Saturday in the park

Oh shoot guys, I'm going to have to change the date for our "Easy as PB&J" link up.  I wrote that blurb on the bottom of last Wednesday's post anticipating a conversation with my friend Tiffanie, but we haven't worked out all the details yet.  So hold on to your lunch idea posts!  I will give more info soon!!!! 

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During the dark winter months I always think I love summer.  But what I really love is spring and fall.  Those are the seasons you can actually leave your house.  Two kids in the summer is just about as difficult as two kids in the winter. 

But Saturday.  Saturday it was so cool.  Right around 80 degrees, overcast with a nice breeze. 

Olivia needed to run.  That girl was going crazy inside, and Adam was gone all day golfing so we hadn't managed to get outside.  We let her play on the playground and I chatted it up with the Ax Man on a blanket under a tree.

I got jealous of Adam and Olivia's fun, as I usually do, so I abandoned my post and Axel and I walked over to the playground where Olivia was attempting to do the monkey bars.  As I watched her play, music from a near by event (so near we were practically attending) floated over to us.  It was a jazzy instrumental version of "Til There Was You".  It was one of those moments you are happy just to be.  You don't want to be anywhere else. 

So naturally I made Adam take a picture.  I'm a blogging work in progress.

Soon Olivia was running again.  That girl, she is beautiful.  Her little body is just so perfect.  I can see all the muscles when she moves, and she's thin but not frail looking at all.  I'm pretty sure she's buff enough to knock out a kindergartener.

We walked while Olivia ran around three baseball fields.  "Keep running!" we would say.

After our fun walk/run, Olivia didn't want to leave the park.  Not in a throwing a fit kind of way, but in a "I want to hug the parking lot" kind of way.

 

We got her in the car with the promise of "ice cream", which was really a Hawaiian shaved ice, but same thing when you're two.

We shared a half gallon of shaved ice, I swear it was that big, and got home around 9pm.  Oops, like an hour past everyone's bed time! 

But you know what?  They went right to sleep.

The Big Sister

 Hi.  My name is Olivia, and I'm a big girl.

At least, that's what I keep hearing.

It started out innocent enough.  Lift your head off the couch, you're a big girl!  Eat rice cereal, you're a big girl!  Take a few steps, you're a big girl!  But now, I'm hearing it more and more and it seems to be getting less and less fun.

It really got out of control with this boy moved in.

I really like him, but suddenly I'm expected to teach him things I'm just learning myself!  What the heck!

"Show Axel how big girls sit still during church."
"Show Axel how big girls use the potty."
"Show Axel how big girls don't wear diapers anymore."

So I'm a big girl?  But do I get to stay up later?  No.  Do I get to dress myself?  No.  Do I get to look at the contents of the trash can?  No.

Doesn't sound like the gig I signed up for.

Some things will never change

My daughter just licked the screen door.  She looked at me and said, "Gross."  And. . . did it again.

Olivia loves tasting things.  She eats the play dough every time.  She was the oldest girl in her nursery class at church to still eat the crayons. 

It's funny because this oral fixation has been something unique about her since she was just a couple weeks old.  Here she is licking the side of her car seat, less than a month old!  People would see this and say, "She must be hungry!" (which, let's be honest, always bugged the heck out of me) but no, she just liked to lick things.

And here's my Axel Boy, pulling the covers over his face to sleep.  Every time. 

He does not sleep like this at night.  At night he's swaddled and cannot use his arms to pull the blanket over his head.

In fact we were on a walk yesterday and he was happy, but near the end he started fussing a little.  I stopped and replaced his binki using his burp cloth to kind of keep it in place (he can't hang on to a binki to save his life, this kid) Seriously like one minute later I checked to see if he had fallen asleep and he had pulled the burp cloth over his face and just zonked.  It was then that I realized he totally pulls that blanket over his face on purpose.

I can't wait to see if he continues this for years to come.

Its so crazy how kids are born with their own personalities and traits, right?

Where do you work?

Almost every day Olivia gets ready to leave the house.  Often on her princess car.  Sometimes with her shopping cart.

"Where are you going Olivia?"

Usually she's going to Fiji (she obsessed with our honeymoon pictures from Fiji).  Other times she's taking after dad and going to work.

"Where do you work Olivia?"

Always Andrew and Martha's house (my brother and his wife).  I have no idea why.

Today she got so far as to open the door (note to self: Olivia can unlock the dead bolt.  Be on constant alert) but then she realized forgot her keys (naturally her keys are the shoelaces on her sparkly shoes).  I guess this is something I say a lot!

Here she is, with Emily, probably going to drop her at daycare first, locking the door on her way to work.  She's so responsible.

And here she is standing right outside the door, ready to make a break for it!

It's a Water Party!

If you're a new follower because of the giveaway we're doing, I guess I should let you know that I'm NOT a fashion blogger.  That was for fun, and probably never again, so hopefully you're not disappointed :) (You should be more disappointed if I were to continue. . . )

If I had known that our patio area wasn't fenced in, I probably wouldn't have signed with this apartment complex.  Olivia loves to be outdoors and it would be so nice if she could play out there with out my constant supervision (read: sitting and blocking her from making a break for it) But we're only here for five more months, so I deal with it.  One day it was pretty warm out and Olivia and I were driving each other crazy (thanks to an early nap leaving us with a looooong stretch of afternoon)

So I got her into a ballerina outfit/swimsuit and filled a bowl with ice cubes, a large cup with water and some measuring cups to scoop with and we headed out to the patio area. 

Dumping water from the cup into the bowl of ice.

 

"Olivia say cheese!" She had no interest in posing for me.  Too much to do!

And we start drinking the water.  I guess it's pretty clean.

Dumping water and ice from the bowl into the cup.

Drinking from the cup.

And of course brother was there with us too!  He had a great time being outside.  Love this kid, so chill.

After I put away the camera I had to fill Olivia's cup no less than ten times.  So if you do a similar activity, you might want access to a hose.

So what are some other great ideas for entertaining toddlers, inside or outdoors?  Olivia is getting bored of me and her toys. 

The truth is. . .

My favorite time of day is 7pm.  Dinner is over, Adam is home, babies are getting ready for bed and sun is pouring in the windows (more and more I'm realizing my happiness is largely linked to the sunshine).

Axel is happy, Olivia is happy.  Plus, naked babies.  The best, right?

Olivia and Baby Emily.  We hoped that she could care for Emily like I care for Axel, but instead she often makes me care for both of them at the same time.  Dang Emily, always crying at the same time Axel is, always needing my attention.

A video, if you so desire.  But you can skip it and the rest of this post will still make sense.  Don't feel bad.  I understand my kids are cutest to me.

And I could stop right there, and you would all think my life is great.  Well, it is, but let me tell you what happened right after I turned the camera off.

Olivia ran up to the bed excited to tell me something, and in her excitement she slams her hands down very close to Axel's head.

"Be careful, we don't want to hit Axel in the face."

In more of an act of defiance than cruelty, Olivia looked me straight in the eye and raised her hand to hit Axel.  I looked right back at her and said, "Do.Not.Hit."  And then. . . she did.

Well of course I got mad at her, and leaned over to pick her up so I could calmly explain why her actions were wrong get upset with her.  She went limp and smacked her face on the edge of my bed frame.  Axel got scared and started crying, she was screaming.  My happy moment dissolved into all out chaos. 

Eh, it happens right?  RIGHT???

April's Goal

Once again, this is not Olivia, just a cute baby.

So April's goal was to potty train Olivia.  First, the excuses!

-I wrote them before Axel was born, so I didn't know how demanding potty training could be.
-I kept putting it off because of this trip or that event.

Okay, those are out of the way.  We started full swing on Monday April 22nd.  I don't feel like writing out all of the things we tried or didn't try.  Basically I just put some panties on her and tried to take her every fifteen minutes.  That usually works pretty good, but if I don't make her sit on the potty long enough she might wet just minutes after "trying".  That's where most of our accidents come from.

I'm waiting for her to learn to tell me she needs to go potty before she does, not while she's doing it.  Thankfully I don't mind changing accidents and her panties are absorbent so they don't make a huge mess.  I've only had to change one poopy accident.  This is what I wrote about it on facebook:

SKIP IT IF YOU DON'T LIKE POTTY STORIES!
"It started when I put a diaper cover on because all her panties were dirty (he training pants are really absorbent, this diaper cover was just one that went to a cotton dress). Then I forgot to take her potty before lunch. I started nursing Axel while she was eating. She peed and it went everywhere! Then she started pooping. I told her to wait and that I would take her potty. So I put down Axel (screaming!) and got her out of her high chair and decided to pull off her pants rather than drip all the way to the bathroom. Well. . . it was too late. "DON'T MOVE." But she didn't listen and the contents of her pants landed plop on the bathroom floor (SO grateful we missed carpet!!!!) I sat her in the bath, stripped off her shirt and washed her as best I could. Diapered her, and put her in her crib for her nap. Finished feeding Axel and then DISINFECTED everything." 

Soooo, we're a work in progress over here. Still, she loves wearing panties and she goes most of the time I take her.  And as long as I'm on top of things, we're pretty accident free.

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On  another note, I convinced my sister Kellie to finally start writing her blog again!!  Check it out.  She's like 100x funnier than me, and 1000 x less vain.  Its good.

Nicknames

My dad is the king of nicknames.  We all had several growing up.  Some are obvious, like Kim Kim.  Some are less obvious, like Monchichi (my brother Rob's because he had a buzz cut and looked like this) 

I guess I take after my dad (I can hear Adam laughing in my head.  He would say that is an understatement!) Axel has several nicknames.  My favorite thing is watching Olivia call him by what ever name I just used.  It's very sweet. 

Just a few of the names we call Axel:

Axel Boy

Baby Axel

Axel Waxel

Little Nuget

Little Strawberry 

Chuga Chuga

What do you call your babies? 

PS.  I'm also over on Shannon's blog, The Scribble Pad, talking about my first six weeks as a mom of two! 

Life

So after the horrible events on Monday it could be easy to wallow in sadness.  It could be easy to question humanity.  It could be easy to feel despair. 

But it feels like that's what "they" want. 

So live life to the fullest.  Enjoy every moment (or as many as possible because its hard to enjoy changing poopy diapers and cleaning up throw up).  You're still alive, so make it count. 

A motivational poster my mom made.

Easter Sunday

Its been almost two weeks since Easter.  I almost didn't bother to blog it at this point, but I bought new clothes for Axel and Olivia and I took pictures!  So here it is. 

This bow tie is as big as my head! --Axel

I dressed Axel and Adam matching!  Okay, I didn't really dress Adam.  I know he wears brown slacks and a white shirt so all I did was request a green tie.

When ever people have cute pictures of their kids they always say, "I had to take a million shots just to get one good one!"  Well I took a million shots and didn't even get one good one.  Dang balloons my father-in-law got for the kids, I couldn't get Olivia to focus on anything but that dumb balloon.

This isn't the dress I bought Olivia, but she loved her orange Easter dress so much she wanted to wear it on Saturday and since Kati (her grandma, Adam's mom) had gotten her this pretty blue one I figured we could swap 'em.

And proof that I was there:

A post about not sleeping and pictures of Axel's blessing day

If you've read this post and this post, you might have come to the realization that I am sleep deprived.

I struggled with sleep loss after I had Olivia, and she was a good sleeper!  Axel is less good, but when I spend some time googling things like "breastfed baby sleep through the night" I realize he's better than most of the babies I'm reading about.  He sleeps from 9pm-6am with just two feedings (sometimes one!) and sometimes he sleeps even longer than 6am, but not lately.  And in between those two feedings he wakes up several times with gas, especially if I have a hard time getting a burp out of him at 2am.

