Horse Rides are Not for Whiners (or Kids Who Get Out of the Cart)

This morning I braved it. I took the kids to Stuff Mart all by myself. Once upon a time, this wasn't that big of a feat. I used to do it all the time. But the more pregnant I have become, the less I have been interested in taking Busby and Janet to grocery shop without some type of back up. That's why my grocery day moved from Tuesday to Saturday. Big Kahuna has generally been available on Saturdays to shop with us. But not today. He is working today.

Busby let me sleep until 7:30 this morning, so I was feeling rested in spite of the fact that I was up for an hour of pregnancy insomnia last night. Busby wanted freezer waffles for breakfast. He ate 3 bites and declared himself done. Janet woke just after 8:00, and requested pop tarts. She ate more than her brother (typical). Then I got them dressed and out the door at 9:15ish. Yeah me!!

Busby then insisted on talking each and every time I tried to turn the radio volume up. I think it was because I wouldn't play the CD he wanted. He also kept insisting that he "knows what it means" but couldn't tell me what he was talking about.

We made it Stuff Mart, I found a cart that would hold two kids, my purse, my reusable bags*, and my clip board with my shopping list. We were going around the store, and Busby kept asking to walk. I don't feel he's trustworthy enough to stick with me yet, so I told him no. Halfway through the store he undid his belt and got off the cart anyway. So we had a discussion in the middle of canned goods about how if he doesn't start listening to Mommy and stay in the cart, there will be no horse ride. (Stuff Mart has the mechanical horses for a penny. No joke.) Well, 2 fits and 4 times off the cart later, we were through the checkout and heading out. Both kids crying because there would be no horse rides today. I don't feel bad about it at all. Those horse rides should be a reward, and I will not reward disobeying Mommy's directions.

We got out to the car, and the door swung back and hit Janet in the face. She has a lovely red mark just beside her eye.

Now, for much cuteness: On the way home, Busby said "Mommy, I'm sleepy. Can I take a rest when we get home?" Sure thing, Kiddo. Only he stayed in bed for a mere 7 minutes. Then got up and asked for lunch. Oh well.

Long story abbreviated: I took my 8 month pregnant self and two toddlers grocery shopping without backup and survived to tell the story. Also, Coupon Savings = $17.75. Total Savings (sale prices + coupons) = $46.63. Woo Hoo!!! Now I need a nap.

* I purchased 5 reusable bags last week at Stuff Mart. Stuff Mart and another local grocery store sell them for $1 each. They are quite handy, and I learned today that when you bring them in and use them, you get some type of credit on your grocery bill. YEAH!!! But what is up with Target charging $1.49 for theirs?

Reading the signs

On our commute home, we pass several auto dealerships. Today, Busby said "Look, Mommy, that has the same letters as your teering wheel!" I looked up and saw a sign for the Jeep dealership. I asked him "Do you mean that sign has the same letters as my steering wheel?" And he said "Yes, same letters. And your teering wheel has a bird on it." From the back seat, the horn on the steering wheel apparently looks like a bird. :) Then I asked Busby to tell me the letters on the steering wheel, and he correctly identified the J, but is unfamiliar with lower case "e," so I helped him out there, and he knew the p.

Earlier this week, while I was at the doctor for my 34 week prenatal appointment, Busby and his grandma played with some letter magnets and cards, and Busby put them in order, on his own. Then he put the number magnets in order from 1-9.

I'm so amazed and proud of him. I often wonder if I'm not doing enough to encourage his learning of letters and numbers. But he has done soooo well. He has learned his colors, he knows most shapes, and can give you the total low down on Stop signs: it's a octagon, it's red, and has the letters S-T-O-P.

On Tuesday I introduced the joys of Candy Land to my children. The box says for ages 3-6, so I figured I have just enough maturity to pull it off. It's a Winnie the Pooh edition. Busby did very well. Janet, on the other hand, only wanted to play with Poops (Pooh) and the Cow (Eyeore). I have never heard Eyeore "moo" before. It was a definite improvement over his usual demeanor. Busby really started to get the hang of identifying the direction of the path, and when the next time the selected color appears. I'll be honest, I made sure he won the first couple times we played. Tonight I didn't do that. And he didn't even notice. He was thrilled that my Piglet piece made it to the party, and was happy for his Tigger piece to join mine.

Busby has begun interacting with Diego on the videos. It is so adorable, I almost can't stand it. He answers the questions, yells out the words with prompted, and does the lifting, climbing and swimming motions. Diego may be one of the most annoying characters ever, but the kids love him.

