The one with all the vomit

It has been a vomitous weekend. Meg has a cold, which is no big deal except it makes her cough. And some of her coughs are so strong they not only bring up the phlegm from her throat, but her dinner as well. It only took about six wardrobe changes for me to figure out not to let her spend much time on her back and to scale back her feedings somewhat until she recovers. I know, I really am one smart cookie.

I took her to the doctor Friday morning when she'd thrown up twice in about 12 hours. The diagnosis was as I expected, a cold with mucus in her throat with instructions to water down her feedings and keep her propped up. She seemed much better and in better spirits Friday and had a pretty good night, but when she threw up again on Saturday morning (right before a playdate, natch), we went back to the doctor's. And in between 10:30 a.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. on Saturday, she'd developed an ear infection. Remarkable. So we're on Omnicef with is to knock out the ear infection, but is making her tummy even more of a mess. She's been so sad that she spent the whole weekend practically in my arms. In some ways it was nice because I rarely get to hold a sleeping baby anymore and she clearly only wanted me, but I am sure tired. I'd also really like to do something else, like shower.

Today is day two of the antibiotics and I also invested in a vaporizer (my sister's idea) so hopefully between the two, she can get some rest and really kick this sucker. I think we're all ready to be on the other side of this.

Andy, meanwhile, developed diarrhea. This is only notable because it's the first time he's had that ailment since he's been potty trained. It certainly presents some logistical challenges that we haven't had before.

You know, just when I think we clear one disgusting hurdle like getting rid of diapers, motherhood throws a new challenge at me.

Jesus Loves You

I've been going to church lately and taking Andy to Sunday School. Thanks, I do feel pretty virtuous about it. What's odd though is despite that, I didn't really expect Andy to come home and ask this, "Mommy, do you love Jesus?" Crikey. The right answer, of course, is to say yes, but since I'm not particularly religious, it feels a little disingenuous. For the record, I did say yes, and that made him happy. He then started singing "Jesus Loves You."

Part of me is amazed by this. Seriously, he's gone to Sunday school maybe three or four times. He spends most of that hour looking in the aquariums in the room, doing puzzles, playing with the other kids and asking for more juice at snack time. When did he have time to learn anything? The good news is that this Christmas, when I tell him it's Jesus' birthday, he probably won't try to tell me, "No, Mommy, it's Santa's birthday."

And in bigger news this week, Meg rolled over by herself over the weekend. Jennifer witnessed her roll from tummy to her back. I'm not sure it was entirely intentional, but I don't care. She's now proven she can do it. Now she can happily not do it again until she's ready to crawl.

Backup

I think I figured out how to back-up my blog. I used these instructions, saw up to 1,000 posts on one screen and then copied and pasted into Word. The font is huge, but it came out to 614 pages. Wow.

It's been a busy weekend, so busy I haven't had much time to up write much. Fortunately, Beth chronicled some of our festivities yesterday.

Real men

Last week, there was an article in the Washington Post about toenails accompanied by half a page above the fold of different kinds of painted toenails (see it here). Andy was fascinated and wanted to paint his toenails, green of course. He kept asked so yesterday I bought him some green nail polish. He delighted in painting his own toenails as well as his toes and part of his feet. He saw that my toenails were already painted so he begged Bjorn to paint his. Bjorn wasn't especially thrilled, both about getting his nails painted and me insisting on chronicling it with the camera (he doesn't even know about the blog post...yet.)

For Jennifer

Jennifer was in town last weekend and babysat while Bjorn and I went out to the new Wine House in Fairfax City. Meg wasn't especially photogenic that evening, but dang, that's a great picture of her and Andy.

And the winner is...

Trixie is the name of the bunny. I know you were all waiting anxiously for that. Please alert the media.

Andy started in his new class last week and loves it. It's so great that he loves it, it really is, but he half the weekend asking if his school was open. He was even asking for Miss Paris by name. I think he has a little crush. Bjorn even reported that at drop off day, he didn't even give the perfunctory, "But Daddy, I'm going to miss you." Instead, he waved and said good-bye. Today I even picked up Meg first and then went to get Andy, giving him an extra 15 minutes at school. Even then he wasn't quite ready to come home.

Meg is just beyond adorable right now. She loves to smile, a lot, and kicks her legs in excitement when I walk in the room. Man, is it nice to be the prettiest, funniest and smartest person in the room for her. Unfortunately, the poor little chicken has developed a little constipation. I only mention it because when her belly hurts, man, she is unhappy. When she's normally so happy and smiley, it's such a shock when she seems inconsolable for longer than a few seconds. I did discover the hard way that a warm bath seems to, er, ease her system. I tell you, there is so much of this motherhood stuff that is just disgusting.

Meanwhile, does anyone know how to back up a Blogspot blog? It occurs to me that since this is the only baby book my kids are going to have, I should figure out how to create a back-up to ensure that I have the information for them.

This and that

Andy has developed some really awesomely annoying habits:
* He now asks, "Are we there yet?" Over and over and over again. No amount of answer seems to satisfy him.
* Andy is now pitting his parents against each other to get what he wants. "Daddy, can I watch TV? Mommy said I could." Did Mommy actually say he could? No.
* He is extremely bossy. At the point, I pointed out that the sign says, "No Diving." Now anytime another kid gets in the pool, he has to point out to them at there is NO DIVING.
* He loves to ask, "why?" about anything and everything. No amount of answers seems to satisfy him and if I ignore it, he keeps right on asking until I finally say something. The only thing that seems to work (and then only temporarily) is to ask him why he thinks Calliou is bald.

The poll on naming the bunny ends today. Trixie (Wendy's suggestion for a derivation on Beatrix Potter) is in the lead.

Moving along

Andy is moving up to the three-year-old room at school this week. Yes, he's already three, but when he started at his new school, he wasn't as confident with the toilet training so they thought it best to keep him in the two-year-old room until he was ready. I was fine with that. It's a smaller class and the teachers seem really nurturing. With potty training mostly figured out (the glorious moment last Sunday at the DC United game in the broiling heat when he decided to crap in his pants aside), he's now ready for the transition. I was nervous, but he's taking it like a champ.

I like how they do it. They bring him over for a few hours during the day for circle time and playing in the morning with the older kids and then returning back for lunch and a nap with his old class. That's how it went yesterday and he did great. Today, he did so great that he didn't even go back to his old class at all. He was having so much fun when I showed up that he cried when it was time to leave. I'd say that's a good sign.

Meg is also growing up before my eyes. I looked at her the other morning and I swear her face is somehow fuller or rounder than the day before. It was just so, so babylike somehow and less infant/newbornish that I had to stare at her for a few minutes and soak it in. She's just so beautiful and round, like the picture of the Gerber baby. I swear sometimes I look at her and think to myself, "You? You were once inside me? That's just crazy."

And while she's getting bigger, she's still not rolling over which has me slightly paranoid. On the one hand, I'm glad she's not mobile yet. Once that happens, this little blissful like of being able to put her down and know she'll be there in five minutes when I get done wiping Andy's butt will be over and I'll have to improvise ways to keep her contained. That said, isn't five months a little on the late end of rolling over? Perhaps she's just not in a hurry to get anywhere yet.

Poll

New poll on the right on what to name the rabbit. Let your voice be heard before I do what I want to do anyway.

