aunts by choice make up for my slackerness

A couple of weeks ago, A. and I got into a discussion about the definition of Aunt.  I said the obvious answer, "It is the girl married to my brother and daddy's brother."  Thankfully, we don't have sisters which would make the explanation harder.  However, that didn't cut it because we call our close friends "Aunt".  I tried, "those are people that choose to be your aunt."  I don't think that is right either b/c, well, correct me if I'm wrong but Aunt J. and Aunt B. kind of chose to be aunts as well.  Not related by blood didn't work b/c that is just confusing.  For lack of better options, we still went with Aunt by choice.  

Aunt Stacy has been my friend for over 10 years since we worked at Children's Hospital of Richmond together.  She, thankfully moved fairly close to us after we moved away from Richmond so we still get to see each other frequently.  She was one of the first people to hold A. after she was born and has been a huge part of her life (and ours) since then.  She has a beach house which is reportedly A. favoritest house ever.  She is so much a part of our family that she and Aspen share a birthday (that's only important b/c we didn't really know Aspen's birthday so we just made it up to honor her).   She made up for my lack of blogging by talking about  one of our evenings together. A messy messy evening with cupcakes, ooblek, and wax on the walls.  Check out alphabet stew here    

Aunt Emily has been a great friend of ours since a little before A. was born.  She was also at the hospital when A. was born and was in the room when K. was born.  K. and her son are less than 48 hours apart and were in the hospital together.  Though we expected the boys to be best friends, A. and Brayden are actually 2 peas in a pod.  Emily blogged about their first date here.  PS leave a comment for her about how she should move with us to our new neighborhood so that we can keep the kids close.  She is very receptive.  hehe

Thanks ladies, for making up for my lack of blogging and for loving my kids.  They are really lucky!    

not me monday

This may have happened a few weeks ago.  This mother that condones exploring art mediums on paper and sometimes on bodies may have allowed their 1 and 3 year old children to use dot markers.

 Said children may have taken advantage of the situation to make themselves look like they have the measles.

 Then, the dollar store dot markers may have taken at least 3 baths to come all the way off.  So, said measles ridden children may have had to go to school and to a store causing others to stare and gawk.  Of course, this would not have happened to this mom.  hehe

speaks for itself

This video of my little ones trying to sing and trying to dance speaks for itself.  The confidence is there, maybe the talent will come.  hehe

up

My boy is a man of few words. 2 to be exact, up and mama.  "Up" is pretty convenient because it can mean pick me up, look up at the airplane, look up at the ceiling fan, go upstairs, or get me out of my crib.  'Mama" is any person including Daddy, Oma, Mama, his babysitter, and the stranger down the street.  This is a whole new ball game for us b/c A. was a really early talker.  She had 20 something signs and several words at this point in her life.  I bet this very talkative little girl is one of the reasons that K. is so quiet; he doesn't have a chance to talk.  The other reason is probably that his hearing was nonexistent for so long.  Anyway, it doesn't matter exactly why but he had a speech therapy screen the other day and he'll go in for the full evaluation later this month.  So, he might get a couple of hours completely dedicated to talking. We'll see how I feel about this after I have 2 children that won't shut up.  hehe

Last night, K. woke up in the middle of the night again.  I went into his room and he was sitting in his crib with his lovie and bink waiting for me.  As I entered, he very quietly and sweetly said "up".  He is such a sweet guy even at 2:47 am.  However, I didn't oblige, I simply laid down on the floor to get him to lay down as well.  It worked and then I saw his little hand reach out of the crib rungs just wanting to hold mine.  I did oblige to that sweet gesture.  So we laid hand in hand for 30 minutes before I could go back to my room.  I tucked that one in the memory to use on a day when he is 14 and telling me he hates me.

Here is a video of his words.  I think his uuuuuup is super cute but I realize that I'm biased.

sleep worries

I come from a long line of sleep worriers.  These are people that sleep like rocks but, if they wake up, spend several hours worrying about whats to come.  When my brother and I were in high school, we always had to wake up my dad when coming home at curfew so my mom wouldn't be up for hours. Until a few months ago, this was not the case for me.  I did sleep like a rock so that the only things waking me were the kids; much to B.'s chagrin, the dogs don't ever awaken me.  I was in a forced routine to wake and feed the baby then immediately fall back to sleep.  However, since K. finally started sleeping through the night at 13 months, if someone wakes up, I am up.  Fortunately, this only happens with the occasional night time accident or bad dream.  Last night was one of those nights.

K. woke up at 12:00 SCREAMING.  I first thought he was cold so gave him a long sleeve shirt and laid him back down.  That lasted about 5 minutes before B. was back in there and K practically leaped out of his bed.  He was terrified about something.  Perhaps the box that A. but on the outside of his bed so that I could stand on it if I became too short to reach into his crib at night.  I could see why a shrinking mother could scare a kid.  I don't know, but it took 45 minutes in our bed and then me laying down on his cold hard floor for another 30 minutes to get him to stay in bed. I was staying there until he feel asleep; about 25 minutes into it, I realized he was asleep and the incessant babbling was sleep babbling.  This is crazy since he's a pretty quiet kid while he is awake.  I guess he was dreaming about baamamama and ish isg.

I finally fell back to sleep about 2:20.  At 2:45, A. came in because she had a dream that someone bit her.  I let her into our bed so that I was squished between my husband aka the human furnace and A. aka ms. kicky punchy.  As I was still watching the clock at 3:50 am, she started talking.  here are her words:
Uncle Mark
Princess
Tatoo

She is worried that uncle mark is getting a princess tatoo, or a princess is getting a tatoo of uncle mark.  Either option is scary and worth talking about.

We both drifted back to sleep, I missed my 5:30 work out and didn't wake up until B. kissed me goodbye at 5:45.  A. was still talking then, something about hands on her head.  Again, drifted back to sleep and didn't wake until 6:20 when the bubble guppies began blaring on my kindle letting me know this sleep worrier that apparently breeds more sleep worriers needed to wake up.

Here's to a caffeine filled day!  

doc mcbelle

I am really struggling with the work mom balance.  Since I went back to work I feel that I'm running from 5:30 when I get up to work out until 8:30 pm when everyone is finally in bed and B. and I fall onto the couch for like 30 minutes before I go to bed.  Its exhausting.  I think my biggest issue is that I find myself watching the clock until the kids take a nap or go to bed so I can get a few minutes to myself.  Then, I realize how ridiculous that is that I'm wishing away my time with them; time that I'll never get back.  So, needless to say, I've got some issues to work out.

The good thing is that I don't leave for work until about 8:00 (1 hour later than my previous job).  so, we get some good playing in before breakfast.  This morning my little girl whose favorite toy is a stethoscope had us all lined up waiting for our x rays and shots.

She is a little preoccupied with shots since one of her friends at school told her that 4 year old's get 4 shots.  True, but did she have to know 2 months in advance so that she would worry about it until the appointment.  sigh.

Thankfully, this doctor saw adults, children, and dogs.  She could "read xrays".  Mine said, "Mommy, you have a broked foot and wrist, and head."

 K's said, "K. you are growing to be a big boy with a broken nose so you shouldn't eat glue."  I can obviously see where she is getting that from the X ray.  

Now, off to work.