Snakes and snails...

And puppy dog tails. THAT is what little boys are made of.

Throughout my pregnancy and newborn-hood with J, I've been noticing the differences between boys and girls. Everyone says the second child is different from your first, so I wasn't sure if that was the case, or if truly, these are gender differences.

Here are things I've discovered so far...

Baby boys kick while in utero. Alot. Constantly. Not sweet little flutters or soft rolls across my belly; but swift, hard, make mommy bend over at the waist and gasp kicks. And they prefer to have their feet up under the ribs or even stuck in between them.

My son is a much calmer, less dramatic baby than my daughter. Enough said.

Baby boys cannot be clean, even for the two minutes following a bath. No matter how long it has been since he's eaten, J spits up as soon as I get him bathed, lotioned up and smelling good.
Furthermore, try as I might, with careful planning, feedings timed just right throughout the day, etc. I cannot make it out of the front door in a timely fashion due to baby boy. Even if it is just to run across the street to pick up big sis from Mrs. K's house, baby boy MUST spit up, pee, or "the other" enough to ruin an outfit and make him reek of unpleasant things. Making me stop, change him again, and get out the door later than I had planned. (Only to notice before we return home he has done it again....)

Baby boys can somehow circumvent their diaper and manage to pee and soak the entire backside of their outfit, without having left pee in the diaper. A trick that impresses me to tell you the truth.

Another difference is that J is constantly moving his arms/legs, etc., which causes him to wake himself up easily. Despite the tightest, best swaddling, he can get himself out of it in a Houdini-esque way in less than a minute. I may sign him up for the circus.

K or J?

Some say our kids look similar....

J at two months

K at 3 months

A belated thanks

Thanks for keeping that "new baby" smell this long. It fades all too quickly.



Thanks for having Mommy's smile. And thanks for finally smiling at Mommy.



Thanks for being so warm and snuggly when you sleep. I could hold you forever.



Thanks for singing at the top of your lungs every morning. Some day I will long for that sound when my house is quiet.



Thanks for being such a brave girl in your "big girl" bed. Thanks for sleeping so well at Great Gram's house (a place we haven't been in 8 months). You are one of the most courageous people I've ever known.



Thanks for reminding me every day that the world is full of wonder and fun. I just have to take the time to notice it.



Thanks for hanging out with my 80 year old Grandmother, our two kids, plus the two cousins (ages 4 and 2) while I went out Christmas shopping with my cousins.



Thanks for getting up in the mornings and getting our kids fed. And for accepting that try as I might, I am not a morning person.



Thanks for being the world's greatest Dad. Thanks for giving me the confidence to know that if I am not with them, you are. And they are just fine.


What are you thankful for?

Who's your daddy?

I, being the brave soul that I am, took both of my kiddies to Walus-martius (as my husband calls it) on Friday all by myself. It was a little daunting to say the least. Both kids fit nicely in the germ-infested shopping cart, but where oh where to put the purchases? Well, thankfully little boy "held" them for me in and around his car seat. Lord knows I didn't purchase too much. Actually spent less than $50...another true feat in itself!! Oh, and then there was my sweet princess saying "I got to GO, Mommy!" as I took her out of her car seat and placed her into the shopping cart seat. Great. Why did they put the family bathroom at the VERY BACK of Walmart? Perhaps there is one closer, but I knew of that one so off we went, with mommy driving VERY quickly down the aisles with her two bundles of joy gently bopping up and down in the shopping cart. The good news? We made it AND K peed in the potty. Of course, we had to wash our hands for about a half an hour in water as hot as she could stand, but I digress....

My funny story really is that as we were making our way down the main grocery aisle, a nice, elderly gentlemen stopped to speak to K. He commented on how lovely her big blue eyes were and wondered if her baby brother's were as blue? Anyway, K was hesitant to interact with him (Yay for wariness of strangers!), but as he walked away she said "Bye bye Grandpa!" Which made his day. So that's nice. Then the talk about Grandma and Grandpa began. K talks about them constantly and often remarks "I have TWO Grandmas" Now she even says, "I have FOUR Grandpas". So we pass an elderly woman and she said "Hi Grandma!" Which I thought was cute and hopefully the lady didn't take offense. She did look Grandma-ish after all.

So that's all fine and good and we are tooling along with my kid making friends every where we turn. Then, a Walmart worker (in my house we call them "WWs") was walking behind us. She shouts, "HIIIIII DADDDDY!" Now, this lovely, round fellow was pleasant enough but looked NOTHING like my husband. He was awkward, red faced and looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole and die. I quickly reminded K, "No, that's not your daddy. Daddy is at work, remember?" Well, my sweet girl who is always up for a fun game of "teasing" smiled and said, "Noooooo Mommy. Daddy is at Walmart." Okay, whatever. On we go to put as much distance between us and the embarrased WW as we could. Oh, wait. He had already dismissed himself and was NO WHERE to be found. ha ha.

This is dragging on, I know. Anyhoo, off we go back towards the front of the store to check out and my little sweet one sees another gentlemen heading our way. She says (in a loud two year old voice that carries for miles), "Is THAT my Daddy, Mommy?" Seriously. I swear the piped in Christmas music stopped, the lights dimmed, and EVERY person within a 5 mile radius stopped and looked at us. I'm like "What???? No, honey. You know your daddy is at work." (insert nervous laughter) OMG. Then she continued...with every male she saw.."Is that my Daddy? There's my daddy, mommy!" and on and on. Good God.

I love two. And Walmart.

