Just wanted to do a quick little post…
My oldest daughter said to me the other day..
Mommy, I wish I could be a Care Bear. I would have a rainbow on my belly and be Cheer Bear. And Mommy you would be Grumpy Bear….
I think that was a day when I wasn’t my usual chipper self!
As you read in Kids really do say the darndest things, my 3 year old never ceases to amaze me by her imagination and the stuff that comes out of those precious lips.
Yesterday, she and I were having a little conversation about why she should use her fork and spoon whilst she is eating her supper (at her father’s request cuz he doesn’t like to see her using her hands, me on the other hand could care less as long as she is eating). I remembered a conversation her and I had a couple days later about where cows come from, (we were driving through the country and the cows were all around). On that day, I tried to explain to her that GOD made everything. He made trees, water, fish, cows, horses (she kept asking, “what else?”) so I just kept listing things. Anyways, back to my original story about fork/spoon. I explained that GOD made that fork and spoon especially for her so that she could eat her supper like the big girl she was. She then again asked what else GOD made, and I started once again listing things off.
Me: GOD made food, water, trees, clouds, forks, spoons.
Her: What Else?
Me: HE made mommy and daddy
Her: Him make me?
Me: ahhh, No, Mommy and Daddy made you
Her: pause, You build me?
Me: (giggle) Yes honey, we built you
Her: another pause You build me with your hands
INTAKE OF BREATH
Me: ahhhhh, well…… um……well sort of
Her: another pause HUH?
Me: Yes honey, we built you with our hands (LOL), Did we do a good job?
Her: Yup
With that I turned and looked at my hubby who was in the kitchen cleaning and I could tell he was trying very hard to keep himself from laughing out loud.
I didn’t think I would be asked that question for a very long time………..oh my….
So this is really my bff’s story to tell but I thought I would share…
Today was a day to spend with the girls, so after JL got her 4 month needles, I decided to take them to have lunch with their Nanny at her work, which is also my employer. So when we go to lunch, we end up seeing a lot of friends.
So today, as we are having lunch and catching up with friends, my BFF came to join us. My BFF is also my oldest daughter’s god-mother so I love giving them every chance to bond with each other. In 8 weeks or so, my bff is going to be joining the mommy crowd and having a little girl of her own, which I could NOT be happier about! I can not wait for our daughters to grow up with each other and be friends.
As K was being her relatively “hammy” self (She QUITE enjoys the lime-light) A trait I have to say has been given to her by Daddy Dearest!! Anyways, as she was being “her”, she started to talk to my BFF’s very pregnant belly……heehee, the following conversation unfolded…
BFF: “Kate, what are you doing?”
Kate: “Talking to your baby.”
BFF: “OH! What is she saying?”
Kate: “Her saying, “LET ME OUT OF HERE!”
All I can say is that preggers lady almost peed herself and once again, my darling daughter has rendered me speechless!!
I thought with one, the sleep deprivation would be tolerable. But let me tell you, it only gets worse with two. As I’ve mentioned before in Have you ever… my oldest daughter was a magical sleeper from 8 weeks until around 9 months when she started teething. From that moment on, I don’t believe I have gotten a solid 8 hours of sleep…well except when nanny has taken her and I’ve partaken in a beverage or two and ended up passing out rather than falling asleep. K still wakes or talks or cries in her sleep most nights, and much to my demise, I am a “checker”. If I hear a noise, I ‘check’.
A nd let me tell you…something else that curses mothers (ya and fathers too) is that darn ole soother!!!!! Kate has given hers up, which is a fabulous thing, for she is 3 however, my youngest is also a ‘sucker’. Which means that they comfort themselves by sucking on a soother. The thing that keeps me up now is my youngest can’t find her ‘sooky’ herself. So I am constantly getting up during the night to help her find it and put it back in her open and waiting mouth.
Now, I know I’ll get some advice from some of you out there to leave it and let her soothe herself to sleep without it, however….. I’m a little worried that she will try to soothe herself by making that ‘ crying’ noise and wake the whole darn house up…. Then I’ll have a cranky 3 year old, a cranky husband and a cranky mommy….that’s no fun.
