Gratuitous Bathtime Cuteness

Happy Halloween everyone! What's more appropriate for a blog post on Halloween than naked children without costumes? Yeah, I can't think of anything either. Hopefully I'll manage to post some cute pics of the boys in their costumes tomorrow... Key word is "hopefully".

---NEWSFLASH---

JOHNNY'S SLEEPING IN A BIG BOY BED!!!

It all started on Tuesday, when he kept climbing out of his crib at naptime. He was all out refusing to take a nap, despite being so tired that he was laughing and crying at the same time. So, I'd put him in his crib and leave. He'd climb out, run to the door and open it to find me standing there. I'd calmly pick him up, walk him over to the crib and put him in without saying a word, then I'd walk out. Then he'd climb out, open the door, etc. etc. etc. We did this... oh, maybe 15 times? Luckily, Hank was awake and happily cooing in the hallway, so I could spend time doing this. Finally, he gave up and I rubbed his back for awhile and left him to fall asleep.

That's when I told John it was time to upgrade.

So Tuesday night we went out to Target so Johnny could pick out some bedding. Unsurprisingly, he picked out Cars bedding, as you can see in the pictures above. John set up a twin-size mattress in the corner of Johnny's room and backed the crib up next to it for a side rail. Johnny took to it immediately. It took him awhile to wind down for actual sleeping, but once he got in bed for the night, it was pretty easy. I rubbed his back for a little longer than usual while I laid next to him, but then I told him that I was leaving, he said "Night" and I walked out. He didn't even cry.

I went downstairs where John was cleaning up (I know, I have an awesome husband) and told him he should be ready for a rather sleepless night since Johnny would be taking advantage of his new-found freedom and getting up a few times... hopefully only a few. I turned on the monitor in our room and waited for him to cry out at night when he woke up and was afraid because he didn't know where he was.

It never happened.

He slept the whole night in his bed (well, in his own room, at least), got up the next morning, walked out of his room carrying his Blankie and Scout and said, "Mom? Play?" like nothing had changed. Granted, I'm expecting him to explore his new freedom at some point, but it was nice that it wasn't his first night in the big boy bed otherwise, I'd have to rethink the whole new bed thing.

My little boy is starting to show me that he's not-so-little anymore.

The "coming out" post.

It turns out I just needed a week-long break. A mere seven days to make me realize how much I enjoy getting on the Internet and telling the world about how wonderful my family is. Though while I was on my short sabbatical, I analyzed where my stress was coming from. I think my stress stemmed from the fact that I didn't feel like I was doing this for me. I was doing it for family and friends and strangers alike, which has some value and does create joy for others, but it caused some strife for me because I was censoring myself. There are things I wanted to put out there, but felt I couldn't for fear of being judged by the people I knew in real life. (Ahem. See Parenting Hypocrisy.)

If I want to continue this blogging thing for me, I thought to myself, then what do I want to do differently? I do enjoy putting up cute pictures of my boys because they are the center of my world (all three of them) and I like having a way to document their days and lives... but I could just as easily do that in a baby book. In one of the many I already have that are blank because why would I do a blog AND a baby book? There isn't enough time in the day for both.

Do I want to practice my writing composition skills? Negative. I never really had any of these "skills" to practice in the first place.

Do I want a place to hone my comedic edge? If you know me, then you just laughed at that statement... how ironic. Anyway, no. I'm happy with my corny one-liner jokes.

And I decided that if I'm going to continue doing this, I'm going to be honest about who I am. Sure, I'll still put up funny pictures and stories about the boys, but I'm interested in making this more introspective as well. I enjoyed writing that Parenting Hypocrisy post and I want to do more of it. It's a nice way for me to think through this parenting (and life) thing and get honest feedback from other people. So you think I'm crazy for not pretending Santa is real? Well, then tell me. Just know that I'm not going to be shamed into doing something I think is wrong. Regardless, it'd be nice to know how you feel about the topic, since I think people are a little too afraid to say judge-y things in real life.

So. Here we are. Hi. My name is Kelly. And I'm an anarchist.

Boom.