Useless chatter

Just got home from Walmart. Has anyone else noticed that in their toy aisles, if it isn't a Disney product, well, it just isn't there? I swear I can't even find BOOKS that don't have Disney characters on them, nevermind a decent kitchen set for K. Or Sesame Street...and don't get me wrong, I do love Sesame Street as it has already taught K tons. But seriously, I want to by my big girl a kitchen set sans Dora...should it really be so difficult to find? Or if I want to get my little boy some soft blocks, does they really have to have Elmo and Big Bird on them?



-Completely separate random thought-

In an effort to get into the Christmas spirit (I have detached myself from Thanksgiving altogether at this point), I now listen to Christmas music while in my car which is played 24/7 on 93.1 for those in my area. (Apparently, the station is undergoing a formatting change and decided to play Christmas music until the first of the year as they make the changes). Also, for those with Insight, channel 873 plays Traditional Holiday Music. Yep, I've already heard my fave (Nat Cole's The Christmas Song) about a dozen times, and I have to say.... it helps! I'm ready to Christmas shop and pick out a tree!!! Bring on the snow!!!

Two kids and a dog...

Current mood: accomplished

All have had baths within a 24 hour period. Yep, that's right! I must be the most talented mother on the whole planet! heh heh

What do you suppose it means when you tell your dog, "C'mon Molly! Let's go take a bath!" and she actually runs up the stairs and hops into the bathtub? Yep, you got it right. It means that it has been wayyyyyyyyyy too long since she's had a bath!!! (Or that she is so lacking in attention since the arrival of the two kids, she looks forward to the five minutes of my undivided attention!)

Pretty exciting day over here as you can see...

K update

Current mood: grateful

I thought some of you might appreciate an update about some of the funny/interesting things K is doing to make us laugh these days. I know we don't get to see our friends and family as often as we'd like, so this is meant to serve as a small glimpse into our lives these days.

1. K loves saying "A-ha!" as though she has found a secret clue that has been sought out by the greatest of treasure seekers for thousands and thousands of years. (It makes me smile a HUGE smile every time I hear it)

2. Her favorite movie is "Elmo's Potty" and she asks to watch it about 100 times per day. Mommy allows her to watch it once per day, after her nap. I don't know why I don't let her watch it more, I sing the damn songs in my head all day anyway...

3. K has been wearing "big girl panties" for the past ten days and has done awesome. We bought a child size toilet seat that attaches to the big potty and viola!...an instant attraction/motivation to K. (I have NO idea why I didn't think of that earlier instead of using that overpriced, little kid sized potty)

4. She loves to sing and perform (unless someone is watching her of course)... especially songs from Elmo's Potty (see above). However, if MOMMY sings along too, she says forcefully "STOP IT MOMMY" and then continues on her own. LOLOLOL (guess that says tells you about my singing)

5. She loves to color with markers. Unfortunately, she loves coloring body parts with markers. Most of the time, she keeps it on paper but sometimes if Mommy turns her head for a brief second (Heaven forbid!), Kate winds up with interesting color streaks in her hair, on her face, hands, feet, elbows, chin, ears, toes....

6. K loves her baby brother and asks where he is whenever she walks into a room and doesn't see him. She asks to hold him daily and offers him sweet kisses on his head. I enjoy this immensely and know that it won't be long before she'll be screaming at him to leave her alone and to STOP touching her stuff!

7. The birth of her baby brother has somehow rendered K unable to descend the stairs or get down off of Mommy and Daddy's bed without being held. Hmmmm....not as bad of a regression as I thought we'd have.

8. K counts to 30 (although often skips 16 and 26 for some reason) and identifies most of her ABC's. She also proudly comments when there are "two" of something. Most recently, she enjoys announcing to the world that she has TWO grandmas (She also has FOUR grandpas, but hasn't figured that one out yet. )

9. Ktalks about her friends from daycare constantly. Her little world revolves around G, M, L, and little M. Before she does most anything in her day, she comments that one or all of them are doing the same thing at that very moment. "G go potty on the toilet, Mommy?" "M eat green beans, Mommy?" "Where is L's baby, Mommy?" "Little M goes night-night too, Mommy?"

10. She loves playing upstairs right now. She loves playing upstairs by herself even more. Generally "upstairs" play consists of getting into Mommy's work papers, lingerie drawer, or make up. She also loves taking books off of the bookshelf in her room and reading them outloud to herself (or her babies).

Pumpkins and a Monkey

Current mood: content

After all this time, I finally downloaded pics of our trip to the pumpkin patch AND Halloween. Sorry they are all out of order...

As my MIL can attest, I had a BAD, BAD parenting moment on Halloween. Our dc provider organized a small trick or treat outing to a few of the neighborhood houses that afternoon so the kids could see each other in their costumes. K had had a long day and I had to wake her up from her nap to go to the festivities (a bad start).

She refused to put on her monkey costume...which I paid twenty friggin' dollars for. So I pulled rank, and MADE her. Yes, crying, kicking, sobbing, it was all there. I figured I was at least getting a picture of her in the $20 costume even if it was with a tear stained face and swollen eyes. I immediately felt guilty about it and had a premonition of future therapy appointments we'll endure... "And when I was two, my mom MADE me dress up like a monkey!!!"

Luckily, once the costume was on and she saw her friends waiting for her outside dressed in their costumes, she was willing to keep it on and go see what all this "trick or treat" business was all about. (Okay, a true confession is that I also bribed her with her first taste of M&Ms....I told you I was BAD)

Of course, the realization that she could ring a neighbor's doorbell, have them come to the door and go on and on about how cute she was, and then give her CANDY...well, next year I suspect it won't be such a hassle to get her into her costume! She has asked to go trick or treating every day since Halloween!!!