Broccoli Recall

Adam has been enjoying his veggies the last few days.  Still acts like fruit tastes like lemon juice (SOUR FACE!) but loves his carrots and sweet potatoes.  Uncle Michael and Aunt Kelly told me they had Audrey eating steamed broccoli at this age and since she is the poster child for non-finicky eaters, I thought Adam could give it a try too. 

Here are the photos from his first steamed broccoli attempt.  It basically went: bite -- gag.  And I have the photos to prove it.

We'll try again in a couple weeks...

Typical 2nd Child Syndrome

I am trying my hardest to keep things "fair" between my two kids.  If Owen got it (hand painted bedroom wall, day-by-day calendar, baby book, etc.) then Adam should get it.  But I think I'm failing at the sheer number of photos taken.  Owen had a million pictures by the time he turned one.  Adam has a small fraction of that.  So I'm going to try and take more since I've been seriously lagging lately.

Here is one from today.  It's a little blurry, but cute.  Adam loves shoulder rides on Daddy!

I Love To Singa!

Both my kids have certain songs that when Dad sings them, their faces light up.  Owen has had a million.  Currently, it's "Wags the Dog" by The Wiggles...When he was a baby, it was Michael Jackson's, "ABC." 

Adam's favorite is "I Love To Singa!" from the old Merrie Melodies cartoon.  Today the boys watched the whole cartoon on YouTube.

Here is the entire cartoon if you don't remember the song...

The Wiggles In Concert

There are so many times as a parent where you feel like you've completely failed.  Like the time I sent Owen down a huge multi-bump slide by himself and he cracked his head while I watched helplessly at the top of the slide.  Or the time I gave him massive rug burns on his forearms by playing a "crawl away from me and I'll pull you back" game.  Just to name a few...So far, there are fewer times where you feel like a rock star.  However, tonight I RAWKED as a mommy.

A few months ago, I heard one of Owen's favorite TV shows, The Wiggles, were going on tour.  In order to get the presale tickets code, I subscribed to The Wiggles Fan Club for a nominal fee and was able to order concert tickets at the very minute they went on sale to the fan club subscribers.  And it PAYED off...and by that I mean, we got 2nd row center for a hefty fee. 

Fast forward to the last couple weeks where I have been feverishly Googling the details about the concert and found some insider information...Apparently, those "in the know" are supposed to bring signs for The Wiggles to read aloud, a bone for Wags The Dog and a rose for Dorothy The Dinosaur (she eats roses.)

So I bought a bone, and a couple roses and made a sign...I wanted to make sure we came prepared!

And here's how the night went down...

Owen has been waiting and waiting and WAITING for this concert.  We've been telling him that The Wiggles are still on TV but someday they would come here in their Big Red Car.  Today, we told him - They are coming today!  He was ready to leave as soon as he woke up.  But he managed to wait the whole day until Nana arrived around 3pm when we told him we were going to dinner first.  His immediate response was, "I don't WANNA go to dinner!" But, he was ok with it once he was told that The Wiggles weren't going to be here until after dinner.

Where should Owen go to dinner before the big concert, you ask?  Well, my idea was the Choo Choo restaurant (Spaghetti Factory.)  We pulled in to the parking lot and before we could even find out that the restaurant was closed, Owen was already asking if he could go to the Butterfly Restaurant (Rainforest Cafe) instead.  So, we made our way over there.  It's easier to stomach bad, overpriced food when your child LOVES it.

After dinner, we drove up to The Paramount in Seattle.  Owen had to have Wag's bone and Dorothy's roses in his lap at all times.  We got to the theater and into our seats and Owen was in a trance.  He snapped out of it long enough to share one of his roses to the girl in the seat behind us who didn't happen to bring one (her 3rd birthday was on 8/25.)

When the show started Owen was all business.  There is no dancing or singing with Owen during these concerts...He just likes to take it all in.  But I know he was amazed at seeing his TV idols live and in person.  We were all a little bummed that two of the idols were missing...Greg (yellow shirt) quit the "band" a while ago and was replaced by one of the backup singers "Captain Sing-Alotta-Songa" who is now Sam and Jeff (purple shirt), who had heart surgery 6 weeks ago (Murray (red shirt) explained to the kids at the beginning of the show what a "pacemaker" was...kind of a heavy topic for toddlers, but we went with it.) 

