Love These Kids

Funky Town

The hardest part about being with my family for three weeks is the end when I have to say goodbye. It really sucks. After leaving home, it usually takes me a few days to get back into the swing of things here. I get into a few-day-funk where I don't really feel like doing much or seeing people. Emma had a fever the first couple days back so that gave me an excuse to be a hermit. I can be pretty moody during this window of time too. I've talked to other friends that live far from their families who generally experience the same thing. Those first few days back are just hard. I love where I live and the life Matt and I have made here, but at the same time there's always a piece missing. Emma can't get make-overs from her cousins or hugs from her grandparents. Jax can't spit up all over his aunts and uncles. My nieces and nephews will continue to look older each time I see them. When I think about it in these terms it makes me really sad, so I just can't go there. It doesn't do any good. Instead, I need to be thankful for the times I do get to spend with my family and enjoy all I have in FL too. I'd say I've been blessed more than I could even imagine in so many ways. So, why complain?

With that, my funk is officially over.

Maine '10

Emma took her first plane ride at the ripe old age of six weeks. Jax followed in his big sister's footsteps and also boarded his first plane at six weeks. This flight was kind of a big deal for Em too (And me!), as she sat in her own seat for the first time (Oh wait, I still have a child on my lap. Eeeh.). Both kids were great on the three hour flight. Of course, it made it a lot easier with grandparents and an aunt and uncle on the place as well. Emma sat between Wawa and Papa and played the whole time and Jax, well, he slept.

The first time Matt and I took a trip with his family to Maine, he held his head out the car window for much of the trip yelling, "I love Maine!" Yes, it was like the pure joy of a dog letting his ears flap in the breeze. Not saying that my husband is a dog, but for someone who loves nature as much as Matt, he's right in his element in Maine. This is one of the things that I love most about him. He can spend hours exploring tide pools, fishing in a lake, or hiking through the woods. I hope our children love being outside and exploring as much as we do. We start them young so I think our chances are good!

We were able to spend time with some of Matt's extended family that I'd never met before, which was a lot of fun. Hopefully we'll see a lot more of them though because it was hard to really engage in much conversation while running after a 2-year old and constantly feeding a 6-week old. I want to nurse for as long as my sanity allows, but times like this make me wish I could just give him a bottle. I mean, I could just give him a bottle, but I want to nurse for at least as long as I did with Emma, which was four months. Uuuug. But then again, formula can be a hassle as well. It's so expensive and makes for stinky spit up and poo. Who needs that? Plus, the boob's always available. I'm like my own Seven-Eleven.

Back to Maine. Pregnancy brain often leads me off track these days.

Except as soon as I wrote that I realized, I'm not pregnant anymore. Duuuh.

Newborn brain. See what I mean? Where's my mind? I think I left it back in the summer of 2009.

I digress.

Again.

While we were there we celebrated Matt's great-aunt's 80th birthday. The party was held at botanical gardens in Booth Bay. It was a gorgeous place with lots of space for all the kids to run around. Emma caught a bullfrog. Okay, not really. Her daddy caught a bullfrog and she chased after it a little and may have built up the courage to touch it once or twice. She did have a great time though, as did the rest of us. There were over sixty people there, and I think the birthday girl was the only one that could identify everyone by name. Aunt Clara not only sends out cards for birthdays and anniversaries of her immediate family, but with each of their children and children's children and as well as each person that marries into the family. With the sixty people that were at the party being only about half of the family, this is pretty impressive. She's quite the lady.

Our 5-year anniversary fell during this week as well. Where did the time go? I can't believe how much has happened in those five years. To celebrate, we went to Pemaquid Point for breakfast on the coast and to walk around the rocks together...until we had to be back to feed Jax. We spent the rest of the week hanging around the lakehouse, shopping in Freeport, picking blueberries on Mt. Battie, and walking around the quaint little towns that Maine's famous for. We also ate a lot of lobstah, which isn't my favorite with the beady little eyes and nasty green stuff inside, but I did eat a lobster roll from Red's Eats. I have to admit, it was pretty good. We also spent the week getting scolded by the natives. Shopkeepers and random motorists yelled at us for silly things that no one but miserable people would care about. When did Maine get so anal?? Apparently in the two years since we were there last.

