Catching up

All of a sudden it feels like there's a lot going on around here.

Let's start with my birthday.  For one day it was my birthday and not Miss M's birthday. It took her until 4pm that day to not disagree with me.  We FaceTimed with Poppy and when he asked her what day it was she responded with "my mommy's birthday".  First and last time she acknowledged it.

Andrew planned an amazing surprise for my birthday. I thought he had organized Annessa to come babysit and he and I would go to dinner. The usual. No big deal although getting out of the house is a big deal.  My friend, Helen, came over and told me I could take a shower for my birthday and she would watch all the munchkins. I took her up on it because who would pass up an opportunity to stand under hot water in silence for just a few minutes. I even did my hair. Big day.  

We drove into the city and I had no idea where we were going. I thought I knew but I was wrong.  When we showed up he told me he would take care of the valet and I should go check in. I walk in and by the bar were 11 of my most treasured friends.  I cried.  It was wonderful. It meant so much to me that these women took time out of their busy lives and came to celebrate with me. Most of them had to organize babysitters, some are sleep deprived from newborns not sleeping, and one fit me in after her fantasy football draft.  Here are some of the wonderful people who came to celebrate. We are down two because of fantasy drafts and sleep deprivation took them away early. 

I think I mentioned that when Miss M's friend, O, came last weekend she was potty trained and Miss M too more of an interest in the toilet than she probably ever had.  She was in the basement yesterday (Wednesday) and was doing her business in the corner (you can tell by the look on her face). I asked her if she wanted to go to the bathroom and she agreed. She sat on her potty and read some books. Not much was happening so I told her I would be back after I got will down for a nap. When I came back she had pooped, put it in the toilet and flushed it down. I was shocked.  I asked her if she wanted to wear big girl panties. She usually responds with "no, I will wear a diaper" but that day she said yes. She had minimal accidents and when she started to have an accident she was able to catch herself and finish in the potty.  She woke up this morning and went potty and then I put a diaper on her because we were going to the zoo. I was not going to deal with accidents or having to pee at the zoo where bathrooms are not in abundance.

We went to lunch with our friend and I took her to the bathroom because she was still dry and she was willing to try to go but the toilet scared her. She kept asking if she was going to fall in. She didn't go to the bathroom.  She waited until we got home (approx 5.5 hours after leaving) and then she went to the bathroom.  So no accidents as of today.  I am not pushing it but she seems willing and interested. She wants a potty like her friend Mary has where it has steps that let her climb up to the big toilet. They didn't sell it at the store today as I was going to let her pick it out so I let her help me purchase it online. It will be here Saturday! We will not.

I am a little conflicted about how much I keep going with this or just do what's convenient for me.  We are traveling this weekend and I don't know if I should put her in a diaper/pull-up/panties. Do I take a small potty for the weekend? Do I just throw her in diapers? I will probably do all of the above because it will probably be easier in the long run and reduce the number of breakdowns she has.

Isn't she cute in her panties?

 

I am hoping this is my new best friend.  This is called a time-timer. Miss M's teacher said they use it in her classroom and it helps if we have one at home to keep things consistent. She said that a lot of times it helps take the power struggle out when dealing with kids. You set the clock for how long she has for something ie you have 15 minutes before you have to try to sit on the potty or 45 minutes before you HAVE to put the ipad away even though it might kill you. The red portion continues to decrease as the time runs out so the kid can physically see that time is ending.  It also makes a small beeping sound when time is up.  The teacher said it helps make the time-timer the bad guy instead of the parent because it is an inadiment object and you can say time-timer said time is up!  We shall see if she goes along with my game. Hopefully once she starts seeing it/using it at school she will be more open to the idea. Maybe I can even use time-timer to get her to pick up her toys.

I don't have a picture of it because it's not that exciting and space on my phone is limited but Aunt Nessie suggested I make a calendar for Miss M to show her when she be at school. Aunt Nessie is a preschool teacher and knows how these kids operate. She also thinks Miss M is a visual learner which I don't disagree with rather I just hadn't put that much thought into it.  So I ordered star shaped stickers (as she's in the star room at school) and put them on each day she will be in school and hopefully she will come to love the idea of going to school because right now I wouldn't say she loves the idea of school.