I wasn't sure when we were supposed to hold up our signs...I didn't want to be the only one doing it!  But one of the first few songs was about Wags the Dog and since our sign was about Wags, I decided to hold it up.  Anthony (Owen's Favorite Wiggle) read it aloud right away and had Wags thank him for it -- the first specific audience mention during the show was to Owen!  Then, he came down to collect a few bones from audience members and he took Owen's bone from him and said again, "Thank you, Owen!"  Owen was in major awe.

Then, it was Dorothy the Dinosaur's turn and the crew came out in the audience and collected roses.  Sam came over to us and took Owen's rose and thanked him for it.  Then, Owen turned to me and said very softly..."Mom....Was that Greg?"  It melted my heart because he was so wanting it to be Greg but he knew, that was NOT Greg.

At some point, my sign was at my feet and it fell down towards me.  Steve and I both went to catch it and when we looked down, it had completely disappeared.  At first we thought maybe it fell under the people in front of us, but it didn't.  I finally realized that it had fallen between a large crack in the floor to the basement of the theater!  A couple minutes later, Anthony asked the audience if they had any more signs they could read.  THANK GOODNESS I JUMPED THE GUN AND SHOWED OURS EARLY!  Otherwise, all my effort would have been for nothing! 

When the show was over, Owen clapped and waved to the performers.  I had a feeling that even though he didn't show his excitement, we'd be hearing about it later.

On the way home, he melted down.  A 6:30pm show with no nap was going to be tough, so we all understood...and he passed out immediately after his head hit the pillow.

So thanks to me...Owen sat in amazing seats to his favorite singing group.  He was able to give his favorite TV dog a bone he brought special for him.  He got to meet one of his favorite singers who also singled him out to the entire theater.  And, he got to eat a $10 grilled cheese next to animatronic elephants!  Does that make up for the rug burns???

Thanks to Nana, we have some pictures of our evening!  The first photo isn't the best, but it does capture the sign, the bone and the roses. 

Owen's First Photo

Not bad for a first attempt!  Michael might have to pass the torch as the family photog in a few years...

Adam's First Crawl!

You already know how I feel about those "firsts" with babies.  Adam has been able to scoot a bit for a while now...but today I guess I decided he is officially crawling.  You could argue that he's not because his tummy and right arm never leave the ground, but if he wants something in his general area, he's going to get it. 

Funny how with Owen - his first crawl was after my cell phone and the computer.  Adam's is the remote control.  Boys love their buttons.

Potty Humor

Apparently it's funny at any age...

Aunt Debi To The Rescue!

Ugh, hiring a nanny has been MUCH harder than I had anticipated.  We found who we thought was the perfect nanny on paper and she turned out to be...well, how can I say this?  Weird.  Really weird.  Really, really weird.  For example, she decided that Adam wanted to listen to music one day so she took him out to her car to listen to some tunes (rather than just using our music makers in the house?)  Another day, she decided on her own that she would start hard core potty training Owen and put him in underwear without discussing it with me first.  So the first time my little boy wore underwear was not under my watch - but the crazy nanny.  And did he have an accident?  Yes.  But that's not all...when they were playing outside and he said he needed to go, she directed him to pee in the dirt in the backyard.  Now when the subject of big boy pants comes up, Owen completely refuses.  Ummm, what else?  She brought a potato everyday that she baked in the microwave and told me on her last day that she had been cleaning the baking dish with Comet.  Those are just a few of the kooky things this woman did.  So since she was temporary anyway and she decided that she wanted to extend her already planned vacation, I happily dismissed her telling her that we'd figure out another solution. 

We have hired a new nanny who is set to start after the 4th of July holiday.  In the meantime though, Aunt Debi has stepped in to help us out and we are so happy to have her.  Owen is so happy to have Grace come play with him 3 times a week.  Steve took this photo today of the two of them eating lunch.  He titled his email to me "Two Peas."

Owen's First Award Ceremony

We had our Little Gym class today and Owen got his first medal!  I brought my camera for the occasion so you can get a glimpse into how much Owen loves hanging upside down on the bars.  He definitely earned his award! 

