Friday, January 29, 2010

And we can't forget...Mr. Liam!


MyKids-51, originally uploaded by karintobrien.

Here is Liam just as he wakes up from his afternoon nap, usually around 3:30pm or so. Nemo and Blankie are never too far - he likes to scrunch them up and carry them by his face. And every once and while a rogue truck makes it into the mix. When he's not being a pain in the butt (i.e. When I'm paying attention to him and not trying to do something else), he's an amazing little kid!

Thumb sucker :)


MyKids-33, originally uploaded by karintobrien.

Here is Lola practicing her thumb chomping skills.

Tummy Time!


MyKids-13, originally uploaded by karintobrien.

Here's little miss practicing tummy time. We don't do it as often as we should....but she seems to enjoy it when we do. Not too much complaining, anyway ;)

Lazy dayz

Or should I say less than lazy? We've been a pretty busy family as of late, but then again, who isn't? I'm just trying to place the blame of being a lazy blogger somewhere other than on my shoulders ;) I think that I'm doing a rather good job of not parking my ass in front of the computer 100% though, so I suppose if a side effect of having a life not online is less frequent blogging, than so be it!

There is SO very much to say though! I realized so much is happening with Lola - so many new, cool, developing baby things - and I'm not documenting any of them because I'm not blogging! Because of this, I'll be *attempting* to do at least a weekly update of cool, new, Lola things :) This week, her newly learned skill is lifting her chubtastic little legs up in the air! Its so adorable (as are most things she does) - she lifts them up and puts her hands on her thighs because her legs can go any higher because of her chubby belly.....it makes me laugh every time! In addition to her leg awareness and strength, she's also mastering the art of sucking (or chewing, rather) on her thumb. Lola is pretty much a pro at sticking it in her mouth.....and she doesn't gag every time she does it anymore. She's also very aware of her hands, and as of today can grab a toy and hang on to it for a while. Her favorite (or Mommy's favorite) is a squishy, crinkly little starfish.

Lola has been doing well taking a bottle now, thanks largely in part to a different nipple design introduced by the Koesterim (thanks Keren!). She had been (and when I say she, I really mean Pat) struggling with a bottle for a while, and even though we tried the various designs / flow rates available from when Liam was a baby, we hadn't ventured to try other designs. And when I say we hadn't ventured, I mean we were too cheap to buy different ones that we didn't know would work. Keren gave us one of Ella's to try, and lo and behold, Lola took right to it! That has made Pat's life tremendously better.

Despite efforts made in the bottle feeding department (which Pat does when I'm off working at The Container Store), Lola still isn't the hugest fan of her daddy, which is terribly heartbreaking! She just 100% prefers to hang out with Mommy! (Not that I blame her, because I am supremely awesome!) It just makes me feel bad when she screams her head off when Pat holds her, and then I take her and she immediately stops crying. Most friends have assured me they've gone through similar phases, and its most likely due to the association with breastfeeding....she'll be daddy's little girl soon enough.

Speaking of breastfeeding - still going smashingly. Leaps and bounds and leaps and bounds easier than go 'round numero uno. I'm approaching the 4 month mark in a few days, which was as far as I got with Liam before we weaned him, and I'm looking forward to surpassing it. I have no expecations at this point - I only wanted to make it past 4 months, so any time here forward is a bonus. Not sure if I'll go the whole one year......lets put it this way. As long as its easy, I'll do it! And right now, its easy as pie ;)

And now, a Liam update. He's an incredible kid, and really does continue to amaze me. Most recently, he's amazing us with how far he pushes back to exert his independence and see just how far he can push limits. Amazing. And incredibly, incredibly frustrating. We're trying to be patient and good parents, but sometimes it is just so unbelievably hard. Right now, I'm just focusing on not yelling. Sometimes I feel like he won't listen at all - we ask him three times to do something, and it isn't until we yell that we get a reaction. Our librarian / friend suggested to try whispering. By golly, it seems to be working.....we'll see how long that lasts, though.

