weekends that come and go

 

 this weekend was really nice.

after work on friday i headed downtown

to help work the bbq tent at our town's festival.

i served up drinks for awhile before i made it home in time

to help ronnie put my babies to bed.

a few girls from work followed me home and

we played circle of death until 1am.

throw back to 2004, for sure.
i was super tired - - a clear sign i can't hang anymore.

saturday, ronnie and i took the girls out to eat and

downtown so they could walk the festival.

they have a "kids street" full of games, face painting and

animals, but all i really wanted was an updated one of these:

 

caricatures are my fave.

but he messed up my mouth, right?

the eyes and nose are on point, but that mouth.

i think he nailed ronnie, reid and brette.

it's getting framed for sure.

 

in other news, 

we lost a tree in our backyard and i'm super bummed.

it was a bad combination of too much rain and

the tree being rooted in the creek.

it just toppled right over.

we actually have some dead trees we need to remove and

few that i just don't like the placement of, but this one?

i loved this one and i'm sad to see it go.

add it to ronnie's list of things to do. 

 

we've also been going on daily walks through the

neighborhood and most days,

it looks a lot like this:

 

 

however, sunday brette tuckered out early and

decided to hop in and ride the rest of the way back.

i was thinking, oh geez, it must be nap time.

but no, she fooled around and never slept.

it. kills. me.

 i put her bed by 7:30 though, so that helped.

she's started falling asleep in the hallway every night.

we drag in back in her bed when we turn the lights off,

but the combination of a hallway sleeping, early rising and no nap,

well, its enough to kill a mom.

promise.

 

and my last update for the weekend,

my toe.

ever since last sunday i've had pain in my big toe.

ended up getting infected and i had to go to

the doctor to get some antibiotics.

it got pretty bad, so i made sure

and sent ronnie toe pictures throughout the day

so he felt involved.

i know, it was sweet of me to think of him.

 

kassie tells me this is what i get for going to the lake

and swimming in poop water.

dang the luck.

antibiotics seem to be working and things are on the mend.

sorry, for the foot pic.  i hate feet.

but i had to share my pus bubble.

(insert vomit noises)

 

 

hope your weekend went as slow as mine.

it felt really long,

which was a nice change.

 

short stories

 

 

 

 

i can no longer sit reid on the bathroom floor to play

while i take a shower.

she takes turns between crawling to the fireplace

or the toilet.

i stand there in a mild panic trying to decide between letting

her go a few more minutes or running across the room naked

to save her from god knows what.

good times.

 

 

 

brette doesn't like to accept help getting in or out of the car.

i stand there for what feels like an hour waiting for her to crawl in.

and then, even worse, find the longest route possible to get out.

today she decided to crawl over the console to sit shotgun before

making her way to the driver's seat and then finally out.

meanwhile, i'm chanting:

patience. patience. patience.

pick your battles.

i'll miss this one day, right?

 

 

 

i went through the drive-thru the other day

and the whole time i'm ordering brette is yelling

from the backseat, "what's your name?!! what's your name?!!"

it continued when we pulled around to get our food.

i finally just rolled down her window so she could

have the conversation with the fast food employee that

she'd been dying for.

social butterfly? yes. yes, she is.

 

 

 

 

reid is obsessed with louie and leia.

she has no words yet, but every time she

sees them she starts saying,  oo oo oo oo.

i'm pretty sure she's trying to say louie.  

i wouldn't be surprised if its her first word.

 

 

 

brette does a good job of listening and then

using what we say to her against us.

how do you respond when your two year old

tells you "i don't want to hear it" or "you need to watch your mouth."

but funny enough, she's started using what i say to her

and then tries it out on reid.

the other day we were in the grocery store and reid was being

a little loud and brette turned to her and said,

"you see all these people, reid? they don't want to hear you.

you need to quiet down."

it's pretty much the exact sentence

i use when brette is being too loud.

this year should be fun.

 

 

memorial day weekend

the long weekend is over and

we're all back at it tomorrow.

we left early saturday morning to go

 down to the lake with a bunch of friends

and spend two whole days out on a boat.

it. was. glorious.

and it makes me want to spend my whole summer

doing exactly that.

i think both girls love being out on the water.

it is a little difficult with the girls being as young as they are.

reid is supposed to take two naps a day and is still on the boob.

try doing that on a boat.

brette was ready to throw down at night because she was so tired,

but i figured it's only a few days and i'd rather have a fun day

and a rocky night, than do nothing at all. 

the second day we left reid with my parents and

just took brette.

reid needs a schedule more than brette

AND brette was so excited about "driving the boat"

that there was no way she was getting left behind.

i think next summer we might look into getting a camper so

we can actually do more of this.

the girls will be easier, the house should be done and

we might actually have some free time.

i can't wait.

i'm really glad we got out of the house and had some fun.

i think ronnie and i both needed the break.

