Another First

Katie D.

Every child has a number of firsts they have; first steps, first words, first tooth and the list goes on.  And then the first that you are not proud of but happens and all you can do is laugh; yes I’m talking about the first curse word. Read no further if you are easily offended!

Let me set the scene for you:

Colby and I are discussing Halloween; costumes, candy and the celebration.  We talk about trick-o-treating and his favorite part, ringing doorbells.  We get into the big tan van to go grocery shopping. As we drive Colby starts pointing out all the houses with doorbells. 

“There’s a doorbell, there’s a doorbell, there’s a doorbell, there’s a doorbell”……..on and on until…

“Jesus Christ! That’s a lot of doorbells!”

I’m dumbfounded and hold back my laughter and don’t say anything.  With no reaction Colby moves the conversation along about his Halloween costume.

So it’s not a proud moment but a funny as hell one.  Where did he hear it from? I’m not sure but Tom and I clearly need to be a little bit more careful.  I’ll always remember this first!

Newest Member of the Crazy Baby Club

Katie R.

I have a good friend who often calls her baby "crazy baby".  She is an active little girl who always keeps my friend on her toes.  Being the good friend I am, I never miss an opportunity to laugh at all the antics her daughter gets into.

Well karma just caught up with me.  Wes, 10 months, is officially in the crazy baby club.  He walks everywhere, climbs on everything and is just generally is exhausting. 

Andrew looked like this at 10 months...

 

 

 

And this is Wes...

 

 

 

Yep that pretty much explains it.

Road Rally

Katie D.

Tom and I are coming up on our 1 year anniversary of buying our house.  We still don’t have an ounce of buyer’s remorse and in fact I still find things to make me like it more every day.  This past weekend I fell in love with our driveway; its flat, paved and a good size.  Yes, all nice qualities in a driveway but when you add some sidewalk chalk, toddler sized vehicles and a dad that can draw a pretty kick-ass road course it becomes so much more. 

All weekend long the road rally was on!  Colby wanted to drive before breakfast Saturday morning and Lincoln didn’t want to come in for bath at bedtime.  When they wanted to take a break they sat in their own folding chairs like 2 old men porch sitting.  

 

Late summer lazy weekends don’t come around that often and when they do it is nice to relax, pull out a piece of chalk and create a bit of heaven for the boys and for me.  

 

Puppet Show

Katie D.

As Katie R.has mentioned before, raising a family in the Upper Valley has many benefits. Our recreation and park department offers wonderful activities for kids of all ages throughout the summer.  This past Thursday was no exception to that.  A puppet show in the park; what sounds more wonderful then that.  I met up with friends at the playground, including Katie R. before she left me for two weeks to go to Ohio, and let the kids burn off some energy before having to sit for a half hour. We all then ate some lunch and made our way to the park. Colby, Andrew and all their friends sat right in front eagerly waiting for the show to begin.  I had expected it to be your basic puppet show with hand puppets but no, it was marionettes! I find marionettes a little on the scary side but God love them the kids sat there and watched this very talented gentleman perform to scary music with scary looking puppets.  Colby’s face was more serious than anything, taking it all in and not knowing how to react to most of it.  When it was over he said he had a good time but when Tom got home from work he told him that he went to a scary puppet show.  Chalk that experience up to lesson learned, don’t assume a puppet show at face value, check to see if they have marionettes! 

When we drove by the park today Colby yelled out that he wanted to watch the scary puppet show again.  He is clearly braver than I am.

Poor Second Child

Joe:  Wes just ate something off the floor

Me:  Is it food

Joe:  I think so

Me:  I'm sure it's fine

Poor second child...

Snow Boots

Katie D.

I’m not very particular with what my kids wear. I still pick out their outfits but if they want something different I’m fine with it.  Same with shoes for the most part. I recently pulled out the boy’s crate of shoes to sort.  The boys just grab whichever shoes they want but we had some really small ones that didn’t fit either of the boys and some that where worn out and it occasionally caused a scene getting out the door. So after the sorting all of the remaining shoes remained scattered over the floor.  When I told the boys to grab shoes to get going they grabbed their snow boots.  Mind you it’s was 85 degrees out but they where happy, they fit and they didn't smell so what the hell…..

They rock these boots!

Only a 13 hour drive

Katie R.

Well this clan is off to visit family and friends in Ohio.  The kids and I will be there for 2 1/2 weeks and Joe will be there on and off. 

Of course we're driving and leaving tonight so it's going to be a long 24 hours but totally worth it when the kids get to spend so much time with our families.

I'm sure I'll be blogging along the way but in case my posts become more and more erratic it's because I'm have to make sure my crazy baby doesn't tear up our families' houses. 

See the toys and blanket on the floor?  At one point these were all packed, I guess I'll be scrambling at nap time.

You Know You're a Mom When...

Katie D.

