Best. Kids. Ever.

Ok it's been a few days since the kids and I flew here to my parent's place and I gotta say life is pretty good. DD is going through a bit of an adjustment period because it takes her awhile to adapt to change. She was VERY excited to visit grandma and grandpa but there are still moments where she wants to go home to her familiar settings so it's taking a little bit for her to become familiar with this house as home for now. Which, of course, is weird to me cause this house always feels like home to me.

DS is actually sleeping like a champ! Not all through the night of course because I haven't gone to a parallel universe, but he is adapting pretty well to a different crib and different sleep settings although his proximity to me is pretty much the same and in his little world that is really all that matters.

Now...the flight:

The kids were pretty freaking amazing compared to what I was expecting! DD walked through the airport with her special Winnie the Pooh rolling suitcase. She was very proud of herself that she had her own and she was helping. We made it through security without a hitch and didn't have to wait very long before we were on the plane. The flight attendants were a lot of help and both my kids were fabulous. DD watched the Treehouse channel on the TV, ate the snacks they give you (although on the way back I'm definitely bringing more!) and just chatted nicely with me about where we were going and what was happening.

DS was hilarious. The biggest thing most people worry about with babies is the pressure change during take off and landing. Coupled with his recent diagnosis of an ear infection I was convinced that take off and landing would be hell. My boy, slept. What is ironic is he slept ONLY during take off and landing...lol Go figure right? I'm all worried about those moments and those are the ones where he is the most calm. He was also pretty happy in between as well, he smiled and played and giggled at his sister. It was pretty much the best scenario I could have hoped for so thank you to all who sent good vibes and prayers. I made it in one piece!!

My parents are in their element now. They get to hold, cuddle and play with their two grandkids every day and I just love seeing those big smiles on their faces and the sighs of contentment when they get those long awaited hugs and snuggles. My kids just drink up cuddles, they love it!

DD is off at the park with grandma now and after I post this I think I just might take a nap with DS who is snoozing beside me. Even though I have to be away from DH for the month of January at least I know I can relax at points throughout that time. We're going to get into a groove here and one of the first things we've started is giving DS some cereal. That is a fun adventure, give me a couple days and I'll do a new post about that.

Gonna go sleep a little bit cause I can DO that here! Yay ;)

Nurse Mama

I haven't slept in three days. Right now I was going to write a blog about dealing with two kids sick at the same time but all I hear in my head is ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

If I ever get sleep again I will blog...that is a promise...right now I'm going to race to sleep and see how much I get before Phlegm 2012 wakes up again.

*SNORE*

Dear Katie,

Hi, I, um...see I'm not sure what to say to you Katie. DD talks about you a lot so I gather that you are important but I'm not sure if I should kick you out of my house yet. When she give me attitude she says 'I'm talking to Katie' or if she wants to play with me and I have to make dinner or feed her brother she sighs and says 'fine I'll play with Katie'. So I don't know if she even likes you, or are you around for when she's bored? I'm not quite sure. She tells me you are her sister yet you also have a baby sister with the same name as her brother (which baffles me to no end let me tell you).

The other day I tried to include you in our plans Katie I really did. I asked if we should set a spot at the table for you (gotta support the imagination and all) or make sure you came in the car with us to do some errands. It seems though that you exist only for DD because she just looked at me like I was crazy and said 'Mommy you know Katie is just pretend right?'

I do know this Katie, I'm fully aware that you do not really exist, it just baffles me that for someone who doesn't exist you permeate a lot of conversations in this house. You also have remarkably similar experiences to that of my DD. Apparently you had a day where you refused to listen to your mom and got in trouble just like DD. Speaking of your mom Katie can you explain to me how you are DD's sister, yet your sister (who has the same name as my son) is NOT DD's sister? Don't even get me started on how myself and my DH are NOT your parents yet you are still related to our daughter? Are you from a parallel universe Katie? If so what's it like there? Can you go back and forth for our world to your world or are you stuck here?

These are very serious questions Katie, I need to know how much of an impact you are going to have on our lives. Apparently you do not need me to acknowledge you for you to exist. Shall we call you convenient Katie? If you do plan on sticking around just let DD hang out with her other friends too, the ones I can see. Oh and one more thing, I am glad DD has the type of imagination to create you, this is all fine and good just looking for your importance in the grand scheme of things. Grand scheme being, do I need to pay for some kind of therapy now/later or are you just around because my kid is extra creative? If I had my choice I'd go for the latter instead of the former...just saying.

