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 :)

Don't Wake Me

I've been an absentee blogger. I think of things I need to write about on here all the time but the truth is, I'm just too exhausted to write it down.

Miles, formerly known as "the easy one" has taken up the hobby of torturing us. The most significant damage is done in the form of sleep deprivation, since Miles has decided that sleeping is for wusses, and he's no wuss, so he likes to wake up at 5:00. 6:00 at best. Every day. No exceptions. Weekends shmeekends! That boy waits for the first sign of dawn and starts screaming like a banshee until we get him. I have tried telling him that roosters don't scream, they cock-a-doodle-do, and I've also reminded him that he's not a rooster, and it's not his job to wake us up so damn early every day. We're going on at least three weeks of this madness. Jade and I are making pouches with the bags under our eyes. They're so deep we can store a hand full of cheerios in them.

All sleeplessness aside, Miles has also decided he'd take up the personality of a cantankerous 90 year old man. He complains about everything, and when he doesn't get what he wants, he throws toys like they're empty beer bottles. In a last ditch effort to get us to feel sorry for him, he collapses in a pile on the floor, screaming and red faced. Usually sitting, he folds completely in half and rams his head against the floor in protest.

Aside from not sleeping, and constantly complaining, Miles has decided he needs to scale every piece of furniture, every toy, every wall, in our house. I'm pretty sure he'd climb to the roof if we'd let him. The routine is climbing up, getting down, climbing up, getting down, climbing up, falling down, climbing up, getting rescued from another fall, climbing up, being removed from the piece of furniture, throw a screaming fit until he finds something else to climb. He needs a trapeze harness I think, because I'm tired of serving as his bodyguard all day, every day.

In the small chunks of time that Miles decides to take a break from climbing, he's engaging in a love/hate/but mostly love relationship with Lilah. If she's sleeping, he's pretty obviously bored and unhappy until she wakes up. He wants to go "up" to get her, and when he can't, he is insanely unhappy. I try to explain to him that Lilah doesn't get up at 5:00 am, and that she will sleep for another few hours, trying to convince him that sleep is awesome (everybody's doing it!,) but he doesn't care. When I get him from his room in the morning, Miles frantically points to Lilah's door, shouting "that, that, that!!!!!!" and when we pass her room without entering, he reduces to a pile of shrieking tears. For the next few hours I have to work diligently to keep Miles entertained enough that he doesn't pace the stairs, which is usually a fail. Once Lilah wakes up, Miles is immediately happy and vibrant, and gets right to violating her personal space as much as possible, which Lilah usually enjoys reciprocating. The next few hours of my morning is spent refereeing them as they proceed to attempt to sit on each others' laps, steal each other's food and drink, and get in front of each other's TV view. With all of the angry screaming, you'd never know that Miles loves Lilah best of all.

Last but not least, I can't sum up my dear son without explaining the many hickeys, fang marks, and bruises that decorate my arms, legs, neck, shoulders, and various other parts of my body. Miles is a biter. He bites constantly, for every reason. He bites if he's excited, if he's happy, sad, angry, bored, tired.... Not only does he have a nice mouth full of teeth to make a decent sized chomp mark, but he's also got a razor edge on his front tooth to amp up the pain factor. A while back, on a climbing endeavor, Miles managed to chip a tooth, and the result was a pretty uniform razor, jagged edge on his front tooth, that helps him deliver quite the bite. I believe I'm his most frequent victim, but he does enjoy dolling out an occasional bite punishment to Lilah when she gets a little too heavy handed with him. So when you see me, please know, I'm not a junky, I do not have anemia, I don't have a relationship with a vampire, and no, they're not hickeys. They're simply artifacts to demonstrate how much I hold my son these days and serve as his pin cushion. War wounds from the battle I'm losing against the much dreaded toddler bite.

After many discussions of how our easy going Miles managed to turn into a high maintenance hellion over night, Jade and I often wonder if we'll ever get our easy guy back, or if we just don't make easy kids. Of course we love Miles and are enjoying him more than ever. He's walking, talking, and has a really great sense of humor and vibrant personality. But he's keeping us on our toes these days, and keeping us very surprised! At the end of the day, we'll keep all of these new facets of Miles we've recently discovered, except for the sleeping thing of course. Because waking up at dawn at this house, is truly unacceptable.

