What B2 does when he's supposed to be sleeping

Much needed post

Lately, I've really sucked at posting to this blog, as I'm sure you can tell. This won't be the greatest update--that will come as soon as I install PhotoShop on my new computer (I LOVE YOU MOM AND DAD!!!). In the meantime, here are some funny things B2 said tonight:

* After giving me Stuck Kisses -- "Ew, gross, you have slobber on your cheek!"
* During his prayer - "Please bless Baby [his penguin] and Monkey [his Curious George stuffed animal] - they're my sons."
* After I told B2 he couldn't have a cookie unless he ate his dinner, he sighed in exasperation and said, "Fine, whatever!" Since when did my 4-year-old turn 15?

Photo update to come soon!

Funny Things B2 Says

April 13th--B2 experiences a new meteorological occurrence known as hail. B1 was home, so he took B2 out onto our patio so he could experience it firsthand. He lets B2 stick his hand out in the hail, then run to the edge of our "front yard" and back. B1 asked B2 what he thought of the hail. B2's response?


"Hail...it's raining out there!"

What Am I Missing?

This morning I was in at our mechanic's shop getting my safety and emisssions test so I can register my car again. After that was done ($50 later), I went to the dentist. I was hoping for another great check-up (last time no cavities!), but would have even been okay with a decent check-up. Instead, I got the crappy check-up--one of my teeth is cracking, which means I need to get a crown put on quickly or it will eventually mean a root canal...and a crown. So, I can pay $400+ now, or I can pay a whole lot more later. I'm opting for the $400+ now. Oh, and I have a cavity too, so this next visit to the dentist will cost us almost $500. And this all comes after B1's recent vision check-up in which the doctor said his contacts were ruining his eyes and that he better find ways to not wear them as much or he'll go blind, so now we're looking into Lasik for him. Welcome Murphy...do you need a bedroom??

Anyway, so I was feeling pretty sorry for myself this morning, and was trying to catch up on my blog reading since I had so much time sitting around, when I read this blog post by a girl in my ward. That pretty much sealed my crappy day. I thought about last night. It was the first night I had seen the kids in three days, since I've been at our quarterly retreat for work. D was thrilled to see me, and it was pretty dang cute. He wouldn't stop smiling for several minutes, and that was without me really playing with him. Jr couldn't care less. So, there was a mild fight to get him in the car, and then we drove home. We fought over his dinner (he wouldn't sit to eat it, and didn't finish), and then I turned on a movie so I could have some time without fighting. After the movie was over, Jr threw a tantrum about going to bed. I managed to read him two books, since I was getting frustrated that he wasn't listening but running all over his room and jumping on his bed. With both kids in bed, the rest of the evening went pretty smoothly. Then, this morning, D woke up to a massive blowout, and I tried to hurry to get the kids showered and ready so we could go to the mechanic's and then my dentist (they stayed with Grandma and Grandpa W for this part). When B2 was showering, he managed to take the bottle of baby shampoo (which was about 2/3 full), and dump the entire thing down the drain. Goodbye money! At the mechanic's store, he was playing on the floor, got his hands dirty, then wiped his hands all over his once-clean face. He asked 400 times if he could have a quarter to put in the machine to get candy, gum, nuts, and pretty much everything else they had there. He asked to watch a movie or play a game on the broken TV. I finally sat him down with my iPod to watch Spongebob via YouTube when they finished the car and we were off. I dropped him off at Grandma's house without issue, and you know how the dentist visit went, so let's fast forward to the pickup. B2 threw a fit about leaving Grandma's house. He wanted to keep playing on Grandpa's toy ATV, so I let him stay a bit longer because I was tired of the fights. By the time we got home, we ate lunch (while B2 ran around getting maple syrup on nearly every surface in the house), and I turned on a movie so I could make baby food for D. By 1:30, I was emotionally and physically exhausted, so I put B2 down for his nap (D was already down), and I watched half of Pride and Prejudice before falling asleep.

So, why the pity party? Besides the crappy results at the dentist office, I can't help but reflect on Lara's post. Bedtime for me means something completely different. Usually, bedtime with my kiddos means, "Hallelujah, it's almost Mommy Time!" I look forward to it so I can stop fighting with B2. I look back at the last 24 hours with my kids, and I feel like B2 and I have done almost nothing but fight. What am I missing? Why can't my experiences with my kids be wonderful? Sometimes I feel like I'm the only mom (excluding the obviously bad moms) who fights with her kids or wonders if we made the right decision to have kids after all. I think we must be doing something right, because B2 is a smart kid who is semi-well-behaved (probably well enough for a 3-almost-4-year-old).

So, please pardon my pity party. I just needed to vent. I'm sure I'm a good mom, and I'm sure all moms have days like today. Let's just hope that the rest of the day gets better.

A much needed update

I meant to finish this post a few weeks ago, so it's going to end up being only a few stories and mostly photos. I'm starting to follow a few photography blogs, and it gets me really excited to improve my photography. I don't by any means think I'm fantastic, but I think my subjects make up for a lot of my lack of skill. I mean, who can't capture cute pictures of these kids???

Okay, onto the stories. On March 16th, it was starting to warm up here in Utah (just a fluke though -- it was snowing today). So, after a very long winter indoors, we decided to take the kids to the park to get rid of some of B2's cabin fever. B2 was about to go down the slide, and B1, D, and I were sitting on the bench. B2 shouts out, "HAH! I've got you now fools!" B1 and I busted up laughing, and still have no idea where he got that phrase. Our best guess is Plankton (from Spongebob Squarepants).

