Playing catch up...

It's been a while since I posted, so I'll try to catch up on what's been happening.  We made it through Thanksgiving, and it was AWESOME!  I made the turkey and the sides, my mother-in-law made the pies and my stepmom made the appetizer.  We had a great time, and the boys had fun.  Here's a picture of my beautiful bird!



Since then we've been busy as all get out!  Some how the weeks just fly by.  Roy is doing great at school, and he is talking so much now!  He's starting to put sentences together, which is an amazing thing.  One day in the car we saw a school bus and from the back seat he says "Roy drive school bus".  I couldn't believe it!  And he went on to say that he was going to drive a tow truck, dump truck, trash truck, backhoe...you get the idea.  He's also started counting!  Most of the time when I ask I can get him to 5 without a problem, sometimes he even goes to 10!  He is learning so much, it's amazing to watch him every day.

Jack is now working on rolling everywhere.  He can get from his belly to his back and then back to his belly.  I just had to stop him from grabbing the Christmas tree!  And we had solid food for the first time the other day!  He seemed to enjoy the sweet potatoes and rice cereal.  I am noticing that it's a lot harder to find time to feed him than it was with Roy.  I remember thinking that I was so busy with Roy, and I had NO idea back then what busy really is!  But it's a good kind of busy, believe me.  All is good!

Family picture day!

So, we went today to have the boys' pictures taken for our Christmas card.  Dean came along with me, so I wouldn't have to try to corral the two kids all by myself.  I was going to try to go alone, but when he offered to do it with me I decided to take the help and be grateful.  I thought it would be nice to try to take a picture of the 4 of us while we were there.  We didn't use that for the cards, as Dean was definitely decided that he "didn't need to have his picture on the cards".  Who am I to argue with that?  But we did get some nice pictures of all of us, here's one of them:



When I was looking at these earlier, at first I thought I looked old (since I'm not so young anymore), but my good friend was quick to point out that I look like a mom.  It didn't really hit me until then that I've become that mom person!  When did that happen?  And the minivan isn't far behind, I'm certain.  Who is this person?  Could it possibly be me?  I never thought I would have this wonderful family, so I'm making sure to be grateful every day for them.  But that doesn't mean that I'm not grateful for the terrific family that I had before now to bring me to this point - I certainly wouldn't be a wife to Dean and a mom to Roy and Jack without them.  So I'll be thinking of them on Thanksgiving (the ones with me and the ones that can't be with me) and giving thanks for them in my life.  I'm one lucky girl!

Who said anything about snow?

As I was driving to pickup Roy from school today, it started to snow!  Just some flurries, but it was completely unexpected for me!  Admittedly I don't pay much attention to the weather (or the news, for that matter) so I had no idea that flurries were even possible today.  After I picked Roy up at school and we were on our way home there was a LOT of snow falling!  For a second I was actually afraid we might get a snowstorm, but it was too warm for that, I guess.  It was nice to see the snow flying around, even if it was only for a few minutes!

The other day we were sitting around the living room, reading the paper and Roy was playing with some of his cars.  He hit his hand on something, not hard, but hard enough to upset him a little.  So he came over to me for me to kiss it and make it better.  The next thing I know,  I'm planting a "make it better kiss" on every car, truck, van and choo choo that he was playing with.  And then he lined them all up on the floor.  There was quite an impressive line up by the time I was done!  He is so adorable!

Rain, rain, go away

It rained almost all day today, and it was raining pretty hard at times.  Roy goes to preschool on Thursdays, so I usually use that time to run errands that are easier to run with just one kid.  I don't know how I thought I was going to take the baby carrier, diaper bag and umbrella from the car into 5 different places.  I guess I'm learning that motherhood means being flexible and realizing that some things just have to be put off to another day.  Plus, I had a great opportunity to sit down with a friend of mine, have a latte and catch up.  And really, isn't that important stuff of life?  Not whether I buy my Thanksgiving turkey today (or tomorrow or this weekend, for that matter) but that I can spend time with another person, talking and actually listening?  Being there, in the moment, without being distracted by, well, life?  How often do I get the chance to do that?

So I guess the moral to today is that even when life is rushing by (as it always seems to be for me), I need to slow down and make sure I am PRESENT in today and whatever I'm doing.  I'm so lucky to be living this life, I want to make sure that I enjoy every second of it.

Thanksgiving?

