Thursday, July 18, 2013

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Fun times.

Last night, I went and checked on my daughter and there in the corner of her room was a diaper. I didn't think much of it, assuming it was the previous night's diaper so I threw it in the garbage, removed the soccer ball and 3 books from her bed, and kissed her forehead before I left and went to bed.

Ryan and I were talking while we were falling asleep, and I happened to mention that I had found the previous night's diaper in her room. Ryan informed me that he had thrown that diaper in the garbage. Silence.

I jumped up, ran to her room, and lo and behold, she was not wearing her nighttime diaper. Nope. She had underwear on. Put on completely wrong - her body was in the leg hold and they were TIGHT.

So, there we were, working really hard - as a team - to take off these super tight underwear at 11pm... in the dark... and put on a new diaper. All the while, my 45-pound toddler slept with dead weight. FYI, changing the pants of a 45-pound sleeping toddler is not fun. And you will break a nail. But it sure was cause for some laughter.

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Doesn't she look gigantic?!

So this brings us to a new venture in the next little while: nighttime potty training. I'm terrified. This mama likes her sleep. Like... I cry that ugly cry when something keeps me awake. Which is probably why we should stop at 2 children, because God knows I'm the worst with nighttime nursing. Everyone's all, "Oh, they're only this young for so long! Embrace and cherish the nighttime nursing cuddles!"

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Me? I want to punch you in the face when you say that to me. Mama likes to sleep. Nursing every 2 hours is annoying and exhaustion causes me to be very grumpy.

Thankfully, Lukey Pookey (or, as he has now been called, "Pookie Man") is a champion sleeper. I mean... literally. He goes down at 8:30pm (after a 4-hour awake session where he cries and fusses for most of it...), wakes up anywhere from 2-4am, eats, then sleeps until 8am... yes, you are free to be jealous. I would be jealous if it wasn't us. And I'm scared to post this because that means that tonight he'll be up every 2 hours and I'm going to curse my blog for it.

So, going back to nighttime potty training... our decision now is:

Option 1: put her on the potty at 11pm when we go to bed.
Option 2: wake her up to potty when I get up to nurse Lucas.
Option 3: forget it and just get a second job to pay for the ridiculously expensive diapers we have to buy.

Diaper prices are insane. Add to that the fact that our 2.5 year old is already 45 pounds with large legs and butt, she doesn't fit in regular pull-ups. Nope, she's in the "Big Kids" pull-ups... the ones for ages 6-8. Yes, you read that right. They are the only ones that fit. And for 23 diapers, it's $20. That's effing expensive.

Wish us luck.

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Poor Lukey...

In other news, last weekend we had some friends stay with us. We had a fantastic time, and it was nice staying up socializing past 9pm for once. It's been a long time that I've stayed up as late as we did... and by late I mean midnight.

I am pretty sure there was a point in time when we didn't even leave for the bar until 11pm.

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Looking good, Ryan... looking good...

We spent the one day at Calaway Park in Calgary, which was probably one of the most fun days we've had in awhile. FYI: amusement parks are extremely not-nursing friendly. Both Jill and I were constantly looking for a place to nurse our babies. We ended up having to do it right in public... along with a few other nursing moms. Unfortunately, each area we found was near bushes and we all got attacked by mosquitoes.

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But there we were.... 6 or 7 nursing moms, all trying to hide our lady bits from prying eyes and curious toddlers. Fun times.

And another fun thing that happened at Calaway Park was Ryan's tooth fell out. Yep, he has a fake tooth, that's supposed to late him about 5 years and bam - it fell out. On our way to Calaway. Guess how much it's going to cost us to fix? $3200. We're super pumped about that.

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But he looks hilarious. That's worth the $3200.

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Irony at its finest. 

Who wants to buy my book so we can pay for said tooth??

