Month: August 2016

Dear William,

A year and a half old already, or sometimes only a year and a half! You babies of mine sure play tricks on my mind. There are many days were I wonder how it is possible that you will be two in 6 months! You still seem like a little baby in so many ways. Then there are other days where I wonder how it is possible you are only 18 months. I can’t even remember what life was like without you in it so to think that was only 18 months ago is unfathomable.

At 18 months old you are full of emotions usually on extreme spectrums. You are happy and rambunctious, giggly and stubborn, comedic and whiney, cuddly and defiant.

Let’s start with your happy silly side. William, you love to laugh and make others laugh! For as serious as a face you have in most of your pictures, you are a very smiley and happy little boy. You love to play with cars, trucks, trains and busses. You love to push them around the house and make noises with them. You love to find everyday household objects (like a rope or blanket) and make games out of these things with your sister. The end result of every game usually involves you chasing Lexi around the house and you two giggling. You love to play ‘bomb you’ where Daddy takes pillow and throws them at you and you fall over (I know, sounds like a ‘fun’ game) but you break out into giggle fest and request more and more. You love to go down the slide, play catch, ride in the cozy coupe car, ride on the lawn mower with daddy (and wave to mama EVERY time you pass the windows), wrestle, stick your head between mama’s legs and say boo!, take baths (splash and kick the water) play in the sand, go swimming, watch daddy’s trains, pull things out of the cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom, mini-bike rides, climb! and be the center of attention. When any of these things are happening it is impossible to find your face without a huge smile plastered across it, displaying your teeth (and the gaps from the lack of eye teeth) and listening to your sweet little giggle.

However, your good times often lead to tears in one form or another. Often times, it is because I’ll say no to something (like you climbing on the counters or trying to scale the oven) and you immediately go into tantrum mode with big crocodile tears and usually a good foot stomping. You’ll whine an whine for us to give in. In the act of playing, Lexi will often take a toy away from you or pick one up that was sitting next to you, which results in tears and running to mama’s side to rescue you and get your toy back, which probably works about half the time. You love to yell no, mine and push me out of the way if you aren’t happy. If you’re doing something naughty (like splashing in the toilet) and you know it is naughty, you will put your hand up to me and start shaking your head and saying no, no, no! Once you make your mind up, good luck changing it. If you want a fruit snack, you’ll run to the counter and point and say snak, snak. I’ll often try and find something else (crackers, vanilla wafers, applesauce, granola bars, marshmallows) and you yell “NO” and push it out of my hand, and you don’t stop until you get what you want. Lord help me when you turn three and turn into temper tantrum central. Other times when you do something naughty like hit or bite or pull hair and I raise my voice and tell you to stop, you do stop, look me in the eyes start giggling and do it again. You are going to give me a run for my money kiddo, I can just feel it.

Sleeping is pretty normal. You go down around 8:30 each night and wake up around 6:30. There have been a couple of times you’ve even pushed 7:30, 8:00–heaven! For naps, you usually go down around 1:00 and sleep for about an hour and half–even though at school, you sleep for 3 hours! Occasionally, you’ll wake up about 30-45 min and I’ll head into your room, close the door read a couple of books and then put you back down and that will get you another hour or two of sleep. This month you even dropped drinking your milk before bed and nap time. I didn’t do a thing either, you just didn’t want it anymore.

Eating is pretty standard as well. You eat pretty much everything we put in front of you. You love anything sweet (especially fruit snacks) rice, raspberries, popcorn, popsicles, cereal, bagels and noodles. You love to use a fork and spoon and do a pretty good job with it too. You’re also getting much better at using a regular cup, but I rarely gamble with this new skill. A couple of months ago, we officially put your highchair away and now you sit in a booster at the table, but prefer to sit in a chair (as you can climb up on them now, which makes this challenging as we’re running out of places to put things out of your reach).

No major developments on the talking front this month. Although you attempt to say more things, almost everything comes out as ‘ba, ma, da, sa. You have gotten pretty good at your animal sounds (or actions) and will do: dog, cat, bird, wolf, owl, cow, frog, lion, bear, shark, monkey, gorilla, alligator, sheep, duck and snake. You did however put your first two words together ‘poop hurt’ as you were a little constipated.

William, as challenging as I fear you will be, I couldn’t be more excited for each new day. You are going to make me a stronger mommy and I love you to pieces.

Love,

Mama

I’ve seen a few other bloggers do these and they say how much they love looking back on them, so I thought I would give this a shot.

