I Love....

I haven't done a Love post on Valentine's Day for a few years now.  I thought I'd attempt to do one today in honor of Valentine's Day.

I love....the sweet construction paper Valentine's my children made me.....going out with my hubby on a Friday night....listening to Wesley read so well......giving goat scratches......laying with my kids on the trampoline and soaking up the sun......Amazon boxes sitting on the porch......warm 70 degree days in February.....Greta's face when I pick her up from preschool......my awesome parents and their awesome babysitting skills.....listening to the kids sing every word to their favorite songs on the radio (Oh how they love Imagine Dragons)......getting flowers delivered from my sweet hubby.....my quiet kid-free time during preschool....playing dolls with my daughter....Wesley's toothless smile.....watching Supernatural with my hubby on the couch.......green tea in the mornings......getting 10,000 steps on the FitBit......hunting for treasure with Greta at the thrift stores....eating dinner together as a family.....hearing all about Wesley's day at school on the drive home.....being a mom to these two incredible little people.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

 

Seriously?!

"Mom, I just wet my bed."

My youngest whispered this in my ear this morning at 6:30, mere minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off.

Waking up to that sentence is not a rare event. Nor does it happen a lot. Maybe every 3 months. It's no big deal.

I trudge into her room, pushing my wild morning hair out of my face, and start collecting her wet sheets. I notice the tablet sitting on the side of her bed.

"Why is the tablet on your bed?" I asked.

"Oh don't worry Mom I put it there before I wet the bed." She replied.

My tired brain couldn't fathom why the tablet would be on her bed at all. Then it clicked. She got up and got the tablet to play games in bed before everyone woke up (like she does most mornings). But this morning she decided she didn't want to get out of her warm bed and go potty on the toilet. Instead, she closed the tablet, put it on the edge of the bed and went the bathroom in her bed. Then came and woke me up so I could clean it up.  

What the heck?!

She's FIVE years old, she knows better.

Needless to say it was not a great morning.

.....sigh.....

Really?!

Yesterday I had to run into town to return some DVD's to the library and we stopped at Target to get the kids their shampoo. It's spring break and we don't have anything to do so we wandered through Target. Naturally the kids spotted the toy section and pleaded with me to go look at toys. I told them we can go look at toys but they need to understand we are not buying any toys today. We enter the first isle and Greta picks up some green monster doll and declares "I want THIS!" She clutches it tight and keeps pleading "Please Mom, she's so beautiful I NEED her!" Uh, what part of "we're not buying any toys" did you not understand? I said "Nope, put her back."

She then starts crying. Loud crying with tears running down her face. She continues to do this through the next isle where Wesley finds the Lego's. This would be the same Star War Lego's that he's currently playing on the Wii. He was totally awe struck that there are toys that match the game he's playing. He picks up the Lego box and starts excitedly twirling in the isle. That's when his head smashes into the metal display shelf. He grabs his ear and proceeds to start crying.

So, in total disbelief, I stand there watching my two kids cry in the toy isle at Target and I wonder WHY DO I TAKE THEM ANYWHERE?

Seriously. I'm completely burnt out and I've only had them home for 4 days. I'm officially scared of summer.

The Wednesday Write-Up

-They say gardening burns 272 calories an hour. I'd have to say it feels like a lot more. Over the past four days I've spent about nine hours out there digging, raking and planting the hundreds of seeds I bought back in February. I forgot how much work that was! After laying out the garden with an online garden design tool, I then had to find a way to keep that design in the actual garden. I thought about string or flags but ultimately settled on baling twine. You know, the string that keeps hay bales together with? Well I have about 4 million miles of it and finally I have a good use for it. I flagged out the corners of each bed and strung the twine in between. I figure I'll remove the twine once the plants start growing and I can tell where each bed is by the plant growing in it. At this moment I've got 3/4 of it planted, with the last quarter mostly being tomatoes. I'm enjoying the walkway through the middle of the garden, it's sure nice having somewhere to walk that I know won't squash anything.

-The tomatoes, basil and peppers are being hardened off this week. It's not a good idea to just take your seedlings and plant them directly into the garden without a "hardening off period". It's a time when the little plants can get accustomed to outdoor conditions.....like wind in our case. So all this week they are spending most of the day outside and then brought in at night. I've started in the shade and will eventually be in a sheltered sunny spot. I hope to have them out in the garden next week sometime.

