Today, I was mentally celebrating my victory at getting both kids down for a nap at once. Around 2:00, Jack dozed off snoring in his bed and Caroline had successfully soothed herself to sleep (a big deal around here!) I patted myself on the back and hopped into bed for a snooze of my own.
At 3, I woke up with a start to the sound of the toilet flushing. Uh oh. I darted out of bed, heart racing, to find Jack with his diaper off and in one hand, and his other hand on the toilet knob. "Mommy, I had a poop and I put it in the toilet and I flushed it away!" (Just like we do when we change his diaper.)
I have had awhile to search the whole house now, and unless I am mistaken, he actually did a really good job of getting his diaper off, poop in the toilet, and flushing it down, without making a mess. I have no idea how he did it.
I think this means he's capable of using the toilet on his own. !!!!!!!!!! :/
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Uncle Ryan and Aunt Courtney visit
Justin's older sister Courtney and her husband Ryan visited us for a day this weekend as they were on their way to vacation in other parts of California. We had so much fun playing! Courtney snapped some awesome pictures of our playtime. She is quite the photographer - these pictures are award-winning quality!
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| A beautiful weekend for a visit! |
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| My Aunt Courtney! |
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| First we visited the duck park - but it was surprisingly cold. That didn't deter Jack. |
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| Jack and Ryan had a blast bouncing up and down the amphitheater steps. |
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| Ryan brought bubbles!! Jack was in heaven. |
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| Clones. |
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| Not sure what this look was for, but probably about something that he disapproved of. |
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| Teaching Jack "one two hut hut!" |
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| We had to try a few headband shots of Caroline, of course... |
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| Love this face!! |
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| Daddy cuddle time. I bought a bunch of pairs of these pants for her because I love butt ruffles!! |
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| Bathtime for both kiddos. Jack is a BIG help... |
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| No really, he's SUCH a huge helper :) |
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| She's starting to like bath time a little more. All clean!! |
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| Drinking the bathwater... as usual. GROSS. |
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| All clean - for one second until she puked on herself and I had to change her again :) |
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| Such pretty skin... |
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| Lookin' at Daddy. |
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| Silly upside down little boy!! |
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| "you want me to sit where??" |
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| This looks very safe. Family pileup!!!! |
Thanks Courtney for the awesome pictures!!! We had so much fun and can't wait to see y'all again soon.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Funny
Being a parent is often hilarious. I spend a lot of time just laughing at the things Jack invents, makes up, lies about, or does on a daily basis. Being a parent is also very challenging - it's the hardest thing I've ever done and I'm pretty sure Justin feels the same way. It's a different kind of challenge, because it's not just physical (like a sport or a race), it's not just mental (like a test or a project) and it's not just emotional (like watching The Notebook and Notting Hill back to back.) It's all of those things rolled up into one, thrown at you 24 hours a day/7 days a week.
I feel like we've adjusted fairly well to life with two kids but I feel out of control a lot. Like I am constantly running from one task to another, from one kid to another, from one disaster to another. The only real "downtime" I get is the hour when Jack is going to sleep (he still needs one of us in his room for awhile to help him relax) so we fight over who gets the relaxation time on the computer in the dark - me reading Mommy blogs online or Justin playing his new video game. :)
Tonight I found a hilarious article (warning: language) that describes how I feel about parenthood a lot of the time. The author is trying to describe how you could possibly ever prepare for having kids (if that's even possible.) Here are highlights:
I feel like we've adjusted fairly well to life with two kids but I feel out of control a lot. Like I am constantly running from one task to another, from one kid to another, from one disaster to another. The only real "downtime" I get is the hour when Jack is going to sleep (he still needs one of us in his room for awhile to help him relax) so we fight over who gets the relaxation time on the computer in the dark - me reading Mommy blogs online or Justin playing his new video game. :)
Tonight I found a hilarious article (warning: language) that describes how I feel about parenthood a lot of the time. The author is trying to describe how you could possibly ever prepare for having kids (if that's even possible.) Here are highlights:
- Practice wrestling a large, slippery fish three times a week.
- Wake up every two hours at night, punch yourself in the face, walk around for 28 minutes pleading in jibberish. Go back to "sleep." Repeat.
