May 25, 2011

Gabby Rolls Over!

So Gabby finally rolled over this last week! We were all really excited for her, especially Brooklynn. It was so cute the first time how loud she cheered for her and how truly proud of her sister she was. I did not get that on video, nor many times that she rolled over after that, but finally after many attempts, we got it on video! Good job, Gabby!

May 24, 2011

Kai & Brooklynn...Friends Forever

Look how big these two have gotten! In August it will be two years since they became good buddies. Don't tell anyone but I think it has turned into a little crush for Brooklynn.


May 20, 2011

Poor Gabby

 Poor Gabby...she doesn't realize her own strength. She can now pull off her guys when she's playing with them and sometimes it hits her in the face. And then she gets SO MAD. Mean Mr. Elephant.

First Black Eye

So Brooklynn is constantly hitting, kicking, etc...Cece. Poor girl. Usually she barely hits her, but enough to be mean.
So Cece finally fought back the other day. And she got her GOOD. Brooklynn, you had it coming.
I'm not sure if she hit her with her hand or with a toy. I'd be impressed if it was with her hand. All I know is I went in for 30 seconds to put the binky back in Gabby's mouth...when I left they were playing nicely crawling in the tunnel. When I came back Brooklynn was crying. Her summary of what happened:
"Cece hit. Face."
I asked her what she hit her with and if it was a toy or her hand, etc. She said, "Hand." So I guess Cece has got quite the punch. 

The Last Straw...

So this week has been rough. I've had several times where I actually thought I was nearing a complete mental, physical, emotional BREAKDOWN. I've been doing so much deep breathing and trying to keep cool and collected as best as I can. Just enough to make it to nap time and then bed time. And then I just get ANGRY...I am so mad. annoyed. frustrated. that it has come to this! I am not the type of person to count the seconds to the end of the day. I try to be the person that cherishes life, embraces every moment and tries to look on the bright side of things. It's been really hard to do that lately.
It's no ONE BIG THING, just lots and lots AND LOTS of tiny little aggravating things that are piling up and slowly driving. me. NUTS.
I wake up every day with a renewed spirit and think, "OK, today couldn't possibly be as bad as yesterday. So I'm going to start fresh and have the best day ever."
I did that this morning. I even woke up a little early because I'm finding that my only true alone time is from 6:30 am until 7:00 am and I'll take that little half hour to pick up a few things, make myself some coffee...enjoy a little quiet in my life to maybe help me get through the day.
And then this morning when I went in to get Brooklynn there was poop all over her walls, all over her bed, all over her AGAIN. Immediately I felt my blood pressure raise several notches. Is God punishing me for some reason? WHY why WHY do I have the grossest kid on the planet? I could understand this happening once, but come on...it's getting and has been for a while COMPLETELY OUT OF HAND. This is at LEAST the 20th time I've had to clean up a similar mess. And that is being generous. It could be close to 30 or 40 times.
So many things go through my head while I'm scrubbing human waste off the walls. 1. Gross. I think I might be sick from the smell. 2. Why am I doing this AGAIN? Why is it my kid who does this? What can I possibly do to change this? 3. Everyone has advice for me on how to handle this. But for some reason...it seems like no one else that I've talked to has had this happen to them even once, so really I should be the expert by now. 4. I feel like it's my fault and for some reason everyone out there is judging me for my bad parenting and if I was a better parent for some reason this wouldn't happen to me. (since clearly it only happens to me.) 5. Gross. (Oh, that was number 1, too...but I think that one a lot.) And 6. I quit. This better be the last time I have to do this. And Gabby better not do it even once. And sadly, she probably will.
I also think thoughts like, "Great, now Brooklynn is going to get sick from this nasty room and we're going to have to deal with that, too!"
So on the flip side, my positive thoughts are, "Well, it HAS been quite a while since this has happened, she's doing better." I also tried to look for some sort of "message" like maybe God was trying to speak to me somehow through the poop writing on the wall...and came up with nothing. The diapers with duct tape have been working really well. Until today. When she made this mess with her diaper still duct taped ON. I'm out of ideas. Maybe this will spur me onto inventing some sort of thing to deal with all of my poopisodes. (Right now we have tried duct tape on the diaper which has been the longest running most effective method. We've also tried footy pajamas, footy pajamas safety-pinned closed, also on backwards so she can't reach the zipper, onesies, one-piece outfits....That is all I've got.)
Oh, did I mention this whole initial ordeal takes about an hour and a half to clean up? And that doesn't even count all the laundry involved. That is only stripping the bed, picking up all the little pieces of poop off the bed, the walls, the window, the floor (underneath her bed.) Moving the mattress to wash the walls and vacuum any pieces that are too small up...sanitizing, etc.
If motherhood was a job where I was actually employed I would have quit on the spot today. But I can't. I have to keep going. And somehow keep a smile on my face and continue to love unconditionally. And I do. I love both of my children so much. It's probably a good thing we aren't allowed to quit. But man I wish I could sometimes.

