Conquer

There are things to conquer everyday.  I don't make a to-do list anymore because well I don't like seeing how much I don't conquer everyday. My nemesis is doing the dishes. It's a never ending and never winning battle. Andrew always says he feels like all he does all weekend are the dishes. Welcome to my world Monday through Friday. I don't even do the dishes anymore or clean much up between meals because what difference does it really make. I will still be cleaning the kitchen after the little ones have gone to slumber.

We are trying to conquer winter by finding new things to do each day. As of lately both kids seem enthralled with playing with Play-Doh containers. They are all full and yet stacking them, knocking them down, putting them in cupcake tins and a few other things have kept them entertained. It's hard to think of (remember) simple things when really all kids really want sometimes is simple.

We got a few more inches of snow (approx 6 inches and very heavy) on Monday. Therefore, when Tuesday came around someone needed to shovel. Well, actually, someone needed to use the snow blower but that someone wasn't anywhere to be found. I shoveled for a little bit then realized I was in over my head. I decided I would attempt to dig out the end of the driveway where the snow plows have ever so kindly created a mess of compact snow/ice which makes it difficult for me to get out of the driveway and I needed out of the driveway. Miss M had to go to school.  Earlier in the morning she had taken a marker to my furniture. Semi-unintentional but she still did it. And then while I was attempting to clean up the furniture she colored all over her arms with the marker. I screamed at her and she gave herself a time-out in her room. Needless to say, she was going to go to school.

After Miss M and I sat at the end of the driveway in a huge pile of snow feeling defeated I decided it was time I learned to use the snow blower. I did it. Andrew asked me if it was fun. Uh no. If you think it's fun then I will gladly never touch the snow blower again.

The weather on Wednesday was so nice that when Mr. Man went down for a nap I thought it would be a good idea to get Miss M outside. She acted like it was Christmas. She was so excited. She made snow angels, shoveled, jumped in puddles (which is her new favorite thing to do), made snow men, and so much more. 

She loves jumping in the puddles and since I have lost yet another pair of snow boots she is wearing her rain boots she got for Christmas. Thank goodness Great Grandma listens so well or we'd be searching to buy another pair of snow boots.

Mr. Man has conquered his desire to learn to crawl. Monday morning he just kind of took off.  He now crawls and stands up on random furniture. This sounds impressive but it's not. It is awful b/c he doesn't know how to sit down so when you distract him/startle him/he gets tired he just falls down and slams his head into something and then he screams for awhile. He has to learn to sit down right?!?!

 I went downstairs to make him a bottle for bed last night and this is what I returned to.

This is his happy face. We were sitting on the floor in the kitchen when he just takes off down the hallway and into the bathroom. He apparently knows there's something in the bathroom he wants because he wasn't happy when I picked him up and shut the door.

Miss M conquers her fears of bath time in the oddest ways but she's in the bathtub and she's clean so it's a win for everyone. She loves the baby bathtubs so she's in the baby bath tub while the baby sits in the big bath tub wondering what's going on. 

 I just think he's cute.

 

Everyday it's a challenge to keep children happy and feed them so it's always more fun to kill two birds with one stone and let them cook what they are going to eat. Miss M and I made homemade baked donuts with homemade chocolate frosting. It's been nice finding new recipes to make so I can be sure Mr. Man can eat them.

Miss M is working on her attitude. She's got a big one. Some days it's sweet and loving and some days it's just unfriendly. Here she is in her second time out of the morning.  The first one she issued to herself. I issued this one. I don't know why she's been giving herself time outs. I don't yell at her very often and I rarely actually give her a time out. I guess it's fine b/c she's removing herself from whatever she's gotten into.

Bath time and family fun

Miss M and Andrew play catch and sometimes they play "hike". Miss M has no idea what's going on (in my opinion) but she loves it. She thinks she's supposed to crawl through his legs to get the ball. 

We celebrated President Lincoln's birthday by making a top hat like Lincoln wore and making sugar cookies. She insisted we use pink icing b/c pink was Lincoln's favorite color. The babysitter actually helped make the hat and cookies as she walked in the door as I was getting ready to sit down and craft with her.

Aunt Nessa gave Miss M a bag full of tissue paper squares. She loves them. She also seriously loves glue. Do all kids love glue this much? We usually don't craft on the carpet/rug but some days the energy level isn't there to fight it.

Mr. Man is getting lots of teeth. He's working on his 8th tooth. The top four have broken through but have not come all the way in. He has his middle bottom two and is working on getting the other bottom two to come through.

I bought a xylophone at the store the other day in hopes of getting Miss M in the bath without a fight. She insisted we open the package before she got in the bath. No way. I am not stupid. She did enjoy playing with it but I don't know if it will continually get her in the tub. We shall see.

Mr. Man loves to play with the shower thing you pull up. He scoots himself from the back of the tub to the front with the goal of getting to the shiny silver thing.

 Miss M's hair is so curly when it's wet. It's so cute.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's day was a fun day in our house.