Miss M woke up today and asked if we could go to the zoo. We didn't have anything else really planned and we had to be out of the house when the cleaning ladies were here. We packed up the car and invited a few friends.  We met Rodie and Eddie.  Here they are just chatting about life and sports while enjoying the summer breeze at the zoo.  They are so cute.

I didn't proofread this today b/c I am in a hurry - I have two babies sleeping - it's 5pm and one of them will wake up any minute!

Weekend visitors

We had a very busy weekend this weekend with Adam and Missy stopping by for the night on Friday, I served donuts for Miss M's preschool for three hours Saturday morning, we watched our friends' 2 year old daughter so they could go house shopping in the area, and our friends from the land of Iowa came for a visit.  

We just hung out around the house Saturday afternoon then went to the train restaurant for dinner.  We noted the time on the clock was 5:07 pm when we were in the car again and on our way to the ice cream store.  

I had seen an advertisement on tv regarding the Doc Mobile.  Miss M is obsessed with Doc McStuffins.  She can't get enough of her. There are shows I don't like that I don't let her watch ie Dora.  I told Miss M we were going to go see Doc and she was excited.  When we got to the Pier we realized the line was really long. Insanely long. Long enough that we weren't going to stand it in with two 2 year olds.  We walked by it and made a big deal of Doc's house but Miss M wanted to see Doc. I had to tell her Doc was eating lunch and then later taking a nap when she wouldn't drop it.  

We spent the morning running around and watching the water and boats and people.  Plenty to see.  The girls posed for a few pictures although by the time we were going to take a picture of Miss M and I she informed me she didn't have any more cheeses left in her. Oh. Ok.

In trying to make the pain of not seeing Doc a little less we told the girls we were going to go home and have a birthday party (for me!!!). Jenny brought hats and noise makers (that luckily didn't make noise). We had fun hanging out in our princess skirts (not shown) and having a party.  Later that evening we had birthday cake complete with candles and song (thanks again to Jenny).  Miss M was adamant that it was her birthday.  She was even singing to herself. I will post that video later as it's on Andrew's phone. And Andrew is in L.A. 

The girls played together so well. And they actually played together and didn't just play in the same room independent of each other. There were minimal fights over stuff/sharing.  I was pretty impressed considering the girls aren't that familiar with each other and Miss M can be quite possessive.

O is potty trained and I was/am hoping that O would make Miss M think the potty was awesome.  It was short lived but she did want to sit on the potty with her friend. Baby steps I guess.

The girls took baths together and Miss M didn't scream when we asked her to get in. O doesn't cry when the water is poured on her head and it's possible she taught Miss M a few things on how to keep the water out of her eyes. It's amazing how much they watched each other and then mimicked what the other one was doing.

It was a fun weekend and surprisingly relaxing because the girls got a long so well.  I think if they would have fought a lot then it would have been extremely exhausting.

Pink

Mr. Man is an unpredictable little creature.

We went to the city to hang out with our friends at the play cafe and when we got there things just didn't seem right. Mr. Man smelled a little funny.

I pulled him out of his car seat and much to my dismay found he was covered in poop.  It was bad enough that I couldn't let him continue to wear the outfit he was wearing and I didn't have any extra onsies packed in the bag so he had to go naked. I wasn't impressed with my mothering abilities but what can you do.

Our friends showed up.  Our friends only have little girls.  One little girl wears new born clothes, two wear 2T, and one luckily was wearing a 6 month onsie (even though she shouldn't have been as she's more like a 12 month clothes kind of girl).  We stole the K's onsie and Mr. Man rocked the pink.

He pulled it off quite well.

It brought me back to the days when his sister was this little. I have never really thought they looked a like but with Mr. Man in a pink outfit I saw my baby girl again.

From now on the diaper bag shall be stocked with extra clothes. We don't need to make this mistake more than once.

Big fella

He can sit in the Bumbo but not as comfortably as I would like so we'll probably wait a few more weeks before we start using it consistently.

