Nothing Bubbles Can't Fix

I love hearing Elijah say his and Emily's name. It comes out as "Ya-ya" and "Emmy". Elijah is pretty much speaking full sentences now. It's incredible how he went from 2-3 word sentence to 5+ word sentences in just a few short weeks. His personality is developing at full speed now and a sense of humor is working its way out. He loves to be silly, tell jokes (well, more like say things that he thinks are funny, like, "Mommy's mouth smells stinky" and then proceed to crack himself up), dance, and help out with anything and everything. One thing that he likes to help with is to call the cats in. There are three cats that live in my Mom's house; Tigger and Unjuy (pronounced yoon-jee) belong to my Mom, and Loki is mine. A few days ago Elijah was trying to call Unjuy in from outside.

"Yoooo-neeeeee!!"

No Unjuy. I told Elijah that Unjuy was probably upstairs sleeping in Grandma's room. Elijah thinks this over for a minute and then opens the door again and calls out:

"Mouuuse!!:

At this point me and my Grandma are laughing that Elijah was trying to call a mouse to the back door. But, unfortunately, Elijah knows that Unjuy brings mice home, frequently not alive. Elijah was getting frustrated at this point because there was no mouse coming to the door despite his efforts. My Grandma suggested he call for "Mickey". That wasn't such a good idea because Elijah proceeded to holler for Mickey Mouse before getting sad that Mickey Mouse wasn't coming to the door. Bless his heart.

It was nice enough one day last week that Elijah and I were able to go on the back deck to play with bubbles. He loves bubbles. Elijah does get rather aggravated at the lack of bubbles that emerge from his wand in his overly-excited attempts to blow the bubbles, so we bought a bubble machine. (Yes, his shirt is on backwards. Can't argue with a two year old when it comes to getting dressed.)

So with Emily sound asleep in her pack & play, Elijah and I danced, kicked, stomped, and clapped at bubbles. It quickly turned into a game of "I can get more bubbles than you", which was great fun. All I have to do to get Elijah to participate in anything is to compete with him. A simple "it's my turn" with a charge in the appropriate direction is usually enough. All of this being demonstrated brought on bouts of shrieking and laughing from Elijah. I think he knows how to "hi-ya" now after watching me karate chop a few bubbles. He found that amusing.

Emily has started giggling now. There were a few times that I was fairly sure that's what was happening but now I'm positive that's what's happening. I was able to record it on my phone so I do have some sort of documentation of it! Another amazing thing she has started doing is mimicking sounds! Sure, she was copying me when I raised my eyebrows, opened my mouth and stuck out my tongue, but when I (or anyone else) say's, "Hi" she will copy the sound back! Of course a smile, and/or gurgle of some sort will follow, too. Would it be safe to say that her first word was "Hi"?

She has bouts of excitement as well. Her legs get kicking and her arms flail as she takes a few sharp, excited, audible breaths. It's too cute. Emily was super excited over this little toy cow I was holding tonight. She wouldn't take her eyes off of it. Emily has some awesome focusing abilities. No matter which direction I moved this toy, she would follow it. She even knocked it out of my hand once. I know that she's too young to reach out and grab yet, but she certainly looked like she was trying! I love her hair. It's just too light weight to lay on her head, so it stands straight up. My hair did the same thing according to my baby pictures. I think it's pretty silly that both of our kids, as of now, have my hair (which is fine and thin, compared to my Husband's thick hair). Also, I have green eyes while my Husband has brown eyes. Elijah's eyes are starting to turn green (as opposed to the striking blue they were) I think, and Emily's are blue right now.

I can't believe she'll be two months on Sunday! She's such a big girl already. That's a six month outfit she's wearing in that picture. It is a little baggy on her, but not by much. Like I said, big girl. Big and healthy is how I do!