- Socialize with friends in 18-second increments.
- Practice asking for the check, boxing up your food and exiting a restaurant in under sixty seconds — two bites into the meal.
- Watch 38% of any film or television show; never see the ending or resolution.
- Read the same three paragraphs of a novel once every two weeks; fall asleep.
- Shower every three to five days, but only for two minutes.
- Hire a makeup artist to make you up to look 10 years older. Look at yourself in the mirror, then laugh, cry, laugh, cry, laugh, cry. Do not go get a drink.
- Pack two additional bags of random stuff to carry with you every time you leave the house.
- Stand around a tennis court and catch fly balls with one hand for two hours a day while also preparing a peanut butter sandwich.
- Practice wrestling aforementioned large, slippery fish, then dress it in seasonally appropriate outfit, including hat and/or jacket. Then go back, remove all clothing, and apply sunscreen. Re-dress fish.
- Memorize The Cat in the Hat, then repeat every evening between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m.
- Make 24 hours of baby-crying audio; hit play the moment you take a phone call, fire up your computer, or begin speaking any sentences to another human that contain important or useful information.
This is not meant to scare my new-Mommy friends - and I am truly sorry if it does. It just means that life is about to change ... or for us, has changed... forever. Sure, Jack may wake me up a million times a night (last night at 4am: standing two inches from my face yelling "MOMMY! WAKE UP! MOMMY! WAKE UP!" while simultaneously hitting me with his taggie) but I still love seeing his sweet little face. And Caroline may still need me many, many times a night and constantly during the day, and I may feel very overwhelmed often, but I take one look in those little blue eyes and it's all worth it. Justin and I may have forgotten what each other looks like, seeing as how he sees me for approximately 20 minutes a day when I am not asleep, trying to go to sleep, or being grumpy about being woken up from my sleep. One day, I think, we will look back and say "remember when our kids were little? Where did the time go?" For now... well...
I hear crying from one of their bedrooms. Back to the trenches. ;)
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Lazy Saturdays...
I could have written this article, except it's happening to us before the big 3. The funniest part of this is the story of her toddler screaming for 40 minutes over a piece of tinsel that her mom vacuumed up. Last night, Jack was playing with a random piece of construction paper outside. Justin was cleaning up things around the yard. Jack set it down, and ran off to play with something else. Justin - understandably - threw it in the trash can, and then buried it with lots of other gross things.
Jack literally lost his mind. "Daddy, why did you throw away my paper?? I want that piece of paper back!!" he sobbed and screamed. I offered him a new piece of paper - nope. Justin tried to cuddle him - nope. We tried to ignore him, and he just got more hysterical. He was streaming tears and snot everywhere, yelling and throwing himself on the ground. I thought he was going to throw up. We finally calmed him down by putting him in the bathtub ... but trust me, he still hasn't forgotten about his paper that Daddy threw away. He always asks me, "remember? Remember when xyz thing happened?" even if it was just a few minutes ago. The latest? "Remember when Daddy threw away my paper?" Yes, Jack. Trust me. We remember!
Justin also told me that they were riding in the car together the other day, having a good old time, and Jack says, "Daddy, turn the music down." Justin said, "why?" and Jack responded "because I said so!" Justin said that he almost died laughing... I wonder where he heard that? :)
This morning we were all being lazy and hanging out at home. Justin decided to wash the cars, and Jack helped, in his PJ's. It was super cute. I snapped a few photos, and then decided to try and "pose" Caroline for some portraits. They turned out okay! I think...
Jack literally lost his mind. "Daddy, why did you throw away my paper?? I want that piece of paper back!!" he sobbed and screamed. I offered him a new piece of paper - nope. Justin tried to cuddle him - nope. We tried to ignore him, and he just got more hysterical. He was streaming tears and snot everywhere, yelling and throwing himself on the ground. I thought he was going to throw up. We finally calmed him down by putting him in the bathtub ... but trust me, he still hasn't forgotten about his paper that Daddy threw away. He always asks me, "remember? Remember when xyz thing happened?" even if it was just a few minutes ago. The latest? "Remember when Daddy threw away my paper?" Yes, Jack. Trust me. We remember!
