That's my girl

A sign I know my daughter all too well.... 




Lorelei: "Mama I hurt my hand" 


Me: "Did a cat scratch it"


 Lorelei: "No.. I got it stuck in my (toy) stove"


 ......... 




Me: "Lorelei, please let the kitten out of the stove" 


Lorelei: "Just one kitten? Not two kittens mama?"

 ... poor little kittens

Feet

We're sitting in the waiting room waiting for my car to be inspected when I realize Lorelei was wearing her shoes on the wrong feet.

 I told her and she said "Oh..so this one goes on my LEFT foot." I looked and sure enough she was correct. "When did you learn left and right Lorelei? What is this foot?" (pointing to her right foot).... "My OTHER left foot" she replied proudly.

Word words words

Out of nowhere, Ivy has turned 18 months AND started getting words.

At first she just used B words.

BOOM BOOM BOOM.
Ball
Bye
Boo
oh and cheese

and then came lots more words in just a few days time.
Keys
More
MORE
now
uh oh
down
thank you

There also was the first sentence... more cheese.

I'm glad she's learning more words though because more words= less frustrated= less screaming. But she's growing up quickly *sniff sniff* *wiping a tear*

Discipline

Sometimes it is so hard not to laugh when toddlers are bad.


 Lorelei (just turned 3) wanted a different spoon at breakfast time and when my husband tried to tell her she already had one she said "But I want a CLEAN spoon you stupid man"




From the other room I tried so hard not to laugh I cried a little.

She may be a little monster, but she's my little monster!

Just spit it out

Somehow Lorelei (2.5 years old) decided Ivy (16 months) was eating something she shouldn't so Lorelei stuck her hand out and said "spit it out Ivy"... 


Ivy leaned towards her, blew a raspberry and then licked her hand.

Baby's first kiss

Ivy just gave her first kiss tonight. It was so sweet. But... it wasn't to me. It wasn't to daddy, or Lorelei or even a kitty. It was to... wait for it... a Sunflower.

How did this happen? Well... every night we go for a short walk as part of our bed time routine. 3 houses down from ours the sidewalk ends. The street doesn't stop but the sidewalk dead ends. about 15 feet before that there is a big jerusalem artichoke with multiple flowers on it (they look like sunflowers, hence the plant's other name Sunchoke) in the grass along the sidewalk. Every night Lorelei stops and says hi to the flowers, then runs to the end of the sidewalk, then back to the sunflowers. Then she kisses them good night and we go back home and read a bed time story.

Tonight Ivy ran up to the flowers, grabbed at them, pulled one up to her face and kissed it, smacking noise and all! I think it was one of the cutest things I have ever witnessed.

Really though Ivy... a sunflower? What about your mama?

Some people...

Some people seem to feel the need to dish out advice at the most asinine times--- this comment was to a friend's picture of her holding her 1 day old baby--- still in the hospital.


"He is so precious. He does look like he is sucking his thumb. Please, for your own sanity, nip that in the bud right now"


First of all-- WTF. Second of all, not a coment to make upon birth announcement. Third of all.... WTF?

The Trophy

After a year, it's like a light as gone on in Ivy's head and she realizes my glasses can be removed.

 Now every time she gets near my face she lunges, grabs them and chortles triumphantly holding the above her head like a trophy. This wouldn't be bad in itself but then she does one of two things... swings them like a mallet into the nearest hard object or stretches the earpieces as far apart as possible before attempting to put them on her head.

Silly Baby

more growing up...

I just put our backup car seat for the older girl in the car for the younger one (until next paycheck when we can afford an actual new one) Ivy was seeming so cramped and irritated every time I put her in the infant seat. *tears* she sure is growing up fast

Um, thanks I think...

Lorelei (age 2.5) brings me over a cup and toy picnic basket...


 "Drink and snack for you, mama. Just for you." 


I look in the cup and there's some bubbly spit in it. 


"What's this, spit?" 


"... no, it's your drink mama. Drink it. Please drink it now mama"

Toddler priorities

Lorelei won't throw away the lowliest ratty piece of junk mail I ask her to toss... but when I put aside an hour of my time and make homemade silky smooth playdough in an array of bright pastels and scent each one with different smells so she can really enjoy it... she throws it all in the trash can while I have my back turned and then tells me it was yucky.

It makes me a little sad.

Ouch!

Today my one year old bit me.

Nothing that unusual really, or even that painful. Just a startling moment when I said ouch while talking to my mom on the phone. But my double take came a moment later when my mom said "serves you right."

Now, she has heard me exclaim several times when one baby or the other tested their little teeth on parts of me, usually my shoulder, but she has never said that.

We have talked about biting and she told me the only time I ever bit her is a time that I actually remember.
I was 3 or maybe 4 and taking a shower with her. I remember dozing off in the tub, chewing on a wash cloth, dreaming, and then remember her yelling at me that I bit her and leaving me in the bathroom to dry myself.
When we have spoken about it since, she insists I was wide awake and says somehow I managed to bite her hysterectomy scar, which was very tender.