Aside from the pain in the assy-ness, his imagination is so cool to watch develop....playtime is definitely fun for the both of us! His favorite toys at the moment are Stickers and Mr. The King (Lightening McQueen and The King from Cars) and four monster trucks (Gravedigger, Captian's Curse, Hot Wheels, and Blue Thunder) that he likes to play with all together. They do a lot of climbing and jumping over things, just like they do in real life Monster Jam. Pretty hilarious. Espeically when they're doing stunts and I hear a very robust "AAAAAAHHHhhHHHHhh!" as they fly through the air :)

Oh! And a new favorite food for Liam: Edamame. He loves the stuff! And it is uber cool to watch him take them out of the pod himself. His cute little chubby fingers hard at work. So adorable!

And Liam is so, so, so very sweet with Lola. Really. It makes my heart melt and turn all sorts of fuzzy wuzzy mushy every time he interacts with her! Of course, there's times when I see a hint of jealousy when we're giving Lola attention, but as long as we take a second to include him in whatever we're doing, he's usually pretty happy to oblige, and I couldn't ask for anything more! The funniest thing is when he gets really close to her face, and puts on his BIGGEST smile possible trying to get her to give him "some Lola Smiles", and when she reacts to him, he just CRACKS up ;) So sweet. Seriously!

That about sums it up for the time being. I've got to get back to baking brownies - its a test run for next week's show down for Heidi's baby shower :) I hope they turn out!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

WOW what a day!

I can honestly say yesterday was one of the toughest days I've experienced in a L-O-N-G time. Its exhausting just to think about it! Pat was gone overnight on business, and I was bound and determined to leave the house early in the morning in order to make it to playgroup on time.

That was my first mistake.

I really need to be better at managing my expectations and not being so stubborn and thick headed when it comes to wanting to get out of the house on time. Because, with two kids, lets face it, its not going to happen. I did my best getting everything ready that I possibly could the night before, but even then I couldn't quite swing the one hour timeframe I had from the moment the kids woke up to the time we set foot out the door. I did come close though, and I should be more proud of myself for that.

But I did forget my phone. For the first time yesterday.

The ride into the city was typical - trafficy and congested as it is during morning rush hour. I avoided the worst by taking surface streets, but when we arrived close to our destination road work and yuppies threw a wrench in my plan again. And I let it AGGRAVATE me SO much! I really try to remain calm and relaxed......but it didn't work. Then I had to park next to a snow bank and drag the kids through it and cross a busy street (thanks to the very nice people who stopped and let us cross!). We get into Pump It Up (inflatable fun jumpy toys!) and Liam doesn't want to jump...he just wants to play in the Cozy Coupe Car.....which we have at home. *sigh* again, I have no idea why it let it get to me so much (it might have something to do with lack of sleep, since I have a hard time going to bed before 1AM when Pat is gone), but I was so irritated to be at this cool place which I paid my hard earned not so plentiful money to get in, and he was not experiencing it like I had planned in my head. Again, I need to learn to manage my expectations of my 2 year old son.

The ride back was nice, but by the time we got home I was still in such a cranky mood that I was uber short with Liam and a very Yell-ey Mommy, which then in turn makes me feel worse because its not his fault he just wants some attention and I want to check out mentally....

Then I received word that an 8 week old baby that I've been praying for lost his fight for his life. Not anyone I knew in real life (the Mom is from one of the online photography forums I frequent), but still heartbreaking none-the-less. He had whooping cough, and RSV, and then pneumonia, and then a blood infection..........and it just broke my heart.

It did give me some perspective on my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day though, and I was a much more calm, centered Mom for the afternoon.

I was looking forward to a much needed Mom's night out at the bowling alley......and then I got a ticket for running a stop sign near my house (I still don't know how the hell I could have run it.....but I don't doubt the cop was lying!). Then while bowlign I forgot my phone in my car...for the 2nd time that day. I missed 6 calls from a frantic Pat, who was convinced at the time we needed to take Lola to the hospital, and it broke my heart again hearing her scream in the background. I felt like such a shmuck. and a horrible mother. We're still not sure what was wrong with her last night, but she appears to be fine now.

I think I cried - all out bawling - four times yesterday. But today is a new day. And I'm grateful for my blessings and my family.....I'm hoping its all up from here!