Sunny Saturday

It was sunny and 66 here today. It is suppose to snow tomorrow. Arkansas is so weird.

So Mr. T. had to work today. I thought we were going to go out tonight, but we thought our baby sitting time would best be served working out. As it worked out, I went for a run and he went to work. (but he got a good nap in). I am not going to run the LR half. It stresses me out to train for it. It stresses me out to fork over 70 dollars to do it.

But anyway, once Baby P woke up we went to the zoo. It was so nice, and my kids were so good. The animals were all out sunning themselves. We even got to go inside the rhino barn to see the boy rhino having his lunch. Peanut threw some pellets into his pen. Seeing the Rhino up close is pretty exciting because for so long, the Rhino viewing area was about 100 yards from his pen. It was so weird because we never really saw him.

In the afternoon we went to a party at a firehouse. It was pretty fun. There were a lot of kids there, but most of them were at least a year older than Peanut.

We started some gentle toughness again last night with BabyP. Since he has been ill, he has gotten used to sleeping with momma or waking me up at least 4 times a night to nurse. He won't even really nurse. He just wants my breast in his mouth while he cuddles up to me. So he cried last night for half an hour twice. On the positive side, he slept three hours in a row. (this is how desperate I have become that sleeping 3 hours in a row is a big deal.)

I also hooked up the stereo today. I don't think we have had enough music in our house. I have been taking this Zumba class on Wednesday, and I realized that I just don't shake my booty enough. It is almost like I forgot how. So the stereo is hooked up so peanut and I can shake our booty more. PLUS, I bought a hip hop dance exercise video. I thought that would be fun for a nasty day.

Can you beleive?

the baby is sleeping

and peanut is playing in her room

make that was playing in her room.

The One time she isn't wearing a Tu Tu

We made some bread today. or we attempted to at least. All the breads I want to make usually take two days, so I guess I should say we started some bread today. So if you eat fresh baked bread at our house it might have been started on the floor of the kitchen. BUT, having it made by a beautiful ballerina cancels out that it was made on the floor.

She did make (and eat) cookies with her grandmother while I worked (literally) on the computer. SNOW DAY!! don't you love them.

And something else happened today... want to take a guess

You got it. Another ear infection with the one that he already has. Let's add to that a case of RSV. I should have had him tested on Saturday, but oh well. Three of his buddies from school were also there at the same time finding out that they had RSV as well.

I made an appointment for us to have a consult for tubes. This poor bear has had enough.

and so has the bears momma. The wondering is the worst part. It all just sucks. I want my sweet healthy boy back.

Again...

The kids at peanut's dayschool are grouped by age. There are so many kids at that school that all of the children in her class are within a couple of months of her.

We went to the "Little Gym" for a little girl's party who has been in peanut's room since she started there. I have to say, this had to have been one of the most enjoyable parties for me. I met some parents that I hadn't met yet. They were great. There was only a small group of kids, so I am glad we went. Plus it got us out of the house.

So they blow up this little mattress for a short time for the kids to jump, roll, or do whatever across. Here is peanut jumping.

I think they were trying to get her off because she has a tendency to run back when she gets to the end.

And here is her rolling. The idea is to do forward rolls down the length of the bouncy thing

and then rolling back the other way

She is so funny (without meaning to be). She was so serious about her rolling.

Someone has another ear infection. His sleep has been bad and he has been a total grump. I am going to make an appointment because this just sucks for everyone. I think this one really bothers him more than the others have.

I am a little obsessed with eating and sleeping kids. I remember being with my aunt Genie eating while she was just watching me. She said that she loved to watch me eat because I always seemed like I really enjoyed food. I was about 25 or so at the time, so I wasn't a small child by any means. I know what she means. I love watching my children eat. It just makes me so happy to see there joy in the experience.

Frenemies

"i don't like Baby P anymore", said peanut to me while she was in the bathtub with her brother.
"Oh, that makes me sad that you would say that. Why don't you like him?"

I know this was only the first in a long line of conversations that we will be having until baby P is at least 25. She didn't really mean it. I don't think she really understood what she was saying. I tried to explain to her that he was a special type of friend. I told her that she wasn't always going to like him and that was okay. But she needed to be nice and say nice things to him because he was an important part of her life.

How do you explain the bonds of a sibling to a 3 year old? I can barely get my mind around them myself. Plus, my experience as a big sister is not going to be her experience. We are a lot alike, but I am willing to bet that Baby P is more like his father than my brother. For all I know, she might be the irresponsible of the two siblings. Baby P might follow the straight and narrow, and Peanut might need more guidance.