-Another thing that is leaving my house besides the seedlings? The chickens! They are officially in the hen house now. They haven't been integrated yet since they can't eat the laying hen food until they are 16 weeks old (too much calcium too young can cause unexplained deaths when they are older). So for now they are in a small dog kennel in the hen house at night and transported to the big outdoor dog kennel during sunny days. With all this daily handling they are becoming quite the tame chickens.

-Last but not least I shall leave you with a picture I snapped yesterday. I was talking to my mom on the phone and looked outside to check on the kids who were playing in the back yard. I found them both with their pants down attempting the pee on a tree. Actually it looked like Wesley was trying to teach Greta how to pee on a tree. Let's just say it was not successful. She did manage to fill her shoes though. *smile* Child rearing is always a treat.

Just don't break the skin

I love my daughter. She's a doll. You know there is a "but" coming soon, right? Well, she's three years old and I've decided three year olds are lunatics. Sweet, cute little lunatics, but still lunatics that must be watched every moment of every day. Case in point, today I am talking with my friend Jessica on the phone and I hear Chance, our older little terrier, snap at something. Who am I kidding, not something....someone. I knew it was Greta without even thinking. Left to her own devices she will always gravitate toward the dog, which is really her only playmate (besides myself) since Wesley started school. So I head into the living room to find Greta crying, holding her cheek. The dog bit her cheek, not drawing blood (thank goodness) but leaving two fairly large red spots. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "Are you ok? What happened?!?"

Greta: "Chancy bit me!!!"

Me: "What did you do to the dog to make him bite you?"

Greta: "......I tried to cut his eye with the scissors."

Me: speechless

You know, as a mother, I suppose I should be mad at the dog for biting. But I'm not. The dog needs to defend himself. Poor Chance looked so scared. I went and gave him a big rub on the belly and told him to bite her whenever she tries something like that again, just don't break the skin.

Oh and the scissors? They are gone. These kids are going to have to tear paper until Greta is old enough to stop pulling these shenanigans.

The Wednesday Write-Up

-Wesley had Kindergarten round up last night. He's officially enrolled for kindergarten in the fall. He got to sit down with a teacher and write his name, draw a picture of himself and count blocks. He did great and I'm proud of him. One observation from the evening: I've never seen so many five year olds in cowboy boots, can't tell we are in a farming community. I got kind of sad last night thinking about him being gone all day at school. I've had my little dude home with me for so long it will be very strange with it just being Greta and I. She won't start kindergarten until 2015 so at least I'll have a little sidekick for a few more years.

-Greta disappeared for a few minutes the other day and I went looking for her only to find her dipping her head repeatedly into the toilet. Yep, life with a 2.5 year old is always exciting!

-I just baked a nice hot batch of chocolate chip cookies for the kids. Not for me since I have will power and I gave up sweets for lent. See? If I just keep telling myself that I have willpower I can do this. Who am I kidding, this is so darn difficult. Four and a half weeks left. The count down is on until Sugar Day.

-I just finished up another book last night. I've been devouring books this year and seem to have finally found the time to take up reading again. Last month I read the Hunger Games (all 3 books) because of everyone talking about them. In all honesty they were just ok. Nothing I'm going to rave about. The writing wasn't all that great and the story was weak at best. I always felt like the author had no plan when she started writing those books. I'd give them a B-. Looking forward to seeing the movie though. Then I picked up a book in the new book section of the library, titled "The Call". I'm drawn to stories about veterinarians so this book was right up my alley. It was about the different calls that came in for a country vet but then it took off on a strange path involving a space ship. Strange but fun. B+. Then this morning I finished up a book called "Wednesday Letters". Grown children clean out their parents house after both died to find all the letters their Dad had written their Mom every Wednesday. Geez I cried a lot. Good book A-. This afternoon I went to pick up a book the library was holding for me. It was highly recommended and is called "The Night Circus". It's a good sign when the librarian nudges her fellow librarian and says "Hey, she's getting ready to read The Night Circus" and the other lady goes "OHHHH, you are going to LOVE it!!" Can't wait to dive into it.

Conversations with a three year old.

Wesley: "When Daddy gets home he'll play with me!" (Daddy is the parent that rough houses with him, you know....throws him in the air, turns him upside down and tickles him...etc.)

