Thursday, January 28, 2010

If you give a mouse a cracker...

Each of the rooms at daycare has a pet. Blythe's room has a guinea pig, Ethan's room has a hamster, the schooler room in the middle has a mouse. Ethan's favorite is the mouse. Every day I take the kids to school and this is our routine:
  • We go to Blythe's room first. I sign her in, we hang up her coat, and she's off playing leaving me begging for a hug goodbye (which she reluctantly comes over to give me).
  • Then we go to Ethan's room.
  • Ethan stops in the doorway so that I can't close the door and am left standing there holding his stuff trying to sign him in at the same time while he just stands there on his reconnaissance mission.
  • Finally I push him into the room, usually at this point there are several other toddlers crowded around him and I have to get them all to move so the door won't hit them.
  • I take off Ethan's coat, hang it up and then try to get him interested in a toy
  • He clings onto me for dear life and I finally sit down and play toys with him and again try to get him to play with something so I can leave. Finally he plays with something, so I give him a hug and say goodbye.
  • He clings to me even harder
  • We try the whole process again (which again doesn't work)
  • Then one of the teachers will ask Ethan if he wants to see or feed the mouse.
  • Immediately he stands up, says "Bye Mommy" and then doesn't bother with a hug or kiss. Clearly the mouse is way better than Mommy.

This morning he apparently didn't want to bother with most of the nonsense. After halting at the door, we walked in, took his coat off, and he went right up to the teacher and said, "I want to feed the mouse a cracker"...."Bye Mommy".

Maybe he just wasn't in the mood to mess around. Maybe he was tired because his sister opened his bedroom door and turned on the lights at 6:45 this morning waking him up. Regardless, I was back home faster than normal this morning.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Anyone else have cabin fever?

My goodness, these wet, cold, rainy/icy/yucky days EVERY FREAKIN WEEKEND are driving me insane. Yes, we have LOTS of new toys thanks to Christmas and Blythe's birthday but they are just nothing compared to being able to play outside. Or at least just having something to do other than just play with toys.

Last weekend was one of those dreaded weekends where we had nothing at all planned to do and the weather was just terrible so none of those endless, cooped up hours could be spent at the playground or on the driveway or at the park. And it seems like it's been like this for months! I'm definitely suffering from a bad case of cabin fever.

Fortunately we do have stuff planned for the next couple of weekends, so maybe by mid-February we'll be lucky enough to have at least a day over the weekend (or just a few hours?) where it's at least 40 degrees and not raining or icing. Of course, now that I type that, probably not.

And my cabin-fever patience (or lack thereof) combined with my 5-months pregnant patience (or complete lack thereof) makes dealing with 2 small children not very fun. Saturday I felt like all I did was yell all day long because if I don't yell, no one hears me.

But at least they are good for bathtime and are usually good right before they go to bed. Blythe has had a bath robe for a good while now and we had gotten a hand-me-down robe for Ethan from our neighbor. Now that we can trust him to (most of the time) not pee on the floor if he doesn't have a diaper on, he gets to wear his robe too after bath and boy, does he love it.

Those little anti-listeners can be cute when they want to be!

Friday, January 22, 2010

Blythe is 4 years old

I bet you're wondering why I didn't post yet about Blythe's real birthday (vs. her birthday party a couple weeks ago). Well, I was going to yesterday but we had a nice little ice storm that closed daycare early, so I had to wrap things up at work and go get the kiddos and Ethan absolutely will not let me on the computer when he's somewhere in the house with me. Fortunately, they were just on a delay this morning and not cancelled, so I can get some things done!

Anyway, Blythe is now 4 years old! I cannot really believe that 4 years has gone by so quickly. Gets me thinking that another quick 4 years from now, she'll be 8???? What???

We made her wait until after school and then after dinner before opening her presents (mostly because I didn't think our gift to her would get here until the 21st so I wanted her to have something to open on her actual birthday). However, our gift for her (a Leapster 2 and game) did get here on time...phew! So anyway, she got multiple phone calls from family wishing her a happy birthday and although she wasn't extremely talkative and in some cases not very nice, she at least did talk on the phone this year (as opposed to last year when she refused to talk to anyone who called).

Braden took her out to breakfast (to Carol Lee Donuts....mmmm) and I made cupcakes for her class at school, so really she did celebrate all day long.

Here is the birthday girl at 4 years old (officially):


And although at this age, they don't have a whole lot of milestones, I guess I should come up with a few things she is up to these days:
  • She's currently in swimming lessons and might be able to do the "mini-barracudas" swim team this summer
  • She starts back up with gymnastics next week, and although I highly doubt she'll ever make any sort of "gymnast", she has fun trying
  • She also wants me to sign her up for dance class. I'll probably let her do this sometime after swim lessons are over.
  • I'm trying to make her be more self-sufficient. Currently, we're working on brushing her teeth by herself (from putting the toothpaste on to washing up everything afterwards).
  • Most of the time she's loving and nice, but she does have a certain mean streak going. I've noticed her kicking the dogs every now and then, and of course beating on her brother. She can also be a "mean girl" at school every now and then, though she doesn't have a problem making friends.
  • She loves everything girly - playing dress up, playing with Barbies, and ponies, and her doll house, and beauty salon, etc. She'll play trucks with Ethan, but not for very long.
  • She can write her own name and pretty much write most letters.
  • She cannot read and I'm struggling with how to get her interested in trying to read. It's hard because she does like to use the computer and we have games to help with reading, but we can't do it if Ethan's around, which is pretty much all the time.
  • I think she's about 40 or 41 inches tall and about 37 or 38 pounds.
  • She really likes TV and movies a lot, and fortunately she goes to daycare so she doesn't have time to watch much.
  • She still loves to sleep quite a bit. She'll usually sleep about 11 hours at night and she does seem to nap at least for a little while every day at day care. Most weekends she doesn't nap.
Anyway, that's probably good enough. Happy Birthday Blythe!
PS - today is also our dog Juni's birthday. She's 6 in people years (so 42 in dog years). We sang her Happy Birthday this morning, but no cake because Blythe said dogs don't like cake.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Earrings

A while ago Blythe asked me about my earrings and why she didn't have earrings. Simple enough - "you're too small and too young to get earrings. You have to be 10 years old." Case closed and we move forward.

Then yesterday as we were sitting at the dinner table, she comes out with "Katlyn is small like me and she has earrings." Oh no, don't say it. "Why can't I have earrings?"

And there it was. It starts so young, this peer pressure!

I tried to come up with something good to tell her, but then I just laughed (because I was thinking this would be the first of MANY times I get to say "Because I'm not so-and-so's mother). And then I did say it..."Katlyn is not my daughter. You are. And I say you have to be 10." Ah, that felt good. And I got no argument. Though I have the sneaky suspicion that this won't be the last time she asks before she turns 10.

Friday, January 15, 2010

His name is Ethan

Ethan can finally say....drumroll please...."Ethan"! Yes, that's right he can finally pronounce his own name. Yes, he's been able to say "alligator" clear as day since he was 16 months old, but apparently the name "Ethan" is so much harder, that it took him until he was 22 months old. He can pronounce the name of every classmate of his and probably every classmate of Blythe's. He can speak in full sentences and ask questions like "can I have ONE piece of candy?". It's like something finally clicked last night and then he said it over and over again.

Way to go little man!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Welcome to this century

Hold on to your hats! We have entered the 21st century and now have....wait for it....DVR!!! Which means, I can record Sesame Street and the kids will watch that when they get home from school and not bother me (too much) while I fix dinner. Sesame Street seems to be the only thing Ethan will watch (though today I found Thomas the Train to record, so we'll test that one out too). Blythe, on the other hand, will watch anything. And when she's sucked in to a show, it's like she's on another planet. She can't hear you, you can't talk to her, and you can make fun of her all you want and she won't notice.

Yesterday evening, Braden took Blythe to the VT basketball game, so it was just Ethan and I. He sat on my lap while he watched Sesame Street, then I took him to McDonalds (where he ate only part of my hot fudge sundae and none of his Happy Meal), then we came home and he took his bath and we played a bit and then read 3 books and he went to sleep and he was actually really, really easy and so happy and he never once asked where Blythe was. Guess he didn't miss her that much since he had me all to himself! Makes me think that we've finally gotten to an easier stage and then we're going to make it all crazy again when we have a 3rd and it'll be another 2 years before we're here again. Ah well, those 2 years will be challenging but also lots of fun!

Monday, January 11, 2010

Blythe's birthday party

Alas, I am finished with the Twilight books and so my life can now resume.

I did take a short break Friday evening and Saturday morning since Gommy, Poppa, and Aunt Laura came in town for Blythe's birthday party. Her actual birthday isn't until the 20th, but she had a combined party with her BFF Ashley (whose birthday is the 10th) on Friday night.

Before heading to the party, Blythe was allowed to open one gift (the one from Laura), which included not 1, but 2 Hannah Montana wigs! Check out these gorgeous blond bombshells..
Okay, so maybe long, bright yellow hair isn't really for me. Good to know.

So, we had rented out the Blacksburg Aquatic Center for couple of hours on Friday night. We started in the lobby with some delicious mermaid-themed cake.

Mmm...mmm...

Here are the 2 birthday gals.

It was a super easy party. 5 minutes of set up, 5 minutes of clean up, and a lot of swimming fun!

Here they are again:


Braden made it back just in time for the party and was able to get in and provide some entertainment for the kiddos (and relax in the hot tub on breaks!).


The next morning Blythe got to open the rest of her gifts from Gommy and Poppa before they headed back home.

Ethan didn't quite understand and kept asking, "where my presents?" I tried to explain and he was a trooper. Ethan refused to wear a Hannah Montana wig, but just in case you were wondering what Juni might look like as a blond....

Friday, January 8, 2010

Halfway there!

I'm now 20 weeks pregnant, so halfway through the 40 week pregnancy. And I have to say I'm feeling pretty good. I've gained about 15 pounds, with actually a relatively slow gain over the last several weeks, including Thanksgiving and Christmas, so that's good. When I was pregnant with Blythe, I gained 5 pounds in just the 1 week of Christmas. I was walking pretty regularly, usually 45 minutes to an hour, but with Christmas break it's been tough and then when the high is only in the 20's there's no way I'm getting out and walking. Guess I could use the treadmill, however I.Must.Finish.This.Last.Twilight.Book. Then I can move on with my life. Anyway, I feel good enough to keep on walking, so hopefully this weather will go AWAY and then I can get back to it. At least until my bladder no longer allows me to be out for more than 20 minutes.

I'm really not sure if this one is a boy or a girl. First instinct was girl, and my first instinct has been right every time. However, in many other ways I feel it's a boy. I seem to be carrying more like a boy and I have lots of gas and boogers (which I remember from being pregnant with Ethan). Gas and boogers = boy. But anyway, I guess we'll see....in about 20 more weeks!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Baby steps

Okay, so I made some progress. I took down the Christmas decorations. I did not unpack. Okay, well I did unpack one thing....the 3rd Twilight book. And I cheated and started it before I had finished with the Christmas decorations (but they still got done...later).

Took the kids out to eat to a "real" restaurant (as opposed to McDonalds) by myself and it was actually a fairly pleasant experience. I had come prepared with stickers (thanks Emily!). The kids are missing Daddy though, however they do get very excited to call Daddy (or at least Ethan does...last night Blythe was watching Hannah Montana so she was dead to the outside world). Ethan's thing now is that he just likes to say "Yeah-ah" really loud into the phone over and over again and then he just laughs at himself.

Actually, Ethan is quite the little talker these days. It's amazing the number of words he has learned over the past few weeks. He speaks almost in sentences these days and I can understand most of what he says. He can say most of his ABC's and he can count to twelve. And I need to get him dancing on video one of these days, preferably in just his diaper. He does this sumo wrestler/yoga type dancing that's really quite hilarious. Ha ha!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

The girl's got "talents"

I'm pretty sure Santa brought Blythe a Belle "head" so she could practice her hair styling "skills" on Belle instead of me.
So anyway, Happy New Year everyone! I just finished the second Twilight book and before I start the 3rd (and thus become completely useless again), I vow to do the following:
1. a blog post (check)
2. put away all Christmas decorations (except the outdoor lights which are still buried somewhere under several feet of snow and I will not go outside in this single degree weather for any reason other than when I absolutely have to)
3. unpack from my venture down South to Atlanta
Yes, I took a break between the first Twilight book and the second to drive my kids to my parents house last week so they could babysit while I spent New Years in Atlanta. I drove down there and met up with Braden (he's down there with his team) and we went to the Chick-fil-a bowl game to watch Virginia Tech beat the crap out of Tennessee. I also got to see my friends Emily and Sue and meet Sue's new arrival Sadie (SOOOOO cute!) And I slept until almost 10 one morning (yes, that's right...10 o'clock in the morning) and did a bit of shopping and enjoyed my little kid-free trip that will be my last one for....well....I try not to think about it. Anyway, after all that, I headed back up to my parents, stayed one night and loaded the kids and drove back home. And now they are back in school....woohoo! Blythe started in Pre-K on Monday (or "Pretty K" as she calls it) and Ethan actually did a great job going back.
Alrighty, well, time to go put away some Christmas decorations!