Last night I decided to keep track of how many times I rose from my slumber…….
Bed at 9 (K asleep, baby fed and in her crib and husband tucked in nice and tight beside me)
10:30: baby searching
11:00 – up to top up baby
11:10 – K up for a drink (which in turn awoke hubby)
1:30 – baby searching for sooky
3:20 – baby hungry
4:45 – baby noises
5:00 – hubby’s alarm
5:25 – kiss from hubby goodbye
5:35 – K awake – brought to my bed
6:00 – baby stirring – sooky replaced
every 15 mins after that…….
7:00 – baby awake
So it is 8:15 now and baby is fed and once again asleep. K is STILL sleeping in my bed and I am awake…..
Happy Birthday to my darling girl!!!
3 years old today!!!
MWAh Mwah!
Yup! you guessed it! ME!!!!
Jamie-Lynn is still waking during the night for a feeding. I have been trying really hard to get her over this but she’s a hungry little girl. So she usually wakes about 2 – 2:30 am. Since I was away for the weekend last weekend and hubby had some alone time with the girls, he found it easier to get the bottle ready with the powder in it, so that we just have to add water and shake and feed. I have found over the last couple nights that this is very smart and convenient cuz I’m usually still half asleep when I get the bottle ready. Some nights I’ve been completely asleep and have forgotten to put the Playtex Liner in, and end up with the powder all over the counter, so Mark’s new way is perfect!!
However, seems last night I may have been more than half asleep as I get up for my 2:30 am feeding….
So out to the kitchen I go. Grab the water and throw in the microwave for the normal 20 seconds. Grab the bottle, remove top and nipple, wait for water to be done. BEEEP. Put the water in the bottle, twist on top and shake shake shake. I even look at the bottom to make sure the powder is all mixed. Into Jamie’s room I go….. Grab her up, get situated in my rocker, and the feeding begins. Now the little ‘pudgester’ is a hungry girl this time of the morning so she is gulping away with no problem. Towards the end of the bottle, we take a break and I put the bottle on the dresser to see if ‘lil miss’ will give me a burp. Sit her up and begin the back tapping…. Take a peek at the bottle sitting next to me to see how much formula is left…. Not much…. Wait a minute….HOLY CRAP, why is it clear!!!!?????
Yup! Momma of the year just fed her daughter 5 ounces of water!!!!!!!!!
All of us mothers out there know about the envy… be it baby envy, stroller envy, diaperbag envy. I’m here to tell you that this envy is a REAL thing! How do I know you ask, well, I have envy all over!
My first realization of this ‘condition’ was when my first daughter was less than a year old and the child had more than 25 pairs of shoes!! Yup!! count em! 25!!!! They are just so freakin’ cute that how can you resist buying them, and usually they are reasonably priced…usually… Before she was a month old, I purchased her a pair of Adidas sneakers. She probably wore them a total of 5 times but by god they were cute! Think I can find them now? for my 2nd daughter…nope…
So my 2nd phase of ‘envy’ is the ‘Diaper Bag’ envy. I think I’ve probably had about 15 diaper bags in all. From the free Nestle diaperbag that every new mom registers for to my current SkipHop diaperbag, I have had every one you can imagine. I would purchase one, usually 2nd hand and enjoy it for a while and then I ended up seeing another mom with a very cool bag that I had to check out. So off to Kijiji I go, looking for one of the same bags. I ended up finding my current one, the SkipHop Dash Delux in the Uptown Stripe on Kijiji for a really good price. Let me tell you, this has been my ULTIMATE favorite bag. Has a perfect amount of internal and external pockets for everything from diapers to mom’s secret stash of….well whatever… My favorite part of the bag is the unique fastening system that enables you to attach the bag onto any stroller handle so that you don’t have to store the bag in the cargo compartment of your stroller. And you can buy matching accessories that I am saving up to buy, such as the Pronto Changing station, which I think would be awesome to keep in the car or the stroller for quick changes and the Pacifier Pocket, to keep an extra one around for those, ‘just in case’ moments when you can’t find her sooky and the Day to Night Baby Log, which I should have started around 3 months ago, but have yet to buy one!!
