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Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Her very first painting

Well this is a little follow to the blog I posted last night. I must have jinxed myself because this morning little Miss Jillian took this whole Super Pooper thing to a another level.

Today she did her very first finger painting. Only instead of using her fingers she used her feet. Instead of paper she used the bottom part of her exersaucer and instead of paint she used POOP.

She woke up early this morning and wanted to eat so I fed her. After she finished eating I put her in her exersaucer because Ben had gotten up and wanted to eat. Jeremy was about to leave for work but I asked him to change her diaper first. I hear him say "Oh geez, there's poop everywhere!" I come over to look thinking surely he must be exaggerating. Nope. He could have said "OMG She's covered in poop, it's caked between her toes, smeared over the entire surface of her exersaucer and her legs are entirely covered in poop" and I still would have considered that an understatement.

He pulled her out and I went to go get the shower started because there aren't enough wipes in the world to take care of a mess like that. Jeremy undressed her and then I got into the shower holding her while Jeremy hosed her off. *note to self: clean shower today* Then while I got her dressed Jeremy got the fun job of cleaning the poop off of the exersaucer. I'm just so happy he was home to do it!

We make a great team that husband and I. Poop cleaners extraordinaire!

Super Pooper

I think most parents enjoy finding something that they can be proud of when it comes to their child. "My daughter gets perfect grades, my son can name all of the Presidents, blah blah blah." Well Jillian seems to specialize in pooping. Good grief. I'd like to have just one day that doesn't include scrubbing poop off of her, trying to keep the poop from getting everywhere, washing the resulting mess off of clothes and any surface she came into contact with and scrubbing myself from hand to elbow afterward.

Today she managed something new. She got poop in her belly button. Have you ever tried to get poop out of a belly button? If not, I wouldn't suggest trying it. Wipes took care of some of it. Wash cloth didn't help much. I ended up having to wet a Q-tip and swish it around in there. How many of you can say you have ever cleaned POOP out of a belly button using a Q-tip?

I've tried several brands of disposable diapers and we are now mostly using cloth diapers. The disposables are the worst but at least I can chuck the mess afterward. The cloth diapers leak a bit sometimes around the legs but keep poop from reaching the belly button level.

We've gotten to the point where Ben knows exactly what's happened. He sees me pick Jillian up and groan and he says "Jill pooped everywhere?" Then he comes over to hold her hands while I change her. This is a huge help because not only is Jillian a super pooper she's also a happy butt scratcher. The second the diaper is off she reaches down to scratch her behind! Sounds pretty funny right? Not when it means she sticks her hand right into the poop! So Ben holds her hands while I clean her up. I figure it beats baby handcuffs.

Well off to bed! I'm sure my day will begin tomorrow with more super poop (it's how we begin every day). I bet you're sitting there thinking "did I really just read a whole blog post about poop?" Yep, you did. You're welcome.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Feeling Empty

It's only Wednesday and I already feel like I have nothing more to give this week. It's been a rough week. I'm sitting here reflecting on the last few days and just thinking about what a crappy mom I've been this week. I've been impatient and not as much fun as I should have been. I've complained to much and complimented to little.

We've hardly seen Jeremy all week because all he's done is work. Sometimes he doesn't have a choice and sometimes the late hours are his own doing. I know he can't always help it but it leaves me feeling overwhelmed and frustrated.

I love my kids. I love them more than anything in this world but some days I feel like I'm at my breaking point. Then I end up feeling worse because I feel like a good mom wouldn't need or want a break from her kids.

Ben has another ear infection which has left him randomly grumpy, clingy and miserable. This of course also required another visit to the doctor. Seriously, I'm very tired of going there. I told the receptionist that she should just give us a weekly appointment because we've been there pretty much every week it seems for the last few months. Ben has to go back in 3 weeks to have his ears checked again. It is my goal to not have to go there for anything until then. I don't care if someone's toe falls off before then. We'll just tape that sucker back on and forget about it!

We started potty training this week which has resulted in 2 pees in the potty, pee on the carpet, pee on my chair, several pairs of pee soaked underwear and pants and a lovely little stinky present left in a pair of cute blue underwear. Potty training sucks.

