The Holidays

Well, hate to be a Debbie Downer but I'm not much of a fan of Thanksgiving these days... I think I've felt this way ever since November 26th, 2003 when my mother passed away. So today marks 5 years of life without her. I suppose I should feel thankful that I had 26 years of my life to know her and love her. :)
Thanks Mom, for all you taught me, for all the love you gave me, and for all the wonderful memories I have to revisit in my head. Miss you everyday.

Anyway, holidays make me miss my family all the more. Woe is me, right?

Well, Christmas is officially around the corner! It's my favorite holiday (as it was my mother's). I become totally bipolar and my emotions begin to fluxuate between extreme giddiness (because deep down I'm still 14) and despondency whenever I think too much about missing my mom or the rest of my family. I'll put on Christmas cd's and I never can tell how they will affect me. Will I start crying because the memories are flooding in? Or will the warmth and joy of the season just flow over me. *shrug* It's a crapshoot. Coockoo.
Anyway, as it stands right now, I'm excited to get Thanksgiving over with and Christmas started.
Now I just have to find the time to wrap presents.... aww hell.

I've lost that bloggin feelin

I may get it back soon, we'll see. I had a really long and rough week but the weekend has been great. Everyone's mood has been relatively cheerful.
Basically, this is a filler blog entry so that I don't feel like a total slack-ass.

So Carter got his arm stuck in a ball popper toy tonight at a friends. I'm nursing Owen in the other room and I hear my darling child screaming for "Momma do it!" to fix the situation. So sure enough my girlfriend comes carrying him into the living room to me like he has been wounded on the battlefield with his arm still stuck in the toy. Hilarious. My poor munchkin. He was so sweet during the time we were over there...he kept on asking me where baby Owen was and going to check on him. "My baby?" he'd say and pat the carrier. He's like a mama duck checking on her eggs. Tonight he gave him lots of hugs and fell asleep cuddled up next to his baby while silky-ing my arm.

p.s. Carter's eyelashes are 3/4 th's of an inch long. I kid you not.

Owen slept all day long. I actually had to jiggle him to make sure he was still breathing. Does a mama ever stop worrying about this? My sweetie pie. I just hope he sleeps his usual shift tonight. But when he did wake up he woke blowing bubbles and smiling at me. He loves cooing and talking to me, especially when it's really quiet and it's just me and him. Sometimes I see him laughing at his brother. :) Love it.

Adios for now. I'm tired and I need to recharge with a little Jon Stewart or mindless VH1.

and some more November...

Check out the legs crossed at the ankle. He always sits like this....I think he gets it from his Daddy?

Carter being cute.

I had to put the Lions gear picture on here...even if Owen does have his eyes closed....

My two babies. Haha. It's a good thing we have two of these things....the jealousy between brothers so soon?

and some more November...

So I walk into the kitchen the other day and I find this.... Um, I think perhaps we have exceeded the weight limit. The little stinker! He looks pretty comfy though, don't ya think?

I caught a squinty smile from the shy one. Check out that wispy hair. Heehee. He's my key lime pie!

Oooh, the serious look is back. He's a thinker.

The brothers acting goofy. Just wait...that little one is soon going to be tackling that big one. :)

So this is November

Carter helping me in the kitchen as usual. Here he is whipping up some white chocolate cream sauce for the bread pudding we made for Grandpa Rick's arrival. I swear he is will be the next Top Chef.

Just a closer inspection of those Baby Blues. Can a woman not just lose herself in those eyes? Of course, I'm biased.

Look! Grandpa Rick was really here!

Spider Man in his leisure wear.....gettin' some down time. Phew, it's hard being a super hero.

My boys

"Meeeee hold baby?" Carter asks, arms extended in heartfelt plea. :)
"Sure, sit on the couch", I say.
So he plops down and I set Owen in his lap while I also give a little baby head-support.
He pulls out his Chuck E. Cheese gold medallion that he is wearing and dangles it over Owen, "Like? Baby? Like ChuckCheeeese? Baby Owen? Like?" (he is very caring)
He then removes medallion and "gives" it to his brother. Since Owen isn't exactly grasping this exchange he says "Off!" and gets up to put the medallion in the baby's bassinet. Then he turns and says "More hold baby!".
All the while Owen is just kicking and smiling.
Damn cute kids I have.

