Mr Man is six months old

We've successfully made it to six months. I think we're going to make it all the way now.  Mr. Man is eating and sleeping on a schedule. It's still a time elapsed schedule instead of a time of the day schedule (every two hours/four hours vs 9am and 2pm and breakfast, lunch, dinner). I think we've kind of figured each other out.  

We were in STL when Mr. Man turned six months. I knew he was turning six months while we were gone but the day almost escaped us without a picture. It wouldn't be the first time so I wasn't too concerned but since he was still awake I snapped a quick picture of him. We did get family pictures the next day so I am not concerned he's naked here. And we've all noticed my kids are naked a lot. 

I take off his clothes when he eats real food because the mess isn't worth dealing with. I would need to buy stock in stain remover. I should look at Costco to see if they sell bulk stain remover.  

Example 1.  This is a relatively clean night. His face and hands are a mess. He also gets a lot of food on his stomach which is hidden by his toy being in his mouth.

 Example 2. This is what it has the potential to look like. Feeding kids is gross.

Mr. Man has been working on sitting up by himself. He can last maybe a minute or so without tipping over.  He's sitting up sooner than Miss M. I think Miss M was closer to 8 or 9 months before she sat up.  He's a stout little fella so I imagine that helps him a little bit. He shows interest in toys and moves around quite well by rolling around to get what he wants.

These are Mr. Man's first pair of shoes. We have other shoes that people have loaned us but Mr. Man hasn't worn them. We really haven't had a need to wear shoes since it had been warm.  Due to family pictures I found it justifiable to buy him some kicks to match his outfit. They are easy to put on and they stay on so he wears them quite often. They are so little and so cute which is kinda like him minus the little part. Dude is huge.

We went to the doctor and she said he's doing really well. She was happy he's eat and sleeping well.

He weighs 20 lbs 6 ozs. Amazingly he's only in the 90th percentile for weight. I thought he would be off the chart. 

He is 28.5 inches long. He's in the 100th percentile for his height. 

His head is in the 95th percentile.  

The doctor was really happy he is very proportionate. 

The Fish

The fish is still alive. 

I don't remember when exactly we were graced with his presence. If we figure he showed up around the first of March and hasn't died yet it means he's lived in our home for approximately 258 days.

That's impressive.

I refer to him as The Fish although everyone else refers to him as Stucky. 

Miss M loves to help feed the fish and she loves even more to feed the fish when no one is watching. Last week before leaving for our trip to STL she dumped a half of a package of fish food in his container. We couldn't even see the fish because the water was so full of food. 

Andrew cleaned his tank. I would have probably let him die.

We didn't have food to feed him for about 5 days. I was sure he wouldn't be swimming when we returned from our trip, but when I saw he was still swimming around I made Andrew go to the pet store and buy new chemicals for his water and food. 

He came back with the food, chemicals and a bigger bowl. He decided since it appeared Stucky was going to be a permanent fixture around here he should get a bigger more sightly home. I wasn't impressed. It's a fish. He doesn't need a fancy home. And it would seem to be the law of something that we would pay money for a bigger container and then the fish would die. 

Miss M was so excited. She was so excited she went to the living room (while we were in the kitchen) and attempted to bring us the fish bowl. We almost lost him when we lost a lot of delicious fish water to the couch. Again he made it. 

Do fish have nine lives because this fish keeps making it when I am sure he shouldn't?

Miss M was not very patient while waiting for his rocks to be cleaned. 

 All she wanted to do was catch the fish with her net.

Now Stucky lives in the kitchen. There are times when I think he's safer there but really I don't think he's safe anywhere.

Long live the fish.

No more road trips

I am swearing off road trips (by myself) until the kids are at least 15 and even then I am not sure we'll want to be in a confined space with each other so maybe I will swear off road trips forever.

We went to STL last weekend to see Big Craig and family as well as Mimi and the Greats (great grandma and grandpa). The kids and I drove down Thursday after a play date with some of Miss M's classmates. Mr. Man fell asleep pretty much as soon as we went through McDonald's.  Miss M tried to sleep after she plowed through her french fries and ketchup but couldn't really get comfortable in her seat so her snooze lasted less than an hour. She didn't complain about being bored and rather she was just looking out the window wishing she could sleep so I offered her the iPad.

Mistake. Big Mistake.

It's been confirmed (for the fourth time) that Miss M gets car sick.  She watched the iPad for about an hour before she said my name in a voice that made me look in the rear view mirror and hope she hadn't puked all over the brand new iPad already. She broke the last one and I would prefer she didn't break the new one by puking on it. Yes, the iPad was my main concern. Puke can be cleaned up. iPads can not.  I took the iPad from her and then gave her the happy meal box and told her to puke in it. Apparently 2 year olds don't know how to throw up in something. She held the box in front of her and puked all down the front of her leaving her bucket full of nothing but the trash that was already in it.

