Ohhhh what a birthday!

Nick has a terrible chest and head cold (although he looks just fabulous in these pictures - don't let it fool you) and is really not feeling well at all today. And I suspect he has an ear infection, but we are waiting until Monday to take him to the doctor in case the ear thing clears itself up. So we are giving him some Benadryl to dry up his mucous and Motrin to kill the ear pain. Whoo Hooo what a great first birthday!!

We made him a blue cake and tonight only gave him a frosting free cupcake due to his not feeling well. Tomorrow if he is feeling better we will do the whole candle thing. But he was in a fairly good mood at dinner considering he'd had a grand total of 40 minutes of napping today and three knocks to the head which left bruises. . .seriously I think Nick might go and find another family who will ensure he has good birthdays from here on out. Prepare for a bunch of pictures now.

Eating our cupcake. . . we liked it a lot.

Wrinkling his nose up at us . . . one of my favorite face expressions!

Awww here is a better picture of that face expression.

Smiling at Daddy

Laughing at Daddy and showing that at one year he still doesn't have a single tooth!

Mr. Lucas enjoying a cupcake as well. He handled Nick getting attention very well.


He tried to clean up his crumbs, which was so sweet. He's a good kid.

Haylee has found a good location for scraps

Opening presents. It was vital to the success of the evening that Lucas also be included in the present opening process.

YAYYYY PAPER MOM!!!


Oooo. A ball banger thingie.

Oooo fancy new shoes. And they fit! Size five feet. And they don't cause him to trip and fall. And he didn't try to take them off because, oh yeah, they actually fit correctly!!

Our Weekend

Here are some pictures of our weekend. We didn't take many. We were too busy trying to find the paved road again (more on this in a minute). But we had fun and took a day trip to a place called tent rocks National Monument (BLM). It was fun except for the part where AJ insisted and shamed me into taking the MINIVAN onto an ATV trail and then when I wanted to turn around he told me I was a wimp. But at least he realized he was crazy when the ATVers went buy laughing and waving at us. Ahhhh. It wasn't all a waste though we almost found the back way into Bandelier National Monument - did I mention it was an ATV trail? In a Minivan? Yeah.

Here is Nick playing in the mud.


AJ snapped this photo of a horse trailer like no other.


From the trail at Tent Rocks. There were lots of phallic symbols around so we had lots of giggles.


These two passed us on the trail. They were not very friendly and I swear . . . they were wearing the EXACT same outfit. And haircut. And fake smiles. Creepy. Ok, so I am bitchy and judgmental.

Finger Painting

It was a rainy day and we needed something fun to do so . . . we busted out finger paints. And contrary to my earlier statements about Crayola products being super washable, these were not. Maybe it was because they were old but the red and blue colors stained Lucas's skin. But Nick liked his first experience finger painting. He took a taste initially but quickly decided it was more fun to paint with it instead of eat it. I think next time I will plan better and I'll make up some different colored puddings to finger paint with - that way Nick can eat and I won't have to be so diligent about keeping his hands out of his mouth - which kind of spoiled the fun. Lucas as always dove right into the paint and did a very good job mixing colors. He "signed" his art with multiple hand prints around the edges. So sweet.

Potty training

We've got our stool and our dinosaur underwear on. We are ready to go.

How does he do that?

Lately, when I put Nick down to sleep (which he hates and fights to get out of the crib) he somehow finds a way for me to take him out. He poops. So I have to take him out and change him . . . and he gets what he wants. This keeps happening. It's like he saves it up to use when he really wants out of the crib.

Make believe letters

Dear Nick,

I know that you want to play with the kitty Haylee but she doesn't always want to play with you. And, no, she doesn't think it is funny when you pull her hair. As you may recall I have repeatedly scolded you about messing with the kitties. So I am sorry that she gave you a gentle warning bite and I am also sorry that this warning bite didn't stop you from once again grabbing her hair and pulling. I chose not to intervene just before she gave you a second, equally gentle, warning bite only because I knew that she would get your attention and teach you to leave her alone better than I could. I know that you were devastated and very upset that your buddy Haylee turned on you but she didn't break your skin and you did learn that she means business. Please know that Mommy loves you even though I allowed you to be "viciously mauled" by the princess Haylee. I hope that you have a better respect for Haylee's need for personal space.
Love,
Mommy


Dear Waitress at the diner we ate at last night,

I am very sorry that Nick screamed at the top of his lungs for no reason what-so-ever. No he wasn't upset or crying he was just listening to himself scream with all his might. I didn't need you to glare at me to let me know that he was annoying. Believe me I knew. In the future please keep the following in mind for families with young children:

• Always give us a booth. Tables with chairs don't work with a booster seat. Booths are easier to corral hyper children in.
  
