I love you more

In playing the "I love you more" game with Penelope I had a revelation. All the years I played that game with my mom, she was right. She did love me more. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Apple - read this post

Apple needs to invent a devise that implants into my brain and allows me to record mental notes for review later.

Get on that now people.

Anyway, I'm trying to remember all the hilarious things my kids have said/done lately. Let's go child by child, shall we?

Griffin:
He's been talking a lot more - whenever Sissy lets him. His verbal vocabulary is well over 20 words. One of his favorite words is "fart" and he laughs hysterically and screams it. Holy hell is he ever a boy. He's also started saying "I love you" which comes out as "Uh-V Ooo". He demands hugs, loves making train noises, and over pronounces the ending consonants of words. Example: milk is iLKKKKKKK, dog is daaKKKKKKKK, and fart is faaaaaTTTTTTT.

He's also now jumping and actually making it off the ground. He's also doing somersaults, climbing on everything, and is obsessed with everyone's potty habits.

His sleep is... meh. Not nearly as bad as the week of Sleep Suck, but still not where I would love it to be. We'll get there.

Penelope:
The child never STOPS talking. A lot of it is hilarious.

Like when she chased Griffin around demanding "true love's first kiss". Or when she pointed to a picture of a little boy on a toy box and said "look, that was me when I used to be a boy!" Or "Mama, when I was baby Penelope I lived in your belly and ate your belly button" (I have no idea where she got that). Or "No! I'm your husband!" (Bryan and I were snuggling on the couch and she wanted to snuggle with me).

She's also a liar. She doesn't consciously lie, but she'll make up answers if she doesn't know the right one. And she's a fake crier. Ah, our little drama queen. THAT will be fun when she's a teenager.

Resolutions

Obviously regular blogging is not one of my resolutions this year.

I had some, but forgot them. So now I'm going to make some more. I'll warn you now- none are very earth shattering.

1. Go to the beach at least once a month. We live 8 miles from the ocean (although not 8 miles from our favorite dog-friendly beach, but it only takes us 20-30 minutes to get there). There's at least one weekend a month where the weather is nice enough for a day at the beach. It's good for the kids, it's good for the dogs, it's good for us all. And we all love the beach - Poe especially. She spends the entire time running up and down the shore. I have no idea why she loves running so much (I hate it) but I'm glad she likes the exercise.

2. Grow out my hair - I've decided not to cut my hair (bangs excepted) for an entire year. If I could afford extensions I would get them... maybe for Mother's Day. I keep saying I want my hair to be really long, but I always get frustrated and cut it. So no haircuts. I may trim it if the ends split, but I hope to be able to go the whole year without cutting my hair.

3. Maintain - or lose 4 lbs. I would love to lose 4 more pounds so I can be at a nice 1*5. I've lost 50lbs since last year and fit into all my pre-pregnancy clothes so I don't really need to lose any weight. But, being a product of my environment, I can't help but feel the need to set a weight loss goal. I know, I know... but it's a hard habit to break. Anyone who has struggled with weight issues understands - it's irrational but it's hard to shake.

And that's it. I could make more, but I probably wouldn't remember (and keep) them all. I think this is a manageable number and all ones that are reachable. Perhaps I will revisit the list in a few months to see how things are coming along. But perhaps not.

He falls asleep how?!?

Some nights I wish we had a night-vision camera in the kid's bedroom so I could just post a video of the gymnastics that is bedtime.

The kids' beds are about 2 feet apart and there is a body pillow between them. At bedtime I lay on the pillow and read a book (or two) while Penelope listens attentively and Griffin alternately does yoga and attempts to SIT ON MY FACE.

Then, after lights out, we all lay down until the G man falls asleep. This takes anywhere from 5-60 minutes and usually lasts 20. We used to rock him, but that took just as long and could get uncomfortable. Laying down with Penelope is what actually taught her to put herself to sleep. We started earlier with Pen, and she has always been a better sleeper than G. So far it hasn't seemed to do much to help G learn to put himself to sleep.

I think we're going to try and get him attached to a lovey - I have no idea how but I'm willing to give it a go.

Anyway, after lights out the gymnastics don't end. Neither does his attempts to suffocate me. He'll roll over onto me, press his cheek onto my face, hug my arms, bury his head into my chest, kick me, grab my hand and put it on his face... he's also taken to attempting to undress himself.

It is both hilarious and annoying.

I wish "shhh", rock, bounce, pat, rub his back - to no avail. Eventually he falls asleep and I have no idea if anything I did actually helped.

I'm not quite sure what to try next or if it's just something we wait out. I have a feeling we just wait it out.

A little less sucky

Thankfully Griffin's sleep has gotten better the last few days, but it's still nowhere near great.

He's still waking up at least once, but the week-long stretch of multiple wakings, screaming, and bottle demands are done. For now at least.

I am SO looking forward to the day when he sleeps through the night without waking at all. It will come, but we may be looking at another few months of waking up to bring him into bed with us. I don't mind - provided its just the once - cosleeping doesn't really bother me. At some point we want our bed back full time, but they're only this little once and I've yet to come across another method that I feel comfortable with.

