Wordless Wednesday: Will's Entourage

Just the Two of Us

Today's a day that I've been dreading.  I dropped off both kids at daycare today, in anticipation of returning to work full-time next week.  (Eek!  How did that happen??)  I started sending the two of them a week early, to get some semblance of a schedule and to get the kids (ahem...me) used to it.  Dropping them off, I cried the whole way home.  Brian, being a fabulous guy, stayed home with me today.  And you know what?  We rediscovered what it's like to be just the two of us.  We watched a movie from start to finish.  We went out to a great Italian place where we wouldn't dare bring kids.  We even ordered some sangria to share.  The day was filled with some snuggling, giggling, and even talking about things non-boys related. 

It's great to remember what being part of a couple feels like again.

Huntin' For Easter Eggs

We took a family outing yesterday for Will's first outdoor Easter Egg Hunt.  Easter Egg hunting is a pretty big deal this year, we're signed up for another (indoor) one this Friday, and of course, we'll bring some eggs to my parents for Easter for Will to hunt.  This particular hunt boasted a couple thousand eggs in a nature sanctuary, facepainting, prizes and a chance to meet the Easter Bunny, for only $10 per family!  It was a really chilly day, so we bundled up the kids and grabbed the stroller for a fun outdoor activity.  The trails were a bit tough for the stroller, but Brian made it work and Sean slept through the whole thing.  We found four eggs, including two that we could exchange for prizes.  There were unfortunately, a LOT of smashed eggs on the trails.  (Why do people have to ruin it for everyone else?)  Will had a fun time walking and searching for eggs, and we all got in a good workout in the (chilly) sunshine.  A good time was had by all and we got out as a family, which is something we are still working on successfully.  :)

Better Luck Next Time

I started working on a hat for my Dad for Christmas, because I was frustrated with the baby blanket that I am knitting for a friend who's due in July.  I just finished it and it came out perfect.....except there's no chance that it's going to fit my father!

I guess that must be why the experts and at the beginning of every pattern it says "Pay attention to gauge!"  

Now I just have a hat that's destined for someone else.  Someone with a small head. Better luck next time, Peaches.  :) 

Wordless Wednesday: Whistle While You Work!

Laughter: It IS Contagious!

I've spent a good part of the day today laughing.  Laughing to Baby Sean, smiling at his coos and the way he is simply astonished by the world around him.  He's had a really good today, waking up from a nap early and in a good mood.  No real tummy trouble today, yay!  I have no idea why, since we're not doing anything different.  Laughing at Will's antics, which include cursing.  I was sitting at the computer and he was playing behind me.  Suddenly out of nowhere, he says "S*#t!"  I gave him my best Stern Mommy look and asked "What did you just say???"  ""I'm sorry Mommy.  I didn't mean to say S*#t.  My robot just isn't working!"  I was able to keep it together, but the second I left the room out of earshot I laughed so hard I thought I was going to cry. 

Anytime you can spend the day giggling, it's a good day.  :)

Poor Baby

Sean's having a tough time with belly troubles.  His formula gives him such bad gas pains.  Today has been a really, really long day, other than the nap this morning and when he is eating, he has been red-faced and crying most of the day.  And the eating turns into the gas pains, so it's a vicious cycle.  In my best efforts, I opened up a can of soy formula this morning because it said on the can that it helps with gas and fussiness.  One bottle and he had spit up most of it.  So I went back to the formula that I had been using and called the doctor.  It took them like four and a half hours to get back to me, which NEVER happens.  And basically all the nurse said was to keep him on what he's on now, and we'd discuss the issues at his regular appointment on Thursday for his two-month wellness visit.  As I type this I am wearing him in a Baby Bjorn and it may be the first time today he isn't crying.  Unfortunately, I want to cry.  :(  I just want my baby bear to feel better!!  He is starting to coo and smile more when he isn't grumpy and in pain from this.  Let's see some more of that. 

Stomach Bug

Well, it finally happened.  The stomach bug that's been going around paid a short visit to our house.  The only one directly affected was Will, who started getting sick around bedtime on Thursday.  I immediately cancelled the playdate at our house for Friday.

