A Cuppa Joe

Come sit and have a cuppa joe with me!  If we were chatting over coffee (or tea...or Diet Coke...whatever your poison is), I would tell you:

-We recently tried to convert Sam from a crib to a toddler bed.  At his two-year check-up, his pediatrician advised us that we needed to get him in a "big boy" bed.  I was reluctant because he sleeps so. well. in his crib.  But he reasoned that as tall as Sam is, if he ever tried to climb out he would most likely be successful, and he could potentially injure himself.  We've already suffered one broken leg.  It's not an experience I want to repeat.  So Sam and I came home one night to Shawn changing his convertible crib to a toddler bed.  Sam seemed excited.  He immediately sat on it and played with his toys.  He laid down and covered himself up and told us "night night."  So we were thinking this was going to be a pretty good thing.  Then we actually tried to leave and turn out the lights. 

Crying.

Pleading.

Wild-eyed with fear.

We set the kitchen timer and decided to wait it out.  After 10 minutes, Shawn and I could stand no more and we went to rescue our boy.  I rocked him and tried to calm him down while Shawn converted the toddler bed back into a crib.  Then I put him in his crib and he was literally asleep in 5 minutes. 

To heck with what the pediatrician says.  For all I care he can sleep in that crib until he's 12 years old.

-Sam picked out a present for Little Sister.  We were in Walmart (aka The Devil's Lair) a few days ago, and I strolled past the stuffed animals.  Shawn and I had discussed getting a little something for Sam to bring to the hospital, but I hadn't settled on anything.  Suddenly, Sam spotted a Minnie Mouse doll and immediately started reaching for it yelling, "Meme!  Baby!"  He wouldn't hush until I gave him the doll.  I told him I thought it was nice that he picked it out for his sister, and then I explained that it was special gift for her so we couldn't play with it until she came.  But he was kind enough to go ahead and bite her nose just to make sure she met our high standards. 

I'm so impressed that he understood that we were looking for something for the baby, and I'm even more thankful and impressed that he specifically picked an appropriate gift for her.  We might be able to handle this two-kid thing after all...

-I am amazed at how the size of my abdomen seems to be the favorite topic of conversation at the clinic these days.  And not among my co-workers...among PATIENTS!!!  Last Friday, I got five different comments about how large my belly is.  At least once a day (no exaggeration), I get a "Honey, you're about to pop, aren't you?"

My belly is big.  I get it.  My belly button will never be the same.  I will never wear a belly-revealing bathing suit again.  I grunt when I go from sitting to standing.  But here's the thing--I'm totally cool with all of that.  Because I'm gonna get a really awesome kid in exchange for it.  And if she's even HALF as much fun as her brother, we are in for one amazing ride.

Samisms

Nana and Bap got Sam this little roller coaster thing for his birthday.  We set it up in the yard on a little hill, and he just loves it. 

One night this week, we were playing outside, and some water had pooled on the track from where it had rained earlier in the day.  Sam was splashing his hands in the water, and I really didn't think too much of it.  He's a little boy, after all.  In a minute, Molly comes trotting over and starts licking the water.  Again, I didn't think too much of it.  She's a dog, after all.  The next thing I knew, Sam was slurping water off the track right along with Molly.  As I screamed in horror, my son looked up at me, giggled, and proudly proclaimed, "Bow bubbas!"  Which to all of you who aren't fluent in toddler means, "I blew bubbles!"

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We've been having a harder and harder time getting Sam to drink milk.  While I don't stand over him and measure every drop he drinks, I do want him to drink some milk every day.  I just feel like he's growing at such in incredible rate right now he needs all the calcium we can get in him.  One night this week, he was just absolutely refusing his milk, so in an attempt to give his little bones their daily boost, we gave him chocolate milk.

Dude drained the cup in 20 seconds flat.

We've also been having to lock our ice maker lately because a certain someone likes to go press the button on it and send ice flying across the kitchen floor.  So after Sam drank his chocolate milk, he went straight to the fridge and started banging his cup on the ice maker button yelling, "More!"  When none was forthcoming, he sent his cup sailing across the room in frustration.  I know I probably should have punished him for his temper display, but I was honestly laughing too hard.  I mean, really, sometimes I want to react in just the same way when I can't have chocolate. 

