Banana Nut Muffins

I often refer to the mound of flesh that rests on the top of my waist band when I sit down as something that has become accepted as "me" in my world. My excuse for this mound is my two children and their birth which all took place in the last 4 years. Obviously my stomach skin would have been more elastic had I had children 10 years ago but I didn't, and it isn't. Either way, as I described this part of me to a girlfriend this past weekend she said "don't you know the name for that?" I did not. She replied with "MuffinTop".

It all makes perfect sense to me. I now affectionately call it my banana nut muffin top and I'm happy it has an identity in my life.

The Sky is Awake

Each morning when Reilly hears Dad leaving for work, he get's out of bed and climbs into bed with me. Sometimes he's wide awake (which is problematic for me) and other times he's content just going back to sleep. This particular morning he wanted to visit. I wanted to sleep (imagine that) and he wanted to hang out. He spent about 15 minutes talking to me and continuously replied with "Reilly, it's sleepy time - Mommy still wants to sleep - and look the sky is still sleeping too". Of course he talked long enough that the "Sky waked up". "Look Mom, the Sky is Awake". Daylight was really just beginning to show itself - it was a little after 6am. (I knew we should have gotten a blind for that window!) He then said "then the Sun is going to wake up and the moon - and the Sun is going to want to have breakfast!!!" To humor Reilly and myself I asked what the Sun would eat for breakfast - Reilly thought for about 30 seconds and said "hay, the sun likes hay, and so does the moon and so does the sky."

I don't know about you, but I did not know that.

We were downstairs having waffles shortly thereafter.

Man U Boys

Reilly and Bennett taking one for the team.

Twinkles

Reilly, you're my buddy.

Yah.

Are we going to be buddies forever?

Yah, forever, you're my Twinkle.

I have no idea, but I liked being his Twinkle.

The Runway....

So... my Mom asked me to be in a fashion show for a fundraiser for her Womans Club. I met this request with hesitation from the beginning, and I should have known better. I said, "well, what would I wear?" and she said, "I don't know EMS is a sponsor, Precious Cargo (kids)" and a couple other places. One place she mentioned which I was not familiar with was a Bridal store. She then mentioned that perhaps she would have me wear a Wedding dress. (again, another twinge of hesitation struck me) I said, "Why would you want me in a Wedding dress?" She said "well they asked that we give them women that are not too skinny and not young."

Gee.... thanks Mom. I would love to take part.

Buzz Lightyear - Wet or Dry

How the heck do you train a 3 year old to get up at night to go to the bathroom? I opted for bribery. I told Reilly that if his pull-up was dry in the morning he could get a new puzzle. The morning after the bribe - although I distinctly smelled the strong odor of urine - I asked

Is your pull-up dry?

No, but I was going to put on a new one - then it would be dry - then I can get a puzzle.

Ahhhh, I'm confused. How does this work again? And can I have a child that is THAT clever at 3 years old?

A little pee among friends

Evan, Reilly's friend that is in 5th grade came over for a visit. It was the first time this kind of visit was independent of parents and siblings. They were in the company of Nicole and Kate. Evan and Reilly built train tracks, played cars, played games, visited, wrestled and lastly Evan tickled Reilly. Tickling fights are the worst, remember those. Reilly had a tough time controlling himself too - he pee'd on Evan's leg. Ahhhh... oops. Poor Evan. But then again, boys will be boys and I don't really think either one cared. Reilly was a bit embarrassed that he had an accident and Evan was embarrassed that he had pee on his jeans. But no one was any worse for the wear!

Virtual Mom

My first time away from Kate - I'm in California for work. I was a bit stressed about how our first parting would be. (more on me than her, she might not even know the difference) Anyway, I have called the kids twice, independently of night time conversations with Shad. Both times I have spoken with Reilly - BRIEFLY. This morning it was "hi Mommy", "What are you doing?", "Bye". That's it. He wasn't looking for answers, he was just doing his job as instructed "Mommy is on the phone, she wants to talk to you" - I got diss'd by my 3 year old, that's not right.

Parenting for other children....