Thankfully, Mr. Man was waking up (as I do not stop when a baby is sleeping - but I probably would have made an exception for Miss M since shortly after puking she informed me she had to pee - double score). I found the nearest McDonald's and pulled in with a look in my eye that dared any cop to pull me over.

I unbuckled Miss M's puke infested seat belt, took her out of the car, took off her puke infested coat and shirt, took the portable potty from the trunk and sat her on it. I was in the McDonald's parking lot with a toddler on a toilet with her shirt off. I would have called the authorities. No one questioned me. I wrapped a blanket around her because it was around 50 degrees with a 20 mph wind and the girl was shivering. I got clothes from the suitcase and changed her on the tailgate. It was classy. It could have been a country song. She ended up in her pjs (because who doesn't want to wear their pjs when their sick) and riding boots.

We then went inside to change Mr. Man and that's when I realized I hadn't changed his diaper in a long time. Long enough that his diaper leaked and his shirt and jeans were wet. Tough luck kid. I don't have a change of clothes in my bag and I am not prolonging the stop. We got an ice cream to share and Mr. Man had a bottle.

We loaded back up and restarted our journey. The kids were good for the next 30-45 minutes. It's all a blur after the pit stop. Then it started. The screaming. Mr. Man was ticked. He had had enough of his car seat and he was going to let the world know. The problem was that the world couldn't hear him…just me and Miss M. Miss M was not phased by Mr. Man's crying. It's like she doesn't hear it. I on the other hand couldn't bite my fingernails any further down nor could I ignore him. How do you ignore the shrill screaming from a child. Especially when it lasts for two hours. I kept thinking he was going to give it up. He didn't. Until we got about 5 miles from Big Craig's house.  After he got out of his car seat it was like he was a new kid. Happy. Chatty. Playful.

STL was good. We stayed around the house and played and chatted. Miss M and Big Jack played well together and Mr. Man decided he was ready to roll back and fourth.

We had family pictures taken without a meltdown (by any of the children - the adults are another story). Candy corn works miracles.

 Played with Gr. Grandpa. Mr. Man's namesake.

Mr. Man loves cans. You can see the excitement in his eyes when he spies Gr. Grandpa's can even though Gr. Grandpa was trying to distract him with a lame water bottle. Try again Gramps.

Celebrated Christmas with Mimi since we usually don't get the opportunity to see her.

 Played with Mr. Man's toy as it was probably the most popular item.

 Saw what one-upping looked like.

 Played with new (to us) toys in our pjs.

Tried to squirm out of Gr. Grandma's arms because the kid shall not be contained. His words not mine.

And we left Sunday morning relatively early. We had (amazing) cinnamon rolls (so amazing that Miss M ate three and not just the icing on the top of three - three whole ones).

And what do you know. The ride home was cake. Mr. Man slept for three hours and since the car doesn't stop when a baby is sleeping everyone had to refrain from drinking much and eat snacks to not starve to death. There was no shrill screaming but rather just Mr. Man hanging out after yet another trip to McDonald's. I have eaten so much McDonald's since Miss M was about one I just can't stomach it anymore. I am sorry to my parents for ever wanting to go there.

All dressed up and somewhere to go

Andrew's work put on a black tie event Saturday night to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the firm. It was quite a big deal because in the seven years (or however many years he's worked there) they have never had a formal event where spouses were invited.  

Aunt Nessa informed me that black tie meant long dresses and tuxedos. I was fortunate enough to borrow a dress from Aunt Nessa's boss/my babysitter's mom (the same person) along with matching shoes and an adorable clutch. Amazingly everything fit perfectly so I didn't have to waste any time shopping and I could spend my time and money at the salon before the event!

Andrew rented a tuxedo with a bow tie and a pocket hanky. He upgraded! He's fancy like that. 

Aunt Nessa came over Saturday to watch the children and stay the night. It was wonderful as Saturday night was daylight savings time where we fall back and gain an hour but there are no hours gained when infants and toddlers are involved. Daylight savings time is really just a sick and miserable joke. We got home a bit after midnight but thankfully Aunt Nessa got up with both kids so we could stay in bed a bit longer. 

I am thankful I ate pizza before we left because as predicted the mass produced food was sub-par. 

 Isn't he cute?

It was fun to get dressed up (it was most fun to spend 3 hours at the salon) but I don't need to get dressed up very often. I don't particularly care for high heels. My feet hurt so bad by the time the night was over. 

Here we are all dressed up for our senior prom (May 1999).  One of us has a little less hair. One (or both) of us have a few more pounds and a few more wrinkles.  All in all I think we've aged pretty well.

Halloween revisited

As usual Miss M refused to have me take her picture so I decided I would take some pictures of Mr. Man (in hopes she would come around). 

