Proof.

Proof my oldest son still needs a nap...

...he just fell asleep sitting up on the couch. At 6pm. Should be a fun night! I don't have the heart to wake him.

Must be doing something right!

While we were at the hotel this weekend, Liam had a juice box in the room & he came back out of the bathroom after being in there for a while with a puzzled look on his face.

He told me, in all seriousness, that he didn't know what to do with his empty juice box because he couldn't find the recycling bin.

Confessional

I've found myself in a bit of funk lately. Not wanting to venture out, not wanting to argue with Liam about eating his breakfast, timing Owen's naps or just generally rushing about to go out in the heat. And there's been a lot of heat. This leads to a lot of days indoors, sometimes fun days, sometimes just plain old don't get out of your pajama days. Which, I confess, I don't mind that much. And neither does Liam; he's always loved his pajamas & staying in them.

I feel like I'm stuck in a Groundhog Day loop. The waking up routine of feeding the cats, making coffee, getting milk for Liam, getting Owen fed & settled...it seems to be taking a while & some mornings taking a toll. I feel like I'm constantly wiping someone's butt, cleaning up blow outs, taking someone to the potty (even myself, if I'm lucky!), feeding someone, cleaning someone up, feeding another someone, wiping up Barf Boy, getting Owen down for a nap, nagging Liam to eat his breakfast, etc. etc. etc. And when I finally feel settled & have taken a breath and start to think about heading out, I look at the clock & it's like 12:30 or 1pm and I haven't even thought about lunch for Liam. But I sure am thinking about that nap I hope he takes. And that Owen stays asleep for longer than an hour. And we don't end up going anywhere. And the kitchen still isn't cleaned up and the dishwasher still isn't emptied...etc. etc. etc. And maybe I should get myself something to eat.

I'm not really sure how to snap myself out of this though beyond just forcing myself out of the house. Which I do, but I haven't been. And I apologized to Liam for being boring lately & not doing fun things with him & he just said "it's OK, I like my jammies"...so there's that!

But I'm finding that remaining shut in is making me a not so nice Mama. I lose my patience quicker, I raise my voice faster & I turn to the DVR in times of chaos more often. I'm not sure I like this person but I'm not sure how to show them door either. Maybe summer is just heading towards the long side? Maybe when school starts & I have no reason to remain shut in I will get jump started into action? Maybe slowing down sometimes isn't a bad thing?

We don't always have money to spend on an activity or event all the time so I have to pick & choose the places & things that cost versus the ones that are free and I have plenty of options but then factor in the weather and that narrows things down & when things get narrowed down I tend to just do nothing. And that kind of sucks for everyone. I was being pretty good about just getting us going & letting Owen sleep through stuff but now his naps are bumping up against Liam finally being ready to leave & I find myself saying "we'll go after Owen gets up" and that bumps up to lunchtime...you can see where this can lead, right?

I get exhausted just writing this out! Am I trying to do too much? Am I just getting lazy? Am I using money & the weather as excuses? I think the answer is yes to all of those things. But I cannot get out of this cycle & it's driving me a little crazy!

Then you add on all the trips & visitors & parties & babies growing up too quickly & upcoming vacations & spur of the moment trips that fall into our laps thanks to Matias' work...I know that I'm doing enough for my kids. And yet when the longest time we've spent out of the house is a trip to the grocery store or Target, I've got to pause and check myself. Cause I'm just not sure it all adds up like it should.

And then, THEN, I think of mothers I know who do next to nothing with their kids ALL THE TIME and wonder how they get away with that, how the kids don't go crazy or how their guilt doesn't eat away at them...

So anyway...to summarize! I feel stuck & don't know how to fix it. And it's not making me the most bestest Mama I could be. I cannot be the only one who gets like this, can I? How did you snap yourself out of it? And will you come do that for me too, please? THANKS!!

I had a date today.

So we are going through this sometimes not napping phase with Liam & I know we should count ourselves fully lucky for having him nap for as long as he has BUT when he doesn't nap it's hard on everyone. He gets cranky early, I don't get any time away from any kids for the entire day (usually from 6:30am to 9pm & that's longer than any normal 'working' hours, folks)& we tend to get into more fights during those days. No one is happy & no one is happy about no one being not happy, right?

