The One and Only...

A couple of weeks ago my SIL, Heather, invited me to a dinner and lecture at the University.  I was excited, not only was it a night out and one of my first formal events since having kids... but the lecturer was...

Wait for it...

The one and only, David McCullough.  That's right people, the David McCullough who wrote such books as 1776 and John Adams.  And I saw him, living and breathing, in person. 

I only geeked out a bit. 

The specific book he talked about was Truman.  But it wasn't all "look at how awesome my book is" it was more about how important it is to educate our children on American History.

I have a limited knowledge of American History, but I'll brush up on it (probably by reading more of his books) and fortunately, Miss Heather (my SIL, in case you forgot) happens to be graduating this Spring with a degree in History and then going on for her Masters in the Fall.  And now that I've mentioned it I would like to give her a shout-out for not only being impressively smart and motivated, but for taking that leap to Grad School (I'm just a little bit jealous...). 


And here's a picture of me at 33 weeks - with my fabulous haircut and my amazing grandparents.

Pat on the Back

Took Lillian to the museum today!

Score 1 for the Momma.

When we got home I asked her if she wanted a snack.  She said, "yes, I want apples."

Score number 2!  The kid loves apples.

This inspired me to eat a healthy snack too.  Baby pickles, cheese and a mandarin orange.  Yumm.

Lillian wanted an orange too.

Score 3 and 4 for me.  I was giving myself high fives and pats on the back.  Oh yah!  My kids are healthy.

Samuel got home from school.  "What do you want for a snack?"  I asked.  He's not much of a fruit kid but he loves fruit snacks or carrots or broccoli. 

Samuel: "Chocolate chips and marshmallows."

Back to reality.  This is their usual snack with either crackers or popcorn to make myself feel better.

Who was I kidding?  I was eye-ing those powdered sugar donuts I had bought myself on impulse the other day anyway.

It's all about balance right?

My Life Without Garlic

Have I mentioned how this baby does not like garlic?  Really this baby doesn't like much, except bar-b-que, fried okra, and cookies.  But ninja-baby really does not like garlic.

Pretty much it comes right back up, but if I'm lucky it just makes me sick for several days and Carlin gets to listen to me moan and groan about how wretched my life is and how I'm never getting pregnant again.  Ever.

You would be surprised how many foods garlic shows up in - it's like people put garlic in everything.  At first I was just miserable.  I wasn't up for much cooking and all my favorite soups and store-bought, pre-made foods had garlic in them.

But now I cook more and an interesting thing has happened.  I've realized how other herbs and spices taste WITHOUT garlic.  Suddenly basil is sweet and charming, thyme has a kick to it I didn't know that little spice could have, cumin has a wonderful smoky flavor that can save my lame attempts at taco seasoning.

I also have a new view on restaurants.  Are they really good or are they just hiding behind a hideous amount of butter, cheese and garlic?  For example, Carlin took me out to Zio's the other day and I ordered a shrimp in lemon butter sauce except I had to omit the sauce and ask for no seasoning on the shrimp.

The dish came out with angel hair pasta, shrimp, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, and mushrooms in a plain butter sauce.  And guess what?  I could taste the dish.  The juicy shrimp, the bitter artichoke, the out-of-season-lackluster tomatoes, and the always wonderful sauteed mushrooms.

Now instead of adding an extra dash of garlic to my dishes I'm discovering new spices and use of old spices and loving it.

Oh - and ninja-baby is the official name of this baby because it is seriously trying to karate chop its way out of my stomach.  It even startles Carlin it kicks so hard and has almost made me pee my pants on several occasions when using my bladder as a punching bag.

Sleepless in America*

My kids have been a bit crazy lately.

They've been impossible to put to bed.  Many nights ending up in our bed.

They wake up multiple times during the night and crawl into bed with us.

Last night I got up with Lillian.  As soon as I got her settled down Samuel woke up.  As soon as Samuel settled down, Lillian would get agitated again.  This went on for a while.