I think the potty strike might be lifted. The past few days Elijah has been using the potty. My Mother-in-law had an idea to give Elijah a "big boy" treat if he pooped in the potty at her house. Well, he did poop in the potty and Grandma Chris busted out some strawberry Pocky. Elijah had never seen nor tasted this before so he truly believes that only Big Boys can have this treat. He tried to share it with me, which was so sweet, but I told him I wasn't a big boy, so I couldn't have it. We have not used another diaper during the day since Sunday. And since he is determined to use the potty every time now, I stuck him back in cloth diapers at night without worrying about him pooping in them.

Elijah and I went to the store to get more big boy treats since the little box Grandma Chris gave to us wasn't going to last long and Elijah saw different flavors of Pocky and other delicious Japanese treats. So not only did we leave the store with more strawberry Pocky, we also had chocolate Pocky and Hello Kitty Strawberry Marshmallows. I didn't want to potty train using treats in the beginning because of the strange association with food as a reward. But I feel that it's different this time because Elijah knows now, compared to when he was first learning to use the potty, what he's doing when he decides to pee/poop in his diaper rather than the potty.

Plus I feel that this is a nice way to acknowledge him in "big boy" behaviors that are coinciding with him being a big brother. It allows me to give him positive reinforcement and attention in his big boy actions rather than giving him the same sort attention I give Emily when I'm changing her diaper. I think this is part of the reason he went on the potty strike in the first place. That and because Daddy had to go back to work.

In any case, way to go, Elijah! Rockin' the big boy status. (Though he'll always be my baby boy...)

Poop in the Potty, Poop goes in the Potty...

I really wish Elijah would go back to using the potty. Some headway has been made over the past week; he used the potty twice today. We pretty much started over with this potty business and as a result he's only interested in using his potty before bedtime. I suppose this is fine so long as he actually is keeping the potty in mind every so often. It's discussed every day that he's a big boy now and therefore needs to put his pee and poo in the potty. I've got my fingers crossed. I know that if he isn't back in underwear in the day time before Daddy comes home, he will be after. Elijah was thrilled to "pee like Dada" and I know he'll be just as enthusiastic after his homecoming.

Elijah, Emily, Great-Grandma, and I went to the preschool open gym on Wednesday. This was our third visit and it never fails to be a fantastic outlet for Elijah's pent up energy. The cold, windy, grey and generally lousy weather has not budged in some time thus preventing any outings... so Elijah (and myself) has been a little stir crazy being inside all the time. And while this place is indoors, there are other kids both younger and older than him running around and enjoying music while jumping on a huge stretch of trampoline, walking the balance beam and other gymnastic activities. Great-Grandma and I took turns watching Emily so Elijah could run wild. Elijah is absolutely fearless when it comes to partaking in these little festivities; he walked the balance beam that was a few feet up in the air! He was hold both my hands, of course, but the fact that he was even interested in it was exciting! When he reached the end he wanted to jump straight off so it's a wonderful thing that I had both of his hands to help him land safely.

Great-Grandma bought a strawberry-banana smoothie with whip cream and offered a sip to Elijah. This ended up being a mistake as after the smoothie was gone, he wouldn't let go of the cup because he wanted more. It was cute, yes, because he kept saying, "More, please" and had a whip cream-stache after finishing off the last drink, but getting him to throw the cup away wasn't fun. At this point the gym was closing up shop, he didn't want to leave, and was ready for a nap. Now I know he loves strawberry-banana smoothies with whip cream. Who doesn't? Well, I don't particularly like drinking them because I can't have dairy--but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy their taste!