Matias offered to take Liam to the pool when he got off of work & I agreed that would help things all around but when I asked/told Liam that Daddy would take him to the pool his response was not what I expected & it melted the not happy right away.

He said he would rather go with me to the pool alone, to leave Owen with Daddy and he added the extra special, melts in your mouth bonus statement of "because I love you".

The two of got our stuff ready, donned our suits, and our floaties & kissed the other boys goodbye & headed to the pool on our own. This is something we haven't done all summer because of me nursing Owen; we'll typically all go together or just Daddy with Liam (and sometimes Owen)but we haven't gone alone at all. It was a nice treat to have that one-on-one time with him doing something we both enjoy doing and especially because he asked to have me all to himself. Usually when I ask him if he wants to do something with me he chooses to just do it with Daddy and that's fine too cause it gives them one-on-one time but doesn't help with Liam & my situation of not getting along very well all the time...

I was really touched by his suggestion & we did have a great time. I hope we can continue to do things that help us get over our issues & allows us to be friends and get along when we've had a rough time of it.

I just hope he calls me & asks me out again.

Well hello there!

Inspired by Christina to just keep writing about the small, daily, breath-taking things I am intending to revive this flat-lined blog of mine. Amazing, right? I won’t even gloss over the things that have happened in the past YEAR (and 3 months) since I blogged last. I mean, hello, I had a BABY FIVE MONTHS AGO…

1. choose simple goals that will make your life richer and happier on a daily basis. choose things you may not otherwise get done, but that are not difficult to accomplish.

2. do not choose result oriented goals, choose activity oriented goals. for example…. instead of “lose 10 pounds”, choose something like “eat fresh fruits and vegetables every day”. get what i’m saying? positive actions instead of just the end result!

3. choose goals that are personal that you believe will truly make your life richer just by doing them! they can be daily, weekly or one time experiences.

But what I will do is commit to my Four Goals as they pertain to Wee Nino – The Adventures of a Liam Fellow & an Owen Bundle and try to keep this archival aspect of our lives intact.

So here we go…

1. Write or post one item a day. Cheating counts. Cheating equals a simple quote from Liam, a photo with just a caption or a bullet point list of Stuff

2. Photo Bomb the blog once a week with stories about what we did that week

3. Update the boys (cause now I have TWO OF THEM) stats like height, weight, funny quirky things & habits. I cannot stress how awesome it is that I have this for Liam now that I am working on his scrapbook & I have all this minute detail available to me to journal about. I want that for Owen too.

4. Allow myself to not do all of these things but to not give up on the blog completely. I don’t have massive amounts of Free Time these days (HA!) so if I have to play catch up one evening to meet any sort of goal that is OK and Understandable (yes, with a capital U!)

I know they grow up quickly but this is ridiculous!

So Liam has a girlfriend. An older woman. And he has a date. He's got quite the little crush on my fellow Mommies Group mommy, Kim. Yesterday, I taught him the word "girlfriend" & now he cannot stop talking about his girlfriend. When you ask him her name he says "Liam Nino's Girlfriend" - you just know it's with a capital G. Only sometimes will he say her name though, now she's simply Girlfriend.

He asked for her this morning when we went out to our (epic fail) playdate and I suggested that I could contact her to arrange a date with her maybe next week (and her two kids!) and he was quite pleased with my idea. I forgot to do it before nap time but it was the first thing out of his mouth when he woke up - "play with my Girlfriend?" so I emailed her (and he wanted to typetype himself!) and we've discovered that we will be at the same playdate next week at Chick-fil-a (the scene of their First Date, I'm sure he fell for her there) so we settled on that.

I told him when he was going to bed that I had arranged it all for him & he was happy with the date but requested instead that we go to the park. WHAT? Anyway, he's quite pleased & happy & adorably too old for his own 33 months and isn't this not supposed to happen for at least 8-10 more YEARS?

I asked Kim what color she planned on wearing so I could match her corsage. I'm only slightly kidding...wouldn't that be adorable if he showed up with a flower for her?!?

And another funny thing Liam has decided he's "old enough" to do...

