ISR Lessons - Week 1

We enrolled Nathan in ISR lessons last week and this past week was his first week of lessons. ISR is a group that teaches infants and toddlers how to self-rescue if they were to find themselves accidentally in a body of water. For babies under a year, they teach them how to flip onto their backs and float in the water until they can be rescued. http://www.infantswim.com/


With Nathan mobile now, I was getting more worried about him and our pool. He has a big sister that goes in and out of the back door and he could easily get outside without someone knowing. We had talked about a fence or a pool alarm or even a net over the pool, but Brian and I both know that those can easily fail. A fence can get left open, a pool alarm can be turned off and the net could be rolled back. We decided that Nathan needed to know how to save himself if he were to find himself in the pool unexpectedly. This doesn't mean we wouldn't still do one of the other three things, we are still deciding which to do.


We found a great instructor, Lenie Stroh. She works so well with Nathan. He goes Mon - Fri for 10 minute lessons. At the end of his first week, he still cries and fusses through the lesson, but he can float for several seconds by himself. I am so excited at his progress. His main issue right now, is that he kicks his feet so much that he splashes water over his face, which makes him mad. :) This video is just of the first few minutes of his lesson today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkk8EIZ1FRI

Crawling!

So Nathan will be 9 months old in a week and I honestly thought he would never crawl. I know that seems a bit dramatic, but seriously, when he is on his stomach, he screams. I am not kidding. He lays there and throws his arms and legs out and just screams. He just recently started getting up on his hands and knees/feet and rocking. And last night I witnessed him on his hands and feet and he moved his feet towards his hands, but then got stuck and just laid down and cried.

So, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that today he actually attempted to crawl. He moved his hands and feet and actually went forward a bit. He's by no means "mobile" yet, but he can at least get a toy that is out of reach. Which you would think would make him happy, and yet no. Even as I witnessed him attempting to crawl tonight, he cried through the entire procedure. He is seriously unhappy in a horizontal position.

Now, the bittersweet part. While he has finally started to crawl, I didn't see it happen. Yet again, he did a milestone in the presence of a babysitter. (He also rolled over for the first time at daycare.) I can't decide what makes me more sad, that I didn't get to see him crawl for the first time or that I know I didn't get to see him crawl.

When Lauren was a baby, she stayed at a home daycare that had been in this business for a while, so I have no doubt that Ms. Ashley witnessed many, if not all, of Lauren's firsts, but she never told me. So I have always just assumed that I got to see Lauren do everything for the first time. As for Nathan, I have been told in both cases that he preformed a milestone without me seeing it first.

I think for a lot of moms that work, there is a constant struggle with guilt over not being there. So when your baby does something momentous and you miss it, it just makes the guilt worse. I think one of the fun parts of being a parent is teaching your children. It is so fun to teach them to walk or to say their first word, and when someone else steps in and takes over that role, it is a very hard pill to swallow.

So, while I am trilled that Nathan is finally starting to crawl, I am also incredibly sad that I missed it. I hope that I get to see his first steps... or at least that his babysitter will not tell me that she saw it first.

Stress

So, I have a new job. About a month ago a job posting came up in my company for a manager position and I applied and got it. Two weeks ago was my first official day in my new position. I manage a team of web and vb.net developers at my company.

So far I have been so overwhelmed. The area that I moved to supports a bunch of systems that I have never worked with before. So, not only am I trying to get used to managing people, but I also am trying to learn several systems. It's hard. I hate not knowing what I am doing. It is so frustrating to spend my whole day not having any idea what people are talking about. I get emails all day long and most of the time I have no idea what they are talking about. Luckily the other managers on my team are fantastic and are so helpful. They are always willing to stop what they are doing and explain an email, or give advice about who should work on something or point me in the right direction for problem resolutions. My team that I manage is equally helpful. They will explain their systems to me in great detail and help me to understand what they are working on.

My days just fly by. On Tuesday, every time I looked up it was an hour later. I feel like I barely get anything accomplished during the day and I have yet to be able to leave work on time. I will be so glad when I start to settle in to my new role and things start making sense.