You know your a mom when you think "Did my kid just do that?" Yup, Lincoln screamed his freaking head off when we drove by the Dunkin Donuts today and didn’t stop! It’s not like we hadn’t already stopped this morning! Awesome.That's my boy! 

I Promise the Fish Will Get a New Home...

Katie R.

Really, really can there be another post about a freakin goldfish?

Tonight Katie D. and her clan came over to watch the closing ceremony and eat dinner.  We ate, the boys played and I believe Katie D. even said "I can't believe how well the boys play together."

The adults and Lincoln were chatting (Wes was thankfully in bed) when we heard a huge crash and Andrew screaming.  We ran into the room and Andrew's solid wood dresser was being held up by poor Colby while Andrew was soaked and crying.

Luckily they were both fine.  Apparently even a solid wood dresser can't hold two 30 lb boys standing on the drawers trying to "feed" the fish. 

According to Andrew, Colby wanted to feed the fish so Andrew showed him how to do it.  They fed the fish the entire container of fish food before the dresser can crashing down.  Oh and you guessed it Andrew was wet from filthy fish water. 

Don't worry, super fish is fine and we promise, even though there were many tears tonight about how he will miss the fish, that Just Plain will find a new location in our house.  Hopefully this will be the last post but if I had to guess there will be more.

Everyday is a Vacation

Katie R.

A friend, who is a stay-at-home mom to 3 boys under the age of 5, was once told by a delivery driver “How is your day?  Well, everyday is a vacation day for you.” 

I am not a stay-at-home mom who believes my job is the most difficult, stressful, blah, blah, blah.  And yes I’m grateful I can stay home with the kids, watch them grow-up, blah, blah, blah.  But a vacation day really?

Well, today’s vacation went  like this:

6:00 am     Andrew waking up screaming “mommy come cuddle with me”

6:15 am     I actually make it to his room

6:20 am     Find out he has a fever

6:30 am     Yelling at husband to get up and get Wes who is crying

6:45 am     Getting Andrew to couch and getting thermometer to confirm fever

6:50 am     Finding thermometer and remembering it sucks

6:55 am     Begging husband to stay home from work know it won’t happen

7:00 am     Diaper change #1 for Wes

7:30 am     Husband leave for work promising to be home early

7:35 am     Temp up to 101.6 on sucky thermometer so likely closer to 102.6

8:00 am     Arguing with husband over phone about giving Andrew Tylenol

8:05 am     Give Andrew Tylenol

8:10 am     Diaper change and outfit change #2 for Wes

8:30 am     Realize I haven’t fed Wes breakfast (only bottle when he woke up)

8:40 am     Wes grabbed and threw entire container of yogurt on the floor

9-10 am     Wes napped and Andrew watched tv while I did laundry and cleaned

10:30 am    Wes follows me in bathroom

10:31 am    I scream “aahh” as he grabs toilet paper for the 5th time

10:32 am    He gets scared and hits head (hard) on tile floor

10:35 am    I feeling bad for my child’s brain injury so he gets a graham cracker

10:40 am   Graham cracker in a million pieces on the floor

10:45 am    Fever back

11:00 am    Andrew upset because we don’t have pork chops for lunch

11:05 am    Andrew negotiates hot dog and french fries for lunch

11:15 am   Diaper change and outfit change #3 for Wes

11:30 am    Early lunch, complete with cartoons, with the hope of early nap

11:45 am    Wes does not like the food I gave him so he spit it everywhere

12:30 pm     Andrew and I in bed with book, Wes on floor with toy

12:31 pm     Wes find water I forgot I gave Andrew and “drank it”

12:35 pm     Diaper change and outfit change #4 for Wes

1:00 pm       Both kids down for nap. 

1:05 pm      Me wondering what time I can start drinking wine?

Yep every day really is a vacation. 

Special Treat

Katie D.

I recently had to fill out a questionnaire for Colby’s school. I had to answer questions in regards to his likes, dislikes, personalities and interests.  One question asked if he was potty trained.  My answer was 95% trained.  He recently took a little step backwards in regards to pooping.  I had to pull out the incentive game to get back on track.  He got special treats if he pooped on the potty and didn’t have an accident.  This got a little bit lost in translation.  Colby is usually dry when he wakes from overnight and naps but I still tend to put him in a pull up just in case.  One day this past week I walked into Colby’s room after nap; he stands up, turns around, sticks out his butt and points to it and says “Mommy, I get a special treat!"  Good Lord, that wasn't a special treat for anyone.  After a clarification of the special treat rule we got training back on track.  Thank Goodness.

The Fish Formally Known as Spot

Katie R.

No one who has seen the photo below will ever forget what my son did to our fish named Spot. Well it seems things aren't really looking up for the fish as his name has recently been downgraded to "Just Plain Fish"

So, how did the poor fish get his name changed?  Let us start at the beginning...

