Babbling Baby!

Christopher has said his first baby words. "Da Da" was first two weeks ago. Followed by "Ba Ba" a couple days ago. I also swear he says "HI". I am trying for "Ma Ma," but all he does is smile.

Baby on the move!

Christopher has perfected his version of crawling. He is probably faster than any one in the military with his low crawl. It is the cutest thing to watch. He can crawl the right way, but his low crawl is just faster for him so that's what he prefers.

He is also pulling himself up on anything he can grab a hold of the tv stand, the couch, his sister, and the list goes on! He has even taken a few cruising steps around the couch. However, he is easily distracted and since his balance isn't that great he falls, ALOT! I have actually thought of getting him a helmet! NO Joke! But everyone assures me he will be fine. I remember thinking similar thoughts about my daughter as she was learning to walk. I didn't think she's make it to one. She started walking at 9 months, and brother is trying to beat her I guess! He just can't wait to be like his sister.

Sibling Rivalry!

I can not believe that my kids are fighting already. I did expect fights, but not this soon. The other day I put a cars tee shirt on my son. It was his shirt, but the problem was that I had allowed my daughter to wear it over the summer. My in-laws bought it months ago, and since it was to big for my son at the time I figured why not let Evie wear it. When I put it on him she was so mad. She signed cars and pointed at Christopher while she screamed. I was taken off guard I did not expect this. I told her he could wear it, and that she was already wearing a shirt so she couldn't wear it. This helped for a little bit then the tantrum hit again. Again I insisted there was nothing wrong with him wearing it and she had to share.

This was only the beginning of the brother sister madness over the week. My daughter has a pink toy laptop. We figured it would keep her busy when we were on our laptop. (Didn't really work!). However, she still plays with it. One day she sat on the living room floor with it and instantly brother noticed. He is mobile now. So within seconds he was at her side grabbing as babies do. This would not do. She began screaming as he grabbed and pulled. He is the stronger of the two, and would win this battle if I let it continue. I put her on the couch with the toy, and gave him something else to play with. He wasn't having it. He crawled to the couch and pulled himself up. Unfortunately, he couldn't reach his sister. He decided to scream out as he stretched as far as he could in hopes of obtaining the toy.

Again I was not ready for this. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't take the toy away for Evie. After all it wasn't her fault. Her brother loves her and is amazed by everything she does. He wants to be a part of it. Anything she has he wants. He always tries to be near her, and smiles the moment she walks in the room. He just doesn't know how to be gentle.

At 20lbs he is almost bigger than his 23lb sister. Soon he will be the bigger little brother. I want to be fair, and thought I knew how to handle these things. I was prepared for this type of stuff, when they get older. I had no idea it would happen so soon.

Weekend Get away!

A weekend get away is supposed to be just that, a quick and easy get away from everything. However, nothing is a quick and easy when you have kids even when it is only for 2-3 days. First of all you have to pack everything and anything you might need. This includes a complete medicine cabinet. If your kids are going to get sick it will be at night on the weekend when you are not at home! I found this out the hard way too many times to count.

Every other weekend we go to my in-laws home north of here. It is only about an hour and a half drive, but long enough to make the little ones miserable. I wish they would sleep. I am usually not so lucky. Each time without fail my daughter starts signing "all done", indicating she wants out of her car seat, when we still have 20-30 minutes until we arrive. We even have a DVD player for her already. I do not know how my parents survived without one!

I spend a few days before we leave attempting to get every thing in order. The day before I attempt to clean the entire house. Who wants to come home to a dirty smelly house? Not me. Don't forget to take out the trash. Old stinky diapers, do I need say more? The night before I pack and make a list. Then I can't sleep, despite the fact that I need to go to sleep early, because I am so stressed out about forgetting something. I have only done so once or twice! I also make a list of everything that needs to be done in the morning and grabbed before we can head out. This way my husband can help without messing up my plan.

We rarely get out of the house by the time we planned to, but each trip's departure time gets a little earlier. We are making progress, just slowly! Once we finally arrive and unpack thanks to grandma and grandpa it eventually is a get away. Actually it is the only time I really get to sleep! Thank God for Grandparents!

The Potty Train!

It is official. We are on the potty train, and we have no idea what we are doing!!! We got the potty chair and set it up. It's in the living room. That is where the pediatrician told us to put it. Or really he said to put it where she plays the most. Apparently this is to get her accustomed to it.