Taking a break

Hi folks! I'm going to take a break from the blog for a while. It has turned into a chore that I don't look forward to anymore, so I'm going to stop and come back to it when I feel like I it. It will be nice to spend my one hour break (1.5 hours if I stay up especially late, or not at all if the boys don't want to sleep) marking things off my to do list. See you in a week. Or a month. Or a year. Who knows?

SeaWorld with G-ma

Since my mom's friend, Lorraine, was town this week, they did all sorts of San Diego-esque things. Johnny, Hank and I came along with them to SeaWorld where we spent the day looking at exhibits and checking out the Bay of Play for kids. Oh, and I took lots of awesome pictures.

Johnny counting out ficus berries while we wait for G-ma

Watching the Wild Arctic movie

Looking for the beluga whales

Watching the penguins "fly" underwater

At the Sea lion and Otter Show

New sea turtle exhibit

Watching Shamu and getting sleepy

Getting really sleepy

PLAY TIME!

 

It was the perfect day for a trip to SeaWorld: hot. We had lots of fun hanging out with G-ma and her friend Lorraine, but not enough fun (or maybe too fun) for Johnny to go down for a nap that afternoon, making it a pretty long day for Mommy. We'll definitely be coming back soon!

Hank is 4 months old!

NOTE: Please excuse Hank for not publishing this post early this morning like he was supposed to. He's new to this whole blogging thing.

I'm 4 months old today!

I swear I was smiling for this picture. Mom's just too slow with the camera.

I think I'm finally done with that whole "newborn" thing. When you're three months old, you can usually pass as a newborn. Four months, though, it's a whole new stage. I've gone through the whole sleep regression thing and while Mommy tells me I'm not sleeping as poorly as Johnny did at the same age, I'm still not back to where I was. Granted, now that I'm no longer a newborn, I don't sleep as soundly anymore and sleep more like an adult with REM cycles and such... or at least that's what the books say. Who knows if they even know what they're talking about, right? All I know is that sleeping with Mommy is not something I'm interested in anymore. I'm all about sleeping in my own crib. 

In other news, I'm slowly getting over the whole spit-up thing. My drawer of burp cloths rarely runs out, which means Mommy doesn't have to do my laundry nearly as often... but I do have some pretty incredible poop-splosions that result in quite a bit of laundry. Luckily, I only poop every five days or so, making those explosions few and far between. (My older brother went through the same thing, I'm told.)

I'm currently wearing 6 month clothes, but they're all getting pretty tight in the torso, which means Mommy needs to bust out the 9 month stuff. The only problem is that most of the 9 month stuff from Johnny is summer-wear, which isn't really appropriate for October. That's the trouble with Johnny and I being born in completely opposite seasons, I guess.

Other than that, I'm still Mommy's bucket of smiles and love to look at faces and watch Johnny play with his toys. I suck on my fingers occasionally and still enjoy grabbing my right foot. If I'm feeling especially adventurous, I'll grab the left foot, but it's certainly not my favorite.

Old toys

Now that Hank is big enough, I have started pulling out old toys of Johnny's for him to play with. Like this exersaucer, for instance:

It's kind of weird to see Hank playing with toys that I associate with Johnny. I know that Johnny hasn't played with this exersaucer in over a year, but I still feel like Johnny should be the one playing with it. It's the same with Johnny's clothes that Hank is now fitting in; I have tons of pictures of Johnny wearing those clothes, and now Hank is in them. I know it probably doesn't sound all that weird to you, but seeing Hank in Johnny's old overalls just seems crazy to me.

22 months!

I'm 22 months old today!

This is the face I give Mom when she tells me to look at her and smile.

The past month has brought a huge explosion of communication as I start to string words together into phrases and even some rudimentary sentences. While I've always been a decent communicator, I've gotten even better as of late. I can tell Mom to rub my back for a little bit by saying "Mom rub back lil' bit." Mom and Dad seem to be pretty excited about how many words I know and how I'm putting them together, but I think I'm WAY more excited than they are!

I've even started liking Mom more these days. I ask her to stay with me at night and rub my back, which was Daddy's job for a long time. And I really like her to come play with me. When we go to a park or an indoor playplace, I always want Mom to come with me to play. I give kisses now; instead of just offering a cheek when someone asks me for a kiss, I will physically kiss them! It's not really that big of a deal, but Mom and Dad seem to love it.