Miss M woke up early because she said she had to go to the bathroom. She didn't. I put her back to bed and then I couldn't sleep (b/c I was waiting for her to come in our room). I decided it would be fun to make pancakes for the family. I made homemade pancakes since pancake mix has soy in it. It was really easy. I made them heart shaped to increase my chances that Miss M would eat them.

Andrew got me the most wonderful/thoughtful present. There were 8 certificates in my Valentine's day card. They were "Certificates of Sanity". They entitle me to 6 consecutive uninterrupted non-parent time. I am not sure I have ever spent 6 hours away from the children. I don't even know what I will do 6 hours away but I am pretty excited thinking about all my options.

The certificates did come with a disclaimer. I need to provide 8 hours advanced notice. They can only be used on Saturday, Sunday or major US holidays.

They were printed on green paper which I assume was done intentionally so I can't duplicate them.

Miss M got a few things. She got new flip flops which she likes to wear. She got a few pieces of candy, heart stamps, heart crayons and a mailbox with cupcake mix since she loves to mix so much. She has told us repeatedly that Valentine's Day is her favorite holiday and also it's her day.  We'll see what she has to say about the next holiday.

 Miss M insisted we take a picture of the three of us. She wanted to send it to her teacher so she could put it in her cubbie. The teachers came before school started and wanted to take a picture of us as a family to put in her cubbie. Miss M refused to have her picture taken at the time.   I think she now realizes she's the only kid without a picture in her cubbie.

Mr. Man is 9 months

I am a little delayed in posting Mr. Man's 9 month birthday. I wanted to wait for his doctor appointment.

Miss M is now very insistent that she be in the pictures with Mr. Man when I take his picture. And then her 'cheese' face has turned into a painful looking squint.  

Miss M insisted he sit in the baby bed and take a nap. One day he will fight back. Things are going to get loud around this joint. It's possible Mr. Man will be mellow and let her scream at him and take everything away from him without any complaints but I don't think that's how things are going to play out.

Mr. Man is finally figuring out the crawling thing. He was having trouble moving his arms at the same time has his legs but this morning he made it across the room. It's on my list to buy baby gates this afternoon for the stairs. He goes after everything Miss M has and then she screams at him. I try to explain he is learning but she doesn't care.

There she is yelling at him when he's not even doing anything to her. When he starts yelling back I am going to just sit back and let the best man win. Maybe I will be able to read a book again.

Mr. Man is remaining consistent with his height/weight/head circumference.

His head is in the 95%

His height is 30 inches which is 95%

His weight is approx. 24.5 lbs (the nurse couldn't get an accurate weight b/c he wanted to play with the scale). His weight is in the 90%. 

The doctor asked how much formula he was injecting during the day. I told her he was taking 3 bottles and consuming approximately 20 oz a day. She told me this was on the low side of what they want. They suggest he consume closer to 30 oz a day.  

She asked how many meals he ate a day. I told her I was feeding him two. She told me she wanted him to be on a schedule that looked like an adults where he eats three meals a day. 

This is annoying to me. If I feed him an 8 oz bottle when he wakes up he doesn't want to eat more food immediately after (and same with each other meal). The doctors and other sources recommend waiting an hour before trying to feed them a meal. If I do that then I will be feeding him all day long. No thank you.

We are working on a new routine.  We will figure it out. It's just annoying that it seems like nothing is ever right.  We will be finding a new pediatrician after Miss M's 3 year appointment since we are driving into the city for appointments when it would be easier if we had a doctor in town. 

Snow ice cream

It seems like everyone has enough snow that everyone is making snow ice cream. I decided to look into this and see what level of difficulty we were going to get ourselves into. It was really easy and required 5 ingredients. The ingredients are all ingredients we have on hand (milk, sugar, salt, vanilla) and they are all ingredients we have enough of that I don't really care if we waste a little to keep ourselves entertained for five minutes.

We all know there's enough snow.  I didn't really think she would eat the ice cream rather I just thought she would mix and play which would have been enough for me.

She was very confused and surprised that the secret ingredient was snow.

I got out the sprinkles and let her decorate her snow ice cream. She decided to taste it but mostly she just played in it.

Yes. As a matter of fact she is in her swim suit. I am not really sure why. She kept telling me she was going to have a concert in her room and needed her swim suit on so I put it on her.

We are getting ready to go on a play date soon to meet her friend from school at McDonalds and then to the gymnastics center for open play time! Hurray for play dates and getting out of the house!

We made it through another day

Today was awful.

I could have cried a few times.

I probably could have cried all day.

I didn't cry today.

But I could have.

The morning started out fine. I guess there was just a part of the day when I didn't think I could take anymore. It was the part when I had to go out and shovel. I didn't want to shovel and I didn't want to shovel while it was 1 degree outside but we had to get Miss M to school and after our last six inches of snow we didn't shovel. When we don't shovel we don't get mail and the snow we pack down turns into ice which is right by our back door which makes it dangerous to get in and out of the house.

