Tag: Kids & Parenting

Sibling Love

Published by dee on September 23, 2008

You know what I love even more than my two kids? My two kids together.

Evie worships her big brother right now. If he’s in the room, she is most likely watching him. She’ll start laughing out of nowhere and when I look up to see why, she’s always looking at him. Other people can make her laugh, but no one can make her laugh as easily as Zach can. All he has to do is look at her the right way or say something to her and she starts giggling.

Last night I was having a hard time getting Zach to bed so I took Evie with me and sat on the edge of his bed to talk for a few minutes. Evie kept diving toward Zach so I decided to let her lay down with him for a couple minutes. He wrapped his arms around her and they immediately started giggling together. I grabbed the camera, snapped a few pics of them together, and then told Zach that it was time to go to sleep. He got mad when I told him I was taking Evie away and begged me to let her sleep with him. Of course I couldn’t let her, but it was still sweet that he wanted her with him.

The entire time I was pregnant with Evie I looked forward to these moments. I love watching them together. I can’t wait to watch them as they get older – laughing, telling secrets, and all those things that brothers and sisters do (even the fighting). There is nothing I love in this world more than my kids and to see them loving each other is more than I could ever ask for.

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How Was Your Mother's Day?

Published by dee on May 13, 2008

Sunday morning at 6:30 I woke up to a child puking in my bed. It was a lovely way to start out Mother’s Day. What I didn’t know at the time was that he had already been up a couple hours before that getting sick but Hubby had taken care of it. I knew he was up but didn’t realize he had gotten sick. When I finally woke up enough to figure out what was going on, the poor kid had a 103 degree fever and was just miserable.

Hubby offered to stay home with Zach so I could go to church and I took him up on it. Evie and I got up and headed to church, then stayed and had lunch with my sister’s family and my mom. The plan was to have a picnic in the park that evening with all of them plus my brother’s family but I wanted to get home to check on Zach.

By the time I got home the puking was over with but the fever stuck with him through the night and for most of the day Monday. Since Zach was sick, Evie and I stayed home with him on Monday. Somehow I lucked out and got both of them down for naps at the same time and actually had time to clean my kitchen, do some laundry, and fix the keyboard tray on my computer desk that was falling off. I felt so productive.

Zach is feeling much better today but still wasn’t quite ready to go back to school. He spent half the day at work with me and then Hubby brought him home for a nap and some relaxation. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll get back to our regular schedule and things will go much more smoothly.

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Just Another Day in Paradise

Published by dee on April 4, 2008

I’ve been trying all day to come up with something to write about besides the baby because I’m sure you all must be tired of that topic by now, right? The problem is, she’s about all I can think of right now. When you spend all day catering to the demands of a two week old baby, that’s pretty much all you can focus on.

I am slowly getting a few things done around the house. Evie sleeps for a good stretch in the mornings, so in between taking Zach to school and lunch time I generally have a few hours to work on whatever my project of the day is. Today I finally managed to get my bills paid. It actually took me three days to finish that project.

Once Evie wakes up from her morning nap, I don’t accomplish much. By the time I feed her, feed myself, take a much needed bathroom break, and maybe check my e-mail, it is time to feed her again. That feeding is the one where I usually fall asleep and then end up napping the rest of the afternoon. Apparently the sleep deprivation is catching up with me because I simply cannot stay awake in the afternoons. I’m not sure how I’m going to manage when I have to go back to work and actually think in the afternoon.

Before I fell asleep today, I decided to take advantage of the nice sunny day we are (finally!) having. No, we didn’t go outside at all. Instead, I raised all the blinds in my living room and took even more pictures of Evie. No one can ever say this child’s first few weeks weren’t documented well. The lighting was great and I finally had a chance to play around a bit with the settings on my camera. I ended up taking about 60 shots, but many of them were very similar. Sleeping babies just don’t move a whole lot. I did end up with several that I just love though.

This weekend is going to be a busy one for us. My in-laws are coming up Sunday to meet their granddaughter and spend a week or so with us so that means I’ve got massive cleaning to do. Plus, I have another baby shower to attend after church on Sunday and I still need to go shopping for a gift. And of course, on top of all that, I have to feed and change a baby about every two hours. It is amazing how much time that takes up.

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Tomorrow I'll Be The Mother of Two Children

Published by dee on March 17, 2008

Well, today is Zachary’s last day as an only child. By this time tomorrow, BabyG should be here and I will officially be the mother of two children. It is hard to believe that it is so close.

I had planned a fun mother-son day with Zach today, but the rain this morning kept us in bed instead. Zach had crawled into our bed around 6:00 this morning, and when he woke back up just before 9:00, he told me he wanted to watch a movie in bed and snuggle. I would have been pretty stupid to turn down that opportunity so we popped in Toy Story 2 and snuggled in the bed for about another hour until I had to pee and just couldn’t wait anymore. Once I was up, he popped out of bed and was ready to play.

We lounged around for a bit, had some breakfast, played with his cars for a while, and then I forced myself to go take a shower. I asked Zach if he wanted to go somewhere special with Mommy and have lunch and of course his number one choice was McDonald’s, so off to McDonald’s we went. I’m sure those salty fries that I inhaled were great for my already swollen ankles and feet. Zach was perfectly behaved and finished almost all of his happy meal before even asking to go play. After we finished eating, he played for about 45 minutes. I had a moment of slight panic when I realized that I couldn’t see him when he was climbing through those huge tunnels. I knew he would be fine, but he suddenly seemed so very small. I think this was the first time I have ever let him play there when his older cousin wasn’t with us to rescue him if he got stuck. Every time he came down the slide he would run over to me and exclaim, “I did it!” He was so proud of himself.

After we left McD’s, I decided to make a quick stop at Sam’s and surprise Zach with a copy of Bee Movie. He’s loved it since we saw it at the theater and I figured it would be nice for him to have something new to watch over the next few days.

Now we’re home and he’s napping. Everything is packed up and ready to go. We’re going to head over to my mom’s tonight and stay there since she lives less than five minutes from the hospital. That way Zach doesn’t have to get disrupted so early in the morning. I’m supposed to be at the hospital at 6:45 in the morning ready for them to break my water. I’m still hoping that my body will decide to do this on its own first. I’ve been having contractions all day today, but they are still anywhere from 15-25 minutes apart.

I still can barely believe that this day is here. It feels so strange to have the birth of my child scheduled. I was scheduled to induce with Zach, but we didn’t make it that far. It just seems weird to know that she will be here tomorrow. Plus, I’m starting to get a little nervous about the whole taking care of two kids thing. Taking care of one is hard enough some days!

If you are the type that obsessively checks for birth announcements (like I do) I suggest keeping an eye on my Twitter and Flickr feeds. They will most likely be the first updates. I’m told that the hospital has free wi-fi so as soon as I can manage to take a break from staring at my beautiful daughter, I’ll try to post a pic or two.

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Another Reason to Hate Day Care

Published by dee on March 11, 2008

I knew something was up with Zach a couple days ago. He barely ate anything over the weekend. He wasn’t really acting like he felt sick, but the whining was driving me up the wall. I noticed myself snapping at him and wondered what had gotten into him. Then I blamed myself for being cranky and pregnant. I thought surely I was just imagining it and that he was probably just being a normal 2-year-old.

I knew last night when I helped him in the bathroom. I knew something wasn’t right then. I wondered when he fought us at bedtime last night, and then again when he woke up fussing just a few hours later. But I really knew when he woke up this morning crying and saying, “Mommy! I gotta poo poo really bad!”

That pretty much set the tone for the entire day. Since I don’t want to miss any more work than absolutely necessary right now, I waited a couple of hours for his stomach to settle, made a quick stop at CVS for some children’s Pepto, then made the poor sick kid sit at work with me all afternoon while I tried to get some work done. I ended up having to stay longer than I originally thought and by the time we finally headed home he was exhausted.

Zach ended up crashing in the car and slept until after 7:30 on the couch. Now he’s up and seems to be feeling better. He just downed a bowl of Cars shaped chicken noodle soup and I’m really hoping that it stays where it should for a while.

Sometimes I have to wonder if the education he is getting at his school is worth all of the illness and germs he brings home. It seems like he was only actually well for about a week since the last round. Plus, the last thing we need in our house right now-with a new baby soon on the way-is more germs.

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When Did I Become That Mom?

Published by dee on February 13, 2008

I just spent my entire evening slaving away in the kitchen making cookies for Zach’s Valentine’s Day party at school tomorrow. Okay, so I bought the pre-made dough and icing in a can, but I still had to roll the dough out, cut out the heart shaped cookies, bake them, wait for them to cool, ice them, and then add sprinkles. It was supposed to be a group project, but my “group” tuckered out on me shortly after we started. He prefers to just eat the cookies, not decorate them.

I never really pictured myself as the type of mom who would get into this sort of thing. Sure I care about Zach’s school and I love the kids in his class, but never did I see myself as the homeroom type of mom. You know, the type of mom who wants to be there for every little party or volunteers at the drop of a hat to bring snacks or anything else they might need. I’m not really sure where this person came from.

I also made my first formal complaint about a teacher today. I felt bad doing it, but I felt something needed to be said. Zach’s regular teacher has been out sick all week and I’m not very thrilled with the care that he is getting from the subs. He came home with a big scratch under his eye that no one could explain yesterday. Plus, judging from the looks of his underwear the last couple of days, he’s not getting the assistance that he needs in the restroom. He may be potty trained, but you can’t really expect a 2 1/2 year old kid to be able to get themselves clean after going to the bathroom.

The school director was very understanding about my complaints, but I still felt bad doing it. Zach really does get good care at his school for the most part, but these were two things that I just couldn’t let slide by this time. I don’t want to be known as a bitchy parent, but I also want to make sure Zach is getting the supervision that he needs when I’m not with him. I’m certainly paying enough money out each week to expect nothing but the best care.

It is really funny sometimes how becoming a parent changes you. I’ve always had a hard time standing up for myself, but when it comes to my kid I have no problem saying exactly what is on my mind.

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