Halloween

My little Lobster

Complete with a lobster tail. AJ thinks it looks like hemorrhoids.

The lobster's first cupcake.



The cutest horse on the planet.


Daddy is funny.

Pleeaasse go Poopie for Mommy

I can't get Nick to poop. We were up all night because he was uncomfy (the doctor disagrees with me on that). Which brings me to my ongoing search for a pediatrician who doesn't speak to me as if I am an uneducated idiot . . ."baby's kidneys are stupid so we don't give them Motrin until they are 6 months old" and "he's not uncomfortable yet - breastfed babies only need to poop every 14 days because they absorb all the breast milk" and my FAVORITE "Simply lay him down sleepy but awake so that he will learn to put himself to sleep." She did indeed say simply.

As if it wasn't already obvious that she didn't have children of her own she confirmed it for me when I asked. Book learning is great but she doesn't have a clue. Instead of letting me hold a happy Nick in my lap while she looked in his ears she pinned the screaming boy down on the table and checked them that way. "Yes brute force will get the job done but do you ever wonder why kids hate coming to see you lady?" . . . something I wish I had the guts to say to her.

And I must say that I never thought I would reference Oprah on this blog (I love Oprah and watch as much as possible) because it is such a cliche that I'm a SAHM who loves the big O, but she recently had a thing on her show about a neuroscientist who had a stroke. It was mentioned that health care providers need to be aware of and responsible for the energy they bring into each patients room. This is so true of this pediatrician. She was sooooooo stressful to be around. She spoke really REALLY fast and didn't let me finish sentences and conducted her physical exams so quickly. Kids pick up on this stuff so easily. Anyway. I'm done complaining.

Nick is now on a pretty solid diet of breast milk, prunes, prune juice and sugar water. The last three are intended to get him pooping. It has been 8 days!!! He keeps kicking and moaning and crying and farting (nasty ones!!) but no poopie.

And I do believe that "little" Nick has or is close to outgrowing his car seat. He needs a convertible one - which we thankfully already have (thank you Aunt Stella!). Those Graco infant seats are great but the kids grow so fast that you can't carry them because they are too heavy. And the seat belt is at the highest notch and it is wayyyy below his shoulders so I guess it is time. I was hoping to get to the six month mark with this car seat but I guess we will call it good now that he is five months. It seems like such a waste of money to only use it for 5 months.

Tomorrow I go and meet my Mommies group for the first time at the park. It should be fun. I am excited to get Lucas playing with kids his own age. And I also welcome the social interaction.

I also finally spoke with a mortgage broker about getting a home loan and Friday we go see homes again with ANOTHER realtor. This is our third. I got rid of the last two because they were not up to my average standards.

I'm a landlord???

I signed the papers to sell our house on Friday. Last Friday. I then FedEx'd them to the title company to be completed by the buyer today. So money isn't changing hands until today.

I am using short sentences to keep from YELLING.

Last night (Sunday night) we spoke with our old neighbors and found out that the buyer has been residing in our old residence - the one we still owned - since Friday, the day I signed the papers.

Uhhh Huhhh. Yeah.

Apparently the buyer's lease ran out on his apartment last week (a foreseeable situation) and he needed to move in last week. So he got the keys from his real estate agent and moved in. RENT FREE!!!

. . .fuming
. . .trying to breathe normally
. . . really pissed

Obviously had anything happened to the house between his moving in and closing - we would have been liable and had to pay for. . . like say a fire, or vandalism.

Well I'm off to make a few more nasty calls to get to the bottom of this and figure out what to do . . . like say CHARGE RENT!!!!

Stroller imperfection

Last week I purchased a stroller. I decided that there is not a single stroller on this earth that will meet all of my wants/needs/wishes. So I got this:

The Quattro Tour Duo Stroller in French Roast.

While I am not entirely satisfied with this stroller (it is heavy, and somewhat difficult to turn) it meets most of my needs. It is easy to get this through a department store and grocery store and it has plenty of storage for all the crap that I must haul around for two kids. Oh - and it folds super easy. Plus it has cup holders for me and the kids which I really like. The cup holders are for some reason a major factor in the decision to buy this thing.