Matt and I flew out of Logan so we could spend the day with our sweet little family in Boston. He had the day all planned out with maps and directions to each of our destinations. One thing we failed to plan for was parking though. Big oops. We spent a lot of the day exploring the city from the, ahem, comfort of our own car because we could never find a place to park. Boo. We were also planning to take a tour of Fenway, but weren't able to get there in time. Crazy city driving. Instead, we just walked around outside the ballpark. It was probably best with our two kiddos anyway. We made our way to Harvard, but got so annoyed with the whole parking thing that we just moved onto the next location where we ended up spending the rest of the day. Boston Commons was the perfect place to spend an afternoon (Plus there was plenty of parking!). After being on the move the week before, it was nice to just relax and sit by a pond and enjoy each other. We needed to relax before the airport mayhem that we were to encounter that night was well.

Matt purposefully booked a flight after mine and the kids so he could help me out in the airport. Except Logan isn't a user-friendly airport. Our airlines were in different terminals, which would be fine in a normal airport. In Logan though, you can't go between terminals. I've never heard of such nonsense. Matt helped me check-in, then ran to his check-in, realized that I had checked the wrong bag (whoops), ran back to me, got the right bag that had already been checked, ran back to check his bag, and then ran back again to go through security in my terminal with his escort pass...except he wasn't escorting anyone. HA. Finally we met up again at my gate with a few minutes to spare. Good thing we planned ahead. Upon landing, I also realized that we had left Em's carseat on the shuttle from the car rental place. It's now Wed. and we have yet to locate it. I'm not so impressed with Thrifty's customer service. Thankfully my parents had a carseat in their car when they picked us up. The blessing of multiple grandchildren. :)

Now I'm with the kids in NY for 2 weeks, hanging out with my family and hopefully catching up with some friends. I love summer in the Northeast. Florida's great the rest of the year but summer's are killer with the heat. Thank goodness for this month-long escape.

The Days are Long, But the Years Fly By

As we were driving yesterday the song "Cinderella" by Steve Curtis Chapman came on. Before we had Emma we would have changed the station in a heartbeat but now lyrics like that have significance. Emma heard the name Cinderella and immediately perked up. Matt told her how he wanted to dance with her to this song when she gets married (I know, he's such a sap! He's so sentimental- once I found a pile of all the movie, concert, show, etc. tickets that we had ever been to together. How cute is that!? Anywho...). Emma started saying, "Cindawewwa? Cindawewwa is dancing with her daddy?" It was pretty sweet and it made me realize just how fast this time goes. Em's going to be going to school and dances and her first date and before we know it, Matt will be walking her down the aisle. Okay, so we have a little bit of time before that happens- but still- it goes by so quickly.

It's so easy for me to wish away this time. I love this age with Em, but having a newborn... eeee... there's just so many times when I catch myself thinking, "I can't wait until he's older. I can't wait for this newborn stage to pass." The time is so fleeting though. I want to appreciate how he cuddles in to my neck when he gets sleepy and how great it is when he looks up at me and smiles. And how good he smells after a bath. I want to remember how Emma looks over at him in the car and starts cracking up just because he's looking in her direction. I want to cherish every moment I have with my kids and live in the moment with them. I want to focus on today, as long as it's called today.

Help! Our Daughter's Scared of Jesus!

So... we seem to have a problem. Tonight Em kept waking up crying. When Matt finally went in to see what was wrong she told him that Jesus was scaring her and that Jesus won't leave her alone. Then I went in again later when she was still crying and saying something else about Jesus that I couldn't understand. Evidently something she's heard about Jesus is freaking her out. Can't say I've ever known a kid to be scared of Jesus. I mean, what could we have possibly said that would make her scared?? And how do we fix it??

Milestones

We had a weekend of milestones...

Milestone #1

Emma pooped on the potty for the first time! She's sat on it many, many times but just yells, "All done!" about 3 seconds after sitting down. I think she would be a lot closer to potty-trained, but I've been putting it off with Jax around. All I need right now is more pee-pee and poo-poo to clean up off the floor. We'll keep working on it though. I'm thinking Sept. is go time.

