I can't sleep

so I'm up working!

Thought I'd take some time to update a little on what's going on here. We transitioned Parker from our room to a room upstairs. I won't call it her room because it really is a guest room and she's sleeping in a pack in play. She doesn't seem to mind, in fact, she must be loving it because she is sleeping all night. I wish I could say the same. :-) Last night I only woke up  3 times (to check on her) between the hours of 10 and 5...so I am getting better. Since our room is on the main floor and the kids upstairs, I'm thinking I need 2 monitors?? I'm not sure how to work all of this. I've left the monitor in Lane's room because sometimes he wakes up and has to go potty so he'll call for us. Most nights he holds it until morning though so in the rare case he does wake up it's urgent and he has to go. I figured if and when Parker wakes up, her crying will wake me. Night one of her transition to her own room, which was Thursday, I did hear her and ran up right away for fear she'd wake up Lane. Last night, I didn't hear her at all, but before Matt left for his run at 5:30 this morning he came in and said she was crying. I didn't hear her, but it must not have been too loud because when he brought her to me, he said she had already stopped by the time he went up there. I'm thinking this is a good thing because when she was in our room I would pick her up at the slightest sound she would make and feed her. Having her at a distance gives her a chance to fall back asleep or if she truly is hungry/thirsty then she'll have to put a little more effort to wake me!

Parker had her 6 month check-up yesterday and she's FINALLY 13 pounds....I think 13.1 and 26 inches. We've confirmed the fact that she just isn't a big eater. My sole goal in life right now is to feed this child and lots, but she isn't making it easy for me. She is fine with a few ounces and a few bites of cereal and then she's done. When we go back in one month for a weight check, the Dr. said she would love to see her in the 5th percentile. She was in the 3.87 percentile so I have some work to do. I am starting cereal twice a day and also right now one fruit or veggie. We are working on bananas right now and tomorrow I will introduce avocado.

Lane is doing fabulous...this blog has been the Parker show and I still have 2 more Parker posts to finish, but she has been so easy to photograph lately that I can't help it! Lane's biggest thing right now is sticks and rocks. He collects both all the time and I swear I could donate all of his toys and he'd never miss them. He is loving his bike though!








I love going over to our new house and letting him explore the yard. I can just picture him exploring in it for hours!



I should also note that he is really into lining up all of his trucks, tractors and cars across the living room. He also loves to use his fire truck hose as a "gas hose" and fill up all his cars and trucks with gas. 

A saying he uses a lot lately is "What's her name?" He asks that about people we pass, things in books, just about anything. He knows the difference between a boy and a girl when asked, but when referring to him or her, he mixes those up.

There has been some drama with our new house. It's nothing too too major, but we still have a lot of details to iron out. We're meeting with our builder this morning at the house to get a feel for the floor plan and we have to start picking out materials soon. Wouldn't you know that someone is going to rent our house and plans to move in by May or June. Wouldn't you know that would happen! She is a newly divorced mother of 2. She said she can buy it right now, but if she does, it would get split in the divorce so she has to rent until it is all finalized. She really loved it and wants to rent for a year and then buy it at the end. We're not really sure what to think as we have so so so many decisions sitting in front of us right now! We would prefer to rent because a recent comp. does not support our sales price. But we'll see!

That should be all for now...2 more Parker posts to follow...Have a great weekend!

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Just one of those days

when by the end of the night, all 3 kids, hairy and non, have managed to throw up. Yep, Parker, obviously cause she's a baby, Lane (I have no idea why, he's not sick and hasn't done it since, but he was playing and when I turned around I found a pile of chewed up goldfish in some water...Sorry TMI) and to top off the night...Harley. We think he ate something Styrofoam??? Matt combed through it (ick!) with a SCREWDRIVER! The joys of parenting!

when you realize that, mid-diaper change, you used the last diaper and the new ones are still in your car in the garage.

when you order perscriptions early to be proactive and go pick them up when Lane's in school as to only have to tote one baby around and when you get there they will only give you one and you have to make another trip anyway to pick up the 2nd one. GRRR!

when your 2 year old decides to poop in the tub. WHAT?! He's been potty-trained for 5 months and hasn't pooped in the tub for at least a year.