*****

Kevin has these long-john type pj's for the winter...like the old west style with the butt flap. Ya know the red ones we all had as a kid in the north? Anyway, Carter has two pairs of jammies that are one-piece and red. (one is a detroit red wings and the other has some trucks on them) So he calls them his "Like Dada" jammies. God forbid they be in the wash on the nights he needs to dress "Like Dada!!!".
Tonight he has his Red Wings jammies on until he saw me put on my blue winter polar bear set. Now he is trying to undress himself and saying "No like Dada....Like Mama!!! Blue bears like Mama!!"
I told him I would buy him some blue bears tomorrow. Oh yeah, like we need another set of jammies....I think we have 5. That is quite enough in my opinion.

*****

Tonight we put on the DVD Crackling Fireplace and some Christmas music. We danced in the living room and sang Jingle Bells and I told Carter not to touch the TV because it was "Hot". (teehee, I'm a bad mother messing around with him) He got serious and nodded his head then tentatively walked up to it and blew really hard....to cool it off, I guess. Haha. Anyway, I told him I was joking and that it was a TV fire so it was cool. As if he didn't believe me he slowly put his hand on the screen and then looked back at me and laughed....in relief?

*****

Owen smells so gosh darn good I could just inhale him all day. That child is truly a sweetie pie. Kinda makes me think about a third......just kidding.
He loves to smile and "talk" to me when he is on his changing table and he grips me with his long fingers like a baby monkey. I love it. I think he actually said his first word the other day..... "Hi". Haha. I leaned in and said "Hi" and he squawked "Hi" right back. It was funny and I had to call Kevin in to tell him we had a genius child. Only 6 weeks old and talking...that's a record, right?

I'm afraid he doesn't do much yet to blog about but he is still trying to make sense of us crazy folk. Poor thing, being born into this Madhouse! :)

Why I love him so much

So a friend says to me at dinner the other night "Where is this bad child that you blog about so much?" and I look over at my angelic toddler....sitting in the restaurant highchair, playing with his hot wheels, smiling, eating his breadsticks and calmly awaiting his pizza....and I shrug, because I have no idea. I have a Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hyde child.
I must say that the last few days he has been pretty good. The night terrors seem to be lessening somewhat and the tantrums are slightly more manageable....slightly. The only issue we are still having is the destructive behavior when he is angry. Sigh. He is a boy.

Funny things he's said in the past few days:

Climbing up the changing table as I'm changing Owen's diaper he begins to point to the baby's features and name them and compare them to his own "Eyes. Chin. Cheek. Nose......" then turning to me and pointing "Mama, BIG nose!". Ahhhh, thank you my darling child. geez.

Pointing to Kevin's beer, he says "Dada's beer" (we haven't taught him this word...he's a sponge)
Mommy then sighs from exhausting day and says "Lawd, I need a drink" Carter quickly says "NOooo! Me drink!" with a very offended look. (Sure, maybe he'll go to bed earlier with a hot toddy or two. haha)

While watching me nurse Owen he climbs up to my other side and says "Baby drink mama milk?" and I say "Yep". He thinks for a minute and says "Hmm, Me drink Mama milk!". So I smile and say "Um suuure, in a minute...." He then leans down very slowly (while looking at me out of the corner of his eye) to where my stomach is exposed slightly and puts his mouth on it kinda near my belly button. He then leans back smacking his lips and rubbing his tummy saying "MMmmmmm, gooood!". I busted out laughing at my funny child. He's a goofball.

The Chopstick's Issue

Little known fact about my husband: Most meals he eats with chopsticks. Strange you might think? Japanese upbringing you may wonder?
No. He feels they are more efficient tools. *Shrug*
Okay, to each his own. We all have our quirks.
However, we enter into problems when I set the table with cutlery because not every meal calls for chopsticks. Do I know which ones do? Sometimes...other times I am confused. It is a standing joke in this house that I will set his place with chopsticks for odd meals....like pancakes. This he finds funny. But there are other times that I am generally perplexed at his choice. Like last night we had chili and rice. I would guess spoon. I don't know; call me a freak for guessing this one. He surprised me with chopsticks so I comment "Chopsticks for chili?! That's weird..." or somesuch thing. Well, he says that I am being rude. Rude? Okaaaay. I guess I'm a dolt but I totally didn't think I was being rude, I just genuinely thought it odd and felt that I could relay this to the man I sleep with at night, the man who fathered my children and the man I pledged to spend my life with... Hmmm. Maybe I need to read Emily Post's rules of etiquette, again.
We do differ on what we consider rude though. I think it's rude when he ignores me for the current game on t.v., for example, or when he is late for an event. Hey, we aren't all on the same page. Different upbringing's breed different opinions.

So essentially, according to my husbands Rules of Etiquette it is okay to show up someplace 3 hours late but comment on someone's choice of eating utensil? *Gasp* That is going too far, my friends.

Who the hell knows. I'm half asleep.

I'm too tired to blog. My eyes are little balls of sandpaper and I'm hunchbacked over the keyboard. Ohhhh woe is me.
My guys wore me out today in alternating screaming matches. It was quite an opera.

Anywhoo, for the sake of historical blogging context, the news is full of some crazy crap right now ever since Obama won the '08 election. I find myself half rolling my eyes and half nodding my head. The funniest thing for me is that I never told anyone how I voted; not even my older sister or my husband. Now if they asked me I suppose I would tell them....or maybe not...but I find it humorous to hear their opinions of how I would have voted. My sister the Republican says she is pretty sure she knows who I voted for (meaning she thinks I voted Democrat) and my Liberal Democrat husband says he thinks we are a House Divided (meaning he thinks I voted Republican). Hmmm. I wonder who knows me best....
I guess I'm pretty middle of the road so it's hard to guess. :)

Now. On to the stars of the show.
Owen has become super-strong baby and he is such a sweetie pie. He actually will just lay there sometimes and "hang out". I find this extraordinary when I compare how Carter was at this age. Poor Carter had reflux and colic and who knows what else but he cried unless I was holding or nursing him. Owen is fine just laying by himself. Sometimes I'll catch him smiling and "talking" to himself. Funny. He recently started the baby squawk/laugh. I love it. I've officially fallen head over heels in love with him. Last night he went to sleep at 8pm and didn't wake up again til 2am...this is nice. He has been pretty predictable in his sleep patterns already. This is very good. I must thank him when he is older. Carter didn't do that...ever....well, until he was fully weaned at 15 months. They are so different.
Just the other day I was showering and I had a flashback to my early baby days with Carter. Here I was just showering in peace while Owen sat in his bouncy and looking around, Carter was playing and Kevin was doing laundry.... and I'm remembering.... This doesn't sound weird to most of you but I must reflect on those days with my oldest youngster and I laugh because I couldn't even shower until the evening time when Kevin got home. He would hold Carter and walk him around while he screamed just so I could have 10 minutes to myself. I couldn't even put him down long enough to shower without the earsplitting, choking screams! Wow. I must have been a wreck. Here I am with two now and it is so much easier in some ways. That makes no sense but I'm not arguing. I'm just happy things are the way they are.
Carter has been showing his brother lots of love lately. He is getting much better at being gentle with him but sometimes he wants me to put Owen on "da otter side" so he can get the good mama cuddles in. I try to accomodate his needs; my poor sensitive child.

Family visits and Battleground Everything

So Sunday my stepfather and his lady came for a visit. They brought Michigan treats (Vernors, Sanders hot fudge and Better Made chips), christmas presents from da sista and baby gifts. I love visits that start like this! haha. This was only the second time Carter got to meet his grandpa Rick.
How awful does that sound? That my son has only met such important people in his life once or twice... weird. I miss my family even more when I see familiar faces, however briefly. It tears my heart in two when I see how much my little niece has grown and I realize that I've only seen her once when she was 3 months old....and now she is an 18 month old terror. Sniffle.
Anyway, homesickness and depression aside.... We had a whirlwind visit with them. We did the zoo, lunch downtown and I made some bread pudding as a treat. Carter giggled happily on the carousel with his grandpa and basically was a sweetheart the whole time
I feel bad when they say stuff like"He's so sweet! I thought you said he was a terror!", because I find myself arguing that Yes, he is a terror....but wait, that's not right! The mother is supposed to be telling everyone all of her child's Good qualities and even making up a few and here I am arguing people out of thinking the best of him??? What? Who am I?
Of course, he is a sweetheart and a charmer and smart and ambitious and his motor skills are highly developed and blah blah blah..........pause.......pause......pause......BUT, he is still two. He is a two year old rascal with immature reasoning skills and he is highly frustrated most of the time. I must remember that this is his age not his personality that makes me so crazy.