Don't let this picture fool you into thinking he can sit up. He can't. And he doesn't really like to sit. He usually wants to stand. 

Miss M came around but I didn't get any good pictures of the two of them. And by good pictures I mean pictures of them smiling. This is a good picture in that it is very representative of how they look at me all day long. Unimpressed and unamused.  Miss M's hair is a bit out of control. Yikes. And to think I sent her to school like this. 

Pictures.

Mr. Man enjoying one minute of his bath. He prefers the comfort of sucking dirty bath water out of a washcloth during bath time. 

Aunt Nessie saves the day…again.  She agreed to come out and take her niece to gymnastics class. I realize Miss M is two and missing gymnastics class isn't a big deal but I like for her to go. I did pay for it and it does wear her out.

I call this multi-tasking.

Halloween 2013

I hired a babysitter Wednesday and left the children for 5 hours. Five glorious hours. It was amazing.  

I went to a new mall with my friend and proceeded to buy clothes for the children even though I own less than a half dozen winter tops. I own plenty of jeans but I am not sure right now which ones I can squeeze into because I prefer elastic. It's so much friendlier. 

The local play cafe was having a Halloween event. I decided at the last minute to drag the kids out in the rain for the following reasons. 

1. Miss M went with her regular Monday evening babysitter this week and was really sad when it was time to leave.

2. I wasn't sure we would get to trick or treat because of the forecasted rain.

3. I felt bad for dumping them with a babysitter for 5 hours.

4. We still had 3 hours of a day left to kill and I was out of ideas.

 Miss M went as Doc McStuffins. One of the pre-set up stations was making apple monsters.

 Mr. Man entertained himself on the floor.

 She then decorated a pumpkin with an excessive amount of stickers.

On Halloween morning Andrew got Miss M dressed in the Halloween shirt I bought for her and have been attempting to get her to wear for a few weeks. When I suggest she wear the shirt I got her she insists she wear the Halloween shirt Grandma D bought her.

I did try to take some pictures of Miss M and Mr. Man together on the couch (not in costume) on Halloween but I am too lazy to go find them. This is the only other picture I took on Halloween. I didn't take any pictures of dressed up children. Mr. Man didn't get dressed up. And by the time I went to take pictures Miss M was naked again.

The boys came over to celebrate Halloween with us as well as a few other friends.  Miss M can't keep up with the energy of the boys.  The ran her past empty.  They were laughing and throwing blocks and anything else they could find down the stairs.  At 9:15 pm we found her laying on the living room floor waiting and wanting to go to bed.

Our days/nights

This is what comes home most nights…look at all that paper.  Pen in the mouth means serious. The only thing we're missing is the pacing while having conference calls. The pacing will drive you crazy. 

We went to Andrew's 'work house' last week so I could do my health screening so save some money on our outrageous health insurance.  We tell Miss M that daddy has to go to work to bring home the bacon so when we were in the car driving to his office she kept asking if we were going to get pink bacon or brown bacon.  She doesn't even know what bacon is (I don't think). After I got my blood drawn she asked if we could go find the bacon so we walked the hallways shouting (her not me - it's not cute when a grown woman shouts in a work place - but the secretaries found it adorable when Miss M did it) "bacon, where are you - come out come out wherever you are". We went to a few offices and asked if they had bacon - shockingly no one had bacon in their office. Miss M was slightly disappointed to have not found the bacon but she was okay with it when she found out the front desk had candy corn instead. 

Mr. Man hates a hat but he managed to wear this for 5.2 seconds.  He's just going to have a cold bald head all winter.

Miss M was running laps around the living room and Mr. Man likes to watch her go. She makes him smile and laugh more than anyone else.  Hopefully they like each other in 3 months or 6 months (whenever Mr. Man decides to get motivated to move) and he starts grabbing her toys and touching her.  She already kind of freaks out when his arm flails and hits her.

We are working on Miss M holding Mr. Man on her lap for pictures. The holidays are approaching and all. He better learn to sit up. He weights almost as much as she does and I think he's a bit of a load for her to manage. 

There he goes.

There they both go.

Finally success.  Sort of.  Mr. Man is unimpressed. I think he's waiting for her to drop him again.

Miss M has finally entered the stage of stalling before bedtime.  I don't know what she wanted to do at this particular time that wasn't go to bed but I happened to catch a photo of her pondering life (I imaging she's working on solving the debt crisis in that little brain of hers).

This picture terrifies me. It terrifies me because after watching her stand like this (her hands inverted on her hips) I realized that I stand like that and after further consideration I realized my mother stands like this. I guess no matter how much we try not to be like our mothers sometimes it just happens!!!

I have had to do a lot of photo cropping lately because Miss M is always naked. Someone gets some pants on that girl.