• Do not set knives at place settings for children.
  
• Do not set our huge overflowing drinks within reach of the children. What were you thinking?
  
• Children's cups need lids. And straws. Always.
• When you see that a family is almost done eating bring the check immediately. IMMEDIATELY. We need to make a fast getaway.
• Once you bring the check promptly take our payment and return with a receipt. Again, we need to get outta there fast before meltdowns begin.

I apologize for the small amount of food on the floor but that is why we left you an unnecessarily large tip. Get over it. We are doing the best we can.
-Kristin

Falling off the bed

Yesterday we followed AJ to Los Alamos when he went up there for work. AJ went off to work and I stayed in the hotel for a couple of hours with the kids watching cartoons. Well Mr. Lucas kept jumping on the bed and I kept telling him to knock it off or he was going to get hurt. And guess what? He did. He fell, landed right on top of his head. I ran and picked him up and his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out and then started jerking a little. Just a little. So I laid him on the bed where he woke up and didn't move at all. He just stared at me. So I asked him to move his arms and legs which he did. But he still just stared at me so. . . I panicked a little bit. I can handle the passing out and the possible seizure but I can't handle him not acting normal. So. . . I called 911. They came and were very nice and told me that he seemed ok. His heart rate and respirations were normal and his pupils constricted normally and equally. WHEW. Little shit. He ended up with a hell of a headache later in the day which I treated with Motrin. This won't be the last time I seek emergency care for my boys, that I know. But I don't want to call 911 again. I felt like such a 'tard afterward, like some hysterical mother.

Here he is watching a movie in his fancy new sleeping bag before bed.

Mr. Adorable

Mr. Adorable was playing in his pool while his brother took a nap.



And here is Mr. Adorable after he tried to eat a crayola washable marker. His brother was coloring so I put him into his high chair so he could join in the coloring fun. And he decided to try to eat the markers. Thankfully Crayola is child friendly.

Trees Trees

I need trees. I have a totally barren backyard that has sand dunes. Not kidding - dunes, and they move just like at the beach. So I have recently purchased two "aristocrat" pear trees and I think I'm going to hunt down an Osage orange tree or two. I might go for a couple more trees for a total of six or seven. Maybe an ash tree? Or should I go for a Locust or Mulberry? I want something that does well in drought conditions, poor soil and full sun. Also on my wish list is a tree that grows quickly. I would like an evergreen but they don't grow very fast. . . or do they? See? I have a lot more research to do. I just don't have time to sit and do research. What I really need is someone to come and tell me what to do. I follow direction well when sufficiently motivated.

Once I get the trees in I will move on to shrubs and lower smaller plants. AJ thinks I should draw out a "master plan" for the yard and I think he is over thinking this whole thing. It is much more fun to fly by the seat of your pants. Kind of like when thought I'd surprise AJ by solving our stove issue and I bought the wrong color of stove : )

Lucas has his evaluation with the school district tomorrow for continued speech assistance. I have a bunch of paperwork to gather so I will let you know how it goes. I don't even know where to go in the school and I would do a scouting trip but the President (yes THE President) is giving a talk there today and the traffic is less than desirable so I will just have to just show up and hope we find it. School floorplans are always so confusing to me.

Part of the backyard.


More of the backyard


My two little trees.


Lucas and Nick enjoying Chocolate Milk in Mommy's bed after nap time.


Lucas crashed for nap time while reading his book on trucks.


Me trying to keep Nick happy by playing with the camera. (It was time for bed and he didn't want to go)

Little Nick posing for a picture with his Momma.


He was so tired when I took this picture. Note that he still doesn't have ANY teeth.


Lucas cutting up plastic can holders. My little environmentalist.