Oh, joy of joys, the new They Might Be Giants Here Come the 123's CD/DVD arrived this week!!! It is sooo much fun. You can click over to Amazon and listen to the samples. But I'll be honest, it is totally worth purchasing.

Celebrate Birth Stories Day

So, this is Celebrate Birth Stories day. Here are my two (so far):

Busby's due date was December 22. At 5:00 on the morning of December 15 I woke up absolutely sure that my water had broken. So I laid there and waited for the inevitable whoosh of nasty. Nothing happened. I decided I was likely wrong about my water breaking, and went back to sleep for an hour. I got up at 6:00 as usual and got ready for work.

At work, I kept having to go to the bathroom. Every time I stood up I felt like I was peeing my pants. At about 9:00 I squatted down to put something away on a low book shelf and felt a nasty pain in my lower abdomen. I decided it wasn't a contraction, because it was NOT AT ALL the way my doctor described a contraction would feel. I complained to the receptionist about having to pee a lot, because she was pregnant as well, and I thought I should warn her about the increased frequency in bathroom trips. Well, she decided that I needed to go to the doctor, and involved two of the lawyers. They were waiting for me when I returned from the restroom, and informed me that I should call the doctor. I called, was told to come in, and was driven to the doc's office. The doctor confirmed that my water had indeed broken, and that I was in labor, and that I had plenty of time before I needed to worry about delivering wee Busby. She projected that he would arrive between midnight and 2 a.m. Therefore, Big Kahuna took me home so he could shower. I fixed him a pb&j between what I steadfastly refused to believe were contractions. (I am the greatest wife ever.)

We arrived at the hospital at 3:00 p.m., began check-in, and were escorted to labor & delivery. My not-contractions were getting bad enough that it was decided to complete my check in process in my hospital room. I got the epidural at 5:30ish (I think), began pushing at 6:15ish, and Busby arrived at 7:03 p.m., 8 lbs 12 oz and all red.

At 37 1/2 weeks pregnant with Janet I was induced due to miss thing being large for gestational age. We arrived at the hospital at about 6:15 a.m., checked in, and were escorted to L&D. At about 7:30 the drugs were introduced. Labor progressed painlessly. I ate all of the Popsicles they had and watched Muppet movies on the room's DVD player. Then my doc stopped by at lunch and broke my water. That's when the fun began and I demanded an epidural. At 2:15 I told the nurse it was time, the doc arrived shortly, I began pushing at 2:45, and Janet popped out at 3:00 p.m. Then I demanded some lunch.

Both Busby and Janet were delivered at the same hospital, and that is the place where we plan to deliver McCloud. It's a great facility, and it has the best grilled cheese sandwiches and chocolate shakes. And I absolutely take advantage of the 24 hour room service.

I nominate myself ...

I really wanted to nominate myself for mommy of the year, but Big Kahuna said I only qualified for Mommy of the day. So, for your consideration, I present the following reasons to vote me Mommy of the day:

1. I woke my children up from their naps. (Sorry, Mother-in-law. I know this violates your "never wake a sleeping baby" rule.) Reason: The kiddos didn't go down for "resting time" until 5:00. At 6:20 I woke them up to eat some dinner. Also, so they won't wake up at 5:30 tomorrow morning, they will be staying up 30 to 60 minutes past their bed time.

2. Instead of insisting that they eat their mac-n-cheese and hot dogs for dinner, I let them eat Easter candy. (And what better way to honor the risen Lord than with Peeps and Pez?)

3. In order to quell the whining after dinner (dessert?), they watched Sumo of the Opera. Beginning at 7:30 ish. Actually, I really enjoy Sumo. There's a really fun bit about the history of St. Patrick. Did you know that his given name was Maewyn Succat? It's fun to say "Maewyn Succat has a nice ring to it" when discussing baby names.

4. I ignored them for 20 minutes while talking on the phone to a friend whose cat just died unexpectedly. I kept saying, "Go ask Daddy."

So, thanks for your consideration on this nomination.

The Easter Report: I hope you and yours had as nice an Easter as we did. The Easter Bunny left lovely gifts and chocolate filled plastic eggs for the kids. Their favorite part was the blue plastic grass that Busby kept "flowering" with the new toy watering can that Janet received with her sandbox toys. ("I have to flower the grass, Mommy.") Today was my first Sunday getting the kids to church solo, and it went pretty well. (Thank goodness for TMBG's ABC DVD that auto plays so that I can shower and dress.) We got to the church on time for Sunday School, which I dropped Busby off for. Janet was deposited in the nursery. I ditched adult Sunday School to hang out with the Choir for an hour. After Sunday School, Busby insisted on attending worship with me, did pretty well, and kept telling me "Jesus loves you". At the end of worship Busby hung out with Uncle D. while I joined the chancel choir for the annual singing of the Hallelujah Chorus. It was a lot of fun! Then we retrieved Janet from the nursery, where she had had enough of the other little uns, and was quickly on the hunt for Daddy and Grandpa. We had a great time at Grandma & Grandpa's until late in the afternoon when Janet cried so hard she made herself sick. Then we packed up and came home to the late naps and candy for dinner. Happy Easter. He is Risen Indeed!

