The things mothers will do in the name of mothering

I have had a long few days of sick kids. The upside is, they are getting better and I leave for Maui in 24 hours. I am very conflicted about leaving them, especially when they don't feel well. My saving grace is that they will be with each set of grandparents for four days. I know they will be fine, but Owen has not stayed the night anywhere yet and has only had one night with me not home. He is weaned and sleeping through the night.
Back to the sick thing and what moms are capable of. I have to say for the record that I have sacrificed my sanity and caught, yes caught with my bare hands, phlem induced vomit FOUR times in the last couple days!! Two times for each kid. That, I tell, is LOVE. The poor little ones are apparently ingesting so much phlem, that I can only assume is running down their throats, that it is making them vomit. That or they get coughing so hard that they vomit. Any way you look at it, it sucks. This is on top of Grandma being out of town, the one who usually watches them. They come home today and we leave tomorrow. My cousin Robin has been saving me and watching them, since her kid also has what mine do. Her kiddo is much worse today, so they are home today and I am home for the morning and my Dad will come up this afternoon. I hate this childcare juggle and I hate that I am always the one responsible for figuring it out. Matt will just tell me, don't go to work. Well, it is not the easy. We leave on vacation this week and I have work responsibilites. It is no easier for me to take time off than it is for him, but he will never see it that way. He did split Monday off with me, fortunately. The kids are sleeping better and coughing less at night, so I consider that progress. I have been downing the airborne - don't get sick - stuff. I hope it works, I don't want to have a miserable vacation. But, I would much rather have a cold on the beach than at home in the cold. Which by the way, it has dropped from 20 above zero to 40 below zero. It makes it much better to leave for the tropics when it is real cold at home. The resort has a massuese (sp) that will come to the beach and give massages. I can tell you what I am doing friday, woohoo!!

Happy with her new soft jammies

Daycare

Both kids are in the first of two days of home daycare. Most the grandparents are out of town on the same few days and my sister-in-law broke her ankle and my cousin has to work these two days. My niece goes to this lady and this is where my two would have gone if Erin (SIL) didn't take them a day or two a week to relieve Grandma. BUT still, this is the first time they have been with anyone they are not related too, for longer than a Church service. I pack a bag with change of clothes for both, yiyi's, snowpants, Owen diapers, wipes and liners, bibs, sippy cups, Gwendolyns special blanket, and a well thought out instruction sheet. I have heard from the lady once and both kids were doing well. Owen had a nap and is already in his spare clothes and Gwendolyn was lacking a nap and refusing to walk (needs a nap) while they are around town on their errand. I am a touch nervous with her driving around town on the icy roads with my babies in her car, but I am trying to not focus on that. She has her two kids that are helping her and she pays them. They are 8 and 10 and she homeschools them. They are a real nice Christian family, who are very "basic" in how they live. They raise chickens and she even grinds her own flour to make their bread. They will go to her again on Monday and we may use her again someday, as needed.

To Share or Not?

Do I tell my family and local friends about my blog?? Or will it censor what I write about. Not that I write anything mean or even very revealing or deep, BUT I might want to. I did tell a long lost friend yesterday about my blog and left the link. I figure that is cracking the door to revealing myself. I have mentioned it in passing to friends and family, but no one has even jumped on the information. If I was just doing this blog as a kid update, I would have sent the link to all 75 relatives I have. But I have been pretty broad in what topics I hone in on, some kids and some me. Matt doesn't even know I write here, not that I think he knows what a blog is.
Does your family and/or friends (in real life) know about your blog?

The Lies.....and more

The lies begin at 2 years old. I don't think she is being delibrate, more like a lame attempt at helpful.
Me- working in the kitchen "Owen, are you all done?" more for conversation effects, not thinking that he is going to spout off and answer me.
Owen - in highchair in dining room, right next to kitchen and within my view "grunt, grunt"
Gwendolyn - standing in front of highchair "Owen said he is all done"
Me - "really, he really said all done?"
Gwendolyn - "Yep, he said so"
I have been continuing to work at the sign language, but I don't think he is being selective and just showing her the signs. She also claims he says please, but I just don't hear him. Yeah right. I was impressed that he followed my sign instruction, when he was ignoring my word instruction. I was trying to tell him to go to his highchair, it was time to eat. He stood there at my feet whining till I signed food and he then turned and scurried over to the chair of food. He can be taught :)
As for food, baby steps of progress for picky eater world. Owen ate human food for diner the last two nights, spagetti and stroganoff. That makes me very happy. I also discovered that Owen will drink rice milk!! Cow and soy had been thrown to the floor in disgust, but rice milk gets drunk and finished. I am happy that there is another source of calcium going into his body, he needs all the nutrients possible.