Flipped over

When Mark left for college, he took his bed and the rest of his furniture with him leaving an empty room. I have spent the past few weeks cleaning it out and removing a baseball wallpaper border that was there when we moved it.

Mark and Ahmed then painted last weekend and we finished up the painting yesterday. We then moved the bookshelves, put in an extra twin mattress and some toys and the result is a guest room/playroom. This is excellent as we now have a place for Mark to sleep when he comes back to visit.

While we were getting all feng shui, Bjorn flipped Andy's bed over so he now has a loft bed (see new pictures added to Flickr). Andy is absolutely thrilled about it, too. I'm a little nervous about him being up so high, but the advantage of the bed being flipped over is that the bed now has built in guard rails as the mattress is about 6 inches lower than top of the rail. The cool thing is that the bed being up higher (about four feet so not nearly as high as a bunk bed) is that he has a little "castle" underneath it now where we've put some toys. I know, it's a shame this kid doesn't have anything to play with.

Happy anniversary

My mother has posted a lovely account of her wedding, which was 42 years ago this week, over on her blog. Check it out. She tells a good story.

Name the bunny

Andy's friend Mia gave Meg an adorable bunny that Meg is quite smitten with. Mo is kindly picking up two extras from the same store (I will pay her back) so that in the event of an accident or bunny kidnapping, we will have a spare and all will not be lost.

I am no good at naming animals, stuffed or otherwise though. I had three gerbils growing up named Brownie. I know, quite original. Since Meg is not quite able to name the bunny for herself, I thought I'd open it up. Any suggestions?

Inside joke

It all started with an innocent nursery rhyme. I heard Andy singing it under his breath a few weeks ago, "Mary had a cat throw up, cat throw up, cat throw up." He wasn't saying it to be funny, he just likes to change the words around without really thinking about it. But it cracked me up. We laughed about it and the phrase "cat throw up" became our little inside joke. Now we like to spend time working the phrase into other songs and phrases. It's actually quite adorable.

In other news, my cat Coltrane (the chubby one) has fallen in love with Andy's bath letters. I have them in a bin beside the bathtub and I find she's taking them out and carrying them around to various parts of the house. By the afternoon, there are usually two or three different letters littering my bedroom floor. I am convinced she's trying to send a threatening message as the letter K continues to be one of her go-to letters. What do you think she's trying to say?

More pictures

Here's the actual event. Note Andy in his coat and tie. I am on the other side of Bjorn so you can't see that I'm standing there at all.
Hello little Amish baby.
The best picture in the lot with her smiling.

Here she's not quite as happy.

Pictures

I started Meg on rice cereal and a taste of sweet potatoes last week. She was not impressed.

Dress up party

Today was Meg's baptism and the whole day went remarkably well. She looked adorable in a while outfit my mother picked out (including a bonnet that we omitted at the service since, you know, she'd be getting water on her head and all). There was another baby girl getting baptised at the same service which took the pressure off us a little. We managed to stand up there, look mostly presentable and Meg opted against puking on me. She didn't even mind when they put the water on her head (three times actually, which was nice, but seemed like a lot. Clearly, I'm not much of a church goer).

In the beginning of the service, it was all six of us on the front row. At about 11:30, Mark and Jennifer left to go pick up the food we were serving for lunch. About 11:35, Bjorn took Meg out once she started to make noise. About 11:45, I sent Andy out with my dad as he had to go potty. That left me sitting on the front pew by myself. I would have left with Andy, but it felt wrong for all of us to leave before the service was over, "Yeah, thanks for the baptism. See you at Christmas!"

Afterwards, we had a few family and friends over for lunch. It was kind of nice having a dress up party for a change. Aside from weddings (or, gasp, work), it seems that we never go out wearing our good clothes. I actually have a theory that at work we should have dress up Mondays. We have casual Fridays, why not dress up Mondays? That way, everyone wears their nice stuff once in a while without getting accused of interviewing. Plus, everyone wears their stuff often enough to know that it still fits, rather than waiting until a event to realize the pants are two sizes too small. I think preventing guys from coming to work in a suit two sizes too small really benefits everyone.

Bob

My friend, Bob, is in the hospital. He was in a bad car accident last week driving from his home in Florida to visit Washington, D.C. The guy is 76 and has smoked for 200 years, has a seriously gruff cough and is far from thin so I'm surprised that it's something like a car that would give him a run for his money. I love the guy despite the fact that he's been giving me a hard time since I've known him. When I got married, he felt he wanted to talk to Bjorn in person to make sure "the Swede" understood what he was getting into. That said, he's also served as a reference for just about every just I have applied for and his recommendations have apparently been good enough as I always got the job. He's even given me some career advice, some of which was even worthwhile.

I found out about his accident when a friend of his sent a mass e-mail to many of the addresses in Bob's address book letting us know what had happened. The request also went out asking for folks to e-mail funny stories that a friend would then read to Bob to help cheer him up. The response has been pretty amazing with a very diverse group of folks sending around funny stories from him over the many years. The guy has lived a fantastic life as a print, television and wire reporter only to take up writing novels as a retirement hobby after his kids were grown. I can only hope to be so lucky in 40 years.

The list

I lieu of a good post, here's a list of the exciting things in our world:

• Today is Bjorn's birthday. We're nine years apart in age again after a brief two week span of only being eight years difference. That seemed like a huge gap, but now it seems pretty normal. A factor of age, I'm sure.
• Meg is really starting to grab things. She's starting to pull a toy toward her mouth. Beyond adorable.
• The six-year-old son of Meg's babysitter has figured out how to make her laugh on command. Also beyond adorable, except I can't replicate it at home.
• Andy's language is getting more complex. I can't quite put my finger on it exactly, but when I picked him up yesterday, he said, "I had a pretty good day, Mommy." It just sounded so grown up.
• His language is so mature, but he still says some little kid things, like three comes out more "th-free" and Little Einsteins is "Little Ein-tines." It's adorable and I'm already sad that he's outgrowing so many of these cutisms.
• Andy, sadly, has also picked up saying, "Are we there yet?" And he says it over and over again.
• We're having a few friends and family over this weekend for Meg's baptism. I sent out real, hard copy invitations. Can I tell you how few people actually bothered to RSVP? What's up with that?
• My parents arrive tomorrow. Yay.
• I have discovered Facebook. God help me.

She smiles

I'm still trying to catch a perfect smile on camera. Unfortunately, it's still a coordinated effort, trying to get her to smile with one hand while hold the camera and get the picture off before she stops. She's really a smiley little kid (Andy likes to say, "Hey Smiley!" at her, for example), but catching it on film? Yeah, not quite so easy. So I finally got her smiling and in the frame. But is it centered? Damn. You get the gist though.

It's a million degrees here and 1,000 percent humidity (okay, just 98 with a heat index of 110) in Washington right now so Andy and I have been spending time at the pool. He's still not keen on putting his head under water, but he's definitely more comfortable than last year. We are trying to get him some private lessons with some lifeguards at the pool so we can start him getting more comfortable learning to blow bubbles and that kind of stuff. He won't do any of that with me so I'm hoping a strapping young "big boy" lifeguard is able work with him better than I can. It doesn't hurt that Scott the lifeguard looks a lot like Joe from Blue's Clues. Is it bad if have a little Pacey Witter kind of crush on Joe?

