Goodness.

I really want to be better about updating. It's easy to let the thought slip that my children won't be this small forever. Fascinating things happen everyday! I will be better about documenting it!

Ok, so Elijah turned three years old in October. I have a three year old! He is attending at a fantastic Montessori Preschool as of September 1st and absolutely loves it. Well, the first month he cried everyday I dropped him off, but really I think that happened mostly because he got in the habit of crying every day. When I pick him up, the first words out of his mouth are typically, "Momma, I had so much fun today!" Speaking of words, Elijah's speech has improved significantly and his vocabulary has expanded as well. His sentences are fluid and he is enunciating. I love that others are more easily able to understand him and that I only need to translate slightly more than half the time. While this means he's readily able to execute talking back, it's been enjoyable nonetheless. Though I will be more than relieved when he stops the "broken record" method of getting my attention:

"Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy......."

Elijah was a pirate for Halloween. It was rather unfortunate; he came down with a horrendous chest cold the day of Halloween. I was still so eager to take him Trick-or-Treating, though. We had planned to go around the neighborhood my in laws live in and were thankfully able to stop by a few houses. Elijah did have a blast despite the cold. We warmed up by the fireplace and sorted the loot. But the cold came out of nowhere, no inkling of sickness the day before, and BAM- he woke up on Halloween with the ugliest cough I've heard in a long time. The cough was one of those, deep, heavy sounds in his chest. Not really even cough-like. Once it started breaking up it sounded more like a cough. Naturally it got passed around the entire family and now Emily is on the tail end of the lingering cough.

Mr. Potato Head, right? The resemblance is uncanny!

My little M&M is nine months old (already!) and not only crawling and pulling herself up, but cruising around at every moment's chance! This girl is amazing. A blast! What a sense of humor this one has. She loves to laugh, play peek-a-boo, dance, and play the talk back game. We take turns making noises at each other. And when we play peek-a-boo, she's the one that holds the dishcloth over her face, then yanks it off quickly with a smile on her face. When she dances, she sits straight up and does this rock on her butt with her hands above her head. It's the cutest thing, ever.

It's interesting the amount of sass Emily has. It is not hard to figure out what this girl wants. Spoons get smacked out of my hand met with irritated cries, bread bits get swept off the highchair tray with one sweep. When we got shopping I know when she's eager for more attention because she'll take the toy she's playing with, hold it outside the stroller with her right hand, look me straight in the eye and drop it on the floor. Give it back to her enough times and she starts chucking it out. She's also gotten into the habit of tossing her pacifier out. I believe that to be her boldest statement. Emily loves her pacifier so I know she's fed up when that green soothie goes flying into the aisle of the grocery store and bounces against the shoe of some stranger. I've had to start carrying more than one nuk with me lest I have to run to the bathroom every few minutes to wash the flippin' thing. Regardless, I very much enjoy taking Emily shopping with me while Elijah is at preschool; it gives me a chance to get some one on one with her while taking care of errands.

I went to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra over the weekend and took my Mom and the kids with me. I'm glad I decided to go; I wasn't able last year and (regrettably) relinquished my tickets after a schedule conflict arose. The Trans-Siberian Orchestra is incredible and I strongly encourage everyone to experience them at least once! They tour every year during winter for the holidays. I wasn't going to let the fact that I couldn't have free hands hold me back. My husband was in Pittsburgh over the weekend so I couldn't ask him to sit the kids. In any case, Emily and Elijah had a great time. It's a long show (three hours) and at one point Elijah actually fell asleep for a little over an hour. Emily, being the trooper she is [insert eye roll here] only dozed for a mere 20 minutes. However, when both awake, they were enthusiastic and throughly entertained.

...Fine, we'll go see Trans-Siberian Orchestra. If we have to...

Motherhood: The Musical

Motherhood can be so clever sometimes. I have come up with some a number of songs to help [successfully] divert stressful situations with both of my children. I thought it might be a good idea to share them, lest I forget them!

The Night-Night Song. I came up with this when Elijah was less than a year old. Using the word "difficult" is an understatement in what it took to get him to sleep. He nursed, and then he had to be tightly swaddled, rocked, bounced, sung to, etc... before he would sleep. I got pretty bored with all the lullaby's I knew off hand, so I started making stuff up.

(Sung to the chorus of "This Land is Your Land")

It's time to go night-night

And go to sleep

And rest your eyes

And have sweet dreams

And when you wake up

I will be right here

It's time to go night-night

Elijah's Marching Band. Elijah found a mini-flag I had from high school when I was in Color Guard. When I explained it was for marching in a band, he wanted to do it. While marching around the house, he wanted a song.This isn't sung to any particular song, I don't think.

It's Elijah's marching band

With this big colorful flag

We go march! march! march!

And stomp! stomp! stomp!

All through the house

It's Elijah's marching band

With his big color flag

We go march! march! march!

And stomp! stomp! stomp!

It's Eliiiijah's Maaarrching Baaaaaand

YAH YAH YAH

A song that I've sang to Emily since she was a newborn is simply just her name over and over again. I don't know the name of the tune, or if it even has one. But I repeat her name and then spell it at the end. It gets her to stop crying every time and she knows her name now! I also have a similar song for Elijah. It's more of a chant, really. I just spell his name to a specific rhythm. It's been a lot of fun because he's already learning how to spell his name. The last little song I have is repeating "Thank you, you're welcome" to another tune I've heard somewhere before I think. This has been helpful in getting Elijah more familiar with manners. He can be extremely polite.

That's all I can think of at this time, though I am sure there are more.

In other news, I've been looking at preschools for Elijah! I call it play school to Elijah, because that's what Caillou, his favorite cartoon, calls preschool. I really want him to attend a Montessori preschool. They're a little more expensive but I find comfort at the thought of him being taught in an environment by someone who is educated and qualified; not inexperienced and babysitting for the 3.5 hours he's there. The entire family went out today, dropped off some of Elijah's clothes that are too small at a consignment shop, and then found Elijah a backpack! It's a Toy Story backpack, go figure. Without having television as an influence, or before even knowing what Toy Story was, this little boy fell in love with Buzz Lightyear. The only television I let Elijah watch is the Sprout channel, and Nick Jr. Both of those channels do not show commercials, except for Sprout, which only shows commercials about insurance, cleaning supplies, and Your Baby Can Read! Guess it just goes to show that boys will be boys. And Elijah is so good at being a boy!

So the other day Elijah is getting frustrated because he can't get his underwear back on after going potty. He's slamming them on the floor and says, "Come on, god dammit!" I froze and stared at him. "Elijah just said his first swear word" I thought to myself. Great. Now what? I bend down and get eye level with him and explain to him that what he just said is called a Bad Word. We're not allowed to say bad words, I don't like bad words, and I don't want him to say bad words. Then of course I have to remind the rest of the house, no swearing, please. Other advancements in vocabulary include using the word "I" instead of "me". So now he says, "I want" rather than, "Me want".

Emily is six months old now! Sheesh, when did that even happen? This girl has a seriously vibrant personally. She's incredibly chatty, playful, and ticklish. I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before, but I can totally get her hair into a pony tail now. Time to go buy some adorable bows! That's Daddy's headset she has her hand. She's amazing with her hands. She can pass objects from hand to the next, pick up and put her nuk in her mouth, and finger at objects with her index finger and thumb. I just know she'll be crawling before too long. When sitting up she can lung forward, almost to her knees, but not quite yet. Still no teeth, but they'll be here any day! Emily's hair still sticks up, but it's starting to fall to one side. I'll miss those days of hair standing straight on top of her head!

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.

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.