Tuesday, August 30, 2016

sleeping beauty




i read that when your baby
starts sleeping through the night,
then your big kid will inevitably start
getting up.
just to mess with you.
i laughed.
not brette.
she always sleeps through the night.
always.
sure, now a days she falls asleep in the hallway
but still - s l e e p i n g.
we were battling the whole
"sleep in your bed thing"
but then it turned into 
"why are you in my room at 3am thing?"
not cool.
i can't believe this is happening.
reid took NINE months to sleep through 
the night and now i'm dealing with brette.
i was way too confident in my girls. 
and then i think i made a mistake.
i let her climb in bed with us.
she's never slept with us and honestly,
i never wanted to start that. 
now, almost every night,
she comes in and gets in bed. 
this. is. not. happening.
so here's my plan:
when she comes in my room,
i'll let her get in for 5 minutes.
then 4, then 3, until, eventually, i'll  take her
straight back to bed and
hopefully, she'll just stop coming in altogether.
she might lose her mind for a couple days,
but it will be totally worth it if i can nip this in the bud.

i've also thought about maybe 
buying her a new bed?
maybe she's not comfortable anymore?
i'm not sure.
i was thinking that if i made a big deal out of
new bed then, she would stay in it better.
i could have her help pick out bedding and stuff -
make her feel like a big girl.
i'm not convinced this will work though.
i made a big deal out of taking the 
rail off her crib and all that did was make 
her start sleeping on the floor.

this is literally driving me crazy.
i just want to lay her down,
fall asleep and i'll see her in the morning. 
i've had a couple people tell me that they
lock the kid's door so they have to stay in 
their room, but i'd like to avoid that.

if you have anything brilliant to share,
please send suggestions.

(meanwhile - i put reid down at 7:45 and
i don't see that pretty girl until 7:30 the next morning.
THIS is my goal for both girls.)


Wednesday, August 24, 2016

ronnie's terrible, awful, no good, very bad night

so ronnie called home yesterday afternoon
to ask if he could go out to dinner with his friend, cale.
i already had dinner going, so 
i nicely suggested he decline the offer.
well, he was a real sour-puss when he got home.
sorry i'm not sorry that you had to have dinner with your family.
get over it.
i had a rough afternoon fighting both kids during nap.
i lost that battle, so the girls were extra needy and whiny 
when ronnie got home.
grumpy husband, crying kids, preparing dinner...
not good.
we managed to get through dinner fairly fast but
ronnie put reid down on the floor without picking up
the dog's water bowl first.
big mistake.
water everywhere.
he hated life. 
i went ahead and took the girls upstairs to get ready for bed.
hello, early bedtime.
i left ronnie downstairs to finish up the kitchen.
i hear something and a loud string of cuss words.
hmmmm.
ronnie had knocked the pitcher of lemonade off the top
shelf of the refrigerator and spilled it everywhere.
start cleaning, ronzo.
oh and don't worry, brette is telling him to watch his mouth from upstairs.
[insert big cheesy smile]
so i head back upstairs.
i shut our bedroom door to maintain the chaos and
to make sure louie doesn't run in there to pee while 
i'm distracted.
yes, that happens.
i go back to get brette's toothbrush and
oh god. our door is locked.
it's a weird door that can be locked but our side
of the knob still turns so it's easy to forget it's locked in the first place.
i had locked it that afternoon when brette was trying to 
get in my room during nap time and i was trying to ignore her
so she'd hopefully just fall asleep in the hallway.
it's also the only door that doesn't have a lock that just pops out.
this lock actually turns and you have to have a key.
(we've never had a key, unless its a house key and those were
sitting on our dresser in our room.)
F me.
i have to yell down to tell ronnie, who is still cleaning up lemonade.
he tried pushing it and pulling it.
he busts out a credit card and then some tools.
nothing is working.
he's losing his mind.
i go ahead and lay reid down for the night and
brette is with ronnie giving good advice:
"this door is a piece of junk. 
daddy, you need to relax.
daddy, you better watch yourself."
(brette has yet to learn that sometimes it's
better to be seen and not heard.)
she also went and got her tool box and insisted
on trying to help.
i wanted to take a picture but i wasn't sure where ronnie 
was going to draw the line.
he finally went and got his saw and just cut the doorknob off.
he also managed to get a quiet dig in by saying he lives with a 
bunch of children.
(don't worry, i made a mental note to "accidentally" 
knee him in bed that night)
so yay, we're able to actually get in our room.
i'm happy.
brette decided she wanted daddy to put her to bed,
so i go get in the shower.
i see ronnie come out of B's room and head back downstairs.
i offer him the shower, but he has to still go clean up the rest of the lemonade.
whoops, i had forgotten about that mess.
maybe i should have done that instead.
oh well.
by the time ronnie gets back upstairs, i'm in bed reading.
he showers and goes to sleep early.
without talking to me.
well, at least until i kneed him a few hours later.