I know that at some point G will learn to self-soothe. We might actually try going to Build A Bear to see if having him pick out a special lovey will speed the process along. He hasn't really connected with a stuffed animal or blanket and he doesn't take a pacifier... His "lovey" right now is me. Which is sweet, but uncomfortable at 2am when he rolls over and squeezes me with all his might. Although it does make me smile when he hugs me and murmurs "mama" in his sleep.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Major Malfunction

Often, in the middle of the night, I find myself wanting to ask my son "what's your major malfunction?!"

We are currently suffering through what I like to call The Suck. It is called The Suck for 2 reasons: 1. it sucks and 2. you really just have to suck it up and deal with it.

There are lots of "The Suck" in parenting. What The Suck is depends on the age, and in some cases the child. But every child has a Suck. Generally, The Suck is outweighed by The Awesome - or at least they're 50/50 - but sometimes The Suck is greater than The Awesome and you want to just reboot the day (or you know, your life) or skip to bedtime or the 1st grade. Whichever comes first.

Some Sucks are: the 6 month sleep regression, a 9 month old who doesn't sleep through the night (because most don't, so don't get your hopes up), weekly tantrums, suddenly becoming a picky eater, etc. Sucks are temporary, which is the bright side of a Suck.

Griffin's Suck is sleep. It's always been sleep, and will probably be sleep for awhile longer. The Sleep Suck is one of the worst Sucks to have (with the exception of the Colic Suck, which is *also* a Sleep Suck and thus is a double whammy of Suckage). All Sucks suck, it's in their very nature, but some are more sucktacular than others.

And the Sleep Suck is pretty much the worst Suck.

Sometimes the Sleep Suck morphs into what I like to call Hell. And I call it this because it's pretty much the perfect description of the situation. Hell happens when your 3 year old doesn't sleep for 24+ hours (yeah, I know someone who dealt with this on a regular basis). Hell happens when your child goes to bed at 12am and wakes up for the day at 4am for an entire month. Hell happens when you cannot take your toddler out without a full meltdown and so are forced to water down milk in order to make it last the day.

I have not yet experienced Hell. But I know parents who have.

What we are dealing with right now, is just Suck. Which sucks, to be sure, but it just something that we have to deal with - unless is morphs into Hell, in which case I am driving them the 3 hours to Sacramento so I can have a weekend of SLEEP.

This incarnation of Suck is regular night wakings - every 45 minutes or so - that come with whining, plaintive cries of "mama!", and often an emphatic (read: loud) request for milk. This means that G is up at least 8 times, sometimes more. Getting him back down is sometimes easy, sometimes not and it's hard to tell when he's going to need more help self-soothing.

So we're tired. *Almost* newborn phase tired. And really? I haven't gotten consistent good sleep since Penelope was born and damn it, I deserve it. But there's not a whole hell of a lot I can do but comfort the G-man, keep trying new things to help him learn to self-soothe, and just wait it out.

But mark my words. Child will be getting some sweet, sweet revenge when he's a teenager. Mommy holds a sleep-deprivation grudge. For sure.

Pintrest

Hello, my name is Jessica, and I'm addicted to Pintrest

(This is where you say, "Hello Jessica").

Anyway, a fellow blogger named Julie wrote this post about the things she's done based on pintrest, and it's inspired me to write one about my own pintrest obsession. Be prepared, I've done a lot.

1. The Owl Hats. I've already blogged about these hats. I've made 5 so far, all for kids, and I love each new one more than the last. They're a little time consuming (especially the d**m ears) but so super cute.

2. The puzzle coasters (see blog post linked in #1) were also inspired by a friend's pintrest site (before I had a pintrest page). I just changed things up a little to make them puzzles instead of just homemade coasters.

3. The Hand Tree! (small version in linked post). I love this craft - although I wasn't ready to do it with the kids quite yet. I made a big one for our house - do you like?

Bryan & my arms/hands make the trunk and the kids' hands are the upper branches. Things I've learned from this craft - Griffin has big hands (almost as big as Poe's) and I have TINY wrists. Like freakishly small.

4. Headbands. I have actually tried 4 headband patterns found through pintrest. I don't have pictures of them all, but here are a few:
If you like this one, here's the link to the pin
For this one, I took this pin and this pin to create a "new" headband. I still want to learn how to do the crochet stitch of the rainbow headbands, I love the way it looks.

5. Wall Art - this actually didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped, but they look ok.

Perhaps I just need more of them. Here's the link to the pin where I got the idea. If I do it again, I'll change things up a little.

I have a LOT of things on my pintrest boards that I have yet to try. Hairstyles, more crochet crafts, recipes, decorating ideas... Pintrest is completely addicting - so be wary before you begin.

Happy crafting!

Selling the Cloth

Using cloth diapers has saved us a ton of money. A TON. Especially with two kids in diapers at the same time.