I'm glad I didn't start giving advice about getting your baby to sleep through the night.  I would sure have egg on my face right now.  But that's the frustrating part.  I know exactly what to do to get a formula fed baby to sleep through the night.  Easy!  Because its easy to control the amount they are getting at each feeding.

But Axel wasn't gaining weight as fast as the doctor would have liked.  Plus he would only take two ounces from a bottle (making me suspect he was used to eating only two ounces a feeding) and six feedings times two ounces equals 12 ounces, about half of what a baby needs!  Plus he was fussy.  I'm like 95% positive that he was fussy because of gas (isn't that what colic is?  Gas or reflux?).  He would scream in pain and then toot toot toot.  I know the difference between a hunger cry and a pain cry.  Still, those three things (weight gain, bottle feeding and fussiness) stack up to look like my baby isn't getting enough to eat.

All this to say, I would rather feed Axel in the night than worry about his weight or health.  We're going to the dr for Olivia's check up next Monday and we'll have him weighed while we're there.  After that I'll make the call.  I sleep trained Olivia at 3 months and Axel is only a little over 2, so its not like I'm behind but with Olivia things were starting to look up around 6 weeks (she would sleep from 9pm-4am).

So I guess my question is, how do I get Axel to eat more during the day?  Is that even possible?  Will gas eventually stop waking him up All.Night.Long?  Please tell me stories so I know there is a light at the end of the tunnel!

Birthday Buddies

I got to chose Olivia's birthday.  I chose it with my doctor on March 23rd.  I was due the next day, and the policy is to schedule induction for at least a week after the due date.  I convinced my doctor to schedule me a few days earlier and he gave me the options of March 28th and March 29th.  

The sooner the better.  March 28th is my brother Andrew's birthday as well, and he seemed glad to share.  And so my sweet girl was born on March 28th two years ago.

Here they are last year, the birthday buddies.  I don't have one of this year because by the time Andrew came over, Olivia had gotten her clothes so dirty that we took them off and let her go naked.  This year they both have more hair, Olivia on her head and Andrew on his face!

Andrew and Martha came to visit for a bit on Thursday.  Andrew hoped his son would also be born on the 28th, one day before his due date.  But by 8pm it seemed unlikely that would happen. 

The next morning I got a text that Martha was in the hospital!  I was so excited!  Wesley was born that afternoon, ON HIS DUE DATE!  Crazy, right?

We're so happy to have him here, another family member to add to the birthday buddies!

Random thoughts for a Friday

*We went on a walk the other day.  Axel and I lasted two minutes maybe.  It was sunny, but cold!

*I'm thinking about cutting my hair and selling it.  I figure I've got a good 10" if I were to cut my hair to the base of my neck.

*I went to look for a measuring tape so I could give an exact number of inches, but instead I got distracted and sorted the laundry. 

*I really think Sean and Catherine are going to get married.

*I always think that at the end of The Bachelor/ette

*This kid.   He's awesome.


*The only pair of pants I own that aren't too big or too small, are peach.  So people will know if I wear them everyday.

*I don't wear them everyday, but I no longer care what people think anyway.  I look cute in my peach jeans so I'll rock 'em Monday through Friday if no one spits up on them.

*I know I used the word "random" incorrectly in my title.  Obviously I'll do it if everyone else is doing it.

*Olivia got a shopping cart for Christmas.  She fills it with odds and ends and pushes it around the house.  She looks like a tiny homeless person.

*When I tried to take a picture of this, she asked me to take a picture of Cinderella, which is what she has been calling this Barbie toy from McDonnald's.  

Those are some boxes I still need to unpack.  And the planter is what we use to collect our produce that Adam orders every other week.

*I'm starting to like her haircut. 

She had a sweater on but decided to take it off.  Its getting a little warmer but not that warm.

Happy Friday!  Even though I don't work, I love the weekends because it means having another parent around to help out :)