But he sure is cute.

Finger painting

Miss M loves to paint.  She asks to paint on a daily basis.  Lately she's been taking finger painting to a new level and is up to her elbows in paint.

3 months and counting

Mr. Man is officially three months.  We are supposed to be out of the really tough newborn stage from here on out but I am not convinced it isn't going to take him a little bit longer to get sorted out. He's doing really well except in regard to sleep. His sleeping seems to have reverted a bit and lately (last night) he was really twitchy so he doesn't ever sleep soundly because he's hitting himself or snapping his legs up.  He isn't hungry as I can get him to go back to sleep with a pacifier except he doesn't stay asleep because of the twitching so I end up feeding him to relax him and get him to sleep for another couple hours before we do it again.  We'll get it.  Eventually.

He occasionally enjoys laying on his stomach and has once or twice rolled from his stomach to his back.

If only he could find that fist in the middle of the night and go back to sleep!

I asked Miss M if she wanted in the pictures with us. She informed me she didn't have any cheeses and went back to watching tv.  Speaking of the tv, I am ready to throw it out the window so she can't ask me to watch it all day long.

 She's out of the picture. She went back to watching Thomas.

He giggles

Mr. Man has started giggling a little. I have to work to get the giggles out of him unless he's in the bathtub and then he just laughs the whole time.

When we don't take naps

Miss M has decided to give up naps. It was better when she was in her crib as opposed to her toddler bed. When she was in her crib she couldn't get out and would sometimes eventually fall asleep. Now that she's in her toddler bed she gets out of it as soon as I close the door and then runs amuck going in and out of the upstairs bedrooms and bathrooms. She doesn't come downstairs b/c she knows she's supposed to be sleeping.

It's a disaster.  She needs a nap. She falls apart by 5:00 or 6:00 every day she doesn't take a nap. I can't put her to bed at 6:00 because who knows what time she would wake up or else I would consider it.

I am at a loss. I might try to scare her into a nap today.  She woke up at 6:00 letting herself out of her room and wondering around until I told her to come lay in our bed. She refused to lay and then Mr. Man woke up so everyone was up. Not ideal.

This is what happens when Miss M doesn't nap.

It's not pretty.

Last week we were playing with her Doc McStuffins doctors kit and she was giving me a check up.  She was looking for her otoscope (the one that looks in your eyes, mouth and ears). 

Here was our conversation.

Me: It's an otoscope.  Can you say otoscope?

Miss M: IT'S NOT AN OTOSCOPE MOMMY. IT'S AN EYE SCOPE. SAY IT MOMMY, EYE SCOPE. 

Me: ignoring her

Miss M: SAY IT MOMMY. EYE SCOPE.

The capitalization represents her screaming at me which she does when she doesn't agree with me and anymore she never agrees with me thus she screams at me most all day long.  It's great.  

They say it's a stage...and there will just be another one once we figure this one out.  Oh the things I have to look forward to.

Sleeping in the breeze

Mr. Man loves sleeping outside and thankfully it's been cool enough for him to be outside again.  He seems to get so much hotter than Miss M did when she was little. He gets hot and sweaty in his car seat and when he gets mad he turns into a furnace.

We had all our friends over Friday to play in the backyard and Mr. Man slept on a sheet, Then Saturday we were having a picnic as a family on the back porch for lunch and he just fell asleep again.

Who knew babies just fell asleep. Miss M didn't ever just fell asleep.  We worked hard to get her to sleep all day and night long.

We have moved him to his crib to sleep at night and I no longer swaddle him and lock down his arms. He seems to like his arms by his face and he likes to lay flat and stretch out. It also looks like he's going to be a blanket baby like his sister. He likes to go to sleep with a blanket by his face. He doesn't chew on the blanket like Miss M yet but maybe he will once he can consistently put his fist to his mouth.

Mr. Man is so happy. He's discovering his voice and makes noises most of the day. He loves to lay under the activity mat and talk to his "friends".  He grabs and bats at the toys that hang from the activity mat.  We should put him on his tummy more so he can work on rolling over but he's so happy just laying on his back.