Chaos is the new norm

On Saturday morning we awoke pretty late....9am and decided to hit the open highway. Our cute little cousin Connor was having his first birthday back home in Louisiana and we were up for the adventure. We had approximately 3 hours to get ready, get packed and get on the road to have enough time to stop and grab fast food and make it to the party on time. We were out the house by 10 after 12, but what happened in those three hours were enough to make one's head spin.

We got everyone up and changed and started breakfast. Josh made pancakes, and the kids devoured them, so did Brownie and Maddie. Yes, Maddie was staying with us since my mom and dad were out of town. She is also a chocolate lab and takes up as much room as Brownie in the bed....thankfully she likes to sleep with Meredith when she is here.

Josh, who was feeling like complete shit was game for the trip and we were restless and ready to get out the house. We started getting everyone showers and dressing. Everyone was feeling better, but we still all had some coughing and runny noses going on. I attributed Meredith's less than stellar attitude to that simple fact. We also realized that in the weeks of sickness we weren't sure when the poor baby had went to the bathroom last and with that brought lots of tears, yelling, screaming and fighting trying to get her to go. Eventually we gave up and decided to deal with that issue when we got home, what's one more day right. (For the record she went after she did a little running at the party and all is better now).

Noah was also very cranky because he was up all night and ready for his one nap of the day. Instead of putting him down before we left, I kept him up hoping he would sleep the whole car ride. He thanked me immensely for this genius plan by crying and screaming and cursing me under his breath. When the boy wants to sleep, he wants to sleep, I will eventually catch on. He showed me what he thought about my plan by refusing to sleep until we were almost there.

We then got everyone dressed and ready only to have Noah find an open Hershey bar and get chocolate all over his shirt. I then chased him around with one of the stain stick pens and you know it really didn't do much for his chocolate stain. He was very curious as to what I was doing with it on his shirt collar that he decided to suck on his shirt to get a taste when I was finished. He is okay so I am going out on a limb to say it is nontoxic, even if the pen says otherwise. I realized that raising boys was very different than raising girls, Noah is always a mess by the time we get out the house and he is so okay with it. It is a mission that he is determined to accomplish.

Brownie decided she was rather upset we would be leaving her home all day alone and needed some attention. She decided to throw up in three different rooms, I guess she didn't think those pancakes were that great. Josh got the duty of cleaning up vomit, while I finished getting dressed. After my stain removal with Noah and dressing Meredith, I realized my hair had dried on it's own and had a nice wave look and went with it. My mom complimented my hair at the party, I didn't tell her I spent exactly .2 seconds on it, the time it took to remove the towel from my head after the shower and not another thing.

As we were about 30 minutes from take off, I realized that Noah was playing quietly in my bathroom. I went in to find he had broken my hot pink bottle of OPI nail polish and was in fact turning himself pink. He painted his face, his hands, my tile, the grout, but miraculously NONE of his clothes were pink and stained with nail polish. I know WHAT THE HELL! The tike is a genius, how did he do that? The bottle was broken and he was playing in the middle of glass and a bright pink pool of nail polish, and very eloquently painting his face and hands and everything else pink. Josh and I are so winning the Parent of the Year award for this one!

I yelled to Josh who came in to help with the situation. I wasn't sure if I could put nail polish remover on his skin or on his face. I did, I figured what damage the stain remover pen didn't do the finger nail polish remover would.....kidding....SO KIDDING. I only used a quick dab on his hand and when it proved fruitless because he had so many different coats on him I gave up and let him be pink for the day. His sister was pissed. I know life is unfair, she has only been wanting to be pink for months now and I let Noah be pink and not her.

After we cleaned the tike, the grout, the tile and finished getting ourselves dressed we got in the car. We then took a deep breath, said some choice words and then went back inside 10+ times to get everything we forgot. We realized that time was up and we were on our way, leaving whatever we didn't have behind. We made it to the party on time, it was fun, we saw our family and infected them all with this nasty bug. They will be thanking us next week. A few people asked if I spiked Noah's hair like that on purpose and why he was pink, I ignored them.

Life never goes as planned anymore, but that's okay. Josh and I have mastered adapting and overcoming. It is our new philosophy on life. One day at a time, one disaster at a time, one thirty minute interval at a time. After the party we decided to reward ourselves for a job well done and hit a favorite local restaurant. We sat there looking at one another and talking about how lucky we were and how grand life is and how good our kids were. They were playing with their food and drink quietly in their chair and we were thinking, life doesn't get much better than this. We then loaded up the car and hit the road for our long ride home. They were tired and exhausted and cried the last 30 minutes of our trip, we still thought we were lucky, we were just ready to fast forward this thirty minute interval and get home.