I'm hosting Thanksgiving at my house this year.  EEK!!!  I'm not much of a cook (although I'm probably better than I give myself credit for), and I'm going to have 9 people at my house - not including my kids.  My mother- and father-in-law (Mema & Papa) are coming, along with my sister-in-law and her daughters (ages 12 and 17) from Virginia Beach, and my dad and his wife (Grandpa & Bubbe) will be here too.  I'm so excited about the family being around and starting a tradition for the boys to grow up with, but it is really stressful to think about hosting a dinner for that many people. 

That's what I get for starting a blog post one night and finishing it the next day. There's been a change of plans since I wrote the above - my sister in law and my nieces aren't coming.   Although it means less people to cook for, I'm pretty disappointed that they won't be here.  My sister in law and my youngest niece haven't met Jack, and I was looking forward to having a lot of family around.  The particulars of why they won't be here aren't important, but it is a bummer that they'll be staying home.

As for the boys, we had music class today - it's a free class that we take through the library.  It is AWESOME! Ms. Marsha is a great teacher and Roy really enjoys it.  I love watching him get into the music and dancing and playing the instruments.

And thanks to music class, I am enjoying a little "kid-free" time while both boys nap upstairs!  I'm not sure what to do with myself.  Catching up on some not-too-kid-friendly shows on the DVR.  I love my DVR - I don't know how I lived without it.  It takes less time to watch the shows, and there are no commercials!  I admit it, I'm spoiled.  And it's nice to not have to worry about being home to watch a show when it's on, since the fabulous Verizon machine records whatever I ask it to.  So, back to "90210" it is.  The laundry can wait...

Halloween and other treats (or is it tricks?)

We didn't do any trick or treating this year, Roy just doesn't seem old enough for me.  He's been having some stranger anxiety, so I didn't really see him walking up to strange peoples' doors asking for candy (not to mention all the steps up to the townhouse doors here in our neighborhood).  But we did have some Halloween activities where he could wear his Batman costume (which frugal mommy was happy will double as pajamas later) - we went to a Halloween party, he wore it to school and then we had a Halloween playgroup on Halloween.  Jack was a tiger this year, wearing a costume that I got from a friend of mine.  Although the costume was a 9-month size, it wasn't too big on him.  He's getting so big!  It's hard to believe that he's almost 5 months old.  And I cannot believe that I have a 2-year old!

Here's a picture of the boys in their costumes:



They really were pretty adorable, if I do say so myself.  I couldn't get Roy to put the mask down over his eyes, but I was impressed I at least got it on his head.  We called it his "Batman Hat".  So over the last two weeks I heard a lot of "No bat-man hat mommy".  He just makes me laugh!  And his vocabulary has really started to explode. 

Jack has started making many more sounds, I had forgotten how they do that at this age.  He's really turning into a little boy now, not so much of a baby anymore.  It's sort of sad for me, my baby (and he is my LAST baby) isn't a newborn anymore.  I can only imagine what a mess I'll be when he goes off to Kindergarten.

We had our first foray to the children's mecca, CHUCK E. CHEESE, last week.  We went with Roy's friends Madeline and Jack (and their mommies Cristy and Kate, along with baby Jane).  We practically had the entire place to ourselves, and the kids didn't even realize that the cars and stuff moved or made noise for the first hour and a half that we were there.  It was a great way to spend a cold morning inside and made for good naps in the afternoon.  Here's a picture of Roy on one of the rides, and a picture of Jack just hanging out:

[caption id="attachment_57" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="Roy at Chuck E. Cheese"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_58" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="Jack hanging out in his carseat"][/caption]

 

That's the big exciting fun from here for now.  Heading up to bed, I'm sure I'll see Jack at some point overnight.  I can't wait until we can stop our late night rendezvous!

Jack update

Jack had his 4 month checkup last night, so I thought I would update on him - he is 15 lbs, 12 3/4 oz (75th percentile) and 26 inches (90th percentile).  They are super happy with his growth and development at this point, now we just need to get him sleeping through the night.  He's definitely sleeping better at this age than Roy was (since I was still trying to wean him off the "let's sleep on Mommy in the rocking chair" idea at this point).  I guess we did learn from Roy was was a good thing to do and what didn't work out so well.  My mom still likes to relate how she told me that Roy was going to be a year old and still not sleeping in his crib!  I looked back, and at 4 months Roy was 15 lbs, 3 oz and 26.5 inches.  So Jack isn't doing too bad, considering he weighed a pound less than Roy at birth.

That's it for now, after the shots last night Jack didn't have a great night so Momma didn't have a great night either.  Gotta get some sleep tonight!

Been a while...