And that brings me to my 3rd and most expensive ENVY of them all!!! The one, the only…STROLLER envy…. We started off with the Evenflo Aura Travel System from Sears. My hubby picked this one, ladies…NEVER EVER let your husband pick the stroller, cuz you are the one who will be pushing it around for the next 3 – 5 years as you try to get your rear end back to it’s pre-pregnancy size! When Kate was 6 months old, I ventured to the states with my mom and sister-in-law for a shopping trip with my lovely little girl. Because our room in the vehicle would be limited with all my purchases from Bath and Body Works, I asked my good friend (who also shares in my illness of stroller envy) if I could borrow her backpack stroller. This Kelty Backpack Stroller is an amazing stroller, it is small and convenient and can convert to a backpack with the tuck of the wheels. The only downside to this one is if the child is young and they fall asleep, you have to tuck blankets around their head so they don’t completely snap the heck out of their neck. So, once I returned to Canada, I also purchased this stroller, that too is hanging in my garage. My next stroller purchase was a three-wheel jogging stroller, because I jog ‘all the time’. I purchased my Avalon Outback from Zellers for a good price. This stroller proved well worth the money and worked really really well. Again, the downside to this stroller: it was not car seat compatible so once my second child was expected, I had to once again review my choices for strolling. Since Kate enjoys going for walks, (well…enjoys sitting in a stroller while I walk) I decided to buy a double stroller. I always complained about the amount of room in my trunk that strollers took up so I was not looking forward to purchasing a double stroller. UNTIL……. I discovered the Phil and Ted’s Sport with double kit! This is the dream machine of strollers for me, and I think I have found my very last stroller. When I purchased it, there was a special that included the double kit so that would be perfect. This stroller folds up so nicely and locks very flat so that it doesn’t take up an enormous amount of room in my trunk. The amount of accessories and attachments that you can buy for this stroller also makes it well worth the investment. For example, if you only have one child and don’t think you will use the double kit, well the double kit also converts to the Phil & Ted’s LazyTed Bouncer and Toddler Seat. This stroller has so many accessories, you would need to buy a new vehicle to carry them all, from the cocoon sleeping bag to the Up and Away Buggy Travel bag. But I do plan on purchasing some of these wonderful accessories in good time. I am even half thinking off applying for a job marketing this stroller because I love it so much! There has been more than one occasion I have been stopped in the middle of a store to ask what type of stroller it is and I go through the complete gamut of options and benefits of this stroller. I hope the execs at Phil and Ted’s like that I am promoting their stroller……. I do enjoy it! And then of course, I have your typical umbrella strollers… I have 3 of these, not sure why I have three, except that one has a sunshade.
Right now, in my garage, I have 5 strollers, 2 backpack carriers, 6-8 diaper bags and an infinite number of little girl shoes. But I can’t very well get rid of them can I? They’ll eventually fit Jamie-Lynn and may be useful for her right???
Sorry no posts lately,
seems life is getting in the way of writing for you.
Well, we never know how dining out is going to go until we actually get out and do it. My husband and I decided to try it this past long weekend as our oldest daughter was on a ‘sleep-over’ with her nanny and puppa. When she was a baby, we took her out to restaurants constantly and we figured why not try with our newest daughter, cuz really how different could it be..
Well, were we in for a SURPRISE!
Our darling daughter was quite nicely asleep when we arrived at OPA, so we figured we’d be able to get to eat in peace and enjoy a nice glass of wine. Our wine arrived and our daughter’s eyes opened….. We ordered our appetizer which was highly recommended by a close friend. Once the appetizer arrived, our daughter was fully awake and I assumed she was getting hungry so I decided to hold her and try to get her fed before our main meal arrived.