Like Meredith said, it was a good day. Yes a very good, ordinary, chaotic day....that's our life and we embrace it!

Taking turns

Yes, the last two days have been all about taking turns. It has been a long time coming and long over due, but we did it. And no taking turns has nothing to do with the kids. Josh and I took turns the past two days spending the whole day with friends without one another and without kids doing things we enjoy. I went shopping....I know....get a hobby. Josh went tailgating and to Monday night football to see dem Saints!

I think we may do this more often, maybe even together....look at us getting wild and crazy!

A glimpse of fall

The weather has finally cooled off a little and the other night it was a littly chilly, so my little family decided to head outside and soak it all in! We ran and played, we laughed and giggled, we sat and shared secrets....it was a perfect evening.
And I realized that as the season changes so is the season of our life. We are moving away from 2 tikes under 2, but into toddler hood and the beginning of becoming a big girl. Their personalities are budding and are so much fun.

Their independence is showing through. New things to try and new ways to give me a heart attack.

The "I can do it by myself" attitude is being adopted by everyone.
I'm learning to let them be, to accept this new phase and embrace it. To let them grow up a little and need me a tad bit less.
Because I know they will in some ways very much still need me. Who else will sit at the top and cheer them on?

Who else will hold their hand and encourage new things?
And when they get to the top, I will move over and let them continue to climb.

And when they need a little extra help, I will always be there.
So the times are a changing, but that's the thing about parenthood, nothing stays the same too long....it's always changing and keeping you on your toys.

Pay da lady....take 2

So tonight we went window shopping at ToysRus! I know what a dumb, dumb parenting decision. Josh and I learned two very valuable lessons on this window shopping adventure.

1. You CANNOT reason with a 2 year old.

2. I CANNOT window shop.

So we went browsing, to see what great things the Easter bunny may bring. He has not done his shopping yet....slacker. So we walk in and Josh walks right past the buggies, uhmmmm hello ....get one please. So he does, and says ...

"I thought we were just browsing?"

Yeah okay!

So we walk in I get some egg dye stuff for tomorrow, an Easter basket for No-wee and then head to the coveted Woody and Jesse doll. These are a little bit bigger than the other's she carries around. Mimi had previously scoped them out and told me about them so after dinner I decided we all needed a trip out the house and were going to see Woody and Jesse. We were not going to buy them tonight. The bunny was not going to buy them tonight. We were only window shopping. My almost 2 year old would get this right? Right? Come on...right? Yeah I do not know what the hell I was thinking either.

So we walk up to them, it takes a minute for her little brain to process what it is she actually sees sitting on the shelf in front of her. She rushes up to the shelf grabs one off, wraps her chubby little arms around it and looks at me with the sweetest brown eyes and says....

"Pay da lady momma!"

And that folks was that! The really fun and exciting part was when we had to take them away and tell her the Easter bunny may bring them by this weekend if she was a good little girl. Yeah we were smoking crack alright. I do not know what we were thinking, but we were in agreement that it was a bad, very bad parenting decision. Two year olds cannot windo shop, do not expect them to.

So we left with our egg dye, Noah's easter basket, two fisher price items since they were on sale by one get one free and NO woody and Jesse doll.

Yes the Easter bunny is running by tomorrow on his lunch break to pick up the dolls, we are not that mean!

Breastfeeding and the bridesmaid

This weekend I was indeed a bridesmaid, and by chance I was also nursing. I learned a very important lesson this weekend......if ever asked to be a bridesmaid while you are nursing a baby....politely decline. I mean really, it just does not work well. Over a year ago, I was asked to be in a wedding. I was mildly pregnant, if there is such a thing. You know pretty early on and not really thinking about having a baby, finding a sitter, pumping milk, praying he took a bottle and so on. I was just looking at the present and said sure. After all I was really happy for Mary and Matt.

Fast forward to ordering the dress and then reordering the dress in a different (bigger) size to fit my 3 month post baby body or better yet 3 month post baby boobs...the wedding weekend was finally here. I had made arrangements for a babysitter for my tikes, I had given Noah a bottle each week to prepare him for being away from my boobs all day, I had pumped enough milk to feed a small NICU for a month and I was preparing myself for being away from my baby for a whole day and night. I was going to miss my little guy and miss feeding him, you know it is not often that someone else gets to feed him. But I really was ready for a day off.... a day for hanging out with the girls...a day to not feel like a 24 hour milk bar...a night alone with my hubby to relax and enjoy myself. Or so I thought....