So as long as you don't give my daughter any bad advice you are welcome here Katie...I think...I'm new to this imaginary friend thing.

Chatty Mama

Shhh do you hear that?....

...wait you don't hear anything? Why that's because my grey hair has been COVERED! Oh yes it's gone, well it's got a layer of nice warm brown shutting up it's constant shouting of 'you're old' and 'you can't do that you decrepit geezer!'. (I have very rude grey hair, you see now why it needed to be covered.) In case you forgot, after the paragraph or two dedicated to it yesterday, I got my hair done today. So now for your viewing pleasure and because I love me a play by play here is the journey my hair took this morning.

Before

During

 I decided to take a pictorial journey through the day so here it is. First we have the ever present bun that's been on my head for way more months then I want to admit. Isn't it hot with all the fuzzies and such? As you can see down isn't a whole lot better and that is a LOT of hair there folks it gets in the way and is the perfect length for DS to grab fistfuls on both sides when I lean forward to try and pick him up. Then we have the last picture before my hairdresser cut it.

I don't miss it, not even a little bit. I think she's obligated to ask if I'm okay with her cutting a large amount of but I was all 'if you don't I will do it myself'. That's actually a full threat to a hairdresser cause then they'd have to fix the darn mess you made trying to cut your own hair...LOL There is a reason the have to go to school.

Anyway we have the middle process now. She cut my hair before dying it because it would have be cruel to ask me to pay for her to dye hair she was going to cut off. I always love the 'foil look' I wonder if I could have gotten radio signals if I tried. I should have walked around the salon while the colour set holding my head at a weird angle looking like I was listening. If anyone asked what I was doing state matter of factly 'listening for the signal' then go back to it as if it was the most natural thing on earth. Wow I need to get out more, I think I just scared myself...lol

Reading stories to her brother.

So while I was going through this whole process I'm getting updates from home. DH was sending me pics of the kids. My favourite is this one where DD is reading DS a story. Honestly how cute is that?? She likes to find books and then make up her own story to go with the pictures. Pretty gosh darn smart if I do say so myself! Plus it's another picture to add to the group of pictures I will bust out when they both decide they hate each other in 10+ years...lol I need to remind her he wasn't always annoying and him she wasn't always bossy...oh wait...maybe that won't be true. If she's anything like me she'll be just a tad on the bossy side. Just a tad...no I'm not avoiding eye contact why do you say that? It is not at all connect with the fact that I may have just fibbed to you.

Finale

LOOK  NEW HAIR!

Not bad hey? I can't remember the last time it was this short. I had it quite short in my early twenties but it's pretty much been long layers since then. Or just plain long. I'm still finding it hard to recognise myself when I look in the mirror. I think the last time I had my hair salon cut was when I was in BC and had a good friend do it. And the last time I had a salon cut and colour was when I was very pregnant with DD. So over 4 years! Last year I had it trimmed but this was the whole deal and I love LOVE it. Plus now that I'm certain we are staying here I think I may also have found a stylist who I can keep going back to. So maybe, just maybe I can stay away from the box colour for now.

Okay I just did a whole post about my hair. How narcissistic is that? Maybe it's not, but next time I'll go back to talking about my kids. They really are every so much more interesting than me. Unless I'm doing my ninja skills, I'm pretty interesting then. I need to write another letter soon. I have one brewing to DD's imaginary friend Katie, I'll see if I can't get that up in a day or two. Ta ta for now! ;)

What to say...what to say...

Rubs hands together. Sooo it's been awhile. I was doing really good there for a bit and then I took a nap or something and fell off the radar. I'll try not to let that happen again. So how are things? Let me explain, no it is too much, let me sum up (nod to The Princess Bride): DS is sleeping better, DD is getting more nosebleeds, DH is going to India for a month and me? Well I'm getting my haircut tomorrow and it's consuming all my thoughts...okay most of my thoughts...alright my thought right now but it's there!

