baby ran away

I don't want to brag, but my daughter is fantastic.  She is polite, cute, funny, and very caring.  However, she is 2.5 years old.  This comes with some definite trials.  Her newest and scariest thing is running away.  We will be having a fantastic time at the library, store, playground, church, wherever and all of a sudden a little switch turns off in her head and she takes off.  She gets about 50 feet and then turns around to look.  I know she hears my blood curdling yells but they seem to have no effect on her.  I have tried everything short of a leash, because of my serious moral objections.  I have told how I feel scared, mad, etc., I have yelled, I have taken her home immediately, I have turned around and ignored.  NOTHING WORKED.  Last night, after a particular rousing time at choir, she ran away from me down the hall.  When I got her, I told her that since she ran away, her baby ran away too.  She looked at me skeptically and then began to whimper a little.  She walked with me to the car and when we got in, Daddy had already removed baby.  The sound of her scream literally made people turn in the parking lot.  She was TERRIFIED.  She kept asking where she went including a confusing, "is she in the closet?"  What?  Anyway, we talked about how scared she was and with tears rolling down her cheeks she said, "I'm sorry Mommy, I love you."  Baby magically appeared and A. uttered an audible sigh of relief.  Maybe, just maybe, it will curb the running or maybe, my child will just keep baby even closer and run away with her.  We'll see.

thoughts of parents

B. and I have been together since 1993.  Since that time, our conversations have obviously changed.  When we first started dating we would spend hours on the phone together.  I have no idea what we talked about, probably my love for Joey Lawrence, B's promising varsity basketball career, and who kissed who in the back hallway by Mrs. Colgan's algebra class.  In college we would talk for 20 minutes a day b/c our long distance bills were $.10 per minute and $2.00/ day is a lot for college kids.  Our conversations were about classes, sororities, parties, and other sophisticated matters.  I do believe there was atleast some time in our adult life where we talked about religion, politics, current events etc.  Now that we have kids, we talk a lot about  poop, temper tantrums, and the fresh beat band.  Last night, after a wonderful Easter with family that went by in a blur of cooking, feeding K., and chasing a little girl who ate entirely too many jelly beans, we were both feeling exhausted on our trip home.  Awas watching some nursery rhyme video on her TV in the back seat when the 5 little monkeys song came on.  I asked B, "do you think the book or the song came first?" Well, this stemmed an entire conversation on if someone heard the song and then wrote all of the kids books which then led to games, toys etc.  Can you just take a song by someone else and then make it your own book and make millions?  If its allowed, we're taking the itsy bitsy spider.  If that spider can climb up a water spout, a very difficult feat, then imagine the places that spider can go.

I don't think those teenagers ever would have expected 20 minute conversations on the places a little spider could travel...

the first hour

Today's little tidbit is just a glimpse into the first hour of my morning...
7:00 (this is actually really late for A)- A stumbles into my room and then says, "where's K" then jumps on my bed.  K is actually nursing in my bed and she almost jumps on him.
7:05- A goes into the bathroom then asks for new "nighnights" because her current ones are shorts and she is cold. 
7:06- I go get her underwear and footie pajamas to go downstairs and eat breakfast. I happen to mention that K has nighnights in the same pattern.  She immediately wants to put them on and take a picture.
7:10- I'm changing K and he throws up so I decide to give him a bath
7:15- I'm letting the water get warm and filling up his tub while holding naked K.  He poops... thankfully I am holding him over the toilet so he magically begins his potty training at 6 weeks of age. 
7:20- A is helping me with the bath and is washing "baby mo" when she falls into the tub and gets her nighnights wet... disaster.  I get her cleaned up and go to take my shower... K is quiet in his bouncy seat
7:40- I'm getting dressed and I hear K poop.  Yes, I hear him b/c his poops are louder than old man farts
7:45- I'm changing K and he pees in a large arc which surprisingly lands on A's head.  Disaster again...
I'm laughing at the ridiculousness of the morning's poop and pee saga and she is crying b/c she has pee in her hair.  To the shower she goes...

8:00- we finally take this stupid picture and all is well...

a third child?