Isn't he so cute? He insisted on wearing his suspenders with his night clothes.

Forcing myself into a social group

Today I forced myself to go to another function with my Mom's group and I'm glad I did. There were a lot of Mom's there, some that I had met yesterday, and more new faces. We had a free tour of a Dairy Queen! I was so excited that I nearly wet myself with anticipation (note: sarcasm). The kids loved it though because they got to work the ice cream machine and make their own ice cream cones. Plus the manager let them all walk into the refrigerator and freezers. Ooooooohh, Ahhhhhh. Pretty boring for an adult but the kids were fascinated. I don't think the Dairy Queen people anticipated that twenty mom's and 40+ kids would show up to their dinky little store, but it worked out. Even the kids that were Nick's age had a good time. Plus we all got free ice cream and they got the additional business of all of us buying lunch.

The good news is that I was able to get to know some of the other mom's a little better and it was nice!! They were nice and their kids were well behaved. I was in a better position to observe the monster children and realized that only a few of the mom's had monsters. Usually it was the moms who had three or more children. So there is hope. I just have to force myself to try and keep trying and maybe I will find one or two mom's who I can be friends with, not just acquaintances.

Today I think I am going to go buy some trees for my back yard. I found good sized trees for 22 bucks apiece! Yeah, that's right. $22. I can't wait to get them in the ground and begin to vegetate the sandy Martian landscape that is my backyard.

I hate socializing

I'm trying and trying but I just can't seem to find a good fit for playgroups up here in our new neighborhood. Today I went to meet my new group and the mom's weren't attempting to include me in the conversations, and were talking about people and events that I had no knowledge of.

And their kids. . . Oh my GOD, their kids were crazy little monsters. Alright - not all of the kids were monsters but when you see a three year old try to smash an infant's (1.5 mos old) head with a toy truck while his mother holds the baby - that is what I would classify as a monster. This woman was helping the infant's mother by holding the child so the new mommy could eat her lunch, and when the three year old saw HIS mommy holding a strange baby he freaking lost it and came at the baby with an enormous truck - thankfully he was prevented from harming the baby. When I saw this my mouth fell open.

And Lucas was shoved off of the play equipment in their backyard because he wasn't aggressive enough to fight his way to the top like all the older kids did. So he made himself happy by playing with a toy shovel and rake in the corner of the yard. Nick was bullied too by older, unsupervised brats. I couldn't socialize with the moms because I was chasing my kids around to make sure they weren't being attacked. It was weird. I am going to attend a few more meetings because only a small portion of the mom's were in attendance today. Hopefully some of the other mom's will have different parenting approaches or will be more welcoming.

I'll try to post pictures soon.

OH MY GOD JUST SLEEP

Nick has apparently given up naps. I am praying that this is temporary. He has had a 1/2 hour nap for the last two days. . . and that is IT (insert high-pitched frantic voice here)!! He sleeps for only nine hours a night if we are lucky. WHAT THE HELL AM I GOING TO DO (again with high pitched frantic out of control voice)???? Babies need more sleep than this. I need more rest than this. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (that is the sound of a tired mommy loosing her mind).

I am assuming this is a temporary thing and that he will resume normal sleep habits soon.

A quote I like

A mother is a person who seeing
there are only four pieces
of pie for five people,
promptly announces she never
did care for pie.

-Tenneva Jordan

Suspect Sanitation

The more videos I take (and then rewatch) the more I realize how different I am now compared to how I was with just one kid. For example when Lucas was little I would have had everything babyproofed and he wouldn't have been able to get into the toothbrush drawer, much less try to scrub the floor or toilet with the thing. Juice in the BATHROOM?? Oh God NOOOO. Juice was for the table only. Now I don't even know how or when the juice arrived on the back of the TOILET.

I wonder what the teenage years will do to me.

Funny Cup

AJ and Lucas had an afternoon out on the town together and this is what they came home with:

A Chuck-E-Cheese cup that about made me pee my pants laughing.

Cute Kid Pics

This is my mantle - cluttered. It is an indication of what the rest of the house looks like.

We have all been struck down by a cold. And Nick can not clear his own nose yet so I was up all night with him keeping his head elevated so that he could breathe. And here is what he is doing today:

Yes he is so tired. My poor dude. Let's hope he feels better soon.