Sunday, August 21, 2016

and she's off...

brette started preschool on wednesday.
and don't let this face fool you,
she was not happy.


i would love to say that she had the best day
ever and it was so great,
but, that's not exactly how it went down.

she cried.
a lot.
from the moment i went in her room to get her
dressed for school she started crying.
she stopped for a bit when i turned on cartoons
and i even managed to get her outside for a picture.
once we got to school she clung to me and
would not look or talk to anyone.
when her teacher asked her a question,
she looked at me and said,
"i don't know what's she talking about."
i died.
so i walked around a showed her different places
to play, where her cubby was and where to use the bathroom.
when i finally did go to leave,
she lost it.
i had to get the teacher to come back and 
take her off me so i could actually get out
of the classroom.
at least i managed to escape with no tears.
i didn't want to add to our drama.
its so not the way i wanted her first morning to go.
i thought about her all day, hoping she was loving it.
when i picked her up from school that afternoon her
teacher told me she had a good day,
took a nap and was quiet.
(i was thinking - that ain't my girl)
when asked brette if she liked her school and had a good day - 
she said no.
i asked her if she liked her teacher -
she said, "she's disgusting and has poop on her face."

well great.

luckily, when i took her back on friday,
she walked right in, took a seat and 
didn't cry at all.
AND she got rave reviews from her teacher again.
so i'm thinking she really does like it there.
she just likes to give me a heart attack when possible.
sounds about right.



Wednesday, August 17, 2016

walks of life

do you want to know what my little stinker did
while i was gone on vacation?

she. started. walking.
without me.
that turd.

before i left, she had to have a
push-toy or she would only take a step,
maybe two, before falling.
then the moment i walk out the door,
she does the same.

i tried to convince my parents to keep 
pushing her down when she would 
start walking, but instead they
counted her steps and sent me taunting
text messages while i was 12 hours away.

i hated life.

of course my kid would pick the 
seven days i'm out of state to start
doing the coolest thing.
of course i would miss it.
of course my parents don't video it.
of course.



but i really am excited.
this makes things so much easier.
she can go outside and play!
she can get her own stuff!
she can occupy herself for so much longer!

now excuse me, i'm off to go buy padding
and a helmet.
i'm pretty sure the next few months are going
to be spent running around trying to keep her from injury.





Monday, August 15, 2016

the black hills

i've stepped away from the computer
to go on a little vacation to south dakota.
(it was not really little
we were gone seven freaking days.
light years in mom-time.)


ronnie and i, along with two other couples,
took off last weekend and headed northwest.
(ronnie's best friends and their wives - basically his dream)
it was a really good group.
everyone was so laid back, it
made spending a whole week in a camper seem easy.
such a great way to travel.

it was the world famous bike week at sturgis,
so since the boys are all harley lovers
we loaded the bike and joined the thousands.
it was so much fun and so freaking beautiful.
we actually only spent one day in sturgis because
there is so much else to do and see.
day one was a travel day.
took us 12 hours to make it to camp.


days two and three we parked the camper in the badlands.
we took a super long ride through the national parks,
down needles highway and to mt. rushmore.
my butt was dying.
literally, i almost didn't make it.
but the ride was gorgeous.
i was excited to see mt. rushmore,
we saw a ton of buffalo,
made friends with prairie dogs and
needles highway is awesome on a bike.











the next day we did a shorter ride through 
the badlands (which is gorgeous)
since we had some extra time,
we stopped off at the local biker bar.
and for once, we fit right in.
we even managed to come up with biker names for the boys.
they're so tough.










the next day (day 4) we loaded everything back up
and went a little further north toward sturgis.
we went for an afternoon ride to deadwood.
have you ever heard of that town?
i never had, but the history was cool and if
there was one place i would have moved to during this vacation,
it would have been there.
we got caught in a rain storm so we spent the rest 
of the evening in town and had dinner.



the next day, we finally decided we should probably see sturgis.
it was and wasn't what i was expecting.
sure, there were some trashy people, tons of bikes and
girls in barely any clothes, but for the most part
it reminded me of a state fair.
except all the booths were selling stuff for bikes.
and in between the booths were tents with bikes and
lots of bars.
it was a good time.
we spend the whole day walking around,
shopping, drinking a few beers and looking at 
harley stuff i know nothing about.







the sixth day we wanted to see more of the countryside so 
we headed out to devils tower, then on the
prettiest ride through spearfish canyon and
ended up back in deadwood because we all liked it so much.
(seriously, if you want an amazing harley ride,
go to spearfish canyon or just google the images because its so pretty)
once back in deadwood we actually talked the guys
into getting old time photos.
it was the funniest thing i've done.
i was literally crying-laughing while they were 
lacing me up in my clothes.











the next morning ronnie and i got
up extra early and hit the road.
i was dying to see my girls and 
get back to them.
we stopped to pee and ate in the car,
but we made it back in 11 hours.
i got to spend a couple hours with brette and reid 
before bedtime.
i missed them so much,
but i had a great time.
i want to go on a vacation every month.
seriously.




Wednesday, August 3, 2016

over the rainbow



reid had a wonderful little birthday party
over the weekend.
rainbow themed with lots of water play.
since this is the one party we invite friends,
i thought it might be nice to have something for
all the kids to do.
we had little kiddie pools and a slip-n-slide.
it was colorful and loud and
reid was a little overwhelmed,
but all in all, i think it went great.
we let everyone play for awhile while
we all snacked.
then we opened gifts and watched
reid dominate her smash cake.
she was hilarious.
but i made the mistake of doing
the smash cake inside.
i don't know why i didn't think of it,
but hello, ALWAYS do the smash cake outside.
it got a little messy and i had to take reid
upstairs for a quick wash-off.
i think everyone had a good time and
i'm so happy we all got together to celebrate her first birthday
and eden lou's forth birthday.

Happy Birthday, Girls!

and now for a million photos: