Shoe shopping

Well I made it through the work week...barely. Really was not one of my better weeks, but oh well. In the past now.

This morning we had gymnastics (or nextix as Blythe likes to call it). It's a 30 minute class for 2 and 3 year olds. They do one "focus routine" each time and the rest of the 30 minutes is a free-for-all. Today the focus was balance beam. Right before we left the house this morning, Blythe told me she didn't want to do balance beam, so I wasn't sure if she would. But of course right after they said it, she proclaimed her love for the balance beam. Go figure. I would try to get some video footage of "nextix" class, except it's parent-participation-required. So I have to hold her hand on the balance beam or take her to the trampoline, or help her with the uneven bars. And, oh yeah, I have Ethan too. So I also have him in a backpack on me. And since it's parent-participation-required, all the kids do what they want and don't listen to anything the parents tell them. So when I say "try jumping with your hands in the air" or "try doing a somersault on this mat", I get "NO! I DON'T WANT TO DO THAT!". But if I weren't there and the instructors were telling her what to do, I'm sure she'd do it no problem.

Ashley is in the gymnastics class too. So after class, Blythe went to Ashley's to play while I took Ethan home to take a nap. He fell asleep on the way home, which is not a good thing. However, I was able to rock him back to sleep at home and then I decided to just let him sleep on me for about an hour. It was nice to just do that. Made me feel like I was on maternity leave again (since I did a lot of that back then!).

A bit later, I picked up Blythe and took both kids to the shoe store to get some shoes. When Ethan turns 11 months in just a few days, he has to start wearing regular shoes to daycare so he can get used to them and so he can visit the toddler room occasionally to get ready for his move up when he turns one. And the lace up shoes he has are just not going to cut it on a daily basis. I'm not doing that battle daily it I don't have to. I got him some tennis shoes and some brown "casual" shoes. I also let Blythe pick out a pair for herself. Initially she was set on some red dress shoes, but fortunately I talked her out of those since she has maybe one red thing in her closet. Then she was set on some Disney princess light-up sandals. Seeing how it's like 18 degrees out, that wasn't a viable option either. They had some really cute Dora shoes. Twice in the last week she told me wanted Dora shoes. Then she told me again on our way to the store. So I found them and showed them to her. "Blythe, look! Dora shoes!!" And I got the "I don't WANT Dora shoes!" Of course not. So I found some shoes with butterflies on them and she was totally set on those. She put them on instantly and didn't take them off the whole day. She took them off before her nap, but when I went to wake her up she had them on. She took them off for her bath, but put them on almost as soon as she got out. Here's a visual of the shoes:

And here are the tennis shoes we got Ethan. Notice how he is NOT wearing them.

He actually did wear them for a little bit. He acts like he doesn't know how to walk when he wears them. It's like his feet are glued to the ground. Won't even take a step. He'll have to get used to them eventually.

Water Babies

If I make it through this week of work, it'll be a miracle. Ugh! There's a reason we don't normally do implementations 3 days in a row, but we had to make our January numbers, blah, blah, blah!

I was so excited last week that my fitness classes finally started back up at lunch time (after the end of semester break in which I put on at least 5 pounds). Now I haven't been able to make it to class yet this week. It's driving me insane. I'm determined to at least make it to Zumba on Friday because that was a lot of fun last week (hadn't ever tried it before).

Anyhoo, Ethan had his first water babies "class" last night. It's in quotes because he was the only one there, so not so much a "class". Apparently, there was supposed to be one other baby, but he didn't show and even with 2 babies they don't feel it's worth having the class. So, we're getting switched to the Mon/Wed Water Bugs class which is for 18 mos - 36 mos, but all they do is have the parent float around with the child in that one too, so it's not really any different. So that means we're headed back to the pool again tonight. Last night Braden got in, so tonight I have to get in the frigid water. Good thing it's warm and toasty outside. Or not.

The one nice thing about Ethan being the only one yesterday was that Blythe got to get in too. She really wanted to and had a blast until we were trying to get her to go underwater. It takes her a few days to warm up to doing that. Anyway, she'll be starting private swim lessons sometime in February with an instructor so we don't have to get in (thank goodness!). Plus, she'll listen better to someone else telling her what to do.

At the end of "class", we did try putting Ethan underwater. He did really well and didn't cry or choke or anything. In fact, I think he liked it! I barely managed to get a video clip.