Justin also told me that they were riding in the car together the other day, having a good old time, and Jack says, "Daddy, turn the music down." Justin said, "why?" and Jack responded "because I said so!" Justin said that he almost died laughing... I wonder where he heard that? :)
This morning we were all being lazy and hanging out at home. Justin decided to wash the cars, and Jack helped, in his PJ's. It was super cute. I snapped a few photos, and then decided to try and "pose" Caroline for some portraits. They turned out okay! I think...
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| Washing his tractor. |
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| Hanging out in the shade while the boys wash the cars! |
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| Recipe for disaster. |
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| "Helping" |
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| He's laughing so hard because he's spraying Daddy :) |
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| He's not my "little" boy anymore! |
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| I have so. many. headbands. to take pictures of! I better start working harder at this!! She's too adorable! |
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| Resting in the shade. She loves being outside! |
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| The bigger the bow, the better, right?? |
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| Found this picture on the camera. I think it's from when I went to get my massage. Justin let Jack help give her bottle. Such a good big brother!! |
The terrible 2's....
Oh, Jack. Life's been rough for you lately. What with this new baby taking up all Mommy's time and energy, and your own forays into big-boyhood, life is very confusing.
We are hoping this is why he seems to have hit a patch of the "terrible 2's." At school on Tuesday, his teachers pulled me aside to tell me that he'd been pushing the other kids, and he even kicked one of them (completely unprovoked) while standing in line to go outside. I was mortified and made him apologize to his teachers (he was ashamed, thank goodness.)
Things at home haven't been much easier - he tests my patience on purpose on a daily basis. His favorites include "kissing" the baby while she's asleep to wake her up and then running away, throwing his food/spoon/fork at us at the dinner table, closing the dishwasher while I am trying to load dirty dishes, and pushing on the screen door to go outside in the backyard (a big no-no since we've lived in this house, and yet I have to repeat myself approximately 184,291 times a day.) Naptime is rough - some days he's a good napper and happy to rest, and other days he fights me and fights it. If I try to discipline him, he usually giggles at me while I do it. The only scary person around here to him is Daddy, and unfortunately Daddy isn't always home.
I try to remember that his little world has been turned upside down lately, and he needs attention and love and cuddles. It's just so hard sometimes to reconcile his dual personalities. On one hand, sometimes he is my sweet, loving little boy, who loves to cuddle up and watch cartoons with me and give me big slobbery kisses. On the other, he's this little tasmanian devil of craziness. We are working with it and hopefully things will calm down soon!
Caroline is amazing. I hesitate to even post this, because a) I don't want to jinx myself, and b) I don't want my other Mommy friends to hate me, but she is sleeping through the night at 4.5 weeks old. And when I say through the night - I mean from 10:30 or 11pm straight through until 5:30 or 6am without waking up. And when she does wake up in the morning to eat, 9 times out of 10 she goes right back to sleep! I have no idea how I got so lucky. It certainly is her personality and isn't anything I did (and I'd like to remind everyone that I paid my dues with Jack - who was up for a 3am feeding every night until he was 9 MONTHS OLD.) Anyway, Caroline is an amazing sleeper who is overall a very calm baby. She's usually happy hanging out watching what Jack's doing, or outside with me while Jack runs around. The only thing she really doesn't like is her carseat right now, but I am happy to put up with a few minutes of screaming in the car! It seems a very small price to pay. We are so very blessed and I thank my lucky stars every day!
The other thing that currently frustrates her is that she can pull her own binky out of her mouth, but she can't put it back in. When she rips her binky out, and breaks the suction in her mouth so hard that there's a loud "pop!" and it scares her, this is what she does:
Otherwise, she's super happy and loveable and snuggly - and she's already a month old! Holy cow!!
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| He was pulling the yellow heads off all the flowers, and I made him pose. This is his "fake" smile so I will hurry up. |
We are hoping this is why he seems to have hit a patch of the "terrible 2's." At school on Tuesday, his teachers pulled me aside to tell me that he'd been pushing the other kids, and he even kicked one of them (completely unprovoked) while standing in line to go outside. I was mortified and made him apologize to his teachers (he was ashamed, thank goodness.)