Today is Thursday, July 7, 2016

Bill is 36, Kristin is 30, Lexi is 3.5, William is 16 months

Bill and I are both took vacation for the week and are prepping to head out of town for a cousin’s wedding tomorrow.

6:34- I hear Lexi’s door open and wait for her to come into our room. She slowly enters as her eyes readjust to the darkness, and she comes over to my bed and says, I slept past light turned green and my tummy is hungry. I tell her, it is still early in the morning and light hasn’t turned green yet. She then requests to watch a show on the ipad, I hesitantly agree cause I want another 20 minutes of sleep. She runs back to bed as I try to find the ipad. Can’t find it anywhere and come back to her room to tell her I don’t know where it is and she is going to have to read books or play with her toys instead. Surprisingly, she is OK with this and obliges. I tell her the numbers have to be seven zero zero before she can come out.

6:43-I’m just stepping out of Lexi’s room and William starts rustling, he might fall back asleep so I head back to bed. Two minutes later, he is gently calling, ‘mama, mama’ This is the first time this has ever happened, he usually wakes up and starts crying immediately. I walk into his room, he smiles and giggles a little and hands me his raccoon and turns around to get his blanket. I pick him up and he nuzzles into my shoulder. We sit down in the rocking chair and for the second time I’m surprised whining and crying doesn’t follow. We rock as he is curled up in a ball resting his head on my chest and I rub his back for 15 minutes. Pure Heaven to have him be so content and snuggly.

7:00-Lexi proudly struts into William’s room carrying her green clock. We high-five for waiting to come out of her room until light turns green and then proceeds to tell me she read books and played with giraffee while she was waiting. She climbs onto my other leg and the three of us rock for 10 minutes until both kids become restless.

7:14-We head downstairs and I start to make some muffins as a treat since we are on vacation. The kids argue with each other and push their chairs around the kitchen trying to find a good place to stand up and help me on the counter. William says ‘Mine’ probably 50 times. Lexi finds a spot and helps scoop batter into the muffin tins, William finds some other papers on the counter and begins to play with those. Muffins are cooking and I clean up the kitchen a little bit and run upstairs to put on my workout clothes and brush my teeth.

7:45-Muffins are done. They cool while Lexi sets the table and puts strawberries on everyone’s plates. Kids begin eating and I start my workout video-lower fix. It has been a while since I have done this one and I don’t remember if I like it or not–depends on how hard the exercises are. Eight minutes into the video, William starts yelling Mama, Mama, Mama–he wants milk. Pause workout, get Milk and then continue to finish the video. Periodically throughout the video, Lexi joins me and attempts the exercises with me.

8:15-Workout complete, not too bad. I generally like the strength ones way more than the cardio ones. But my legs are a little jelloish. So happy I was able to finish my workout before the guys installing the fence arrived. I didn’t want to have to close the blinds as it is so much darker, but there was no way I would work out if they could see me. I eat two muffins and drink some water and cool down a little bit.

8:20-William pooped. I change his diaper and Bill questions why I never put another diaper under the dirty one to make sure no debris falls onto the carpet. Ironically, today’s change was an adventure as William was squirming and poop was all over his butt verses the diaper and then he got ahold of the diaper. Thankfully, I was able to get it away from him and it didn’t get on the carpet, but his hands did get into it- gross. Wipe it up and make sure I wash his hands. We wash hands and he waddles back to his toys, he brings his animal book to me. We hold hands and walk into the front room to read as Lexi is watching Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse ends and Lexi and Bill both come and start rough-housing with us. 9:00–I get up and start cleaning the kitchen and sweeping the floor for the first of the 10 times I’ll do that today. I unload and re-load the dishwasher and wash some dishes. Bill and the kids play together in the family room with some Amazon boxes and the slide. Bill questions the style of fence we are getting as the team is carrying out dog-eared boards and he thought we got the framed style. We quickly look up the pictures they sent us to ensure we knew what we were getting.