I wish I could see the video surveillance...

So, on Sunday I asked Brian to run to the store to pick up a few things for dinner. Lauren begged to go with him and he agreed thinking that they could spend a little time together without Nathan. About 30 minutes later, I hear them pull up and Lauren gets out of the car crying and Brian is mad, mad, mad. He tells her to go sit in her room and he'll come talk to her in a minute.

Of course I'm pretty confused, so I wait until she is upstairs and I ask Brian what happened. He begins to tell me about the horrible trip to the store they had. She ran up and down the isles and would run from him when he tried to get her. She was touching EVERYTHING in the store. (By this point, I'm thinking, "This isn't that unusually for her.") Then they get up to the checkout counter and as Brian is putting the groceries on the conveyor belt, my daughter walks up behind him, grabs a hold of his pants, and yanks them down! All the way to his ankles! He was just wearing little elastic-waist shorts so it wouldn't take a lot of effort to get them down. Brian said he calmly reached down and pulled them up. Luckily there was no one in line behind him, but I bet the cashier saw the whole thing.

I laughed and laughed. I laughed so hard I cried. He, of course, didn't think it was as funny as I did. Man, I wish I could see the video surveillance camera of it happening!

Update

A few updates...

Nathan has two teeth! The first broke through the skin last weekend and the second is almost through. I knew he must have been teething with all the fussiness and general discontent. He is so much like Lauren. She was also 7 months when she got her first tooth and she got two at the same time like him. The main difference is that she apparently has a higher tolerance for pain. She was never as unhappy as he is. She fussed a bit, but once they broke the skin she was over it. Not Nathan. He is cranky. All.Day.Long. Our poor sitter, I'm not sure how she is holding up. I guess lots of Tylenol. ;)

Lauren attended her 2nd gymnastics class tonight. She is doing so great! She went right in this time and didn't throw a fit. She actually participates with the other kids. I am so impressed with her. It's funny, she is the tallest girl out there. I don't think I realized how much bigger than other girls she was until this. She says that she really likes going. The bars are her favorite part. Tonight the teacher helped her flip over the bar. She's been wanting to do it since she saw another kid do it, but she's been nervous. She also loves the balance beam. She is getting really good at waking on it. Overall, I am really impressed with the place she is going. The teachers are great with the kids. They are so patient and they try to teach them real gymnastic moves.

Brian went tonight and he said he had fun. It's hard not to enjoy yourself when you are watching a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds do gymnastics.

Gross

I never knew how thankful I was that Lauren, as a baby, was not a spitter until Nathan. Nathan has reflux and, in most cases, it is silent reflux. That basically means that his milk comes back up in his throat without actually coming out of his mouth. He has been on Prevacid since he was three weeks old and it has really helped make him a much happier person. However, more recently he has started spitting up after just about every time he eats. Spitting up isn't even an accurate term. Anyone with a baby that has reflux knows that the volume of milk that comes back up far surpasses a baby that "spits up."

Tonight I had one of those moments that just makes you say "Gross." Just plain, monotone, no excitement "Gross."

Nathan was laying on his changing table getting ready for his bath. I reached down and picked him up and I heard the ominous burp. You know this burp. It's not the normal "I swallowed a little too much air" burp, it's the deep, wet gurgle burp that makes most people start looking for a burp rag. Unfortunately, tonight I didn't have time to find a rag. In one swift motion I picked him up from the changing table and as I was bringing him to my body I heard the burp followed by the splat of "spit up" (I use that word loosely) hitting my cheek, neck and chest.

All I could do was freeze as I felt the warm, stinky milk hit me. I shouted for Brian to "HELP!" and as he walked in he smiled followed by gagging. I quickly handed Nathan to him and walked into our bathroom. When I looked in the mirror, I had chunky, yellowed formula down my cheek, all over my neck, and slowly sliding down my chest to pool up in my bra. Gross.