Do I Love Poop?

Interesting notes from today...

Lilah: "Mommy, do you like my poop?" I was unsure of how to answer this. I wanted to say no, because I'm definitely not a lover of poop, but I was afraid to say that because I don't want her to think there's any part of her I don't love.

_____

Miles has been attacking Lilah at every opportunity, and it's been a slight annoyance because every time I turn my back, my sweet Minels is crawling, pushing, or chewing on his sister. I've been seeing it as an aggressive act that I must correct. Mostly because Lilah shrieks so loud my eardrums burst every time he lays a hand on her. To her credit, that's probably because his touches kind of hurt. Miles is quickly becoming stronger than Lilah, even though she has a good 16 months of growth on him, it's clear that he has the upper hand when it comes to physicality. Today I noticed something that I've not seen before, and I felt ashamed that I've never taken the time or had a clear enough eye to notice this. Right before Miles is about to pounce, he looks at Lilah and gives her the sweetest smile, not the mischievous smile that prefaces something naughty, but a smile that illustrates true happiness. I was shocked to see this, and couldn't believe I've never paid attention to such a detail. It illustrated clearly to me that Miles' attacks had nothing to do with asserting his new physical strength, or even just being a playful baby/toddler, he's just wanting to touch Lilah. He genuinely loves her and sees her as his buddy. He reserves his most special playfulness for her. He wants to interact with her and get her attention, and this is his way. When Miles is being especially sweet with me, he butts me with his head. That's his way of bein' like, "hey, I love you!" The fact that Miles can hardly be around Lilah for five seconds without engaging with her physically, shows that Lilah is his teddy bear. Today I realized for the first time that they had a relationship, one that existed completely without me, outside of the bounds of my refereeing. That this special relationship between Lilah and Miles has already taken on a life of its own, and that it will define our family dynamic is such an amazing way. This doesn't mean that I will allow Miles to chomp Lilah every chance he gets, but it does mean I will approach it differently as a parent.

Bye Bye Baby

One year ago today I was celebrating Mother's Day and had no idea that I was going to have a baby in a matter of a few days...

My baby turns one this week and is soon to be an official "big boy." Most moms would be sad about this, but not me. I love for my kids to grow up! I don't feel like you sacrifice sweet moments with age, you just trade them for different kinds of sweet moments. Instead of rocking and nursing Miles for hours, he's crawling over to me so that he can give me a big hug and cuddle. Miles is still the ultimate sweetness, but has also learned some survival skills too. He is constantly letting Lilah know that he is a "big boy" by pulling her hair, clobbering her, pushing her over as he reaches for a toy, screaming and pulling as she tries to take his toy. His affinity for climbing at the moment is far more important than walking, although he has taken some steps while on break from scaling the furniture. I'm not sad as I take inventory of all the ways Miles is growing and changing, I'm proud that I get to take part in raising such a wonderful boy.

Miles may be turning one, but Lilah is turning 30, I'm pretty sure. I will let these quotes illustrate my point...

"Mommy, you have to share with your friends and your family." (said on a daily basis, usually when I don't want to hand over my drink for both of my kids to backwash in)

"Don't worry mommy, just leave it. We'll get it in a minute. Now turn around and sit in your seat." (said after Miles dropped his toy in the car and I attempted to retrieve it)

"I just need a little water in my hand. Because I'm thirsty. Very thirsty." (just need a little water in her hand?)

"Oh dear!" (after dropping a toy. Oh dear? Who the heck even says that? Has my daughter been hanging out with Miss Manners?)

"I look like a fraggle, except that I have skin."

I wish I could remember more, especially the extra funny ones.

On this Mother's Day, I celebrate my two incredible kids, the sweetness and the sillies, who should take a great deal of the credit for making me the mother I am today!