Anyway, Elijah got a haircut today. As you can see in the picture, his hair was getting pretty long. Mike, the barber, was doing his best to quickly cut Elijah's hair while Elijah dodged, ducked, turned, and flinched. As a result his bangs are a little shorter than Mike cared for but I'm not bothered because Elijah's hair grows so fast that within a week and a half it won't look nearly as short. It truly is amazing how much older he looks after his hair has been cut. And he looks more like Daddy afterwards as well. We did some grocery shopping as well, with Great-Grandma's help, and purchased Rice Krispie treat fixings. Elijah decided he wanted red treats, but I wasn't sure how much food coloring to put in, so they turned out pink; like, hot pink! Ah well, I suppose they'll just have to be Easter treats! They were delicious! The night was topped off with a much needed bath for Emily, who promptly pooped after the fact, and everyone was in bed at a descent hour (not something that happens too often around here with all the excitement of Grandma's arrival home from work, usually after 6:00pm).

All Butts Stink

While attempting to get Elijah down for a nap today, he decided it was time to talk about butts. He told me that Emily's butt stinks, and then proceeded to sniff at her rear end to confirm this statement. Then he leaned forward like he was going to do a summersault, and with his tush about 6 inches from my face, he looked at me from between his legs and said, "Smell my butt, mommy."

If nothing else, Elijah's full fledged emersion in speaking has been a blast. In fact, it's been rather fascinating. He doesn't simply repeat back what is said to him, nor is it necessary to play 20 questions with him to figure out what he wants anymore. He actively participates in conversation by verbalizing his own thoughts in his responses. Experiencing this transition is so exciting! He uses words for the first time on his own without them having been mentioned previously in the conversation so I'm able to really see his brain working. A few mornings ago when we woke up I wondered out loud about what time it was and Elijah answered "It's ten o'clock." He was so sure of himself, it was adorable. And at the same time I'm staring at him curious as to how he pieced it together that ten o'clock is a time that marks where we are in the day. He is just marvelous .

Emily is totally smiling now. I read that at this age babies smiles are called "social smiles" and it demonstrates their social skills at work. Well go, Emily! Perhaps she'll be a social butterfly because she smiles at everyone! Check out her head control in this picture; I'm not helping her at all. She is incredible! She has head decent head control at two weeks and can hold her head up completely now as long as I'm not moving around too much. The other morning my Grandma was holding Emily and Emily heard me talking and was craning her head in my direction. My Grandma asked her if she wanted to see me and when I poked my head in Emily's line of sight I was greeted with an enormous, open mouth smile with a corresponding sparkle in her eyes. I feel it in my heart when she smiles at me and I could just cry every time. And oh does she love to watch Elijah. She smiles at him a lot, too. He's just so animated, she soaks it all in. I can't wait until she is old enough to be around Elijah without the fear that he might accidently hurt her. They are going to have so much fun together. But for now I have to steer him away from her on the bed (and everywhere else) because he's so bouncy and clumsy.

Now I Know My ABCs....

Elijah is starting to sing his ABCs now. He wanted to sing them when he was a little younger, but they mostly came out as "B G B G B G". Now he is keeping the tune of the ABC song while singing:

A B C D F G

H I J K

M O M O P

Q R S

T U V

W X Y Z

So he's almost there, anyway. I correct him on the letters that he misses, but he doesn't seem to care at this point. While we color, I write out the letters and try to sing the song, but his two year old attention span prevents me from getting farther than the letter "H". He is seriously enjoying his new found talent of drawing faces and is continuing to do so every time he has a pen/marker in his hand. I drew a face, which included eyelashes and eyebrows, so now he does his best at adding said features to his drawings as well.