And here are some slightly older pictures of Lucas finger painting, which he takes very seriously.

Look Mom, one hand is dirty!

And the other hand is CLEAN!!

Moving with children is harder than I imagined it would be. I should note that I had imagined it would be pretty darn hard. Thankfully my Mom-in-law has unpacked my kitchen so that we can now function somewhat. I had so many kitchen gadgets and supplies that it took her close to two days to unpack the kitchen.

And we got a new stove. That gas leak that we found just before closing? Remember that? It wasn't the pilot light - it was an actual gas leak either from the stove or the line supplying the stove. And since we needed a new stove anyway (the one that came with the house was older than the house and had been used/abused heavily) we went ahead and got a new stove. True to my nature I went down and purchased the stove and got the wrong color because I am oblivious to color, but FIVE burners. . . I noticed that, how could I not notice that the thing was the opposite color of the rest of the appliances? The rest of the appliances are bisque and I got a black stove. In my defense I was only thinking of what would hide fingerprints best which is why I ran like hell from all the stainless appliances that they push on you. As if stainless is the best thing ever. If it was the best thing ever they would't show every single finger print. I bet you in another ten years stainless appliances will be "liiikkee sooo ten years ago - ewww."

He's officially a walker

Nick is officially bipedal. He walked around in the backyard and in the living room. No I don't have pictures. I was too busy clapping my hands and making enthusiastic noises to grab the camera. He falls down all the time but he can do 11-15 steps at a time if he is focused. I'll do my best to capture video so I can share.

Gotta get packing. Busy busy busy.

Smooth closing on your house?

Let me just lay it out in a factual format instead of some long ass-hard-to-read-OMG-Kristin-please-learn-to-properly-punctuate post.

today we signed the paperwork for closing on the house but first . . .

• we met the realtor at the property to do a final walk through
• we immediately upon entering smelled gas
• found the pilot light on the stove extinguished - shut off gas to stove.
• drive to title company to sign 2" high stack of papers
• realtor calls as we enter parking lot and says that the title company has switched offices without notifying anyone and gives us new directions
• we arrive at new location only to learn that indeed the title company was at the original location
• call title company and apologize for being late and explain that we will be there shortly
• arrive at title company - finally
• we sit down and literally 3 minutes later we learn that there is a problem with the paperwork. A big problem
• no escrow account was established for taxes and insurance . . .despite a good faith estimate that factored in an escrow account. The HUD statement did not have one.
• not wanting balloon payments at the end of the year for taxes (HELLOOO!! CHRISTMAS time and ALLLLL , why would I want a couple thousand dollars due on my house at that time???)
• Multiple tense/frantic calls to loan writers and mortgage brokers and title brokers and realtors, assistants and lenders later (and me thinking: "WHY IS SHE(mortgage broker) AT THE DENTIST WHEN I NEED HER NOW??) . . . we decide that we will set up an escrow account separately on Monday.
• Whew. . . we keep signing papers
  
• Mortgage broker calls me (she had been on the other phone with the title lady 2 seconds ago) and is somewhat upset because we didn't "specify" that we wanted an escrow account and "most people don't want one" but says that we will get one set up on Monday, which the title lady had already relayed for me.
  
• Okaaaayyyy. My fault?? Sorry???? I thought it was STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE TO SET UP A FREAKING ESCROW ACCOUNT????? ESPECIALLY SINCE THE GOOD FAITH ESTIMATE ALREADY SAID ONE WOULD BE ESTABLISHED. . . YOU KNOW THE GOOD FAITH ESTIMATE THAT YOU SENT TO ME!!!!

Sorry about all the yelling. Just blowing off some steam. It is stressful enough plunking down a huge chunk of your wealth in a cashiers check to some stranger at a title company after you discover a gas leak in the house that very day. But then with all the other drama . . .I'm fried.

Picnic at the Zoo

Maybe if I flirt with her I can convince her I've abandoned my escape plans. Besides, she is old and slow.




And I now I am going to distract the brother and get him to focus on something other than me.



Big brother successfully distracted with food.



Oh crap. She caught me making my way to the back of the stroller. More flirting required.