Up

This is what I hear all day long from the mouth of my babe. Miles is totally obsessed with the stairs in our house and constantly wants to go up. If we're downstairs (which is the majority of the time) he's crawling around the proximity of the stairs like a prowling shark, muttering "up. up. up." As if there's nothing else to do on our whole first floor (besides nearly every toy/activity we own.)

If it's not time to go upstairs, I gently remind Miles "no up" and he will collapse in a pile of sobs like I just murdered his puppy. The amusing thing is that he listens to me most of the time, and if I say "no up" an invisible shield appears at the bottom of the stairs that prohibits him from going further. This is obviously very upsetting to him, because I have honestly never seen a sadder show (even in all of the drama queen Lilah tantrums.) After he comes to from his crying coma, he'll look at me with the plainest face and say "up." And the cycle repeats until eventually I pick him up and put him somewhere else, away from the stairs. Well, try to pick him up anyway, because in his rage over being removed from the beloved staircase, he becomes a very stiff, slippery, flingy thing that I can barely keep a hold of.

After forcing poor Miles to do something other than stalk the staircase, I find a reason to go up just to appease his desires. When it's time to go make our way upstairs, he can barely contain himself, and literally shakes with excitement before clomping over to the stairs, laughing the whole time.

It's quite obvious that the stairs hold a very strong power over Miles, giving him access to the most exuberant joy and his deepest sorrows. His whole world revolves around "up" and "no up." His passion for the stairs has provided me with a lot of entertainment, and enlightened me to his desire to climb, but also probably for his need to have a change of scenery.

Cha Cha Cha Changes

I feel like my kids change so quickly and constantly that I have a hard time nailing down who they are at the moment. I stay home with them, and they still just change so fast, I can't possibly keep up. Every week I find myself thinking "who are you going to be this week?" There's a million versions of Miles and Lilah and I feel like I'm always drawing straws on their personalities. Sometimes I get lucky and both kids are the best possible versions of themselves, other weeks I get the short end of the stick. Usually it's somewhere in the middle, Lilah might be more energetic and hilarious, but more dramatic and whiny too. Miles might become more independent but also more clingy.

I start to feel really drained by such massive amounts of change. Once I finally get something nailed down, ways of dealing with whiny Lilah she quickly becomes aggressive Lilah, and all of the methods and strategies I had become so proud of are useless. I feel like I can't ever get a leg up. I don't know why this seems new to me. In my years of teaching, my classroom was always about as schizophrenic as they come. Every day there was a different life force that I had to become accustomed to in about 0.5 seconds or risk drowning in chaos.

I did learn a thing or two from those teaching years but it feels different with my own kids. I guess maybe it's that I become attached to certain versions of my kids. I'm not one of those people who wants to preserve my children in baby form. For me, the older they are, the better, but there is a certain level of innocence, not dependent on age, but life exposure, that I want to hold on to. Every time Lilah becomes subjected to one of the many downfalls of having a sibling, I feel like she loses a part of her innocence. Every time Miles has to forgo a cuddle so that I can tame his maniacal sister, I see a shard of his youth fall away. I definitely want my kids to get older, but I don't want them to become hardened. I have to realize that change is part of experimentation though, not a reflection of my parenting. As my children learn more, they start playing with who they want to be, testing physical and emotional boundaries.

As I write this, I am feeling like it's really neat that my kids go through a daily metamorphosis. In the moment though, it's draining and annoying. I guess maybe that's because I'm rarely the best possible version of myself either. My kids are probably rolling the dice with me too, the same as I am with them. It's always an adventure to see what random combination of personalities come up each day and what we can make from it.

Beuh

Miles has spoken his first official word. He's said some random stuff, but nothing consistent enough to give it the label of "first word." He may have said mama a few times, but he doesn't look at me and say it, and once I think he said dada, but I can't be sure. What is completely clear coming out of his mouth though, is Beuh, as in Bill, the cat. His favorite cat (we have three.) For the past few days he has done little more than crawl (clomp) around the house at full pace shouting BEUH! BEUH! BEUH! BEEEEEEEUUUUUUUUHHHHHHH! He says it when he's looking for the cat, when he spots the cat, when he touches the cat, when he's thinking of the cat. I am pretty sure he said it 1,304,326,678 times today and he's getting really good at it. Very clearly articulated for a 10 month old.

