cluster of craziness

Whenever I fall off the face of blog universe, I tend to have a pretty good reason. This time my absence is caused by two major events, 1) having a baby and 2) moving.

Violet Clementine joined our family on March 12 at 1:12 pm. She was born at home in the water, and it was a very relaxed, easy going labor/delivery. V has been a fairly easy going baby and has slept all night long pretty much since birth. Daytime sleep is a different issue though and she fights it like it's her job.

Last weekend we moved 10 blocks down the street and that whole ordeal went fairly smooth, aolthough it was still a pretty big pain in the ass. Lilah and Miles were spared the stress, and spent the entire moving time at the grandparents. They got back last night, and were welcomed into theur new house today by spending some time in the basement hiding from tornadoes.

The kids have adjusted okay to their new house with the exception of Miles waking like a newborn last night, up every two hours. He complained of various things like the monster decals on his walls (which he picked out,) his guys being on the floor, yada yada, but never once complained about being in a new house.

Lilah wasn't upset at all las night but was very sad when she came home yesterday. She wanted to go play in the classroom but she didnt know where it was. then Lilah got lost upstairs and couldnt figure out how to get downstairs. this house is a bit disorienting i suppose. Lilah has since found her way.

Hopefully now that we are a bit more settled, I will be able to update more often. I dont get on my computer much because Violet prefers to be held but i have gained access to the blog on my phone, that I use more than the computer.If my posts are littered with typos, and punctuation/capitalization errors, blame my phone keyboard and autocorrect, not my lack of skills.

Month in Review

This is probably my last blog post as a mother of two I'm guessing considering that I can only manage to get with this blog thing on a once a month basis...

I am operating on a base level of brain cells at this point, at 39 weeks pregnant, so my ability to recollect what this last month has entailed will probably be a bit of a failure, so I'll just stick to the highlights:

*Lilah has stopped napping, which is totally fine because she willingly stays in her room and plays for over an hour. I guess she must really enjoy getting away from me? :)

*Miles wants to stop napping, but this is not as acceptable to me, because he still very much needs it, and he's not so pleasant about having "quiet time" in his room.

*Now that Lilah knows where babies come from, she keeps saying that she thinks the new baby wants her to be her mommy. I can't help but take offense to this. I mean, I'm at least as competent as my 3 year old as a mother on most days, right? There are some days that I know I can do a better job considering that Lilah regularly puts her babies to bed under about 5 blankets, an endeavor that surely a newborn would not survive.

*Miles is talking up a storm, and he's mastered the art of being condescending. He will purposefully answer the opposite of what's expected to every single question I ask him, and he even manages to conclude his answer with a confident snicker.

*Lilah's starting to learn to write her name

*Miles is obsessed with the letter W because of it's capability to be the letter W, and the letter M if it's turned upside down. He also really loves the letter U for some reason. I have no idea why. The letter U is one of the most boring letters of the alphabet. I bet he likes it because it sounds like a grunt when it's enunciated.

*Thanks to Jade, the knock knock jokes are a big hit around here, and are told ad nauseum. Up until recently, the only punchline they'd use would have to do with pooping. For example: Knock knock. Who's there? Banana. Banana who? Banana pooping.
These jokes go on all. day. long.

*Miles has taken to being a dinosaur for at least 50% of the day, and will respond to everything with a roar.

*As of tonight Miles is in a toddler bed.

*Baby #3 has yet to make an appearance and I waver between feeling patient, and at least 50% insane.

That about concludes the last month I think... Next month's update will either be REALLY interesting since we will then be a family of 5, or the post will be non-existent.

The Talk

So today Lilah asked where babies come from, and not in a generic kind of way that I could easily throw pat answers at... Her line of questioning was very specific and required some high caliber answers.

It was very interesting and sweet how the conversation began. Lilah started by asking me if there were ever any babies without mommies, which kind of confused me. After asking her about what she meant, she explained that she would like a baby of her own (woah, slow down kiddo!!) and that maybe she could have a baby without a mommy. Awwww... That totally melted my heart!!! Without going into all of the reasons why a baby or child wouldn't have a mommy, adoption, etc., I explained that babies all have a mommy and a daddy in the beginning. Then she asked when she could have her own baby. Well, please consider waiting until you're an adult Lilah... :) Which then led into a line of questioning about how she would find a daddy for her baby. Good grief kiddo! I haven't even had my morning coffee yet!! Well, I explained, you would probably find a husband, like mommy has daddy. I was hesitant to say this though, because I don't believe that all families have to look like the typical mommy/daddy combination, and don't want my children to think that other family constructs aren't significant or possible. BUT, she's 3, barely 3 for cryin' out loud, so I figured there was no need to get into all of that right now.