Holy storms, Batman

It's been a wacky week in Washington (a lot of alliteration already). The weather gods gave us three days of thunderstorms, including some of Wednesday that produced tornadoes and tennis-ball-sized hail. Crazy. Our house was fine, but our neighbor across the street wasn't quite so lucky. There were also reports of a tornado touching down not far from my office where, sadly, one person died when a tree fell onto a car.

At Andy's school they even got all the kids into the hallway until the storm passed. Hearing about that certainly brought back memories of growing up in Texas and lining up in the hallways of the elementary school with our heads between our knees during a tornado warning.


I'd love to say the weather is the reason for the lack of posts recently, but truthfully, this working and taking care of kids thing has been kind of kicking my ass lately. We're slowly getting into a groove. The kids are doing fine at their respective places and I'm enjoying (mostly) being out of the house and doing something other than changing diapers. But at the end of the day, once everyone is snug in their beds, I'm finding I'm exhausted and ready for bed. When did I get so lame that being able to go to bed at 9:30 p.m., with the goal of sleeping until 3 a.m. is the highlight of my day?

P.S. New pictures posted to the right on Flickr.
P.P.S. I have spent the past several weeks slowly taking down a wallpaper border in Mark's room. God, do I hate wallpaper and that Dif crap that you spray to take it off. I swear I've spent the last five years taking down wallpaper in various room. When it comes to buy our next house, I'm going to demand one without wallpaper.

Boy pants

Now that Andy is mostly potty trained, I've been shopping for more boys underwear and it has seriously been a fascinating experience. What I've found is that underwear for boys only comes in packs of two or three where girl underwear seems to come in packs of five or more. Apparently boys need fewer pairs?

What's also weird is that you can't buy just white underwear. No, it all has to come with some branded thing on it. Now that he's a bigger kid, I can shop for him in the boys section at Target versus the toddler section. So instead of the toddler choices, like Diego or Thomas, it has more mature choices like Spiderman, Superman and SpongeBob Squarepants. Stranger still is that they sell little boy underpants in characters that are really not aimed at little kids. Like Ironman with Robert Downey Jr. is definitely a more adult movie (or at least elementary school) as is Speed Racer and Transformers, yet they market them in sizes for little kids who couldn't possibly see those movies. It just seems random to me.

What is also odd is that the boy underpants all come with the little flap in front. You know, because Andy is going to be unzipping his pants, reaching in, pulling his penis out through the little pocket and peeing rather than just pulling his pants and underpants down to get to business.

Bedtime

It's funny, the past year or so, Andy has been so sociable and fun that I've been getting away from having a strict bedtime for him. It was just so easy to stay out a little later because it didn't seem to back up on him the way it did when he was little (meaning he didn't melt down). Plus, it was more fun for us to stay out later. Then the terrible threes hit. He started giving up his afternoon nap and he began throwing temper tantrums and really pushing my buttons. I've been reading up on how to deal the temper tantrums, but I also read that an earlier bedtime might help. Both those together has made for a much more agreeable kid, which means we're all having more fun (him included).

Meg has also developed a bedtime this week. If I pick her up from Ayesha's around 5:15-5:30, I take her home, feed her, give her a bath and put her down about 7 p.m., she can actually sleep, sometimes waking up once in the middle of the night and occasionally not waking up until morning. It's such a change to have both kids in bed by 8 p.m. I actually have time after they go to bed to eat dinner, do laundry, or, gasp, even do some work. It's nice having a little predictability and time for myself (knock wood, of course.)

What sucks about this earlier bedtime is we really have to be disciplined about not staying out too late. And by too late, I mean 6 p.m. It's a trade off because being home that early sucks in terms of not getting to enjoy our time out, but on the other hand, getting everyone to home and in bed before they're exhausted means the evening goes much more smoothly for everyone.

Meanwhile, instead of our regular summer party this year, we're having Meg's baptism and having a handful of folks over afterwards for lunch. I was so proud of myself. I made invitations and everything, no Evite. The problem is I forgot to tell everyone the service starts at 11 a.m. Or that the church is on Braddock Road. That's right, I am a communications/publications type person and I can't even get the who, what, where, when and why right. D'oh.

P.S. Chris, we got our FiOS and it rocks. They came on time, cleaned up after themselves and everything works. Apparently Verizon likes Kings Park West better than Kings Park. Go figure.

Baby Bjorn

See this picture? She looks like her father here, doesn't she? We have a picture in our hallway from when Bjorn was probably nine months old and the resemblance is striking.

Poor baby has a bit of a cold right now that is clogging up her tear ducts, making her eyes all goopy. Since she was a newborn she has gone through periods when her eyes would start to water and fill up with green goop. While ugly, it wasn't hurting anything except my pride that she's not a beautiful as she could be.

The eyes got goopy a few days ago and followed by a runny nose, a cough and her waking up twice a night for two nights. Fearing a sinus infection, I took her to the doctor who, brilliantly, has walk-in hours on Saturday and Sunday mornings. The diagnosis is a cold that is affecting her sinuses and perhaps exacerbating the blocked tear ducts. I'm relieved -- no ear infection, no sinus infection, just a regular cold.

Daycare update

The test run went well yesterday at the new babysitter. Meg was with her for about four hours. She took one good nap in the morning and was sleeping in Ayesha's arms when I arrived. I sat with her and watched and talked for another couple of hours and we agreed Meg will start on Tuesday. This lady is very nice, has two kids of her own in school and seemed very welcoming and flexible.

I have calmed down considerably from my freak out. My sister recommended making a list and I did. Turns out that helps a lot. I also need to keep reminding myself that I'm looking for a babysitter, not an adoptive family. Meg is going to be looked after just a few hours a week, it's not boarding school.

I've been grateful for all the support from friends like you guys and others. In a few days, I've lined up short-term several alternatives, including Andy's old babysitter and a college kid who could work a few weeks before starting a job. It's a relief to know that other options exist. I'm also intrigued by the nanny/au pair idea. Anyone have a good experience with that?

P.S. I updated the pictures on Flickr. There are some funny ones, including Andy helping Bjorn build a gate -- in his underwear naturally. I also caught some of Meg smiling.

Daycare drama

Ugh. Where to start. I put Meg and Andy in the same daycare last week. It's one friends have gone to for years so it came recommended. It had the added advantage of being close by and being a place that would accommodate both kids.

When Andy was a baby, he went to a in-home daycare, basically a babysitter that watches several kids out of her home. I found her through an agency that regulates these types of daycares locally and I liked what I saw. It wasn't perfect, but she was nice, kind and good to Andy. The thing I didn't like about it was that it was out of a home, and thus I couldn't pop in at a moment's notice without barging through the door to really to see what was happening. I felt like I didn't really know what he did all day and that worried me, but every day, he came home happy and fed.

The good part was as he got older, we never had an issue of separation anxiety. He was always happy to see her, which made it easier for me (turns out, in many ways this is all about ME). I still went through periods of worrying (I like to worry, it turns out), but generally it was a good experience. After two years, the time came when I was ready for him to have more of a preschool experience with other kids, art projects, etc. so we switched shortly after his second birthday.