Hank has become more interesting to me lately, probably because he's awake more now and not in the ring sling as often. I love to hold my little brother, but for some reason Mom will never let me pick Hank up or hold him by myself. Maybe it's because when I'm done holding him I push him to the ground. Nah. It's probably because Mom just doesn't like to let go of Hank.

I'm really excited to be only two months away from my 2nd birthday!! Terrible 2's, I'm on my way!

Typical Conversation with Johnny

I mentioned that Johnny and I have full conversations. Here's an example:

You may have noticed that in the beginning of the video, he's saying "sit" but it sounds an awful lot like a swear word... the word "skunk" is also a tricky one. The first time he said it I was sure he was saying the C-word. Ah, children are so funny. Even when they don't mean to be.

Why, hello, 4 month sleep regression!

Remember that time I said that Hank was sleeping pretty well at night? Waking up at 1am and 5am and then up for the day at 7am? Well, that's over and done with.

Now he's going down at 7PM, waking at 11PM and then every 45 minutes to an hour after that. It's been a pretty brutal couple of weeks. You'd think it would be harder to deal with since I have a toddler to chase, but Johnny actually kind of makes things easier.

For one thing, I'm not bored and therefore miserable during the day thinking about how tired I am; it's go-go-go all the time. For another, since Johnny did the same non-sleeping thing at the same age and now sleeps awesome at night and takes a good afternoon nap, I know that Hank's lack of sleep will end eventually. Tomorrow? Probably not. A month from now? Not likely. In six months? Now we're talking.

It just goes to show that no matter what I do, I'm effed in the sleep department. I can follow what the sleep experts say to do (like I did with Johnny) and end up with a non-sleeper. I can do what my instincts tell me to do (like I've done with Hank) and end up with a non-sleeper. Oh well.

Link Award

My sister-in-law, Lisa, tagged me in this Link Award (I know, an award!!) and I'm supposed to choose one blog entry for each of the seven categories and then tag seven other bloggers to do the same... so here we go!

Most beautiful - I gave the birth stories a hard look, as well as my letter to one-year-old Johnny, but I think the one I like the best is this post about finally accepting motherhood.

Most popular - Well, the post itself is not the most popular, but the video has lots of hits on YouTube, so I figure that makes it popular.

Most controversial - I know, I just wrote it a couple of days ago, but I know everyone who reads it goes, "Whaaaaaat?"

Most helpful - Again, it's a recent one, but I'd say it's pretty darn helpful.

Most surprisingly successful - I find it surprising how many people find my blog by searching "baby butts" on Google.

Most under-rated - Apparently Flava Flav is no longer relevant to the blogosphere... otherwise I think more people would have laughed at this.

Most pride-worthy - Hank's birth story, hands down. I am so proud of myself for going the whole natural birth route and ignoring the nay-sayers (who know who you are!) to have the birth I wanted.

Now I'm supposed to pass this on to seven other bloggers... but Lisa is already taken and she tagged another blog I read religiously... which leaves about three bloggers that might actually read my blog and do this link award:

Leslie Sarna (these can be applied to food, right??)
Rocky Mountain Mama
365degrees

Parenting hypocrisy

John and I talk often about parenting philosophies and have decided that we want to have parenting principles that will apply across the board. For one thing, it's less confusing for children when you're consistent and for another it makes application of rules easier when there isn't as much grey area to deal with.

For instance, we don't want to lie to our kids (and most parents don't, right?). So, we aren't doing the Santa thing or the Easter bunny thing, because when it comes down to it, we'd be lying to them about the existence of these fantastical creatures. I know it's not a popular thing to do, but we feel like it's the right thing.

Anyway, another principle we've been trying to figure out how to apply is the "sharing" thing. See, when you go to a park and you get out snacks or toys, you're expected to share, right? So, when we've gone places and another kid wants the toy that Johnny is playing with, my first reaction is to tell him to share. Well, this bites me squarely in the butt when Johnny manages to grab something I don't particularly want him to have, like my phone or a kitchen knife (yes, he has grabbed a kitchen knife off the counter before). When I go to take it from him, he'll jerk it away from my and say, "Share?" That always made me stop. How can I expect my child to share his things with others when I won't share certain things with him? Quite the pickle.