We are to leave it near where she plays until she feels comfortable sitting on it. Once she sits on it for long periods of time we are to start taking her diaper off when she sits on it. Then hopefully she will accidentally go in it. I think I am supposed to attempt this when I think she may have to go. If she does we are to of coarse make a big deal about it. Who wouldn't!! Thus encouraging more going in the chair. Finally, when she has got the idea and is comfortable with the chair it goes into the bathroom. All in all I was told this will take weeks. However, he assured me that if done correctly at her own pace things will work out for the best.

Due to the fact that I have never done this and don't remember my potty training I have to take his word for it. So the chair is in the living room next to the couch. What a conversation piece for company!! Already we have troubles. She doesn't want to sit on the seat without the cover over the hole! I don't know if this is normal or not, but hopefully she overcomes her fear of the hole! Wish us luck! I think we might need it!

feeding baby solids!

My son is developmentally at the stage where he should be able to eat 2nd and 3rd foods along with things like Cheerios, Gerber Puffs, and Crunchies. However, often when he eats things that are thick he chokes and then vomits. I don't know if He isn't ready or there is something wrong. He does really good some times. He clearly wants to eat these things. Also he only has two teeth, the bottom front ones. He does try to mash things with his jaws. I just hope nothing is wrong.

My son the independent sitter!

Last Sunday my son sat up for the first time. Now he sits up all the time, and moves his entire body while sitting so he can face another direction. It is so cute. He is also trying to pull himself up on things. He doesn't crawl crawl yet. He does the commando low crawl. He is very good at it to.

I worry about him because he doesn't seem to pay attention to his balance. For instance when sitting he often will look behind himself then fall backwards and land on his head. You know that hurts. He pulls himself up on things, but then just lets go. He either isn't afraid or just doesn't realize whats going on. He has gotten more bruises during the past week than he has had the past 7 1/2 months! I know he will make it through this but my nerves are shot! I am afraid to take my eyes off him for even a second who knows where he will fall next. The worst part is he's not even walking yet!

Schedule!

I am fighting my kids and my lazy procrastinating inner urges and trying to develop some type of a daily schedule. It is not going so good. One night both kids are asleep by 8pm then they both wake up around 9 and are up a couple of hours. I am trying, but this is actually really hard.

To complicate things even further my kids couldn't be more different from one another. My daughter is like me and would rather stay up late and sleep in. My son is ready for bed by 7:30 most nights and awake at about 6:30 most mornings. You could set a clock to him. When he starts to get cranky at night I know its almost 7. He needs the schedule most of all because if he is up to long. He becomes a screaming monster!

I know my daughter needs some regularity with her daily life to. Most days she has trouble taking a nap. If I can't get her to sleep before 4 I make her stay up. Or at least I try to. She can't sleep after 4 or she will be up until midnight or one. The worst night was 3am when she fell asleep. Then of coarse baby brother was up at 6:30 all smiles! I just don't know what to do.

Part of the problem is she has never learned to fall asleep on her own. She falls asleep in my arms or in the car. That's it! So if baby brother is awake then I can't lay down with her. I tried putting her in bed and letting her scream for a while that had disastrous consequences. For now I am just doing the best I can. Hoping the day I can just tell her to go to bed comes sooner than later.

I am flexible on what we do during the day, but I try to get some things in. We watch Muzzy or some thing in Spanish at least once a day. I don't make them watch it, but I have it on so they can watch if they want to. I try to play with each of them separately a few times during the day. As well as letting them play together and by themselves. We read every day, and work on sign language. My daughter learns them quicker than I do. Plus, she makes up her own if she doesn't know one for what she is trying to say. We go a lot of places as well. Which also makes a schedule hard to follow.

Cranky Kids!

Both my kids are sick enough to be cranky and miserable, but not bad enough to go to the doctor. I am so worried because usually they end up having to go to the doctor any ways. If I rush and take them now then the doctor will think I am crazy, but if I wait they suffer. I don't know if they need antibiotics or not. I understand that with antibiotics you usually feel better within 24-48 hours. I also don't want them on antibiotics if they don't need them.

They both have runny noses, coughs, and sneezes. I'm giving them allergy medicine and Tylenol or Motrin. I am doing my best for them, but I don't feel so hot either! Their sleep schedules are out of whack to. Which only makes things worse for me because I don't get to sleep! I hope they start feeling better soon. I really hope they don't get worse, and end up at the doctors.