I was outside for less than one shows run time which is 24 minutes. I turned on a show for Miss M to try and distract her from the fact that I wasn't right by her side. I came in approximately 20 minutes later and she told me she had a surprise for me. Oh lovely. Her surprises are usually random things she finds on the floor or pictures she's colored. Today her surprise was her hand…covered in red marker. She had colored nearly every inch of her hand. They are washable markers or so they say. It wouldn't come off. And before I could get her to a sink to scrub them she had touched things like her clothes. She didn't ruin anything b/c she was in the kitchen but I seriously just wanted to quit. You can't ask a 2 year old (near enough to 3) why in the hell she colored all over her hand and expect a reasonable response. I asked her anyway. I guess I was at a loss for words and so frustrated. She didn't have a response which probably irritated me more.

So instead of crying I dropped Miss M off at school and decided I would feel better if I went to Target to spend some money. Target helped a little but not enough. Either retail therapy isn't real or I didn't spend enough money or buying things like carrots and brown sugar doesn't cure the loneliness of winter combined with a husband who is never home.

I was so desperate to get out of the house I sent off two rapid fire texts. One to the babysitter to see if she could come over last minute and a second one to my friend who lives in a mansion in suburbia with two kids and a husband who also works a lot. My friend was the first to respond (in the babysitters defense she was in school and isn't supposed to be texting during school). So I threw random stuff in a bag - mainly snacks, juice boxes, food for dinner - picked Miss M up from school and drove to Naperville.

The kids played and fought and played some more.

They made dinner and actually ate it. Alicia had the fixings for pizza so the kids each got a ball of dough and got to roll and pat it out.

They put pizza sauce on it. Miss M was conservative with her pizza sauce where Mary when crazy and had pizza sauce everywhere.

They put cheese on their pizzas although they found eating it to be more enjoyable.

And we baked them.  I refrained from partaking in these delicious masterpieces as I had brought over some thawed hamburger and cooked up some hamburgers for the adults.

 There were promises for ice cream so we all loaded up and went for ice cream.

Miss M got very distracted by the Bubble Guppy show on the television so Mary finished her ice cream for her. Mary doesn't let much food go to waste.

In hindsight the day wasn't that bad. I just needed out of the house. The kids needed out of the house too. I am trying to remember that the day could always be worse but when you're in the midst of losing your already lost mind it can be a difficult thing.

Long winter week

We've run out of things to do. My creativity is shot. My ability to keep my children entertained is gone. I conceded and let winter win. You win winter. I give up. Upon concession I decided Miss M could watch as much PBS/Disney Jr as she wanted.  An hour later she wanted me to entertain her. So we made a chocolate chip skillet cookie. I ate some warm, I ate some cooled down, I ate it until it was gone. I will worry about the gym when I am not bundling kids up in layers upon layers and wiping green snot from noses on my shirt sleeve before we walk in. I have been working on my surprise face when they say he has a cold. Oh no. He wasn't snotty/coughing/leaking goo when I left this morning. Huh. I will have to take care of this. 

So instead of the gym.

We have played in the sink. 

 Played in the beanbag. He likes when you're physical with him. He likes to be turned upside down, thrown in the air, shaken in the beanbag.

 He likes to jump. Doesn't he look so handsome in his new grown-up shirt from Aunt Nessie.

 He would like to play with his sister.

But she doesn't really like to play with him when he wants to play with whatever she wants. Typically she wants exactly what he wants or is playing with. In her mind everything in this house is hers. And technically the toys were given to her but I think fighting about things like a shape sorter is going to get old quick. I kind of hope he just punches her one day. But maybe he will just let her take things from him. Who knows how mellow he will be.

And to top off the week we ironed. Andrew has been complaining of his shirts needing ironed for awhile. I have found 8 trillion other things to do besides iron. I got the ironing board out to iron the shirts I had been negligent on and Miss M wanted to iron. Obviously the iron isn't plugged in but there will be a day in the near future when I will gladly teach her to iron for me.

It's been a long winter.

Sunday Snow Day

Yesterday, as Andrew was making the fort that Miss M wanted nothing to do with, he said we should invite the boys over to show her how it's done. So I did just that. I invited the boys over (with their parents, of course). 

They came over with all their snow gear. I think the plan was to go sledding at a local park but we ended up in the backyard and the kids had just as much fun.  

Since the temperature was in the mid 20's and not below zero I decided to bundle Mr. Man up and get him out of the house for a bit. He didn't last very long but he had fun for a few minutes. 

He liked the sled.

Miss M wanted to pull him for a ride. And then is where things went south for him. You can see his little arm is trying to reach out and grab the snow. He does not have gloves on b/c I don't have gloves for him and I didn't think it was necessary. I really was just happy he kept his hat on.

And then he decided to eat the snow. I think it took about a minute before he realized his hand was cold and he was done. So we went inside and watched the food network.

The boys loved playing in the snow. They marched all over the backyard, went down the slide which was covered in snow, and made snow angels. They have no fear of the cold white stuff. Miss M was happy to sit on the sidelines and watch them get covered in snow.

They stayed until around 6:30pm. I was exhausted. The kids were exhausted. It was a lovely day. It's nice to have friends who feel at home enough in our home to stay as long as they'd like without feeling as though they are putting us out. We would have been here all day doing exactly the same thing without the company of friends which is never as much fun.