Nice hair, Em.

Milestone #2

I had my 4 week checkup on Friday and was given the green light to resume normal activity, so Sat. morning I was back at the gym- yeeaaay. Saturday mornings are always a little strange though; I've only been a couple times. It's not the familiar crowd that I'm used to. The Saturday before I had Jax I went and there was this guy I named Labor Man (very creative, I know) that seemed normal enough. One minute he was chatting with me about how his wife and I had the same OB, and the next minute, well, he sounded like he was having a baby himself. I mean, really, if you have to make those kind of noises to workout, maybe you're putting a little too much strain on yourself. I felt very awkward for him, and then I got nervous that people thought that it was me, the only ridiculously pregnant person in the room, going into labor. Then I just started feeling nervous about giving birth. Blast. All these thoughts just because some man didn't follow the clearly posted rule that states no obnoxious noises (or something along that line). Then this Saturday there was a guy that sounded like he was blowing raspberries on a baby's belly with every rep. Except this was so loud that if he were to actually do this on a baby's belly I'm pretty sure the child would fear for his life. Creeeepy.

Milestone #3

Ok- so this one wasn't in our family BUT- one of Emma's little buddies celebrated his 2nd birthday. They had a super fun party which included a blow-up water slide large enough for both kids and adults to enjoy. I suppose that's a milestone for Emma though. Can't say she's ever been on a big, blow-up water slide before. Of course, she loved it. As did I. I'm pretty sure all the daddies had the best time though. Boys and their toys. Plus, there were Kool-Aid flavored cupcakes- mmmm. They've set high expectations for children's birthday parties. We're thinking there will be ponies for the next one. :)

Milestone #4

Matt, Jenna, and I took Emma to see Toy Story 3. Though it wasn't her first movie experience, it was the first movie that she saw at the theater that she actually sat through the whole thing. She loved it as did the rest of us. Matt and I missed a few parts though, trading Jax back and forth as he complained about the movie.

I guess Em wanted to pretend that we were seeing it in 3D.

The Male Anatamy and Other Strange Things

Even though I had four nieces and nephews before my own kids came along, I've never been the best diaper-changer. However, since Em didn't come out potty-trained, I had to step up my game. After two years of intense training, I can say I've mastered the art of changing diapers.

Changing a girl's diaper at least.

Changing a boy's diaper is a whole new ball game in which I am quite an amateur. It's not just wiping and throwing on a diaper anymore. Oh no, this requires strategy. There's time constraints as well. If I don't get in, get out there's going to be trouble. We're talking pee pee all over- clothes, carpets, corneas. There isn't an object (or person) within three feet of my boy that hasn't been christened. You would think I would learn after the first...second...twelfth time, but no. Yesterday he did it three times in ONE change! It felt like a cheap attempt for a laugh in a Will Ferrell movie. Which makes me think that my son is going to be an awesomely funny little dude. But anyways, first shot got him square in the face, poor little guy. As I was cleaning up that mess, his range improved and he shot clear over his shoulder... and left me with a nice little poo as an extra gift. Thanks, Jax. As Matt and I were scrambling to take care of that disgustingness, he continued his shooting spree. Uuuuggg...three diapers and one soaking onesie later, he was in the bath. However, he learned his first lesson in karma today. As we were walking from our car to the park a flock of birds passed overhead. Poor little Jax got pooped on. Ahahaha. Ok, I'm not really a horrible mother laughing at my 3.5 week old getting pooed on. It was disgusting, but thankfully it only landed on his leg. But maybe next time he'll think twice before pottying all over his parents. :)

What's Happening

Welp, it's only week 3 and I already failed to meet my 5 times o' blogging/week goal...two weeks ago. Whoops. Lucky for me, it was just a personal goal, and I have no one (apart from maybe my husband and mother) breathing down my throat to actually meet it. In my defense of myself, (to myself... since I'm my only accountability) I was in West Palm all last week without Internet...and was sick...and my parents were here. All good reasons to forgive myself for my failure. So there.

What's been going on....