I guess I gave up at one point because I woke up this morning with Samuel's feet propped on my stomach while he took over my pillow and Lillian poking me in the eye.   

Didn't help that I couldn't get to sleep till 1am anyway.  Which has happened several times this week.

During the day they are like these little balls of frantic energy that just get into everything.

They made "dinner" the other night with mud and all of the fruit from the fridge plus carrots.

I have a trail of mud from the back door to the bathroom.

Even though I've put away/hidden every single soap, shampoo, toothpaste type item they still manage to find the one I missed.

Lillian insists she's old enough for red high heels and make-up.

 

I can't even begin to put into words how exhausted I am - Carlin has come home many times this week to find me curled up in bed with chocolate and a book.  By 5 o'clock there is no point in trying to manage the mess anymore.

*Sleepless in America is a book I'm reading - check out my GoodReads button thingy on the side for more details.

Logic

Lillian:  "Mommy, guess what?!"
Me: "What?"
Lillian "When the sun goes down it turns into the moon!"
Me: "Oh really?"
Lillian: "Yes, and when the moon goes down it turns into the sun!"

Makes sense to me.

Baby News

I just realized I'm 24 weeks (or about 5 months) along and besides announcing I'm pregnant, haven't really said anything else about this pregnancy. 

Here's how I'm doing:

1.  This is the first week in 24 weeks I haven't had to take Zofran (which is for nausea... ahh, how I love you Zofran).  In fact, this is the first time in 24 weeks I have felt half-way decent.

2.  I'm still very, very tired.  And finally found out why.  Yesterday my doctor's office called and said I had passed the glucose test (yay!) but my hemoglobin is low.  Apparently I need more iron.

3. The baby is healthy and kicking and Carlin has felt it move a couple of times.  The kids, however, want nothing to do with Mommy's weird, moving stomach.

4. No, I'm not carrying twins and Yes, I still have 4 months left.  Sigh.

5.  Belly pictures?  Not right now, I've gained lots of weight plus haven't showered yet today, so I'm not feeling particularly attractive.  However, my SIL Heather, helped pick out a cute dress that I will put on and show off through pics.  Perhaps after I get my hair-cut.  Maybe that will make me feel less frumpy. 

Lillian is 3!

How's it going world? 

Since I use my blog as my journal I wanted to post pictures of Lillian's birthday.  But what I really wanted to talk about is potty training and since I don't have much energy these days (you try potty training two kids while pregnant...) I'm combining the two posts.  So, here is my Worst-Mom-of-the-Year confession in hopes that it will make other moms feel a little bit better about potty training.

Samuel posing with the awesome strawberry cupcakes.

I hate it.  I'm quite convinced it is of the devil.  It is the one thing I've been dreading since we had our precious Samuel 4.5 years ago.  October of 2011 we tried potty training.  After reading countless books and asking the advice of experienced moms out there, I decided to try the 3-day method.  This is where you ship off your other kids to family or friends, shove tons of juice down the potty-training kid and then stick by their side 24/7.  This works the best if you have tile/laminate type flooring or it's summer and you have a backyard.  When the child goes pee you exclaim "Oh look!  You're going pee!" And you pick them up and take them to the toilet.  every. single. time.  Until they get it.  This might possibly have been the worse method for me (who has been known to be OCD about the cleanliness of her house) to choose, but I did it.  I rolled up the rugs, put layers of towels on the couches and moved the majority of toys to the dining room.  Halfway through day 2 we had success.  Samuel was potty trained (#1 not #2, that comes later).  I rejoiced and thought to myself "Yesssss!  I CAN do this!" 

Lillian was so excited she kept trying to blow-out the candles before we were done singing.

And then we hit the regression period.  I had been warned this would happen.  I calmly took it in stride.  The number of accidents increased.  And increased.  And increased.  Soon Samuel wasn't going to the potty at all and I was going crazy.

And I mean crazy.  It got to the point I wanted to shove his nose in it like you do a cat or dog.  We took a little breather at that time and switched to Pull-ups.  (Don't worry, no need to call DHS).