Big Bubbles




May 18, 2011

Peacock

Brooklynn LOVES this peacock. He's a pretty good sport, considering last time she stepped on one of his feathers. In fact, she loves him so much, the only way to drag her away from the playground at the zoo without a meltdown is to mention that I see the peacock "over there" (who really is usually hiding near the playground) and she comes running along with me to go see him. 
One of these days you'll get to pet him, Brooklynn. You're so close. (I don't know how he'll react when that happens, so it might only be the one time.)




Footloose

May 17, 2011

How Much Trouble Can Brooklynn REALLY Get Into in 15 Minutes?

So that is the question I asked myself and I thought back to myself, "Probably no more than usual...I'll go ahead and take Gabby into Brooklynn's room, close the door and enjoy a nice, quiet, undisturbed nursing session."
I kept thinking, "Hmm, it's REALLY quiet out there, I wonder what she is into?...I'm sure it's pretty bad if she's THIS quiet....oh well, I'll deal with her later."
So after I nursed her on the first side, before continuing I put Gabby down so I could go and start phase 1 of dealing with Brooklynn. (Getting away anything dangerous or very messy so she can't continue with whatever she was doing.) Guess what I found?
Brooklynn, covered head to toe in baby powder, her basket of balls ALL covered in baby powder (I think she covered each one individually.) and an empty baby powder container. I guess not too bad. It's not like it was all over the house, it's pretty contained just on her and the balls...it's not overly hazardous. Not bad. So I took a picture, took the powder away and went back in to finish nursing Gabby. Brooklynn tried to follow me in this time but I told her that we were in time out and to go out and leave us alone. To my shock she actually listened, turned around and closed the door. Nice.












I didn't think twice about what ELSE she could be getting into until I started hearing her in the bathroom and then some clanging around like she was banging on pipes....I had NO idea what it was.
I was almost done feeding Gabby...she was almost asleep for her nap but this time since I didn't recognize the sound of her naughtiness (yes, most of the time I can tell what she is doing just by listening.) I was worried it was something dangerous in the kitchen or who knows where. Well it turns out it WAS just in the bathroom, she was trying to get more toilet paper out of the extra container because I have been hiding all of it from her (because she uses so much.) She had pooped, taken off her diaper, it was on her hand a little bit and on her leg, I think she was just trying to clean herself up...basically change her own diaper. She told me she had a poop and I told her to try and go more, sat her on the potty, went back to burp Gabby and put her in the crib to maybe fall asleep. (Didn't happen.) When I came back in to clean up Brooklynn she was flushing the toilet. (And the poop that was in her diaper was mysteriously gone.) So basically, Brooklynn changed her own poopy diaper. Why she didn't just go on the potty is beyond me but at least it's progress. At least she is headed in the right direction. And at least she didn't rub it all over the walls.

So then we had a bath and cleaned up all the poop AND the baby powder. Two birds with one stone. I was pretty happy about that one.
But I think I will only try and have relaxing, undisturbed nursing sessions once Brooklynn is taking her nap from now on. Lesson learned.

UPDATE:
So after I posted this the first time I found the powder area later on in the day. This is what I found...it's all sort of amusing to me now. And maybe I'll just keep powder around from now on, it's much easier and smells more pleasant to clean up than all the poop I cleaned up today.

May 15, 2011

Sidewalk Chalk

Here we were just testing out our new sidewalk Easter egg chalk. 

Keys

Brooklynn loves her keys. And she loves to try and unlock stuff. Here she is trying to unlock the Selma mansion that is right on the property of our apartments. Now that the fence around these steps is gone she loves playing on the steps, too. She had a grand old time playing on them with her keys.


Pretty Girls

Yup, these are both my girls! I'm glad they are getting along better now so I can take more pictures of them together. In the first picture you can see that Brooklynn was mad when I tried to take a picture of her by herself, she just wanted to take one with Gabby.

Bedtime

Silly Gabby

Mother's Day

I had the DAY OFF this Mother's Day. It was everything I hoped it would be. GLORIOUS.
Thank you to my kids for behaving so well, but most of all thank you to my wonderful, amazing, giving and truly self-sacrificing husband, Josh. You are the best, honey.
My Mother's Day sort of started on Saturday. Josh took both girls outside to play most of the morning, they came back took naps and then we went out to dinner.

We went to Texas Roadhouse on Saturday night. Mmmmmm. It's one of my favorite restaurants. I just love their rolls. I could eat about 5 right now, actually. The plan was to eat out Saturday and then it wouldn't be as busy as it would be Sunday, ALSO then we would have leftovers for lunch on Sunday so it would be quick and easy. I was a pig and didn't have a ton of left overs, but it was enough for a lunch.

(Do you see a theme with these videos?)
This is my dinner. Look how fattening and yummy it was. Mmmmm. That chicken was AMAZING. 
 And the ACTUAL Mother's Day since these were all on Saturday...I don't have any pictures of me or my kids because I was focused more on having time to myself. (Sorry babies.)