2009

Grump.

Freakishly large snowmen made out of flowers.


Princess Kate at the Bellagio Conservatory.

We began the New Year the way every parent hopes to: with a late arrival home, and an obscene bedtime for the children. You know you're in for pain the next day when you can hear the kids still whimpering at 10:30pm. The next morning, they awoke bright and early, and seemed to be in decent moods, so we took them to the Bellagio. They loved it. So did I: the Bellagio Conservatory is one of my absolute favorite places in Las Vegas.

Since then, it's been non-stop college football and car shopping. Sounds fun, right? Meh. The games have been somewhat lame, in my opinion, and the car shopping. OMG, what a pain in the ass! The research! The endless opinions of those who supposedly own the vehicles and are rating them online! The dragging of small children to car dealerships! I think the salesmen eyed us with dread every time we walked into a showroom. Have you seen the damage two young ones can do to a vehicle in mere minutes? They have. But, it was great fun seeing my little girls behind the wheel of a red Saturn Sky (convertible with doors that open up).

It seems like we've been at it forever days, but we only test-drove yesterday. And we only drove 2 cars, at that. We looked at the Hyundai Vera Cruz, but the batteries were dead on the two that were on the lot (?), so we left and went to Mazda where we drove a CX-9. Nice, nice, nice. Loved it. From there it was meltdown city, so we took the children home for a nap. Then, because we like to torture them, we went back out to drive the Saturn Outlook. Nice, as well, but in different ways. And because you don't really care about our car-shopping experience, I'll just end there. But, do you have a vehicle with a 3rd row? If so, what is it, and do you love it? Hate it? Why? Please share.

Also, did you make a list of New Year's resolutions? I only have a couple so far:

1. Have a baby. (cheater)

2. Lose weight. (cheater!)

3. Go downtown at least once a month, preferably with the
children, but also sometimes without them, because it's nice to have a chance to
look around at your surroundings without yelling at someone to "come back here
right now or I'll put you in the stroller!".

4. Begin running again after the baby is born.

5. Find more creative ways to play with the children.

What are your resolutions?

The great pants feud

Claire and I have been having a major disagreement lately: she vehemently declares her unwillingness to wear pants, and I disagree. Of course, I win, but it's a struggle every morning and every night (she is also opposed to pajama bottoms, as these could be construed as pantaloons). I remember when Kate was about this age and she became extremely, and possibly inappropriately, attached to her pajamas. This is somehow different, but has similar undercurrents. I just hope it's not some sort of obsessive-compulsive behavior showing itself in the toddler years.

I'm not sure if she realized I meant EVER when I told her no more pens after this incident.

On an entirely different subject, I have promised myself no Twilight series books today. I am getting NOTHING done. A glimpse into how serious my addiction is: I read New Moon in two days. It is 563 pages. I know. I have a serious problem. In my defense, I had already read the first chapter, which must have been at least 85 65 55? okay, maybe 30 pages, the night before, since it was printed at the end of the first book. After staying up until midnight the night before, I took the kids to the gym and read while I exercised on the elliptical machine for....a little while. Then I sat on one of the comfy chairs (after checking to see that the kids were happy playing in their pre-school room, of course!) for....a little while and read....a little more of my book. Hence the finishing in two days bit. I am hoping to make it until Monday before opening the precious third book. But I'm also trying to plan this whole thing out. I mean, I don't want to still be reading this series when Tim gets home, so really, I ought to be reading as much as possible over the next couple of weeks so I can finish before then, right?

Oh! And I have felt the baby move! Just sort of little stirrings, sort of like flutters, but it's very fun! I can't believe that when Tim returns, I will be almost halfway through the pregnancy.

A classy night

We went to McDonald's for dinner. I just couldn't bear the thought of making another meal for the 3 of us (Tim is TDY again). Kate is back to her picky phase, and Claire is starting to like how her sister thinks. There is not a lot of eating that goes on at the table unless it involves macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, peanut butter and jelly, cheese, or fish sticks. Unless you count ketchup for Claire. That kid could eat her body weight in Heinz on a weekly basis.

