Poop

My Life Revolves around my kids poop.
I'm dead serious.

This is not for the weak of stomach... I've warned you.

Katie has always had constipation issues. Since she was in diapers.
When she was eating baby cereal, we used to have to put prune juice in it just to try to help her out a little and even that didn't always work.

(Buying my little 6 packs of prune juice was embarrassing - kind of like buying condoms or tampons.... only there's no fun to come!!!)

It has gotten so bad that we have literally had to pull it out of her.

When we potty trained her, I figured it was going to be a disaster - but shockingly... it wasn't...

So, there's one poopy plus!

Now that she is potty trained... she just holds it in. I swear she has seriously amazing control of her body function - because she can hold it in for DAYS and DAYS.....

So it's a battle.

We have discovered that she absolutely cannot eat bananas.. not even half of one because that means about 3 days of misery for all of us. Of course, she loves bananas - so that's a huge bummer.

Now, we try to encourage her to go every day. She has bouts of time where this works and all is well in our house. Everyone is happy.

Then she has bouts where she refuses to go either because she's afraid it might hurt or she wants to have control and then we all are cranky and angry and we fight back and forth trying to convince her that it's a good idea to go. Then my husband has to sit with her for half an hour at a time while she's on the potty waiting for her to poop.

She refuses to let me sit with her during this and screams and yells that she wants him - so the poor guy gets stuck 95% of the time with it.

Then there is Ben. He has the opposite problem. he gets Diarrhea all the time. The doctor keeps telling us it's nothing - but the daycare doesn't want a kid there with diarrhea. So last week, they kicked him out on Wednesday afternoon and he couldn't go back until Monday. We took him to the doctor and they again said it was no big deal. Then I told them I'm concerned and they said if I was worried, I could collect a poop sample and bring it in.

That is the most disgusting thing I've ever done in my life. Particularly because the poop I had to use for the sample was the worst smelling, most foul thing I've ever seen.

Ben has also picked up the habit of waking up to poop every night between 1 and 3. If he doesn't wake up for that, then he probably pees through his diaper and we have to get him and change everything for that.

Our happiness at night during family time and our ability or inability to sleep all revolves around when and how our kids poop and pee.

This is something I wasn't prepared for and I am hoping that it gets better- because it's not fun.
It's not

Our happiness on any given night can completely depend on whether she poops. Our sleep deprivation level depends on whether he poops OR pees.

This is the stuff no one tells you about - so I'm letting it all out;)

Anyone have any ideas on how we can possibly try to change his pooping schedule so he doesn't have to wake up to do it in the middle of the night?

Anyone??

Please:)

Christmas and Santa Claus

O.k... this whole thing is WAY HARDER than I had thought it would be.

This year, we were able to push Christmas up by one day because my Dad had to travel - so, otherwise, it would have been super rushed and no fun.

We could do this because Katie is 3 and didn't take too much stock in which day Christmas was - I think this is the only year we will be able to do it because she's CRAZY clever!

So, there we all were - kids were sleeping and we started getting the presents out from their hiding place. (Have you asked YOUR parents where they hid presents when you were growing up yet?? go ahead - do it - you will be amazed at how much STEALTHIER they probably were than we are!!)

Anyway - the hubs and I had decided that Santa gifts would be unwrapped and ready for play. (Assembled, batteries in, etc...)

Then there was everything else that we had bought and all the stuff my parents had bought - so how do we tell Katie who brought who? As far as she knows Santa brings gifts - not mommy and daddy - we had planned to tell her some were from Santa and some were from us and my parents, but she kind of kept saying - things like... "O.K. mimi and grumps bought this present, but Santa brought all the rest"

So, we didn't really argue.

So, does that mean that next year everything has to be from Santa? Can some be from us? Do we keep doing the unwrapped versus wrapped thing? Does Santa fill mommy and daddy's stockings too or just kids???

Way more complicated than I had anticipated!

We got through it, and it was AWESOME. She was so excited and so good with the presents
"Mommy, can I open this one? Does it say Katie... I see a K!!!"

She didn't just dive in - she was very patient. She did toss clothing presents aside and even through in an, "I don't want them" comment about socks and leggings but all in all - was very very well behaved.

She liked all of her presents, although I'm surprised at which things she has played with the most so far. I think she's just overwhelmed and can only handle one thing at a time:)

The baby wasn't that into opening... but did like playing with new stuff. His favorite were his sisters princess dolls and this textured, nubby, sensory ball.