Me: "Yup, when Daddy gets home he'll play with you."

Wesley: "When Daddy gets home he'll PLAY with me!!!"

Me: "You got it."

Wesley: "But Daddy isn't home, he's at work. You're home."

....long pause.....

Wesley: "You're a monster."


Ahhh it just makes me feel all fuzzy and warm inside when my kid says stuff like this. Can you tell my little boy is in the "loves only Daddy" phase? I'm just the monster that makes him eat his veggies and wash his hands. Fun times!

No, I do it!

If I had a nickle for every time I've heard that phrase, I'd be rich. Wesley seems to have entered a stage where he must do absolutely everything. And I mean EVERYTHING. It starts when he wakes up. He must take off his jammies and diaper, pick his clothes, go potty and wash his own hands. This is all great other than the fact that it takes him five minutes to take off his PJ's. Not because he can't do it but because he likes to diddle dally. If I try to hurry along the process he goes into melt down, screaming that "HE HAS TO DO IT!". I will be the first to admit that I'm not a patient person so this phase is driving me batty. I've had to just step back and take a deep breath and remind myself that he needs to do all of this by himself, even if it takes twenty minutes to just get out of his room in the morning. It's not just in the morning either. He has to put on his shoes, he has to open the sliding glass door to go outside, he has to water the plants with the watering can, he has to get the mail out of the mailbox, you get the idea. This is all great and all until he tries to do something that he can't do, then he has the biggest melt down ever. I swear the kid is crying half the day. It's been a lesson in patience for me, to say it lightly. Looks like Wesley has entered the "terrible two's" two months before turning three years old. Lucky me!

I Love...

Since it's Valentine's Day tomorrow I thought I'd share the things I most love about being a Mom right now.

I love.....when the kids are both in the van and Greta will just stare at Wesley and smile. Wesley, grinning, will tell me that "Sissy is smiling at me again"......that Wesley can scavenge through the pile of music CD's and pluck out Jackson Browne and Jimmy Buffet every time and sit at the laptop and listen to them......every morning over breakfast Wesley looks at me and says "So Mommy, what's the plan?". That's his way of asking what we are doing today. He does this every. single. morning. .....Miss Greta's gummy smiles.....how Wesley will tell Sean about his day while we are eating dinner as a family....playdates.....reading to Wesley before nap and bedtime every day......when I leave my hair down and go into see Wesley first thing in the morning he'll inevitably say "Mommy, you have such big hair today!". *grin*......how much Wesley enjoys talking to his Grandma's on the phone. He'll chat it up with them and then run through the house yelling "I talked to Noni, I talked to NONI!!!" It's priceless........my quiet nursing time with Greta every evening while Sean is putting Wesley to bed.....how Wesley will whisper in the mornings because "Sissy is sleeping"......being a mom to these two incredible little people.

Expectations

Do you know what the difference between baby number one and baby number two is? With the first baby you anxiously await each month when they turn another month old. You know exactly how many weeks old they are at any moment, not needing to go to the calendar to look. You might might even count down to that one month birthday every month, looking forward to capturing a picture at each month milestone. Baby number two is lucky if you can remember how many months old they are (give or take a couple of months). Poor Greta turned three months old on Monday and I completely overlooked it. Usually we at least take a photo for her First Year frame but I even forgot that.

Poor kid.

I do find myself enjoying baby number two more than I did the first. I'm consistently in a good mood, which is amazing with the complete lack of sleep I'm getting. With the second baby I just have no expectations. No expectations to get a single thing done in the day. I find that if I just wake up and plan on playing with Wesley and feeding Greta all day I don't get disappointed when nothing gets done. Keep the expectations low I say. And when it comes down to it, this is my job. To keep two little people happy all day, go to sleep and do it again the next day. If dishes and laundry don't get done who cares. If I don't get any sculpting done oh well, we're getting by just fine without my income. I was pretty down in the dumps when Wesley was a wee baby because I aimed too high with what I thought I needed to achieve in a day. I remember painting sculptures while breastfeeding him (still have the paint spots on the boppy) and being miserable. It's nice to just breath, slow down and enjoy these babies while they are babies.