How to make Orange Chicken

Prepare one bag of Tyson chicken nuggets according to the package directions. Eat them while enjoying a 32 oz. cup of Orange Kool-Aid prepared with Splenda. Knock your giant cup of orange Kool-Aid into the dish of chicken nuggets on the table in front of you. Immediately start scooping out all of the chicken nuggets from the serving dish, placing them on all the napkins within your reach. Put the orange Kool-Aid soaked nuggets on your plate. Enjoy with ketchup.

Conquering the bathing dilema

The current solution to Janet's new found bathing fear/fits? Showering with Daddy. She would shower with me, but at 7.5 months pregnant, my balance is precarious at best. So she goes in with Big Kahuna, gets the scrub down, and gets handed out to me and the big bath towel. Or beach towel. I love using the beach towel for her because it keeps me mostly dry.

Back in the saddle

Tonight is the first night in a long, long time I have put the kids to bed by myself. Big Kahuna and I agreed that since I am no longer participating in the church choir, and he wants to, that he would go. So he's there, I'm here.

So far, nothing unusual. Changing the kids into jammies went much smoother than I anticipated. Janet climbed into bed on her own, but I think that's partially because she's not feeling well (see 101.9 post). And now I hear Busby playing out of his bedroom. Like I said, so far, nothing unusual.

Wish me luck. This looks like my Thursdays for the immediate future.

Update: Busby wanted to be rocked. He does this often. I just need to sit on the bed, hold him close, and rock back and forth. Janet was passed out. I think this is a new track record. It could also be the fever.

101.9

Sounds like a radio station, right? Well, not so much. That was Janet's temperature this evening. One of the most heartbreaking things in taking care of otherwise healthy toddlers is the unexplained fever. She just laid against me and said "ouchy." She even willingly took the tylenol. That almost never happens. I still haven't determined what caused the spike, but she is feeling better 2 hours post medicine. :(

Pat your head and rub your tummy

There are few things as cute as watching your 3 year old trying to pat his head and rub his tummy while Ernie sings a song about it.

New fears or just being (almost) 2?

Janet has recently (in the last week) developed a fear/anxiety/refusal to bathe. That doesn't mean she doesn't get baths, it just means that she cries and yells and just stands in the bath water demanding to get out.

What's up with this new attitude? Up to now, she has loved bath time. She loves (loved) to get in while the tub is still filling and fill up toys under the running water. She would get upset when it was time to get out, not time to get in.

This morning she really needed a bath. We had pancakes for breakfast, and she smeared syrup all over her head. There was no getting out of a good scrubbing. We put her in, she stood up and cried and demanded to get out. That makes washing her without washing the floor really, really hard.

I don't get it. And I hope it passes soon.

Tantrum watch: 3/15/08

I mentioned in my last post that Janet had two tantrums this evening. I'm sure your inquiring mind wants to know what the problems were.

Tantrum #1: I wouldn't let her walk around the house with a sippy cup of milk. (I have been trying to enforce a "take a drink and leave the cup on the table" rule.) Janet didn't appreciate this imposition on her plans, so enter the tantrum. She screams, cries, points, says a lot of "no's," screams some more, demands her cup, then throws herself face down on the floor and begins to flail and kick her feet. She turns over on her back and discovers that she can kick higher and harder in this position. This exciting discovery is not enough to deter the tantrum for a good 3 minutes. I just ignored her and continued my conversation with Grandpa. She eventually got over it, and got up to play.

Tantrum #2: Grandma took Janet outside to see the deer that were invading the back yard. Then Grandma brought her back in. Apparently against her will. She cried, screamed, pointed to the window, demanded to go out, then threw herself on the floor, this time assuming the face up position much more quickly to try out her newfound tantrum feature of kicking harder than ever. I again reminded her that there would be consequences for making herself sick, and walked away. (That, by the way, is one of the joys of Grandma & Grandpa's house: walking away from a crying child because you know there is someone else that will help out.) She eventually got over it, as expected.