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While we have talked about the new baby with and around Sam, we haven't made a big deal of it.  Until recently, he hasn't really acted like he had a clue what was going on, and we were okay with that.  But he must be noticing that my belly is getting larger, because he has been randomly placing his hands on it.  One night a couple of weeks ago, she was being pretty active, and Shawn was resting his hands on my belly so he could feel her movements.  Sam suddenly stopped what he was doing and came running across the room yelling "Baby!" and put his hands on my stomach as well.  It was the first time he's acted like he understands.  So from that point on, we began making a point to ask him where the baby is, talking about her name and just getting him used to the idea that there is going to be another person living in our house in a few months.  

A couple of nights after that, we were eating in a restaurant.  About the time the waiter came to take our orders, Sam grabs my shirt and starts yanking it up, pointing and my stomach and yelling, "Baby, baby!"  It made several of the other guests laugh, and it made my face burn with embarrassment because my son had just helped me flash the entire restaurant. 

Real Life With A Toddler

I know why a lot of moms out there feel like failures.  I know why they walk into their homes and feel like even if they had a 36 hour day and never slept it would never. all. get. done.  Ever. 

The world tells you your house should look like this:

(Source)

-perfectly organized playroom

-coordinating colors

-an area for art supply storage--to stimulate artistic growth and development

-chairs neatly pushed under the table

-books arranged on the bookshelf according to height

Here is what my house actually looked like after a day at home with my little boy (Just keepin' it real, people!):

-absence of a playroom altogether

-remainders of the laundry that I FINALLY got folded hanging on the mantle (FINALLY being the operative word because a certain 2 year old likes to help with the laundry...by unfolding every 3rd piece I fold)

-toys scattered haphazardly across the room...just begging someone to trip over them

-a mattress in the middle of the floor because Nana visited last weekend, and since Sam thinks it's the coolest thing in the world to have it there we moved it back.  Just because.

-DVD's littering the floor in front of the storage center because a certain someone believes they look better in the floor than stacked in rows

-an area rug that hasn't been vacuumed in days...and it ain't lookin' too good for the next couple of days either.

 But despite the...ahem...minor differences between the world's point of view and mine, I consider yesterday a success.  Why?  Because I did FINALLY get that load of laundry folded (and another too boot!), I managed to cook supper, we played outside, my little boy laughed hysterically at his daddy and the little boy next door playing catch (and it was a beautiful sound), and I even finished a little project for Little Girl's room.  (More on that later.)

As Shawn likes to say, the rest is cream cheese.

Are you a mom whose living room looks like mine?  Embrace it.  Your kids will love you for it.

Dear Baby,

We did a 3D/4D ultrasound this week, and I got to see your sweet face.  Once again, you were a little uncooperative at first; this time you had your feet AND your hands covering your face.  The ultrasound technician was finally able to convince you to move your feet (you flexible little thing!), but we pretty much fought the entire time to keep your hands down. 

I think you look amazingly like your brother.  And I'm okay with that.  He was a pretty cute baby.  We were also told that you have hair!  (Although we're just taking the technician's word for that part.)  Don't ask me why, but I think it will be dark---I'm picturing myself holding a little brunette.  I've decided I might want to pack some hair clips for the hospital bag juuuuuust in case. 

Everyone is amazed at your chubby cheeks and your pouty lips.  I can't believe how plump you already are! By looking at the pictures, it almost seems that you could be born any day now, but we really need you to sit tight for a few more weeks.

I think my favorite picture from your ultrasound is the one of you yawning.  When your feet were covering your face, the ultrasound technician had me roll on my side and she was pressing on my belly trying to get you to move.  As soon as we could see your face, you let out a giant yawn.  Almost as if you were trying to show us how bored you were with the whole process.  

Oh, my sweet girl---how excited we are to meet you!  I think you are going to be the perfect addition to this family---one that we didn't even realize we needed.  I can't believe that in a few short weeks we will enter into a world of frilly hair bows, sparkly shoes, baby dolls and pink EVERYTHING.  And if it turns out that you don't like any of those things, that's okay too.  We have plenty of trucks and balls and dirt to play with.  