I live in a ponytail. This is sort of a mom thing, if I didn't my son would not only have fistfuls of my hair but he'd also have mouthfuls it would not be pretty (incidentally even when my hair is up he still gets fistfuls of the tiny hairs at the base of my neck and then he'll PULL). So my hair is up, constantly, and now it has gotten to the point that it's giving me headaches. *sigh* There is more than one reason it's giving me a headache one it is too heavy for my head therefore it aches. More importantly there is grey in there and it won't shut up! It's such loud grey hair, it taunts me! Calls me old! I need to shut up the grey hair so I will cut it and cover it with dye and no one will ever...oh...wait...you'll know BUT you won't be able to tell and that's all that matters. Muahahaha...you know I don't think this is an evil laugh moment...I really need to move on from my hair...sooo let's go back to the kidlets, they're cute and...go:

Gorgeous kids hey? :)

They are still the light of my life. Right now they are both sleeping and it is blissful. Lately it's been getting drier so DD has been getting nosebleeds. The poor dear gets SO frightened by any liquid feeling near her nose that she panics even if her nose is just running. Sometimes it does bleed and doing damage control in that situation in the middle of the night is...challenging.

There was one night when she woke up screaming as though someone had punched her in the nose. I jumped out of bed, no really I jumped into the air and landed on the floor I think I could have pulled something. My reason for reacting this way is simple, she's been known to come screaming into our room with her hands out as if she is bleeding out (she's not, ever, her crying usually makes it worse) and needless to say this does not help the baby keep sleeping. So I've become attuned to hearing her make a noise before she's opened her door so I can intercept and lead her to the bathroom. I'm getting pretty good at this...I'm very stealth. :)

Anyway this problem needs to be resolved soon, we're looking into getting a humidifier for her room to hopefully curb the issue so I don't have to leap out of my bed like a ninja in a nursing bra ;)

DS is still not sleeping through the night, however he is at least giving me longer stints between feeds. (These would be easier to enjoy if the aforementioned nosebleeds didn't occur in between these feedings) Sometimes he'll wake up only a couple of hours after he has last ate so these days I try the soother first and a little cuddle and usually he falls back asleep. I know my baby won't be a baby forever so it really doesn't bother me that he doesn't sleep through the night. I love to cuddle my little man and sometimes I'll just give in and have him next to me and then everything is right with the world. Remind me I said this when he's crawling into my bed at 5 and 6 years old...lol

Which brings me to DH and India, oh India, if only you didn't need my husband to come and fix you. Okay so he's not fixing the whole darn country but the people who work for his company need him out there. SO he goes, for a month...yeah that's right...a month. Remember when he was going away for 5 days and I wanted to hold onto his leg and kick and scream?? I'm not doing that this time...nope, I'm going to hide out at my parent's until my husband comes back...lol It just so happens that when he's planning to go was RIGHT after we were planning to return from visiting my parents for Christmas. SO instead I said to extend the tickets for the kids and I and we'll stay there. The best scenario is us being home here as a family of four, but if he has to go for work then the NEXT best scenario is this one. My parents get extra time with their grandkids (and me) and I won't get so overwhelmed that I'll drown in mommying. I have NO idea how single parents do it, I don't...guys I'm a wimp I can't do it. So I'll stomp my feet and run home to MY mommy and daddy for help.

 And that's all for now folks...I'll try to do a better job of blogging regularly. I forgot how fun it is. However, now my butt needs to go to bed...which is sad cause it's not even ten yet. I am a party ANIMAL...oh wait no...I'm a mom...lol

There is a light at the end of the tunnel...

...but I'm not in a tunnel.

I'm in the bright sunlight with a beautiful baby that I've wanted for long time. There is something to be said about perspective and I think in my lack of sleep I may have lost it for a bit.

There is no denying it is exhausting caring for an infant. They literally need you for everything. Add on top of that caring for an older child and one can feel overwhelmed. Especially when one isn't used to it. Now I am fully aware that a lot of you are not only caring for an infant your caring for many more children so I really do not have a lot to complain about. And here in lies the rub...I'm trying not to complain...it's not even that I'm not happy with my life or anything. I'm just tired. However, instead of finding a solution I just complained about being tired. Doesn't help anyone I'll tell you that much.

Enjoying the moment.

So I decided to live in the moment as it were. Cuddle my baby while he's still small enough to lay on my chest. Kiss his little head before he's running away from me to explore new things. Revel in how much my oldest loves her brother before she's screaming at me that he's annoying her. These days are never going to happen again, not in this way. Yes I'm tired, yes I wish he slept through the night, but in no way do I want him to be anyone but himself. So if he still needs me at night then mommy will be there. I'll also actively work at figuring out what is keeping him awake.

