A Year of Gratitude: Day 162 (two days late again)

Today I am grateful I didn't snap during lunchtime with the kids.  Actually, it was Mollie that was pushing me closer and closer to the edge; she and I have been locked in a daily mealtime struggle over how quickly she consumes her food (and how much talking and wandering around is interspersed during that time).  I want to be all "zen" about it and not care how much time she's taking, but we don't live in a vacuum and the day must progress.

Anyhow, back to the gratefulness.

So Mollie and I were downstairs, her alternately eating and getting down to hug me (she knows I can't say no to a good hug) and me continually saying, "Mollie, eat your lunch.  Mollie, take a bite.", and Baylor was upstairs, Bryson having put him down to rest ten or so minutes before.  All of a sudden, and just when I thought I couldn't take it anymore, I heard over the monitor, "Uh oh, Mommy!  Uh oh!" and the sound of feet running out into the hallway upstairs.

I'll spare you the details and simply say that Baylor loves to read so much that he has been known to ignore things, even bodily functions.  Thankfully, the mess was very, very minimal.  I quickly ran downstairs to implore Mollie to eat and grab another pair of underwear for Baylor.

Then I went to help him wipe and all the wet wipes were gone, necessitating another trip downstairs.  At this point, Mollie had "finished" and made her way upstairs to check out what her big brother was doing.  It's amazing how much more ... just more, things get when both kids are in that tiny bathroom and I was feeling all the chaos surrounding me.

And then I thought to myself, "Motherhood really shows you just how much more you can take.  Just when you feel your breaking point approaching, motherhood and life conspire and throw you something else, and you take it on and do it because ... well, because you have to."

After all the epiphany, hands were washed, kids were properly hugged and kissed, and both kids settled into their beds for their nap/rest time.

And here I am, still breathing, still chugging along.  And for that I am grateful.

Have a wonderful day.

A Year of Gratitude: Day 138

Today I am grateful that the kids both took naps this afternoon.  By lunch time both of them were exhausted and irritable and just couldn't get out of their own way.  Napping did them both a lot of good today, and I'm so glad they were able to make that happen.  (Particularly Baylor, who doesn't always nap and who had a rough night of sleep last night.)

Have a wonderful night!

A Year of Gratitude: Day 117 (a day late)

Today I am grateful that I got to (inadvertently) take a brief nap with Baylor.  He actually fell asleep during his rest time, an unusual event these days, and it was time for him to get up so he would still be able to get to bed tonight.  I leaned over and gave him a hug, but he didn't stir at all; not an eye flutter, not a groan of recognition that I was even there.  So, seizing the moment, I snuggled in with him and closed my eyes, happy just to be close to the little guy.  I didn't intend to fall asleep, but I did for a few minutes and it was wonderful.  I know these moments, these close and easy moments, aren't going to last forever, so I'm trying to soak them up while I can.

Have a wonderful day!

A Year of Gratitude: Day 96

Today I am grateful that Mollie seems to be okay after falling head-first off one of the bar stools at my mom's house.  She was readjusting in her seat when she lost her balance and tumbled off.  As one would expect, she came up bawling, all red in the face with tears everywhere, and it took a little longer than usual to calm her down.  But then, as she was winding down her cries, she sobbed, "Don't let Baylor eat all the apples!"  Aaaannnd we knew she was okay.

Still, I called her doctor who gave me a good idea of warning signs to look out for and how to deal with her nap.  They wanted me to wake her up 20 to 30 minutes into it and make sure she could recognize me, then she could drift off to dreamland again.  So, 25 minutes into her nap, I trudged up the stairs, slipped into my old room, and tried to wake her.  I didn't want to jolt her awake and may have been a little more gentle at the outset than I usually might have been were I just trying to wake her up, yet I was still a little concerned that she wouldn't wake up right away.  It took a bit of nudging to get her to wake up, and even then she wouldn't say my name.  I'd ask her what my name was and she'd plop her head back on the pillow.  After a few tries, I told her that I wouldn't leave until she told me my name.  Still, she laid back down.  Finally, I said, "Mollie, what's my name?"  And, perturbed, she looked at me and said, "I don't know, Mama."

That's my Mollie girl.

I know we're not out of the woods yet, but that gave me a little confidence going into the rest of nap time.  Here's hoping!

And I hope you have a wonderful afternoon!