Things at home haven't been much easier - he tests my patience on purpose on a daily basis. His favorites include "kissing" the baby while she's asleep to wake her up and then running away, throwing his food/spoon/fork at us at the dinner table, closing the dishwasher while I am trying to load dirty dishes, and pushing on the screen door to go outside in the backyard (a big no-no since we've lived in this house, and yet I have to repeat myself approximately 184,291 times a day.) Naptime is rough - some days he's a good napper and happy to rest, and other days he fights me and fights it. If I try to discipline him, he usually giggles at me while I do it. The only scary person around here to him is Daddy, and unfortunately Daddy isn't always home.
I try to remember that his little world has been turned upside down lately, and he needs attention and love and cuddles. It's just so hard sometimes to reconcile his dual personalities. On one hand, sometimes he is my sweet, loving little boy, who loves to cuddle up and watch cartoons with me and give me big slobbery kisses. On the other, he's this little tasmanian devil of craziness. We are working with it and hopefully things will calm down soon!
Caroline is amazing. I hesitate to even post this, because a) I don't want to jinx myself, and b) I don't want my other Mommy friends to hate me, but she is sleeping through the night at 4.5 weeks old. And when I say through the night - I mean from 10:30 or 11pm straight through until 5:30 or 6am without waking up. And when she does wake up in the morning to eat, 9 times out of 10 she goes right back to sleep! I have no idea how I got so lucky. It certainly is her personality and isn't anything I did (and I'd like to remind everyone that I paid my dues with Jack - who was up for a 3am feeding every night until he was 9 MONTHS OLD.) Anyway, Caroline is an amazing sleeper who is overall a very calm baby. She's usually happy hanging out watching what Jack's doing, or outside with me while Jack runs around. The only thing she really doesn't like is her carseat right now, but I am happy to put up with a few minutes of screaming in the car! It seems a very small price to pay. We are so very blessed and I thank my lucky stars every day!
The other thing that currently frustrates her is that she can pull her own binky out of her mouth, but she can't put it back in. When she rips her binky out, and breaks the suction in her mouth so hard that there's a loud "pop!" and it scares her, this is what she does:
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| Poor baby! |
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Best Mother's Day yet!
I had a great Mother's Day! While it wasn't my first, it was my first with two kids, and my boys treated me awesome. Justin booked me a surprise spa treatment yesterday here. It was amazing. A very gentle post-natal massage, followed by this amazing hot stone steam shower that melted all my tension away. I love my kiddos with all my heart, but it was so nice to have an hour of peace and quiet!
Today, baby girl woke me up early and decided she wanted to hang out a little. That was fine - I got to cuddle with her in bed and watch my favorite Sunday morning news show. When the boys woke up, they went to get donuts from my favorite store, followed by a huge bag of random gifts from Target. They picked out things I love, like Ghiradelli brownie mix and Milk Duds and a box of wine :)
Finally, Justin surprised me with a chain for my diamond pendant that he got me for Jack's first birthday. It's super neat - adjustable length and it doesn't pull out my hair. I've been mentioning that I want one for awhile and he remembered! I was shocked. He even threw in a super sappy card - but don't tell him I told you ;)
Here are a few snapshots from our day. I hope that your Mother's Day was great too.
Having a daughter makes you reflect on a day like this. I am surrounded by shining examples of the world's best mothers ... both Justin and I were so lucky growing up with mothers who were there for us every step of the way and guided us into the parents we are today. I only hope I can live up to all of my family and friends who show me every day how to be the best mom that I can be. I was lucky enough to have one of the most supportive, fiercely loyal and loving moms I know, who always has put her family first before everything else in her life. I always felt like Colin and I were the most important things to her, and I could go to her with any problem, big or small. To this day I still call her when I need a kind word, when I just need to vent, or when I need advice with my own kids. I can't wait to share the same type of relationship with my own daughter in the future. I am so excited for everything our future has to offer!
Lots of love!