The other day we ventured to the store and bought some activity books. I want to encourage his drive for learning numbers and the alphabet. We started out in Rite Aid, but all of the books started out at $4.00 a pop! Elijah & I walked to the dollar store, nearly getting knocked down by the wind along the way, and found the some activity books for $1.00 each. Now that's what I'm talkin' about! On our way down the aisle to the checkout stand, some baby dolls caught Elijah's attention. He bent down to the baskets and grabbed a doll. He stared at it for a second, held it up to me and said, "Mama, baby!" before curling his arms around this doll, holding it close to his body and giving me the biggest set of puppy dog eyes. I asked him if he wanted to get the baby and he grinned and nodded, "Yes." He has been so freakin' adorable with this baby. Excuse me; his baby. He wouldn't even hold my hand the rest of the time we were out and about because he needed "two hands" for his baby. We picked out two outfits for the baby, a sleeper and a pant/shirt combo. He takes his baby everywhere with him now and loves to change the baby's clothes depending on what is happening. If it's time to sleep, the baby has to be in jammies. Once we're awake, it's time to change the baby into street clothes. The baby gets to share food and drink with Elijah, and is invited to watch Elijah do...whatever it is Elijah is doing. It's exciting to watch him with this doll, er, his doll, because he is clearly demonstrating that he can be, and is, nurturing and compassionate towards others. Maybe even a little protective (he is with Emily, in any case). I believe he is also showing me that he can be responsible by remembering that this baby has needs that he is attentive to.

Like I said, too stinkin' cute.

In less exciting news, the kids are currently recovering from mild colds. This marks Emily's first cold. Insert sad, pouty face here. It breaks my heart to hear this 5 1/2 week old cough, sneeze, and sniffle. She loves to sleep on her belly, and frequently does so while sleeping on my belly (that way I can know for sure that her nose is clear and will wake up if she starts to stir). This has worked in her favor in regards to this cold because instead of post nasal drip, it is able to just drip right from her nose. It's better this way because she gagged every time I laid her on her back the first night of this cold. Also, I won't have to worry about this congestion hanging around since it can just work its way out faster this way. She's already feeling better after just two days. Thank goodness.

Elijah still sounds congested, but his nose is running less. He has been a little whiny the past few days, no doubt from the bogginess of a cold. I'm trying my hardest to stay calm and patient with him and I think he knows because it almost feels as though he is trying harder to push the limits. Ok, maybe not, but he has been a challenge nonetheless! Parent with love, parent with love.

When I began my cloth diapering journey, I purchased a few different choices so that I could figure out which diapering combination I liked the best. The choices were completely overwhelming and I literally spent days researching the different options and weigh pros and cons of everything. I'm pretty sure I talked the ears off of every one of my family members as well; probably bored them to tears. This particular diaper pictured has turned out to be my favorite. It's Kissaluvs brand, 90% unbleached cotton 10% fleece and super absorbent. It's fitted, which means there is elastic around the legs for a more secure fit. There are also snaps so it eliminates the need for pins. I don't mind pins; I use them with the 100% unbleached cotton prefolds I have, but it's just so much faster to snap/unsnap a diaper. Not only that, the elastic around the legs will prevent blowouts. Something prefolds can't always offer. Breast-fed poo has great (and likely) potential to cause disastrous blowouts. And let's just say that even though Emily has a tush that is small enough to fit in the palm of my hand, she's got some power behind it!

Possible Giftedness?

Now I know what you're thinking, every parent thinks they have a brilliant child. Yes, even the parents with the child who throws him/herself down like a limp noodle letting out a blood curdling scream because they were told "No" to the candy bar at check out. The one with remnants of lunch dried on their face. You know the kids I'm talking about.

In all honesty, if Elijah isn't Gifted, then he is absolutely nothing short of amazing nonetheless. While at my in-laws Saturday, Elijah and I were out with sidewalk chalk. It was a beautiful day and jackets weren't even necessary! I was drawing shapes and asking Elijah to tell me what they were, and Elijah was drawing circles. He's been drawing circles for a while now. I went to one of his circles and told him I was going to draw a face. He stepped in front of me declaring it was his turn, so I moved out of his way and he adorned the circle with eyes, a nose, and a mouth. I provided the face with hair. Only after I was given permission, of course. Elijah then went on to give this face a body. He did all of this by himself. I only asked him if the face was going to have a nose. I didn't help him with placement of these features.

He went on to draw many other faces after the realization that he was equip with such artistic capabilities.