I am thinking about getting a humidifier for their room. I heard they have ones that kill bacteria while they run so you don't have to clean them every day! Who has time for that? I saw one but it was triple the price of the other ones. I guess if it works and saves you time it is well worth it. Plus, with winter coming I am sure we will get our use out of it!

To Good To Be True!

Both kids were supper tired. I had to get my son to sleep first because my daughter won't go to sleep if she can hear her brother. So despite the fact that my daughter was super cranky and not to happy about sharing mommy this evening I had to take care of baby first. Then I laid down with my daughter and started watching a Thomas the Train movie. We didn't get very far into the movie when I realized she was already asleep. Yeah!!!

Nine O'clock and both kids were fast asleep! I used this time to clean up, and take a badly needed shower. I was finally in bed getting comfortable when my daughter began to whine! Uh, OH!!! She didn't eat much for dinner so I knew she was hungry. I had a bottle with 5 oz of milk and a container of Gerber bananas mixed together. I call them her smoothies! She loves them. She drank it in no time. Then she tossed and turned! I was worried. Finally disaster struck, she sat up and began babbling away! She was wide awake, and in a good mood ready to play! Yikes! So hear I am at 11 pm on the computer while she plays and just talks ans talks the night away! I wish I had her energy!

Cloth diapers!

I desperately want to help out the environment. I am embarrassed by the amount of diapers that I am constantly adding to land fills. However, I have looked into cloth diapers and am at a loss. Some newer ones are super expensive, and the older ones are a joke. I don't want to invest a lot of money in something that won't work. I also don't have tons of money to throw around either!

The cheap ones at Wal-mart like stores look ridiculous. You fold them around your child like your kid is Square, and then you safety pin them on! I am not comfortable pinning anything on my babies. How did people survive before we had disposable diapers. I tried these cloth ones and my fingers are sore. Not only are my kids not square, but they also don't lay still long enough to pin anything on! And let me tell you what it only takes pinning yourself once or twice before you give this up!

I really want to do my part. I have two little ones in diapers and use up to 100 diapers a week! I buy 3 boxes of 92 diapers every 2 weeks. Sometimes we have some left over and some weeks we run out! If anyone out their has an ideas or tips I am all ears.

Uh Oh!

Tonight we had dinner on the living room floor, our indoor picnic. I had taken some things into the kitchen to clean up, but I forgot my drink. My daughter thought the large over sized glass glass looked too good to resist. So of coarse she helped herself to it. It was to heavy so she dropped it and pop went everywhere. She knew she was not supposed to have my glass, and thought that she would be in trouble. She ran to the couch covered her face and began to pout. It was to cute I couldn't punish her. Our punishments consist of taking time outs in the time out chair, one minute for every year. For an 18 month old one minute of sitting still borders along the lines of torture. I reminded her not to drink mommy's drink with out asking, and cleaned up the mess. After all this accident was mostly my fault, leaving out one of the biggest temptations to her.

As I scrubbed the floor I couldn't help but think, "Please let me finish cleaning up one mess before you make another"!

Creating a Schedule!

I need help. I desperately need to create some type of schedule for our daily activities. I never know day to day what we will be doing or when we will do it. This makes planning for anything almost impossible. I just plan things and hope for the best. I don't know how many doctor visits I have had to reschedule due to kids taking naps late in the day. I don't care if the schedule is perfect I just need some type of a guideline. However, I don't know how to do this I have never been on time for anything let alone follow a set schedule. We have always just let our kids tell us when they are hungry or tired and worked around that. For infants this strategy is fine, but as kids age and become more vocal and active this no longer works. They become over tired and can't sleep or are really cranky. I would like to avoid these tantrums, and show the world the well behaved kids I see when they are not hungry or sleepy. My dad says my daughter is always cranky, but he never sees her when she isn't tired or hungry. I don't know what to do or how to do it. I think for my kids this is a necessity, but I am at a complete loss. I think life would run smoother if the kids and I new what to expect next. How the heck do you do that? Any ideas!

My daughter won't sleep!