We made it to McDonald's with only one minor incident (Kate has learned how to unbuckle her seat belt while sitting in her booster seat, and has also learned that spankings follow any such action that occurs when the car is in motion). Once inside, they made straightaway for the prize vault to see what they would get in their Happy Meal boxes. Is that a sad indication of how often we visit Old McDonald's? Really, we go maybe once a month, if that. I think Kate has a keen memory for certain things. I guess I shouldn't also mention that Claire can spot the golden arches from approximately 2.3 miles away?

We got our meals and sat down to enjoy some greasy food in the play area, which is the only place we can now sit when at McDonald's. I proceeded to eat my hamburger while watching a little boy and his father? grandfather? interact. Grandpa (I'm sticking with it: he was older and didn't seem to have a firm grasp on discipline that one usually possesses as parent) was eating an ice cream cone, and apparently the boy had already finished his. He was whining for another one. Then, after sliding down the curly slide, he grabbed the crotch of his pants and sort of pulled them up, sharing a view of the wet spot with everyone in the play area. There was a small exchange between man and boy, and then the boy climbed right up on the play equipment and slid down the slide again. I was totally dumbfounded. I think my jaw might have dropped open. There was no ensuing trip to the potty, and no change of clothes. Needless to say, there was not a lot of playing on the equipment by Kate and Claire post dinner.

Anyway, Claire had ketchup all over her (see above), even in her armpit. How does that happen? We drove home (to the constant sound of, "May the force be with you," from the back seat) and immediately had a long, cleansing bath. Tim is on his way back from NC and will arrive in time to cook the next meal. Woot.

Iron supplements

Maybe we should rethink what we are feeding Claire. Yesterday evening she was playing on the kitchen floor while I made dinner. She seemed to be chewing on something, but she wouldn't let me in her mouth to find out what it was. We started dinner. She shoveled a few handfuls of food in her mouth and then she started gagging. Out came dinner and something small and black. A magnet. Yay! Another parent of the year award for me.

Kate has a few new sayings. Her current favorites, which are used All The Time:

• how 'bout (how 'bout cookie? how 'bout Dora? how 'bout ice cream cone?)
• might be in ... (timeout, the box, the kitchen, my bed, etc)
• good idea (how 'bout cookie, Mommy? good idea - she usually answers her own questions. Is that a bad sign?)

This morning I babysat Tempie, my sister's 6-month-old. It is now 1pm and I just unloaded the dishwasher, I have not yet showered or gotten dressed, the living room is a Disaster, and all I want to do is take a nap. I didn't mind babysitting, it just gave me firsthand insight into how crazy a household with 3 little ones would be.

Now, for that nap.

Shopping

Overheard yesterday at Costco:

"Kate, don't draw on your sister." -Tim, addressing his eldest daughter, using a command that is sure to be issued regularly over the coming years

"So, what I'm wondering is: do you drink because you have kids, or do you have kids because you drink?" -woman in front of us at cash register, referring to our 4 bottles of wine, Costco-sized tequila bottle, and 24-pack of Pacifico beer

"Look, she's using Claire as a pillow!" -Tim pointing out that Kate was leaning heavily on her sister in the shopping cart

"Kate, which cake do you want? Honey, that's not a ducky, it's a stork. Do you want balloons or flowers or a princess on your cake? You really want the ducky, huh? O-kay, then." -Jen trying to talk Kate out of her stork ducky birthday cake, to no avail

Bad parents all around

We had a weekend full of bad parenting here. We started out by taking our 2 young children to a nasty swap meet in near-100* heat on Saturday morning. Then we brought them back home, and I left them with their father for 2 hours while I got my hair done. When I came home, I found this:

Yo, Ma, look at me.

Rocky McLaren.

Granted, her eye looks like it is swollen shut not from the fall into the coffee table, but from her eye infection, but still. That bruise on her forehead? Not caused by pink-eye.

Then, while swimming that afternoon, Kate tried my beer. She did not like it, even though it was a tasty micro-brew. In my defense: Tim was starting the grill around the side of the house, I was in the pool, and Kate was on the patio. Not in my defense: I failed to put my beer out of the reach of Kate, and I left my child alone on the patio.