It was actually pretty cute...Each kid was called up to the "podium" where they were presented with their medal and everyone cheered for them. Then they took a class photo. He looks so old to me right now, but I know this will be one of those pictures I look back at after a high school sports award ceremony and cry.  Way to go, Bubba!

Brotherly Love

We had a quiet day at home today so I decided to get the camera out and try to get some pics of the kids.  Owen was running around in just his diaper and asked if he could hold Adam in his chair.  I said, "Sure, but let's get Adam in just his diaper so you guys match."  Matching is important when you sit in the same chair.

But seriously, Adam LOVES Owen.  If Owen is in his sight, he is all smiles.  People have asked me how I got them both to smile like this and it was easy.  Owen got to feel like a big brother by holding Adam in his lap.  Adam loves it when he is anywhere near Owen.  Smiles all around!

Baby Feet

I love them!

First Veggies

Adam tasted peas for the first time today.  Note that I purposely said "tasted" and not "ate."  I think pictures speak a 1000 words so here is basically how it went...

Apparently peas are not his favorite.

First Solids?

Can I put the "eats fruit" sticker in his book now? 

Five Months Old

Adam is 5 months old today!

I think he's getting used to these photo shoots because he's now posing for the camera like he's hot stuff.

He is now officially laughing - tickles on his shoulders and his thighs are sure fire ways to get him giggling. 

He can roll over with no problems now - any direction.  There have been a couple times I have left him on his blanket for a couple minutes and returned to find him across the room and stuck up against  his bouncy seat.  Oops!

He is bringing objects to his mouth now but gets extremely frustrated if he drops them.

  Holding him while eating dinner is starting to become a challenge because he's grabbing anything within reaching distance.

Sleeping is the same...Poor Mom is tired.  Adam won't sleep longer than 4-5 hours at a stretch.  Bootcamp is coming...So he better enjoy his late night feedings while he can still get them.

And finally the biggest change this month is that I returned to work about a week ago.  As everything has been this time around, it was a much different experience.  I want to say it was harder than it was with Owen, but for so many different reasons.  With Owen, I was having such a hard time adjusting to being a mom, that I think it was helpful for me to get back to work in order to give myself a little bit of a distraction.  Also, Owen was such a cute baby and the love of my life, but let's be honest...babies are kind of boring.  Work provided some mental stimulation that I had been missing as well.  Finally, we left Owen with our good friend Tracy when Steve wasn't home (which wasn't that often) so I felt like he was in good hands without me.  The hard part was just getting over my extreme anxiety around him being away from me. 

This time around, I didn't have the anxiety about returning to work...I had more sadness that the time I had spent at home was really enjoyable and that it was over.  Adam was such a happy and easy baby - and I had already experienced what life with an infant is like, my days were not as filled with as much anxiety and worry as they were with Owen.  And, having Owen home with me made the days go by so fast and each day was always a little different.  I'm not going to say they weren't stressful or exhausting, but the time passed so much more quickly than it did the first time around.  And lastly, we hired a temporary nanny to watch the boys.  Leaving them with a person I barely knew was really unnerving and made me extremely uncomfortable.

So I was sad to go back, but the boys have been doing great without me.  And the best part is seeing how happy they are to see me when I get home (you would think the best part is getting to each lunch as slowly as I want...or holding a conversation with someone without being interrupted once...or using the bathroom by myself...but nope, it's coming home to their perfect little faces!)

Case in point...see below.

Happy 5th Month Birthday, Adam!

Don't Talk To Me About It

What do you get when you combine a language explosion with the Terrible Twos?  Well, today I got to hear a new phrase over and over.  It went something like this...

Owen: "Brrrraaarrrrrraaarrrrrrrrraaaarrrrrrrr!"
Me: "Ooh!  I hear a train!"
Owen:  "NO MOM!  It's just a train.  Don't talk to me about it."
Me: "What did you just say????"
Owen: "DON'T TALK TO ME ABOUT IT!"

Fine.

Mother's Day 2011

Today was my third Mother's Day but my first as a mom to two children so it was extra special.

Steve was working, so I spent the day with my two boys and Nana.  We decided to have a celebratory lunch at The Rainforest Cafe (one of Owen's favorite restaurants) and spend the rest of the day just hanging at home with the kids.  I am looking forward to the day where my children understand the meaning of the day and get into it, but for now - they just think it's like any other day and that's fine with me.

I had asked Steve not to get me any gifts because I feel like I need to pay off the very pretty gift I asked for (and he gave me) for Adam's arrival just a few months ago.  Nana gave me a beautiful Glassybaby candleholder and a big strawberry planter filled with strawberry plants.  I gave Nana an IOU for her Glassybaby since I dropped the ball this year.  We both exchanged cards from each other and the kids.

We took a few photos to document the day - although we were both basically wearing pajamas.  As Fred Armison impersonating Joy Behar says, "So what, who cares?"

Then after Nana left, I entertained myself by taking some photos of the boys together and then thought I could take a better self portrait of the three of us by using my timer on my camera.  Here's how they turned out.  I can't stop laughing about the second one...I love how despite me trying to shove Owen out of the way, I'm still smiling at the camera.  Like I thought somehow that photo would turn out well. 

After the day was done and the kids were in bed, I gave myself the best present I could ask for on Mother's Day.  I made it a point to hold both boys and rock them in my arms while they were sleeping.  I do this everyday with Adam, obviously, but I haven't done it with Owen in months.  I took him out of his crib and snuggled with him in the rocking chair for a few minutes.  Just to remind myself how fast this time has been passing and how soon it will be before I can't do that anymore.  If this is making you tear up at all, I challenge you to read the book Love You Forever.  Such a horrible book.  I have no idea how you can read that to your child without bawling.  Anyway, we had our very own Love You Forever moment.  And that was the best present in the world.

Night #3 With No Paci - A Songfest

I have to say, overall - the missing pacis have not been too much of an issue.  Well, I should say Owen hasn't been screaming and crying asking for one.  However, I have noticed that the times he normally relies heavily on his paci, not having one has made him behave a little differently.

I felt very sorry for him when our nanny showed up for her second trial sitting day.  Poor Owen was nervous to have her here and would normally use his paci as a soothing device but he didn't have it.  I could see him trying to cope with his uncomfortable feelings but struggling.

His mood has been SOUR the last few days.  I think without his paci, when he gets ticked off - it is harder for him to calm down.  I have been dealing with a whiny, moody, tantrumy mess for the past few days.

The biggest change has been bedtimes.  Tonight is night #3 without paci and it has been taking Owen FOREVER to fall asleep.  I'm not sure he knows how to soothe himself to sleep without one yet.  And without paci in his mouth - this is what I have been listening to the past few nights.  It's long - but it gets pretty good in the middle.  I love how he corrects himself during Old MacDonald ("Wait, that's not right!")

This is a long video, but it's not nearly as long as the 1.5 hours he'll typically go.  And of course, I missed the cutest song he sang tonight.  He (on his own, we've never done this) changed "muffin man" to different family members.  These were the verses I heard:

"Do you know the Adam, Adam?  Adam, Adam?  Adam, Adam?  Do you know the Adam, Adam who lives on Drury Lane?"

"Do you know the Michael, Michael?  Michael, Michael?  Michael, Michael?  Do you know the Michael, Michael who lives on Drury Lane?"

"Do you know the Audrey, Audrey?  Audrey, Audrey?  Audrey, Audrey?  Do you know the Audrey, Audrey who lives on Drury Lane?"

Thanks For The Memories - Darcy Read Preschool

Preschool is hard work!  For Owen's last day of class, we are supposed to present him with a "memory book" of all his artwork and photos from throughout the year.  I am not artistic and I don't really understand how you are supposed to put these huge paintings he has done in a little binder - so I decided to go with what I know.  Shutterfly photo books.  Here is a link to the finished product.

Please don't tell me if there are misspellings or grammatical errors.  I don't want to know.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Another Sticker In The Book - First Cereal

It went pretty much as expected - only two tiny bites before big time gag.  It's an acquired taste.  But at least he got to use his new fancy spoon from Nana!