So Lilah was now aware that she needed to be a grown up, then she needed to find a daddy for her baby (and no, I didn't use the term baby daddy, although maybe I should have...) Then what, she asks? Where does the baby come from? Sigh... I hate pat answers given to this question. I have extensively thought through all of the answers I DON'T want to give to this question, but have never really nailed down the answer I would like to provide. I thought I had more time? At least a few more years... So back to the question. Where do babies come from? In my mind I'm hearing the track "when a man and a woman love each other, blah blah blah blah..." Okay, that's not what I want to say... I am also not terribly interested in giving the textbook sex ed answer complete with all of the scientific terms. Not that I have an issue with that, it's just not my style per se. Um, well, mommies and daddies have seeds, I end up saying. Seeds? Lilah of course wants to know more about these seeds. Well, when the seeds come together, they make a baby. She accepts this, but wants to know more of course. So how do the seeds make a baby? Um, they come together, I repeat. She moves on, thankfully I'm off the hook on coming up with more information on the "seeds." When the seeds make a baby, then what happens? The baby grows. How does the baby get in your tummy? It swims to the uterus, which is the baby's house. How does the baby know how to swim? Hm, well... I guess it floats. Because babies don't really know how to swim... Why does the baby have to stay in its house so long? So that it grows big and strong and healthy. What happens if the baby comes out of its house too early? Well, the baby might die. Doh!! Scratch that!!! Uh, the baby might be a little bit sick and would have to stay in the hospital. So how much longer till the baby can come out of your tummy. Four weeks! Okay, good, now we're on more stable ground, talking about when our baby will be born. I can handle that!

Even though that conversation with Lilah was incredibly exhausting (I'm worn out all over again just typing it all!!) I'm actually really proud that I have such an introspective, intelligent, caring, loving 3 year old that would be interested in having such a conversation. I'm constantly amazed at how loving Lilah is with babies, and find it so sweet that she wants a baby of her own. She is constantly talking about how she wants to be the new baby's mommy, and wants to give her milk from her boo boo's, and wants to put the baby nite-nite, and cuddle the baby. Lilah is such a good big sister, and I'm incredibly excited to give Lilah a little sister that she can love and care for in her own way. And maybe, if I'm lucky, Lilah can just give all of her siblings "the talk" so that I can avoid it in the future! She can just do all the hard stuff and I'll do the fun things!

Better Blogger in 2011

So I'm thinking about promising to be a better blogger in 2011. I'm not sure if it's really going to work out, but I'm going to give it a shot!

I was doing maybe, C- quality work at the blogging until I got pregnant, then I became a big fat F at it. It didn't help that at the start of my pregnancy my mom passed away after her long battle with illness. After that, I didn't feel much like blogging, or reflecting, or thinking. I just wanted to exist without regurgitating, it was my way of processing everything.

New year though, fresh start, and it's a good time to refocus and rededicate myself to the process of documenting my life or at least just reporting the most humorous, or perhaps embarrassing details of it for your amusement!

I look back on the last year and I'm amazed at what my kids have become!! Lilah just turned 3 the other day, but it seems like she's 13 or 30, depending on the moment. She's full of energy and attitude, intelligence and persistence. Keeping up with her on a daily basis is exhausting, fun, and punishment for what I put my own mother through! Haha! Miles is mellow and easy going. He's got the most amazing attention span, which is a marvel to me considering that Lilah and I have the combined attention span of a gnat. He is the diffuser and always keeps Lilah and me laughing. He also has the profound ability to keep Lilah screaming, because he's definitely got a mind of his own and will not be bossed around by Miss Thang. He likes to take a moment to irritate her by taking her doll house babies, positioning them methodically on the train tracks, and move the train so they get ever so close to running the poor plastic babies over. But then, just before the gruesome end, he decides to be sweet to Lilah (or wants to end the shrieking that I have long ago gone deaf from) and hands her back her babies unharmed.

This year we embarked upon our homeschooling journey and started participating in a preschool co-op that both kids seem to enjoy equally. Miles seems equally interested in the work that I'm doing with Lilah, so we all do it together! I guess that's one of the benefits of them being close in age, it makes my teacher job easier! I'm hoping to not lose momentum with the birth of the next little girl, but I will cut myself some slack too.

So what's to come in the Kerr household in 2011? Well, basing my prediction off of current data, it looks like there will be plenty of noise, a bit of chaos, probably lots of fun and learning too. And yes, for those of you wondering, Miles and Lilah will both receive college credit for attending the birth of the next baby! The class is called "icky things that happen in a birthing tub but then end up with having a cute baby."

Well, that's it. That's my update and my challenge, to be a better blogger. We'll see how well I do, and no friends, you cannot grade my work. Unless you're going to tell me how awesome I am, no feedback please :)