My 18 month old daughter has never been one for sleeping a whole lot. Now that she is getting older it is getting harder and harder to get her to sleep. She has always slept in our bed and usually falls asleep in my or my husband's arms. She has regrettably never learned to fall asleep on her own. So if we can't lay down with her for whatever reason she is a bear. Also sometimes she just won't fall asleep. I don't know why. She can be super tired, but instead of sleeping she just goes and goes. As long as she gets whatever she wants she is fine, but if you tell her no she throws a fit because she is so tired. I don't know what to do. I have tried letting her cry in her crib, but I can't do it. We got up to 20 minutes of her just screaming then I quit. I couldn't handle it. Also during that time period she was extra clingy to me and extra whinny. I am at my whits end. I want her to get the sleep she needs, but I also want it at predictable intervals. So life can move on without tiptoeing around naps. I would like to create a schedule and have nap time at nap time. I don't know how to do this. We have always just let our daughter tell us when she is hungry or tired and worked around that. For infants this strategy is fine, but as kids age and become more vocal and active this no longer works.

Flying with kids???? Help Please!!!!

I am thinking about flying with my two kids to Colorado to visit family. I am not sure if this is a good idea or not. I don't know how the kids will handle flying and then the car ride to their house. I also don't know how they will be away from home and daddy. Since my husband doesn't have any vacation he will not be traveling with us. I know I can do this by myself. I am just worried it might be to much for the kids. On the other hand they might have a blast. Does anyone with experience traveling with kids have any ideas or suggestions????

18 months Check up

Evangeline had her 18 month check up yesterday. She is 34 inches tall. That is in the 96th percentile. The doctor says that at 2 she will probably be off the charts. She only weighs 23 pounds. He was glad she gained since last time. She is doing really good. He said she is above average with her speech and walking. She still takes the bottle and binkie, which he was not happy about. I am working on it. I insisted she was doing very well getting off of both of them. However, while we were talking she got into the diaper bag and took her binkie and bottle out. I was totally humiliated as she put her binkie in her mouth and carried her bottle to around the room. Once she found a spot to sit she pulled out the binkie chugged her bottle and reinserted the binkie. Thanks Evie! He also recommended we start potty training which was something I thought would be in the distant future! I was and am completely unprepared for this. Next payday our potty training adventure will begin. She only had to get one shot and did pretty good with it. It was a hib I think. She did get a fever and really cranky later. I kept her on Tylenol and Motrin alternating all day and she was fine!

No Power!

The other night a transformer blew at one of the main substations for the entire town causing massive blackouts. It was the first time since Evie has been walking that we didn't have power. I don't know if she just sensed my frustrations, or if she was put off by the change from our normal routine.

Of coarse this had to happen during our bed time routine so both kids were having a horrible time falling asleep. Both of them just seemed cranky and wanted mommy, but their is only one of me. Usually my daughter watches cartoons while I get her baby brother to sleep. I just couldn't get him to sleep! Probably because we always have a fan on for the white noise, even I have trouble sleeping without it. It is unbelievable how quiet the world is when you don't have power. Not to mention his cranky sister wandering around making noises.

Plus, it was the hottest day of the week. It only took about 20 minutes with out the air conditioning to turn our apartment into an oven. She enjoyed looking at all the candles, which frightened me to death. All she would have to do is bump a table just right and end up burnt. I tried to make sure they were all in the safest spots possible, but kids can do anything they want if they just set their little minds to it! I kept a vigilant eye and no fires or burns thankfully.

After I get my youngest to sleep my daughter and I usually watch the Good Night Show on Sprout until 8 pm then we go to sleep. My daughter kept pointing at the TV and babbling about something. I am positive she was asking why she didn't get to watch her "toonies" what we call cartoons around here. I hope she didn't think she was being punished because she was very upset by everything that was going on. She did enjoy talking to all the neighbors about what was going on.

After two hours without power I decided to head to grandma's house thankfully they had power. So I packed up and headed out. This only made bed time harder for everyone. Christopher who normally is asleep by 7:30 didn't get to bed until 10pm. Evangeline didn't get to sleep until 11:30. I was exhausted. The air mattress was also horribly uncomfortable.

My son normally wakes up at 7 was up at 6:45, and his sister who normally sleeps in a little was up at 8. It was the morning from hell!!!! All I wanted to do was sleep, but they were wide awake. Most likely it was due to different surroundings this was the first time we had spent the night at my moms. Hopefully the last my back can't take things like that any more. Now I know not to go camping! So exhausted I hurriedly packed us up and we went home.