I've been spit up on before, but never like this. Most things about my children don't gross me out. I can handle snot and boogers and pee and even poop. Drool doesn't bother me even when it is laced with baby food. I can pick up one of my kids from a high chair when they are covered in food mess from head to toe and it doesn't bother me. They're my kids. Nothing about them is too gross. Except for throw up. Yuck. That's all I could say as I was cleaning myself off. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. I really hope he out grows this soon.

Lauren... The Vain One

Lauren has been asking for about a month to take a dance class. I'm not sure where she came up with this, but I have wanted to enroll her in something but I was worried it would go the way of the swim lessons from last summer.

Sidebar: We enrolled her in a 2 week, 4 days a week for an hour, swim lessons at the YMCA last summer. I think we made it to half of the lessons. Lauren would either cry through the whole swim lesson or cry before we would leave. She decided she was scared of the water and even though we were in a Mommy and Me class with babies, she acted like the biggest baby out of all of them. Seriously, there were a couple of 6 month olds in our class.

Anyway, I have been dragging my feet about starting a dance class because I know my child and I know she will not participate for most of the class. I decided we would not enroll her in any sort of professional dance place because I didn't want to waste our money. Everyone at work talks about a place called The Little Gym (we are having Lauren's birthday party there this year) so I called them today and they let us come for a free class to see if we would like it. The dance class consists of 30 minutes of tap and ballet and 30 minutes of gymnastics. When we left there Lauren had decided that she did not want to take dance but did want to take gymnastics. So tomorrow will be our first day of gymnastics. Hopefully she will warm up to it and have fun.

We went to Target tonight to get her a leotard. We had to try them on to make sure we got the right size. I have been in the dressing rooms with Lauren a couple of times now and I am shocked and horrified. :) When she is trying on clothes she struts and spins and really checks herself out in the mirror. Tonight was no different. Once the leotard was on, she immediately turned around, stuck out her butt and really admired herself. She then announced that the one she had on would do. After we had tried them all on (none of the others met her liking) I told her to put her clothes back on. She spent the next several seconds admiring her naked body (she only had panties on) in the mirror. Lots of bending over and lots of sticking her butt out.

I have no idea where this comes from. She hasn't seen Brian or I do this. She is very into what she looks likes. Her vanity definitely comes from Brian, but he certainly doesn't stick his butt out in front of the mirror and check himself out. She's crazy! And very entertaining. ;)

Nathan Like Me?... Scary

I've realized over the past few weeks that Nathan is so much like me it's scary. I have lots of querks that I really hoped would never get passed on. ;) Beside the fact that he currently seems to have my physical characteristics and build (on the shorter side and prone to extra weight), he seems to have several of my other traits.

I am one of those persons who gets hot very easily - always have. I blame this for the main reason I disliked sports so much growing up. I can just look out the window on a summer day and start sweating. I get all red-faced and sweaty just sitting outside in the summer so you can imagine what I'm like if I am doing any sort of physical activity. Lauren seems to have gotten Brian's traits. Brian is one of those people that can run a mile in the middle of summer and barely look like he's worked out. It takes a lot for him to get hot. He never get's red-faced and while he does sweat he doesn't look like I do - hair wet and matted to the side of my face like some sort of cat that has been dunked in water.

Anyway, it became very clear to me on our Seaworld trip that Nathan is, sadly, much like me. Poor thing. Just sitting in the stroller at Seaworld and he was drenched in sweat and his little cheeks were bright red. We shared several water bottles trying to keep cool. While Lauren and Brian were off seeing all the animals at the zoo, Nathan and I were trailing behind panting in the heat and trying to cool off. We were miserable.

We went to the beach this past weekend and he seems to have more of my traits. He sunburns very easily. Lauren has never been sunburned, partially because I lather her in sunscreen and partially because she has Brian's olive-ish skin.

(Soapbox for a moment - I hate seeing young kids burned or darkly tanned. Sun tanning is bad for your skin. I know too many 20-somethings that have had cancer cells removed from their bodies because of all the sun exposure they had in their teen years. As long as I can control it, my kids will be white. Okay, back to my blog.)