You can tell I'm not a first time mom because I'm not the least bit hurt that Miles' first redundant utterings are not mama, or less importantly dada (haha!) I'm just pleased that he's saying something, because by the time Lilah was 10 months, I'm pretty sure she was saying nearly 10 words fairly clearly. She's a linguistic marvel though, so I really don't ever compare. I'm also glad that his first word isn't one of the many obscenities Lilah's been shouting lately.

Speaking of Lilah, she's come up with some pretty good ones lately. Our poor cats. Miles chases after Bill all day shouting and Lilah has taken to running around, chasing the cats, screaming "For crying out loud!!!!!" at the top of her lungs. I guess she gets the pun.

My favorite was yesterday though when I was clearly annoyed at her for repeatedly taking Miles' toys, and my voice was showing my irritation. She said "mama I don't like it when you talk to me like that." Well too bad kiddo. I'm not made of wood. After asking her to leave Miles alone for the one millionth time that day, I was doing good to just let my voice to ONLY sound mildly irritated! In my mind I was screaming. Out loud I was clenching my jaw as I spoke in a subtly annoyed tone. So my response? I could have come up with many but I left it at "I don't like it when you take Miles' toys. It's frustrating." She just shrugged and moved on like she was glad we had our little talk.

Sand Shower and Meatloaf

Why is it that Lilah is perfectly content taking a shower in the sand pit at the park, pouring sand over her head, all down her body, getting sand in her eyes, in her mouth, ears, who knows where else? But the second I try to pour some water over her head she screams like I'm murdering her. Seriously, sand has to be so much more painful than a little water in the face. Right?

My baby loves meatloaf. Miles is a champion eater so I don't know why I'm shocked, but there's something funny about him chowing down on meatloaf. He's not really a huge fan of fruit or any of the sweet stuff, but the boy can easily clear a slice of meatloaf and a sweet potato in one sitting. It's actually exciting to me to have a good eater because now when I take the time to make some yummy, healthy food, I know it will actually get eaten (instead of Lilah just mutilating it with her fork without actually taking bites...)

Stop Yelling At Me Minels

The only time I ever hear Miles upset is when the sun is in his eyes, or if he thinks I should be shoveling food onto his plate or into his mouth faster than I am physically capable... He's got this surprisingly loud and angry sounding shriek, which is funny because it's the opposite of what you'd expect from him, being such a mellow guy usually. Whenever Miles starts into his sounding off, Lilah always tells him "stop yelling at me Minels." She's always super calm when she says it too, but still seems put off that he's being so loud. Funny, because I'm pretty sure he learned how to produce such a diva-esque shriek from her...

Where have the days (and the food) gone?

I've been on a bit of a hiatus from the blogging. Not on purpose, just got super busy and by the end of the day I don't have any energy left for reflecting. Need to get back on the bandwagon though. There have been many hilarious moments unrecorded these last few weeks.

My sweet Minels is a human garbage disposal and this arrangement has been tedious the last few months with keeping on top of making his baby food. Now he's moving on to table food and it's working out nicely. Lilah will generally eat anywhere from 10-50% of any given meal, and now I don't have to throw any of her leftovers away or consuming them myself. I have Miles, who reliably eats all of his food, most of Lilah's, some of mine, and if anyone else is eating, he'll eat some of theirs too.

Not only is Miles becoming quite apt at devouring everything in sight, but he's also pretty skilled at breaking into any container, getting into any bin, knocking over any basket. His favorite thing to tip over is Lilah's shopping cart, which practically holds the contents of her entire play kitchen. Obviously, that's why it's his fav, it provides the largest mess payout. And it drives Lilah crazy.

While Minels is busy eating and knocking stuff over, Lilah's content to be a total smart ass and screaming banshee. At any given moment you can either find her telling me what's what ("Actually mama...") or throwing the world's most passionate fit. Both of which are terribly amusing to me or incredibly infuriating, depending on my mood.