Nap Restart

The other day, I was on the phone with our credit card provider trying to get some fraudulent charges refunded (important note: do not pay for stuff on iTunes with PayPal).  Anyhow, I was on the phone, couldn't get off it, and all of a sudden Mollie started to stir.  Baylor was actually sleeping that day, so there was no way I wanted him to wake up.  I figured she was awake so I, still on the phone, bounded up the stairs, went into her room, and scooped her up and realized she wasn't exactly up yet.

So, after finishing up getting our money back (yay!) I snuggled with Mollie a bit and realized she needed to sleep more, so I asked her if she wanted to go upstairs to nap again.  She said no.  In a moment of slight desperation, I asked her if she wanted to nap on the couch and she said yes.  Oookay.  So I set her up on the red couch, snuggled her in with her dollie and sleep sheep, and pulled up our green leather ottoman next to her ... just in case, you know?

Thank goodness I did!

As you can tell, she first went for the legs-over-the-edge move.  Soon enough, though, she was all butt-in-the-air.

At least she got a little more sleep, though, right?

Maybe There's Hope ...

After a very difficult morning together, full of tantrums and privileges lost, Baylor and I were saying our goodbyes for nap time.

"I love you, Baylor."

"I love you, Mommy!"

"Sweet dreams, honey."

"Mommy, I love you SO much!"

"Well, I love you so much, too!"

"Mommy ... I love you bunches!"

"Aww, bubba, I love you bunches, too."

"Mommy, I love you BUNCHES!"

"I love you bunches and bunches, Baylor."

And in spite of our trying times and the stressful days the twos and threes are throwing our way, I do.  Forever and ever.

Before His Nap Today ...

Baylor loves to talk, especially when it stalls the inevitable going to bed.  Sometimes he says my name so much I want to pull my hair out, and usually he just says it so I will stay a little longer.  But he says some of the most curious things.  Here's what he said today ...

B:  "Mommy, can we go to the park on December 11th?"
Me:  "No, bubba, I think it'll be too cold."
B:  "Mommy, what do you want to do in December?"
Me:  "I don't know, sweetheart."
B:  "Mommy, I want to go to the park on November 11th."
Me:  "We might be able to do that."
B:  "Mommy ... Mommy ... um, Mommy ... do you ... do you ... do youuuuuu ..."
Me:  "Baylor, it's time to go to sleep."
B:  "Um, Mommy, where is my little pillow?"
Me:  "I put it up here above your head to block the sun."
B:  "Mommy, I want it under my legs."
(I put it under his legs and he smiled.)
B:  "Um, Mommy, what happens when you block the sun?"
Me:  "You can sleep better.  It's time for your nap, bubba."
B:  "Mommy ... Mommy ... Mommy ... who went to level three with me at the wedding?"
Me:  "Louis and David did, didn't they?"
B:  (smiling)  "Yeah."
Me:  (heading for the door)  "Alright, sweetheart, it's time for your nap."
B:  "Mommy, thank you for coming!"
Me:  "You're welcome."
B:  "Mommy, thank you for buying things at the store today!"  (I bought groceries at Meijer.)
Me:  (smiling)  "You're welcome, bubba."
B:  "Mommy, thank you for coming!"
Me:  "You're welcome, sweetheart.  It's time to sleep."
B:  "Um, Mommy ... Mommy ... Mommy ... um ..."
Me:  "Yes, dear?"
B:  "Mommy ... um ... Mommy, I love you."

And for all that, it was totally worth it.

The Musical Stylings of Baylor

Often Baylor takes a while to fall asleep before he actually gets to napping.  On some occasions, he likes to sing himself a little tune before he naps.  Previous songs have included "Do-Re-Mi" and "Edelweiss" from the Sound of Music, but this was the one I was actually able to capture.  Hope you enjoy it!

I had to run all the way across the first floor to press play on my camera to get this, which is why it's only the last part of the song, but I thought it was cute enough to post.

Have a wonderful day!

Mittens, Living Room Tubbie, and The First Walk of the Year

So yesterday was pretty awesome.  Yeah, there were some crappy parts, like Baylor not napping (which, I hate to say, has become sort of a regular occurrence).  But a lot of it was pure awesomeness.
The day started off with breakfast, then we got down to play.  Mollie wanted to have me put Baylor's mittens on her, so I did.  And, boy, was she excited!

Seriously, she wore them around for over half an hour!

At first she was all, "Hmm, how am I gonna crawl in these?"

But she worked it out.