And I'm off and running. No one can catch me now.



Oooo. Look. The sidewalk!



Wait. . .!! Don't leave me here.

Identity Crisis

Can you tell that the blog is having another identity crisis?

Note: I have nothing to do with this. It is the blog, not me.

Let me take this opportunity to bitch and moan about the Miss USA 2009 pageant. What is WRONG with those women? Their skin is perfect, and do they have a stray hair out of place anywhere on their perfectly toned and tanned bodies? And my God those boobs. . . don't get me started on the boobs. Those can't be real humans tottering around on the stage. I watched the pageant off and on and just couldn't believe that these women were anything other than really well designed robots. Do I sound a bit jealous? Well I admit I miss my old stomach and boobs however I really don't want to look like the robots and I certainly don't want to act like them. The sea of blank pageant smiles about made me want to hurl. Can we talk about the hair? Is it real? Does it move? Is that an animal I just saw hiding in it?

My robot hypothesis was busted when Miss California opened her mouth to answer her question. Wow. Ok. So she is clearly not a well designed robot. She is the ignorant blonde robot who all the other robots roll their life-like eyes at when she speaks.

I'm done. Ok, not quite.

I can't wait until they all get fat. There I said it. Don't tell me you weren't thinking it too. You were.

Alright. Now I'm done.

Sweet little Nick

My sweet Nick can be so cranky. Very cranky, very clingy very demanding of my full attention. He can't cruise around without crying, groaning, fussing or somehow demanding my attention. He wants to be touched and held all the time. He won't self soothe very well - if at all which is a skill we have been trying to get him to learn for months and months now. He sleeps, but only sleeps well if he is able to touch one of us and sometimes that doesn't even work. He won't go to sleep without assistance (despite months of effort and countless books telling us how to do it) and when he wakes in the middle of the night it gets really ugly. He screams. Not like you think. He screams and screams and screams like someone is cutting an arm off. Even if we jump out of bed and rush to his side the moment we hear him stir (which we do every night and every time) he still screams. He is so loud and gets so worked up for the smallest things. He goes from zero to ten in two seconds if you don't immediately attend to his needs. God forbid if you don't respond fast enough or appropriately. I am not "spoiling" him. That I know.

And with this comes my frustration at constantly FAILING to make him happy. Why isn't my baby happy? What is wrong? What am I doing wrong? It really has been eating at my self esteem and self confidence. Big Time.

I remember with Lucas thinking to myself that he was very challenging. I looked online and read books to gather information on different temperament types so that I could better understand him. I remember reading all the "temperament type" descriptions and not being able to classify Lucas under any of them. Which made me happy at the time because I was reassured that Lucas was a nice mix of all sorts of characteristics. And who wants to be able to summarize a child in a paragraph anyway? In time I realized that Lucas was a normal kid and that the extreme temperament types I read about were just that, extreme. Compared to those descriptions Lucas was easy. And that knowledge made me feel good and more confident. He was just doing what kids do and sometimes that can be challenging.

The doctor had me read a few pages on temperament types in the office the other day after I took Nick in again for unexplained EXTREME irritability. "High Intensity Child" describes Nick perfectly. Puuuuuurrrrrfffecctly. If you guys want to know what my little beautiful Nick is like than read the link I just gave you. That is Nick. And I took a big sigh of both relief and dread when I saw it.

I don't agree with labeling kids like this. It repels me for a variety of reasons. But you guys. . . I gotta tell you that knowing that Nick is not the only kid in the world like this gives me GREAT relief. Maybe I'm not doing something wrong. Maybe all my efforts at getting him to sleep for lengths of time weren't flawed attempts. Maybe it is just WHO NICK IS. Maybe he feels fine but is just very expressive about his frustrations. That blood curdling screaming that is so intense and usually leads to vomiting and whole body shaking if he is isn't attended to within a few minutes (I'm in big trouble if he starts this and I'm in the shower), maybe that is isn't a sign that we suck as parents. High intensity is a great way to describe him, but not label him.

So while I expect that Nick has a variety of temperament types within him, I am so very relieved that his frequent meltdowns and persistent crying aren't because of me. And there are a whole variety of people out there that have had children with similar characteristics that have great advice. That too is a relief.