When looking for care for Meg, I was really focusing on something that would have both kids. That was mostly for my convenience, but I liked the idea that he could tell me what she couldn't. Turns out in a center, the classes don't mingle at all so they never saw each other. It also turns out in a room full of babies, someone is always crying, often lots of someones. And with so many babies, they had to leave the lights on. It seemed Meg was coming home tired from not napping all day. The final straw was when I went in Monday and she was crying, well, wailing. She had actually gotten past protest crying, past mad crying to that sad exhausted crying. To be fair, she had spit up her entire lunch and seemed to have a tummy ache, but the chaos that was in there made me very uncomfortable. I panicked. I sat with her for about 20 minutes calming her down and I watched the room. I didn't like it any better as I sat. She seemed exhausted so I took her home. And cried. A lot.

I talked to my friends, I talked to Bjorn, I talked to my boss, I talked to my family and after obsessing for two days, I decided to take her out of there. It's probably fine, but at the end of the day, I decided that my gut was telling me it wasn't right for us and I'm going to try to listen to it.

I'm now back to researching in-home providers, that's right, exactly what I said I didn't want. The advantages I'm finding are the one caregiver aspect, the home setting, the idea that someone might love my baby close to as much as I do. The downside, of course, is there's less oversight and it involves trusting one person with my precious baby. I know, obsess much?

After calling around, I found a nice woman in my neighborhood (conveniently located between Andy's school and home) who is licensed, caring, has a nice family and a clean home. It felt more like if I was leaving Meg at my sister's house than an institution. She listened to me when we talked about what I'd like for Meg and she comforted my neuroses and was nice when I teared up a little (I know, I'm a HUGE dork, but that's not really a surprise). We're trying it out tomorrow to see if we like each other.

I swear, this parenting shit is hard. I just want their to be a right answer, you know, rather than a ton of possible answers, all of which are kind of right and you have to figure out the one that's most right. It's like the reason I don't like crossword puzzles -- it's not like a true/false statement, rather the question is, "Name a Kentucky Derby winner" and you have to find the one that's 16 letters rather than just naming the 2008 winner.

Empty nest

Mark's room after he left.

His apartment from the outside. It's a four-plex of four bedroom, two bath apartments.

Mark in his shower. This is probably the cleanest it will ever be.

His bedroom, which is actually rather large.

The kitchen with the washer and dryer off to the right here.

Looking through the kitchen to the living room.

So Mark is gone, off to Old Dominion University and out of the house. I knew it was coming. I think we were all ready (well, he was probably most ready). All the same, it's totally weird with him gone. The noises I hear in the kitchen aren't him coming in, but most likely a cat or Andy sneaking out of bed. His room is empty. Really empty as he took the bed, desk, dresser, chair, lamp and nightstand with him. Considering he really wasn't around that much what with school, the gym, reffing and general carousing, I am surprised by how weird is it to know he's gone. On the positive side, the food in my refrigerator seems to last a lot longer.

In other news, I'm having serious second thoughts about Meg's day care and I'm actively seeking other options. I'll post more on this later once I fully wrap my mind around what I want to do.

Week of firsts

Lots of things happened last week, I can't really believe it all fell in the same week.

• Meg went to school/daycare for the first time.
• Andy went to his new school for the first time.
• I went back to work for the first time since Meg was born.
• I had my first night away from Meg, going to New York for work this week.
• Mark moved to Virginia Beach, taking with him all his furniture and leaving a fairly empty room.
• Bjorn drove to Virginia Beach to give Mark his car (Mark drove in the U-Haul).
• Bjorn took the Amtrak regional train back (which was 2 1/2 hours late).
• Andy got his first sinus/ear infection since getting ear tubes in December.
• Andy started antibiotics (augmenten) for the first time since he had ear tubes.
• Bjorn had a work meeting this weekend for a start-up he's helping with.

Is that all? No wonder I'm tired.

P.S. I added a few new pictures onto Flickr. I can't figure out how to start a totally new set and have it appear on the right so right now I'm just adding to the old set. If you know how to change that, please let me know.

Cousins

My cousin John got his Ph.D. this past weekend in Pittsburgh and the rest of the Dean cousins celebrated later in Virginia. Unlike the older generation though, we celebrated with red wine and not Scotch and cigarettes.

Smiles

Andy has discovered that it's fun to make his baby sister smile. She's not the only one that loves it, it makes me melt watching it. Let's just hope he continues to find this entertaining and doesn't move on to smacking her with toys to see her reaction.

Ugh

So the first day back at work was today. I was a nervous nelly all weekend (not that I like to obsess or anything) only to wake up at 5 a.m. to both kids awake and wanting to play. I fed Meg and let her talk herself back to sleep in her crib and let Andy "read" with his light on so I could sort of sleep from 6:15 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. All that combined made me a little emotional. Andy was great at the drop off. He was a little shy, but went into his room without crying. Meg did well, too, although she did give me a little frown as if to say, "Why are you doing this?" Thanks, kid.

I jumped right into work, which was good to keep me from obsessing some more except for everyone asking me how I was doing. I know people mean well, but it made it an effort not to cry. I checked in around noon and Meg had slept and was drinking a bottle and Andy was in new clothes, having had a poopy accident that morning. I left work around 3:00 p.m., delighted that it took me only 15 minutes to get to their school. Andy was just up from not taking a nap and having a snack. He whined that he didn't want to leave, that he wanted to play. Bugger. Meg was also peacefully asleep in her crib. Her teachers reported that she was a great baby and very happy with no crying. Oh, and that she was really cute, too.

Once home, Andy went upstairs to rest and promptly fell asleep giving me some time with Meg. She's just cuter, more alert and interactive every day. It's sure hard to leave them every day, but I'll admit I liked the break and talking with adults. I may think differently when things get super busy in a few weeks, but today was a decent day.

In other news, it rained 7 inches at Dulles Airport yesterday and the area is just one big wet, sloppy kiss. This is on top of four inches of rain we got last week. Lots of folks lost power due to tree roots loosening and falling onto power lines and there is a ton of flooding that caused many schools to close. Wacky.

Dry run

Since I'm going back to work on Monday, I took the kids to their new daycare/school yesterday. I went in the morning after the morning drop-off rush and stayed a little over an hour. First Andy and I met Meg's teachers in the baby room. He and I were nervous, she was oblivious and everyone was very nice. After we spent some time introducing Meg around, seeing her crib and talking with her teachers, we left her for a bit to go see his new classroom. He's starting in the two-year-old room for now. He's already three, of course, but we know two other kids in that class already and we thought it would be an easier transition that way. Plus, he's not 100 percent potty trained yet and thought this class might be less pressure until he's ready.

He was pretty clingy as we went into the room. He brightened up once they started singing some songs. It was then time for a snack and they were having cupcakes in honor of one child's last day. Once Andy got a brown cupcake, he was feeling pretty good about the place. After talking to his teachers for a while, I left him to eat his cupcake and go talk to Meg's teachers one on one. He was nervous, but I promised to be back in a few minutes. After I got to know Meg's teachers, who seemed very nice and to really love babies, and got everything ready for Monday, I came back to collect Andy. By then, he was jumping and playing on the mats with the other kids and wasn't ready to go. I think that bodes well.

Monday is going to be tough, but I think I'm ready. I hope.

Congratulations

Congratulations are in order for Mark, who has been accepted at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., for fall 2008. I know he's ready to go, but it's sure going to be weird without him around.