I feel overwhelmed lately. I want to do more school type stuff with Ben but every time we do something gets us side tracked. The laundry is never ending and it's the same with vacuuming. I'm contemplating buying a Dust Buster and telling Ben it's a super awesome toy and encouraging him to see how many crumbs he can suck up with it. I doubt he'd fall for it though. That kid is a smart one.

Two more days until the weekend. I can do this. I hope.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Bye Bye Diapers! Hello Big Boy Undies!

A few months ago we started potty training. It went okay but not great and then we all got sick so potty training was put on the back burner. Then it was easy to find more reasons to keep putting it off. Potty training is frustrating and a lot of work. If Ben were still an only child it wouldn't be so hard but it seemed that he'd tell me he had to go as soon as I sat down to feed Jillian or when I was changing her diaper so I couldn't run him to the bathroom right away.

So today when he got up we ditched the diaper and put on the big boy undies. He was reluctant at first and I had to pull out all 10 million pairs of underwear that he has and talk about each one and let him pick one. He picked one with trucks on it (big surprise there!). Okay underwear is on...we're good to go!

I take him to the bathroom and he reluctantly sits on the potty. Nothing happens but at least he sat on it. All through the morning we took trips to go sit on the potty but none of them resulted in anything going INTO the potty. We didn't have any accidents at that point so at least that was good!

I had to put a Pull Up on him at nap time and he napped for several hours. As soon as he got up he went right into underwear. Made a potty stop. Nothing. Played for a few hours and watched some TV....still nothing. Jeremy calls to say he's going to be late. Great....Now I have to cook dinner while dealing with the kids.

I take Ben to the bathroom before I start cooking and he still won't go. I start cooking. Jillian is in her high chair and she starts fussing. I've got pancakes on the griddle and eggs on the stove and Ben is smashing trucks together scaring Jillian. I ask him to stop. Stop. STOP!!!!!!! He looks me straight in the eye and does it again. I send him to his room. He doesn't make it there. I hear him fall to the living room floor in a big pile of 3 year old drama and tears. Fine, he can stay there while I finish cooking before I burn something. Mere seconds later I hear a pitiful "Mommy." He comes back to the kitchen and I could tell by the look on his face that he had peed. He was made and went into the living room and peed on the carpet!

Lovely, now what? Do I turn everything off in the middle of cooking to go clean the pee out of the carpet? Do I leave it cooking while I clean the pee as fast as possible? Do I finish cooking while the pee soaks into the carpet? Don't forget that Jillian is still crying in her high chair!

I decide to finish cooking, send Ben for a new pair of underwear, have him take off the wet ones, help him into the new ones, clean up pee, wash hands, serve dinner. Jillian wouldn't stop fussing so I ended up having cold eggs and soggy pancakes for dinner. Yum.

We try going to the potty again but no luck. I decide to vacuum the living room which Ben hates. He sits on my chair clutching his blanket and suddenly I hear "uh oh." What now! He peed on MY chair. Finish vacuuming and clean pee off chair. Try potty again. He wants to keep sitting there because he really wants to poop and earn a new Hot Wheels car. I leave him there to take care of Jillian. He calls for me every 30 seconds to tell me he pooped.

Uh nope! No poop no car kid! Finally, after 25 minutes he peed! I danced like an idiot, high fived him, rewarded him with a sticker of his choice and 2 M&Ms. Then it was bedtime. The end of potty training for day 1. Thank goodness!

They have people who will train dogs. They should have people who will come to your house and potty train your kid. I'd pay for that. Seriously.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Toddler Tornado

My house. Oh my poor, poor house. I swear it looks like a trailer park after a tornado swept through. They name tropical storms and hurricanes but I have a tornado named Ben. He's pretty cute and funny but he sure does make a mess!

He is obsessed with toys that have wheels. Cars, trucks, motorcycles, construction vehicles...you name it he loves it! So my house is littered with vehicles (which is why it looks like a tornado swept through). I pick them all up and get them all nicely organized and then I blink and they're all over again. I swear the kid moves faster than the Tasmanian Devil (if you were a kid of the 80-90's you know who I mean).

I make attempts to clean throughout the day but as soon as I get started I get interrupted. Someone is hungry, someone is crying, someone has a dirty diaper, the phone rings. It's enough to make a woman want to scream some days!