Things have been fun around here. Aryn's hilarious (her new thing is, "Of COURSE, mommy!" - to any question. "Aryn, did you take my phone?" "Of COURSE I did!"), Pookie Man is smiling and cooing... and just does not eat near as much as Aryn did. It's weird how little he eats yet continues to gain weight. We're doing great and loving every day... at least most of the day. Not all of the day... but most.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Crazy days

We are losing our minds. Literally. The lack of sleep, lack of relaxation, lack of spending any time with each other before having to rush off to bed before we 'miss our window' has taken its toll. We are walking zombies and someone has already eaten our brains.

Case in point...

Saturday: We went to Lethbridge for a wedding. Now, we didn't need to leave until noon. We started getting ready at about 9am, thinking we'd be ready in plenty of time. Well. Aryn woke Lucas up at about 10am, and he proceeded to scream until 11. Which meant I didn't get to do anything other than hold him for an hour. 11:30 rolls around, I'm not dressed, no makeup, Aryn's running around naked, Lucas is asleep and still in his pj's. Ryan showered at 11:45 and we rushed out the door at 12:20. We forgot lots of stuff.

Saturday Part 2: I left the ceremony and took the kids back to the farm. Kids were not invited to the wedding and we wanted some quality time with Yampa Butch. We got home at 6. By the time bedtime (8pm) rolled around, we'd had had one toddler pee accident, one infant projectile vomit, 2 infant poopy diapers, one toddler freak out, and a huge fight to make said toddler eat supper.

Sunday: The morning after the wedding, Ryan's mom gets a text from his sister saying she has Ryan's phone. He left it in Lethbridge. We're at the farm. One year ago, we'd have just left it there and had them mail it up. But not now. Smart phones = life lines. Ryan drove to Lethbridge (an hour away) to get his phone.

Sunday Part 2: While getting ready to leave, I strapped both kids in the car. Ryan started the remote car starter (because it was hot out. Car on = air conditioning). In order to remotely start the car, you need to lock the doors, and then hold the remote starter for 3 seconds. I do this literally every day, and I have a process where I immediately unlock the doors after starting the car. Well, Ryan doesn't take my car very often. He put the keys in the ignition, and closed the door.

Kids. Locked. In Car.

So, after fighting with OnStar to BEG them to find a way to open our car, and calling 911, and Chevrolet Road Side Assistance, and no one was able to help us (because we're in the middle of nowhere, and we don't have OnStar), Ryan had to break the driver side window with a hammer.

Infant screaming bloody murder.

Toddler hyperventilating crying.

Oh, and the air conditioning? It was off. So hot air was blowing on both kids.

Awesome.

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The whole situation took about 10 minutes to resolve, but it felt like hours. It took a bit to calm them down, and a fun switcheroo with the inlaws super nice Enclave to take home, and we were back on the road about an hour later. Exhausted, annoyed, and feeling silly. But everyone was ok.

Monday: My parents take Aryn on Mondays. They usually go to the zoo, but due to the floods in Calgary, the zoo is closed until at least the end of July. So they went to the Science museum. So it was just me and Pookie, so we went to the mall to get Aryn some new clothes, and then to Costco. Lucas was a trooper. I wanted a quick in-and-out of Calgary so I could get home around lunch time to take Bauer for a walk before the weather turned. Well, I get home, and there's a missed call on my cell (which I saw was ringing about 3 minutes after I left Costco and I ignored it because I was driving). It was Costco. I forgot my wallet.

*sigh*

Back in the car, 3 pull overs to tend to a screaming infant who did NOT want to go back to sleep, and almost 2 hours later, my wallet is back in the car and we're at home.

Tuesday: This morning, Aryn woke up quietly, snuck out of her room, took off her diaper, and proceeded to poop in the toilet. On her own. YAY!! No. Not yay. She also got off the potty post-poop, tried to clean her self up, some poop fell off of her, she tried to wipe it up with face cloths, and then walked over to us with poop spontaneously dropping from her. In a word, poop was: EVERYWHERE. So much poop. At 6:30am. Fun times.