Religion may make you sick

We went to meet with the pastor yesterday at the Methodist church to talk about Meg's baptism. We're very occasional churchgoers, but it seems that baptism is one of those things that you need to do for your kids. We had a 5:30 p.m. appointment at St. Stephen's so all four of us went. Meg had been a bit fussy in the afternoon. She needed a nap, but had trouble settling down so she was a little cranky when we got there.

As we sat down, the pastor was going over the vows of baptism, basically saying that as adults bringing a child for baptism, we needed to commit to bringing out kids to church. I gave my excuses and he was kind about it, and then explained that with kids, there is almost always a good reason not to do it and if you keep up with that, that suddenly the children are grown and you realize you never took them to church. He gave the message without a real lecture, which I was afraid of.

During the discussion, I'd been giving Meg a bottle. She kept complaining when I tried to take it away and with the awkwardness in the room, I didn't force her to stop and burp like I might have at home. Bad idea. After she finished her bottle, she let out a really loud burp. And then proceeded to upchuck the entire bottle all over me, the chair and the floor. Charming. We then felt even more awkward about the whole thing and while the pastor was gracious, his personality isn't one to make a joke and relieve the tension or anything. After that, I had to sit through another 15 minutes of discussion with spit up all over my shirt and hair. And they say motherhood isn't glamorous.

In other news, there was an earthquake with an epicenter in Annandale, Virginia, yesterday, which is a few miles from here. How random is that? I totally felt it, too. I was home with Andy asleep and Meg on my bed when I heard a boom and the house shook. It freaked me out. It felt like something had exploded in the basement because it was definitely the whole house shaking for a second and it wasn't just on one side. I looked outside to see if they were doing any work on the streets and didn't see anything. The kids didn't notice, but the cats were a little freaked out.

Support

Andy has been having good luck making poop on the toilet (sorry, Internet, I'm looking for better ways to say it, but damn, this post is all about crap so cute phrases are not going to work here). The cool thing about it, other than not having to change dirty diapers, is how supportive our world has been about this. Last week at playgroup at the library, he said he had to go poop, we went to the bathroom and, sure enough, he went. When we went back inside, he proudly told the room and everyone cheered. It made him feel great. And today at his grandmother's, he went again and she rewarded him with a cheerful high five and some ice cream. It was perfect. He loves the sweet rewards of ice cream and popsicles, but I think he likes the cheers from everyone else almost as much.

The exciting news is that he didn't have a dirty diaper all weekend. I take that back, he did mostly poop in his underpants at the toy store only to catch himself 3/4 of the way through and finish on the toilet. Once he was done, he proudly declared he wanted ice cream for pooping on the toilet. I didn't get into it, but does he deserve a reward for that? I still had to rinse out his underwear in the bathroom sink and without a spare handy, he went commando until we got home. And while him going on the toilet is somewhat cleaner, I do find I still have to help pretty significantly with the wiping part which can be just as gross as changing a diaper.

In other news, Bjorn's darling cousins are visiting from Sweden. Don't you love this picture of everyone with their eyes closed? (There are a few better ones that I added to Flickr, but this cracked me up.) It's been fun seeing them and they came bearing cool Swedish gifts, including an awesome Elsa Beskow book for Andy in Swedish that will certainly help me piece together a few more words. They also brought blue and yellow hats. Can you tell?

New pictures

I have uploaded some new pictures onto Flickr on the sidebar. Enjoy.

Last day

Today was Andy's last day at his old school. It hit me when I woke up this morning, that the transition I put in place is all leading up to one thing -- going back to work. I'm ready on one level, terrified on another. Meg is becoming more adorable every day (especially when she sleeps through the night). When I go in most mornings, she looks up at me, smiles and kicks her legs. It's so precious and in some ways so simple. No negotiating about clothes or food, just a simple smile of welcome. Granted, she can't hug me and say I love you, but she also can't declare that she's not my friend yet. Meg and I have come a lot way together in the last three months (well, nine months and three months). It's sort of hard to believe we're here already.

On another front, I've been reading up on strategies for outsmarting Andy's annoying behavior of whining, crying, arguing and temper tantrum throwing. The book by Thomas Phelan Magic 1-2-3 was recommended and I'm going to give his strategies a shot. The basic premise is that while these kids can talk, they are not adults and you therefore can't reason with them on behavior. Instead, if they act up, give them a count of three to act right and then it's time for time out. No discussion and no arguing. The other part that rang true is keeping my emotions in check so that I'm not having a temper tantrum back at him. I'll keep you posted as to whether it works.

Meanwhile, I pulled out the high chair and put it in the kitchen so Meg can watch what's going on. She seemed to like it, especially Andy smiling at her, until I took the picture. The face captured here really cracks me up. I have taken a lot of cute pictures lately that I'm going to get up to Flickr soon.

Public toilets

Andy is doing great with the potty training right now. I can't get him to wear his new underwear. He insists on wearing a pull-up or a diaper, but he is telling me when he has to go and then goes. It's going to take some adjustment on my part to be able to jump when he says he has to go. Like yesterday at Target, we had sat down to a fine meal of chicken tenders and nachos from the $2 menu when he announced he had to pee. I had to quickly put lunch in a bag and rush to the toilet. We ended up eating lunch out of the bag later as we shopped. Fortunately, it was just the two of us. If Meg were with us, it would have been a bigger challenge to quickly get moving.

This all brings me to the subject of public restrooms. I'm not a germaphobe by any stretch and I'm not afraid of public toilets. With a bladder as small as mine and my affection for wine, public restrooms are something I got used to a lot time ago. But I just sit on the seat. Andy, meanwhile, has to lean his little legs up against the toilet and sometimes rests his penis on the toilet bowl because he's not quite tall enough. I always make a point to wipe him down afterwards, but still, ick. And last week at Chipotle, there was a line for the Ladies room so I had to go in the Mens (and is it Ladies' and Mens'? I need to look that up). Anyway, we went in the Mens' room which was just disgusting to begin with and having to touch the nasty toilet seat with my hands to get him ready, well, ick. Sure, I washed down afterwards, but it was still gross.

In the last few months, Andy has gone to an every other day bath schedule, but with Meg spitting up on herself all the time, I've taken to giving her a bath every day to wash the smudge off her hair and neck. I think he's going to need one daily, too, until he's at least tall enough to not molest the toilet when he pees.

Three months

Meg had her three month appointment today. Apart from getting four shots in her not so tiny thighs, she was deemed perfect.

Height: 23 1/4 inches - 50th percentile
Weight: 14 pounds, 15 ounces - 95th percentile
Head size: 16 1/4 inches - 90-95th percentile
Chest size: 17 1/2 inches

She was in a fairly good mood until the shots came. Even with a dose of Tylenol to take the edge off, she screamed with the shots (hard to blame her) and the process took even longer because the first shot site bled and the kind nurse had to stop the bleeding before she could move on. I feel for those nurses. The doctors get to do the fun stuff in these visits and the nurses have to do the dirty work of making babies cry. It also sucks for Meg at this age. Andy gets a lollipop at each visit and she gets all the trauma and no reward (well, except for not dying of polio, but that's harder to explain).

