De-cluttering

As we are hoping to move very soon (I know I keep saying that - ARGH - I don't wanna talk about it!), I have been selling baby stuff on Craigslist weekly and making monthly stops at Goodwill to unload the clutter. Yesterday I sold the Graco stroller / carseat combo with the two bases to a 17 year old girl who looked about 7 months pregnant. As I gave her a lesson on folding and unfolding the stroller with one hand in my front yard, what I really wanted to do was give her a big hug and my "what to expect the first year" book. I waited until I was 36 to have my first child, I just can't imagine what her life will be like in a few months. I mean, I know what it will be like - I have done it twice - but she doesn't have the life experience a 36 year old does, ya know?

I then sold the Aquarium swing to a soon to be Grandma expecting her first grandchild. Such a different dynamic!

I put the Christmas tree away today, too. I didn't mean to. I usually leave it up until after the New Years celebration. But in my 'get rid of clutter' free-for-all I wanted to pack up the tree so I could get a better idea of just how much crap I had in my storage in the garage. I did it while the kids were napping (at the same time!! a rare treat!!) - when Emma woke up and wandered into the living room, she FREAKED OUT. "Mama, the christmas tree gone! Where'd it go, Mommy??" I tried to explain to her that it was time for the tree to go bye bye and that it would come back again next year before Santa Claus came back. She accepted that explanation but was still sufficiently upset that she didn't get to say good-bye.

Not to jinx it, but Emma is doing awesome with the potty training. I think I may even be able to say she is trained by day. (We are still doing a diaper at night.) We have been out and about a lot recently and she is using public restrooms with no problem. I bring the portable seat with me and I think that makes all the difference. She feels comfortable and is still very proud of her achievements.

Benny seems to be digging his new forward facing car seat. He falls asleep in it no problem, which makes me feel like he is comfy. Today we made a Costco run and he sat in the front of the cart with Emma and laughed the whole time. He is doing better with table food digestion, too - everything except vegies - I still have to give him the purchased baby ones as he doesn't seem able to digest my pureed ones very well yet.

Emma is enjoying her new "moobies" she got for Christmas - The fox and the hound and the Aristcats. 101 Dalmations is still M.I.A. in my house somewhere... maybe we will find it when we move. ...If I ever find something suitable for the bunch and the dogs.

Merry Christmas!

Something strange happens when you get married and have children. It is the meshing of traditions - especially around the holidays.

If I could have it my own selfish way, we would follow my family's traditions of a quiet Christmas eve with a nice dinner, followed by opening one present each before bed. Then the next morning when everyone wakes up, all madness breaks loose, we open gifts, play with toys, have brunch, play with toys, go to the movies, come home and play with toys, then be in bed by 8pm from exhaustion.

Daddy's family always opened gifts Christmas eve after a big dinner, then went to bed and opened the gifts from Santa Christmas morning. Then they would hang out at their house relaxing on Christmas day usually heading to a friends house in the afternoon to socialize.

Neither tradition is better than the other, just different.

This year our mash-up looked something like this: last night we went to Uncle Raul's house where the whole Batter/Campos/Macksoud clan had a giant pasta dinner (YUM!) followed by the opening of all the presents being exchanged between the attendees. It was a madhouse, kids and toys, bows and ribbon, complete with Ben in the center of it all, beyond exhausted, fussing a bit but happy to be rolling around in the middle of all the discarded wrapping paper and boxes. After the unwrapping fun was done, Emma played race car with her 5 year old cousin Christian - who is madly in love with the little blonde girl and will go to great theatrical lengths to make her laugh and screech with delight - which she did - every 7 seconds. The adults got more joy from watching the two of them giggling than we did from opening presents, again proving that laughter is the best gift of all.

As both children passed out in the car on the ride home, we didn't get a chance to put out cookies and milk for Santa - but from what I hear he gets that kind of good stuff at every other house so quite possibly he was appreciative of the break from carb-overload.

Daddy and I put out the gifts (bad cell phone pic) then settled in to watch a movie on tv - don't ask me which one, I was asleep before the opening credits started rolling.



Ben woke up at 2am - I think Rudolph was making a bit too much noise up on the rooftop - I made him a bottle, laid him in the pack and play in the living room and went back to sleep. I didn't hear him again until 7:15am which is late for him, but I have a feeling he was awake for a while and scoping out the gifts on the table 3 feet away from him all morning as the sun rose.