The Night Owl

I have a strange new routine that I've been doing for about a month now. Every other Friday night I get Wesley and Greta to sleep, say goodnight to Sean and drive into town to do my grocery shopping. It's usually around 10:30 when I leave and I get home around 1 am. And I love it! I have tried every possible way to be able to get into town to do the weekly food shopping: take Greta while leaving Wesley with Sean (she screams in the front pack and car seat) or leave Greta at home with Sean on the weekends (I have to hurry since she's used to eating every two hours). The only way that I don't end up inconveniencing anyone (except myself) is to do it once the whole house is sleeping. It has it's perks: I don't have to hurry and can take my time, the stores are all but empty, no lines, and I don't have to drag babies out into the cold. There are a few down sides. The people that come out to shop at midnight are some interesting people to say it delicately. If you're into people watching, there isn't much better a venue than Wal-Mart at 1 am. Of course I am pretty tired after doing this but I can sleep in with Greta on the weekends when Sean is home to tend to Wesley in the mornings. It's been working out pretty good and I intend to keep doing it. Just thought I'd share how bizarre my routine has become lately.

Nipples

Last night while I was changing Wesley into his footed pajamas he looked down and pointed to his nipple and asked "What's this?"

I replied "That's your nipple".

Wes: "Do you have nipples?"

Me: "Yes, that's what I feed Sissy with."

Wes: "Daddy has nipples, Mommy has nipples, Chance has nipples, Wesley has nipples....
WE ALL GOTS SOME NIPPLES!! YEAH!"

Little kids are just the funniest things ever.

Lessons learned

I was changing Greta's diaper this morning while Wesley was playing in the living room. I heard Chance, our little black terror terrier, growl and then snap at Wesley and then he started crying. He came around the corner holding his face and crying so I picked him up to see what happened. Luckily the dog didn't bite him, there was no broken skin but Wesley was pretty shook up. Chance is a really good dog around little kids but he has a breaking point and usually I can tell when he's had enough "toddler time" then he goes in his room. Obviously I didn't catch it in time this morning.

I asked Wesley what happened and he told me through sobs that "Chance bad dog!". I told him that Chance doesn't lash out unless provoked and then proceeded to ask him what he did to Chance, to which he answered "I sat on him".

Well at least the kid is learning a lesson....I hope.

Classic Toddler Behavior

Wesley has been cracking us up all week with some rather strange yet classic toddler behavior. Sean was reading to him this evening and the book had him asking Wesley some questions. The answers were priceless.

Sean: "So Wesley, where does milk come from?"

Wesley: "Chickens."

Sean: "Ok, where do eggs come from?"

Wesley: "Cows."

Sean: "That's interesting, where does butter come from?"

Wesley: "Cookie Monster."

---------------

The other day we were over at Jessica's house for a play date and Alex asked for a piece of cheese. Alex is allergic to milk so Jessica buys him soy cheese slices. They are similar in appearance to American cheese singles but that is the only thing they have in common with them. They taste nothing like cheese but to a kid, like Alex, who has never had real cheese he doesn't know any better. Anyways, Wesley saw Alex eating a cheese slice and asked if he could have one. Jessica gave him one and he took a bite. A strange look came over his face while he pondered what was in his mouth, then he looked up at us and said "This cheese...(chewing)...this cheese is awful!" Now he uses the word "awful" in practically every sentence describing any and all meals I prepare for him (and even one that Noni made him). It makes me feel like such a wonderful cook. Grumble grumble.

Oh and he's finally in big boy underwear.

He wears them all right.....




......on his head.

Making the rounds

Around the couch that is. This baby is what is known as a "motion" baby. She is happiest when she is on the move. Whether that is in your arms, in her swing or in the front pack. Lately it's been the front pack that is successful at lulling her to sleep. She just graduated into riding front face out in the Baby Bjorn since she's now two whole months old.

I'd say on a normal day I walk five miles with her sleeping in the front pack. Round and round the couch in the living room during Wesley's nap. If I stop she wakes up, and she needs these naps or living with her in the evenings is not pleasant. I get quite a bit done during my daily rounds. Folding clothes, balancing the checkbook, cooking dinner and just this past week I started sculpting again, all while walking a sleeping baby around. It's exhausting but, hey, at least I'm getting some exercise right?

Mommy had a weasel

When I went into the hospital to have Greta, we left Wesley with my Mom for the day. She decided to teach him a song that he could sing when he saw me after the birth. The song goes like this:

"Mommy had a baby, a baby, a baby,
Mommy had a baby,
a little baby girl."