It takes a lot for Brian to burn - he usually just tans. So while I am lathering myself with SPF 50, Brian doesn't put anything on and he is just fine. The same seems to be true for our children. Poor Nathan, 15 minutes into our beach trip and he is hot and sweaty and sandy and unhappy. Very much like me as a child. (I hated the beach and still do.) To me there is nothing worse than having dried salt water all over yourself and sand in all kinds of areas sand shouldn't be.

A Day at the Wildlife Ranch

So we are back from our trip to San Antonio. It was fun. Probably a lot more fun for Lauren than for Brian and I, but still fun. We went to Sea World, the zoo and to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. The latter will be the focus of this entry. :)

Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch is a fun little drive through park that allows people to feed a variety of animals from the comfort of their car. Think safari, but less scary animals. We got to see deer, antelope, gazelles, long horns, goats, zebras, emu, ostriches, etc. It was a neat experience, kind of.

Before I went, I had been warned that the ostriches are a bit forward and will poke their heads into your car looking for food. I was told to make sure we kept our windows up to avoid having to convince a giant bird to remove its head from our car.

So we got to the park in the morning and the trail starts you off with some very disinterested deer and other varieties of grazing animals. We had a blast. They came pretty close to our car and we got some good pictures. They were very polite and would wait a few feet from your car for you to drop food on the ground for them. Lauren would never have been able to see some of these animals this close if not for this place.

As we are driving through we enter a section of the park called "Kenya." Lauren was so excited at the thought of seeing a real zebra up close. She was sitting on Brian's lap helping him drive and Nathan was in my lap trying desperately to eat some of the animal food. (I can't tell you how many times I had to pull the bag of food out of his mouth. He's sneaky at getting it.)

So right as we cross over the cattle guard into the Kenya section I see the car in front of us stop and an ostrich walk up to their car for food. They clearly have their windows up because it quickly looses interest in their car and begins to walk towards our. Laughing I say "Here it comes, let's get the windows up."

And that is when the horror began. I casually reached over and pulled the window switch... and the window would not roll up. At this point the bird is making a beeline for my open window. So I pull it several more times (obviously I hadn't done it right the first time) and it still won't roll up. So I start shouting "Brian, the window, the window." So Brian then tries to roll the window up from his set of controls. By this point the ostrich is at our car and is pecking around the outside of the open window. I start to panic and start screaming "The window, the window." The ostrich must have thought I was inviting him in, because in came his head right for Nathan. So now, I'm trying to climb over the center console and into Brian's lap with Lauren, I'm screaming, Nathan's crying, Lauren's screaming, Brian's screaming and shouting, the ostrich is pecking around the inside of the car. I'm sure everyone in the cars around us could hear us. Brian finally realizes that he had put the window lock on back at the beginning of the park, so he clicks the lock off and starts to roll up the window. Except now the bird's damn head is in the car and Brian doesn't want to hurt it. So he stops rolling the window up which send me into another fit of shouting and screaming and trying to get Nathan away from it. Brian finally gets the window close enough to the bird's neck that it pulls it's head. We get the window up and kick it into gear and get the heck away from it. Once we are away from it, we laugh. I wish I had a video of what we looked liked. I'm sure it was hilarious. All of us screaming and crying and shouting and me and Nathan practically in Brian's lap. It was awful. :)

I wish that was the end of my tail... after we drive away from the attacking ostrich, we come across the zebras. Lauren is thrilled. We roll our windows back down and start tossing food out to them. Apparently zebras are just as aggressive as ostrich, because within a split second, I have a giant zebra head in my window which kicked off the second round of screaming and frantically trying to get the window rolled up. Luckily the window locks were not one this time and we were able to get the window up before anyone was bitten. (Seriously, they both went after Nathan's legs. Clearly the delicious rolls he has all over his body are tempting to wild animals.)

After we get away from the zebras we think we are nearing the exit, we come across the rest of the ostrich. Obviously the first one was just a scout for the rest of them, because we rounded a bend and there had to be 15 - 20 of them. Lauren starts screaming again and thrashing about trying the get away from them. This time the windows were so I got a good picture. You can't say this wouldn't scare the crap out of you...