Now if this isn't advanced for a two year old, I don't know what is. He started counting to 10 and knew most of his colors before his second birthday. He knows a variety of shapes now and has a most impressive ear when it comes to music. He can keep time and makes up little dance routines to songs. When listening to music he picks out specific instruments like the guitar and/or drums. He sings along even after only having heard the song once. Elijah also has quite an arm on him and ever since he has started throwing a ball he can throw it pretty much exactly where he wants it to go. When Josh first deployed, I started showing Elijah on the globe where Afghanistan was. Within a few days he started showing me where daddy was on the globe without me having to help him.

Possible giftedness aside, it appears that Elijah is going to be left handed. Josh and I both are right handed. As are our parents. The only family member we could come up with who is left handed is one of Josh's Aunts. It has been so exciting to experience Elijah's development, I just can't wait to see what else my little miracle comes up with.

My other miracle is doing beautifully as well. I am sure that she is attempting real smiles. Sure she can smile, but I don't know that they were expressions of happiness so much as they were [successful] efforts to pass gas. However, adorable little sounds are emerging from a widely opened mouth in response to my encouraging coos now. She's so unbelievably aware of what's around her and takes notice to changes in her surroundings. I love how bright eyed she is. I'm fairly certain that sugar upsets her belly. This makes sense, but I didn't think that the small handfuls of M&Ms and the occasional brownie would make too much of a difference in my milk. Emily would beg to differ. Or rather she does beg to differ by waking frequently and tooting in between her aggravated movements and the occasional vocalization of her discomfort. Noted, my little love lump; no more candy. We'll both benefit without it anyhow!

Tri-Care Runaround

One of my biggest dislikes of military life, aside from the fact that my Husband is 10,000+ miles away, is dealing with Tri-Care. It seems to me that because health care is provided within the military, they make me work extra hard at making sure I am able to receive it. Nothing is free, after all. Classic example of this: my prenatal doctor is not the same doctor I was assigned to as my PCM (Primary Care Manager). When I called Tri-Care to schedule my six week postpartum check up, I was informed that because I am no longer pregnant they cannot schedule me with my prenatal doctor. But here's the kicker: my assigned PCM doesn't see patients for OB care. Great. So now what? They can leave a message with my prenatal doctor and see if he is willing to see me. I tell them that he wanted to see me for my postpartum checkup. Sorry, they can't do that.

So I call the hospital and try to schedule an appointment with a nurse because they can do that sometimes. Turns out they are willing to do this for me, but my prenatal doctor does not have any available appointments for the entire month of March. This was on March 2nd, too. I'm trying my hardest not to huff and puff into the phone at this point because that just won't get me what I want. The inner workings of Tri-Care and the military hospital are full of people who can make life for those of us trying to receive health care so much easier if we kiss enough you-know-what. I kindly request to leave a message with my prenatal doctor asking if he is willing to see me as a walk-in. Oh good, they're willing to do this for me. Now I get to wait.

Today I braved the world by myself with kids in tow. Sure I only drove on base to enroll Emily in DEERS, but with the knowledge and experience of errands run on base never taking less than an hour, you can imagine my nerves bunching at this. There is always an enormous line wherever I'm at and it always seems like the people behind the counter do an exceptional job of taking their sweet time handing out base access decals, printing military IDs, and/or entering information into their computers. Of course on top of the wait, there is usually some paper I don't have that I need to have to receive whatever it is I came for. To avoid this particular hurdle I brought every piece of paper I could think might be relevant: my Husband's orders, my Power of Attorney, Emily's birth certificate, as well as her newly obtained Social Security Card. As it turned out, there was no one in that stuffy little room except for me, Elijah, Emily, and the three people that worked there. I took my number and sat for around five to ten minutes before they decided it was time to help me out. Success! Emily is now enrolled in DEERS so I can attempt to schedule her two month well baby check up now.