...wait, now that I think of it, he told me TWO other things he's "old enough" to do today...

Thing the First - he's 'old enough' to clean his own dishes. My god if this was only truly the case. Which is cute & endearing & makes you want to pat him on the head & send him on his way to watch his beloved Go, Diego, Go!

Second Thing - he wants, again, to go to the beach (been reading a beach book) and when we recokened with him that cannot get to the beach by himself he said that he could drive the Blue Honda Car to which I nearly dropped the dishes he's not quite 'old enough' to clean by himself & very sternly said "you will not be old enough for another 15 years" and then quietly died a little on the inside & whispered to Matias "are you ready for him to be asking us if he can go to the beach for the weekend???" cause I sure as hell am NOT. And suddenly it was all very, very real.

Don't worry though, he's still going to the beach he's just driving his own car to the Outer Banks. He was not even deterred when I told him it would probably take him the better part of a month to get there. Didn't even blink. Just went and got his shoes, which ironically, he is not quite 'old enough' to get on the correct foot all the time & asked me to take him to his car so he could get a move on. He then proceeded to cry very sad, big, tears (red face included) when we denied him this inalienable right. To drive to the beach in his Cozy Coupe at 33 months old.

Next thing, he'll be asking Girlfriend to go away for the weekend to the beach. At least he'll clean up after himself.

Percy & Potty!

This week I got a nice coupon for 50% off anything in the store at AC Moore & even though we have about a dozen Thomas trains we have no track for those bad boys so I thought I would head over & grab us a starter track set at a nice discount.



I told the boy we would go today & buy some trains if we could find something he liked. Silly, right? He'll take one of everything & especially his beloved Percy.

I ended up getting him the Bridge & Crane Figure 8 Set and he could barely contain his excitement. He had to be the one to put it in the cart & take it out to pay for it.



I broke down & got it for him because of his success with potty training. Over the weekend, he started going do-do on the potty but only for Dada. He woke up numerous times, both from naps & nightnight sleep with dry & clean Pull-Ups. He told us in the car when he had to go potty and when we reached the closest stop, his Pull-Up was still dry. He went an entire 6 hour trip with no accidents & told us when he needed to go even though he had a Pull-Up on he didn't "use" it.



I started to get worried that he wouldn't go do-do with me since I'm the one who spends the most time with him. Even after we got home, he continued to only go with Dada but today after getting back from getting our train tracks he WENT DO-DO FOR ME!! And there was much rejoicing :)

He loves his track set. Couldn't wait to open it up & start playing with it. He's very excited about the draw bridge! He quickly proceeded to dump all his Thomas trains out of their home & started playing with them all. We had been using those trains on his Geo Trax, not expecting them to actually work, but just to use as a track for them in any case & I just thought it was the right time with the right reason to go on & get him his own Thomas track.


I cannot believe my little Fellow is potty trained. Especially before 3 years old. I cannot believe that this was not a nightmare. I cannot believe how well he caught on and on his terms. I cannot believe that I am rarely changing/cleaning diapers. I cannot believe that wiping a bum on the toilet is harder than wiping a bum from a diaper.

I also cannot believe that he reads while going potty. Martha Stewart LIVING to boot. But I do believe that that is a whole other post in itself.

They grow so quickly & without warning. Soon he won't even need my help getting up on the potty. One thing I am sure of though is that he'll be needing me to wipe him bum for a good long while still. What's that saying about finding happiness in the little things?

Quick Easter Highlights

I love this little outfit so much on him. We had his Godmother, Carolina, take some candids of him outside playing & I'm so thrilled with the outcome because she totally captured his little boy, free spirit Fellowness.

Except on Sundays

I raising myself a good & proper Southern Fellow.

He woke up from his nap & requested Chic-fil-A for dinner! So that's where he is right now with Dada & probably scrambling up that playground as we speak.

First Day at the Park

At least he's cute when he's not talking

I'm pretty sure I know what I did to deserve this...

I was bugging Liam by dancing & singing (the horror) to Diego while he was eating (slowly) his dinner & he tried to reach out & smack me with his fork.

I innocently said "please don't hit me with your spoon, just ask me to stop".