It was pecking my window! Anyway, needless to say, Lauren cried the whole time through the second time around. You may be asking yourself, why would you go through it a second time? Well, we still had three bags of food, and we really wanted to see the ostrich and zebras attack some other unsuspecting car. :)

I highly recommend visiting this place. It was so neat. Just keep your windows up when you enter the Kenya section. :) Here are a few more pictures of the nicer animals.

Heaven - It's a long trip

Yesterday we were driving in the car down the beltway and we passed the giant cross Sagemont Church has erected. Lauren has recently become very aware of crosses and and what they symbolize.

Lauren: Look, a cross! Jesus died on the cross.
Rebecca: That's right.
L: But he came back to life and then went to heaven.
R: That's right.
L: Momma, how do we get to heaven?
R: Jesus has to take us there. He is the only way to get to heaven.
L: Why hasn't Jesus come back from heaven?
R: Well, Jesus promised that he would come back one day and take us all up to Heaven.
L: But how do we get there?
R: Well, no one knows. You have to wait until it's your turn to go and Jesus will show you how.
L: (looking up at the sky) Heaven is a long ways away. When Jesus comes to take us we better pack some movies for the trip.

:) Little kids have such an innocent understanding.

Bad Day

Some days are so hard. Today was one of those days. It rained ALL DAY. Not like rained a little and then stopped and then rained a little more. ALL DAY. Like poured down rain, then slowed down a bit and then poured some more. Normally a rainy day wouldn't bum me out too much because we usually get out in the rain and try to run some errands. But this was pouring, cold, flood the roads rain. So we were house-bound.

The day started off okay. We got up and made breakfast and watched a movie - Marley and Me. But by lunch time when it was really pouring and Lauren was bouncing off the walls, I had had enough. I decided to let her help me make some cookies and decorate them. I was hoping this would occupy her a little and help with the stir crazy, but it didn't.

Shortly after the cookies, Brian noticed water coming in our kitchen window. This was at the height of the rain and when he pulled the blinds off the window, the water started pouring in. Yuck! He rigged some plastic both outside and inside the window and it helped direct some of the water to the sink rather than the floor and counter tops. Tomorrow, he is going to take a look at the window and decide if it's something he can fix or if it's something we need to call someone out to look at. Ugh.

Nathan has always been a bit attached to me. Like, if I walk into a room and he sees me or hears my voice then he insists that I hold him. It has recently gotten much worse. Like he cries and screams until I pick him up. Very irritating at times. Today he was particularly bad. He insisted that I hold him all day. He cried if I put him down or if Brian held him or if I held him but didn't pay attention to him. (He had to be facing me in my lap in order to be happy. Just sitting in my lap facing the room was unacceptable.) I'm sure there will be a point when I will really miss this attachment and I am trying really hard to enjoy his unwavering affection, but seriously, I have to be able to put him down at some point. People have to go to the bathroom. Or do laundry. Or pay attention to their other children.

I say all of that to say this: the fact that he was glued to my hip today only made the day that much worse. Picture if you will 12 hours of being stuck in the house with a neurotic dog that is afraid of the rain and needs to go potty but refuses to go outside in the rain so she paces from room to room. A 3 1/2 yr old that is bored out of her mind so she is getting into everything. Trashing her toy room, coloring on herself with markers, cutting paper into teeny tiny pieces all over the floor, and asking to go outside in the rain every 10 minutes. A 6 month old who refuses to be put down, even to sleep. He cried and moaned and groaned and kicked and spit and was generally unhappy all day. To top it all off, we have water pouring in from our kitchen window. It was a bad day. The weather man promises tomorrow will be better. He better not be lying.

So, Brian and I decided to take Lauren and Nathan out of daycare. Mainly because we had someone offer to come to our house and watch them for the same price of daycare. She is the wife of a co-worker and she is super nice. I am really excited and hopeful about the whole experience. Lauren met her for the first time this past weekend and she has not stopped talking about her. I am so relieved. I was really worried that Lauren would have an issue with someone she didn't know coming in our house but she seems really happy about it.