Last night McLaren had some peas for dinner. Okay, she had quite a few peas for dinner. Apparently they did not agree with her, and I found her this morning lying in a crusted pile of pea goo. I think she spit up all of the peas. I felt really bad because I had absolutely no idea that it happened until I got her up this morning, and there is no way she could have spewed that many peas without crying. We are officially turning off the swamp cooler at night and turning on the AC. The cooler is really nice, but it's also really loud, as referenced above.

Then, this morning, after McLaren's emergency bath, I was pulling the clean laundry out of the dryer and noticed both of Kate's blankets were in the pile. That explains a lot about why she was talking in her room last night until nearly 8:30, when she went to bed at about 7:15. Neither Tim nor I will be getting the parent of the month award for June.

To leave you with a more positive mental picture, here's Kate walking in Tim's sandals.

Oh.

McLaren had her 4mo appointment yesterday, and I found out that apparently she doesn't have baby acne (still), but that we might need to change detergents. The doctor said it's a rash. It doesn't really look like a rash, but seeing as how she's had baby acne since, well, birth, perhaps we'll give this other detergent thing a go. Poor kid. I thought she was just getting it all out of her system now, as opposed to getting acne when she's a teenager. What? It could happen.

So I've been rethinking some things. Like maybe we should move the gate back to where we had it before:

Kate is enjoying having free access to her room, but I am not enjoying picking up all of her clothes after hurricane Katrina hits the dresser.

Oh, and single moms? Not sure how you do it. But now I have a newfound respect for you. Tim has not been gone long, and I am exhausted, have a headache, and just want some time by myself and perhaps a chance to sleep in. I'm not complaining, just saying. So, Tim: be prepared when you get home from your vacation. I'm sleeping in next weekend.

Bar-Hopping With Your Children: A Guide

Friday night was the first night back in the squadron bar. The whole squadron building has been under construction for many months, and now most of the building is up and running. The guys had a casual Friday social at their new bar last week, and families were welcome. We, of course, took that to mean the "entire" family, so I showed up to the squadron at 1700 with Kate & Claire in tow. There was supposed to be food there, so I just brought Kate's sippy cup of milk, and Claire had already eaten. We arrived to some extra-crispy Tostino's pizza bites, some over-cooked chinese chicken, and the garlic romano bread that I had brought. Kate somehow found Daddy amongst the masses of green legs, and I put Claire in the Baby Bjorn so I could walk around hands-free. Kate immediately found the cord to the blinds on one of the doors and started wrapping herself up in it. An older woman saw Kate and helped her out of the tangled mess, since her parents were nowhere to be found.

Finally, as more people started showing up (with food), Kate had a more proper dinner to include fried chicken, pizza and chocolate cake. As I was trying to feed her a bite of cake while standing behind her, the cake fell on the floor. Before I could grab it up off the nasty bar floor, Kate wrapped her pudgy fingers around it and shoved it into her mouth. Mmm.

As for Claire, by this point she was sitting on the bar in her carseat, parked next to the Jeremiah Weed liquor dispenser. Damn, if I'd only had my camera.

The next night we went to Buffalo Wild Wings where Kate tried to drink some of Tim's beer while she flirted with a boy more than twice her age. I bet if you ask her she'll say she had a great weekend.

My sister is due in less than 2 weeks, so we'll probably be heading out for wings often to try to induce her. Keep your fingers crossed.

Revitalized

Kate can now open our door. She's wearing a dress of mine from when I was 3. Yes, she is only 17 months.

Kate plays with matches.

Sleep. It is a magical thing, something that I have lacked for oh, about 5 1/2 weeks now. But last night I think I got some of the best sleep I've gotten in weeks. Claire is still eating about every 3 hours, but I think she's on the verge of dropping a feeding. Yahoo. She woke up around 1:15am and cried until I sat up in bed, mere seconds later. Then all was quiet again. Yeehaw, I'm going back to sleep! She did wake up again about 45 minutes later, but that was a whole extra 45 minutes of blissful sleep for me. She did the same thing around 4:15am, not needing to actually eat until 5am. Then, then, both kids slept until almost 8am. Big sigh of contentment here.

I feel like I can do just about anything. I am so well-rested (comparatively) that I hardly know what to do with myself. So I'm blogging. I ought to be doing laundry, picking up all the toys in the living room so one can actually walk to the sofa, writing thank you notes, or any number of other things. But that can wait. I'm taking a break.