Here's a few other pics:

Salem Winter Carnival

Every year Salem, VA hosts a winter carnival for 3 days at the Salem Civic Center (so it's inside). We had never been, but it seemed like a good indoor activity to do. I had read online that the rides were best served for 2-7 year olds, so we asked Blythe's friend Ashley to come along so they could ride the rides together.

On the way, we made a stop at Burger King. From what I know, it's really the only fast food restaurant in about a 35 mile radius with a really good play gym. The kids loved it! Daddy even brought Ethan up in it and he loved crawling around. The girls probably would have stayed there all day, but we enticed them to leave with the promise of being able to ride rides! It really was cute the way it was all set up. There were probably about 15 rides total and some games, food, etc. The girls really had a blast. Ethan tried the merry-go-round, riding a horse, while Daddy held him on. You could tell he didn't really like it though. Funny how kids can be so different about those things. The first time Blythe rode one was about Ethan's age and she cried when it stopped because she loved it so much. Ethan doesn't even like going on a swing. Even from a young age, Blythe loved going higher and faster. The higher and faster you pushed her, the more her face would light up. Ethan, on the other hand, gives an instant look of terror as soon as you barely move the swing.

Anyway, here are some pics and video clips from the festivities. I love how Ashley always has the biggest smile on her face. So cute!

On the jet ski ride:

Video clip:

Mommy rode one ride with the girls:

Here they are on the train. They really liked this one.

And a video clip:

And Ethan on the merry-go-round. It hasn't started yet, so he doesn't know what to expect.

And lastly, Braden found a woman there wearing the "ugly Christmas sweater" he bought for a party last year (or maybe the year before) at Goody's. Christmas is just a short 11 months away!

Rough night

Had a bit of a rough night. Both kids went down just fine around 8pm. Recently Blythe has been getting up around 6:45am, which is quite a bit earlier than her normal 7:30-7:45, but she has taken a nap every day this week at day care, so I view it as a good thing. When she wakes up in the morning, she stands at the top of the stairs and screams "MOM!", until I jump from my slumber, open my door, and tell her to be quiet and come in my room. Not surprisingly, Ethan wakes up just after that.

So anyway, I haven't been getting my normal 8 hours of sleep, so last night I was determined to go to bed earlier. Braden was at a neighbors playing poker, so it was just me and the doggies. I of course fell asleep on the couch, but only for a few minutes, then got up to let the doggies out and put them to bed. After I turned the TV off, I heard something. I thought it might be Braden outside talking to someone, but then I realized it was Blythe crying. She wouldn't go potty before bed, so I thought maybe she had an accident and was crying at the top of the stairs. I went up there and saw her door was closed. But the crying was so loud, I thought maybe she was by her door and couldn't get the door open. So I opened it and she was in bed. Bawling. I laid down with her and quickly realized, she was awake and crying, but really asleep. Yes, kind of like sleep walking. This has happened once or twice before. I tried comforting her, but she just kept crying. Eventually, I think she cried herself back to "real" sleep and so I left. Finally got to my room to go to bed, looked at the clock which said 10:45 and thought "well, I'll get about 8 hours at least". Sometime later, I'm not sure exactly the time (between 11:30 and 12:30), Blythe came into my room crying. So she crawled in bed with me, which is completely against my own rules. Usually I would take her back to her room and lay with her there until she fell asleep, but that time of night I am SO asleep, that I just didn't want to move. So we slept for a while (or not really...she kicks a lot and moves a lot). At some point I fell back asleep. I knew Braden would come back though and I didn't want to have her in the bed with us, so around 1:00am I picked her up and brought her back to her room.

Then at 6:30 this morning she came and woke me up for the day. The good news was that she didn't scream at the top of the stairs and wake Ethan.

Ethan's walking

I finally got a short video clip of Ethan taking some steps. I've been trying for about a week with no luck. Last night he was really doing great, but of course my camera battery died. So here he is walking, though he can go much further than this.

Blythe ended up having a great birthday the other day. Apologies to anyone who called. The Princess wasn't taking calls that day and wouldn't speak to anyone on the phone. I didn't have to plan anything for her birthday because the "club" started doing "birthday night" on every 3rd Tuesday for anyone who had a birthday that month (any kids at least). Fortunately for us, it actually fell on her real birthday, so we went there and they had balloons, and a big (delicious) cake with candles she got to blow out and lots of people singing "Happy Birthday". It was like we had planned a big celebration!