I don't know where the time goes.  The weeks are FLYING by!  It seems like it's Monday and then all of sudden it's Friday and then it's Sunday and we're planning for another Monday again!  I never would have believed that I could be so busy all the time and I don't even have a regular job!  I'm not allowed to say that I don't work, because my husband believes as a lot of people do - a Stay At Home Mom is the hardest working person on the planet.  It's funny, because Roy will say "Daddy, work" at different times during the day as he understands that Daddy leaves the house to go to work but he's started saying "Mommy, work" too.  I guess he thinks Mommy is working pretty hard all day!

I've been doing a lot of thinking about my "work" and how disorganized I feel 99% of the time.  I was never a very disciplined person when I was working outside the house (or ever, really) and I've found that being a SAHM has only exacerbated the issue.  I'm working on scheduling things (like doing certain laundry on certain days and planning meals ahead of time), but it's hard because my little brain just cannot think of all this disciplined, responsible behavior as fun.  And those of you who know me, know that my brain doesn't ever want to do anything unless it's FUN!  (Or, to quote my husband, "unless something excites those little pleasure centers in your brain, you don't want to do it." - I HATE it when he's right about something.)  He likened it to taking out the trash - it's something that has to be done, but I will stuff as much junk in the trashcan as I can just to avoid taking out the bag and putting in a new one.  My mom would say the same thing about me and laundry.  She is constantly amazed why I won't just fold it and put it away.  Maybe because it's more dramatic to sit and whine about it?  Hmmmm....I'll have to muddle that over for a while.

Enough about my issues.  Let's talk about the boys - they are AWESOME!  Jack has his 4 month checkup today, so I'll post more about that later.  He is a very long baby, I can't wait to find out how tall he is and how that compares to Roy at this age.  Speaking of Roy, he is a hoot!  He's talking more and more every day.  He got a great book for his birthday from one of his playgroup buddies, and there is a picture of an alligator in it.  So he pointed to the 'gator and I said "alligator".  He looked at me all serious and said, "No, dino-saur".  We went through that about three more times until I finally said okay, it's a dinosaur.  To which he promptly replied "alligator?".  I cried I laughed so hard!  He's doing so many great things, I'm trying to enjoy this time without getting too caught up in all the other junk.  And he is such a great big brother to Jack.  He worries when Jack cries and kisses him before bed.  I do love being a mom of boys!

Enough out of me for now (plus I think Roy is done napping).  I'll try to be better about posting more often - I'm sure all of you out there in cyberspace cannot wait to hear what I will ramble on about next!  :)

Oh, what a difference a day makes!

So, I took my poor battered Honda in for the estimate today - they wouldn't let me drive it home!  Apparently the tailpipe on the passenger side isn't really attached anymore (thus the funky banging noise I was hearing) so they made me leave it there.  I have a rental car (on the insurance company's dime, thank goodness), so I am now officially a MINIVAN DRIVER!  EEK!  For the next two weeks anyway.  Yep, it's going to take two weeks and thousands of dollars to fix it.  Fun, fun!

On a happier note, my lovely friend Danielle called last night and invited me to the New Kids on the Block (NKOTB to those in the know) show on Thursday night!  I am so excited!  And I was able to milk the car accident as a way for Dean to take care of both boys through bedtime so I can be there!  WOO HOO!!  I've said it before, but it demands to be said again - I LOVE ME SOME WAHLBERG!!  Don't care if it's Donnie or Mark, just love those Wahlberg boys!

Now, if I could just figure out how to keep the two boys napping at the same time for longer than 30 minutes.  It never fails that once I get Jack to sleep, Roy is up.  I'm grateful for one at a time for periods during the day, but I'd really like to figure out how to get a little more "mommy time" while it's still light outside.  But that's a battle for another day...

What a day...

So today started out like any other Tuesday. I managed to get up, get a shower (miracle, I know) and get Roy and Jack ready to get out the door to take Roy to preschool. Well, on the way to preschool the boys and I were in a car accident! Thankfully no one seems to be hurt, except my poor little Honda Accord, of course. But the guy that cause the accident - what a ...I'm not even sure what word to use!

Those of you that live near here will understand when I say that he came from Route 28 North onto 606 and cut across 3 lanes of traffic to get in the middle of the intersection to make an ILLEGAL u-turn! So he caused the two cars in front of me to slam on the brakes. I did the same but apparently the girl beyond me didn't hit hers fast enough. To add insult to injury, the guy didn't even stop!! She crashed into my car and I saw him making the u-turn. My naive brain figures "he's going to pull over and stop", but NOOOO. He just kept going. No concern for the woman and her two small children in the car!! What is wrong with people today? Are we so busy and self-involved and rude that we cannot worry about the welfare of our fellow man?