Little Sister---31 weeks

Sam---31 weeks

We'll see you soon,

Mommy

Thankful Thursday

This week, I am thankful for:

1)  College students who like to babysit. 

I don't like to use a babysitter on my days off.  I figure Sam is already with a babysitter for 40+ hours per week, he needs to be with one of us the rest of the time.  But let's be honest--sometimes it's just not practical to have a 2 year old with you.  So I've known for a while that we needed to find someone who could just occasionally watch Sam for an hour or two here or there.  But I recently got pushed into action with some dental work that I needed to have done.  I'm pretty sure my dentist doesn't want to have to wrestle her sharp instruments away from Sam while I'm laid back in her chair.  This lovely young lady has kept Sam a few times now, and he just loves her.  On this particular day, Sam was a little grouchy, so she got her phone out to play with it.  (Most likely one of the reasons Sam loves her...that kid is ADDICTED to the iPhone.)  She started snapping pictures of the two of them.  In this one, they were making their "mean face."

2)  Friends who like to sew.  I wanted some maternity capri jeans, but I DIDN'T want to pay $45 for them like Motherhood Maternity suggested.  I mean, I only have a few weeks left!  Luckily, my friend Alice loves to sew.  She graciously offered to cut off a pair of my already-purchased maternity jeans for me.  My legs will be much cooler (and very grateful) in the coming weeks. 

3)   Walks at lunchtime.  One of the things I love most about spring is that it's warm enough for me to sneak outside for a few minutes at lunch.  The burst of fresh air and sunshine are sometimes just what I need to get through the rest of the day...even if I only have time to walk a lap around our tiny little parking lot. 

What are you thankful for this week?  I'm linking up to Black Tag Diaries.

A Cuppa Joe

I like coffee.  Not black coffee, but the fancy-shmancy coffee that you go to coffee houses to get.  The kind that is loaded with calories and fat grams and takes you 3 minutes to order.  The kind that I'm always a little embarrassed to order because I have to make so many specifications and I silently add "with a side of high maintenance, please" to the end of my order.  The kind that is served not by a waitress, but by a barista.  The kind that you sit and drink with a girlfriend while catching up and sharing a couple of laughs.

Only I haven't been to a coffee house lately.  And I'm pretty sure if I did go with a girlfriend, I wouldn't be so much sitting and sipping and laughing as I would be chasing a certain little boy around trying to prevent him from picking up coffee mugs and breaking them.  

Just to clarify, that is not a complaint.  Just a fact of life.  But still, I wonder what things I'd talk about if I were to just sit and chat with a friend for a few minutes.  If you were to join me for a cuppa joe right now, I would tell you:

-We still have to sleep with "two boos" at night.  Once again, Shawn and I have found a way to complicate an already potentially complicated situation.  Instead of having one Pooh to keep up with, now we have two.  In fact, sometimes we even have three, but it's pretty hard to carry all three of them, so most days one stays home in the bed.  Only on our sleepiest, whiniest days do all three come out to play.  Luckily, the old, original Pooh seems to still be our favorite, and "Two Boo" (as he has been dubbed) usually stays in the car while Boo goes with us everywhere else.  Still, it's pretty funny to see Sam take inventory of his Poohs in the mornings when I get him out of bed.  He stands up so I can lift him out of his crib, tucks the original Boo up under his chin where he likes to keep him, then thrusts Two Boo at me and orders me to hold him.  Only when I set him safely on the floor is he ready to take on the both of them.

-That it totally cracks me up how my little boy can amuse himself.  How he will build a tower out of Legos and come running to show me, and I have to yell, "Wow!" and then he looks so proud and yells, "Wow!" and I laugh to myself and it never. gets. old.  For either of us.

-That I am feeling seriously huge.  I had a little meltdown a couple of weekends ago because my belly hung out of all of my shirts by about 3 inches, and I had a totally hormone-induced crying fit.  And the worst part was that I KNEW I was being irrational.  Because huge or not--uncomfortable or not--this is a blessing.  One that so many women would give anything to have.  One that I often wondered if I would ever get to experience.  But when  your clothes don't fit and you can't bend over to tie your shoes, it's just a little too easy to forget that.  But I'm so thankful that my sweet husband dropped me off at a maternity store and told me he wasn't coming back to pick me up until I had bought some clothes that fit so I would stop being such an emotional wreck encouraged me to buy some clothes that I felt good in.  And lo and behold, I found a coupon that I had TOTALLY forgotten I had that expired that very day.  That, combined with a little bit of birthday money, made for an amazingly quick emotional recovery.  Ah, retail therapy.  How sweet it is...