Dr. Staats explained that in the coming weeks/months, Meg is really going to start noticing Andy and will be tickled to watch what he's doing. I am just thrilled at the thought of getting to see that interaction. He likes her, but right now there isn't much he can do with her. I think once he realizes he can dance and do his "Baby Meg" song for her and she's able to be a good audience by smiling or laughing, he is really going to love it. I figure that will last until she's able to steal his toys and then he's going to be totally annoyed.

Our next scheduled doctor's visit is around five or six months when we start talking about solid foods. I can't quite believe we're almost there. With that in mind, I'm getting out the high chair this week. I think she'll like sitting up in the kitchen and watching everything. I just need to keep Andy off it. He climbed into her swing last week and probably hurt the motor. Bugger. Fortunately, Bjorn was able to return it to Target for an exchange it since it's still new.

Retraining

With the temper tantrum of a few weeks ago, I've been reading and rereading books for strategies on dealing with him. One thing that seems to be helping is making a real effort to get him into bed at a decent time. I'm now giving both kids a bath more or less at the same time. Meg loves to lay on the sling and kick the water while Andy likes to make birthday cake with the cups. It's a pleasant enough way to spend 20 minutes and then Andy can sit in the tub by himself for a bit while I get Meg dressed and ready for bed.

I'm also trying to not go in to him as much at night. His room is right near ours so if he cries out for one of us, he's loud and hard to ignore, but we're working on it. And if we do go it, it's not to cuddle, it's to quickly fix something (find a binky, covers, etc.) and leave without fanfare. The theory is that if it's not fun, he'll lose interest. A work in progress, but it helps to be trying something.

The funny thing about the sleep thing is now he's waking up to go pee. It's great and a positive step, but I find him getting up to pee in the morning is often before he would have liked to get up so he's tired when he wakes up. It's something we're all going to have to adjust to, but I am so proud of him for getting up out of bed and doing it himself. He's really catching on (fingers crossed).

I'm also working to give him more control. Instead of offering him two spoons or cups to choose from, I've put all his stuff in a drawer in the kitchen. Then if he complains he doesn't like something, I tell him to get another one. I'm also working to redirect him if he complains, which sometimes works. So if he complains that he wants X, Y or Z, I tell him to go get it (within reason, of course, the wine is mine).

Meg is just a darling. She isn't rolling over yet, but she sure can arch her back and kick her legs, like she might want to. Right now it's great to know I can put her down and she won't go anywhere. I know that won't last long. She's now usually going to bed around 9ish and waking up 6:30ish with a wake up call in the night sometime between 2 and 4. For me, it's great to just have an hour or so to myself before bed to relax without either one of them.

And speaking retraining, I'm going back to work in two weeks. On the one hand, it will be nice to be with adults for part of the day and do something other than clean diapers and do laundry, but I'm starting to get a little anxious about it. I'm overall better than I was before I went back after Andy, but I can still feel it. When I start to get worked up, I just remind myself that if it doesn't work, we'll change it. Nothing has to be forever. My plan is to work four half days through May and then go back to four full days a week starting in June. I'm hopeful the half days will help us used to a new routine at a new daycare with two kids. I like that the new daycare is just a mile away -- that will certainly make it easier if we forget something.

Green poop

Andy pooped on the toilet TWICE today. (God, when did my life get to the point where this is the most interesting thing happening?) He went this morning before I took him to his pediatric ENT appointment to check that his ear tubes are in and doing what they're supposed to. As a reward, I promised him ice cream after our appointment. The deli in the medical building sold cold treats and I let him pick one out, a very large, phallic green Popsicle. He was psyched. He started to eat it when I realized that today was picture day at school so I made him take off his shirt to eat the Popsicle. What a lovely redneck mother I was today sitting with my shirtless kid in the parking lot of an office building while he ate a Popsicle.

After school, he came home and I immediately stripped him down to just a shirt. He played and played, occasionally saying he had to poop, trying briefly, then going back to playing. I was impressed that he could feel it enough and kept trying to go. I was upstairs getting Meg's bath ready when I got the call.

"Mommy, I made poops! Come look!"
"Yeah, Andy! Good for you. That's great."
"Come look. They're green."
"..."
"Come look!"
"Why, yes, they are green. Just like your Popsicle earlier."
"Yeah! That's great!"
"..."

And then I proceeded to give him another green Popsicle.

And not to be out shined by her brother, darling Meg slept from 9:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. Of course, when I woke up and realized neither of us had been up, I panicked, worrying that because of her cold, she had somehow stopped breathing in the night. Rather than rush in and definitely wake her up, I turned up the baby monitor all the way and waited a few seconds for a good deep breath. Phew.

Rewards

Less than 24 hours in, the reward chart seems to be a decent motivator. Andy was proud to get the smiley faces (all green, naturally) for doing the things on his list. This week, on his list is:

1. Get dressed
2. Wear underwear (this wasn't a official selection, I cut out a picture of underwear from the Spiderman underwear label)
3. No whining
4. Take bath
5. Get ready for bed
6. Brush teeth
7. Put away toys

He got them all yesterday except for whining so we talked about it and he said he'll do better today. We'll see. Now that we have the chart, I need to back off and stop pushing these things. I need to offer it and if he initially rejects, let me know he won't get a smiley and move on. As it was yesterday, he didn't want to take a bath, but once I backed off and he realized he wasn't getting a smiley, he came around. This is going to be an adjustment for all of us, but hopefully we'll get the behavior we want.

I took Baby Meg to the doctor. The good news is she doesn't have an ear infection or signs of anything other than a cold. She said if she didn't improve within a couple of days, to bring her back in. Fortunately, she seems to generally be feeling better and is back to her smiling and cooing self.

Getting enough sleep proves to still be elusive for all of us. Meg has fortunately only been getting up usually once a night, lately between two and three. Unfortunately, Andy likes to wake up, too, usually around five and wants to insist someone sleep with him. Last night I made the mistake of caving on that request because I didn't want him to scream and wake up the baby. Now I'm afraid he's going to insist on it.

Oh, and breaking news, Andy pooped on the toilet this morning. He said he didn't have to earlier in the morning, but I let him eat breakfast naked and by the end, he had to go so he declared it, ran to the toilet and went. Just like that. Fingers crossed that this is clicking for him finally.

Poor babies

Poor Meg has been sick with a bad cold. It started Saturday and seemed to be worse this morning after a tough night so I'm taking her to the doctor this afternoon. She was pretty fussy off and on this morning, somewhat unconsolable (at least to me since she never really cries much). I gave her a warm bath this morning which put her in a good mood and she's been more mellow since then. The doctor's visit is really just a precaution to make sure whatever she has doesn't get worse.

Meanwhile, after Andy's tantrum and potty training mishaps last week, I've been reading up on discipline strategies and asking my friends for ideas on helping get through his hump. I heard almost universally that a reward chart seemed to work as a good motivator. We went to the house of some friends Saturday that had this cool magnetic/dry erase chart from Melissa and Doug so I went to Toys R Us and picked one up for $20 today. I'm going to unveil it to him tonight. I think he's going to be excited about it. I hope.