I don't want Peanut to think that she can get away with saying mean things, but I also don't want her to bottle things up. I try to talk through what she says with her so she will know better how to express her feelings. Most of the times she goes on and on about how much she loves her brother, but I think some of that might be a show too. I think she wants to emulate me and see me taking care of him all the time.

She loves him and loves to make him laugh. She also likes to take away the toys he is playing with. He tries to take away the toys she is playing with as well. In the bathtub he scoots over to where he is right on top of her and starts pulling on her toys. She screams "No. Baby P is torturing me." She pushes him back to "his side" of the bathtub only to look up a minute later with monster baby staring her in the eye again.

They are both a mess. Seeing them together makes me miss my own brother.

Wrapped up.

Mom is going to come over Saturday mornings until we are able to get the house in order. Right now, Mr. T. is working on adding some lights to the kitchen. They look very glamorous installed. We need to add a couple more, but I think Mr. T. is starting to peter out on the handy man stuff. It looks like he is going to fix the holes in the ceiling. After that, I can paint the ceiling and then the walls. HURRAY. It will look really good once that is done. Then we need to finish the back splash and add the vent-a-hood. Then we will be done, kinda with the kitchen.

Then on the floor boards.

Then on to refinancing so we can save some MONEY.

Peanut has been pretty funny lately. She got two new tutu's for her birthday (sorry the thank yous haven't gone out). She has been wearing them around the house. Today for nap, she slept in one. She tells me that when she grows up she is going to be a princess and live in a castle. I think she thinks she is going to marry her brother. He is evidently going to live in the castle too and be a prince. She is really really into this princess thing.

I wanted to wear her out today, so we went down to the river so she could ride her bike. She told me she wanted me to ride my bike too and that we could ride our bikes together. I should do that one day. I think she would dig it.

We met Madeline "Power legs" DXXXXX out there. Man, I don't know if it the difference in height, personality or age, but she can really roll. Peanut was just strolling compared to her. Although, I have to say, Peanut didn't tired of bike riding as fast as Madeline did. Peanut went on a big adventure around the dog park, which is pretty far when you are small (or tall). Maybe she is just slow and steady. (like her momma)

Baby P is cutting a tooth. He knows he is not suppose to bite, so he kinda pulls my nipple out of his mouth and nibbles. He is so naughty. I tell him no, and he cries just a little. He then tries it again. I feel for him because I know his mouth is bothering him, but man... we all know that there is a line that just shouldn't be crossed. He sneaks a nibble when he is nursing. I can't really feel it, but I see the marks after he has pulled off. Naughty Naughty Boy.

Don't buy the raspberry and almond M&M's. They are just too good.

I quit sleep training, and I feel so much more rested. Maybe at some other juncture we can try it again. Right now just isn't the time. He woke up once at 130 and again at 530 last night. We will see. He wins for right now.

I ran 6 miles this weekend and rode my mountain bike. I figured I should start training for this half marathon (if I ever sign up for it). I miss mountain biking. Maybe after the house is through phase 1...

Love Letter to an 8 Month Old

Dear Baby P,

You had a whole month filled with firsts. First Christmas. First New Years. First time sleeping through the night. (Ha Ha. Just joking about that last one. ) You learned to clap this month. You look at me with your eyebrows raised and start clapping. That is my cue to start clapping too and say "YAY". I never wanted to be the mother who claps and says "YAY" all the time, but I am. If there is no "YAY" you make your own version of YAY that sounds like this "YAAAAA". It is really cute. You are really cute.

You are working on crawling. I wouldn't say that you are crawling yet, but you are doing a really great version of the commando crawl. You get where you need to go (the dog food bowl, something shiny on the floor that will choke you, your sisters stuff), it just takes you a while to get there. As an added bonus, I have little trails along my floor that are getting buffed from you dragging your belly across it. If the crawling gets too slow, you roll.

You aren't doing much verbally. Still no mamam or dadad, but I am hearing lots of baba and her vowel sounds. You started repeated Bye bye tonight. It is really cute. When I say bye bye to someone I hear this sweat high pitched bye bye. I think you are behind your peers in speech. That is okay though. You don't have much time to practice any speech with "princess talky pants" filling in the quietness.

You have been sick on and off this month, which means your appetite has been good and bad. You went through a phase where you wouldn't eat anything off a spoon besides yogurt. I think you are over it now. You still prefer to feed yourself but will now eat some vegetables and most fruits off the spoon. It seems to be important to you to be able to do things yourself and feeding is one of those things. You have pretty much quit nursing at lunch, so I might start not coming to see you as often. I will miss it, but it would also be nice to exercise during lunch.