Once home, Elijah played with sidewalk chalk while I held Emily. I like being able to draw with Elijah and planned to had Emily stayed asleep in the car seat. However, Emily had other plans and wanted in on the fun. We had lunch and Elijah made his peanut butter and jelly sandwich by himself. This resulted in blobs of peanut butter smashed in the middle of both pieces of bread with a little blurb of jelly in one corner of the bread. But hey, he did it himself and enjoyed every single bite.

My Grandma is home from visiting other family now and she brought with her some gourds. They are a plant that once dried out have those lovely, natural loofah's inside of them. Elijah was having a glorious time shaking the seeds out of the gourd before he helped his Great Grandma peel them and reveal these awesome loofahs. Next bath time will be a blast, I'm sure.

Though when it came time for dinner he wanted nothing to do with it because shaking the seeds out of dried gourds is just so much more fun than eating. He kept saying he was full, so I would feel his belly and say, "Wait! I feel an empty spot. I bet another bite will help fill it." That got about another three bites in towards the end of the meal.

Seems like clockwork, right before I'm ready to go to sleep Emily decides it's time to be awake and be completely dissatisfied in every one of my attempts at getting her back to sleep.

Emily is officially one month old!

It's pretty hard to believe that it has already been a month since I brought another human being into this world. She is such an amazing little girl. This picture was not taken today, it was actually taken on the 17th of February. But seeing as I'm in bed and not near my camera, a more recent photo just isn't going to make an appearance tonight. Nonetheless, it's an adorable picture. She loves to sleep on her belly, and will put her hands under her chin as the picture shows. Emily is already in three month clothing and has been for a week now. Isn't that something? She can follow movement of objects and faces with her eyes now and I swear the little smiles I've been seeing are real smiles and not just reflexes from gas. Though the heads-up was nice. She is quite the spitter. I've gotten used to having multiple receiving cloths handy. While mom was holding her tonight she spit up big time all down mom's front as she was handing Emily to me. Mom said, "Oh great, she spit up and it's running down between my boobs." I told her that happens to me on a daily basis. Good thing my nursing tank has a built-in shelf bra, right?

After a number of weeks of tripping over toys, dvd cases, empty tupperware containers, clothes (both dirty and clean, who can tell the difference when there is a two year old helping with laundry?), and other pleasantries, I decided I was going to make time to clean my room. Emily obliged and zonked out the bed while Elijah played the drums with a cylindrical pair of soft blocks while rocking out to Rammstein. When it came time to vacuum Elijah was most helpful in picking up every little piece of smashed Goldfish cracker and putting it in front of the vacuum cleaner saying, "Here, Mama. More?" He's the best helper, ever. Of course then he wanted to help vacuum and is just tall enough to where he can grab hold of the thing to push while I assist. He even grabbed ahold of the cord. So cute. 45 minute cat nap aside, we had a pleasant day. I know I contributed to this by reminding myself not to argue with a two year old, to parent with love, and to make sure that Elijah's needs are being met as well as mine. I decided to make the whole "potty strike" easier on myself and just stick Elijah back in the disposables I already owned. I'm not exactly proud of this but I was just done with cleaning toddler poop out of a cloth diaper. Not. Interested. If I can avoid belting out my frustrations in regards to a situation as simple as poop, I'm all for it.

Elijah decided he was going to sleep with grandma again. It was nice having him sleep with me last night; it's been so long since we followed through with a routine that ended with us (being me and Elijah) in the same bed at night. The past months have involved at least an hour of him bouncing from my bed to grandma's bed before staying put for the night. I don't approve of this, but I know that living here is difficult for him and nothing is staying consistent enough to resemble anything like a routine. I know he likes routine. He is like me when it comes to that; it's a control thing. It makes sense to me that he needs to satisfy his need for control in the absence of a consistent night time routine by deciding on his own who he will sleep with....even if it does take an hour. Or two. This is another terrific example of something I would argue with Elijah over. I had to stop and ask myself, "What would it look like not to participate in this behavior?" The answer was simple, stop contributing. I wasn't ignoring him, but I did stop asking him where he was going to sleep. It's time for bed, so we lay down. I don't discuss it or get angry. I ask him where he is going when he starts to leave and he tells me he is going to sleep with Grandma. We say goodnight and he goes to Grandma's room. And ya know, the running back and forth has minimized significantly. When I would demand that he stay with me, or that it's time to be done with the games, it was contributing attention to the game and giving Elijah something to respond to.

