Crawling!

Little baby is ready to move. She wants to play, she wants to go.  She has perfected the army crawl and scoots around the room. I went to record the army crawl yesterday and I got this instead.....

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Off to a Bad Start

I didn't get much sleep last night, Ivy was restless.  At one point I woke up with Owen snuggled on my back, Ivy laying across my stomach and Greg's hand on my leg.  As I sat there, awake, while they all slept and looked over at the large empty space on the other side of Greg, I felt a little like I wanted to crawl out of my own skin. 

So we sleep off and on.  She cries off and on.  I tell Greg to scoot everyone over to keep me sane. 

Eventually Greg gets up. 

Ivy finally settles down and starts to sleep.  I only have an hour before I have to get up.  I finally start to sleep. And then it begins.... BARK BARK BARK.  BARK BARK BARK BARK. BARK BARK BARK. BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK..... an hour and a half later... BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK. BARK BARK....pause.... just kidding. BARK BARK BARK BARK. BARK BARK.

I don't know dog etiquette, how long can the damn thing bark before I can go over there?  I don't know the neighbors but I know that I am going insane.  I opened the door and yelled at the dumb dog to BE QUIET.  He barked louder. 

Where are the people? I can only deduce they are dead.  Where are the other neighbors stepping in to stop the madness? I don't even know them.  The president of the home owner's association lives on the other side of the dog.  Where is he to enforce the covenants, those that say you can have an animal but he can't bark for 1 1/2 hours beginning at 6:45 in the morning!! I know they are there. 

I am going mad.  And! it doesn't help that I came down to find Greg cutting potatoes for his crockpot meal.  I sit here smelling onions listening to the dog bark.  I think the covenants of my house say that you cannot make meals in the crockpot that require onions. I have to smell onions simmering in the crock pot all day.  Now I will surely go mad. 

The only choice I have is to take the crockpot full of onions and feed it to the barking dog.  Sanity saved. All problems solved.  Brilliant.

(exactly one hour later from my original post and I am here to report... he is STILL BARKING!!)

1st, 2nd and Last

Sometimes I feel like I am present while I parent, other times I am anywhere except here.  This morning gone.  This evening back.  Owen stepped on Ivy’s hand this morning while we were all getting ready.  I got mad and started talking nonsense as she is crying her head off…what if I wasn’t nice to you, how would you feel, I don’t feel like helping you get ready, have you gone insane, blah blah blah.  I feel like the guilt building with each sentence.  With each word the sensible side of me is saying “Breath, stop, he is 4”.  The side of me that is late and sees everyone in pajamas with no breakfast while they are crying is saying more nonsense. 
We forget about the incident and make our way to school.  While I am work I bring myself back to myself, the self I like, the self that helps the 4 year old through his issues not makes them worse.  I text Kristi and tell her that if he is nice to Ivy all day I will have a surprise when he gets home.  I get periodic texts throughout the day, “Owen wants you to know he is being really good today.”.  At the end of the day the report is in – he was so good. 
As I am on my way to get them I call Greg to find me a pirate hat and a treasure and I am prepared to make a treasure map when we get home (just after I nurse Ivy so I don’t explode).  I drew some awesome pictures and put a Hershey’s Kiss at each spot on the map.  I gave him the new hat and we took the map to find our treasure. 
He was so excited.  He played in his hat all night with his coins.
There was no fighting, no crying, no arguing about pajamas, no yelling, no discussions about brushing teeth (well ok, a little one here but I don’t want to ruin the good mood).   
After finding the treasure, he immediately found a hat for Greg and I.  Pretend pirate hats of course.  Owen was the first mate, me the second mate, and Greg the last mate.  (doesn’t the hat yell out “last mate”). 
Amazing what a little positive reinforcement does rather than ranting and a whole  lot of nonsense. 
 

6 Months

Ivy had her 6 month well-child visit last week.  She is 25 1/2 inches tall (38th percentile), 13 lbs 15 oz (12th percentile) and her head is 42cm (35th percentile).  She loves to move.  She is always reaching and wiggling.  I walked by her the other day and saw her on her stomach, I walked away and the next time I saw her she was sitting up.   I wasn’t sure if she actually started on her stomach.  The next day I saw her push up to sitting from her tummy.   

She loves avocados and carrots.  I received a Magic Bullet for Christmas and have been making her the carrots and some applesauce.  I am not sure why I didn’t do that with Owen. It seems so strange to buy baby food this time around.  Older and wiser I suppose.  

She still doesn’t sleep very well – in fact, I am pretty sure I was a human binky last night.  Interesting and totally disturbing really. 

She smiles all the time and loves her brother! The more crazy he is the more she loves him.  (despite having her fingers stepped on or being pushed over).  What is that saying, what doesn’t kill us makes a stronger? She will be strong.   He tries I suppose.  He did make a trade the other day.  He wanted a new toy of hers (a baby) that she got for Christmas.  I told him he had to let her use one of his toys.  He said she could have his most special Handy Manny tools and tool box.  This tool box was so special the other day that he couldn’t even let his friend touch it.  I was touched that Ivy was the recipient of such a special toy. 

Although it is entirely inappropriate,  Ivy loves plastic.  When Greg has her and she is in one of those crying fits wishing I would return, he often turns to plastic.  I come home to find her carrying around a plastic bag.  I left for work today and she was holding a ziploc bag.  When I picked her up 8 hours later she still had the bag.  What was that I said about older and wiser? Maybe not so much. 

 

(Here she is eating a wipe)

Praise the Glue.

I was ready to blog tonight, not sure what I wanted it to be about.

1. Perhaps it should be about the wonderful Christmas that we had and how Owen received tons of presents, yet when asked today what he got from Santa, he could only remember ONE present.  So, way to many dollars later, what they say is true: Less is More. 

 

or

2.  Perhaps it should be an update on Ivy and how she is so ready to crawl.

or

3. Perhaps it should be about the fact that I am blogging while freezing tonight because our gas bill was too high this month.

or

4. Perhaps it should be about my new sweet nephew Evan and how wonderful it is to see Angie with a baby. 

or

5. Maybe a post about my cleaning lady that I have coming in the morning and how I really hate cleaning bathrooms.

Before I started pulling the thoughts swarming around out of my head, I read my blogs from last January.  First, I was sad there were only 5 things to read.  I should be better.  But second, I cannot believe Owl’s eye fell out a year ago.  That being said, this post is now about giving a shout out to gorilla glue.  Owen still loves his owl.  We still pack him up wherever we go.  I left him at Costco a few weeks ago (bad day).  Last night Owen had a dream that we were looking for Steve, Noni and the new baby and he dropped Owl and he fell and broke in a million pieces.  He woke up crying and saying owl was broken in a million pieces and that he had so many memories with him.  Owl went with us today to see the new baby.  He and Owen were dressed matching capes (thanks Em) (Owen was pretending to be Prince John from Disney’s Robin Hood while Owl was Hiss.)  Everywhere we go this little owl has 2 eyes.  1 year ago we glued in the eye and 1 year later it is still glued in.  In all of his travels and times through the wash, he keeps coming out with 2 eyes. 

I love gorilla glue.    

And tonight, because this deserves a post of its own, the others will have to wait.