So we have taken it to the zoo twice, and to the natural history museum once and it is a pretty monstrous stroller, but any double stroller is. I went to three stores and made Lucas sit in every single one available while I pushed him around to determine maneuverability and comfort. He really liked getting into all the different strollers.

This Is. . .

This is my wonderful husband. Who I love. And who is up in Denver having dinner at a loud sports bar with a number of fun and enthusiastic colleagues. I know this because when I called he had to step out so that he could hear me. Last night he had to step out of the fabulous Mexican restaurant so he could talk. Tonight he met them all at the hotel bar for happy hour AND THEN went to dinner. He is up there all week, sleeping in, going to "training" (which sounds like a vacation to me) and eating out and hitting the free happy hour at the hotel. Then he gets to retire to his quiet comfortable hotel room for a fitful nights sleep.

This is the pirate ship that I nearly killed myself on this morning at 2:30am while walking a crying baby - trying to get him back to sleep.

This is the ships' crew. The pirate on the left and his crew man on the right. They tried to puncture holes into the bottom of my feet when I stepped on them last night.

This is my helpful little boy who has decided that the kitchen is a great place to dump all of my clean and previously folded laundry - presumably to refold the laundry. Keep in mind that this is the very floor where several cockroaches were last spotted frolicking last night. . . after the air conditioner completely stopped working.

This is the living room floor where my clean laundry was also dumped and then "shoveled" back into the basket. This is also the toddler who only slept for 15-20 minutes today and has been irritable all day.

This is my cat. She is watching the whole laundry dumping and sorting ordeal.

This is the bag of chocolate chips located in my freezer that I have practically shoved my head into on several occasions today.

This is the glass that I broke today.

This is the angelic looking infant who refuses to sleep in his own bed. Or for that matter alone. Tonight I finally began to teach him to fall asleep by himself. I am desperate, my back can NOT carry him around forever and I can't sleep with a child who can not fall to sleep easily. It is beginning to take so much effort to get him to sleep. He has got to learn to resettle himself in the middle of the night!!! So we had some crying tonight as he learned to go to sleep with minimal assistance from my end. I hope that this goes smoothly.

This is the tea that I used to help calm me down while Nick tried to fall asleep. I meant to buy beer but never got around to it. So I tore through the cabinets praying to find a stash that AJ left for me, but came up empty handed. So THIS IS the non-alcoholic tea that I was forced to settle for. FORCED. Doesn't that look like Hansel and Grettle's house?

And this is the bottle of pills that is going to help my back relax enough for me to fall asleep.

To the Zoo

Today we ventured into old town. It was an adventure. There was some sort of run downtown and all the streets were blocked so we couldn't get from the aquarium to the zoo without some major help from the handy dandy map. My navigator was not as good at the job as he continues to believe so we found the back of the zoo (the big fence) and then made our way around to the front. But we made it and had a lot of fun. I returned the double stroller and the hunt continues for the perfect one.

There was this goofy family that we ran into at every turn. He was really loud and kept enthusiastically asking his kids really stupid questions - I suppose in an attempt to educate them. The problem was that he was not an informed visitor to the zoo and kept mis-identifying things. All I wanted to do was yell at him to read the signs in front of the exhibit because those correctly identified the animals. Here they are:
Also Lucas has decided to help with laundry. It was super cute. Then he lifted the lid to watch the clothes get clean. Also today Lucas asked to go to Wal-mart. Keep in mind that this kid doesn't have a vocabulary of more than 25-30 words so the fact that Wal-mart is now a word is very bothersome. I am going to blame this recently acquired word on his grandmother (AJ's Mom) who recently visited.

Double Stroller!!

I bought a double stroller today. It was sort of an impulse buy, which I don't normally succumb to but I am really in need of a stroller that will go on some of the trails around here. The kids really like it but now that I got it home, I notice that Lucas' head is close to the top of the seat back. So now I might return it, but to return it you have to mail it to the store warehouse.
But I am still glad that I took the plunge because now I have a better sense of what I want and also what to look for in the next stroller.