Your not a picky kid. You like to do and see most things. You have a real interest in the world around you. Even if you are tired and grumpy, you are usually quiet and sweet out in public. There is just too much going on to make much of a fuss. Teachers at day school remark on how easy you are and how blessed I am. They also remark on your business and independence.

I am proud of you and the little person you have become. I can't wait to get to know you better.

lots of love,
your mum

But today...

No one really wins.
He still woke me up crying.
He didn't get fed.
I am still tired.

Wouldn't is suck if this didn't work? I give it three nights.

Then I sleep in the basement, and Mr. T. starts doing some baby duty.

He Won

I took Baby P to the doctor yesterday because he was waking frequently (3 or so times a night) and pulling on his ear. He didn't have an ear infections, so I was ready to start some "sleep training".

Sleep training to me means letting him cry a little. I get up and make sure he is covered and tell him he is okay, but I also tell him he needs to go back to sleep. He sleeps in our room, so I get to listen closely while he cries.

And cry he did. But just a little at 1:15 or so. He cried loud for about 2 minutes, then went back to sleep. He woke again about 15 minutes later wimpered and kicked for a minute or two. He woke, kicked, and wimpered about 4 times before I picked him up to nurse him at 3. I have strong opinions, but I am also pretty practical. I quickly saw that this routine wasn't getting me anywhere but really really tired.

I think he woke again another 2 times before I finally nursed him at 515. I just let him sleep in the bed with me until 6. When I got up, I moved him to his bed.

And this is the kicker, when he woke up at 630, all smiles of course, he wasn't hungry. It was much more interesting to kick around and play with the blankets. He gets mad and cries out if I keep trying to feed him when he isn't hungry.

So the fight is on. I really don't know who is going to win. He seems to be a lot like his father (which isn't a bad thing or a knock on my husband), but I have always thought BabyP's will was incredibably strong. I really don't have that strong of a will when it comes to sleep.

But getting into the dog dish.... I will win that one.

I can pick my battles.

The Party

I was pretty happy with the cake. It was Strawberry because we wanted a "Science Lady Cake". Mom bought me the cake stand and I finally broke down and bought the cupcake tree. (anyone who wants to borrow the tree can).

These two are funny. I busted them out in the FRONT YARD. I think he is a lot like peanut, his trouble causing is always accompanied by a sweet smile and big hug. He says the funniest things to Peanut. ("You have to Share" very matter of factly after peanut yelled to not play with her toys.) These two always seem to team up when they are together.

Stare into the light. I think she was zonked by this time. She didn't take much of a nap.

A little princess or prince craft to get the party started. The light on the table is a flashing ring that went over really well with the kids.

Dad came to school, and the kids decided he would be a good gate to go through. I think in this picture he is trying to leave but the kids just aren't letting him. Poor dad. All he wants to do is not drop his grandson.

Love Letter to a 3- year old

Dear Peanut,

I was going to start off this letter saying how you have turned from a baby into a little girl, but when I went back and reread the letter I wrote you when you turned 2, I said exactly that. How could that be? How could you turn from a baby to little girl twice?

This year you potty trained. You even decided you were big enough to wear panties at night. You gave up your pacifier (on your own!). You also don't cling to baby as much as you did in the past. Only occasionally do you sleep with baby at daycare, although, he is a constant companion around the house. You learned to ride a tricycle this year. You started ballet.

This year, you have perfected your voice in the world. You are vibrant and inquisitive. You love to laugh and make others laugh. This year you became a big sister, a little mother, and companion more than someone to constantly care for. The things that come out of your mouth amaze me. Right now we are watching Cinderella together and you just remarked, "oh this is so beautiful." You were also very concerned about Cinderella's torn dress.

Yesterday as we were cleaning your room, your brother was acting fussy. We discussed how he was hungry and tired, but he just needed to hold on for a little bit. You told me that you would give him your "booby snack." It took me a minute to understand exactly what you were telling me. By the time I figured it out, you were sizing up how you were going to lift him up to nurse him. When I told him you didn't have any milk your reply was "Yes I do. I am a grown-up."

You are a caring and thoughtful little girl. You are also sharp as a tack. I have to limit screen my NPR stories. I also have to limit watching the national news. You pick up on what is going on (especially about fighting) and you have questions.

Lots of questions. (Talking is your favorite past time.)
"What should we talk about, momma?"