So nothing's new in these last few blog free weeks. Some new additions are Lilah's abandoned potty baby (thanks to her practically potty training herself, then changing her mind on that whole ordeal) and Miles' mouth full of toofers (necessary equipment for letting Lilah know when she's roughing him up too much.)

K, trying to get back on the blogging train. We'll see how I do!

Goals and Teeth

Lilah's been a mess lately. Between nap changes, Jade being out of town, and being a typical toddler, she's just been completely nuts, and her and I were in a real rut with our communication. I realized that maybe I was focusing on too many diversion tactics, too many strategies for avoiding melt downs, so I narrowed the scope this week. My goal was to identify feelings. Identify my own feelings out loud to Lilah before they became intense, and to help her identify her own feelings before they became too intense. It's really incredible how successful this was. There wasn't one major blow up all week, all were avoided through talking about how we felt before it became a crazy struggle. Lilah still had her typical toddler tantrums, but nothing that escalated. Each time she was able to calm down easily when I started trying to talk her through her feelings. By the end of the week Lilah was becoming fairly proficient in telling me when she was feeling angry or frustrated, and pinpointing the reason why. One time she was mad because Bill (the cat) wasn't standing close enough to her. One time she was mad because he was too close. It seems like a lot of her frustration comes from her being so particular. Hmmm...wonder where she gets that from?

In Minels news... Poor guy. His stories are always at the end of the post. It's more like he's the exclamation point of the day though, not an after thought. Miles is working on five new teeth, all at once, which has put him in quite a miserable state, and for a child that is never miserable, that's saying a lot. It's harder to see him so sad because he's never upset. My independent little guy has been so clingy all week. It seems like today we've finally gotten him over the hump though and he seemed to be feeling better. Miles has started cruising all over the place, but does it sparingly. He has to really want something, and if he does, he's moving fast. Usually food is the motivator, but this week he's shown pretty big interest in the bath water. He HAS to be in the bathroom to watch the water pour into the tub, and he'll jet from Lilah's room to the bathroom so fast you hardly notice he went anywhere.

It's fun to see the things that spark his interest because he's usually so contemplative. Lately the Minels' Favorite Things list includes: bath water, food (Pirate's Booty especially,) the metal lunchbox, playing catch, chasing Lilah as she runs around the house, and head butting.

Since I wasn't great at blogging this week, here are some highlights:

Lilah played a game yesterday where she threw imaginary cakes up into the air. The point of the game was to sit around and watch the cakes until the timer beeped, then we could imaginary eat them.

Miles had fun playing catch. I would throw the ball into his lap and he'd laugh hysterically, then pick up the ball and hand it back to me. Compared to Lilah's antics, this highlight could appear boring, but Miles is seriously the sweetest baby and so much fun. Remembering him cracking up while we played this incredibly simple game was such a highlight of my week.

Lilah: Can you do me a favor?
Jade: Sure, what kind of favor?
Lilah: A pink favor.

What???

Me: Let's put on your jacket.
Lilah: ACTUALLY it's a sweater.

Where Does Snow Come From?

I asked Lilah today where snow comes from thinking that she wouldn't know how to answer. She told me it came from the trees. I'm just constantly blown away by her intelligence, and she's just barely two. I'm seriously freaked out about how smart she's going to be one year from now, or ten years from now.

And in the world of Minels...

We have one top tooth and another coming through! He's pulling up and starting to cruise. That boy can sure get around, especially when food is involved, he'll high tail it to the nearest cherio or piece of pirate's booty.

Elmo at Work

Today at playgroup, Lilah picked up a little plastic phone and proceeded to call Elmo. She was keeping me informed about the conversation the whole time, and it was really quite interesting. Apparently Elmo was at work! He was very very busy. I asked Lilah where Elmo was working, what he was doing, and didn't expect her to answer my question or even understand it. She immediately responded "Elmo is doing very busy working things. He is working very hard." So frekin hilarious!!!