I think I am most looking forward to more consistent care for Nathan. In the four months that we have been at the daycare, he has had four different teachers, with the most recent one being my least favorite. She is very condescending and she just rubs me the wrong way. Oh, and I forgot to mention that she told Brian that Nathan would be over weight in elementary school. Right? Are you also at a loss for words? That's how I was. Who in their right mind would tell the parents of a SIX MONTH old that he will be fat in elementary school? I was so mad. I called up there and spoke to the director and the teacher apologized the next day, but the damage was done.

Anyway, fingers crossed that this new arrangement will work out. She starts Monday. Please pray that she doesn't immediately regret her decision. ;)

Candy

Lauren never stops amazing me. Before Easter I bought a bag of the Reeses Peanut Butter Eggs - I love these and they are only out at Easter. Like all candy that is brought into my home, it has to be hidden both from my daughter and my dog. So I had stashed the bag on the counter behind some things. One day after work, while I was making dinner and Lauren was outside playing, I decided to have one of the eggs. I quickly ate it before anyone (Lauren) saw me. In our house we have a rule: "No snacks before dinner." So if I was going to break my own rule I had to make sure no one saw me. :) Not more than 30 seconds after I swallowed the last bite, in walks Lauren.

She immediately stops in her tracks and says "What are you eating?"
I lie, of course, and say "Nothing."
She stares at me intently and then sniffs the airs. "I smell peanut butter. Did you eat peanut butter?"

I about fell over when she says this. At this point, I am amazed at her perception and so I give in and let her have one of the eggs. Seriously, I can't believe she could smell the peanut butter from the candy!

Earrings

I had Lauren's ears pierced when she was 6 months old. To anyone with a daughter, I highly recommend doing it when they are little. She only cried for a few seconds and she has no memory of it hurting. Anyway, she went through a couple sets of earrings the first year or so until I finally bought a set that had screw on backs. I've taken them out periodically to clean them and clean her ears, but the last several months or so, I've noticed that they seemed to be sinking into her ears. I think the post is too short and they are growing into her ears. So I finally bought an adult pair at a jewelry party and I got the earrings today.

Let me mention that for some reason Lauren has convinced herself that it is tremendously painful to remove her earrings and will not let me touch them. So when I showed her the new earrings, she was less than thrilled about putting them in. After a few threats of me holding her down and removing the old earrings, she finally agreed to let me take the baby earrings out. Now, here's the tricky part. I had promised her that it would not hurt to remove the earrings. That was before I had a chance to fully inspect them and see that her left ear was trying to fuse with the earring. Yikes! So I begin trying to pull the earring out and it is stuck. She of course can sense my nervousness and begins to whimper. Her whimper turns into a cry which turns into an all out fit. After several tugs, the earring comes out. Well, now there is no way in hell she is going to let me put the new earrings in. I convince her that it is not going to hurt and let her rub the antiseptic on her ears and on the new earrings. Then I tell her it's time to put the new ones in.

R: Okay, let's put the pretty new earrings in your ears.
L: (crying) No, it's going to hurt.
R: No it won't. Do you want to do it?
L: (still crying) Yes.

I hand her the earring and she begins stabbing herself in the ear all over the place. After a few seconds, I grad the earring with one had and grab her hands with the other. This sends her into a tizzy with lots of crying. I stick the earring in and say "There, it's in." She pauses and kind of half laughs and half cries and says "Do the other one."

Once the earrings are in, she parades around the room and checks herself out several times in the mirror, before announcing that she will not take a bath tonight because she doesn't want to mess up her pretty new earrings. We compromised with taking a bath but not washing her hair.

She really takes a simple situation and turns it into a dramatic one.

Bluebonnets!

So we went to take the annual pictures in the bluebonnets... I'm not sure why we put our kids through this. Well, I do know why. We want these pictures to remember them at this age and the Texas wildflowers are so beautiful. However, what I remember from the last three years is lots of crying and whining and pouting and begging and threatening and promising, and not just from the kids. :)

I absolutely LOVE pictures. I have them all over my house and all over my desk at work. I love to be able to look up at any given moment and see one of my beautiful kids, posed sweetly, smiling at the camera. However, it takes A LOT of effort to get those sweet pictures. Case in point, we met the Jordons in Brenham this morning for what has become a yearly tradition of taking pictures in the bluebonnets. (Brenham has a wonderful spread of those pretty little blue flowers.)