What I don't understand is how she STILL guilts me about something I did, by accident, as a toddler/young child.

I guess the only thing I can do is take away from it the idea that I never want to do that to my own children. Sure, tease about something done as a young child, in the vein of "Hey, did I ever tell you about that time you used your poop to fingerpaint the crib?" but guilt? for something done as a child? Nope.

Brought to you by the letter----

Todays tantrum brought to you by

"Mama offered it to me and now I'm going to throw a tantrum if she starts making something like it, because mom can't eat what I don't want"


... even after I explained it was for me and I wasn't going to make her eat it.

Where are your socks?

Today we're getting ready to go to the doctor for Ivy's one year appointment. I've been trying ot get Lorelei to get some socks to put on and she came running out of her room.

"Where are your socks Lorelei? Go get your socks"
"Ivy has them" she shouts defiantly
I let it drop for a minute and asked again.

"Ivy has them" she said again.

I didn't really believe her until another minute later Ivy came crawling out of the bedroom, carrying Lorelei's socks in her mouth like a puppy.

One year ago, there was Ivy

Ivy was born one year ago about an hour ago. The midwives were still evaluating her breathing, deciding if we would take her to the hospital. Lorelei was still asleep, and I was still in the haze of "just had a baby."

What a difference a year makes (ok, 11 months in this photo, one year photos will happen later this week)

And Ivy's gift to me today---- she slept through the night last night! For maybe the third time ever! She's still asleep now. Time to go check on the birthday girl.

The cure for sad

Lorelei (age 2.5)  woke up before us this morning. When we made it out to the living room I found puddles of water in a few different places, and a squirt bottle on the floor. I asked her--

"Did you squirt that?"

"Yes..." the toddler replied.

"Did you just squirt it on the floor?"

"No, I squirted the kitty cats!"

"Why'd you squirt the kitty cats?" I inquired

"Because they were sad!" she said proudly, "they needed to be happy!"


hehehe.. toddler logic.

Nature love

"Come here sweetie" I said to Lorelei as we walked through the field. "Come see this plant."

She bent down and looked at it, "What is it mommy?"
"It's a mullein plant" I tell her, "touch it, it's soft. Some people call it Lamb's Ears"
She reached out and touches a leaf-- "It's fabric! Mommy, it's fabric. It's not a leaf, it's fabric!"

I got a spider bite walking through that field. It swelled up the size of a tennis ball. That moment was worth it.

The trouble with toddlers..

One issue we are having with having a toddler and a 9 month old, is that it is tricky to keep inapropriate toys away from the newly crawling baby. 


This morning I caught Ivy crawling down the hallway with a (toy! luckily!) knife. She looked so proud of herself, I wonder what she was setting out to butcher?

Nap time troubles

Every time Ivy falls asleep on me now, I quietly gently place her in her crib and tuck her in. She'll smack her lips quietly and stay asleep for about 10 minutes at which point she wakes up...
 FURIOUS that I DARE place her in her crib. 


If I go get her she will cuddle up and nurse for another 30 minutes or more, and still not let me put her down. This is getting tiring, exhausting, and cranky-mommy-making. Right now I am stopping myself from getting her because I am pretty sure she just turned over in her sleep and is mad about it, and will go back to sleep, but it definitely woke her sister up from her nap. This two kids sleep thing is troublesome!

Doing the math-- the dishes

Today I timed myself emptying the dishwasher and drainer (my husband gets handwash duty)
it took 7 minutes to empty the washer and drainer (without toddler help)

So I decided to do the math on this...

7 minutes a day, approximately 1 load a day (some days there are two, some days none. I think it evens out)

7x365= 2555 minutes

2555/60= 42.58333 hours per year

Close to two days of dish putting away per year.

good news

Well hey, I have some good news today...

I'm not pregnant!

I mean, I didn't really think I was, but I've been feeling a little weird and it makes me paranoid. I've been exhausted, my stomach has been feeling a bit tender, and my moods have been weird, plus I've been starving all the time. Enough to make a girl worry at least.

But nope!

I seem to remember moments of that sort of worry while I was still nursing Lorelei too, and I think it's from me hormones fluctuating while the baby is starting to eat solids.

Ahhhhhh (that's my HUGE sigh of relief)
I don't know if I'd survive 3 under 4!

Medical Mysteries...

Today Lorelei has been chasing around Baku, one of our cats and putting a computer mouse on him saying

"I wanna fix his blood plessure"

"OK I'm going to fix your blood plessure"

"OK you can go home now!"

Then she put the cord of the mouse over her neck like doctors do with stethoscopes, and gave the cat a big hug.

Juggling

Ever feel like you have too many balls up in the air? I do right now... with the 2 girls, 2 Etsy shops, a personal blog, a 365 project blog, a budding photography business (with it's own blog).... and somehow I'm needing hours more sleep than usual.

Wow. Some balls are getting dropped around here.