Lilah has to be this adorable and amazing to make up for her spaziness. She has been on a fairly long stretch of not napping. Either fighting her naps, taking super short naps, or not napping at all. The last two days she has chosen the latter, which doesn't make for a happy mama when I'm already at the brink of insanity with Jade out of town. I know my two year old is secretly 30 years old, but I'm soooooo not ready for her to stop napping... To her credit, she did give me about 30 minutes of playing in her room happily before calling for me to get her. She would have given me another 20 minutes or longer if I put on Caillou... Actually, on any normal day (one where my husband is home in the evenings) I wouldn't so much mind for Lilah to not nap. I would really enjoy doing some crafts or learning activities with her during that time, and could probably sneak some Internet time in there for myself while she's busy. I just don't understand why she has to toy with dropping naps all together when I'm doing the single mommy thing! She's probably just helping me get some sense of perspective, helping me appreciate normal days more. Lilah's good for things like that, amping up the crazy to make the rest of the days feel like a dream.

Chocolate is the Cure All

Lilah: Can I have a sepshal (special) treat please?

Me: Are you hungry?

Lilah: My tummy hurts.

Me: Are you hungry? Do you need to eat?

Lilah: I need some chocolate.

Me: Chocolate? If your tummy hurts then you probably shouldn't eat chocolate...

Lilah: Chocolate will make my tummy feel better.

Hm, ya don't say? I'll have to try that next time. It sure seemed to work for her! hahaha!

Words of the Day

There have been too many good things said today... I can't possibly remember them all (and it's only the afternoon! Lilah's on a roll today.)

"Mama I'm too tired to walk right now. Please git me."

"What are you asking me to do?" (I was asking her to put my shoes back where she found them, but was saying it weird. Most adults I know don't know how to clarify that well!!! I was truly amazed at this one.)

"I need pink lips... RIGHT NOW!!! I need it to feel good mama!" (pointing to my colored lip gloss)

Sanity amidst the chaos

Lilah has been such a super spaz lately. She just has this crazy energy and I can't seem to give her enough of an outlet for it right now. I don't know if it's the weather, being cooped up in the house more than usual (although we still tend to leave the house once a day) or maybe my energy is low and she's feeling that. Who knows!?

Seems like every day this week there has been so many blow ups and catastrophes. Yesterday Lilah head butted Miles when they were squirreling around and she got a bloody nose and just totally lost it. While trying to hold her and contain the blood, Miles is accosting us both and smearing the blood everywhere. The day before that she was throwing stuff literally all day long, a habit that has been long since extinguished, but has recently been revived. I felt like we needed to be living in a padded cell with helmets to keep us safe from the whirlwind of toys constantly flying through the air.

This is all just typical life with a 2 year old and a 9 month old, nothing new or unique going on here. Mix in a bit of the stomach virus and puking with all this energy, craziness, chaos, and it can just be total maddness.

I'm focusing on letting myself off the hook for having weeks like this though. There's nothing that can't be cured by a little shopping trip or extra cookie! At least that is simple when nothing else is. The older I get, the more straight forward I become and the easier it gets to take care of myself, to revive my spirit and boost my energy for the next day.

Today, so far so good thanks to the kiddos both sleeping in till 7:30, my cute new bra that makes me feel NOT frumpy for the first time in 3 years, and putting on lip gloss instead of chapstick.

Actually

Lilah has learned that she sounds so much more authoritative if she begins everything she says with the word "actually."

For example...

"Actually, I want some cereal." (as opposed to the waffle I offered her)

"Actually, you should wear the other ones." (referring to my ear rings)

Where in the world did she come up with freggin actually? She sounds like a pompous a-hole, so she must be mimicking me.

The Miles Report

Miles has learned that it's fun to stand in his crib and yell at me in the middle of the night because he can't figure out how to sit down (a skill he has no problem with during the day...)

On the fun side though, he has learned to dance. His moves are super awesome. Pretty sure he's on his way to America's Best Dance Crew soon (his crew will consist of several stuffed monkeys, a rubber duck, and Sofie the Giraffe.)