 

 

we spent today at my parent's.

we slept, at lots of food and hung out with the family.

my brother came down with his girls and we

took them to visit my grandpa's grave and see

the ceremony they have at the veterans cemetery where he is buried.

 

 

 

and now here i am,

back at home, after going and going and going.

both girls are passed out after the long weekend and

i'm getting ready to watch scandal. (yes, i'm obsessed)

it's been a nice break,

but its nice to lay in my own bed.

hopefully you had a lovely l o n g  weekend too.

if only we got more of these.

 

 

 

reid: ten months

 

reid changes more and more everyday and

i feel like we're getting into "big girl" territory.

no more car seats in a store, she sits in the cart.

no more laps in a restaurant, she sits in a highchair.

no more baby food, she's eats what we eat.

basically, she's way easier now.

here's the downlow:



 

 

growth:

we won't have another doctor's appointment until she's a year old,

so i don't have her exact height and weight, but she's definitely getting bigger.

she mostly wears 12 months clothing, but

just because we have a TON of it.

everything from madeline and eden and then 

all the clothes brette got for her first birthday.

reid's wardrobe is out. of. this. world.

no clothes needed over here.

 she's still in a size 3 diaper and i'm going to try to start having her wear shoes.

i bet she's in a three or a four, but not sure.

i need to go through all of brette's old shoes and bust them out.

her hair is growing a lot on top and the sides but

still not a lot of length in the back.

it does seem to be curling some though, so

i'm excited to see how that turns out.

basically, exactly opposite from B.

but the biggest change this month are her gross motor skills.

she can crawl and sit up on her own.

it is so amazing to sit her down in the playroom

and let her go.

literally, i can just leave her alone to go explore

she can sit up, crawl around, bother brette...

it's awesome.

 

 

sleeps:

turns out i was right about her sleeping through the night.

in fact, it's even gotten better.

no more up at 5am.

wahoo.

she goes down at 8 and is up at 7.

i'm loving it.

too bad it only took 9 months!

her naps are the same except i took out the 3rd nap altogether.

it was annoying and i decided that since she's getting eleven hours at night

as long as she gets around three in her first two naps,

then i'm okay with it.

her first at is still at 10am,

her second at 2pm.

her morning nap is definitely her best and

she'll sleep the longest, but

every once in awhile her afternoon nap rocks too.
 i'm still nursing her to sleep and she still loves the pacifier.

i know.

these next couple months might suck taking those things away,

but i'm hoping for smooth transition.

fingers crossed.

 

 

 eats:

reid still has no teeth.

it's crazy. i keep waiting but nothing is popping through.

nevertheless she eats people food like a champ.

she eats anything we give her including meat.

i know last month i still hadn't started that, but

i wanted her to get more protein so i just cut it up really small and

she does great with it.

in fact, i think she loves it.

for those of you with babies this age i completely recommend

the summer infant tiny diner.

it makes going to a restaurant a breeze.

seriously, get one.

weaning has been going really well too.

i took away her 5am feeding and now she sleeps right through.

next, i took away her 5pm feeding.

i figured she can have a snack after nap and

then dinner, which will get us to her last feeding of the day.

so far, no complaints.

right now our schedule is:

7:00 nurse

8:30 breakfast

10:00 nurse

12:00 lunch

2:00 nurse

4:00 snack

6:00 dinner

8:00 nurse

i plan on combining her 7am with her 10am.

i would like her to start drinking milk with breakfast that

way we can start getting away from nursing her to sleep.

next week should be interesting.

hopefully she's ready for this.

 

 

 

plays:

like i said above, reid is playing more and

more on her own just because she's mobile now to do it.

a lot of the time if i'm trying to get something done or

i need to get ready i can put a basket

of toys down on the floor and she's good.

she'll throw them around and then crawl around to all of them.

it's so nice.

her freedom = my freedom.

we've also been going on stroller walks everyday.

brette loves to run around and reid loves to watch.

it's so nice to be able to go outside all the time.

in fact, i took them to the park a few days ago and

reid sat on a blanket in the grass and picked dandelions.

thank god for spring.

i have been trying to work on her standing to play,

but she has no balance.

i feel like she stands on her tippy toes a lot and

will literally just go down like a tree.

i have to be on high alert when she's standing.

we have a bunch of toys that are good for standing and playing,

and she'll pull up to her knees, but actually

getting up on her feet is a no go.

i'm not even worried about it though since she JUST started crawling.

one thing at a time.