The Paci Fairy (aka: She Devil)

The Paci Fairy visited our house today.  There was a lot of tears.  All of which were mine.  But here is the full story:

We have been talking about taking away Owen's pacis for about a year now.  I took him to the dentist right after his 2nd birthday expecting a big lecture from her about how he was too old for one, but to my surprise - she said they recommend children stop using them by age three.  Three???  That gave me a whole additional year to procrastinate the take away!

So, that was September.  When November came, that seemed too close to the big arrival of his little brother and all the books and online advice say not to make any major changes to routine right before or after a new baby arrives.  So that took care of November, December, January, and February.  March came and Steve went back to work - so we decided that would be the only big change for that month.  April came and that's when Steve and I began seriously discussing the end of the pacis. 

So to start the process, I ordered some children's books on the Paci Fairy subject in the hopes of easing Owen into the idea via bedtime stories (in the end, he never read the one book that I bought and the other book never shipped.) 

Next, we had to come up with a majorly awesome gift that the Paci Fairy could bring that would be worth exchanging the pacis.  We decided that a good present would be a blue garbage truck.  He has been coveting one for months since the real garbage trucks that come every Tuesday are blue.  He only has green and orange ones and those just don't cut the mustard when you are reenacting the whole "garbage day" scene with the correct color garbage cans, but the wrong color truck.  I searched the stores and online to find a blue garbage truck and can I just say, they are hard to find!  I ended up special ordering one from Walmart and had it shipped to a local store and today I received the email that it arrived.

So, I had in my mind that this Paci Fairy thing would be a very orchestrated event where Owen would leave his pacis somewhere for her and then magically the pacis would disappear and the super, awesome gift would be there instead.  However, this is how it went down today...

We spend the morning at the park having a grand ol' time.  Got home and started discussing what we were going to do with the afternoon.  I suggested to Steve that he go pick up the garbage truck at the store so we could think about doing the Paci Fairy thing sometime this month.  He suggested we do it today.  I suggested we should probably discuss the idea with Owen since we haven't yet to see how interested or freaked out he would be at the idea.  He agreed.

So I broached the subject with Owen. 

Me:  "Hey, Bubba?  Do you know that there is a Paci Fairy?  She told me that if you give her all of your pacis, she would bring you a BLUE garbage truck!  What do you think?"

Owen:  "Get garbage truck now?"

Me:  "Well, I think she is going to come tomorrow."

Owen:  "No, get garbage truck now?  Go to the store and get garbage truck?" (He knows that whenever we don't have something he wants - we say we have to go to the store.)

Me:  "Uh, well...uh, ummm, uh, well - ok.  I think she said once she has your pacis, she would leave the truck at the store for you."

So we found a shoe box and ran around the house gathering all his pacis and putting them in the box.  Owen put every one in the box himself.  Then we ran outside to put the box under a tree.  Then Owen and Steve went to Walmart to pick up the present the Paci Fairy left for Owen at Customer Service.  Only I forgot to email Steve the confirmation email, so he went to the wrong Walmart and had to go to two stores to get it.  That Paci Fairy sure is a pain in the rear.  You'd think she'd know where to leave the dang present, but no...she makes you run all over town trying to find it.  Anyway, while they were gone - I took a few minutes to cry, but then I dashed around the house taking pictures of the event and making a thank you note from the P.F. on the computer (which, he never read but it's still going in the baby book) which I left in the place of the paci box since we had no gift to leave there.  Seemed weird to have it disappear with nothing left in it's place?  But, like I said, Owen didn't notice the note, didn't want to go get the note when I pointed it out, didn't want to read it when I brought it in, so it was pretty much pointless except for my need to have it all make sense somehow.

Owen rode the whole way home with his big blue garbage truck in his lap and never let go of it the rest of the day.  He asked about his pacis at bedtime and when we said we didn't have any, he asked a few more times - a little whiny - but never cried and never freaked out. 

So in the end, it wasn't the vision I had for the moment we said goodbye to pacis forever.  But, maybe this way was better.  The disorganization and franticness of it all kept it from becoming bigger than necessary.  However, I was not prepared to never see my baby with his precious paci again.  And I couldn't bring myself to throw them away.  They are still in my closet, in the box, with his paci breath all over them.