Yesterday morning Gwendolyn was riding her 4-wheeler around the living room and said to Daddy and myself, "bye, I am off to work. I go see my Wendy". I thought it was adorable, but it makes much more sense if you know that my bosses name is Wendy. I just thought it was sweet.
She has been fully potty trained for the last month. Prior to that she had been day trained since a little over 2 years old. I finally made the suggestion of panties at night and we just tried and it has been a screaming success. She also knows and mentions occasionally that when she turns 3 next month that her precious yiyi (pacifier) goes away. She only has it for sleep time, but I think she is fully ready. She has already given them up at the grandparents houses.

Smashing Success

Father-Daughter story time was a smashing success. They did the normal round of warm-up songs, then it was a movie, not a story. I guess Gwendolyn sat there the whole time, like a good little girl. Either it is me that is the problem or all my prepping of "listen to the teacher and Daddy" worked. I like to think it was my prepping tactic. They were given a craft project to do at home, instead of at the end of story time. I am slightly disappointed about that. I kinda wanted Daddy to have to get crafty and artsy with Gwendolyn. I wanted to see the creation.

Side note, it is officially less than two weeks till my Hawaii vacation with Hubby, woohoo!!


Just a photo, for photo's sake, because I can.

Teething Times

Owen took 14 months to get his first 4 teeth, slowly. He is currently making up for it by getting the next 8 at the same time. Yep 8!! He is a ball of fun, all wrapped up with a dallop of drool on top. I have invested in baby tylenol and teething tablets. Fortunately, he is still sleeping well, just mildly whiny and clingy.

These little differences between my two children always suprises me, which in turn suprises me that I am suprised, you follow? They are two different people, but I find myself expecting the same thing development wise. My head would probably explode from suprise if I had twins and they had they audacity to develop a smidge different from each other. Like I was amazed to learn that CK's twin boys have differnt laughs. But they are twins, they are alike till death do they part. I am so naive sometimes.

On a side note - Matt is taking Gwendolyn to parent-tot story time tommorrow. Should be interesting. I will start prepping her tonight, so he has a chance of her listening to the teacher and sitting still. I think he is kinda looking forward to it.

Gwendolyn had her first overnight party this last weekend. Her cousin Brooke came to the UAF hockey game with us and then stayed over. She just turned 4 and they like to play together, in spurts. I had them sleep on the sofa bed and Gwendolyn was amazed that the couch did that and keeps asking to sleep on the "new bed". I slept half the night on the couch next to them. We watched Open Season for a while and then went to sleep. They slept great and we made pancakes in our pj's in the morning. I like having a little girl a year older than Gwendolyn around. It gives me something to base my expectations on. Next year she will be in the bragging/boastful stage. I hope she skips right over the toy hoarding stage, annoying!! That and great hand-me-downs :) Brooke has a little sister coming in May, so we will lend back everything that her Mom gave us. Works great and makes me feel better about having accepted so much from her. I am a pack-rat (yes I just admitted it in writing) and that works in my favor at times like this.

Can you believe this crap??

The Pork industry has the gall to try and sue this blogging woman beacuse she was clever enought to make some shirts that had a logo about "The Other White Milk", among other cute titles. I think it is a great spin and if it encourages even one mom to breastfeed, then I am all for it!! I hope someone does step forward and represent her pro bono, she deserves it.
On a side note, I have yet to throw away the Baby Talk magazine that had the wonderful photo on the cover of a baby nursing at its moms breast. I just love that picture and wish I had taken one of either of my babies nursing.

Pent up energy

How is it that my child is always the one child that won't sit still, won't pay attention, won't be peacful and calm? I registered for parent and 2's story time at the library (thanks Nicole ) for the month of February. We had our first session this morning. There were 10 other kids and parents. ALLLLLL the other kids sat with their repsective parent and listened to the lady tell and read stories with props or books. My child (Gwendolyn)....
ran up to Miss Kitty every few minutes and was always told to go sit back down with your mom.
Spun circles on her ass while intending to sit on the carpet and pay attention.
Sat so close to the poor little girl on the bench behind us that she was forced to go sit in her mothers lap and hide her face.
Tried to overtalk Miss Kitty and tell all the other kids about the whale that was painted on the wall.

I swear I am not a bad parent, but that child has too much energy and won't sit still or listen to me or Dad or a Grandparent. I try and stress that you HAVE to listen to the teacher, she is in charge. If you are not listening, we are leaving. I have been talking up teacher authority for a while in hopes that she takes it serious and treat the future pre-school teacher with repsect. It is just emberassing to always be the parent that is calling your childs name and trying to get them to mind. I feel like a failure and I feel like it is taking away from the enjoyment of the other participants. Has anyone heard old school Bill Cosby and the bit he does about the little kid on the plane and how everyone knew the kids name by the end of the flight from hearing the mom hollar it sooo many times. That would be me and Gwendolyn. I sooo relate to that.

I want one of those kids who will sit and listen. Is that asking too much? She will sit and listen at home and loves books, but when we get into a group setting like that she loses her mind and all sense of right and wrong. I had hope that Owen would be my cuddler, but he seems to be outgrowing that and becoming more independent and curious. Maybe the next one?? someday?

If I could only bottle this energy, I could make millions. Millions I tell ya!!