My day started out at 5:30am waking up to nurse Noah and then start getting ready. I then helped my husband to pack all the bottles we would need and all the frozen milk and the pump and the pump accessories and so on. Not to mention all the stuff I had to pack for the wedding and me and the kids. So we headed to Nola at 9:30am with kids, clothing, wedding accessories and the Pump in Style in tow. And really what is stylish about a pump? It comes in a big, bulky black bag that has two cone-shaped suction cups that attach it to you via long cords of clear tubing and makes the most hideous suction noise ever! Pump in style, I didn't realize there was such a thing.

We arrived in Nola just in time to drop my kids off at the babysitter, eat a quick sandwich and then get back in the car with Noah to bring me and my stylish pump downtown to the hotel where we would be getting dressed. I brought Noah so that I could nurse him one last time for the day. He normally nurses about every 2 hours, but I was going to try and go every 3 hours to pump. It would be easy, I would just bring my pump with me and nurse at the hotel and reception every 3 hours, not a problem. Yeah right! I was so stressing out about this.

So I nurse my babe and he and Josh leave me and honestly my heart broke a little. I mean I was looking forward to a day off, and here I am longing to stay near him. Looking forward to a day of not being a milk bar, and then I looked at my stylish pump and thought bring me my babe back! So 2.5 hours after nursing my littlest tike, my pumping adventure began. I went into the bathroom of our hotel room and sat on the toilet as I pumped, I know how sanitary!

After pumping I put on my lovely bridesmaid dress that did a wonderful job of accentuating my chest. At 5pm when I put my dress on, I looked like Calista Flockhart - really small, flat boobs...I had pumped those babies dry. At 6:30 when we left for the church it still fit, just a little tighter across the chest, I guess I looked like me... pre-baby, nice full c-cups! At 8:30pm I had not pumped in a good 4 hours and my milk had come in twice, I was dying. I left the church looking like Dolly freakin' Parton! I was obnoxious, my dress was about to tear. The sweet young bridesmaid, who did not have children, that was standing next to me almost died when she looked over and viewed my boobs! I was triple X rated baby! I still had to walk back down the aisle in front of the whole church. And I was secretly hoping and praying that there were not any big wet spots on the front of my dress. I didn't even look....I didn't want to know. It has been known to happen, I make enough milk to feed a small country! And to think silly old me was worried about supply issues.

Fast forward to the reception, I ran in with my very stylish pump, hoping to run in and suck those babies dry real quick before I had to take pictures. Then I thought....hmmm...just wait a few minutes take the pictures and then pump. 8:45 and I still have not pumped or taken the required bridal party pictures...I was dying people. I was now hosting two very hard watermelons on the front of my chest in this very small bridesmaid dress. So I asked the photographer if we were taking pictures soon...." yes in a second sweetheart." Okay now it is 9pm, still have not pumped or taken a damn picture. So I run to the bridal room, get the pump ready, hook them up to my utters and turn it on....RELIEF at last. And then my sister (also a bridesmaid) knocks on the door to tell me it was time for pictures. SHIT!!!! where are the pumping gods and why are they not working in my favor right now????? I mean I bought the big expensive stylish pump dammit! I unhook my suctions and drip a little milk on the dress that is now fitting a little bit looser on the top and run out to take the pictures. 9:20 the pictures are over and I am now in heaven as I am hooked up to a pumping machine that makes me feel like a heifer and being milked, but hey it is stylish right?

Men, can't live with em....

So I have been a little stressed lately. You know with a baptism and making sure the house is cleaned, making sure we have enough food, my father-in-law coming to visit and Josh's sister who he has not seen since highschool coming over too. I know...... how I mentally made it to the weekend is beyond me.

Anyway our car is worse than a disaster and the sad news is, it stays that way. So I begged my husband to clean it since people were getting in it and needed to climb in past the carseats to the back. I really was not sure anyone would make it to the back without falling into the deep, dark hole containing sippies, cheerios, dirty diapers and everything else that sometimes never makes it out the car. Let's face it after I get two kids, my purse and a diaper bag out, I rarely have energy or time to go back and get anything else.