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| Caroline - hanging out with me in the dark early morning :) |
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| Caroline - being her usual wiggly self :) (Her outfit is too big. She's not really that big yet!) |
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| Jack's cake that he made me for Mother's Day. Flowers, stars, and a slightly phallic rocket ship. |
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| As a side note, her top hair is blonde! Her bottom hair however is brown. Hmm. |
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Been a long time!
I realize I owe a blog update (or three!) Sorry for the time out. It's been quite an adjustment to life with two kids and I am still learning new things every day.
Overall, Jack and Caroline get along together really well. Jack is super protective of her (always telling us things like "don't step on the baby!" if she's having tummy time, or "be careful with her head, Mommy!" if I am holding her.) Sometimes he doesn't understand - or doesn't like it - if she needs to eat and he wants to do something else, but for the most part he's very good and patient.
She is turning into a real little person more by the day. She's still a super awesome and calm baby, who sleeps very well. It's just that she's starting to show personality - she loves listening to the hair dryer and the vacuum cleaner, she likes being held in the carriers by me or Justin, she hates the wind and hates her car seat at the moment. She's super patient with Jack kissing, poking, and loving on her. I am still trying to figure out her daytime schedule (she is too!) but at night, she goes down between 10pm and 11pm, sleeps until 3 or 4am, eats, and goes back down until 7am -ish. It's perfect, because Jack usually wakes up between 7:30 and 8, and I can have a few minutes of peace with my coffee and the news before he comes out ready to play.
Some mornings, we all snuggle in bed:
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| Both kids watching The Cat in the Hat. I think this is the first of many photos of them both staring at the TV together. Oops :) |
We also joined a local pool / gym last week. (Pool for the family, gym for me, let's be honest.) It's awesome - they have onsite daycare so once I am cleared to exercise again by the doctor, I can drop her off while Jack is in school and get a workout in. We also love that they have three pools - two big ones and a splash pool for the little kids. We had our first family trip there this Sunday...
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| Jack LOVED every second of pool time with Justin! |
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| Caroline also enjoyed the pool, like her Mommy, relaxing in a chair :) |
Caroline is growing every day and I hope for a smile soon. She seems like she almost gets it, sometimes, but then it goes away. Hopefully we will get a real one in the near future!
In the meantime, she just likes to stare disapprovingly at you...
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| You! YEA YOU! What are YOU looking at?! |
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| Ahh...those magic moments when both kids are snoozing at once. Absolutely priceless. |
Until later...phew! I need a nap now :)
Thursday, May 3, 2012
First checkup
Today Caroline had her first real doctors appointment. I had to take her in on Monday, but only for a minute, and only because her belly button kept bleeding (her umbilical stump fell off on Friday, and it looked like it hadn't completely healed.) The doctor did a quick cauterizing procedure and declared it healthy.
Today was her first well-baby visit. I love our pediatrician - I know I keep saying it, but she took a good 20 minutes to talk to me about Caroline's habits, how I'm coping, and even how Jack (her other patient!) was hanging in there. We are so lucky to have found her.
She told me things I already knew - I am very lucky with our calm, cool, collected little girl. She is starting to have longer awake periods and be more alert during the day, and I am beginning to figure out her schedule. She sleeps for a combined period of 3 hours in the morning and 3-4 hours in the afternoon, plus a long stretch at night (last night she gave me 5 solid hours!! From 11pm - 4am! at 2 weeks old!) She's eating well, pooping spectacularly, and she is usually content to be put down and look around at everything going on around her (which with Jack, is a lot.) Last night we had a "fussy" period in the late afternoon which is normal, but I strapped her into the Baby Bjorn for the first time and she calmed right down. Overall, we are so lucky and blessed with this baby and I thank my lucky stars every time I wake up feeling relatively well-rested!
Here's her 2-week stats:
Height: 20 inches (I am not sure she gained a whole two inches. I think the hospital didn't stretch her out all the way when she was born. Either way, she's longer now!) This is the 50th percentile.
Weight: 7lb 9oz (perfectly on track!) Again, 50th percentile.
Head circumference: 36cm
She's already started out much better than Jack on the trending charts...not that those mean anything!