And it's supposed to be a bit warmer today and tomorrow, so maybe Blythe will be able to try out her new bike outside. And if we're all really lucky, I may even get some video footage to share!

Blythe is 3....not 4

Today is Blythe's birthday. I tried telling her she is 3, but she is convinced she is 4. I guess she'll figure it out eventually. I'm thinking it's because she already had her 3rd birthday party over 2 weeks ago, so now she figures she must be 4.

We got her a new bike for her birthday with training wheels, since she had outgrown her tricycle. I had known what we were going to get and where we were getting it (Walmart...they have everything), but I just hadn't ventured out to get it. And we couldn't buy it the other day when we were there since she was with us. So anyway, I finally went out yesterday at 4:45 to get it. Because it's a bit of a drive out there and because I have to pick up Ethan and Blythe before 5:30 from daycare, I had only a few minutes to go in and get it. Just as I was putting it in the car, Braden called and said he would get the kids from daycare. Problem is, he only has one car seat in his car, so I still had to go and meet him there. He said he'd get Blythe and I could get Ethan. So since he was getting Blythe, I was fine just putting the bike in the far rear of the van without covering it.

When I got to day care, Braden had both kids. Apparently Ethan was right by the his door and saw Braden when he came in, so he couldn't just walk right past. So we all went out to the cars together. As soon as I opened the door to put Ethan in, Blythe jumped in my car. Recently she moved her booster seat to the far back and so she went right to that and as she was getting in, saw the Disney Princess bike I had just gotten. "A Princess bike!!!" she said. So there went the birthday gift "surprise" we got for her. Rather than wait until today, we went ahead and gave it to her last night. Since it's 15 degrees out, she attempted to ride it inside without much luck. I'm guessing it won't get used much until it gets warmer out, but she liked it so we were happy. I managed to get one quick picture of her as I was holding Ethan, because he's in that stage where I can't ever put him down (or he does his back-arching/crying routine).

I did make the yellow cupcakes for Blythe's class, though she had no interest in helping me. And just so you know, the "cupcake icing" they sell, doesn't have enough for 24 cupcakes.

When the kids got up this morning, I turned on Sesame Street, and guess what Elmo was thinking about today? Da da da da....Birthdays! How convenient :) I totally planned that.

The non-reaction

I was talking to my brother the other day and telling him what drives me crazy about Blythe. Anytime you try to get a reaction out of her, she won't give you one. My example was when we try to get her to eat her dinner. We of course do the standard negotiating, but I'll set limits and finally say, "if you don't eat this and this, you have to go straight to bed. No playing, no bedtime stories, no nothing. Straight to bed". Then she'll look at you with the food she's had in her mouth for a good 10 minutes and say, "Okay". So of course, we're convinced she doesn't quite understand, so we repeat the consequences, and get the same "okay". So goes straight to bed and then we ask her again, "do you know why you're going straight to bed?" And she'll say, "because I didn't eat my dinner". Ugh! It's so frustrating. We've tried other ultimatums, we've tried begging. Nothing works. So Doug - this next example is for you.

We went to Wal-mart the other day to get a few groceries and Braden wanted to get a new watch. Yes, his $7.00 "S-shock" watch finally bit the dust. As he was looking at watches, Blythe was hanging as far out of the cart as she could to swipe earrings and bracelets of the racks and ask me if she could have them. I had noticed off the other side of the cart there were Disney princess and Dora watches, so I was glad she hadn't noticed those. Was only a matter of time though. As soon as she saw the Disney princess watch with interchangeable watch faces of Cinderella, Belle, and Beauty, she just had to have it. So we told her she could have it for her birthday (which is tomorrow). Here's a visual:

She was so excited about her new watch. As soon as we got home, she wanted Daddy to open it, but it was time to eat first. So I told her if she ate all her dinner, she could have the new watch. But if she didn't eat, she couldn't get it and would have to wait until tomorrow after dinner. She of course wouldn't eat because the pasta had tiny pieces of green things on them. And of course, we got no argument. No reaction, other than "okay".

The next morning she asked me if she could have her watch. I told her only if she ate her dinner that night. Later in the day she asked Daddy if she could have her watch. He told her only if she ate her dinner that night. So dinner comes around and we have fruit, pasta (with no green things), and salad. I tell her she needs to eat all of her fruit, all of her pasta, and at least try the salad. She eats the fruit right away. Then she takes a bite of the pasta and tells me she likes it. Then she takes a bite of the salad and tells me she likes it. She eats no more salad and maybe another bite or two of pasta. So the negotiating begins:

Daddy: eat all of your pasta or you don't get your watch

Blythe: I don't want my watch

Daddy: Okay, then I'll give it to someone else

Blythe: Okay. Maybe you can give it to Ashley

Daddy: No, I'll take it to work and give it to Sarah.

Blythe: Okay.

Daddy: Please eat your pasta

Mommy: If you don't eat your pasta, Mommy won't make cupcakes for your birthday

Blythe: Okay. Can I have more juice?

Mommy (renegotiating): You can have milk. If you drink all of your milk, then you only have to have 2 more bites of pasta.

So after 10-15 minutes of munching on the 2 more bites of pasta. She finally does it. And all the while Ethan is wailing in his highchair as we're ignoring him. So now all she has to do is drink her milk. She drinks all but about 1/5 of the cup. Then she won't drink the rest. So it's starts right back up.

Daddy: If you don't drink your milk, Daddy's going back to the beach. Forever.

Blythe: Okay. (then offers to give him a kiss and hug good bye).

Mommy: Really Blythe - he'll leave and go back to the beach

Blythe: Okay

Mommy: Okay then, we're all going upstairs and you stay down here by yourself.

Blythe: Okay

Daddy: BLYTHE! If you just drink that milk, you can have your watch, you can have a birthday, Daddy won't go the beach forever, and you can go up with us.

Blythe: I don't want to drink it

So we all start to go upstairs. Braden goes back in there and tells Blythe that if she drinks her milk it will make Daddy very happy. And so she does.

Oh, and also while we were at Wal-mart, I had to get cake mix and icing to make cupcakes for Blythe's class on her birthday. Since her favorite color is yellow, I got yellow cake mix and then found they now sell "cupcake icing" in all different colors. More expensive, but easier than making yellow icing, so I bought that. When we got home Braden unloaded the groceries and I found we had 2 cake mixes. One for yellow cake and one for strawberry cake. I asked Braden if he had gotten that and he said No. Blythe then chimed in that she had gotten that because Ashley wanted pink cake. So neither Braden or I noticed that she reached out of the cart and got a box of cake mix. Nor did we notice when we went to pay for everything. Lesson learned - pay closer attention at the grocery store (or any store) when shopping with Blythe.

No more letters

Okay, so I'm done with the letter blogs. I guess I'm just not creative enough for it to work for me. I have a hard time thinking of who they should be addressed to and cover the hot items I want to talk about. So that was a fun experiment, but I'm over it now.

So as you know, Ethan has been sick. I took him to the doctor yesterday just to rule out strep and ear infection. I figured they'd say, "It's a virus, we can't do anything, that'll be $25". And that's exactly what they did. So he was home with me all day yesterday while I tried to get through a super-busy day at work. Fortunately he took a 3 hour nap in the afternoon, which I'm still amazed at. Before he took that nap, he had lunch and spread peaches all in his hair. I mean, it was everywhere. So, I figured it might be a good time for him to practice using a spoon. With applesauce. He did make an attempt to use the spoon, but man, was he a mess! Here's a short video. Notice Juni in her usual position whenever Ethan eats.

An up-close of the messiness.

Later yesterday we went to pick up Blythe from school. They had done "upside-down painting", where they hang paper underneath a table and they paint while laying down. Of course, this means every time they sit up, they get paint in their hair. So she had pink her yesterday.

And she of course has no pants on. The second she enters the house she always says, "I don't want my pants on" as she already has them halfway off. Doesn't even matter that it was 7 degrees outside.

My girlfriends didn't get to come up and visit this weekend because one was sick, which may have been for the better since Ethan is sick and I don't think we would have gone snowtubing this morning since it was -2 degrees here (probably even colder in West Virginia). So anyway, the kids and I just hung out, then took Blythe to get her second official haircut ever, then went to Chick-fil-a and played on the big slide. We hadn't even attempted that since the near disaster several months ago when it was closed.

I did get a little video clip of Ethan this morning at breakfast when he learned how to kiss for the first time. He kept trying to kiss Elmo. With his mouth open.

Dear Mother Nature

Dear Mother Nature,

Are you freaking kidding me??? When I moved to Southwest Virginia, I didn't sign up for -20 degree windchill. I'm just going to politely decline that weather, so you can just take it elsewhere.

Also I'm pretty sure your deep freeze has had an impact on my son's health as I had to pick him up early from day care because he had a fever. And this of course means he can't go tomorrow, thus I'm home with him alone while Braden is out of town. And I also have to work tomorrow, which is why I have to do half of tomorrow's work tonight when all I really want to do is sit on the couch.

I also think this completely unreasonable cold weather is going to cancel my plans to take Blythe snowtubing this weekend. Did you really have to make it too cold to snowtube? What happened to global warming? Where's that when you need it?

So I better get back to my work for tomorrow. How's about a 60 degree day in our near future? Think maybe you can arrange that?

Sincerely,
Mary

Dear Hertz

Dear Hertz,

I have to admit, I guess I was a little scatterbrained yesterday when I drove up to the car rental return and had COMPLETELY FORGOT to get gas on the way to the airport. So then you charged me $29.40 for 4 gallons of gas. What a rip! I mean, I realize now you have to send someone else out to go fill up the tank, but $7.35 a gallon??? Did I mention I was a "preferred" customer? A Hertz "#1 Preferred Gold Club" member? I don't think I should be treated that way. I mean, I rent cars from you like at least once or twice a year. Do you really want to lose my business? Granted this time, I rented the car via Hotwire (because Hotwire is oh-so-super--cheap) and I didn't actually know I was renting through Hertz until AFTER I booked it, but still.

Regardless of your inadaquacies as a top-rated customer-servicing corporation, I still had a very lovely visit to South Florida. I was able to sleep in, relax on the beach, read an entire book, and even read (and re-read) old People magazines. I honestly can't remember the last time I was able to do all of that. I'm thinking it was 3.5 years ago before I had children. And while I missed my children dearly, I was happy to get frequent updates on them from my mom and sister who did such a great job taking care of them. They even took them to the mall in Roanoke so Blythe could "Build-A-Bear". Though she built a dog. And named her Ariel. And dressed her in a pink "princess dress" to match the one Blythe has.

I also realize you do not control the weather in south Florida, but if you did, I would give you props, for it was PERFECT at least for the 2 full days I had there. I even got a little tan (though it will likely disappear quickly). I looked and the weather here in balmy Southwest Virginia is supposed to be high of 16 and low of 2 on Friday. Please take me back to south Florida.

I know I have digressed a bit, so I just want to say that you can either credit my MasterCard, or offer me a credit for a future rental from Hertz, assuming you want to keep me as a customer. If I do not receive a credit, I will no longer rent from Hertz. Unless Hotwire makes me.

Sincerely,
Mary

Dear New Balance

I'm going to start trying something a little different with my blog (and since it's my blog and I can do anything I want, you'll just have to deal). Anyway, I'm going to put each blog into the form of a letter. To anyone. Someone different each day probably. I don't know, we'll see how it goes.






Dear New Balance,

I was wondering if you had any plans to develop an infant tennis shoe that was easier to put on a 10 month old. Maybe one where you didn't feel like you were breaking his toes and ankles at the same time while the child kicks and screams as you attempt to force them on his feet? This morning it took me at least 5 straight minutes to get each shoe on, and I just thought a great shoe company like yourselves could develop something better. Now granted, it was my son's first time wearing real shoes so he wasn't fond of them to say the least.

I am a loyal customer of New Balance. I buy them, my husband sometimes does, and I also buy them for my daughter. I actually didn't buy this particular New Balance shoe for my son, as they were given to him as a hand-me-down from a friend. I can see now why this friend didn't wear them much. After the long struggle to get them on his feet, I then had to tie the damn shoelaces. Really? Shoe laces on an infant size 4 shoe? What 10 month old is going to sit still while you try to tie their shoes (and then double tie for good measure)? Ridiculous if you ask me. I'm just glad I didn't actually drop money on these.

I do have to say that appearance-wise, they are nice. They actually make him look like a little boy rather than a baby. See here:








So I give you props for that aspect. They did initially stunt his mobility as he was not sure how to maneuver around in them (which actually wasn't so bad since he didn't make a beeline for the dog food and water dish or the toilet paper or the refrigerator or the pantry or the stairs, but then he started to cry because he couldn't move, and so then it became a not-so-good thing). Eventually he did start to figure out how to get around and even crawled inside the bin of Mega Blocks.




So to recap: the shoes are good on appearance but bad on ease of use and mobility.

I'm sure you are wondering if I am available for consulting work. If you pay me six figures and let me work from home, I will make myself available to you. I can be reached by home phone, cell phone or email (no longer by office line since my current employer is making cutbacks and forced me to drop my office phone number...but that's another story).

Sincerely,
Mary

When the cat's away, the mice will play

Braden left yesterday early in the morning to drive to Florida...a forever long drive made 10 times worse by the fact that it was raining the whole time. Makes my 10 hour drive I made to Chicago one time where it rained every single minute of the entire trip seem like a piece of cake. Anyway, Blythe took a nap yesterday at daycare (yahoo!), so she was crazy/silly when we got home. She was up for some silly picture taking:

Later after Ethan went to bed, we had some mother/daughter bonding time where we decided to put curlers in our hair. Here's Blythe:

She of course had to have the yellow curlers.

Here we are together (and I know you're jealous of how sexy I look here...it's the look I was going for):

Apparently Blythe managed to get 3 of them out before she fell asleep and all 3 were in the same spot, so when I took them out this morning, she had all cute curly hair, except a big chunk that was straight. For myself, after a night of fairly uncomfortable sleep in curlers, my curls fell out almost instantaneously due to the incredibly dry 20% humidity conditions inside of our house.

Braden, in case you are checking my blog while you are away, I have photographic proof that it was likely Ethan taking your beer and not me or any of my friends:

This time he was doing it in plain daylight. Apparently the kid has no fear.

Oh - and the title of this post is a bit deceiving. Really the cat's not away. I am the cat.

Ethan is 10 months old

Ethan is 10 months old today! I swear, where does the time go? Let's see if blogger will cooperate today and post my little video from Blythe's birthday party of Ethan ringing the bell.

Just a little recap of what Ethan's doing these days: taking a step here or there, but mostly crawling, sleeping approx. 10-11 hours at night (sometimes even 12). Takes usually 2 naps a day, but sometimes only 1. Eats anything and everything in sight. Recently I had to take several pieces of mulch out of his mouth and a large piece of a baby wipe. Yuck. And his most recent trick is to point at something and say "Dis?" or "Dat?". He thinks it's hysterical when I say what something is after he does that and will do it over and over and over again. And of course, he loves his big sister except when she takes his toys, closes doors on him, or makes him fall down, which occur quite often.

Braden left today for the swim team's annual training trip to Ft. Lauderdale. So I'm on my own for the next few days. Now that the kids have day care again, it'll be a piece of cake compared to trying to work full time AND be a stay-at-home mom. In a few days I'm going to join Braden down in Ft. Lauderdale for some much needed rest and relaxation. Thank goodness for Gommy and Laura who are coming up to stay with the kids.

Thanks also to good ole' Uncle Sam who doesn't require companies to give any paid time off for childbirth or maternity. I do get some short-term disability paid leave, but oh wait, I have to use ALL of my vacation and sick days in order to get that. SO - that meant I worked since mid-May with NO days off (except July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day). So to say I need a few days off to lay on the beach is an understatement. I CANNOT wait.

2 years ago I went down to Ft. Lauderdale for a few days and brought Blythe when she was almost one. The team was staying in the same hotel they had stayed in for years, which was right on the beach, but was a shithole. So bad, actually, they tore it down. Last year they stayed in a different hotel, also right on the beach, also kind of shitty. They are staying there again this year (as am I). I didn't know the name, but I knew it was connected to a certain restaurant, so I thought I found it online, but it looked way too nice, so I wasn't sure. Come to find out, they've done a MAJOR overhaul renovation and now it is super nice. Yeah for me! Now I wish I was staying longer than 4 days.

Blythe's 3rd birthday party

It's 7:20 and both kids are in bed. Now that's a first.