To which I received the following reply with the accompanying look down at his fork:

"It's a fork"

Yeah, thanks for letting that one slide.

Hmph.

I just went outside to let Liam know dinner was cooling (doesn't like his food hot) & he was playing in the Honda while Dada cleaned his car (to put up for sale). He said that he wasn't coming inside & I said that yes, in fact, he was & that I was coming back out to get him when his dinner was ready.

I went back out on the front veranda/deck area and called down to him & he told me no again. But this time he said "Mama go away" and PUT THE WINDOW UP AND WAVED GOODBYE.

Stinky, little, stinker bug.

Spring is Coming!

Look what we ordered!

http://insectlore.stores.yahoo.net/butgarwitliv1.html (and I cannot figure out how to make that a neat hyper link with my own words! I've totally blanked on how to do that!)

Another mom in one of my groups started a discussion about this fantastic little kit & I knew Matias would totally be on board! How cool is it that we will be growing our own butterflies?!?!

And now I am officially addicted to that site. I want to grow my own lily pad!! I want to grow my own ladybugs!! I want a frog hatchery kit!! But I do NOT want an earthworm nursery!! (thanks, but no thanks) I want a praying mantis pagoda (!) with live egg case!!

MUST.HAVE.IT.ALL.

Sleep Training coupled with Potty Training

Yesterday, I had a little heart break moment.

Liam had gone potty before going down for his noni & we keep him in goodnights Pull-Ups during his sleeps cause he still goes pee-pee (sometimes) and is Nocturnal Pooper. He woke up crying about an hour into his nap & it was the Upset Cry/Possible Nightmare Cry so I ran up there to see what was up & he was standing in his crib (usually during this cry he is all fetal position and sometimes even still asleep) asking to go pee-pee! We went to the potty right away & he had already gone in his Pull-Up but managed to squeeze off a few more rounds in the potty. After that he asked me to "stay & read" because (thankfully) he wanted to go back to sleep. He cuddled himself all up with his Why (his pillow is named "Why") and fell back alseep in mere minutes.

He was really upset that he had gone pee-pee in his Pull-Up though and it broke my heart. I comforted him & let him know that it was ok, that he had done it while he was alseep & we know that he sometimes does that so that is why we keep a Pull-Up on him so that he doesn't have any messy accidents when he is sleeping. He hugged and snuggled me & I just hugged & snuggled him back.

I'm wondering how big of a Sign this is though for doing away with Pull-Ups during noni though...we might be getting there soon but it might get messy if he doesn't fully empty his bladder before going down. Do most kids wake up from naps to go potty? And then do they go back to sleep after that?! He's been doing so great with potty training (no accidents in close to a month!) that I don't want to set us back or hurt his feelings by leaving him in his underwears (unwees, as Liam says!) and 'letting' him have an accident while he sleeps, you know? I have no problem with keeping him in Pull-Ups during sleep time but I am curious to know if this is HIM trying to train himself for sleep time potty training?

And on the Nocturnal Pooping front, Liam typically poops in his sleep. Mostly during the night & if he goes then, he is done for the rest of the day. If he doesn't go during the night, he goes during his nap. There have been a handful (ewww, wrong choice of words there) of times that he has gone while awake & we have been able to get him on the potty to go and the ONE rare time before noni that he asked to go on the potty & went (YAY!!). So this, clearly, is going to take longer (and hence the no rush to be rid of the Pull-Ups) but I don't want to confuse him with doing so well with the pee-pee but keeping the Pull-Ups for do-do, you know?

I know it all works out in the end (again, wrong choice of wors there...) and no kid goes to college pooping in his sleep (RIGHT??) but I'm just trying to TRAIN MYSELF here and give him the chance to do what he needs to do (when he needs to do it...!) to make this go smoothly. What would really suck if he wakes himself up to go potty and then doesn't go back to sleep!

Any suggestions or encouragement gladly accepted ;)

Snippets of my day

Today was your typical, average, rainy Monday but for some reason there are a few things that Liam & I did or said today that have stuck out in my mind & I thought I would write them down to commit them to memory.