But since the move, with both of us working, and with the kids in daycare, we've given up on cloth diapers and switched to disposables. We just weren't generating enough for a load every other day, so they'd sit in the diaper pail and marinate. Which was gross. Add in our washer and dryer are downstairs and in the garage (with no direct door, you have to go outside to access the garage) and cloth became a hassle. It never really was before. So we packed up the diapers and they've been sitting in a closet for over a month.

It's finally time to move them out of the closet. Most of them are still in excellent condition and are the "new" BG 4.0s, which is cloth diaper speak means a very popular type of CD. Some of them are plain, some are patterned. Some I made myself. And I'm selling them.

They all come with microfiber inserts, some newer, some 2 years old.

So I have 5 BG 3.0s, 12 BG 4.0s, and 8 handmade in the 3.0 style. Here's a pic:

They retail from 15-18 a piece, and I'll negotiate price, I'd love to get $5 a diaper. I'll also throw in our 2 wet bags. any takers? - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The purse

I will let you male readers in on a little secret. No woman is ever happy with her purse.

We carry them everywhere. We are lost without them. We spend hours (literally) agonizing on which purse to choose. We spend hundreds of dollars on them. We let out excited squeals when a friend shows up with a new one. We are jealous of those with expensive ones. We often own more than one so we can match our outfits with them... You would imagine that an accessory that claims so much of our attention would be an accessory that we love as much as our shoes (which, btw, we often loathe as well).

But no. We hate the purse. No, we hate our purse. It is never good enough. Never big enough, or it's too big. The straps are too long or too short. The color is too bright or too busy. There are too many pockets or not enough places to put out stuff. Things gets lost in the bottom or they fall out the sides. The purse is never quite right.

And so we buy a new one. Hopeful that this time will be different. This time the relationship will last, this time it will fulfill all our needs. This time it won't be deficient in a critical area of need. This time we will love our purse.

And every time we are disappointed.

I know this. I have known this for years. If I was to put together a slideshows of all my purses over the years it would look a lot like my old dating record. One is too small, one was way too busy, another's strap kept awkwardly pulling my hair, one kept falling off my arm... And I had hoped that one day I would find the "perfect" purse. The one to settle down with and keep around. I mean, I found a man I wanted to marry, you'd thinking finding a purse would be easier.

But it isn't.

I'm still trying though. Today I bought a purse that, like so many before (and like a few ex boyfriends) I know will be deficient. But I'm bringing it home anyway.

Why? It's cute. It's blue. And it was on sale for $7.50, marked down from $98.00. Thank you New Year sale at Kohls.

So here she is.

Unlike my old purse, I'll be able to keep my iPad in this one. I'll also be able to fit Griffin in here should I need to. It's huge. This means I will lose my keys and my phones to the bottom. Although it does have front pockets, so maybe I can train myself to put my phone and keys in there... Probably not. We'll see. I am both apprehensive and hopeful- pretty normal feelings for the beginning of a new purse relationship.

And now I can say goodbye to my last purse, who is full of cookie dust (Griffin stuck a shortbread cookie in it one day). This one never held everything I needed it to and so it was time for a change.

Wish me luck. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

You Guys

I am going crazy. Like, literally.

I posted today about New Years Day and in that post, I promised a NYE post would be coming soon.

Only I ALREADY POSTED ABOUT NYE.

Also? I posted about some of my Christmas crafts TWICE. Because I keep forgetting that I've posted. Because I'm going crazy.

This either means I need more sleep or that I need the regular structure of the work day (or both), in order to retain my short term memory.

Isn't this supposed to happen when I'm old? You know, like 40? ;)

New Years Day

A NYE post will come soon, but today it's all about New Years Day. It was a really stellar weekend out here. Mid 70s, sunny, a little breezy, but overall gorgeous. We took advantage of the weather and spent time outside, but also visited one of our favorite Monterey spots: the Aquarium.

If you've never been to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, you should go. It's amazing, and gives you the excuse to see us :) (we have guest passes!) both kids love the aquarium, they know the layout of the building and we have a pretty regular route. Otters, Deep Sea (includes jellyfish, sharks, sea turtles, sunfish, etc), play area, penguins, octopus, sea horses, and occasionally includes petting the bat rays, starfish, and hermit crabs. We "hung out" with an exceptionally friendly penguin named Pebble on this trip. I'm not sure if it was a male or female penguin, but it was very interested in swimming up against the glass where we were and making eye contact with G. Here are some pictures:







Looking out at the ocean:



In a penguin egg:



By the Puffin exhibit:







On the play area:



After the Aquarium we headed home. I was expecting naps after a morning of running around the aquarium and was a little disappointed that no one was tired (well, mommy & daddy aside). So we broke out the bikes and spent the afternoon outside.







(G's bike it a little too big... Maybe in a few months he'll be ready to try and "ride" it).



Next was skating:











All in all (no naps aside) it was a great day. A great anniversary, and a great start to the new year. Here's hoping your new year started well and stays great! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad