Happy times are here again!

For those of you with Toddlers and access to the zoo, allow me this small suggestion: GO IN THE WINTER! It’s AWESOME! First of all, there were no people there, so Caleb could get further away from me without my worrying about him getting lost or kidnapped. Also, the heat didn’t sap us, so we were running around the whole time we were there, rather than enjoying the first half hour then having to trudge the rest of the way. And finally, the animals were ALL OUT! In the summer, no matter how many times we went, there were certain animals that we never saw because it was always so stinking hot that they stayed in their houses. It was an incredible time.

Poor Caleb sure had a rough time getting over this bug. I think he and Jonathan keep just passing it back and forth. I’ve stayed relatively unscathed other than a couple queasy moments. But today, everyone is healthy, happy and free!

Gavi had more vaccinations yesterday, and that kid is a CHAMP! He got two shots in his legs. The first he didn’t even notice because he was so busy singing to me. The second made him cry for about a minute, after which he was back to cooing and giggling at the nurse and myself. In the follow-up with the doctor, it was tough to pay attention because Gavi was laughing so loudly!

He only in the sixtieth percentile! For a kid we keep calling “the chunkster,” he sure isn’t overly chunky! And we get to start him on rice cereal, too! I was going to start this morning, but our little friend Rylee is staying with us today, and I reckon that a three kid day isn’t the day to start trying solid foods.

Jonathan doesn’t travel for a few weeks, so it will be fun to have him around for a while. He bought Settlers of Catan, and I finally got to play it. It seems like a pretty cool game, but what really sells me is that it’s the creator of our game Carcasonne that we love so much. I'm just looking forward to having more time with him to be able to play Pente and some cards. Man, are we game-y folks! (Tell the cannibals that when they think we look tasty!)

 Terra replied...

We have Settlers and Cities and Knights. We love to play those games. Once you guys get the hang of it we should play together. Beware though, my husband is insanely and sometimes irritatingly competitive!

 

 Amanda replied...

You betcha! As for the "insanely and sometimes irritatingly competitive," Jonathan says, "Absolutely! It's the only way to play!"

 

Having been tagged, I feel justified in rambling. Forever.

Ooh! Terra “tagged” me in her blog! (From three weeks ago. Things have been a little crazy, girlio!) So I’m supposed to share eight things about my kiddos in my blog.

1) My baby boy Caleb is sick! This morning, he wasn’t hollering for me like normal. So at about 6:30 I poked my head into his room, and he was awake, but just laying there. So I waltzed in with Gavi and turned on the light, chattering away like normal. I said, “Pew! It smells like spaghettios in here!” Then I realized that he had vomited all over everything in his bed. (By the way, he hadn't had Spaghettios in over a week. Gross.) When I took him out and got him in the bath, he proceeded to puke three more times in the tub. I hauled out the pedialyte, which he sucked down like he was dying, puked again, then asked, “More juice, please!” He repeated that last segment three times, before the vomiting stopped. God bless Pedialyte!

2) Gavi claws at his head. I don’t think I’ve shared that before. It’s almost a compulsion for him. He still has some nasty cradle cap, but it looks about a dozen times worse because he’s scratching at himself so badly. He has specific spots where he gashes. On one side, it’s further back on his head, but on the other, it’s actually his forehead that he gets. Wednesday night, I waited until he fell asleep and chopped his nails down to the quick. I made three fingers bleed, and even shaved some of them to where I was cutting across the top of them where they hadn’t even grown over the finger bed yet. STILL the next day he clawed giant bloody gashes across himself. I’ve had hats on him, booties on his hands, and everything I can think of. But I don’t want to keep his hands covered because he’s just starting to grab stuff. I’m trying to keep the hats on as much as possible ~ but on his right side, he goes beneath the hat.

3) Caleb is starting to “read” along with many of the books we read together so often. He can almost quote the whole book of “How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?” And he says the last word of every line in “If Jesus Came to Visit Me.” We also have a book called “I Love School” that he says on his own when we’re out playing!

4) My Gavi has been sleeping through the night for two weeks now! AARGH! He makes my life so sweet! He’s currently going three hours between feedings, but I have faith that within the month he’ll be able to go four hours. (Pray for me!)

5) The alphabet has just one letter off for Caleb Z. His only stumble these days is the letter “ulmun.” (L – M – N are combined.) It’s so funny to hear him shout the alphabet and be impressed by him actually knowing each letter outside of the song until he gets to “K” and then I just kind of cringe until I hear the letter “O.”

6) Gavi went to the nursery for the first time at church this weekend! Yay! He’s been going at MOPS, so I know that he does just fine without me. But I didn’t even realize that our church had such great nursery care for kids younger than Caleb. Jonathan was in Canada this weekend after having been in New Orleans last weekend, so I had two Sundays taking the boys on my own in a row. I needed a break! It was so lovely.

7) Caleb is a rockstar when it comes to his CD player! He can now recognize his four favorite CDs by sight, and changes them on his own. He’s also started singing along with a couple of them.

8) Our sweet little Gavster is changing by the hour, it seems sometimes. His big thing now is pulling himself into a plank position by my fingers when I’ve got him sitting in front of me. Then, of course, I pull him vertical so he’s standing, which is his favorite. He’s not crazy about his Bumbo – I blame it on his acid reflux. He does not like to sit. (He does, however, like to puke in his Mom’s mouth. Three times now. You’d think that I would learn not to lift him above me after he’s eaten, but he’s SOOOOOO precious that I just have to pick him up for smooches!)


There’s my eight. It’s handy, because I’d been meaning to blog for so long! Valentine’s Day was kind of a wash for us, as it is more often than not. Jonathan left for Canada that morning after a really rough week. I took the boys to gym time, and that’s really all the celebrating we did that day. (I even forgot to watch LOST!)

Jon’s friend Jess from work brought Caleb a gingerbread house. After all my struggles with play-doh, I’m kind of thinking that a gingerbread house might be a little beyond my coping skills.

Final note: I was getting ready to sign off when Caleb announced he was poopie. Jonny just got off the phone and offered to change it. (Working on my love languages, that one is!”) When he opened up the offending diaper, it was bright green due to the overabundance of purple pedialyte. Jonathan’s immediate reaction was something like this: “Blearghch!”

Caleb: “Yucky?”

Jonny: “Yes, yucky.”

Caleb: “Yucky. Don’t eat it.”

Wise words for us all. Keep them in mind as you go about your week.

New hope.

I greet the blogosphere this morning with a new hope. The hope of becoming a normal human being again once more. The hope of not falling apart at the seams ~ quite literally. The hope of someday wanting to do something with my spare time rather than just wishing I could crawl under the covers and sleep for a month.

Yes, Gavi has slept through the night. Not once, but twice. Has the sky ever looked so bright? The smell of fresh air ever so sweet? The house ever been so NEAT?!

Terra, my angel of sweetness and mercy, sent me a copy of a book called “Becoming Babywise” at the most opportune moment in history. My hair was falling out, my skin breaking out, and my patience wearing out. Seriously, every part of my body ached, and while I was still a fairly decent parent, I was a lousy wife, friend and general citizen.

The book resonated with me. While I understand the desire to meet baby’s every cry – this is the woman who was still getting up two or three times during my own eight hours of sleep, after all! ~ my need to be a good parent overruled. I couldn’t be a great Mom going at the pace I was going, and my kids were going to suffer.

So Sunday night, after suffering a four day headache (and the most awesome Super Bowl I’ve ever seen!) I decided that the time had come for my sweet munchie to learn to sleep through the night. I left him in the living room, and ignored his cries. Hard-hearted parent? You betcha! Honest to goodness, I felt like the worst human in the world. But after he cried his little lungs dry the one time, he didn’t wake up again.

Monday night, if he woke up, I didn’t hear him.

This morning, I know he woke up at four, but since we were going to get up an hour later, I decided to let him cry again.

Not only is Mommy feeling tons better, but my sweet Gavi is now doing very well with eating on a three hour schedule, and he’s taking regular naps, too! What the heck?!

(Of course, according to the book, he’s acting as wonderfully as he should have at day ten or so. Ah well, maybe the next kiddo!)

My Caleb is wearing a camo hat that his Grandpa stitched up to almost fit his little head. It slouches over his eyes, so he looks like a very miniature and very pale Shane Sparks. (The judge/choreographer from So You Think You Can Dance, for those of you who aren't obsessed like me.)

We had their pictures taken a couple weeks ago – Valentine’s will be sent out with said pics, so check your mail! – and three days later, Caleb was jumping in bed, and smashed his nose on the edge. (There were three little parallel lines across his schnoz, and I was just grateful it hadn’t happened right before we had pictures taken.) I hauled him into my arms and cuddled him by saying, “it’s okay, sweetie, Mommy’s here.”

Cut to three hours past that, and I was doing laundry. While I was bending from the washer to dryer, Caleb moved the closet door, so when I stood and turned back to the washer, I smashed MY nose into the door. The curses stayed in my head while Caleb cooed, “it’s okay, Mommy, Caleb’s here.” It was SO precious!

This morning I had all three of us up and dressed by seven o’clock.

By eight o’clock, we’d all had breakfast and changed clothes again.

By nine o’clock, I changed myself and Gavi again. Good times being a Mom!

 Terra replied...

yeah! I'm so glad it's working! :)

Love you bunches!