William starts whining about Lexi bothering him so we head upstairs and he gets dressed for the day. Lexi follows us up two minutes later, I ask her to go put some clothes on so she can run errands with me (note this is the 5th time I’ve asked her to get dressed). She goes into her room and puts on an Ariel tee-shirt and a colored polka dot skirt that doesn’t match at all, but comes into William’s room proud as can be and shows off her outfit.
I praise her for getting dressed by herself but suggest we find a shirt that matches a little better. After lots of debate, we select a shirt that is ‘good-enough’. William is playing with her princess castle. Lexi reminds me that I promised we would read a 5 minute princess snuggle story in the morning. We go into our room and read Princess Aurora and the Helpful ragon.
William wants in, climbs onto the chair with us for 2 minutes until he gets annoyed that he can’t hold the pages. Finish the book and I go and get dressed. We’re just running errands today, but may try and stop at a park on the way home so I can wear comfy clothes but still want to look somewhat decent and decide on a pair of athletic shorts with a black tank top and put my hair into a high pony. Debate putting makeup on but decide against it. I head downstairs with William, my little magnet and put a new load of laundry in. Fence team is here and putting the first couple sections up. William and I head outside to check out the landscaping work Bill did yesterday evening. Looks fantastic and make a note to thank him for doing it and let him know how good it looks. I walk over to examine the first part of the fence and ensure the team will be covering up the dog-eared shape with another board to frame it out and they confirm this so we are a-ok. Go to find William as he didn’t follow me–turns out, he found the dirt and had been playing in it and climbing on the mulch bags and having a grand time. We head to the hose to clean off the dirt while before heading back in.

10:00-Chat with Bill quick to confirm the fence process and ask him his plans for the day, which sound pretty minimal and confirms I can leave William with him so I don’t have to have both kids for errands. Bring my returns into the car and continue to ask Lexi to get into the kitchen so we can do her hair before we leave. This includes several threats that if she doesn’t listen I’m going to leave without her. She insists on having a snack while she gets her hair done, I cave and give her a pack of crackers. William sees this and whines to also have a snack. We do a quick pony and put her shoes and socks on while she is eating. Clean the kitchen and sweep from the cracker crumbs.
10:30-Lexi and I are in the car and heading out to the dry cleaner, then get gas and then start driving to Bachmans to look for a shrub for some of the area Bill landscaped. Lexi talks the entire time. Lexi-‘Mom how come you had a sucker of me’ Me- ‘You mean, why did I have a picture of you eating your first sucker?’ Lexi- Yes. Me- ‘Well I thought it was cute’ Lexi-‘Oh, we’re going to need to put the suckers in the garbage’ Me-‘What?’ Lexi- We need to put the suckers in the garbage, right mom? Me- Yes. Lexi-‘Why?’ Me-‘no response’ Lexi-‘I like suckers. We need to get a new bag, right mom? Me-Yes. Lexi- ‘Why Mom? Me-No response Lexi–Suckers are really nummy. I got 4 suckers at the parade. A green one, a white one a red one and a black one. Mom, why did I get suckers at the parade? Me- Well the people in the parade thought the kids would like them. Lexi-Why? Me-Cause it is fun. Lexi-Why mom? [pause] Mom, where did Dad’s sucker go? At cub foods, I got a red one, bood got a purple one and dad got a blue one, but where did it go? Did dad eat it yet?  and on and on and on. 11:20-Arrive at Bachmans searching for a shrub or tree that is about 5-6 feet tall but only 3-4 feet wide for a full sun area that is also tolerant to salt in the winter–which learned didn’t exist. After debating a dwarf spruce tree that would need to get wrapped in burlap each winter and a mini limelight hydrangea, we went with the hydrangea. It doesn’t get the height that I was looking for, but it will match the others on the other side of the house. Lexi complained every 3 minutes about how hot she was and how she wanted to go home. Also looked to see if they had some good deals on hostas for other areas that I’ll be planting but they’re still pretty expensive and reaffirmed my decision to split some from mom and aunt Mary this fall. Every time we stepped into the sun, Lexi began to whine about being hot and kept asking to go back into the shade. 11:50-Although whiny, Lexi was a good shopper so we walked over to Arby’s for a quick lunch. Lots of silly faces and eating at the pace of a turtle. Oh and Lemonade, raspberry lemonade is a new favorite for this girl. She nearly drank the whole cup.
12:30-Arrive at Target to return the extra shoes I ordered for Lexi for the wedding and my card wasn’t registering the purchase. Annoying as I didn’t keep all the shipping slips and now I have to print them out. I know first world problems, but I try to go to target as infrequently as because I can never just go in and come out with only the things on my list. For instance, today, after the shoe return didn’t work, Lexi picked out a bag of candy for her and William for the road trip tomorrow and then she needed a new reusable on-the-go cup as her previous one had mold in the cap and then I really needed some new workout clothes and $50 later we’re leaving target on a trip that was supposed to put money back into my wallet. I digress. 1:00-Quick stop to drop a package off at UPS to return and then back home. William about looses his gord when he hears the door open and comes running and yelling mama, mama! He sees the bag of Laughy Taffy that Lexi had opened in the car and immediately begins requesting some, pease, pease. I give in and give him and Lexi each one piece. He also gets the rest of her Arby’s Chicken Finger and french fries while Lexi eats strawberries. Clean the kitchen and sweep the crumbs. 1:45-Lexi and I head outside to check progress on the fence. I push her on the swing a while while Bill puts William down for his nap. I chat with my mom quick about plans for the weekend. Push Lexi on the swing again and then head inside for Bill to put her down for her nap while I head outside to plant the hydrangea.
2:45-I’m planting and chatting with the neighbor, Lexi wanders out the front door to give me a hug and a kiss before nap time. Sometimes it seems impossible for either child to fall asleep without me putting them to bed. There is always some reason or excuse why they need ‘me’ 3:00-Finish planting and bring Lexi up to bed and she goes right down, without any procrastination, deals to be made or fits to be had. Also slightly annoyed as this means she will sleep until 6:00 tonight, which means she won’t go to bed until 10:00 or later. Argh! 3:05-Fold the two loads of laundry that I had done today. Sit down to begin this post. Bill naps. 3:45-William starts crying and think to myself, already? Didn’t he just go down. I go upstairs and get him and he is an angry pill. Not sure what his deal has been, but he is not a happy boy when he wakes from his naps for the past two weeks. He just crys, doesn’t want to be down, doesn’t want to be held, doesn’t want food or milk or toys to go for a walk or be outside–all of my go-to distractors haven’t been working as of late. Today, he calmed down within 10 min or so which is one of the fastest its been and watched some Mickey Mouse and snuggled with me.