We decided to order the SAGANAKI, which is pan-fried Kefalograviera cheese with lemon, flambéed table side. For you out there that do not know what flambéed means, it means “to dose with liquor and ignite”. Little did we know that once they light it on fire, it makes a pretty loud sizzle and then the waiter will yell, OPA! Hahaha, I guess little 3 month old babies do not like to have a plate of cheese lit on fire, a few feet away from their faces because J almost hit the roof and began to scream…
Now normally, I’m a pretty calm person and don’t embarrass or get worked up very easily, but because I couldn’t get her to calm down, I was starting to feel like an ‘incompetent’ mother. I know from past experiences that if I ever saw a mother trying to have a nice dinner and her baby was completely losing it, I would feel really bad for her and would NEVER EVER expect a mother to leave a restaurant on my account. But, with the shoe on the other foot, I felt like I was ruining everyone else’s dinner and was so worked up, I took the baby out of the restaurant trying to calm her down. My husband stayed inside and he actually got to eat his meal, albeit alone.
I tried once to come back in with the baby after she calmed down a bit but as soon as I stepped back into the restaurant, the poor thing began to lose her mind AGAIN! I think it was the amount of noise in the restaurant that was setting her off because as soon as my husband came out with the carseat and she was securely strapped in, the little bugger fell fast asleep. Meanwhile, her mom stood there looking from her husband back to her baby and then felt the need to cry……
I’m not sure why I felt I had to leave, I guess I just didn’t want anyone to have to sit there and listen to the screaming and crying that was going on, when they were trying very hard to have a nice relaxing dinner.
A bit of advice for all you mothers out there who are in a restaurant and your child is losing it, Don’t EVER leave on my account. I would come over and help you if I could, we could take turns trying to calm your baby down so we could both have a nice meal…..Easier said than done though….
So next time, baby stays with Nanny and Puppa for a sleep over…..
So I never really give it much thought as to how simple situations could actually affect my daughters and how they are feeling, well that was really until today.
For the first two years of K’s life, her daddy worked away on the oil rigs, so he was home for 3 weeks and away for 3 weeks. A little over a year ago, he accepted a new job, which would allow him to work in the city and be home every evening and on weekends. Well, we knew there would be the odd time when he would have to be away from us for a couple days or so, but nothing compared to the 3 weeks, like before.
Up until now, when my darling husband would go away, K would be okay and not really say much about it, but when he came home, we could definitely tell she missed him. So today, when I walked in on her ‘role-playing’ and asked her what she was doing, her response sent a reaction through my whole being that I will never forget in my life.
Her daddy has been working away for a couple days now and today is our day to stay around the house and hang out in our pj’s. Then the following happened…….
K playing quietly in her room until I notice her running back and forth to her bedroom with facecloths, towels, stuffed animals etc. I waited for her to come out running again and when she didn’t, I could hear her talking softly in her room, I decided I better go see what she was up to. Those moms in the group know that when your child is quiet, it’s probably best to investigate….
So I walked into her bedroom and she had her stuffed cat, Buttons under some blankets and she was reading to him. The following dialogue ensued…
me: “honey, what are you doing?”
her: “reading to my kitty”
me: “oh, is he okay?”
her “me kitty is sad..”
me: “why is your kitty sad honey”
her: “oh him is sad”
me: “why is he sad?”
her: “him is lonely for his daddy”
me: “where is his daddy?”
her: “oh… he had to go work”
me: “where does kitty’s daddy work?”
her: “um…. on the helicopter”
At this, I had to turn myself around and leave my daughter’s room before she saw the tears welling up in my eyes. Really goes to show, we don’t realize how things and situations affect our little ones. For those of you who know us, you know that my husband will travel to work in a helicopter so what K was role-playing was a page right out of her own book.
Makes me think about those children that have to go through the terrible things (divorce, separation, death) we sometimes have to put them through. From my own experience, divorce and separation can play havoc on a child’s mind, even up until they are an adult. I was very fortunate that my mom met an amazing man who raised my brother and I as his own and has never regretted it.
For those of you out there, going through one of these miserable situations with kids…. Grab hold of them tonite and squeeze the bejesus out of them… They are the ones that truly suffer and you need to show them that they will always be loved no matter what is going on around them.
ACTUALLY…
All of you with children, we all need to grab them and squeeze them and love them until our hearts feel like they are going to explode. I know I definitely will be doing that in my house!!!
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