I've tried EVERYTHING since.  Seriously.  You name it, I've done it.  With both kids, because Lillian wants to be just like her big brother.  I've done sticker charts, rewards, little treats every time they went, setting up a movie in the bathroom, making a big deal out of it when they went, being encouraging, calling Grandma, promising they could pick out any toy they wanted if they would just go in the potty.  And I was serious.  I was so desperate I was willing to spend ANYTHING to get my kids to potty train. 

Oh and what about making them clean it up and change themselves? 

Yep, I've done that too.  Lillian enjoys it a little too much and gets excited about putting clothes in the laundry.  I've left them in the wet clothes too.  Samuel doesn't even notice 95% of the time.  Not even kidding. 

Uncle Mitchell, Aunt Heather, Jenny and Nick (who aren't technically related, but we consider them family).

The only thing I hadn't done was put the potty chair in front of the TV.  But I wasn't going to cross that line.  I just couldn't bring the bathroom to the living room.  Besides, seeing how (not) successful the DVD in the bathroom was... I was pretty convinced it wasn't going to work.

Grandma W and Uncle Ben

Samuel started preschool last fall and went in pull-ups.  It was just the way it was for our family.  Samuel has had a rough couple of years with hearing loss and what not and the teachers knew what was going on with him.  But then I got a phone call from his teacher right before Christmas asking where we were at with potty training.  I told her we had never really backed off, we still asked him if he needed to go, encouraged him, and gave him little treats and high fives when he did do it.  She said to start sending him to school in underwear after the new year.

I said okay... but I had my doubts.  I went and checked out a bunch of picture books and movies from the library (I'm pretty good about knowing where all this stuff is now...) and we really started pushing it again.  I made the kids watch the movies and every day we read the potty training books.  I had decided to send Samuel to school in underwear this past Monday.

Lillian was very insistent we have birthday hats.  Sadly, Daddy's head was too big.

Monday morning came and in my most enthusiastic voice I explained to Samuel that today was the day he would wear his big boy underwear.  Failure.  He screamed and cried and kicked.  I gritted my teeth and forced the underwear on him.  He ran away and changed back into the pull-ups.  I told him he could just be naked then. He sat down and cried for an hour straight.  I walked away.  Next thing I knew he was fully dressed in pull-ups and all the underwear was mysteriously missing.  He had hidden it behind the recliner in the living room.

Even Grandpa joined in on the fun (sadly we never got pictures with Grandma and Ben in their hats).

I sent him to school with a note explaining how the morning had gone.  He came home wearing his big boy underwear and a smile on his face.  A few minutes later he had an accident.  And then another.  And then another.  He had managed to stay dry at school, but it wouldn't last at home.

Tuesday morning went a little easier.  He wore his big boy underwear and Lillian insisted on wearing her big girl panties.  Oh the amount of accidents I was cleaning up that morning!  By the time lunch hit and Samuel was off to school I had gone through my entire stash of chocolate (for me, not the kids).   He came home from school dry and then promptly had an accident.  It was looking grim.

An hour later I heard the toilet flush and a very proud Samuel came running out.  "Mommy!  I went pee-pee in the potty!"  What?!  I couldn't believe it, but he was dry and remained dry for the rest of the evening. 

Samuel wanted to do everything Uncle Mitchell did...

Yesterday he had one accident and that was it.  Today, so far so good.  I'm holding my breath hoping it actually sticks this time.  I've been praying.  A lot.  Maybe the Lord is getting tired of hearing about potty training and is answering my prayers.  Lillian is half-way there.  If it keeps going like this I will have two potty-trained children before the baby gets here in May.  And hopefully no regressions. 

So there it is friends.  My 1.5 year battle with potty training.  It is true what they say, kids potty train when they are ready.  I'm just afraid mine might not ever be ready.  Keep your fingers crossed for me and remember, if I can do it you can definitely do it. 

One last picture of the yummy cupcakes...