4:15-Fence team is done! We go out to take a walk through and make sure it looks a-ok! So excited for this!!!William plays in the dirt again and on the swing set. I spread the mulch out around my plant and take the grill out to get dinner cooked before the rain comes.

5:30-Grill some hamburgers and hot dogs while William plays on the lawn mower. Get the fixings ready. William finishes his Mickey Mouse and eats some chips. Clean the kitchen-sweep the crumbs. Go upstairs and open Lexi’s door and window shade to start to wake her up.

6:00-Food is ready, go wake Lexi up. She is out cold and trys to send me away several times. Finally, convince her to get up by telling her Mickey Mouse is on and she’s going to miss the hot dog dance if she doesn’t hurry. This peaks her attention and she heads downstairs.

6:30-Dinner is complete. Kids get up to play chase. Lots of crying and arguing mixed in with lots of laughter. I try and ignore as much of it as I can to let them figure it out, but 9 times out of 10, Lexi is being a stinker and gets threatened with a time out or loosing her opportunity to watch a show or read books before bed. William poops and him and I head upstairs to change his diaper. I finish packing their bags and putting laundry away. Lexi follows us upstairs. The two play together nicely with separate toys in Lexi’s room.
7:28-Lexi is requesting a treat/snack. We head downstairs and get ice cream cones and begin to chow down. For the first time in the day there is silence when both kids have been awake and in the same room. Feels slightly odd.

7:38-Bill can’t find his softball uniform and summons me to help him find it. William looses his mind when I tell him he can’t have any more ice cream. We wash up and the kids get down to play with their pals and blankets. Lexi trys to take his blanket and raccoon over and over again. William whines and comes crying to me and yells ‘mine’ ‘mine’ ‘mine’ over and over and over again. Bill pulls up the clip from Finding Nemo where the seagulls keep saying Mine over and over again as it is a familiar scene in our household on a daily basis.

7:45 Bill leaves for softball and the kids seem to be playing somewhat well together.

8:00-Start a Mickey Mouse for Lexi while I go put William to sleep. Will and I head upstairs with his raccoon, blanket and milk. We rock in the chair in the dark. He drinks his milk and I sing songs. He joins in and makes up his own words. About 10 minutes later, I lay him down in his crib awake with his blanekt and raccoon, give him a kiss and say good night. He waves, bye-bye and I close the door and he goes to sleep.

8:20-I head back downstairs and let Lexi continue to watch another episode of Mickey and one of Curious George while I work on typing up this post.

9:30-We turn the TV off. Lexi negotiates a book to be read down stairs. She puts her pajamas on and we start finding objects in her princess look and find book.

10:10-Bill arrives back from softball (lost the first but won the second). Lexi jumps out to scare hime when he walks in the door. We head up and she procrastinates eating

10:30-I finally walk out of her room and she begins to fall asleep. I head downstairs to continue prepping to leave town tomorrow and begin writing this post.

12:10-Shut the computer down and go to sleep.