I've now removed dairy and beef from my diet. This means I need to make sure I'm taking my prenatals because I don't want my iron to be to low. Anyway, point being yesterday was the first day where I didn't have a bit of either of those things and last night he slept SO much better. You see it wasn't really the fact that I needed to get up to feed him, that's all fine and good if he actually sleeps in between feedings I have some time to sleep. However he was squirming and wriggling in between to the point of actually waking himself up. See now that does no one any good. There were times that the only way he'd actually sleep is if he was on my chest (like the picture) and even then it was only for an hour or two and then he'd be squirming again. So now I'm figuring out my diet so that I can still eat good food but what I'm eating isn't making the poor boy squirm and wriggle till he finally poops. I think this was even affecting his naps. So we'll see over the next week or two if we have any improvement. Why didn't I think of this before you ask? I did, but I didn't want to put in the effort to change my diet so it stayed the same...really then I did this to myself. Stupid, stupid mama...lol

Hopefully we are now on an upswing and he will sleep better, but honestly even if he doesn't this too shall pass and in a year I'll be reading this and wistfully thinking back to the little baby who loved to cuddle in mommy's arms.

My beautiful princess :)

Speaking of growing up without warning me I finally took DD to get her hair cut. It has been driving me crazy! She didn't seem to mind but the constant dangle of so much hair in her face was making me insane. What's worse is she wouldn't let me put it up in any capacity, not to mention fighting me pretty much any time I tried to brush or comb it. For awhile she was terrified to have it cut so it was a losing battle for me. THEN we got her the movie 'Tangled' and one time when she was watching it with DH at the end when Rapunzel's hair gets cut she said 'I want my hair short like that.' Boom, done, I found a place here that came recommended by a friend and only charged $13 for a haircut and brought her in yesterday. She even got to have her hair washed and styled, she was so excited and she behaved SO well! Plus...look at how beautiful and grown up she looks with her short hair!

I love, LOVE the cut and am planning to go again in December to get it trimmed before we head out to my parent's place for Christmas. We'll maintain short hair until she decides she'd like something different. I'm sure one day I won't be able to get into my bathroom because she'll be doing her hair, but right now it's a chore just getting her to wash it! LoL Well I'm off to hang out with my kids. Next topic will more than likely be my new work out regime...that's right this mama is going to lose the extra pounds! I need to start feeling like me again! Until next time...

The second pot of coffee will be brewing...

...it's a two pot kind of day here in our household.

We're still only on our first pot but I'm up at 6:30 for reasons unknown to me. Both children are sleeping soundly (okay DS is sleeping rather loudly with these weird noises but he's sleeping!) yet I'm fully awake! It's normal for DH to be awake now but not so much for me, I'm usually begging to be sleeping at this point. But you see DS let me have two stints of about 3 hours so for some reason my stupid body now thinks THAT is sleeping well because up until this point it's been worse than that. How stupid IS my body? lol

'Helping' me work out :)

Okay DD just started coughing and DS has simmered down. Man my children are loud when they sleep. Although it's not her fault this cold keeps lingering. I have plans this weekend that are probably going in the pooper if this sticks around. (Don't worry church folk, still leading :)

Anyway on to other news. I've started working out again. It's going to be a bit of a process trying to find the time to do it though. With DD I just waited till she was having her afternoon nap and then I'd get my hour in on the Wii fit. This time around I've ordered Zumba for the Wii because I want to focus more on cardio and weight loss to start. I have a bit further to go than I did with DD so first loss, then tone...see I have a plan. I just hate the idea of trying to go to the gym and with the amount that DS nurses even just taking one class is hit and miss, so I'll start with my Wii and then after Christmas I'll venture out into classes, if only for the sheer purpose of being around other people.

It's not as hard as I thought it would be to get moving although I've only done it once, give it time for my muscles to get mad at me and I'll want to take a break. It's almost easier for me to keep working out than it is for me to eat properly. I go into it with all sorts of good intentions but then I fall back into bad habits and end up eating crap again. It's very frustrating. So I'm going to try that slowly, cut down on the obvious like less sugar and smaller portions. THEN try the new stuff, like this quinoa, I've had it a couple of times but I'd like to but it and figure out how to make it, because apparently it's packed with goodness.

Well kids are up, time to start my day...wish me luck! *YAWN*