For example, I like the side by side model because I can easily see both kids, and they can interact, which they also enjoy. I also like the "all terrain" models because they aren't as big as a jogger and therefore can go into a shopping situation (this thing fits through a standard doorway! Hard to believe but it's true) but also it has the larger air filled tires and the suspension to handle a trail or bumpy situation which is a big deal when your kid has fallen asleep and you don't want the bumps to wake them up.

The problem with this one is that the sunshade is inadequate, the seat back is too short for Lucas and there isn't a cup holder for the kids to put a drink. So onto the next one. This stroller thing is so complicated. It is like selecting a car. And some of them are as expensive as a car. . . well not really but close.

P.S. . . Lucas refuses to wear a shirt, he keeps taking it off. Thank goodness pants are still acceptable to him.

No internet, flooding and a grumpy Kristin

Sorry I haven't posted anything lately. I have not had Internet. Stupid cable. They are sending someone out to deal with this which will be nice.

Also our apartment flooded slightly when we had a monster storm come roaring through on Saturday. The storm itself was moving at 50 mph that is not including the much stronger winds. There were apparently tornadoes around but they didn't get us thankfully. So the back porch leaked into the dining room via the sliding glass door. Fun.

And I am stressed about finding a house. When we figured on buying a house we forgot to factor in the looming repayment of AJ's masters degree. How could we be so stupid? So that puts a kink in things. Argh.

Tonight we went up the Sandia peak tramway ( http://www.sandiapeak.com/ ) and of course I forgot my camera. I am going to steal pictures from my mother-in-law and post them so you can see. We had a lot of fun. We came down the mountain just as the sun was setting and it was so beautiful. We couldn't have timed it better. Everything was tinted pink and orange from the sunset, it was really amazing.

Tomorrow I start house hunting again. Stress.

Alright you want to know what is really bothering me? We got our pictures taken on Saturday, which was nice. Until I saw the pictures. I AM SO FAT. And I am a stress eater so this whole move isn't making me any thinner. I hate the pics. And obesity makes me grumpy.

Wild Furry Beasts

Our cat food stinks. Literally. I went and bought fancy top end cat food for the girls to make up for all the stress that moving has created. I bought the wild kitty food, which is really for the ball of fur glaring at you from your coffee table. The package had a super fit looking Lynx (bobcat maybe? I don't know but it looked cool) on the front surrounded by a forest. Our cats are wild. . . right? Aren't all cats? They kill and mutilate bugs around the house, and they would kill birdies if I let them outside. And this food claims to feed the girls their "Natural Evolutionary Diet" . . . .SOLD.

I might as well tattoo SUCKER across my forehead because the food smells like dead animals. I should have known. Now my poor mother-in-law is going to be using the room where the stinky cat food is currently located. And to top it off the girls have gas. Not just gas but G-A-S. I thought Lucas had gone poo poo but it turned out to be Haylee's bottom. She was basking in the sun on the couch next to me and let one fly. It was truly horrible. Just what you expected to read about: my cat's flatulence.

Barnes and Noble Drama

Today we went to Barnes and Noble. I really like this store because they have a play area for Lucas, comfy chairs for me, reading material and hot Chai tea from the friendly Starbucks people. What more could you ask for really? It is paradise for the SAHM looking to get out of the house for a couple hours.

Except for today. Today I had a beautiful blue eyed angel who decided to drop to the floor minutes after entering the serenely quiet store and started S-C-R-E-A-M-I-N-G! I had Nick in a front carrier so I was a little slower than usual, but I bent down to pick up Lucas and he did a LOG ROLL AWAY FROM ME!!!!! WTF??? Then he jumped to his feet still screaming and ran around the kids area up and down the isles laughing at me as I was in hot pursuit.

Here is a summary of what was going through my mind:
Where in the hell did he learn to do this? What do I do? I haven't read about this in the books. What would other Mom's do? Crap every one is staring at me so I can't smack him. I guess I should grab him and make a fast getaway.