She even used the oven to stand up and took a few steps!  And yes, it was even cuter because of the mittens.

She still just wanted to hang out with Baylor, though.  I wonder if she thought the mittens would make her more stealth as she sidled up to her brother.

In a stroke of genius on his part, Baylor took the cushion off our green leather chair.  For some reason that is like catnip to Mollie; she can't resist the urge to climb up on the uncushioned chair and do a little bouncing.

Of course, with mittens on, her dismount was less than graceful.

She kept wanting to go head first, but the instant she got to this point, she'd grunt and start to make moves back onto the chair.  Maybe she'd actually learned from the night before when she attempted this dismount and got a bloody lip as a result.

Baylor likes to pretend that the party tub we use for rubber blocks is a bath tub.  He'll stand there, pretend to run the water, and make comments like, "Not too hot, not too cold.  It's juuuuuust right!"  It's awesome.  Of course, it was even more awesome when Mollie decided she wanted to take a tubby in the living room, too.

Baylor is such an awesome kid.  He sat there so patiently while I screamed at him, "Baylor!  Don't move!  I have to go get my camera to take a picture of this!  I'll get her off of you in a second!"  He knows my need to document cuteness is unending, and he seems to love me in spite of it.  For her part, Mollie looked super cute with her combination, "Oh, you're in here?/Iloveyousomuchbigbrother!!!" look.

Luckily the night before I had been a bit on the lazy side and hadn't taken care of a laundry basket I had nearly emptied, so we had another "tub" for Mollie to sit in.

Of course, once your little sister is tubbing too it loses a little bit of its cache, so Baylor decided he needed to spell something instead.

And he actually spelled something, too!  Check out the word "brown"!!

Apparently all that spelling makes a kid dirty, so he climbed back in for another bath.

Bless his little heart, Baylor is so patient with his sister.  She's always up in his business, wanting to be wherever he is.

Sure, he's not always thrilled about it, but he generally takes it in stride.  It probably helps that Mollie just adores him and only wants to be near him because she can't get enough of the kid.

After naps and dinner, we decided to take advantage of some wonderful pre-spring weather and go for a walk, our first of the season!  And our first with both kids getting to enjoy the little red wagon!

They were having fun, I swear!

It was a gorgeous evening ... the moon even made an appearance in the clear blue sky.

Bryson pulled the wagon the whole way.  I offered to pull, but I was also pretty happy to have both hands free so I could take pictures.  As you can see in the picture below, there was still a decent amount of snow on the ground, so our walk got cut short a couple times because the sidewalks were impassible at certain points.

I commented that Mollie was struggling a bit while riding backwards, and after a cursory check of the situation, Bryson said, "She's just getting a good ab workout!"  Awesome.  Love you, honey!

Baylor was on the look out for dogs and other kids on our walk, but sadly there were few of either.  I thought there would be more people out, but apparently it wasn't THAT warm out.

We had a lovely little walk.  Hopefully, in a couple weeks, it'll be even lovelier with the snow all gone.

Of course, the catch-22 about walks is that, once you get your two year-old outside he isn't likely to want to go back in.  So, though their garage door was closed when we walked by - signaling they didn't want visitors, we called my in-laws anyway and they were eager for us to come down so they could see the kiddos.  Upon hearing this, Baylor took off as fast as he could down the sidewalk.  It was adorable; I just love the way he runs these days, cheeks jiggling, a little bounce in his step.

Once there, we played with toys, Baylor got to do some typing with Grandpa Chris, and Mollie actually stood up without holding onto anything and took a few steps!  It was the first time she had ever done that so we were all pretty geeked about it.

Finally, it was time to head home and get a real bath.  Baylor was sad to go, but he got to run outside so that took quite a bit of the sting out of leaving.  And a bonus ... Baylor was so worn out from not napping and getting to run outside a bit that he didn't protest at all when it was finally time for bed!  Awesome!!!

You've gotta love days like that.

Napless: Paying the Price

Yesterday at my mom's house, Baylor decided he didn't want to nap.  He was in his crib for 55 minutes making all sorts of noise until my mom had to go in and abort the attempt at a nap because he was making so much noise he was starting to wake up Mollie.

He did pretty well the rest of the afternoon, but by the time Mollie got up and we needed to head home, he was ready for a meltdown.  At dinner he ate a little but looked so very drowsy.  And then he fell asleep.

He woke up once, all angry and confused, but in no time he was back asleep.  And he was in such a deep sleep that Bryson was able to pick him up and hold him without Baylor making so much as a peep!  Mollie looked on with much awe and confusion.

Out like a light!

While we tended to Baylor, Mollie got impatient.

Eventually we got him woken up and calmed down enough to have a little more dinner before he could play.

Hopefully today he'll decide that he still needs to take a nap, no matter how busy he thinks he is.

Nap Taper

A couple weeks ago, Mollie started having trouble sleeping for both naps.  She'd sleep for one then not the other.  Or she'd struggle for one of them and end up only getting a little sleep in.  

So, I decided to try to eliminate a nap to see if we could just get down to one really good nap a day.  She's been doing okay with it, but right about lunch time she gets ... well, she gets a little tired.

Head gets heavy.

And a little floppy.

It's awfully cute ...

... but a little sad at the same time.

Today she's already down for her nap; poor girl has a cold that is just doing a number on her.  But hopefully, once the cold subsides, we'll have her down to one nap.  One really stellar nap.

We'll see!

Weaning: Do It Yourself?

I just put both kids down for a nap.  Baylor, being two and awesome and all, has decided he doesn't want to nap and is just going to make a bunch of noise in his crib.  *sigh*

Mollie, on the other hand, would not nursed.  Flat-out refused to.  I tried forcing her down ... nada.  Oookay.  So I read her a few books, thinking that might get her drowsy enough to want to nurse.  Nope.

Instead, she looked at her crib, said, "Nigh-nigh," and made a goodbye waving motion with her hand.

Riiiight.

Tried nursing her again and she responded the same way.

Fine, I thought, you don't want to nurse, you can go in your crib.

So, I put her in, she snuggled down with her pink bear (Dollie and Sleep Sheep were in the wash) and I haven't heard a peep out of her.  I really can't believe it.  Could she be weaning herself?!

Bed Head and The Noisy Restaurant

Earlier this week, the kiddos and I went out to dinner with my parents while my husband was at class.  Somehow, their nap schedule got all messed up and I ended up having to wake up both kids in time to go out for dinner.  After his nap, Baylor's head tends to be a little warm and sweaty (he's a naturally warm kiddo, you know?), so when we put his hat on to brave the cold outside it produced some awesome hair by the time we got to the restaurant.

As you can probably tell, Baylor was still pretty tired from his nap even as dinner progressed.  Much like his dad, the little man does not like to be woken up from his slumber.  Mollie, on the other hand, is much like me; she can perk up with the best of them.

Soon after we arrived, a group of middle school girl basketball players came in to have dinner with their parents.  My oh my, did the place get noisy!  You could barely hear yourself think, let alone talk to the person next to you.  Baylor, who is slightly sensitive to loud noises, decided to just avoid the noise as best he could and kept his fingers in his ears for the rest of dinner.

Which meant that my dad and I had to feed him the rest of his dinner.  Not really that uncommon of an occurrence, but it was extra cute that he just wanted to have his fingers in his ears.  Happily, it also meant that he gave up the struggle on what to eat and when; lately he's been a bear at dinner, not eating things he usually likes and taking forever to get through his meal ... apparently this is a common two-year-old tactic.

He finally took his fingers out of his ears when I needed to put his coat on to leave.  Lest you think that he has some sort of issue, I will concur that the restaurant was WAY too noisy; I would have put my fingers in my ears as well had it been socially acceptable.

Such a funny little guy!

Eleven Months Old ... Amazing!

Yesterday, Mollie turned eleven months old!  Can you believe it?!  She looked so adorable in the morning that I got out my camera and snapped away.

The sunlight was streaming in the window, and she was all smiles.

Well, a few funny faces snuck in here and there.

She was still pretty tired, though.

I bought some Meijer brand puffs for her and they turned out to be pretty bland, so she wouldn't eat them.  Go figure.  So she patiently waited for me to fix her breakfast.

And then she decided to play with her sleeve.

"Where'd my hand go?"

"Think I can get my shirt off, Mom?"

"Ha, ha, ha!  I'm so silly!"

Unfortunately, we headed out for some shopping at what would have been her nap time, so she missed her morning nap.  Then she decided not to take her afternoon nap, save for a fifteen minute catnap in the car on the way home from the mall.  In spite of not napping, she was quite the curious girl yesterday.

She even tried an independent step or two!

By the end of the night, though, she was ready for a snuggle under her blankie.

And with Oma, of course.

I can't believe that in one short month, my girl will be one!