Have you heard about this? Washington state's interscholastic activities association's director (sports authority) wants to ban booing at sports events. Are you kidding?

Why I Shouldn't Leave the House With Less Than Five Hours of Sleep

I've learned recently that more than one outing a day can be hazardous to my sanity. Also, fewer than 3 outings a week will cause me to feel cabin feverish, especially since it's so nice out right now.

Yesterday was Claire's 1 month check-up. Kate, Claire and I packed up gear and toys into the car for the 1.7 mile ride to the doctor's office. Once out of the car, Kate immediately ran in the opposite direction that I wanted to go. Carrying a diaper bag, a baby in a car seat and trying to herd a toddler all at once is ... challenging. Forget about taking that cup of coffee inside with you - there's no way to make it happen.

The highlights of Claire's well-baby exam:

• height 21" (20" at birth)


• weight 10lb 10oz (8lb 5oz at birth)

Apparently all that regurgitation of food has not affected her ability to pack on the chub.

We came back home and got ready to head out to playgroup at Erin's. Kate was already showing the signs of sleepiness (at 10:30am) but I ignored them, convinced that her social well-being was at stake because we never go anywhere to play with other kids. We got to Erin's and Kate was excited to see other children, play with Erin's dog, and play in the grass. Claire was sleeping peacefully in her car seat. Way to go, Jen; this was a great idea. I mentally patted myself on the back.

Then, just like it did with Tim last week, all hell broke loose at once. It was lunchtime and Kate couldn't be corralled. She is used to sitting in her highchair for meals, and without it she won't stay still to eat. I couldn't hold her because Claire woke up and needed coddling. Before I could get Kate any food, Claire spit up (read: vomited a gallon of milk) all over me and down my shirt. She has this way of doing that; she turns her head and spits right down my shirt. Mmm. Covered in baby goo, that's how I wanted the afternoon to go.

So Deb gets some food for Kate and tries to feed her and her daughter while sitting on a blanket on the grass. Kate kicks over her plate of food and walks through the fruit salad on the blanket to get to me. Claire is screaming (why, I'm not sure. I was the one covered in goo), and I am verbally questioning my desire to have kids so close in age to one another. Kate wanders out to the porch and tries to sit in a chair but falls down and bumps her head. Melissa picks her up and tries to calm her down.

These were all warning signs of Kate's pending meltdown, but I didn't see them. Why? Because I had too little sleep the night before. Kate wandering around looking like she is drunk and bumping into things is a sure sign that she is exhausted. I guess me not picking up on the cues is a sure sign that I am.

I decided that we were done and asked Erin to hold Claire while I took Kate out to the car. I carried her down the long driveway, put her in her car seat and buckled the seat belt, and drove up to the door to go get Claire. I think by the time I made it back out to the car Kate was already half-asleep. I snapped the baby seat in and we were off. We were halfway down Sabino Canyon road (which is really like a highway) when I noticed that Kate was so tired that she was falling forward as she nodded off to sleep. I called her name, apologizing to her that I had kept her out so late. She sat up and then leaned forward again. Wow, she is so tired. I have never seen her do that; she must be absolutely exhausted, poor kid. She was sleeping on her lap, totally bent over at the waist. Then, after about another minute of this, I realized why she was leaning over so far. I had forgotten to tighten her seat belt. Duh. You can't lean over that far if your harness is tight. Way to go, mom.

And that is why I should not leave the house with less than five hours of sleep.

On the positive side, Kate slept for 4 hours yesterday afternoon, allowing me to get my first daytime nap since Tim's mom left. Hallelujah.

Random Stuff

I ought to be napping, but I wanted to update my faithful readers before doing so. Be forewarned that I'm working on new-mommy sleep deprivation and therefore this might be not only random but also slightly incoherent. But, you will get photos, so it's all good.



We made it to the park this morning, me, Kate and Claire. Christy is in town from MO, and invited several of us to meet up with her, Taylor and Jack. It's challenging, going to the park with a newborn and a 17-month old. Kate isn't really into taking direction, so it's slow-going. She is into exploration, which is entertaining and messy. Today she decided to try to climb something but fell down and ended up with a mouth- and nose-full of rocks. Seem familiar? This was also accompanied by a scrape on her nose which bled slightly, and a fit of crying. I was attending to Claire at the time, who had started crying. Yee-haw.