I miss the days of a night time routine. It's something that I respond well to, actually. Prior to Josh's deployment and moving in with my mom, Elijah was in bed by 8:00pm every single night. Living in a house where people are coming home between the hours of 5:30 and 7:30 at night makes getting to bed at a decent hour more of a challenge. I know it's not impossible, but I suppose I'd just rather wait until my mom is home for the night so I can get an extra set of hands to make it possible for me to catch my breath from running all day. And while my mom has a beautiful home, it's not ideal for small children and is fully equip with hardwood floors (great for slipping and knocking in beautiful, hard earned teeth, which happened to Elijah Christmas Eve), and a terrifying staircase that boasts about 15 hardwood steps straight up. Not to mention over ~3300 sq ft. of space. Not so easy to move about with a one month old and a bouncy toddler.

In the time it's taken me to finish this post, I have fed, changed, burped, swaddled, binkied, and rocked Emily. She is in and out of sleep and now on her belly lifting her head and looking back, rocking like she might roll over. Oh-no she di-n't. She better not, anyway. Rolling over at one month would be astounding. And something else, if she wants the pacifier so bad, why must she keep spitting the thing out? It lands in some crazy places. She'll be kicking and waving her arms frantically, crying out irritatedly because the pacifier is gone and some how it'll be above her head, or nearly six inches away from her. Maybe that's why she's attempting to roll over so early.

Neighbor Man to the Rescue

After two days of not seeing my cat, Loki, I had just about given up hope. When my mom came home from work she had a weird look on her face and said, "I think I hear a cat crying somewhere outside." I flew out of my seat and ran to the garage door and called out to Loki. Sure enough, I heard a faint cry in response that was most definitely Loki's meow. Emily in my arms, and Elijah at my heel, I frantically started to slip on shoes ready to bounce out into the night in search for my dear feline. Mom stopped me, reminded me that I needed a jacket and more than just my crocs on my feet. She started looking for the keys for the rooms under the house but I didn't think it sounded like Loki was under the house. It sounded like he was outside somewhere.

Mom took Emily from me and I grabbed a flash light, clicked it on and the most pathetic stream of light shined out. Getting rather flustered at this point, I threw down the flash light in search of another. The next flash light sucked as much as the first one! I let out an irritated groan and decided to find some batteries.

Once equipped with an adequate flashlight, I'm outside playing Marco Polo with Loki. His cries bring me to three huge trees that are tangled together with huge branches. Pointing my flash light into the trees, I'm searching for the only indicator that will allow me to know where he is in the trees: his eyes. Loki is completely black. I heaved a gigantic sigh of relief when I saw a pair of eyes reflecting back at me, bright as headlights.

Now the questions was: how in the world was I going to get him down?

A phone call was made to our neighbors and Mr. Neighbor came to the rescue! I had to wait for him to finish driving home. But as soon as he came home, he changed his clothes and was out with a 24 foot ladder climbing up into this massive tree. Once he was at the top of the ladder, he ventured another eight feet into the tree. Loki was near the end of a branch, unwilling to cooperate his rescuing, so Mr. Neighbor scooted out on a branch (in the dark! mind you) and grabbed hold of Loki.

I thanked Mr. Neighbor about 40,000 times, but I still don't feel that was enough. I've been thinking about what I can do for him to let him know just how much I appreciated his heroism.