Positives: we haven't left the kids somewhere yet. Pat on back. And we've only forgotten our cell phones and wallets. I mean, it could be worse. And Aryn has learned she can go to the bathroom on her own. Although, this may not be a positive.

Negatives: Aryn has learned she can go to the bathroom on her own.

Another positive: Lucas is pretty much sleeping through the night. The night before last I woke up at 3am, realized he hadn't woken up yet (he last ate at 9:30). I jumped out of bed to make sure he was still breathing, and decided to wake him up and feed him because I didn't want to get up in an hour, should that be when he actually woke up. He ate for like 6 minutes and went back to sleep until 7am. Not too shabby. Last night wasn't as great, and I tend to mix up his loud grunting for being awake and wanting me, when really he's just a grunter in his sleep.

Oh and he's over 11 pounds. So his eating strike seems to not be as bad as I thought.

Here's to another day. I wonder what will get forgotten?? Yikes.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Beautiful Disaster

My goodness, what a day we've had today. Heck, yesterday too.

Yesterday was the hottest day in the history of Canada; I swear. It was 32C in our house. Our basement even got up to the high 20's. We were literally dripping with sweat and all of us were pissy, frustrated, and uncomfortable. And if you'd like to know how a toddler and infant are when they are pissy, frustrated and uncomfortable, you could have stopped by yesterday to witness for yourself.

If anyone wants to buy us a whole-home air conditioner, I will provide you with my address. Seriously.

Yesterday, I wouldn't allow Aryn outside so I tried to force her to play downstairs. This drove her nuts, adding to the fact that she's uncomfortably hot, and it was a serious disaster. She threw fits, screamed, cried, only napped for 40 minutes (I love her 3-hour naps...), wouldn't eat, and just wanted to cuddle. By the way, cuddling with an over-heated toddler in 35C weather is too much for anyone.

Then there was Lukey. He refused to nurse, then freaked out because all he wanted to do was eat. He didn't want to be held, but also didn't want to lay on the floor, or in his swing, or in his bassinet, or virtually anything else I could think of. Cool baths were great for about 5 minutes and then both kids wanted out. Simultaneously.

For his before-sleep nurse, we literally were a dripping mess of sweat. Needless to say, he wasn't asleep for the night until after 11pm when it finally cooled down a bit in our basement.

Aryn has been going to bed later and for some reason, getting up earlier in the morning. We put her to bed at the same time (7:45-8pm or so) and she plays or sings in her room until ~8:30. Then she's up at any time around 6am, and is exhausted all morning until she naps. No matter how long her nap during the day (said 40 minutes to 3 hours), her night time sleep is the same length.

Drives.Me.INSANE.

Princess woke up at about 6:15 this morning with a cough and has proceeded to cry ALL.DAY.LONG. Why?? Who knows!

Freak-Out 1:
We were watching Bubble Guppies and Bubble Puppy left the scene. This pissed her off. She fell off the couch, onto the floor, kicking her legs and crying. Uhh...... ok.....

Freak-Out 2:
She wanted to eat a can of soup. At 9am. I said no. Freak out ensued.

Freak-Out 3:
I stood up.

At one point, I was so frustrated I went upstairs to change Lucas and nurse him. She stomped upstairs, came into the room, screamed at me in Arynese, and threw her Buzz Lightyear doll at me. FYI: Buzz is HEAVY.

So Lucas was placed in his crib, and miss grumpy pants was placed in her bed, with the lights off, curtains closed, and with orders she doesn't get Buzz or Woody until she calms down and has a little nap.

5 minutes of screaming, in addition to some fake gagging and "mommy! Mommy!' cries, she was let out of her room. And more freak outs ensued when I didn't give in and give her Buzz and Woody back.

It's been a fun morning.

She's now napping. I don't care how long she naps for because she'll be up at 6am tomorrow no matter what. And sister needs a nap. A good, long, nap.

Speaking of which, I am heading for one too. G'night.