Potty training

Thanks, Internet, for your support against the tyrant formerly known as Andy. I wish I could report that after that incident, he's been a perfect angel. We haven't had any flare ups like the one at Chipotle since then and I think he is recognizing that my campaign against crying and whining is serious, but we're a ways off from him stopping his really obnoxious behavior. My theory is that there are several things at play. I think the preparation and arrival of Baby Meg allowed us (me especially) to overlook some behavior that I should have put an end to earlier. That combined with him being three and wanting to test limits combined with a cold combined with his erratic nap/sleep schedule these days has created a perfect storm of irritating behavior. I'm hopeful this stage will pass, sooner rather than later.

In exciting news, Andy came home from school yesterday having worn his new Spiderman underpants all day (including nap time) without any accidents. When we got home, I told him if he pooped on the toilet, that I'd take him for ice cream. So he did. Just like that. So I scooped him and Meg up and headed to Baskin-Robbins. He absolutely loved it. Strangely, all the canisters are too high for little kids so I put him on a chair to look at the selection. He was amazed and thrilled. A boy after my own heart, he picked Chocolate Mint in a sugar cone. I love that flavor for the taste and he just picked it because it was green. He was thrilled with what he had done and the reward, declaring all the way home that he wanted to poop again and get more ice cream. Then he did. In his pants. Oh well.

Does anyone know how to make my kid less regular? I swear he must go three or four times a day. If it was just once or twice, I think we'd have fewer problems with this aspect of potty training. Like this morning, he was excited about his underpants and then pooped in them. And when he came up to tell me about it, he subsequently peed. On the floor. Yuck. On the one hand, I'm ready to shelve this potty training nonsense until he seems more ready. But on the other hand, he can totally do it when he wants to and at times, he seems so close. If anyone has suggestions, please post them. I could use some new ideas.

P.S. I posted a few more pictures on Flickr. There are some cute pictures of Meg practicing holding her head up as well as a picture of Andy and his friend Daniel naked from the waist down in a car. We were trying to practice potty training by letting them run free from the waist down and it was so cute and gay we had to take pictures. That will be my reward for surviving this potty training ordeal.

Tough love

Andy threw a mother of all tantrums yesterday. It started with the underpants. I told him on his way to school that if he didn't have any accidents in his underpants, that I'd take him to the burrito store after school to celebrate.

Andy: The burrito store?
Me: Yes. If you stay dry -- no pee or poops in your underpants all day, we can go to the burrito store.
Andy: And can we eat there?
Me: Yes.
Andy: I love the burrito store.

So when I picked him up, sure enough, he'd been dry all day. They put him into a pull-up before nap that he was still in, but he'd been dry all morning. So true to my word, I took him to Chipotle. It was early, like 5:15, when we got there and we were ahead of the dinner rush. He started acting obnoxious, saying he didn't want this or that in his whiney voice and yelling at me if I disagreed. I explained, as I have been lately, that it's not okay to act like that. And that if he kept it up, we would leave. I probably gave him three or four chances to act right and when he didn't, I grabbed a to-go bag, packed up our stuff in Meg's stroller and headed out, dragging Andy by the wrist.

He was PISSED. Seriously. He started screaming full scale once he realized I was serious. I tried loading him into the car, but he was wigging out, jumping out of his seat, trying to hit me and throwing his earphones into the back seat. I was failing at everything so I threatened him with spanking; I NEVER do that, but it was in the parking lot with lots of traffic and a baby in a stroller and I was feeling anxious that it was dangerous. When he still didn't act right, I pulled him out, swatted him on the behind (not hard really) and finally got his attention long enough to get him into his car seat. He started screaming for his earphones, which he had thrown, and I ignored him all the way home and he screamed. It was 15 minutes of torture listening to him breathlessly scream. It was funny it was so awful.

I finally got him home and tried to herd him into his room and he was still freaking out, screaming and jumping around. By then, Meg woke up and started crying that she was hungry so I tried to placate Andy as best I could while I tended to her. I banished him to his room, where he refused to stay, screaming and closing and opening the door. When I said he couldn't leave his room, he flopped around on the threshold for a while. The whole episode probably lasted about an hour. It was pretty ugly and, at moments, pretty funny. He finally calmed down, we talked about how it wasn't okay to act like that and then had a nice dinner together. He then took a bath and went to bed, exhausted, and was asleep by about 7:30. He woke up about 1 a.m. and wanted to get in bed with me. I told him no and left him. He then woke up about 6:30, called for me. When I didn't come, he put himself back to sleep. He's been waking up a lot in the night, partially looking for attention, and I really need to put an end to that, too.

I swear, this motherhood stuff is tough sometimes. Really tough. On the one hand, I think he's acting out. He's got a lot of new stuff going on and he's competing with a new baby. I've tried to be sympathetic, but my tactics so far haven't made much of a difference so I'm trying tough love. If he starts whining at home (and by whining, I mean pretty obnoxious stuff that ends up with him yelling at me), I send him to his room or to time out. I'm done negotiating with the terrorist.

What was great though was after all that drama, he woke up a refreshed and happy kid. We talked again about how it's not okay to act like the way he did and then he peacefully went to school -- no drama about not going, no screaming about not wanting this or that for breakfast. I hope this is making a difference because, damn, this discipline stuff is hard.

On another note, his school has started posting the kids' "art" online. Check out Andy's here. Talk about a gifted artist.

Smiles

Apparently Meg thinks Seth Meyer and Amy Poehler are funny, too.

Big smiles

I managed to catch both kids in the same frame. They are pretty adorable, you know, when they're smiling or sleeping, just not screaming that they need something. Andy is doing a little bit of regressing, that I think is pretty normal for a kid with a new sibling. He wants to drink milk out of a baby bottle (I cut the top off an old nipple so he has a "special" one that's all his own). He also cries his fake cry when he wants my attention. He sees that it works for Meg so he's trying it, too. And since it usually works, I need to do a better job of not responding when he acts like that.

Another unfortunate part of this regression is he doesn't like sleeping through the night as much. I find her schedule has been more predictable than his. It further convinces me that it may be 2015 before both of them sleep through the night at the same time.

I caught an adorable short video of Meg smiling yesterday. Unfortunately, neither Blogger nor YouTube are cooperating getting the video public.

My list

Inspired by this site, here is a list of things going on around here:

1. Operation big boy pants (i.e. potty training) has been temporarily suspended due to a sudden bout of diarrhea. Yes, it's as gross as it sounds.
2. Last week, we had potty training boot camp at a friends where we let the boys run naked in the back yard for several hours. Andy did great. Then I went to another friends and he went on the carpet. We ended up having to give the boys a bath to get Andy clean.
3. Is there a Hallmark card with the sentiment, "I'm sorry my kid soiled your home?"
4. Andy said unbidden last week, "There is no crying in baseball." What a good boy.
5. In response to me telling him he could do X, Y or Z after he did something else, he said, "No, Mommy. I'll make you a deal." I was so surprised I wanted to know what deal he would offer me. He didn't have one (and doesn't seem to quite get the phrase), but it cracked me up because I must say that a lot.
6. Meg slept from 8:45 last night until 5:15 this morning.
7. That would have been great if Andy wasn't up at 4:45 this morning wanting something.
8. I have hurt my back, probably lifting the car seat in and out of the car and have been sleeping with a heating pad.
9. Meg is smiling and talking a lot. However, I can't seem to get her to smile at the camera. It clicks just as she stops smiling. I took about 20 pictures of her after-smile this weekend.
10. My tulips in the front yard are gorgeous.
11. Our tax return is on its way to the IRS in Atlanta. I even went and mailed it personally at the post office to ensure it had enough postage for all 47 pages and the check.
12. Bjorn is out of town until Wednesday. Boo hoo.
13. I watched the E! True Hollywood Story of Owen and Luke Wilson. Who knew they grew up so close to me in Dallas?
14. The laundry is totally done. And folded. And (mostly) put away. I want a medal.