What do you do when you are around other parents and your rules for your children are entirely different? I had a dear friend over with her 3 children. One of them spent a fair amount of time jumping on the couch. (I don't think this idea of fun had occurred to Reilly yet) Another one of them took Reilly's cars and drove them along the wall at about 3 1/2 feet up - wheel marks now span the length of the house. My first comment was "oh, we don't do that" and my second was "ooop, please don't do that". Since my messages were not reinforced by their parents I understood it was not a battle that I could really fight without long-term tension.

I guess things getting ruined were just that "things". It wasn't worth causing problems in a friendship - next time we'll just get together at the park.

Arthur Mac and Cheese

Ever make it? Well, I did today. I put it in the Tonka bowl with the Tonka fork on the Sesame placemat. I was hoping that Reilly wouldn't notice the powder did not quite dissolve with the milk - there were a few pieces of pasta CAKED with powder. Reilly sat down, ate a fork full of his pepper covered pasta and turned to me and said "mmmmmmmmmm, Mom this is good!" while he patted his stomach.

I think I should practice my cooking on him - unfortunately his diet consists of pasta, peanut butter and jelly, hot dogs and chicken nuggets. I'm not sure my practice would benefit anyone other than him. :-)

Winter Noses

With this weather, and all the colds and flu's going on, Reilly and Kate's noses are quite chapped and irritated. I bought tissues with lotion in them to avoid the sandpaper on the nose feeling any more than needed. Tonight when I put Reilly to bed, he said his nose hurt and he didn't want to use a tissue. I asked him to get a tissue and a bottle of lotion, and we would help his nose feel better. He brought in Lubiderm and we rubbed a little on the skin in between his nostrils and around the edge of his nose. I thought this would soften his skin and help it feel better, if nothing more than for a few minutes. I read him a book, we prayed, and he went to bed.

About 30 minutes after that, Shad came from upstairs, his face was covered in lotion which had yet to be rubbed in. I said "You might want to rub that in." He then told me that Reilly was up upstairs, he went to check on him and found that Reilly had lotion all over his face and he said to Shad "there is lotion in my bed". Upon further investigation Shad learned that Reilly had taken the lotion bottle to bed and tried to apply it on his own to his face. He was a bit overzealous.

Never leave your 3 year old with a bottle of lotion.

A tooth....

9 mos later, Kate has cut her first tooth. Since she is SO oral, I wonder who and what she is going to bite first. :-)

Have some water with your formula

Kate nurses 1-2x/day. The rest of the time we supplement with formula. I think the formula for formula (lot of "fors" there, hunh?) is pretty straightforward. Well, this morning we dropped the kids at the nursery at the gym for an hour. I had prepared Kate's diaper bag with a bottle of water with four ounces in it, and a tube of formula powder with sharpie marker designating how much powder to use for 4 oz's of water. I had included 8 oz's worth of formula powder and half of the needed water.

An hour later we picked up the kids, Kate was having a bottle. When we got in the car I opened her bag, they had put all 8ozs worth of formula in the bottle with just 4 ozs of water. I'm suprised it even went thru the nipple - I would have thought it would have been almost a solid with that kind of concentration.

I think the formula paste acted as a form of a laxative - it's been a "fruitful" evening.

Where are the diapers?

My sister in law is babysitting 5 week old girls, Maggie and Ginger. She is watching them for a friend for a few hours. Unfortunately her friend, their Mom, dropped them off without leaving the diaper bag. Ooops.

I'm thinking a dishtowel and some duct tape might help.

One of many half truths...

We went to Nannie and Grandpa's house last night. Reilly was wearing his new (Christmas) royal blue Buzz Lightyear sweatsuit. Nannie said to me "That's cute, where did you get that?" I replied "Costco", however, I was immediately corrected by Reilly who said "no Mommy, Santa gave it to me."

Private Time

If Reilly busts into the bathroom, more specifically when I'm in the bathroom and we have company, I kindly ask him to leave because it is my "private time". AND, I don't need to be in that position with company just a few feet away.

Tonight we were heading to the little ski mountain and we were all getting our warm clothes on to go. I told Reilly he needed to put on a pull-up and a sweatshirt. I went in the bedroom where he was changing, and he said, "please get out I need private". I said, "really?, you would like privacy right now" and he said "yes". As I left the room he shut the door behind me and asked Shad to leave as well. He's growing up so fast.