There was a third episode this evening that, had she been on the ground, would likely have been Tantrum #3. I was getting her out of the car, which she didn't appreciate because she specifically requested Daddy. I got the 89 point harness on her carseat undone, lifted her out, and she immediately started flailing, almost causing me to drop her on the hard concrete garage floor. I hollered, Big Kahuna came to help, and carried her under his arm while she threw her fit, and I didn't have to my belly pummeled by two angry legs.

The week in review (or a lack of anything substanative to write)

1. Potty training is still not going well. Monday, Busby wore underpants all day, and went to the bathroom every 30 minutes as long as I reminded him. There was only 1 accident, but it was later in the day. I thought we'd be in the clear to try again Tuesday. 30 minutes after getting dressed, he was soaked. I didn't even have a chance to remind him to go to the bathroom. This is really taxing my patience.

2. Physical therapy is going fine so far. The reason for PT is nasty hip pain. There's more to it, but the details almost amount to too much information on a blog about the kids.

3. The kids have not adjusted well to Daylight Saving Time. Janet especially is having a hard time, since she would prefer to sleep in an hour later than Busby.

4. In spite of the time change, Busby was up and out of bed at 6:15 this morning. He came in the bathroom while I was showering and asked for pancakes.

5. I'm pretty sure if Busby had his way, we would eat pancakes for breakfast and mac & cheese for lunch every day. You can ask him any day of the week, and he'll generally give those as his preferred meal choice.

6. When ever I ask Janet a yes/no question, she immediately answers no, then often reconsiders and answers yes. I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to commit until she's considered her options for .0010 seconds.

7. Speaking of Janet, she had 2 doozy tantrums at Grandpa & Grandma's this evening. I just calmly reminded her that there would be consequences if she made herself sick, then I walked away.

8. It's 10:00 p.m., I haven't done my grocery list for tomorrow yet, and there are 4 1/2 boxes of Girl Scout cookies sitting next to me. Something about this picture isn't right.

9. Left over pizza: refrigerate or not? I say refrigerate, because it's nasty to eat leftovers that have been sitting out all night. Big Kahuna says "if you left this out, you could probably still eat this a month after cooking it" -- because of the preservatives. What do you think? Leave a comment, anonymous or otherwise, so at least I know you are out there.

Kickboxing with McCloud

McCloud is a mysterious being. Especially since she's not here. But there are things about her I want to share.

But she is a real mover. I mean it. I'm convinced she's leading a 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. (sometimes later) kickboxing aerobics class for my kidneys. She moves, she rumbles, and I could have sworn I heard someone yelling out directions last night.

Evenings are not the only time she moves. We're at that stage where she wakes and plays for 30 minutes, then sleeps for 30 to 45 minutes during the day. It's interesting and often funny to watch. Lately it's been taking my breath away. Litterally. She's learning the fully body verticle stretch. I love feeling the pressure on my diaphram and bladder simultaneously. Ok not really. I would double over in discomfort, but the loss of space would only agitate her.

Every time I roll over at night -- and believe me, that is no easy task -- she wakes up and plays the flip and settle game. So far, it doesn't keep me up very much, and isn't too uncomfortable. Until last night.

The Big Kahuna (he'll love that I'm telling you this) went to the bath room at 5:20. I rolled over and said something to him, and he was quickly back to sleep. Then I felt this pulling, twingy wierdness, and wondered why is he (Big Kahuna) was pulling on my belly, only to then realize it's Braxton Hicks. BH has been around for about 5 or 6 weeks. It's first appearance was a not pleasant and not pain free low lying contraction. I've since learned that with each pregnancy, BH becomes more and more painful. Yippee.

I think we're soon headed for the push and hide games. You know the ones, when you push on your pregnant belly, and the baby pushes back, and you push again, and then she turns and hides her feet.

His new best friend.

This morning, Busby said something about Janet that made me melt.

"Her is my new best friend."

How could you not love that? I'm pretty sure he's quoting The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's, since he keeps talking about Yellow McToad. But it's still so sweet that he said it about his sister.

Their first fight

The girls have had their first physical confrontation. "How?" you may ask. Well read on...

Janet was playing with Busby's new toy car. Busby was not thrilled with the idea, and tried to take it away. Janet did what she often does when she has something she doesn't want to give up, she runs for it and looks for a place to hide her head. This time she ran directly into my belly, which woke up her sister, and caused McCloud to start flipping and spinning all over the place.

It's an hour later, and McCloud still hasn't settled down.