FINALLY the day arrived where they went back to day care! I figured Ethan wouldn't sleep much today since he was well rested from being at home for 2 weeks napping in his bed with no noise and the lights off. I was right. Just one short nap, so he was incredibly tired and went to bed early.

Today was Blythe's first day in the 3/4's room at day care. I was a little worried about the transition, only because she had been home for 2 weeks, but she did great. She knows most of the kids in there, so we had no problems. They said she took a great nap. When I picked her up she was quite happy. When she got home she was even a little hyper. I made a pizza for dinner. Blythe doesn't really like pizza, but she likes breadsticks, so I cut hers up in the shape of breadsticks and declared them breadsticks. She took one bite and said, "Mmm...this is good". But that was the only bite she took. She wouldn't eat it and so began our nightly "please eat your dinner" routine. So we're practically begging her to eat pizza, as if we're asking her to eat brussel sprouts or something! But she won't eat. So we tell her she can't get down to go play until she eats. Still she won't eat. So we say she has to go straight to bed if she won't eat. Still she won't eat. So off to bed she went.

So now it's 7:20 and I'm blogging. It's going to suck tomorrow morning when they wake up an hour earlier.

Anywho, Blythe's birthday party yesterday went very well. Took 2 days of planning to make sure it did though. On Saturday Blythe didn't want to nap. Rather than trying to make her, I just let her stay up because I knew the next day she'd be tired for a nap if she skipped that one. Unfortunately I was exhausted on Saturday, so I attempted to "rest my eyes" on the couch, but failed miserably thanks to Blythe's incessant "Mom! Wake up!, Mom! Look at this! Mom! I want apple juice! Mom! WAKE UP!" On Sunday I woke Blythe up early, as I was determined to get her down for a good nap at about 12:30. Fortunately all of that planning and effort panned out as she took a great nap and was in a great mood for the party.

We had rented the multi-purpose room at the rec center and hired a lady who brought in moon bouncers, balls, gym mats, and all kinds of other things for the kids to play with at their desire. The best thing was that it didn't matter how many kids (same price no matter how many), so it didn't matter if kids brought their siblings. There were the typical boo-hoos with kids bumping heads or getting jumped on, but all-in-all it went quite well. After an hour of chaos, the lady led the kids in the limbo, the chicken dance, galloping horses, and the parachute. After some cupcakes and juice, the kids were exhausted and went home. I'm pretty sure they ALL slept well last night! I was asleep on the couch by 9!

I was going to post some video clips, but apparently Blogger isn't cooperating, so here are some pics (so you'll miss Blythe's galloping horse video...I know you're so upset):

After the party we went to our next door neighbor's house and they just got "Rock Band" for their Wii. It was our first time playing. I'm pretty terrible (except on vocals...I'm a most excellent singer), but if I'm ever missing my husband, I'll now know where to look :)

Tent play

It's been a few days since I last blogged. Only half a day left before day care starts back up! Yeah that I can get back to work and get some stuff done around the house, but now that I've spent the last couple of weeks with my two kids, I think I will miss them during the day tomorrow. Blythe and Ethan have become much closer over the last 2 weeks, which has been really great to see. They are actually even playing together on occasion. On Friday when I was attempting once again to work while watching the kids (fairly unsuccessfully), I answered a work call and about that time both kids decided to play in the half bathroom and close the door. I had no idea what was going on in there, but I wasn't being disturbed and there was no crying so I let it go on a while. Finally I decided I should check in just in case Ethan got a hold of the Lysol or something. When I opened the door, they were both standing on either side of the toilet just looking at the bathroom book of games and riddles we have in there. Then of course, they both started whining and crying when I was there. Should have let them be even longer.

The day after Blythe went to play at Ashley's, we had Ashley over here to play. We put up the little tent that Doug and Lynette got Blythe for Christmas. All the kids LOVED playing in there! Here are a few pics:

And here's a cute little video clip:

Ethan has taken a few steps here and there over the past week, but this is how he still gets around most of the time:

This afternoon is Blythe's 3rd birthday party. It's a combined party for Blythe and Ashley. Blythe's birthday is January 20th and Ashley's is January 10th. There were a lot of busy weekends this month, so we decided to do it on January 4th. Anyway, I'm sure I'll have some blog-worthy stories and pics tomorrow. There will be about 18-20 kids there, so it will be total chaos!