I also had a doctor's appointment today. They took the steri-strips off my incision and all is healing as planned. It looks great, except this one is a LOT wider than my last one. I don't know why that is. Oh well, it's still just a mark on my body that represents the great things it did to produce both Jack and Caroline :)
My blood pressure is still ridiculously high, even on the medicine. I have to go back again in 10 days for another evaluation and see what the doctor says from there.
In other news, having two kids at home has been both harder and easier than I thought. Naptime has been tricky and today was the first day I successfully got both kids to sleep within 20 minutes of each other. Caroline went down at about 1:45pm and Jack (in his own bed!) around 2:05pm. I immediately collapsed into bed and fell asleep hard.
I woke up around 3:00 to grunts coming from Caroline's bassinet, but I heard her poop (yes she's that loud) and she quieted back down right away. (Yes, I am too lazy to change her until she wakes up.) Anyway, I dozed back off and enjoyed another 45 minutes of solid sleep. I woke up with a start around 3:45, and sat to listen to the silence of the house and mentally give myself a pat on the back for almost two hours of quiet sleep for everyone.
All of a sudden I hear a weird popping noise coming from the living room. I rush up and run in there to find Jack pulling DVD's out of their cases. I said "what are you doing!?" and he goes "I was just pretending to be Mommy. You were sleeping and Daddy said you were tired so I was going to put a movie in to watch." It was pretty much the cutest thing ever. How could I be mad?? :) (And yes all our doors and windows were locked - he wasn't going anywhere.)
So I feel much better after a few hours of sleep and we are all looking forward to dinner, Daddy time, bath and bed! :)
Today was her first well-baby visit. I love our pediatrician - I know I keep saying it, but she took a good 20 minutes to talk to me about Caroline's habits, how I'm coping, and even how Jack (her other patient!) was hanging in there. We are so lucky to have found her.
She told me things I already knew - I am very lucky with our calm, cool, collected little girl. She is starting to have longer awake periods and be more alert during the day, and I am beginning to figure out her schedule. She sleeps for a combined period of 3 hours in the morning and 3-4 hours in the afternoon, plus a long stretch at night (last night she gave me 5 solid hours!! From 11pm - 4am! at 2 weeks old!) She's eating well, pooping spectacularly, and she is usually content to be put down and look around at everything going on around her (which with Jack, is a lot.) Last night we had a "fussy" period in the late afternoon which is normal, but I strapped her into the Baby Bjorn for the first time and she calmed right down. Overall, we are so lucky and blessed with this baby and I thank my lucky stars every time I wake up feeling relatively well-rested!
Here's her 2-week stats:
Height: 20 inches (I am not sure she gained a whole two inches. I think the hospital didn't stretch her out all the way when she was born. Either way, she's longer now!) This is the 50th percentile.
Weight: 7lb 9oz (perfectly on track!) Again, 50th percentile.
Head circumference: 36cm
She's already started out much better than Jack on the trending charts...not that those mean anything!
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| Quick shot on the scale. |
My blood pressure is still ridiculously high, even on the medicine. I have to go back again in 10 days for another evaluation and see what the doctor says from there.
In other news, having two kids at home has been both harder and easier than I thought. Naptime has been tricky and today was the first day I successfully got both kids to sleep within 20 minutes of each other. Caroline went down at about 1:45pm and Jack (in his own bed!) around 2:05pm. I immediately collapsed into bed and fell asleep hard.
I woke up around 3:00 to grunts coming from Caroline's bassinet, but I heard her poop (yes she's that loud) and she quieted back down right away. (Yes, I am too lazy to change her until she wakes up.) Anyway, I dozed back off and enjoyed another 45 minutes of solid sleep. I woke up with a start around 3:45, and sat to listen to the silence of the house and mentally give myself a pat on the back for almost two hours of quiet sleep for everyone.
All of a sudden I hear a weird popping noise coming from the living room. I rush up and run in there to find Jack pulling DVD's out of their cases. I said "what are you doing!?" and he goes "I was just pretending to be Mommy. You were sleeping and Daddy said you were tired so I was going to put a movie in to watch." It was pretty much the cutest thing ever. How could I be mad?? :) (And yes all our doors and windows were locked - he wasn't going anywhere.)
So I feel much better after a few hours of sleep and we are all looking forward to dinner, Daddy time, bath and bed! :)
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