Finally, John and I came to the conclusion that he doesn't have to share if he doesn't want to. The flip side of this is that the kid at the park with the cool truck doesn't have share either. I know this is going to be a difficult thing to enforce with a toddler (toddlers say, "What is yours is mine and what is mine is mine", right?), but at least it'll be consistent, which is worth it to me.

Look what I found!!

 IT'S A FOOT!

Hank just discovered his foot and has a great time holding it and looking at it. Whenever he is lying down, in his infant seat or his swing, he curls over, grabs his right foot and marvels at it. I love babies that are easily entertained.

O-B-S-E-S-S-E-D

Johnny has an obsession with Cars, as I may have mentioned previously. Multiple times. So when I saw Lightning McQueen and Mater toys at Target, I didn't hesitate to purchase them. Just as I thought, they have become his favorite things in the world.

He has them while drinking his morning milk.

He has them while watching the Cars movie.

He has them while going places in the car.

He takes them shopping with us.

 These little cars have gone EVERYWHERE with us. I used to be really nervous about him dropping one and consequently losing it, until he dropped one in the grocery store and lost. his. mind. "DROP! MAAAAAY!!! DROP!!!! MOM!!!!" (Maaay = Mater, the brown truck) I have to admit, it's really cute that he has an attachment to these toys. Sometimes it's a little obnoxious, like when I'm by myself trying to get both boys to bed and Johnny won't settle down until I get him Mater and Lightning McQueen, but I can't find them and run around the house repeatedly until I find them in his toy barn... true story. But most of the time, it's adorable.

More evidence as to Johnny's obsession: he has six Cars shirts. I counted. SIX. He had one that I got at Target on clearance:

Yeah, my kid's eating an Oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookie... judge my parenting skills accordingly.

It was a double whammy: his favorite color, red, and it had Mater on it. But then he wanted to wear it all the time. And I mean every day and every night. After a couple of days and nights I had to put my foot down and put it in the hamper... only to have him take it out again and give it to an unknowing Daddy to put it on him. He's sneaky, that kid. There have been other instances where Daddy will tell him that he can't wear his Mater shirt because it's dirty. So Johnny will say, "Wash!" and put it in the bathtub and run water over it. Or he'll give to me and insist I wash it right then and there. So, I had to invest in a few more shirts. Oh, and a couple sets of pajamas.

Mater and Lightning McQueen making yet another appearance.

I know, you've seen this picture, but he's wearing his black Cars shirt in this one.

Thank you, Walmart.com for your uber-cheap character shirts and even cheaper shipping!

Talkin' up a storm

Johnny's vocabulary has consisted of one-syllable words since he started talking. When he added "Daddy" and "Johnny" to his repertoire, I thought that more two-syllable words would begin to tumble from that little mouth of his shortly thereafter.

Well, I was wrong.

After months of saying "Maaay!" for "Mater" from the movie Cars, he has finally started stringing words together to be more specific. Now he says "Wat Maaay!" which, of course, means "Watch Mater!" Duh.

He also says "both WAYS" (with the emphasis on the second word) when we cross the street since John and I are constantly telling him to look both ways before crossing the street. When he wakes up in the morning, he says, "Find nine?" meaning he wants to go in the play room and have me quiz him on his numbers.

This communication thing? Is FREAKING AWESOME!!!!! I can't even begin to explain how cool it is to have your child talk to you. We have conversations. For reals. Yeah, he only says two or three words at a time, but I totally get it. Other people may look at me quizzically when he says, "red torrrr?", but I know that he is talking about Vons, which has a red sign. That's one of the best things about being a stay-at-home-mom is that I understand 99% of what Johnny talks about since it's all in context. Being around him all day everyday seeing everything that he is experiencing makes it way easier to understand him.

From Aunt Lisa

Oh yes I'm blogging this.

Thanks for the onesie, Aunt Lisa! I'm sorry it took so long to get a picture of it... without poop or spit up all over it.