We do Christmas all over again next weekend with my in-laws and they are going to get enough stuff that I have to take my tree down to make space for it - and I can't wait to see her face when she sees her MAJOR AWARD - this super, deluxe - monster princess castle with all the princesses and a Cinderella staircase, etc - the whole shebang! She's going to DIE - and then she's going to SCREAM bloody murder when her brother tries to pull himself up to stand on it - but she's still going to die:)

Christmas is awesome.

Next year, I hope to adopt a family so that we can spread our good fortune because as I think of all the kids getting spoiled rotten with toys they will only play with for a few hours - it is hard to not think of those poor children do who not even get one toy - or who don't know where their next meal is coming from.

So, my new years resolution is to donate more all year long - not just at the holidays because you never know... it could be you or someone you know and everyone deserves to get something.

Merry Christmas!

Grocery Shopping Race Game

I can't take credit for this entire idea... my friend Kate mentioned making a special grocery list for her 3 year old with pictures and letting him help pick things from his list while shopping and I just added a race to it.

Here is what we do.

I make the grocery list - based on specials and coupons.
I split that list up in 2 for me and my husband.
Then I make a special list with pictures from the flyer for Katie (she helps me glue them)

Then we split up into teams at the grocery store - one of us takes the baby and one of us takes Katie. We tell her we are racing and have to find everything on our lists... We cross paths during the trip to say hello and check in.

Grocery shopping gets done in 1/2 the time.
We still get to spend time together.
Katie has fun.
Ben loves sitting in the grocery cart.

All is right with the world;) Even on a Sunday - which is the day we have done it for the last 2 weeks.

Just another idea for making normal chores manageable:)

Happy Saturday night!

Transitioning from a stay at home to a FT working mom

HOLY Cow the last few weeks have gone by crazy fast and have been crazy, crazy hectic!

The kids started daycare FT, I started working FT and then the holidays started.

The first 2 weeks were rough - both kids were sick and cranky and not adjusting to daycare well at all.

I was sick with guilt and worry and totally stressed out.

My husband was overwhelmed with all the emotion in the house.
Everything seemed chaotic and time consuming.

However, I had a plan from day one.

Prepare early.

• Crock Pot Dinners, pre-packing snacks, lunches, diapers, etc...

• Making dinners after the kids go to bed at night so we can re-heat them the next night when they get home after daycare instead of cooking from scratch.

• Pre-labeling everything they take to school as soon as I get it. (I feel like a movie star, signing autographs on all their food/snacks with a Sharpie - I don't know how they do it - I get tired after the first 5 jars of baby food)

• Packing school bags at night so that in the morning all we have to do is grab and go

• Ordering Groceries online and either picking up through Shop at home, or having Pea Pod Deliver. Both end up costing around the same when you figure out the prices of food, and sales and really - the extra $10 - $14 bucks is way worth it to me because that means neither my husband or I have to waste our minimal "downtime" grocery shopping.

• I even have a plan for cleaning. I clean in spurts - a little every day. One morning before starting work, I might do the kitchen floor, and then after the kids go to bed, I will do the bathroom - one room at a time and I eventually get to the whole house and don't have to waste time doing it while the kids are awake.

Now, I have to get creative and figure out healthier snacks to send to school for Katie - so far I have jumped on the working mom bandwagon and have been giving her pre-packaged, easy to pack, horribly unhealthy stuff... but I'm working on that part and I try to include at least one piece of fruit or fruit snack cup a day!



This is the 4th full week of this schedule and it is finally starting to click.
I have my energy back, (Thanks to my Thyroid meds) the kids are adjusting and happy at school and like their teachers and they are sleeping better at home.

Dave and I work as a team. We each pack and take the kids to school depending on the day. It would be so much harder if I had to do it all myself all the time. I love that we live 5 mins from school and 10 minutes from Dave's job. It gives us the extra time we need to get everything done so neither of us is completely stressed out.

It's also nice to know that on the 2 days that I make my hour long commute to the office, Dave is 5 minutes away from the daycare in case anything happens.