Later that night, we put B2 to bed at his usual time (8:00 p.m.), and B1 and I settled in and watched some M*A*S*H. We turned out light off at 10:00, but heard B2 playing around still in his room. B1 got up to tell him to go to bed, walked in to his room, and saw B2 wearing his Batman hat, bomber jacket, backpack, and sandals. He must have been doing something important, because he also held his toy cell phone. He turned to his dad, and in all seriousness said, "Dad, I'm on the phone!" I think he was channeling a 15-year-old girl with that comment.

We went in to check on B2 during his nap, and found him asleep with his hat over his eyes. He seriously looked so much like a teenager that I think a few hairs fell off both B1's and my heads.

On March 21st, all of us were sitting in church during Sacrament meeting. It was really quiet (rather unusual for our ward) when B2 turned to me and said, "Guess what Mom? I love you."

Guess what B2? I love you too.

Yesterday was Monday, so it was back to work for me. B2 woke up before I left, so I got him settled into his routine of a Clif bar, sippy of milk, and some really long DVD to give Daddy as much time as possible to sleep in. I kissed B2 and told him I was leaving for work and that I loved him. His response? "I know Mom." Well, at least he knows. But, later that night, he was a little more sentimental. I had been home from work about half hour and was making him dinner. He randomly came up to me and gave me a hug, then said, "Mom, I'm glad you came back." It almost broke my heart to think that my boy thinks he's losing me every day, but at least I get to come home every night (at least, most nights -- next week is our quarterly managers retreat).

Okay, some random pictures, and then I'm going to try to comfort D because he's been crying for the last two hours. I think he's starting to get separation anxiety. Good thing B2 is gone, because I think D will be sleeping with me tonight.

Good night!

An Update

Well, it's time to update the blog again, so here it goes. About a week ago, B1 was working (big surprise--he credited over 100 hours in February, a new personal record!), and I was just getting home from picking up the kids at the babysitter's house. Our neighbors from upstairs were out walking their dog. As I said hi, B2 interrupted and started introducing himself (it's one of his favorite activities). He said, "I'm B, and this is D, and he's pretty cute, and he's a baby."

Last weekend, B, D, and I went to B1's cousin's daughter's baptism. (So, I guess that would make it B2's and D's second cousin's baptism.) All went well until the time came for the actual baptism. B2 went up to the font with the rest of his cousins and second cousins, and when the little girl went down into the water and back up, B2 said (about as loud as you can without actually yelling), "HOLY MY COW! He got her all wet!" We all started laughing, and B2 kept talking really loudly as the bishop tried to get him to quiet down. I finally had to go up to the font and tell him to be quiet. Poor kid...I guess we need to attend these a little more often so he understands the social norms.

Last week, D was diagnosed with a double ear infection. Poor kid--he was running really high fevers, and was all around miserable. We understood more of why he was so miserable on Sunday, when BOTH of his two bottom front teeth broke through. He was cutting two teeth while battling two ear infections. What a trooper!

D has been army crawling like no one's business. This kid is so fast! It just makes me melt because when I come home, he'll book it over to me and try to crawl into my lap so I can hold him. I love that he's such a momma's boy, since B2 only wanted to be near me when he was sick. But, now that he's teething, we've been giving D some Cheerios to munch on. He LOVES them, though he's still having a hard time figuring out how to get them in his mouth. That pincer grasp isn't far away though.

Yesterday was a milestone (albeit a sad one) for me - it was the first day in 9 months that I didn't nurse or pump. Yep, D is now on solids and formula. I did get a bit choked up when I put D to bed last night without nursing him. I didn't think it would bother me as much as it did. I had hoped to make it at least 10 months (I nursed/pumped for B2 for 10 months), but my last managers retreat pretty much killed it. It was so hard to get out any milk after going 3 days without nursing, so I've been struggling the last few months to maintain any type of supply. So, finally, this week I gave up. I take comfort in the fact that I at least got him through the worst part of the flu/cold season. We do have some pumped milk in the freezer that we'll give him for the next few weeks to hopefully give him a few more defenses against illnesses.

One last bit of news: we decorated our condo! I found this quote online, and liked it because it was different (most people out here have phrases like "All Because Two People Fell in Love" or something like that). Our graphic artist at work made it look nice, and I was able to print it on the vinyl at work as well. We absolutely LOVE it! I got all these frames for Christmas, and have been itching to put them up. I'm going to get that last of the pictures for the frames today, but am just so excited to be displaying some of the pictures of my family that I love so much.

A random picture

Since I was able to figure out how to get images and video off my phone, here is a random picture:

The past week at work, I spent nearly three hours going through old employee files where documents could be shredded, and then nearly another hour shredding those documents. I kept filling up bag after bag of shredded paper. As I was trying to stack them to get them out of the way until our building could be cleaned (note also the huge pile of trash at the bottom of the picture), I noticed it looked like a snowman. So, I grabbed my Sharpie, an orange post-it note, and a gray piece of paper, and made my friend Frosty here and left it by our Accounts Receivable/Payable person. We had a good laugh. Despite our building being cleaned several times, Frosty is still here.