Hip Hip Hurray!

If only we all had the youthful excitement that kids have. Nate celebrates EVERYTHING! Today in the car, he was playing with a tiny Lego man, and he was taking it apart, and putting it back together. At one point he had taken the head off and put it in his cup holder, and then couldn't pick it back up again. So he is asking for help, and of course I can't help without killing all of us. He finally was able to get it, and breaks into a round of the hip hip hurray song from Super Why.
I think that we all need to celebrate life's little victories. That is my challenge to you today.

File this under: Cute things my kids say

So today Nate informed me that "this is the frigerator, and this is the freezerator."
Nice.

Proof

If you look closely in the lower left hand corner you will see proof of what happens all day long at our house.

Many Random things

Ok, so it's been a while since I have posted anything positive, so here we go.

First off, some random thoughts on Lizzie. Lizzie is not a lap cat. She almost never will climb up onto your lap and sit there. The only time she will do this is when I have a blanket in my lap. Nap time is kind of interesting with her. She almost always will come and nap with me when I take a nap. This morning when I went to lie down for a few lazy moments after Graham went down for his nap, and before Nate woke up, I was lying there in bed, but didn't have the covers on, and Lizzie just sat there on the bed and waited for me. So I put the covers on, and she came and lay down on top of me. So she likes to nap on top of me, but only if there is a blanket there. What a weird cat.

This picture is an old one of Graham. It is the best picture that I have of his jack-o-lantern teeth. He now has all 4 teeth on the top row, and the two on the bottom as well for a grand total of 6 (for those of you who have trouble doing the math.) Other than that, he is just all over the place, and lots and lots of fun to have around these days. I am considering partially weaning him. I think that up until this point I have been starving him. He started out as a heavy weight, and is now down to the 10th percentile. He only gained 12 oz in the past 3 months. He seems to love bottles, so maybe we ought to go with it. I'm not ready to give it up though, and I think that he still enjoys nursing, so we'll see.

Nate has developed a love of scissors in the past week or so. He saw me clipping things out of the paper a week ago, and said, "Ohhh, can I try that?" So I let him cut up the newspaper. The next day we went out and got some safety scissors. He is starting to get the whole one handed thing. My biggest regret right now with Nate is that I don't have enough quality one on one time with him. He is such a sweet boy when I have enough attention to pay to him, and when Graham is not around. The problem is that when Graham has his morning nap I am showering, and then when Graham has his afternoon nap, Nate naps as well, and Graham wakes up way before Nate in the afternoon and morning. The only time I have with him is in the evening, and that is Jesse's ONLY time with him, so that doesn't always work either. Oh well, we just need to try to make time for him and I.

What a day!

So our day started at 6am, when else? I just don't understand why Graham feels the need to wake up and eat at 5 if he is just going to wake up at 6 when he hears Jesse get up anyway? That is of course after waking up twice previous in the night. In addition to that, my back was killing me all night and all day today. So that's how our day started. Then Nate woke Graham up when he had not had a long enough nap, so both kids were driving me nuts this morning. Graham screaming because he was tired, and Nate just screaming for the heck of it. It was all that I could do to not lock them in the dungeon this morning. Keeping in mind that I don't even have a dungeon, I was willing to dig one just for them this morning.
We went to story time with Graham screaming the whole way. And then I put him in the stroller to go into the library and he was screaming bloody murder. Thanks by the way to the complete stranger who informed me that "someone was not happy." When you see a mom who has a screaming child, unless you have something constructive to say, don't say anything at all, just let them walk the walk of shame.
Life got better in the afternoon because they both took naps. But in true Graham fashion, his nap was not nearly long enough, which meant that my nap was not nearly long enough. Not that you can have a good nap when your back hurts badly enough to make getting comfortable impossible.
So I got up with Graham, and Nate continued to nap. He didn't nap yesterday, so he had a 4 hour nap today.
This is where the day got interesting. First of all, Lizzie escaped. I didn't even notice that she had gotten out, and was out for like, an hour, until my neighbor knocked on the door and asked if that was my cat in the front yard. Sure enough... So she got a taste of freedom today. I sure hope that she didn't get fleas while she was outside. The best thing about having an indoor cat is that they never get fleas!
Then I was sitting on the couch working on my latest quilt fabric, and Graham was just crawling around as he pleased. He went into the dining room and made a snack of the cheerios and graham cracker that he dropped earlier. He came back and played for a bit. Then he went over to the stairs. I'm not paying too much attention, but look over after he'd been over there for a minute, and think, oh, he must be way on the other side because I can't see his head. So I look closer, and I don't see his head, but I see his feet- sticking off the 2nd step. So he can climb the stairs now. The rest of the afternoon was spent re-installing the gate at the bottom of the stairs. Hopefully Nate will not pull it off this time around.
And that brings us to now. Nate is finally up. Jesse is late getting home from work. It's getting close to Graham's bed time, but he needs a bath today. I was supposed to clean the bathroom today, but well, when your back hurts, you are usually not inclined to bend over the bathtub and scrub. Oh well, maybe tomorrow.
So it's boring here, but what else is new? If I weren't so lazy I would post a picture, but well, that involves going to the basement. Maybe next time.

Finished!

Don't worry, I finished Jane Eyre. I didn't have to go and rent the movie.

mama

So it's official, Graham has said his first word, and it is mama (what else could it be when you have a mom as awesome as me?) however, it doesn't mean what you would think that it means. He says it when he wants to eat. And not just nurse, he says it the most when I am about to feed him real food. Just goes to show mama=eat.
Now I have to go and read the last 100 pages of Jane Eyre before book club tomorrow night. Anyone care to give me a summary of what happens after she leaves Mr Rochester in case I don't get it done? I know that they do eventually end up together. I'm one of those people who reads the last page of a book.

A New Game

So the other night we were out to dinner at a restaurant, and Graham was sitting in a high chair playing with some toys. He dropped one of his toys on the floor, and as I leaned down to pick it up I saw this gleam in his eyes and knew that he thought he had found a great new game. So for the rest of the night he would play with the toys for a minute or two, and then throw them or drop them on the floor. Before too long Nate saw that this was a fun game, but he figured his role was to pick up the toys and give them back to Graham. How convenient.
So this morning I was rocking Graham, and all of the sudden he plopped his paci out of his mouth, and dropped it above his head, and then looked up at me with a mischievous little grin. What a stinker! He did it again, and then I said, alright, you're going in your bed!
Nate never really got into this game, but Graham is much more mischievous than Nate ever was. Oh well.......