The only thing missing from my life right now besides a full nights sleep (Ben still wakes up every night) is figuring out how to get some gym time in for myself. Right now, I just can't see going to the classes I love at the gym because they are only offered during family time before bed and I just can't see being away from the kids all day AND at night. I know I could easily work something in for when they go to bed at night - but I've always been total crap at working out at home. Maybe we'll suck it up and get a treadmill or elliptical or something - but for now - I will dream of the spin classes I miss so much!

Who knew that transitioning from Full Time Stay at home mom to Full Time working mom would be such an interesting journey?

So far, it's win win for everyone:)

P.s. this little system of ours worked so well that this morning, when we all woke up at 8 - we were able to both shower, get the kids dressed, fed, out the door and to daycare by 8:40... It was kick ass!

Never Traveling overnight again.... grrrrrr

My kids love their grandparents. Katie in particular is crazy close to them and LOVES seeing them and going to their houses... which is good cause their houses are 2 and 6 hours away....

She used to go to my parents house all the time for overnights cause they are the closer of the 2. She even has her own bed there...

So, yes, we hate the drive and we realize everyone is going to be a little off - but we pack it up and head up for Thanksgiving.

We leave early Wednesday - pick the kids up from daycare and start out drive.

Of course, we hit traffic.

Of course, my kids decide they don't want to be in the car. Katie didn't even want to watch tv - which is our fail safe for long car rides.... Ben screamed, and screamed - even though Dave was squished in the backseat between them talking/playing with him.

It was a stressful 3 hour drive.

We got to my parents house and I had already told myself - next year we are staying home. It's too much work packing up, leaving early, driving, etc.... and I just want to enjoy a peaceful, restful holiday.

I called my parents and told them this while we were stuck in traffic. I was grumpy already.

Then, we got there and all was right with the world for about 4 hours until bedtime... Ben freaked out during his bath (he never does that)
and Katie and I had to share the big bed in one room and the boys slept in the other room in the crib/twin bed respectively. Katie moves so much she kept slamming into me, waking herself up. She woke up and screamed bloody murder for about 5 minutes - mostly incoherently. I couldn't calm her down and she just kept freaking out. I finally got her to sleep and then Ben woke up - so Dave took him downstairs to keep him away from the sleeping people and he was loud and played for hours.

Katie woke up again... crying over god knows what.

They were both awake by 6:30 Thanksgiving morning.

The next day we put katie in the twin bed by herself and moved the crib into the other room with the big bed. She woke up again, screaming and yelling and wouldn't stop until DADDY went in there.
He talked/sang/gave her water - she was still freaking out. She calmed down and he left - she freaked out again. At this point, all the grandparents were sleeping in the house and we wanted to minimize the crazy interruption of screaming kids - so Dave took a blanket and slept on the floor next to her in the other room.
Luxurious right - the things you do for kids.

Ben woke up after she was done and didn't go back to bed until after 3 - so I was up from 10 til 3.
Awesome.

We decided then and there we were leaving the next day because clearly the kids just couldn't handle it.

Of course we ended up staying - because we all like going to Mimi's house and she volunteered to stay on the floor with Katie in case she was scared. (mimi's rule)
So, like idiots - we were like... ok - we'll stay.

She did it again - screaming and yelling bloody murder.
Until Dave went in.
And slept on the floor again.

So... Moral of the story is:
As much as we love seeing our families for the holidays and all being together in one house - the kids clearly can't handle being away from home - particularly at night. So... we will stay home for Christmas and we will stay home for the holidays next year.

It sucks, but we are just going to have to stay put for awhile so that the kids get their sleep and we don't have a stressful, crazy, hectic visit.

I am writing this here so that next year when I get the bright idea that it won't be that bad - I will be reminded of just how bad it really is - I swear, we aren't going. Thanksgiving will have to be at our house - wherever that is and no matter how small the house.

P.s. the kids have both slept wonderfully and peacefully since we got home and Katie even took a nap sunday - so I think it was just a little too much excitement for them and there is just too much going on right now in our lives for them to be able to handle that.

I swear - we are staying home for all the holidays next year. It's just tooooo much stress and toooo much sleep deprivation and it's hard to watch and entertain your kids in a different environment.

Maybe when they are 10 mom!;)

Why did we have 2 kids again?

I always wanted a big family. I had dreams of maybe marrying into one.. but then I fell in love with an only child - so one dream dead - but another fulfilled:)

So, when my husband and I decided to have a kid - in my mind we would always have more than one. I even had ideas in my head of having 3. I figured the more you have, the more likelihood that some of them like each other and would be close.