So that got me to thinking about the kind of person that I am, the kind of person I'm teaching my kids to be. I want them to grow up to be people who are concerned for their fellows, their country, their planet. And from what I saw today, there are very few examples out there for them to follow. Don't get me wrong, I know a lot of wonderful people who are a part of our lives who are shining examples for my boys. But it is so disheartening to see people act that way. And to think about how I will explain to my kids that someone wasn't worried if we were okay.

And I know, I need to be grateful. Things could have been much worse. It's just a car that can be repaired (or maybe replaced if Dean gets his way), no one was seriously hurt (although my back may disagree tomorrow) and we are lucky to have insurance that will handle everything. So here I sit, in my kitchen making a list of all the things to be grateful for (while trying to quiet the voice in my head trying to convince me that we need to hunt the guy in the orange truck-y thing down and kick him really hard in the shins).

Here's a pic of the back of the car:

[caption id="attachment_44" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Post-accident"][/caption]

Not horrible, I know. But annoying just the same. Thank God we're all okay. I'll update tomorrow after the estimate at the body shop - that should be fun...

Firsts

So, another mom that I know threw out the challenge to write a blog about firsts.  There are so many firsts as a mom, I wasn't sure where to start.  Her challenge was to just start writing whatever came into your head, so here goes (I'm assuming if you are reading this you obviously want to know what goes on in my head). 

One of the greatest firsts I can think of is the first time Roy said "Mommy" and he meant me.  Not the first time that he called me Mommy, but the first time he said it and he wasn't talking TO me, but ABOUT me. 

Right after I had Jack, my mother-in-law put together this sort of photo board with all the pictures from Jack's first few days.  On this board there is a picture of Dean with Roy and then a picture of me with Jack.  Now, Roy was all about pointing to Dean and saying "Daddy", but that was it.  And then I see him point to the picture of me and Jack and he said "Mommy".  Well, my eyes welled up with tears - I couldn't believe that he actually knew that the picture of his Mommy was ME!  And then it hit me...I'm someone's mother!  Holy guacamole!  How did this happen?  I cannot be responsible for the development of another human being - I can barely keep myself alive!  And then I remembered that I've been doing it all this time (he was 20 months at the time), and he seems to be turning out reasonably okay.  I don't do it perfectly, but I do the best job that I can.  Of course, the flip side to this is that now I keep wishing that he didn't know that I'm Mommy!  How many times a day do I hear the word Mommy?  6,000 I'll bet - and it's only going to go up once Jack starts talking.  Ah, the joys of motherhood!

Domestic rantings

So, how is that the top rack of the dishwasher can be full the second that the last load was emptied?  I mean, seriously...I unloaded the diswasher and once I loaded all the sippy cups, coffee mugs, snack bowl and little plastic plates the top rack was full again?  Why didn't I know about the dishwasher with separate drawers before I bought this one??  Can I justify running a load with 1 or 2 plates on the bottom with the random knife or fork and a fully loaded top rack?  And what is it that makes the top rack so safe, anyway?  Are my coffee mugs going to shatter if I wash them on the bottom?

Obviously I'm a little disillusioned with my dometic divahood today.  Sometimes it feels like my life is a never-ending serious of dirty dishes, dirty diapers, dirty laundry, dirty house, dirty mommy (who has time to shower with all these other things to clean?).  Don't get me wrong, I love my boys and I am so grateful that I'm able to not work outside our house...but what I wouldn't give for a really tough accounting issue to deal with somedays instead of a 13 week old who refuses to go to bed at night (like I had last night), you know what I mean?  Does that make me a bad mom?  Those are the things that no one tells you when you're having kids - someone needs to write a book with all the things you need to know - it's not perfect, poop on clothes happens, hating your life happens, loving your life happens...

Enough out of me for now, I think I might actually get a shower this morning if the monkeys will cooperate.

Attitude of gratitude, attitude of gratitude...chant it with me...

Hello world!

So here it is, I have officially started blogging.  I have no idea if anyone will care what's happening, but we'll give it a shot. 

The boys are fabulous - Roy actually went pee pee in his potty chair today!  I'm not sure he has any idea what he's doing, but he sat and there was pee.  I'm counting that as a victory.  And we had a Jack victory the other night as he went from 8pm to 5am!  I call that sleeping through the night!  And at 13 weeks!  We'll see if he ever does it again. :)

I am exhausted tonight for some reason, and I have all these fruits and veggies I need to get cut up and put in the fridge.  It may have to wait until tomorrow, I think I might have to bag it for today.