While he was eating lunch I bent down to cup his face in my hands & give him a kiss. This is not something new for me to do but this time he grabbed my wedding rings & asked me who gave them to me. I told him Dada gave them to me when we got married in our church and he said "no, Nana gave them to you" and I laughed & pointed out my earrings & said "no, Nana gave me these" and he grabbed my rings again and said "no, Pa gave you these". The conversation doesn't mean much but I loved that he sat there twirling my rings around trying to guess or figure out who gave them to me.

Just now when I was saying goodnight to him, instead of him telling me he loves me (Which, hello? Melty heart!) he told me "Mama, I miss you".

When he woke up from his nap he asked if he could "go to Kim's again & play with the blue Play-Doh". He had asked to leave the playdate this morning, several times, in fact and when we finally left, I asked him once we got settled in the car why he had wanted to leave so badly and he said "I miss Dada, I wanna see Dada, please". So we came home to see Dada cause Liam missed him.

He already knows our new car is a Honda (Oh yeah, I owe you a post about that, don't I?!) & will point out & count all the Hondas on the road. We call it Our Car, as opposed to Mama's [green] car or Dada's [blue] car, and he will call out "another Honda, it's Our Car!"

I gave him an older model iPod shuffle to call his Own & he's loving it. Took it shopping with us today & skipped through just about all the songs loaded on there while we were on the road. He recognizes all his music loaded on there & happily calls out "Baby Einstein" whenever his classical tracks come on. So now, Dada has the iTouch, Mama has the Pink iTouch (old school mini) and he has his White iTouch.

This week seems like a bust to an extent cause of Spring Break - why are all OUR classes cancelled cause others aren't in school? Both art class & soccer have been cancelled & I think that bites. I've been able to filly up our time with playdates & I've got some errands to run but he loves his classes so much that I hate to have them missing from our schedule. We are heading to CT for Easter this weekend so I've got plenty to do before we leave to keep us busy, I suppose, but I just like our Scheduled Events to help fill our days.

I've posted some pictures from Nana & Pa's Monthly Fellow Fix on Dropshots - some are in March and some are in Feburary from their prior visit. There's some especially adorable ones of Liam at a Valentine's Day playdate wearing his tuxedo ;)

Until next time; may all your rainy, typical, Monday bring you immense happiness & bebes telling you they miss you before you have even left the room.

CANNOT BLOG TODAY!

AM BUSY TRYING TO GET EASTER EGG ROLL TICKETS AT OBAMA'S HOME!

(seriously, this is more stressful than logging onto ticketmaster at 9:55)

Haircut/Messy Eater Combo

This is a twofor...a nice capture of his new styling haircut & how he ate his soup last night. Plus some apple sauce. And whatever else is on that bib.

It's a good thing he's cute.

And some days are just not exciting...!

Today, well today, has not been very exciting & I suppose I should be grateful for that, no?

But Nana, you might want to sit down for this, ok?

I took him to get his hair cut.

And it looks TERRIFIC!

OK, you can stand back up now.

But seriously, that's been the excitement of the day around these parts. Unless you count going to the Dollar Tree to see if they have Play-Doh (they don't, only generic) or Paint By Water books (they don't, only regular color books) but I did find some small pylons that Liam uses in soccer (KAPOW!) with nice, little Disney Princess decals on them. Don't worry, I bought them anyway because I forgot to mention yesterday that Liam's favorite color is PINK. And I also got him a little bug collection container just to Boy him up some after the pink, princess pylons; which for the record there were NO boy pylon options.

Then we came home & ate lunch (still with the blueberry cottage cheese) and since he scarved that down I offered him a "meat & cheese" Lunchable that he proceeded to scarf down also. His appetite has picked up since we've be gone & most notably he has really started to eat Mama & Dada Dinners about 95% of the time! He's still a Pain in the Ass Eater but not nearly as bad; he will still refuse the silliest of things but has become very good at trying new things & eating his entire meal. He will eat all types of meat (including lamb), and still loves his green veggies (but not raw or in original form), and will also eat up fruit products (but not raw). Weirdo.