We had a good thing going. A great thing actually. We had the most perfectly behaved, insanely smart little toddler. We were sleeping at night, she was good during the day and we all had a great relationship as a perfect little threesome.

So, we thought - hey - we're pretty good at this - let's do it again.

I'm starting to think that was a bit of a mistake.

The past few days I have been questioning our decision to have 2 kids so close together in age...

Let me start off by saying, I love my kids!!!

Absolutely, positively, love them.
I like them... most of the time
You know what I mean..

So all you ladies and gents out there gasping in despair at the fact that I would admit something like this.... Chill - cause if you are a parent - you know what I mean. I'm just gutsy enough to be honest about it.

This blog is all about being honest, right?

So... here goes

I miss my old life. My sleep in til whenever we want to, go out whenever and wherever we want to for however long freedom. I miss lazy sundays and friday night spur of the moment dates.
I miss playing Nintendo all day long without a second thought about how that would affect anyone else.

I miss drinking alcohol in a bar after 9pm.

I knew having 2 kids would be hard. Double the work - but I feel like the reality of the situation, is that having 2 kids under 3 actually means triple or quadruple the work.

I understand now why parents of multiples have such high divorce rates... it's tough and the little buggers turn you into tired, cranky, mean, angry people sometimes.
I miss sleeping more than 3 hours at a time.

Now, maybe it's more exaggerated for me because my thyroid shut down, rendering me pretty much helpless physically and mentally for most of the last year. Add that to the fact that Ben took to nursing with a vengeance and didn't give me more than a 3 hour break away from him for the first 6.5 months of his life and you have a very tired, exasperated, struggling mommy.

Add to that, the fact that my perfect little family of 3 has turned into a stressed out, crazed, fighting group of 4 and you have an exasperated family.

Some days I feel like we're failing.

Katie doesn't like Ben. She won't go near him most of the time and she screams and yells when he touches anything in the house.... poor Benny just wants to play with Katie.
Katie plays us against each other and pushes every last button we have as human beings. Bedtime which used to be fairly simple - has turned into an hour long production AT LEAST. Meals have turned into a cage fight.

Ben is a happy baby, but he teethes with gusto - with fevers and snots that make him not breathe and crying... Katie never did that. Ben also wakes up at night still wanting to hang out - sometimes for hours at a time, and sometimes more than once.

I had no idea.

Thank god Katie has been potty trained for a year because I can't imagine how frustrated I would be if I had to change 2 kids diapers all day ;)

We keep telling ourselves and each other that it will get better. It has to. It might take 18 years. But - in my head, they will be best friends. They will give me lots of grandkids. They will call me every other day and be successful individuals who buy me expensive gifts and marry people that we like to be around ;)

The other day, we were so broken down that we started talking about not being prepared for how hard it was going to be... and Dave said that we should warn our kids so that they don't do it to themselves... but I said... NO, cause I want grandkids!!!

Dave said... that's why we're here. Our parents knew how hard this was and they didn't tell us because they didn't want to scare us so they could have grandkids.

Damn it!! A little heads up would have been nice. We would have had Ben eventually... just maybe later.

I know, I know... here she is complaining again. Well, it's a blog. Blogs are mostly complaints and thoughts of the individuals writing them.

This is where my head is at these days.

Again, I love my kids. Every day, they do amazing things that make me smile and laugh and every day they make me proud... but then no sooner than I wipe my last proud tear - is Katie yelling at Ben for looking at her. And then I get brought back to reality!

The good news, is that they are adjusting to daycare wonderfully and work is going CRAZY WELL. I can't tell you how much better I feel as an individual now that I am back to work. And it makes me so happy to see how much Katie is learning in Pre-K and how much Ben likes his teachers. It has given me the break I need and it will allow us to be in a good place financially for our house search.

As far as I can tell, so far - it's win, win;)

So, there is a light at the end of the tunnel... it just feels like a REALLY, REALLY long tunnel.

Needless to say, there will not be a 3rd child. Unless we can pop him out at a stage where he will be self sufficient ;)

Happy Tuesday!

I swear this stuff all really happened

If I was reading this on someone else's page, I would think there was no way so many things happened in 2 days... but it did. And thankfully, none of it harmed any of us - but the ridiculousness of the situation has created some stress as you can imagine.