You love to paint and create. These last couple of months have been fun with you because over the holidays we did a lot of cooking and decorating of cookies. We also did a fair amount of crafts and made lots of little cards and things for family and friends. You love to create and seem to really enjoy painting. You ask to paint just about every day.

I have said this a million times on this site, but I have a friend, Rainbow Momma, told me once that you never quit being amazed by your kids. I never doubted her, but I am so glad she was right. I love you dearly and am so glad that you are mine.

many kisses,
your mum

Birthdays

Birthdays are good because you take time to really appreciate the person having a birthday. It feels good to see the joy that Peanut gets from having a day where everyone treats her really nice by singing to her and giving her cake and ice cream.

It was a really good day. A day that we both looked forward to for a while.

And it was perfect.

Getting Close

It is hard to explain to a 3 year old time. It is also hard to explain that their birthday is one day and their party is another day. It is all mixed up in poor peanut's mind. I hope we can sort it out before we experience a sugar induced melt down.

Tomorrow, we will open presents in the morning while we eat our FREE WAFFLES. (somehow I received 2 coupons for free waffles from the Kroger). I will leave work a little early to take cupcakes to the kids for their snack. My mom and dad are going to meet me there. Then more present opening at our house. Mom is teaching ESL so she leave to go to her big old Baptist church. Hopefully, dad will come with us to Jason's Deli to have dinner. I thought Jason's Deli would be perfect because it is healthy, has good mac and cheese, and free ice cream.

I had hoped to take peanut to get her hair cut again. I might have to wait on that.

So here are the cupcakes. I was proud because they were all natural and bla bla bla. These are made from scratch so I knew exactly what went into them. I was trying to get pink, but wanted to avoid red dye. Unfortunately, the yogurt for the icing was a dirty white color, so I added food coloring.

She loves her Science Ladies.

"Momma, I want Science Lady Cupcakes."

"These are Science Lady Cupcakes."
"They are?", in a super excited voice. The kind of voice that just heard "These cupcakes have the magical power of Aerial and the whole science lady crew. You can have as much as you want."

She tells me she wants to be a science lady because they are pretty and live in a castle. We tell her she is going to be way pretty and way smarter than a science lady and if she wanted to, she could buy a castle. Man, it gets hard to indoctrinate her with Disney around.

Did I say we are having a princess party? The dollar store had princess party stuff. I heart the dollar store.

Don't Dance

My BIL sent us a couple of CD and a video for Christmas. He sent this group to us. Try NOT to dance or smile.

Weird

It is 7o something degrees outside. I went for a ride today and had no idea how to dress for this weather. It is gorgeous though. I won't complain about it.

But I will complain about my poor sick kids. Peanut is still raising hell, but has a slight wheeze. Baby P had two pretty bad ear infections and a wheeze. He was so jacked up from the albuteral today he only took an hour nap, but, on the bright side, he was still pleasant and fun to hang out with. He crashed about 630. I hope he is down for the count.

I feel like such an ass. We did a little sleep training this week. Last night I just held him because I figured he was pretty sick because he was a grump yesterday. See, my poor boy never had a fever and only a wet cough to let me know something was wrong. I was reluctant to bring him in until yesterday.

The sleep training went pretty well. He can put himself to sleep, I know he can, but he has problems when he wakes up. Our situation is probably exacerbated by the fact that he sleeps right next to me in his crib. If he makes a noise, I generally just grab him and nurse him. I am trying not to do that so much.

or will be trying once he gets better. (Did I mention I feel like an ass?) Luckily, he never really had a hard cry at night. He would wimper for a few minutes then go back to sleep. And because of his cough, I would nurse him after 3 or so. I don't mind one nurse a night, but I felt like we were getting into a bad habit.

Here he is. Happy as a clam all drugged up. Did I tell you about how when Peanut was at the emergency room this summer she said "i feel really really good.". She had about 4 breathing treatments by that point. I bet she felt good. (On accident I paired this shirt with these pants. It totally looks like the set goes together. The pants match the plaid on the lettering.)

She has been a mess lately. She can not wait until her party. I bought an Aerial candle, and she was so excited. (She is playing with some princesses she found at the park). She is going to flip when she sees her bike. She is also very excited about going to Jason's Deli for mac and cheese for her big birthday night out.

Happy New Year

We brought in the new year with good friends, fondue, and fancy cocktails.

We also brought it in at 7:15 counting from one to ten before popping off some confetti. I was in bed asleep by 10.

I couldn't be happier.

And to follow through on a resolution, here is my project 365 blog.