-That Shawn busted his butt for an entire week working on the baby's room.  I'm happy to report that her room is now empty of everything non-baby, and there is a fresh coat of paint on the walls.  Her crib is assembled, and the swing and bouncer seat have been retrieved from the basement.  Now it is just matter of getting laundry done and loaded into her dresser, getting a bookcase, and taking care of a few odds and ends.  Oh...and we are also going to get a glider for her room.  (Mommy is so. super. excited. about that.)  But we're in MUCH better shape today than we were a couple of weeks ago.  

So now it's your turn!  What would you share with me over a cuppa joe?

Sam's Birthday

In case you didn't know, we had a very important birthday at our house a couple of weeks ago.  I love birthdays.  I always want our kids to feel celebrated on their birthday.  I don't think birthdays have to necessarily be all about huge presents or spending tons of money.  In fact, I almost want them to be the opposite of that.  I want to look for ways to just make fun memories.  That's it.  Fun.  Special.  Happy.  Joyous. 

Last year, Shawn and I took the day off for Sam's birthday and just had a fun day with him.  We decided that was a tradition we want to try to keep.  It may not always be something we're able to do, but we're going to make an effort to just set aside a day to celebrate the birth of our children in a fun way.  What that looks like might change from year to year, but our main goal is to just do something out of the ordinary. 

This year, Shawn decided to kick off Sam's birthday week by dragging the mattress from our guest room into the living room and having a camp out.  Let me just tell you--Daddy comes up with the. best. ideas.  I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone who is looking for a way to make their kid's day.  The minute Sam saw the mattress in the floor, his eyes lit up and he immediately flopped himself face-first onto it.  (And then proceeded to repeat that procedure about 4,793 times.)  As usual, his brown, furry sidekick was right there in the middle of the action.

Of course, all of that excitement can generate an overall feeling of happiness and love.

We spent part of the next day just lounging around and enjoying our new setup.  Nothing too fancy--just a couple of folks kicked back, chillin', watching some cartoons.

For Sam's actual birthday, we decided this year we'd do a movie.  Again, this was Shawn's idea.  He said he remembers going to the movies to be a special treat when he was a kid, and he always really enjoyed going.  While I agreed, I was a little apprehensive about taking a 2 year old to the theatre.  But after some discussion we decided that's what matinees are for, so we loaded Sam up and picked out the movie we wanted to see:  Dr. Seuss' The Lorax.

We posed for a couple of pictures.  (And to Shawn's credit he didn't even roll his eyes.)

Then we found our seats.  Sam LOVED the cool chairs.  We had one minor mishap that involved standing up in the chair and it folding up, which then resulted in getting his foot stuck in it.  But other than that the movie was a total success!!!  Sam loved everything about it.  He consumed more popcorn than I thought possible.  He laughed, clapped and danced during the songs.  He cheered when the good guys won.  Honestly, I just don't have the words to describe how much fun it was for all three of us. 

But eventually, the junk food high wears off, and when it does little guys crash HARD.

The next weekend, we had Sam's party.  Last year, we had his party at home.  Even though we tried to keep it small and stress-free, I still managed to obsess about whether the house was clean enough, getting the cake and cupcakes decorated just right, having room to put everyone, etc, etc, etc.  I also may have threatened Shawn's life at one point because he sampled a cupcake the night before and didn't ask my permission.  Good times...

Anyhoo, this year we decided to have Sam's party at a location away from home.  We thought about the park since he always has such a great time there, but in the end we decided that April weather is just too unreliable for that.  So we found a bounce house that would rent the entire place to us (because our previous bounce house experience with the rest of the world was such a disaster), and I started looking for Pooh-themed party ideas on Pinterest.  Then we found out that the bounce house we were looking at would only allow us to have cake and pizza.  And I was so sad because I had pinned all of these cute Pooh-themed food ideas.  And then I mentioned my concerns to Shawn and he was like, "Well don't you just want to order a pizza?" and I shouted lovingly told him, "No!  I don't want to just order pizza!  I want to have my cute Pooh-themed food!"  Boy, planning a birthday party really brings out the best in me, doesn't it?