It started Friday - my first day working from home. The kids were at their daycares, coffee was ready and I was running downstairs to throw laundry in before my 9 am interview call. When I got to the bottom of the stairs I noticed water - lots of water... I walked around the basement to the back of the house and realized it was all along one side of the basement - under the dryer and through the length of the house.

Yay.

I called the realtor responsible for the house and she proceeds to call me a billion times while I'm on calls all morning and I finally had to explain to her that she just needed to come over because I was working.

She comes over in the middle of the day with some old guy and explains that it's coming from our furnace... which makes NO SENSE because the furnace is on the opposite side of the basement where all the water was - but she thought it was perfectly logical, and I was working... so whatever.

I go get the kids at the end of the day and the daycare drama starts. I get them home, get dinner settled, get daycare settled and sit down to enjoy the night when the realtor comes back with her husband. He investigates downstairs and proceeds to tell me that the furnace looks like it hasn't been serviced in years and is probably going to cause problems.

He then finds a dead bird behind the water heater (which must have been there before we moved in as I think I would have noticed a freakin bird flying around and then slowly dying since I am down there doing laundry ALL THE TIME) Yes, I almost threw up right then and there. (yes, he took the bird out for me, cause he's awesome)

Then, he starts to investigate for REAL the water leak because he and I agree that it's not the furnace. He moves some old building supplies that the owner left lying around and knocks over a can of paint that was open and about half of it spills all over the floor.

I swear to you, I am not making this up.

Now there is paint on the floor, water everywhere, old, dead bird germs behind the water heater and he finds 2 industrial sized bolts sticking straight up through the ground right smack in front of the problem.

The main drain for the house - which drains the shower, sink and kitchen sinks, has rusted completely through and there is now a 6 inch length of pipe that has literally disintigrated. The main drain of the house now drains directly into my basement, because the piece that would allow it to flow out under the house - rusted off so it pours right onto my floor.

They call a plumber - plumber shows up around 8 says he can't do anything until tomorrow. Then changes his mind when I tell him we have kids, and he says he can try to fix it tonight - just has to get the charges approved.


He gets a call from his office and tells us he has to leave because the realtor has not approved for him to do the work.

I call the realtor and she SWEARS she didn't tell him to leave. (which is total BS)

While he was investigating, he did something to our water heater - which is now steadily leaking water onto the floor to make the water situation worse.
I discover this as I go down there to check out how bad it looks before bed.

We go to bed with the main drain still completely open and she says she will send someone in the morning.

She calls in the morning and says the original plumber isn't coming. (interesting right, as she never told him he couldn't do it the night before but he instead told her he could only do it the next day... like I said BS)

She said she could send her husband to do it.

Her husband is not a plumber. I tell her I want plumber... she gets irritated like that is a ridiculous request. I also tell her about the water heater - she doesn't believe me.

We leave to go meet up with friends... have a lovely time... Realtor never calls me.

I call for an update. The water heater is overpressurized and needs a special valve so it doesn't burst or something, the furnace needs to be adjusted so that the heat actually flows through the house right, the plumber will come by at night to do the work.

Let me shorten this by giving you bullet points of how the rest of the night went.

• Plumber finally shows up around 7:30 (bedtime for kids right)
• Plumber makes lots of racket - terrifying our toddler
• Plumber does fix drain YAY
• Plumber tells us while we are putting Katie to bed late and exhausted that he needs to do something in her room in 45 minutes meaning we can't put her to sleep.
• Katie's heat gets fixed - we wrangle her to bed
• Ben wakes up
• Ben vomits all over me
• Then smiles
• He seems fine for awhile, then vomits all over Dave
• We have to call the pediatrician after asking FB friends for thoughts
• It ends up being nothing and he's ok - just slept roughly - we get him to bed finally like, after 1 I think
• Katie wakes up at 4:30 for the day - we explain it's still nightime and we have to sleep - she tells us we are wrong.
• We eventually get Katie back to sleep around 5 something
• Ben wakes up at 6:30

One of these things I could have handled - all of them on a weekend when we have to lose an hour and I can't wait for Monday so we can start over.

These were all small things... the reason it stressed me out is because renting you have no control over who does the work and these owners always pick the cheapest option:( and we always have other issues to deal with.

Everyone is ok and I'm thankful for that. but I'm also thankful that today is a new day!!!

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