I think it freaks out Busby and Janet to feel McCloud moving around in there, so they just refuse to touch my belly when I offer. Janet was once sitting with me on the sofa, and basically laying against my belly, when she was jabbed by the baby. Janet looked at me with the biggest eyes and kind of freaked out that there was something alive in there. Thank goodness she won't remember that. Until she reads this.

Enjoying the warmness

Today was unseasonably warm. Like 58 degrees at 8:00 a.m. in the Midwest in March warm. The Big Kahuna says "What's on the plate today." I list the 5 or 6 things I'd like to get done this morning, and he says "I was thinking of going to the zoo."

I'll be honest, at first I wasn't thrilled. Busby was in desperate need of a haircut, and I wanted to get to the grocery for the excellent chicken sale. I promised Busby I would buy him some new shoes today if he didn't cry while getting his hair cut. Plus I needed to make that physical therapy appointment that I've been avoiding. But I realized that with rain coming this afternoon, we should take serious advantage of the beautifulness that God provided us this morning. So we went to the zoo.

It was almost perfect. There were like 20 visitors there. The lions were happy to hang out and be roared at by Janet. As was the tiger. Busby loved every minute of it, and because there was no one around, he was able to run freer than usual. We went in the underwater dolphin dome, and again, because there was no one else around, the kids just ran back and forth and watched the dolphin show from underneath. We saw the sharks and the sea horses and the clown fish and the penguins. Janet seemed a bit frightened by the penguins, but she was also very tired at the time, so I can't say that I blame her. We got to see the seals being fed, and the trainers had them do a few tricks for us. Also, huge bonus: no line at the ladies room! Down side: no elephants or giraffes, which are Busby's favorite. But he was such trooper, and just kept leading us to the next exhibit.

And all was not lost. We got Busby's hair cut, purchased some new shoes, went to the grocery store, and I have a PT appointment on Saturday. The only thing I didn't get done today was the thing I forgot to put on my list, which is call the investment guy about Janet's 529 plan. No biggie. I'll call tomorrow, then I can get our taxes filed. (Yeah upcoming tax refund!!)

My Apologies

I sent an email out to about 25 of you to let you know about this blog. In my email, I referred to myself as a dork, and a few of you have taken issue with that.

Ok, I'm not a dork. But I have to be honest, setting this thing up felt kind of silly at first. So I poked some fun at myself. But calling myself a dork for blogging is, to me, rather insulting. That is, it's insulting to the bloggers that I read and admire.

So, my apologies to the likes of Julie, Julia, Tiffany, Anne and the others. And I guess to myself. It seems like time to cut myself a little slack.

Overheard at dinner tonight

"I'm not wearing pants." (Which was true. Don't look at me like that.)

"My baby's name is Farmer Pickles!" "No. No pickles." "I said Farmer Pickles, that's funny!"

I'm sure it's March 1

I cannot be the only person in the world today who went to change the wall calendar to March only to discovery that it's still showing January.

She's growing up and falling down

Janet had another first yesterday. She got out of her bed all by herself, and came looking for me. Pretty cool. Now I don't have to go in there to tell her she can get out of bed.

This morning she fell while climbing out of bed. I heard "I'm in pain" crying through my mostly unconscience fog which caused me immediately leap out of bed and move briskly across the hall to retrieve my crying daughter.

This resulted in 2 things. Now Janet would be laying in the big bed with me and Busby (Big Kahuna had to work this morning) and now I have this uncomfortable, almost strained muscle feel at the bottom of my belly.

I knew the day was coming that I would need to buy a maternity support contraption. I'm on minute 5 of hold with the local Babies R Us waiting for someone to tell me if they have the one I like from the website in stock.

Good news, they have it, and at the website price. I'm going to give this a shot over the 18 belt contraption my OB recommends, because it's about 1/2 the cost, and I have a BRU gift card! This is a must purchase if I'm going to make it through a grocery shopping trip in the immediate future. Especially a trip to Stuff Mart.

I want to skate, too.

We have these rigid plastic vent covers intended to direct the air flow more into the room and less at the windows. Janet has turned them into skates. She turns them upside down, and slides around the carpet on them. Busby has also taken up the practice. Now he's telling Janet to skate on the ice. I just told them to stay on the carpet.

This reminds me of Busby's recent first skating experience. (I wasn't there because (a) Janet had to nap and (b) pregnant + ice + skates = disaster.) We had Busby all excited about going ice skating, and Big Kahuna took him to the skating party. Skates were rented and placed on Busby's feet to which he immediately declared that they were "heaby" and didn't want them on anymore. Kahuna got him partly around the rink, then all was lost.

When they got home, Busby declared that he had skated, that he loved it, and wanted to do it again. Um, sure. Maybe in another year or so.