In the end, we found another bounce house that would allow us to bring in our own food and drinks, and we were back on track.  So here are a few pictures from our party.  I made the food signs on our computer & printed them on photo paper.  I used a font that I downloaded from the internet so the words would have the backwards letters and everything like  you always see on the Pooh cartoons.  (Did you even know you could download new fonts?  I didn't.  And it was FREE!!!  Ain't modern technology grand?)  My very creative friend Amanda fashioned some little easels for them out of some left over cardboard, and they were just perfect.

We had fruit and vegetables from Rabbit's garden.

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I did relent this year and get a store-bought cake.  I wasn't going to be able to take the day off before the party, and I was afraid I would run out of time on the cake.  I have to say, the people at Kroger were very nice and easy to work with.  She let me go on and on about how I wanted the cake to look.  Even though we couldn't do exactly what I wanted (copyright issues with Disney), I think it still turned out really cute.

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I just LOVE how these turned out.  Pretzel rods turned Tigger Tails.  (For anyone wanting to know--you CANNOT dye melted white chocolate with food coloring.  Apparently I should have paid more attention in basic chemistry when they were talking about oil based substances not mixing well with water based substances.  If you need to use colored dipping candy, save yourself the trouble and go directly to Michael's and buy the already-dyed stuff.  Trust me.)

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Piglets in a blanket.

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This is the conversation we had the night before the party:

Me (after making one batch of Stuff and Fluff Salad): Look at this bowl and think about how many people we're having at the party.  Do you think I should make a double batch?

Shawn:  What is that?

Me:  It's that pink salad that you like.  It has pineapple, maraschino cherries, Cool Whip.  But tomorrow it's going to be Stuff and Fluff Salad.

Shawn:  I don't remember you making that.  Can I taste it?

He tastes it.

Shawn:  Yes.  We'll definitely be needing a double batch of that.

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This one was a bit of a flop.  I wanted to have blue punch, so I came up with a punch recipe that would work.  (A container of blue Hawaiian Punch, a container of white cranberry juice, and a 2 liter of lemon-lime soda.)  Then I thought if we floated vanilla ice cream on top it might look like a rain cloud.  So it could be Eeyore's Rain Cloud Punch--you know--since Eeyore always has that rain cloud over his head.  I was so proud of my brilliance.  So on the day of the party, Shawn's mom and I went ahead of everyone else to run in Kroger and pick up last minute items and decorate.  I decided a divide and conquer approach was in order.  So when we got in Kroger I asked her to grab ice cream while I picked up the cake.  "What flavor?" she asked.  On the spur of the moment, I said, "Shawn likes Neapolitan...get that!"  Only when I got ready to mix up the punch I realized that Neapolitan ice cream doesn't so much look like a rain cloud.  Oh well.

Here's another funny story about the punch:  When we were cleaning up the party room, I drained what was left of the punch back into one of the original juice containers, but I had nothing to do with the ice cream.  One of the bounce house workers suggested that I flush it down the toilet.  Great!  Except when I went into the restroom the toilet was still running from where someone else had just flushed it.  Not wanting to risk causing the toilet to overflow, I dumped the ice cream in and made a mental note to go back and flush it in just a minute after the tank had filled back up.  Only I forgot.  Do you know what Neapolitan ice cream looks like when it's in a toilet?  I'm guessing whoever saw it wasn't thinking it was ice cream...

I made this sign for the gift table.  Again...nothing fancy.  Just a Word document printed on paper, trimmed to size and framed.  I brought one of our backup Poohs to hold it.

I found these little pots that I thought looked like honey pots on the dollar rack at Target.  You cannot imagine the funny looks I was getting as I stood there doing my happy dance in the store.  I had intended to put crayons in them and let the kids color Pooh pages, but the Pooh coloring pages didn't quite make it to the party, so I just bought a little bouquet of flowers to divide up and use.