Right after we got married, people started asking if we were having children.  Then, after A. was born, we got the question of , "when is the next one?"  Now K. is here, people ask, "are you finished or will you have a third?"  My general answer is that we are really just enjoying the 2 that we have for now and we'll worry about that later.  But, the truth is, we already have 3 kids.  The third, Baby Bella Collins, is the most high maintenance.  Well, I guess you could call her our grandchild b/c A. is technically her mother. However, as with most young mothers, the care falls to someone else or CPS would be called.   Baby Bella has to have socks and shoes and a coat when we leave, she gets her own little bowl of food at dinner, she gets her diaper changed the allowed 2 times daily, she gets buckled into her own seat in the car. 

This all started as a good plan to have her take care of her own baby while I took care of K.  The plan has officially backfired.  Bella adds an additional 15-20 minutes before we get out of the house to go anywhere and if it isn't all completed, we get a serious temper tantrum.  In fact the other day, I got so frustrated after trying to get out of the house to make it to storytime before the story ended that I said, "damnit A." and picked her up and put her into her seat.  This was momentous because 1) I really do not lose my cool very often  2) I really don't curse very often.  So, I'm sure you can understand how mortified I was when A. yelled "Jammit Bella" when she couldn't get Bella's snaps on her jacket to her perfectionist view.  Now, here was my dilemma, do I correct it when it isn't even the word?  I chose to ignore and I ignored it again when yesterday she said "Jammit shoes" when her shoes fell and were really loud.  I think I'll continue to ignore it b/c 1) jammit only resembles the word damnit (ok this may be a stretch) 2) she uses it appropriately (ridiculous I know) and 3) if i call attention to it she probably will use it more. 

Here is Bella with mommy on our way to Costco.  She typically sits in the front seat but does not leave the car when we get out.  I can't imagine the repercussions if we lost Bella!  So, since I was in the front seat, so did Baby Bella. 

The real moral of the story is 3 children does not bring out the best in us so stop asking, jammin.

phil mixican

Obviously, golf is a big deal in my house.  I prefer to say that golf pays the bills rather than grass, it sounds more interesting.  Anyway, the Masters is a big deal to everyone and Phil is a family favorite.  I remember being at a friends house for Easter with about 15 people in 2004.  We had just finished the infamous egg roll and everyone was watching the Masters.  B.'s mom got so excited that she jumped off her chair and screamed when Phil hit the winning putt.  Then we got to meet him from afar when we were at the Tiger Woods tournament (AT&T Classic) at Congressional in 2007.  Our friends were with us and B. hoisted their daughter on his shoulders.  She yelled, Mr. Mikson, Mr. Mikson and, because B. with a 6 year old on his shoulders is approximately 9 feet tall, Mr. Mikson gave her an autograph!  So, this year we continue to watch and cheer for Phil.  A. watched with B. yesterday and cheered for Phil "Mixican" in the purple shirt.  She clapped as everyone else clapped and yelled, "ohhhhh" whenever he missed including the drive and shots from the intermediate. Here is the happy duo watching sports.   

K. was a little less interested.  We'll give him a few more years.

little missy

So many people have asked me how A. is reacting to be a big sister.  She is actually doing fantastic.  I haven't seen any jealousy, in fact, we use K. as bribery sometimes; if she doesn't get to go up to bed on time, K. can't come up to read a story.  She hasn't regressed with toileting, eating, or dressing like I was told would be a good possibility.  If anything, she has gotten more independent.  For the past 2 days, she has gotten herself dressed for the day and for "nigh,night" time.  She won't even let us in the room while she gets dressed because she wants to surprise us.  It is a wonderful thing with only 2 downfalls...
1) it takes FOREVER and to rush her is to kill her.
2) she gets so excited when she gets everything on but she looks well, ridiculous.  Today, her shirt was on backwards, her pants and shirt were no where close to matching, and her also nonmatching socks had the heels on top.  I didn't want to squash her moment so, since we weren't going anywhere, she wore it all day.
Here she is in all her beauty!

yes, the shirt is not only too small, it was on backwards!