. You hear about it, you laugh about it.. then you live it and think, "Holy hell, will I ever sleep again?" I also wonder how little sleep one can survive on without actually dying.

I had no idea what constituted a "child friendly" place until I had kids of my own. First up, it has to be noisy. Like Cracker Barrel noisy or Red Robin noisy. You want to be able to walk in there and be totally drowned out. Bonus points if your restaurant or store has an area set up with toys so that the parents can actually eat or shop in peace for ten minutes. We don't get that luxury often and we will thank you a thousand times over.

Having children has highlighted what a hypochondriac I am. During pregnancy I was pretty sure I was on the verge of losing the baby and thereby dying myself at least a dozen times. After they were born I stared at my babies wondering how on earth they would remember to breath. Every illness or fever sends me right over the edge of reason with worry. I probably need to work on that.

Being a mom has taught me how much I suck at imaginative play. I blame my upbringing on this one. Really.. I'm totally clueless. I honestly cannot understand the fun in pretending to do something. But I think I do a decent job of faking it. At least my two year old doesn't seem to catch on yet...

There is never enough time to finish anything.

Wordless Wednesday

Groundhog Day

So you've seen the movie, right? Everyone has seen that movie. I've probably seen it a dozen times and to be honest I really wasn't all that impressed the first several viewings but it is one of those movies that is always on one of the cable channels and it is easy to zone out to. The more I have thought about it the more I like the premise of the movie. You get to do over the same day over and over again until you finally manage to get it just how you want it. Not having to think in hind sight about how you wish you'd said this or that, or how you wish you'd gone back to check on that stranded motorist or how you wish you'd spent more time playing Legos when your toddler asked and less time scanning the headlines on TMZ.

As a stay at home parent my days can be super monotonous. This is most pronounced in the newborn days when day and night all just run together in a 3 hour cycle of feed the baby, stare at the baby, try to play with the baby, repeat. But the days still seem to run one right into the other with two toddlers So, it is the perfect opportunity to stage a Groundhog Day of my own. From being more cheerful first thing in the morning (even when the kids aren't) to dedicating more of my day to slowing down and making Play Doh animals or building block towers I want to make sure each day is the best we can do as a family. Now I'm off to have a word with that silly groundhog... six more weeks of winter?

Not Me! Monday

It was definitely Not Me that left extra cake batter in the mixing bowl so that there would be more to lick off the spoon. Everybody knows those calories don't count.

It couldn't possibly have been me that allowed my children to eat every meal at the coffee table for the last three days. If I had done that I surely would have been doing a LOT of vacuuming up of crumbs.

I'm sure it was someone else that after finishing BFBM this morning stayed upstairs a few extra minutes to catch up on blog reading instead of rushing downstairs to take over with the kids.

And it absolutely was Not Me that neglected this blog the last three weeks while nursing two pitiful sick babies back to health. The mood around here would have had to have been so bad that I had nothing to say worth remembering for that to happen.

It is Not Me that has been unable to locate the only land line telephone in our house. The last time I saw it The Peanut was toddling around with it. Four days ago. We have searched everywhere. It wouldn't be quite as funny except he didn't also drool all over my cell phone rendering the back lit display useless. When I have a text message or missed call I have to find a flashlight to shine on the screen. People that try to get in touch with me can tell just how "together" I am.

It has however been me doling out lots of extra hugs and kisses to the babies. Watching them enjoy playing in the snow after wrestling with snow suits and related accessories for a solid twenty minutes first. Enjoying having the husband home and having time to just BE. We don't get around to doing nothing very often and that is a shame. I could use another few days like these. Anybody have any extra snow they could send our way?