when you are drying off your screaming, cold, but clean baby girl, your husband is fishing poop out of the tub and your son is whining because he "wants to pay in wader"

when at that moment in the scream-filled poop-fishing bathroom you close your eyes and think back to when you were in college and on Thursday nights you hung out and drank beer and had fun and never dreamed you would  be in a scream-filled poop-fishing bathroom 7 years from then.

when your crock pot chicken noodle soup that called for chopped bacon ends up in the garbage because when you read chopped bacon, you didn't read COOKED chopped bacon and by the end of the cooking time, you still had raw bacon in your chicken noodle soup. DOH! Open oven: insert frozen pizza.

when you wake up at what you thought was 5:56 am (according to the timer on your watch) and wonder why Parker hasn't gotten up yet to eat. So you smile and stretch because you feel so rested. You walk out into the living room, blink twice at the clock and realize its only 2:21 am and that your 2 month old has a better body clock than you!

when mid-hand wash, you realize you have no water...and you panic a bit because you NEED water for EVERYTHING. And you look outside and see the water guy, who apparently has just shut off your water because someone, who shall remain nameless, has a lot going on and forgot to pay the water bill which comes every 3 months. So, you grab your newborn and run outside just in time to catch him. You politely ask if you can pay him, he says he can't accept money, but is very sorry because he didn't realize you had a baby and will turn the water back on immediately.

when you are very thankful for Southern hospitality.

when you sit down at the end of the night with a 2 year old tucked away in his bed and a 2 month old peacefully sleeping for the night, sip on a beer, eat some frozen pizza with your hubby and smile, wondering what tomorrow will bring.

when you can say YOU SOMEHOW SURVIVED!

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We traumatized our son this morning

As publisher of a newsletter and website for children's events, I am usually on top of all the fun events happening for kids all around town. This morning I decided to put all the research that I do to good use and actually attend one of those events. :-)

It sounded like THE PERFECT thing for Lane. It was Touch-a-Truck at Westside Park and it was FREE.


So I planned our morning which included a haircut for the soon-to-be big brother and then Touch-a-Truck. My child, absolutely LOVES playing in cars. In fact, several times a day we "pay car" (translate: play in the car). Every time we pull into the garage, Lane asks "pay car momma?" In most cases, I let him, but sometimes we have other things on the agenda. When we go to play outside, he would rather play in the car. It's quite funny and I'm sure my neighbors think we are crazy because he always turns on the flashers and I usually sit in the passenger seat or on a lawn chair in the garage. It's a sight, I tell ya! He knows which key belongs in my ignition and which key belongs in Matt's and can put it in correctly and turn it.



Not only does he love to "pay car," he also loves trucks, tractors, anything construction looking or garbage truck looking, he adores. Touch-a-Truck includes all of this. I was so excited to take him.



We pulled into the park and all of the trucks were set-up...tractors, diggers, dump trucks, garbage trucks, excavators,  back how loaders...they had it all. As we walked up, we noticed lots of horn blowing. Didn't think too much of it. Lane was in all of his glory as we approached. He quickly got in a CAT something or other. Not really sure what it was, but he loved it.










Then he started noticing the LOUD horns of all the trucks and walked around like this:



As we got deeper into it and closer to all the LOUD horns, he started getting scared.



We tried to distract him by putting him in different trucks, but he really wasn't having it.



In his defense, it was LOUD. And pretty soon he was in full-on hysterics, clenching onto Matt so tight and crying, we had to get out of there. I felt horrible.

As much as he wanted to enjoy it, he just couldn't get past all of the loud horns.


So we headed for the car and tried to calm him with a popsicle. He was too distraught to even bite. He calmed down once we got further from the noise and started saying "too youd" "big horns too youd, momma." He was happy to be in the car. I was feeling guilty for planning a, what I thought, super-fun morning gone wrong. I needed to redeem myself so we drove to a park and let him run wild. He kept telling us he had fun, but "too youd."



There's the smile that I was hoping to see!


We redeemed ourselves!




There's another Touch-a-Truck event, next weekend. That one is $5 admission. I'm glad we got our free test run this weekend. Not sure Lane would get his $5 worth with all the "yowd" horn blowing.

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