For once, not counting down until bedtime

Precious angel baby doll, Meg, slept from about 10:30 last night until 6:30 this morning. Andy also complied by sleeping from about 8:30 until 7:30. It's amazing how much brighter my outlook for the day is if I don't wake up counting the hours until bed time. This is especially good because Bjorn is leaving for a work trip tomorrow. He'll only be gone half the week, but it will be a good test for me. Fingers crossed the kids don't make me regret my decision to have them in the first place.

The kids sleeping a little better is so great because it takes me a little out of survival mode and into a place where I can start to enjoy life a little bit again. Like last night, with both kids in bed I actually stayed up and read for a few minutes. It was quite nice.

Speaking of nice, Jennifer babysat for a few hours yesterday and let us get out to a movie. Bjorn didn't want to see Juno, claiming it was a girl movie, but we went anyway and we both enjoyed it. His huge crush on Allison Janney (formerly known as Claudia Jean Cregg) continues. The movie was really good. I may need to rent it when it comes out I liked it so much.

Game on

Today we went to the house of a friend's who is also trying to potty train her three year old boy. It's a nice day here in Virginia so we let the boys play alfresco in the backyard. Well, they did have t-shirts on. We took lots of pictures (to be posted once I get my act together) of these adorable boys and their scrawny little boy bottoms running around, climbing the ladder, riding in the car. Unfortunately, they were too engrossed in playing really to want to do much peeing, but it was a good experiment that I will have to repeat in my own yard as the weather improves. The only downside is I fear by the end of the summer he won't want to wear pants anywhere.

After a very long Thursday day due to an exceptionally long and weird Wednesday night, I managed to get both kids in bed and asleep by 9:30 (special thanks to Jennifer for helping get Andy down). Meg woke up once at 4:00, ate and went right back to sleep within 20 minutes and slept until 8 a.m. Andy slept until about 7 a.m., but still, big improvements. Plus, that hour I got to spend to myself after they were both asleep and the good shows were finally back after the horrible, tragic writers' strike was a welcome break. And if those MILF Island t-shirts weren't $24, I might have to have one.

One step forward, five steps back

So the part about potty training success? Yeah, not so much. So Monday, Andy went to school in underwear (under his clothes, not just his underpants, thanks Jennifer). He came home in them, having been dry all day and getting lots of praise from his teachers. Tuesday, he again went in underpants and came home in a different outfit wearing a diaper. Then yesterday, he refused to wear his underwear, exclaiming, "Only girls wear underwear. I'm not a girl!" No, I can't explain it either. He steadfastly refused to use the toilet all day. Nice. Today he did let me put underwear on him so fingers crossed that it works out.

Meanwhile, the baby is sleeping somewhat predictably (knock wood), waking up once between midnight and 9 a.m. The late bedtime is not ideal and I'm working on it, but she has proven she can often go four or five, sometimes six, hours without waking. Andy, however, keeps getting up in the night.

I've been trying to move his bedtime earlier to avoid some of the customary meltdowns that come with him trying to drop his afternoon nap. Yesterday, he was somewhat ornery and I've taken a new stand that when he acts up by whining or crying, I'm going to send him to his room until he calms down. About six, he was giving me grief about dinner, shouting that, "It's NOT dinner time! NO! I don't WANT dinner." So I sent him to his room and laid him in bed. I came back a little while later and he was asleep. I kept thinking it was a catnap, but when I checked in on him about 7, he said he was tired and wanted to go to bed. He then slept like an angel. Until 3:30 a.m. I retucked him and went to bed. At 4:30, she woke up so I got up, fed her and put her back to bed. In the meantime, Andy woke up bright eyed, happy and hungry. Bjorn got up and gave him some dinner/breakfast and Andy refused to go back to bed. Bjorn kindly let me sleep until about 7 when we traded off again.

It's weird. The sleep thing with Andy as a baby was a pain, but we muddled through it and he eventually started being a good sleeper. When we had Meg, I figured we had him more or less solved so we could focus on her. It somehow didn't occur to me that we'd be up and down all night with him, too. I can only imagine folks with big families of five or more kids NEVER get any sleep.

Moments of success

So we sent Andy to school yesterday in just his underwear, no diaper. After screaming at Bjorn the entire way to school, he went the whole day without going in his pants. I am as stunned as you are. Granted, he didn't poop at school and that has been the barrier, but he did go dry all day and got lots of stickers and praise from his teachers, who encouraged us to do it again today. It's a start. Funny, I don't mind changing Meg's baby diapers so much, after all they're small and not quite human like yet, but somehow cleaning off poop off a real person is pretty icky. Go figure.

Speaking of Meg, she is a full blown infant now. With a huge crush on my ceiling fan. She lies under the fan and smiles and laughs at it, practically craning her head to get around me or Bjorn. It's just adorable. She's sleeping decently now, often just getting up once in the night. However, she wakes up and wants to play, rather than just eat and go back to sleep. It would be more annoying if she wasn't so darn adorable right now.

I have about a month left before I go back to work and I think I may be just about ready. We have the daycare lined up, I feel good about where the kids are going and the thought of spending the day talking to adults doesn't seem so bad right now. I may feel totally different when the time comes.

I'm also tinkering with Flickr trying to get more pictures posted. Bear with me, I have no idea what I'm doing.

img_1009

img_1009
Originally uploaded by kegan72

Here is Andy, exhausted after a walk with Pop.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Pictures

Darling eight month old Emma. I wonder what she is thinking.

Easter Brunch at the DCC. Bjorn wore those ears all day. When asked, he told other patrons he lost a bet with Byron Egan and they all nodded in agreement that it made perfect sense.

Andy and Megan in matching green (he in the shirt, she in the dress) at the Easter Egg Hunt at the Dallas Country Club. The hunt itself was terribly organized, but the kids enjoyed it.

Elizabeth and I are our kids with our cousin Jennifer and her son who were visiting from London en route to the middle east for a new job.

Blogger is having trouble adding photos at the moment. More to come later.

We're back

After 11 days in Dallas, we are back in Virginia. My sister and three year old niece Megan came back with us for three days, leaving 8 month Emma behind with my mother. It was a great visit, but it was also a tornado of noise and chaos having two three year olds in the house at the same time. My sister and I would just sit down after getting them situated with something only for one to run in complain and/or cry that they needed help with something or that the other had taken a toy/hit the other. It was really funny seeing them together teaching each other new bad habits. It's funny -- the house is more or less babyproofed for Andy, but I wasn't quite prepared for Megan as she did all sorts of things Andy wouldn't think of, like climbing on the banister or using the trash can as a stepstool to reach something. Clever little one.

Amazing, after three straight weeks of visiting family, either here or in Dallas, I don't have anything lined up with my side of the family until after my maternity leave ends in May. It's weird to think about. Meanwhile, I have dozens of great pictures. I have so many that it's taking ages to upload so I'll post more later.