My parents came to town two weeks ago. I can't say I remember much about the first week, apart from feeding the boy often and taking daily smoothie runs. Good thing my parents weren't expecting a fun Florida vacation because I certainly didn't provide that. They were content to hang out with their grandchildren and help me keep my sanity. In fact, my mom somehow even convinced Jax to sleep between 5-6 hours every night that week. Whoa- I felt like a new woman after all that shut-eye. The following week Jax realized that it's much more fun to hang out with Mommy every 2-3 hours during the night again though. He's such a party animal.

Our week in West Palm was pretty uneventful too. I got sick, which meant a lot of time hangin' at the condo. Em really appreciated that. For something to do she decided to experiment with just how naughty a 2 year-old can be. Um, pretty naughty. The combination of being in a new place with a sick mommy, new baby, and no daddy proved too much for my normally good-natured daughter. Devil. Child. She did enjoy seeing Mummi and Marja though. She's been talking about them since we were there in the beginning of April. At the end of the week my parents drove us back and headed out for their cruise. It's always difficult when my family leaves, but this was especially difficult this time, even though we'll be up in NY in just a few short weeks.

The day after my parents left, we headed to Long Boat Key with Matt's family for the holiday weekend. It wasn't the best weather, which worked out well for little Jax. Being at the beach in extreme heat and sunshine with a newborn is not my idea of a good time. Being at the beach with chilly, overcast skies and some rain is. Woo hoo! Everyone else enjoyed themselves too. :) Em loooves the beach. She could spend hours playing in the sand and waves. She even boogy-boarded for the first time. What a champ! With the help of a little daddy discipline she had also thrown off her attitude by the weekend too, thank goodness.

And now here we are. Jax is a gassy mess who hasn't slept hardly at all in the past 24 hours. If he's not feeding he's grunting. Or pooping. Or grunting and pooping. Rarely sleeping though. Neither are his mommy and daddy. I'm having trouble thinking clearly, and looking forward to the day when the newborn sleep deprivation fog clears.

Welp- my parents are in town and my mom has Jax until his next feeding. I'm going to bed. :)

Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming...

My wise husband realized last night that he would get a lot more sleep if I got a little more sleep, so he took an earlier-than-in-the-mid-middle-night-holding-screaming-Jax shift (I think it shaved my heavy sighs for the night in half- I know, I sound like a huge brat...and I'm sure I am, but it's really hard to not be running on no sleep). Julie also soothed him for a while so both of us could sleep. Both of these things definitely made all the difference in me not losing my sanity completely. It's amazing how a couple hours of sleep can keep you from going nuts. :) Plus, it's 3 in the afternoon and I just woke up from an hour long nap, and both kids are still sleeping. I don't even have to worry about attempting to blog later on. Life is good.

Things I need to remember-

- Patience with my daughter. She's only two. She's a nurturer and wants to help me. Even if it's annoying, let her as much as possible. Speak kindly to her and give lots of hugs.

- It's okay that I can't get out of the house before 11:00. This just means that the day goes by that much faster. Isn't that what I want for the next several weeks!? Running errands will take longer too until I get in the groove. I knew that this would be a big adjustment because I remember how much I had to adjust with just having one kiddo.

- Everything will get easier. Really. I know it will. I feel like such a wuss even saying that it's anything but easy since I have so many helping hands. That's just silly to think though. I just had a baby, have a very sore body still, and raging hormones. Give myself a break, right? Now I feel bad saying that. Geez. I'm such a woman.

- Be sure to show my husband how much I love him and appreciate him. It's easy to just go about all the baby business and ignore him. I know this will get better in the coming weeks as things calm down, but I really don't want to just shove him in the background. He's been pretty great. And I sure feel a lot better when we get to have some cuddle time. :)

- My friends will still be my friends, even if it takes days to answer phone calls, texts, facebook messages, etc. They've all been here before. I never felt bad when they didn't get back to me after they had babies, and I'm sure no one else feels bad either.

- Play loud music in the car- it helps. It's also so fun to listen to Emma try to sing along. Ha- it always brightens my day!

Aaahhh...and just keep swimming. Dory is so wise.