Fast forward to today. It was actually nice enough outside to play with bubbles! Elijah has loved playing with bubbles since he was about 18 months old or so. I love to play with the bubbles with him, but I couldn't really play with him this time. Emily was awake and apparently didn't want to miss anything because whenever I put her down, she cried. And while it was nice enough to go outside, it wasn't all that warm. I made sure she was properly bundled before going out and attempting to interact with Elijah one handed. It's so cute, he pronounces bubbles, "bubbies." He used to say it another way when he was first starting to talk, but I can't remember how it sounded now! Time goes by too fast. Well, sometimes it seems that way.

Another activity I was able to partake in with Elijah today, was to sit down and read a copy of Toddler Highlights with him. Emily was sleeping at this point, which made it all the more possible. I want to give all of myself to Emily, and all of myself to Elijah. At the same time. If there is a possible way to do this, I don't know what it is. Finding a balance in sharing my attention is extremely difficult right now. I want to be able to interact with Emily in the ways I did with Elijah when he was a newborn. I just don't think that can happen. I've got Elijah who needs attention, too. Back to topic, to be able to do something that was just me and Elijah felt really nice. We snuggled and read the short stories, found the hidden pictures, and talked about the shapes and animals.

I believe the attention and efforts that go into Emily's diaper changes has reverted Elijah back a few paces. He has lost interest in using the potty. He was on such a roll, too! I've heard that this is to be expect, not at all uncommon. It's frustrating, nonetheless. Since I'm doing cloth diapers, it ups the diaper laundry load and is all around a challenge to be changing two children during the day. Plus knowing he can pee in the potty but chooses not to is, well, annoying, to be honest. Classic two year old behavior I suppose. I try to remind myself to embrace the "two year old-ness", otherwise I just might go crazy. And also, who really wants to argue with a two year old? I don't.

Elijah is sleeping with me tonight, which is not how it's been the past few nights. He has been sleeping with my mom and sometimes it's just easier that way. But in all honesty, I don't sleep as well when Elijah isn't with me. He has his own bed in my room, but still chooses to sleep with me. I'm okay with this because I know he will sleep in his bed when he wants to. He was a few months ago, but with all of the changes going on he has decided his bed isn't for sleeping, but for jumping.

So now, as I bring this post to a close, I've got Emily sleeping on my belly, Elijah snuggled against my side, and Loki next to my head. The only person I need now is my husband home from Afghanistan and my circle of love will be complete.

Blurb.

I thought it might be fun to have a blog specifically geared toward my adventures in being a mom! There are many happenings in my day that others could possibly find amusing. I didn't think so until I explained a specific moment to my sister in which she replied with something along the lines of, "I'm sorry, I know that must have been frustrating but I laughed very hard at that." I think said moment consisted of my three week old daughter, Emily, crying on the bed while I changed her diaper while my two year old son, Elijah, cried on the floor with his head attempting to push through the sleeve of a shirt.

I was successful in my attempts in making some lip balm today. It's totally exciting because I've been interested in doing this for a while now. And as beneficial as tea tree oil is, I learned that I don't care for the smell that much. My mom has loaned me her potpourri burner, which looks exactly like a teeny-tiny crock pot; perfect size for melting together my ingredients! I dug out a children's Motrin syringe to fill my tins with and used a gravy whisk for stirring. I didn't even have to buy anything except the ingredients and the tins! How perfect. The tester balms I made today have come in handy! I've put the first tester on my hands and some dry spots on my arms, as well as on my lips and even Emily's bottom to see if it could clear up some red, chapped spots. All tested areas are doing beautifully!

This brings my first post to a close. My cat, Loki, hasn't been come back from outside in over 24 hours and my imagination has exhausted me with different possibilities of why that could possibly be. That and little Miss Em keeps waking because each time she falls asleep her pacifier falls out of her mouth. This results in flailing arms, kicking legs, and little frustrated grunts of protest. I rescue the pacifier and have to coax her to take it back. She wants the thing so badly that she just jerks her head around, mouth open, tonguing the thing as though I were teasing her with it. Though once she has it her entire body relaxes and we can start the whole thing over again.