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I was also really proud of this idea.  I made little favor bags for the kids, but since this was a mostly family party, I wanted a little something to give to the adults too.  So I bought a couple of boxes of honey buns (honey...Pooh...get it?) and made little tags for them. 

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This is totally my child:  ignores all of the toys he got and goes straight for the books.  As soon as he opened the gift with books he was done.  As in, he was pushing the other presents away not wanting to open them so he could sit and look at his books.  Or as Sam likes to say, "Book-sssssss."

Cousins are such a nice thing to have around.

Sam loves his Nana--thinks she hung the moon.

Tigger made a surprise appearance at the party.  (Seriously--we didn't know he was coming!)  This was as close as Sam would get to him.  I think we finally did coerce him into giving him a high five before he left.

We tried to convince my grandmother to get in the inflatables, but she decided she'd just settle for a game of air hockey.

But that didn't stop Sam and Daddy from having fun in them!

FYI--for all of you moms out there:  Destination birthday parties are THE BEST!!!  If you are in the Lexington area, we highly recommend the bounce house that we used.  They were so nice to work with.  They pretty much let us do whatever we wanted, we only had to get our stuff out of the party room and they cleaned up the rest, and the kids had a great time.  Seriously, we might not ever have another birthday party at our house ever again.

Easter

So I should probably get an Easter recap up before the next holiday rolls around, right?  Right.

I love Easter.  Not just because it's a spring holiday and the kids always look so cute in their little dresses and mini-me-sized suits, but because of what it represents.  Life.  Resurrection.  Hope.  

The last few years, we have spent Easter with my sister and her family.  We trade houses (or at least it usually works out that way) and just have a nice lunch and a relaxing afternoon together.  This year, Shawn and I opted for the early service at our own church (the fact that we made it to the early service was an Easter miracle in itself), and then we headed out to their house for pictures together.  I'll leave our reasoning open for interpretation, but you can imagine it may have been at least one of the following:

a) we were running too late for pictures before church

b) I don't have a tripod so family pictures are pretty impossible without a fourth person to do the photographing

c) my brother-in-law has a really nice camera (as well as a pretty good eye for photos), so anytime I can get him to make pictures I jump at the opportunity (although the picture below was taken with my camera)

d) more than one of the above

(Side note:  one of my pharmacy school professors, Dr. Bummer, used to make all of his multiple choice questions in a pretty similar format.  It was nerve-wracking.  I consider myself a pretty good standardized test taker.  If I don't know the RIGHT answer, I can usually eliminate the answers I know to be WRONG and go from there.  But that "d" choice always threw me off because there was usually that one choice that I was on the fence about.)

Anyway, here are a few shots from the day:

We actually got everyone looking at the camera at the same time.  Another Easter miracle?  I think so...

I can't figure out why this picture won't be bigger, but I spent more time than I care to admit trying to enlarge it.  Fail.  Anyway, these were my little Pinterest-inspired no-bake cookies.  Simple and delicious.  What a wonderful combination.  

We had a visit from the Easter Bunny.  Notice that he left toys that could be QUIETLY played with during church.   (Very smart, that Easter Bunny...)  And also sidewalk chalk.  I actually requested that he leave the sidewalk chalk.  I wanted Mr. Easter Bunny to leave it last year, but he was afraid that Sam would just eat it.  And he would've been right.  Luckily, the only one trying to eat it this year is the dog.

After lunch, we had an egg hunt.  Will thought he was too old to hunt eggs, so he decided to help hide them. There may or may not have been A LOT of trash talking being tossed about regarding how good of a hider he was and whether his younger siblings would be able to find his eggs.  But he was thoughtful enough to hide some easy ones for the littler kids too.  Sam was not very enamored with the egg hunt.  He found a couple, clapped for himself, and then he was done.  Going up and down the steps on the front porch and trying to injure himself was a lot more fun than hunting eggs.

Drew was very proud of how many eggs he found.

Alex was too, although he had to work a little harder for his.

I have to admit, I caught myself gazing at all of the little girls in their frilly, ruffly dresses this Easter.  The little white sandals.  The cutesie little hair bows.  The hair that had been painstakingly rolled in rollers or curled.  I'm so excited to see what Easter will look like next year!