Originally we had 2 fish, one named spot and one named stripe, for the obvious reasons that one had white spots and one had a black strip down its back.  Now my husband was told by the owner of the pet shop that the stripe would disappear but of course he did not deviate from his original decision and the stripe did disappear in about a month. 

Unfortunately Stripe didn’t make it long in our house which is not shocking considering the fish have been known to eat crumbled up cheerios and raisin bran flakes if we didn't make it to the store to get fish food and I’m pretty sure the water gets changed quarterly.  However, as we have learned the fish formerly known as Spot is a survivor. 

A few weeks ago we were going on vacation and were on our way to drop the fish off at a friend’s house, with the promise that if anything happened to the fish while we were gone they would not replace it, when the topic of the fish’s name was brought up.  It was then that Andrew realized it was named Spot because he had spots, yes apparently this was a huge revelation to him, and he was not happy with its name.  He said the fish did NOT have spots and for those of you fortunate enough to know Andrew know the pitch of his voice when he said this was like fingernails on a chalkboard.  I guess in his mind having spots means the fish would have to have Dr. Seuss polka dots all over it.  So we then asked what his name was Andrew's answer was immediate and confident “just plain fish because he doesn't have any dots or stripes" 

So there you have it.  As if the fish did not have it bad enough in this house his name is now “just plain fish” or "just plain" for short.  Stay tuned for more adventures of the most unfortunate fish on Earth.

Truck Town

Katie D.

This past week construction started on my street. In an estimated 6-8 weeks all of our water pipes and fire hydrants will be replaced.  As you can only image this effort utilizes many pieces of equipment which leads to little boys’ heaven. Bright and early Monday morning (I’m not kidding, they showed up at 6:30am) the trucks rolled onto the street and got to town. Colby and Lincoln enjoyed their morning milk with front row seats to the main event. 

front row seats

All morning long the boys were captivated by the construction. They would play with some of their toys but the noise would bring them back to check on the progress. Ahhh…the noise. Yes dump trucks, bulldozers and back hoes make a lot of noise but it was one technique the construction workers used that really raised the bar on noise.  We live in a rocky terrain so it seemed to be no surprise that the boulders the workers pulled from the ground were large.  For the pieces that were too large for the backhoe to pick up the technique utilized was picking up the large boulders and dropping them from high with hopes they break the epic granite below.  This was not only loud but shook the house every freaking time they did it. And for your information it doesn’t take only a few times to break those beasts, it took AN HOUR!! My saving grace is that it stopped right before nap!

  

pick it up

and drop it down

Back at it again at 6:30am the following day brought more of the same.  The boys still seemed content to watch, however, I was getting antsy.  I tried to divert their attention to other activities; I pulled out the big guns-play-doh, finger paints, water table fun! They didn’t want to do anything that meant they couldn’t run to the window at a moment’s notice to watch the progress.  I guess there are worse things so we pulled out all our construction vehicles to play along with the workers outside.  My highlight of the day was when they smashed our old, crappy mailbox and told me they would replace it. 

who needs to leave the house

This story will not conclude for some time but the boys will love every chapter, their mom will want to skip to the end in a few weeks.

Lightening Up

Katie R.

Approximately a year ago I heard someone tell their child “You can’t jump on the beds or furniture in this house.”  I felt really bad because it is a rule here and I was worried that the other parents thought I was way too strict.  Of course I emailed some close friends who talked me off of my cliff and said “it’s your house you can have whatever rules you’d like.”  I decided they were right and if I won’t let my kids do it here I don’t want other kids to do it either… plus in my defense at the time it was a brand new couch.

I don’t know if I’m a strict parent but I do like schedules, set rules and expect my kids to listen when we give them directions.  Does it always happen? Hell no.  However, we have a time out spot and now that we are past 2 1/2 for the most part Andrew does a fairly decent job of listening.  I’m only talking about Andrew as Wes is just getting to an age where he is understanding “no” but I’m am sure his day will come. 

A funny thing happened the other day, I realized that I was lightening up as a parent.  Now trust me I will probably always be neurotic about my kids’ behavior in public and will occasionally worry about their development; however, I really do think I’m starting to chill about some other things.

For example, this summer we’ve been letting Andrew stay up a little later if he takes a good nap, ok so it’s only until 8pm but hey it’s better than his normal 7pm bedtime.  Also, Wes does not have the nap crazed mommy that Andrew was forced to endure.  If Wes sleeps in the car or has a short morning nap I don’t stress about him falling back asleep. 

Also, before Wes was born I could have told you exactly how much TV Andrew watched each day and was a crazy person about what time he ate lunch, dinner etc.  With the arrival of Baby Wes I have definitely learned to go with the flow a little more.  During the school year we are a little more structured but these days dinner can be late if we’re out playing or hanging out with the neighbors and breakfast seems to be at a different time every day. 

Who knows maybe in a few months I’ll let Andrew stop skipping naps and/or quiet time… yeah probably not. 

See the baby doesn't even have pants on!