He sang that song all the time. In the car, in the tub, at the dinner table....you get the idea. It's precious. Well over time now the song has changed. The word "baby" gets replaced with other random words. So, for instance, some days "Mommy had a bagel, a little bagel girl". Or my favorite was the other day we were singing "Pop goes the Weasel" and later that day he started singing

"Mommy had a weasel, a weasel, a weasel,
Mommy had a weasel,
a little weasel girl".

It sure got Sean and I cackling. Kids say the darndest things.

Working from home

Being a self employed, work from home Mom affords me certain luxuries. I set me own pace, I can watch my kids while still earning my family some money, and if I need to stop working I can stop. When Wesley was born I wasn't sure how I would handle the not working aspect. I didn't want the cash flow to stop and I didn't want to loose my loyal customers. So before he was born I worked my hiney off and made a stock pile of sculptures to sell during my self inflicted maternity leave. They lasted long enough for me to get back on my feet and resume sculpting. There is still some old paint on the Boppy pillow from when I was painting sculptures while nursing Wesley. I felt good about keeping a regular flow of cash coming into the house during my leave.

This time round I didn't even try. This time round I emailed some of my more loyal customers and explained why I wouldn't be selling for the immediate future. They, of course, understood. So here I am, almost 8 weeks postpartum and I see no possible way of sculpting ever again. Well that might be a bit dramatic, I hope to sculpt again some day but not any time soon. When there was just Wesley I would sculpt during his nap time and then once he went to bed. I could get 4-5 good hours of sculpting in a day if I so desired. With two kids whose naps never coincide I just don't have a clue as to how to start up again.

To make things worse, Christmas is my busiest time of the year. I have customers calling and emailing me trying to get sculptures done and I have a hard time telling them no. I'm exhausted as it is and just can't make myself stay up at night, once Great is asleep, to complete Christmas orders. It saddens me to turn away money but that's what I signed up for when we decided to add another child to the family. I just wish I had two more sets of hands!

Sweetness

Wesley finally has been asking to hold "Little Sister", as he calls her. It's too precious. This is why people have kids.

Meaning

I love this kid so much. I seriously didn't know I could love another human being like I love this little boy. He is just the light of my life and has brought so much meaning to my life. I only wish we would have had kids sooner so we could had enjoyed this years ago. When Sean and I got married we knew we wanted children "one day". That phrase got dragged out and delayed for a myriad of reasons, most of which having to do with financial stability. Then there came a point where we were somewhat financially stable but too scared to take the plunge into the unknown. I'm just happy we did take that plunge. I'm excited to take that plunge again sometime in the future and give Wesley a little bro or sis but not right away, we are having way too much fun with the little guy at this age. Here is proof.



Then he looks over and discovers I have an ear.....and tries to RIP it from my skull with his kung fu grip

Life with a 9 month old

Well after nine months I can finally say I think I'm getting the hang of this baby thing. We are officially settling into a reliable routine. Wesley is finally taking a nap at roughly the same time every day. The problem we had with his naps was that I thought he needed two of them, he thought he only needed one. He won. You see he goes to bed at night at 9:30 pm and wakes up around 10-10:30 am....so there is no way he's taking a morning nap when he gets up so late. I've also found the key to him taking long glorious naps is for someone other than myself to put him down for the nap. It's like he can smell me in the house and just sleeps for like 20 minutes. Sean put him down last weekend and the child slept for three hours....then yesterday I leave him with my mother for a hair appointment and she gets him to sleep for 2.5 hours. Not fair. I'm obviously not doing something right. Oh well.

The nursing is finally coming to an end. From the beginning I had decided to breast feed for a year and then wean him. I never took into consideration that he just might decide to wean himself. He still likes to nurse first thing in the morning and last thing before he goes to sleep but every other feeding during the day is just too boring for the little man that always has to be looking at something. It's like there is just too much going on in the world to be dragged down by nursing. He's taken to formula pretty good, doesn't seem to care one way or the other. I'm looking forward to not wearing these damn nursing bras. I think I might burn them.

He's learning some funny new things. If you stick out your tongue and make farting noises at him he'll imitate you. Then we both laugh. It's good to know we have about the same mentality.