 Friday morning he seemed better, and ate breakfast with no trouble.  So I thought nothing of picking up "Auntie" Tracy and going to the library.  Since we were all hungry after that, we decided to go to Friendly's.  I had planned on going to Town Hall to get birth certificates for the kids' passports, but shelved that for next week.  Thank Goodness, because as I was driving Tracy home, I heard an ungodly noise, followed by a smell that could only be ONE thing.  Yes, in the car.  A bit of a freakout on my part......nothing prepares you for this part of parenting!  Upon arriving home, it was all about stripping down, giving another bath and washing more gross laundry.  Then I couldn't get the carseat out of the car, it had to sit out there for Brian to pull when he got home.  And the "best" part?  The carseat was murder to pull apart for Brian, and he deserves some kind of award for pulling apart the panels and scrubbing them by hand in the tub!   More than 24 hours later, I think he's fine now and the rest of us remain unscathed other than the memories.  At least it was short-lived, thanks to hot, hot water, lysol wipes and tons of soap.  AND it could have been worse....it could have happened at Town Hall.  (This is what I think of your excise taxes!  BLAH!)  :)

Wordless Wednesday: Best Seat in the House

Because under the TV table is THE place to be to watch the Disney Channel!

Cleaning Out My Closet

Spring's in the air, and I always get the spring cleaning bug.  But I get over it just as quickly, so hopefully I finish what I set out to do before Spring Fever leaves the house!  I'm going back to work in a  few weeks (sniffsniff) and really had no idea what I had in my closet to wear or what even fit.  I got back into my pre-pregnancy jeans two weeks after Sean was born (Hooray!!!)  but of course, some things just don't fit "right" after the baby comes.  That, and I don't think I've bought work clothes in a long time.

I'm not what you call "fashionable" or "style savvy."  I live in comfy clothes.  My wardrobe consists of flat shoes, jeans and t-shirts.  Black slacks for work with an assortment of boring tops.  I find something I like and then WEAR IT TO DEATH.    It's better than it used to be....I used to have no grip of what was a bad choice:  the first time in college that I went dancing with my girlfriends, I wore something that was popular at the time, a pair of denim overalls and a t-shirt.  OK for schlepping to classes, not exactly a sexy look for a nightclub.  No guy really wants to dance with the girl that looks like a vivacious toddler.    I had "Mom Style" years before ever becoming a Mom. 

Cue in "What Not To Wear."  I watched this show obsessively a few years ago, and flipping through TLC today while feeding Sean gave me an idea:  I may live in jeans and tees on weekends, but it's time to start giving a damn about what I look like at work.  I need to stop going to work in my "uniform":  stretchy pants, vague sweaters and flat shoes.  Time to branch out!  So in the spirit of things, I made a pile of clothes to Freecycle and organized what I have.  I also made a list of things that I would like to get.  How about some pants that aren't black or tan?  In the next few weeks, I'll start browsing and seeing what's out there and try to jump out of my comfort zone.  It's time to be a Mom with Style.  :)

Spanish for Toddlers

Every once in a while, I try to teach Will some Spanish.  I understand Spanish better than I speak it, but usually I can hold my own conversationally.  I could order in a restaurant and I take a lot of housing application requests.  And hey, when there were some kids messing around in the parking lot at work, I had no trouble telling them to get lost OR ELSE! 

Anyway, last night while I was helping Will into his pajamas, I was trying to teach him "Give me your foot" in Spanish.  "Give me your foot" in Spanish is "Deme su pie."  (De-ME su PE-Ay.  Please remember phonetic spelling in Spanish is not my forte)  Instead, he says "Deme su hooray!"  Loosely translated, "Give me your hooray!"  We had such a good laugh about it, that he now says it repeatedly.  Tonight we tried "What's your name?"  What he comes out with is "What's your yummy?"  Ah, my bilingual comedian.  :)

Blunder

I hosted a playdate at my house yesterday, and after the babies and kids went home, it was lunchtime.  And after lunch....naptime for the Big Kid.  People are always amazed that Will still naps for us at almost 3 1/2 and frankly so am I most of the time!  However, there was no nap to be had today....he'd rather play.  So after Attempt #2 to get him to at least stay in his room and rest, and Sean rallying against a nap as well, I decided that it was time to take the kids out on such a beautiful day.  I told Will that we were going to go out to buy a present for someone, and he was ready and raring to go! 