 

 

firsts:

she is crawling

she is sitting up on her own.

she is sleeping 11 hours straight.

she sits in shopping carts and highchairs.

she had her first ice cream and popsicle.

(tis the season, right?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

on her way

reid was not having it.

brette growing up without her?

not in this house.

as soon as brette made her way into her big girl bed,

reid was like, oh yeah?

well, i'm going to start crawling.

and that little stinker did it first for my parents on monday.

[May 16th]

of course she would.

why save anything for dear ol' mamma

who is here literally all. the. time.

whatevs.

she did it for me that night though and everyday since.

it's so exciting. 
i love a little crawling peanut.

but i also realized these girls are working together.

they're trying to kill me.

i now have one child in and out of her room too busy to nap

and up super early in the morning.

and the other one can now get into everything.

doesn't that like fun?

 

 

 

(literally the first morning brette went into reid's room

at 5:50am and woke her up.

the second morning she was standing over me

at 6:00am and scared the crap out of me. good times.)

 

 

caged

 

the thing that i've been dreading, happened.

brette started consistently climbing out of her crib.

she walked into our room this morning at 6:30 like it ain't no thang.

oh geez.

normally, i ignore her until at least 7:00.

i guess this. is. happening.

so we decided it was time to turn her crib into a daybed.

i'm not thrilled.

she hasn't napped all weekend, but - - fingers crossed - -

seems to go down fine at night.

(probably because she's so tired from not napping.)

but i'm waiting for her to show up at 3am and

then my life will be over.

i literally just got reid sleeping through the night so

if i start having to get up with my 2 year old i might die.

it's not fair!

she is super excited about it though and will invite anyone

to "come look at her big girl bed."

we I put a rail up so she won't fall out,

but she can easily get around that anytime she pleases.

i'm just worried that her naps will suffer and

i'll end up with a grouchy little girl.

so far, nothing i've tried will keep her in bed with her eyes closed.

she gets out toys,

she tried on clothes,

she reads books,

she rearranges her closet.

anything but sleep.

i think one day she will figure out to go in the playroom and

then i'm pretty sure i'll have to wave my white flag.

but for now, i'm not giving up!

i have hope that she will get used to this new

found freedom and still choose to lay down and fall asleep.

we shall see.

i'll keep you posted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

lion or lamb?

 

 

so brette is a little lamb.

or is she a lion?

i think she's both.

i'm mean, sure she's super sweet full of hugs and kisses and giggles.

but there is also a temper brewing.

and a mouth.

oh her mouth.

she's just keeps talking.

 

i feel like when trying to deal with her behavior

consistency is key,

but i can't make up my mind on how to deal

with her so i keep trying new things,

which is probably more confusing for her.

i go back and forth between time out and

positive parenting.

jaime let me borrow a book a few years ago about

positive parenting which i know had a lot of good ideas,

but at the time, i had a sweet little baby.

i read it, but i didn't USE it.

she didn't talk back, not listen or hit.

now that these are the things we're dealing with

i try to go back and use the methods suggested.

but there are things that i believe in that i would like

to instill in her too.

learn to be empathetic AND say you're sorry.

learn better listening skills and how to follow directions.

i know she's young, but

these are the things i'm working toward.

 

i know to get down on her level.

i let her know i understand the way she's feeling.

i talk to her about how to deal with it.

i know to give her two options so she feels like

she has the power and independence to make her own choices.

and i know to give her lots of love.

but  s o m e t i m e s  i feel like this doesn't work.

she's not listening - she doesn't want to talk it out.

i feel like maybe if i just hold her and

love on her she will calm down enough so we can talk,

but there have been times that she doesn't want to be held.

and then i will pull her out of the situation to breathe.

to collect ourselves.

a little time out, if you will.

but this always makes her start crying.

so now instead of mad, she's upset.

but she didn't want held and she's didn't want to talk,

 so what's left???

we've actually started something new.

hit a pillow if she's mad.

snuggle her favorite stuffed animal if she's upset.

but then this morning she said,

i think i need to hit my puppy dogs.

oh geez.

i am always second guessing myself.

no one want to have "that kid."

she needs boundaries, but what is 

appropriate for a two/three year old?

ahhhh.

its hard.  

feel free to send suggestions of what worked

or didn't work for you.

 

it takes a village.