Then I put his ass down for an early nap because he was in bed with me last night (cough was keeping him up) and then woke up at 6:07am for the day. He still likes one of us to be in the room when he is putting himself to sleep & I really don't mind at all. Mostly because he just wants to me to "stay & read" and let me tell you, I've probably read around 7 books since the new year because of it!

But let me tell you something - this Fellow has got quite a little iTouch obsession going on here, folks. He has his own apps, he takes care of his own iPuppy, has memory games, ABC flashcards & shapes/colors games. LOVES that thing! Me? Not so much.

And with that, I must go continue playing with Play-Doh! We've got pink cars to cut, people.

Oh, hello! It's me!

Well, well, well. What an unexpected break that was, right? I have no excuse except to say that December quickly & fantastically got away from me, January became a blur of getting back into routine & two trips up north & February appeared to be Hibernate Month...but yet no real reason for not updating besides business & laziness.

I'm going to try & jump back on track though as I love keeping a record of my little Liam Fellow & I miss writing all about how wonderful I think he is! Matias has even badgered me about my lack of writing so you know it must be bad. He would like me start a little weekly update about Liam's technological advances so I think I might try & start a Techie Thursday to let y'all know how our NASA Programmer is coming along ;)

What I can quickly update with is the following & I promise to come back (hopefully) daily and document more of our fantastic adventures together!

• We've been gone so long that Liam has been registered for PRESCHOOL in the Fall! He will be going to a co-op where I have to volunteer on a monthly basis & that suits my control issues & hippie tendencies just fine. Every time we drive by though he says "me go to preschool, Mama!", I've explained to him that has to be 3 not 2 & he has to go do-do on the potty first!
• We've been gone so long that Liam is wearing UNDERWEAR now! He is still a Nocturnal Pooper but we go pee-pee on the potty ALL THE TIME NOW! He's been accident free for a WEEK! And only had 2.5 accidents prior to this week-long streak. He has pooped on the potty but only twice & only for Dada. I still keep him in overnighters for noni & night night sleep since he's mostly pooping there & does still go pee-pee while he sleeps.
• We've been gone so long that Liam needs another hair cut! We haven't gotten his hair cut since the beginning of December when they hacked his hair off right before his Santa picture & our family protraits. We are partial to it long though so I've been putting it off but also because I'm afraid of the Hack Job that might be in our future. I'm thinking of showing them his Santa picture and just saying "NEVER AGAIN". Think that might get my point across?
• We've been gone so long that Liam has be enrolled in Soccer TWICE, music once & art class once! Soccer will be a keeper as he is LOVE with his coach & is really getting the hang of it...he's quite a good dribbler! Music may not be renewed because it's about 40 minutes away & at 9:45 which is a little early when you take into account potty training (where peeing takes 15 minutes!), breakfast (where eating takes 40 minutes!) & driving our asses out there. Although, th next sessions has a 10:30 start time & that sounds a LOT better to me. Art class is a 'meh'. The art portion of it is good, messy & experimental; exactly what I wanted for him (AND ME!) but then there's other 'stuff' thrown in that I just find distracting and unnecassary for an ART CLASS. Like, why do we need a big, huge ball brought in? That never ends well.
• We've been gone so long that Liam has moved on from Blue's Clues & My Friends Tigger & Pooh and is now OBSESSED with Little Einsteins & Wonder Pets. And I would like to take this moment to thank Dada for downloading two whole seasons of hell on earth Little Einsteins for us.
• We've been gone so long that Liam actually ASKS to eat out! Now, granted he asks to eat in Old Town that is right next to the TRAIN TRACKS but still, he asks to eat out! And he behaves!

Basically, we've been busy. Busy with life, busy with a full calendar, busy with exciting events taking us fun places. And I cannot wait till Spring so that some of those places can BE OUTSIDE. I'm sure there's a higher precentage of SAHM who suffer from Cabin Fever; there's nothing worse than crap weather, a toddler & being stuck indoors.

I wanted to say thanks to anyone who has nudged me to get back to writing this for Liam. It's important to me & I don't know why I let it go so long but whatever, right? I should be able to get back on the blogging horse & gallop off with it again, I'm sure!

Until next time, I leave you with a new favorite picture of mine!

Liam Fellow waving at a passing plane, convinced that Nana & Pa are still on a plane!