I keep trying to remind myself that it's not filth (at least not most of it!) it's mostly just kid clutter. Eventually the kids will be older and I'll miss the days of having toys strewn throughout the house. I'm not sure I'll ever miss stepping on a Hot Wheels car in the middle of the night though.

Oh well. It's after 1 a.m now and both kids are actually sleeping (for now anyway). The living room is semi-clean. At least the big chunks have been picked up! I need to vacuum in the morning. I gave Ben two potato chips today and somehow he managed to get 10 chips worth of crumbs on the carpet. That kid is a magician I tell you! Maybe I should give him 2 dollars and see if he can make that multiply. Hmmm....

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Three Years Ago Today

Three years ago today my biggest dream came true. I became a mom. Ben turned 3 (or "ree" as he'll tell you) today. As of 6:58 a.m I have a 3 year old!

I really have no idea where 3 years have went but it has been a wonderful time. I've watched him grow from a tiny baby into the rambunctious happy little boy he is today. When he was a baby he loved to lay cradled in my arms. There were times I'd hold him for hours that way and he'd sleep there contently. On Monday night he woke up with a high fever and he was shivering really hard. I cradled him in my arms just like I did when he was a baby. Only now I could only cradle from his head to his hip which left these long legs dangling down. It was nice to hold him like that again. As much as I love watching him grow and learn I do miss snuggling him in my arms for hours just breathing in his baby scent.

For a couple of years we weren't even sure we were going to be able to have kids and to be honest that was a pretty dark time in my life. I had always wanted to be a mother and the thought that that might not happen wasn't easy to live with. However, we were very happy to learn that we were expecting and it's been pretty much all happy days since then. He pulled me out of that dark time and for that I feel grateful to him.

I'm sitting here crying as I type this because really there are no adequate words to say what I want to say tonight. I love that little boy more than words could ever say. Our own birthdays are special to us (I just celebrated my own a few days ago) but I never realized that they are special to our moms as well until I had children of my own. Every year when we celebrate Ben's birthday I also celebrate the day that I became his mother. That is definitely worth celebrating.

It's been a great 3 year and I'm looking forward to many more years of watching my little guy learn and grow! Happy Birthday Benjamin Nicolas!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Why am I awake? Well I'll tell you!

It's 2 a.m and I'm still awake. Ben is sick with what seems to be a cold and now possibly pink eye. He fell asleep around 8:45 and by11:45 he had already woken up 5 times. He calls out "Mommy" is his sleepy pitiful voice and go lay with him to soothe him back to sleep and then I go wash my hands (have to be extra vigilant since he possibly has pink eye).

In between the first 5 times that Ben woke up Jillian woke up twice. They each woken up 2 more time since midnight. I haven't bothered going to sleep because I just know that the moment I reach that jumping off point between awake and asleep one of them will need me. It's happened before and I can assure you that it's no fun. It leaves me feeling all fuzzy brained and I lay there for a moment trying to figure out if the kids are really crying or if I'm just dreaming. Then reality slaps me awake and I go to whichever kid is crying.

I've realized that it's just easier to stay awake then it is to be yanked from sleep over and over again. Will I pay for it tomorrow? Absolutely! Is there much I can do about it? Nope. They're my kids and they need me (especially the poor sick one). There is nothing like a sick voiced "Moooommmmyyyy" to send you running to soothe the sickies away.

All that being said, after I finish posting this I think I might spend a few moments begging the universe to leave my kids alone for a bit. Over the last few months it's been one illness after another. I'm tired of visiting the doctor's office (even though the one doctor is hot in an older man kinda way and he reminds me a bit of George Clooney) and I feel so bad for the kids because I know it's no fun being sick and they aren't old enough to understand why they aren't feeling well.

I'm guessing tomorrow will bring about another call to the doctor and likely another office visit. We already have Ben's 3 year(that's right I said 3!!!!) visit scheduled for next week along with the ophthalmologist visit scheduled for Jillian.

I'm hoping that Ben will be feeling better in the morning and I'm desperately hoping that his eye is crust (yuck I know) free! Our long weekend is over which means Jeremy will be back to work and I'll be left to deal with this on my own.

Oh well.....tomorrow is another day.