My rambunctious two year old boy makes everything a Battleground. I can't "pick my battles" as they say because everything is a battle around here. We fight to get clothes on. We fight to get them off. We fight to get in the bath. We fight to get out of the bath. We fight, argue, reason, yell, threaten, walk away, storm off, cry and put our head in our hands all day and night. And I wonder to myself; my crazy, drained self, is it always going to be like this? And the answer, of course, is NO. But damn it, it's exhausting. He is pushing us to our very limits because he can and why would he act out in front of other people when he has 2 wonderful whipping posts at home to practice on? Yep, mommy and daddy make excellent guinea pigs and since we love him so much he can really crank up the action.
I am basically a No Conflict type of person. I don't like loud noises so much or yelling or those crappy feelings you get after an arguement. I don't like drama. But here I am, firmly stuck in dramatic conflicts everyday. I'm No Good at this people! Either my oldest son will grow out of his most recent behavior or I will be visiting him in his dressing room after a smash hit Broadway show.

Therefore, THIS is why I tell people he is "high maintenance" or a "terror" or a "pistol", because at home with us, he is. I swear I'm not making it up. :) But damn! if he ain't just the sweetest thing when ya'll are around....

Carter Speak

Funny things Carter says:

"Ohhhh shit, Mama!" Greeeeeat. Thanks Kevin!

"No shake butt" with a disgusted look on his face. This in response to me moving and grooving to Leapfrog's Toddler CD. I suppose I am very UNcool.

"Big dick!" He means Big stick (he's a boy and he likes sticks) but he can't quite pronounce it correctly so I lower my head in embarrassment when we are in public.

He calls all animals by the sounds they make so he will be like "Mama, baby Owen ROOOAR shirt?" translation: Mom, baby Owen is wearing a Lion shirt? or...
"Where'd the Tweet tweet light go?" translation: Where did the Bird light go?
It's more funny to hear than it is to to read. haha.

"Me share!" proudly pointing to himself while giving Owen one of his toys.... Poor Owen gets to "share" with his brother at the risk of his own life. Usually the "shared" toys are poking my wee youngster in the eye or being thrown onto him in the bassinet. Aiiyyyiiieee.

Carter-"Mama, where dada go?"
Me-"He's at work."
Carter-"Me work? Me work like dada? Far Way?" while gathering his tools and small toys into a basket to take to "work".
Carter-"Me help dada" while getting lawnmower ready to go....apparently daddy is a carpenter/animal rescuer/lawn maintanence person. :)

Me-"Do you want undies? and go on the potty like a big boy?"
Carter-"Da-da-da-da-Dora indies? Blue indies?" singing the theme song to dora
Me-"Yes I will buy you blue Dora undies if you want."
Carter-"Me big boy!" thinking..... "hmmm, no potty...."
Oh well.

"Pupcakes? Me cook pick pupcakes?" after watching Curious George eating pink iced cake...thanks ya stupid monkey. But we went to the grocery store anyway (a totally other story/blog entry) and bought cake mix and pink icing and sprinkles....for Daddy's birthday cupcakes. So actually that damn monkey helped us make Kevin's birthday a bit more special. (I must add that baking with a toddler and giving him quality time is hard to do when your 5 week old is crying in his bassinet. Sigh. Poor 2nd child.)

Candy hangover

Hope everyone enjoyed the pics from Zoo Boo! and Carter's first time Trick-or-Treating. He did just enough (about 8 houses) to get into the spirit of things and to bring home some edible loot for mommy.

Anyway, the last two mornings we have been sleeping in. It's amazing that a mother of a toddler and a newborn gets to sleep in until 10 a.m., isn't it? Today Kevin and I got up and started breakfast and coffee while the kids slumbered on and on and on. So weird. Carter finally got his butt out of bed around 10:30....nursing a candy hangover, no doubt. :) Crazy. It's kinda like he is already becoming a teenager. When I moved him into his bed last night I was shocked to discover that he now weighs a ton and is all arms and legs. What happened to my chubby little munchkin that curled into my arms? Now he just flops all over the place. Oh man is he growing!

His new thing is "This?" and pointing to everything. So all day long I'm saying stuff like "That's the door. That's the fan. That's a nail. That's dirt. That's another door. That's a leaf. Argggghhhh!" He knows what all this stuff is but is now insisting on an inventory of every room we're in and every picture he sees. Tedious but cute.