This all followed our packing up into the car before heading to the park: I had Kate outside while I unlocked the doors and started the car. Kate wandered down the driveway, like she usually does (except this time she didn't have her push-toy to slow her down). This meant that Kate was at the end of the driveway while I was in the carport watching her. She is very good about not going in the street, but others don't know this (and I'm always, always close by watching just in case) and a car with a woman driving past our house stopped and gawked as she watched this toddler wander aimlessly close to the street without a parent in sight. Somehow this annoyed me. I am sure she was just concerned that I was not aware of Kate's proximity to the street, but I felt the judging eyes: Where is this child's absentee mother?? Why is she letting her child play in traffic? Ah, well. She stopped well-short of the street and after the so-concerned lady left (without doing a thing about Kate), I went and picked Kate up and put her in the car.



Okay, that was a lot of writing and now I need a nap. Y'all enjoy these photos.

I wonder how many things I can get into while Mama changes that baby's diaper.

Woo-hoo! Claire has been evicted and the bouncy seat is now mine!

Yes, she is watching the Today Show.

Mommy's Lil Fighter Pilot. Hey, you never know.

Bath time.

Weekend Update

My dad and step-mom visited over the weekend, and Kate and Claire got to spend time with their grandparents.

After they left, we took the kids to the park. Kate loved the slide, even when she went down all by herself and got a mouth and nose full of dirt and rocks. Woohoo, parents of the year award goes to us!

And now that I've updated you with all sorts of information, I'm going to try to take a nap. My 3 hours of sleep last night are wearing thin.

Sideways

I've been saying I've been feeling, um, big, for the past several weeks. I now have supporting evidence to explain this suspicion. Kate's little sister is what they call in OB lingo 'transverse'. She is lying sideways, and is not using her space, shall we say, wisely. Tight quarters in there, especially when you lie sideways in the sleeping bag, kiddo. My doc says she'll probably move on her own in the next few weeks, and if she doesn't he can try to move her by pushing on my belly. Wow, that sounds comfortable, sign me up for that appointment! If she refuses to move, or moves but then moves back or goes breech, I'll have a c-section.

Kate got to see her baby sister on the ultrasound machine today. I think she called her 'dada'. She did a great job while we waited for the doctor and while he did the ultrasound. She's going to be such a good big sister.

The poor kid is teething again. One of her bottom teeth is coming in; I felt it on Monday after she woke up in the middle of the night talking and wouldn't go back to sleep. We were all in the same room sleeping because we were in San Diego at my Dad's, and she woke up at like 2am and just started babbling. We kept telling her to be quiet and go back to sleep, but she wouldn't and finally started crying. I have no idea how long she talked before getting crabby, but she woke everyone up with her crying (read: screaming) at 4am. The problem? A soaked diaper and wet jammies. Aren't we good parents? "Kate, just go back to sleep." 'Course the tooth probably had something to do with the tears as well. She's doing a lot better now.

San Diego was fun for us (me and Kate). Tim had to do his CFII continuing education all weekend, so it wasn't so fun for him. But we did get to go see a movie on Sunday night to celebrate my birthday, which was fun. I'd wanted to see 'Happy Feet' but we were late, so we saw 'Stranger Than Fiction' with Will Ferrell. This is the movie where he doesn't appear in his underwear, and relies on 'acting' (his word) to supply humor to the movie. We liked it for the most part, but thought the end was a little choppy.

Monday's drive back took just over 8 hours. Normally it's about a 6.5-7 hour drive, but Kate likes to stop and stretch. I can only imagine how uncomfortable sitting in a car seat must be for 8 hours. She was a trooper throughout the whole trip.

Tomorrow we're having 8 adults over for Thanksgiving dinner. Kate will be the only kid this year, but will probably relish all the attention 3 grandparents, a set of aunts and uncles and other adults will lavish on her. So it's off to the kitchen for me; gotta make a bourbon pecan pie tonight and start brining the turkey. Happy Thanksgiving!