I was surprisingly calm despite my determination to catch the little bastard. Just as I grabbed his upper arm in an iron-I'm-gonna-kill-you grip he once again fell to the floor and whacked his head on a book shelf along the way. So he started screaming again but louder if that was even possible.

Again I was stone cold calm, which surprises me in hindsight but I picked him up and told him quietly between screams that he was going to the car. And I carried him on my hip, with Nick attached to the front of me to the car, strapped him in -still screaming at the top of his lungs, and drove away.

Everyone in the entire store heard this episode very clearly. I was mortified and couldn't get the hell out of there fast enough. When I got home he was still throwing a fit and I was at the breaking point so I told him that he was having some quiet time in his room while Mommy took a break. I placed him on his bed with some books and closed the door before I started to loose my temper. He fell asleep at 9:30 in the morning! Nap time isn't until 11:30-12:00.

What a mess. I have so much more sympathy for parents with screaming kids now. I used to be so intolerant. . .

Bawoonns

They aren't kidding when they claim that there are 700 balloons at this "fiesta". I have never attended the fiesta but we intend to this week once AJ's Mom gets here. Those dang balloons land where ever they can find a patch of land, and if it happens to be alongside the freeway or in someones backyard then so be it. And the crazy balloon chasers are just about as entertaining as the balloons themselves. The chasers all pile into the bed of a pickup truck (or two) and drive like mad men chasing "their" balloon. They have these giant flags flying from their vehicles and they all look like a bunch of overly patriotic rednecks coming from a rodeo. Instead they are overly excited balloon chasers trying to find their balloon. It is so weird. Once they get to the balloon that has landed in a field they go tearing across the field to get to it. Then as the morning progresses you begin to see all these flag loving balloon chasers with the baskets in the bed of the pickups and all these people - grinning ear to ear - crammed into the available space in the pickup bed. The amazing thing is that this is occurring virtually anywhere you go, you can not avoid this - I mean there are 700 of these things. SEVEN HUNDRED. Whoa, I just pulled a Joe Biden. haha.

Party Central Baby

Wow. We are in the middle of a college apartment complex and I didn't realize it until Friday and Saturday night. But there are college kids in just about every apartment around us, which makes for some good times at night. If I didn't have sleeping kids I wouldn't mind so much but the noise factor is an issue. This morning at 3:45am AJ and I laid in bed listening to the springs on the bed above us squeaking for approximately 50-60 seconds. Just as we became fully aware of exactly what was occurring above us the noise stopped. The minute man must have finished. I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was heavily impaired by alcohol. Then we got to hear the shower running. Yuck. I think there are about 4 guys that live above us because we have seen them a few times. They dress the same and probably say dawg way too much. I bet they hate to read like the dawgs that Joanne ran into.

I am a little surprised that so many college kids can afford to live here because this place is pretty expensive. When I was in college I was way too poor to afford this place - hell I'm still too poor to afford this place. Thankfully the Govn't is paying for it until we get a house.

Well I took a spin through World Market today and feel like I am in a foreign country. Everything I see is so exciting and new. The balloon fiesta was cancelled for this morning because we got an inch of rain last night. But tonight it is supposed to start back up.

Oh- the dawgs upstairs are taking out the trash - I should go ask them who the minute man is. . .

Sleepy Lucas

Lucas was so tired that he fell asleep while we were unpacking. When he woke up he was so upset that it took him an hour to calm down. All the changes were just too much for him to handle so we held him (which he insisted on) and showed him all of the personal items we unpacked that he would recognize. After a while he calmed down. Poor little guy keeps asking to go home which of course we can't do for him. He I guess will adjust eventually, but in the mean time we are trying to make life a little easier on him.


This was the sight that greeted us this morning. Tomorrow is the beginning of balloon fiesta and I hope to get good pictures.


This was at dinner - Lucas wanted to eat ice cream which he has only had a few times before. So he tried cookies and cream ice cream which he obviously liked.


Nick fell asleep at dinner. These Carhartts were fitting Lucas at 6 months. Nick is 4 months and he is nearly too big for them, and his car seat. I can barely lift the dang thing.