So we pull up to the first location and we begin walking out into the field to find our spot. (One where no one else is walking around in the background.) You know, we want it to look like we were the only ones in this giant field of bluebonnets. ;) I plop Nathan down and begin taking pictures. About this time Lauren decides that she will not sit on the ground - she needs something to sit on. (Seriously, I don't where she gets this from. This is the same child who comes home from daycare everyday with dirt under her nails because she was digging a hole with her hands looking for worms.) So, Brian runs back to the car to fetch her majesty some sort of blanket to sit on. She sits and I get a couple of pictures of the two of them. Then Lauren decides that she has had enough and so begins my day of pleading with her to look at the camera and smile, not stare blankly at the camera, SMILE! We come home from this adventure tired, cranky, and sunburned, but by God, I got my pictures. :)

Here are a few of them. The rest will be on the shutterfly site in the next few days: http://barkerfamily2.shutterfly.com/

I forgot to mention... it was VERY windy and Nathan kept trying to eat the flowers. :)

Easter Baskets

Why can't I find clothes for Nathan? I have been on the lookout for a nice outfit for Easter Sunday for several weeks now and I can't seem to find anything! Well, that's not true. If he wore 12 months or up there are plenty of options. Or if I wanted to dress him in pastel blue onesies and cotton knit pants, those are everywhere. Or if I wanted to dress him in some sort of baby Winnie the Pooh I would be in luck. But, I want to dress him like a boy. You know, little button down shirt, khaki pants, that sort of thing. Apparently I'm the only mother that wants to dress her son like that. Now I haven't gone to the mall or to the more expensive places like Children's Place. I've looked at Wal-Mart, Target, and Babies R Us. But honestly! There should be more options. I am going to try Carter's tomorrow and fingers-crossed, I will find something.

The same goes for bathing suits. Every year Lauren gets a new swim suit and cover up in her Easter basket and this year I will do the same for Nathan. However, I can't find a swim suit in a smaller size than 12 months. Now he will most likely be in a size 12 months by the end of summer (heck, maybe by the start of summer) but I would like to start out in a smaller size. I am so disappointed in the selection of clothing for boys under a year. I guess they are not supposed to go swimming or to look like little men. :(

Sickness

Everyone in my house has been sick for like the last month. I am so tired of all the sickness. It started back mid-January and none of us have been able to kick it. I'm not sure if it's just the constant weather changes here in Houston, or if we just keep passing the same germs back and forth, but I want it to stop!

This weekend I have the same stuffy nose, clogged ears, sore throat, and watery eyes that Brian had last weekend and the kids had the two weekends before that. I was really hoping that this weekend would be the one where we would all be back to normal and we would be able to do something... but I guess not.

Oh well, here's hoping for a better weekend NEXT weekend. :)

My Blogging Adventure

So, it seems like everyone I know has a blog. I love reading other people's blogs and keeping up with what happens in their lives, so I guess it was natural I would eventually take the plung. I hope that I will use this as a way to write down all the things that my kids say and do, so I will never forget them and so family and friends can see a small glimpse of Brian and I's crazy life with two kids. :)

So here it goes... welcome to my blog.

Lauren's Words

Lauren was helping me unload the dishwasher last night. She’s gotten really good at sorting the utensils and putting them in the correct places in the drawer. Anyway, we were talking about what she had done that day at daycare and she informed me she had dug in the dirt outside.

Lauren: Momma, you know what I found in the dirt?
Rebecca: What?
L: Leaf-ezs
R: Leaves?
L: Yup.
R: They are called leaves. Not Leaf-ezs. Leaves. You try.
L: Leeaavveess?
R: Good job, that’s right.
L: Oh, okay. I found leeaveess in the dirt.

About this time, she had finished putting the utensils away.

L: Momma, I’m done. Do we have any more knife-ezs to put away?

Geez, who taught this child to talk? :)