Over the summer, we had seen an ad for Babies R Us having a big "Trade-In Event," so we traded our old highchair for a 20% discount on a new Sit n Stand double stroller.  We took it out for its maiden voyage a couple of weeks ago, to go to the mall.  Brian put the thing together, with little cursing (I was impressed.)  Today was my first time out with two kids and wanting to use the stroller.  Wait a sec.....it was my maiden voyage with BOTH kids in a store.  And yessir, I was not interested in wheeling Sean around and chasing Will through Bed Bath and Beyond!  So I got both kids ready to go and packed them into the car, drove over to Bed Bath and Beyond, parked the car and then proceeded to lug the huge stroller out of the back of the car.  Ten minutes later, I'm still trying to figure out how the hell to put the infant carseat into the stroller frame.  And I'm failing, miserably.  Concentration on these kinds of things doesn't come easy when you have a toddler asking questions repeatedly in the backseat, either!  With a huge sigh, I pull my cellphone out and call Brian at work to ask him how to do this.  And I'm greeted by his voicemail.  So there's no shopping to be had today.  I get the stroller back in the car, and take my place behind the wheel.  Will demands to know why I'm in the car and I answer honestly...."Mommy can't get the stroller together."  "But I want to buy Alana and Jason a wedding present!!!!   WAAAHHHHHHHHH!"  Surprisingly, I was able to bribe him into not screaming all the way home and waking up a peaceful Sean with a promise of a movie and popcorn when we get there. 

So my lesson for today:  pay more attention when your husband is teaching you how to assemble the double stroller!!!  This is what I get for being smug.  :)

No Sleep=Insanity

This week has been pretty rough.  Sean hadn't been sleeping before 2AM most nights, crying on endlessly, and no amount of holding and rocking would help.  They say that a person needs 8 hours of sleep at night....hahahahahahahahahahaha!  Up until last night, I had been subsisting on 2-4 hours a night, and not really sleeping during the day, either.  (Thanks, Dept of Public Works, for digging up my street daily, and for giving my bark-loving dog appeplexy!)  So really, you can survive on a lot less.  However, side effects include forgetting words in the middle of conversation, diapering your baby with toddler diapers and generally being b*tchy.   Not to mention you look like crap and you just don't care, because you decide that showering is overrated when you can sleep instead.

So last night, when Brian casually mentioned that maybe Sean has colic, I said no, that couldn't be it.  But for fun we googled it.   Here's what we found:  symptoms of colic include a high pitched, screechy cry with sudden onset, inconsolability, tense body and red face.  And that all of this gets worse at night, that an otherwise healthy baby can turn into an inconsolable screech factory overnight and be fine during the day.

  Hmmmm.....yes!  Sean definitely has colic.  I've been feeling bad, thinking that something was wrong with him.  Just giving that "something" a name, and knowing that it's not serious is liberating.   In reading on, I was dismayed to find out that colic can last up to three months.  Damn, he's two months old now so this could go on for another month.  It did list a whole bunch of ways to ease colic.  So last night after dinner, I poured Sean a nice warm bath, followed by a little bit of infant massage that I learned from a friend, and a warm bottle.  AND HE SLEPT!!  From 11pm to 5AM!  I woke up today feeling like a new person.  I had a stiff back, from actually getting to stay in bed more than an hour at a time.  Isn't that great!  :)  I had a playdate with a friend and her kids today and could actually have a normal conversation and interact without feeling like I was going to lose it.   Hooray!

Choose to Laugh

Sometimes you have to decide if you're going to laugh or get mad.  Too often, I get upset at something too quickly, ending in a little one's hurt feelings.  So, when I decided to make apple walnut muffins for a playdate and Will begged to help, I said yes even though I knew it would be a disaster. 

He loves to dump ingredients in any order, and especially to add extra salt to everything.  Luckily he grabbed the salt shaker first and added it to an empty mixing bowl, so that was an easy crisis to avert.  Then he cracked an egg really hard, and got a lot of it on the counter.  Did you know that egg is sticky??  And that toddlers like to touch everything in their path on their way to the sink?  So when it was time to turn on the mixer and he turned it on the highest setting, sending diced apple pieces and an explosion of flour into the air, I yelled "Will!" and took a deep breath.  Brian came running at the sound of my voice panicking and was greeted by  Will, Mommy and a kitchen covered in flour.  And what a sight....surprisingly I started to laugh really hard.  Will, who had been on the edge of his seat, waiting for Mama to roar, starting laughing hysterically and Daddy ran for the camera:

 

  

 

The anger dissipated as I laughed, like letting air out of a balloon quickly.  Brian started the tub and I cleaned up the kitchen, which was no easy feat.  Normally I would've yelled at him and probably have sent him to a time-out, instead it became a funny memory.  Later on, as I was putting him to bed and snuggling with him, he said "I love cooking with you, Mommy."  Awwww.

Wordless Wednesday: First Smile