So he went and cleaned it as I put the tikes down for naps and finished last minute things before we had to head to the train depot to pick up our guest in the van. It took him a mere 5 minutes to clean it out. Part of me was impressed he did it so quickly and part of me felt guilty....if it only took him 5 minutes surely I could find time each day to clean it out. I quickly got over the guilt and started loading the tikes back into the car. As I opened Noah's side the van I got a quick glance of the car. It was not clean.....there were still dirty diapers in it, meredith's empty lunch pail from Monday, ribbons from presents, sippy cups all over, and much, much more. It did not even appear a little clean, it was definitely better....but clean is not a word I would have used to describe it's current condition. The shit, was now just shoved under the front seats to make a path to the back seat. It did look cleaner, but the car was not in fact clean. No wonder it only took him 5 mintues....all my guilt was now gone. (did I mention he drives a little luxury sports car that is always clean, while I drive a loser cruiser...I am hoping my mentioning this will make you feel a little bit bad for me!)

So as he opened Meredith's side the van to put her in, here is the conversation that transpired....

"honey, I thought you cleaned out the car?"

"I did"

"You did? really?"

"yeah, why?"....you asked buddy

"uhm, what about the diaper and the lunch pail on the floor and all these sippies?"

"where?"

"right there on the floor in front of you?"

"yeah I thought that lunch pail stayed in here"

"Really?!?! do you think I pack her lunch from the pantry in the van?"

"well I thought maybe you packed it with snacks for dinner tonight?"

"Yeah, because how many other times have we brought a LUNCH PAIL full of snacks with us to dinner?????"

silence

"Yeah that is what I thought.....Just get in!"

Mommys night out!

Last night some friends took Josh and I to dinner to celebrate his awesome score on his boards! We sat and ate and drank wine for over 3 1/2 hours. It surely didn't feel like that long. We had a wonderful time being adults and hanging out with friends. It was nice to know our tikes were in good hands and snug in their beds when we got home! Although I did miss my goodnight kisses. It was fun to remember how it is to be an adult, I highly recommend it.

What was I thinking????

So for the past month I have been telling my husband, that I wasn't sure Santa had enough loot this year. Then, this Santa would run out and by just one more thing. Well last night the two Santas got together and pulled out the loot to make sure we had enough. I am embarrased to say how much we had. What was I thinking???? My children have so much loot that I put some away for birthdays, Easter, and other holidays. I know I went overboard, but I grew up in a house where my Santa went overboard too. It comes hand in hand with wanting to give your children everything (within reason of course). I don't think my child is a brat or overly spoiled, she is a rather sweet child with a great disposition. And I don't think I am brat and am overly spoiled and think I grew up to be a decent adult and there was nothing I needed or wanted for growing up. We had great Christmas mornings growing up, as well as great birthdays, and a fabulous education. All the things in life that I hope we can give our kids too. So is too much wrong? Am I spoiling them and turning them into a brats? Am I setting the bar too high? Is it okay to make this holiday magical and light up their lives with tons of loot?

I will say.... the day after Christmas we are going through old toys that we don't play with anymore and donating them to charity. But to answer myself..... No I don't think teaching them to believe in a magical holiday where they get tons of gifts once a year and spoiling them while they are little and believe and while I am able to is bad. As long as I teach them the real meaning of the holiday and to respect others and love others and share their good fortunes with those less fortunate, I think we will be okay.

So Merry Christmas all, I will post some pictures of the loot after Christmas. And who knows once all the toys are open and they are spread throughout my house, I will think I am nuts and did go overboard and wish I would have never stepped foot in a toy store.

Just call us Britney & K-Fed

What started out as a nice family outing, ended as parenting going wrong! Very wrong. Josh and I woke up and took the kids for donuts. We normally do this every weekend, but since he had off today for a wedding out of town that we didn't quite make (a story for another post) we decided to go today. After donuts, we hit up the park and the train table at a local toy store; this is when our parenting skills went wrong. We were more of a Brit and K-Fed parenting team then mandi and josh. We walked out of the toy store, children and loot in hand and proceeded to dump the loot, put Meredith in the car seat and I took Noah into the drivers seat with me to nurse him. As I was nursing him I started telling Josh an interesting story, I finished nursing him, handed him off to K-Fed, I mean Josh and started to adjust my bra and shirt while continuing my story. Then, I put the car in reverse, backed out of the spot and took off. We were went about a 1/4 of a mile when we realized that Noah was still in the front seat in Josh's arms!!!!!!

Josh looks at me and asked "Why is Noah still in my arms?" .....

To which I replied..."Ummmm I don't know, what the hell?!?!"

Then I quickly looked for somewhere to pull over, pulled into the oncoming lane of traffic's turning lane and quickly made it to the safety of a fast food parking lot.

So yeah just call us Brit and K-Fed!