Emma woke up soon after. I think she thought it just any old day until Daddy and I reminded her that Santa had stopped by. She exclaimed, "It's Christmas time! Rudolph was here! I LOVE Santa Claus!" She excitedly hopped out of bed then ever so shyly walked down the hall poking her head through the doorway to the living room. When she saw all the booty, she turned and hightailed it back to her bedroom! Overwhelmed?

We finally coerced her into coming back to the living room to open the gifts (which took over 90 minutes!) No, she didn't get all that much stuff, she just played with everything for 10 minutes before moving on to opening the next gift! That trait, my friends, did not come from me.

Ben just wanted to do/play with whatever his beloved sister was doing. He followed her everywhere like Mary's little lamb...

While Ben took a very short nap, Daddy and I went out back with Emma and played with her new T-ball set. The kid is a natural. (I may have to set up a t-ball league for the kids in her nursery class at church!) It is about 75˚ today - very un-Christmas like... We did have frost on the grass when we woke up though! I guess that is the closest we will get to a white Christmas here in LA.

Nap time now... Mommy needs one, too.

2 more days!

Ben has outgrown his baby car seat. We loosened the belts as far as we could to keep him safe, but his little legs aren't so little anymore and hang over the bottom of the seat so he can kick the back seat of the car. All those signs has led us to believe that it was time for the big boy seat. We swapped it out yesterday and at first he wasn't very fond of it, but as soon as the car starting rolling, he chilled out and was like, "Hey, this is cool. I can see out the window... New views of the 'hood. Right on, I may just like this." He even fell asleep in it today looking all comfortable, so I think the transition was a success.

Now, I have to make adjustments! You see, when we went shopping anywhere with shopping carts, I would put Emma up front and leave Ben in his car seat in the basket of the cart. I would then drag another cart behind me like a choo choo train. I got pretty darn good at the pushing and pulling with one hand thing, too! Now what do I do? I tried a short stint out at Petco today. I put Ben in top front, and had Emma walk beside me. SHE LOVED THE FREEDOM - loved it a little too much. I lost her twice for about 20 seconds each. Of course Petco is always a ghost town so I wasn't too worried, but what happens when we go to Target? I am going to need to be more disciplined in keeping her close by! Trouble is, I get distracted easily and off she goes!

On another note, I usually don't feed the dogs dinner until the kids are in bed. Cassidy will let you know when it is past their bedtime with her whimpers of starvation! Tonight I was in the Christmas spirit of giving after eating a bunch of homemade fudge my friend, Connie, had dropped off and decided to feed the dogs early while Emma was still awake. She handled it like a pro. "Dogs, SIT! No eat. Wait. Wait. Okay, Doe doe, GO EAT! Cassidy, EAT!" Of course, unlike my children, the dogs didn't listen to her commands of "go eat" as they know who the real boss is around here (as opposed to the train...). Emma kept yelling at them to "GO EAT!" but they wouldn't budge until I gave them the signal. Too funny! Emma then laid down on the floor and watched Apollo eat every last bite. She was fascinated with his chowing and Apollo didn't seem to mind the audience.

The "puppy movie" is still missing but I was able to score the book used at the $1 bookstore that Afton told me about. I actually got a ton of disney used books there for her Christmas stocking. So many of them I remembered having as a kid. I am excited to have new books to read to her! We enjoyed reading 101 Dalmations tonight (early present) and although it wasn't quite the same as her beloved 'puppy movie', she could tell me the story page for page from all the awesome pictures directly from the movie. This girl is way too smart for her 29 months.

Here is a preview of Christmas morning. (We opened some gifts from Gramma Lou before she headed back to PA.) Emma and Daddy being silly, and Ben eating a box. As always, the boxes are more interesting than the gifts that came in them.

Tale as old as time, or at least as old as tv.

Sometimes I worry that I let my kids watch too much tv.

I truly struggle with this. The tv is NOT on all day. If Emma is not awake and Ben is, the tv is off as Ben is fascinated with the screen and I know how important it is for him to get his exploration play time in. If they do watch regular tv (versus a dvd), we only watch Nick Jr - no commercials and the programs are only 10-20 minutes long - perfect amount of time for me to take a shower or get a meal made.

But here is the kicker, Gramma Lou stayed with us for the past week. She and Emma shared the double bed in the kids room and mentioned that Emma not only talks up a storm in her sleep but also sings. I have been privy to this song and talk on occasion, but I think it happens more than I realize because usually it occurs when I am asleep, too! What does she sing? "Tale as old as time. Tune as old as song. Barely even friends then somebody bends unexpectedly..." And, my friends, she sings it with perfect clarity! She is 29 months old. I either have the next Lady Gaga on my hands, or my kid watches too much tv.

On a happy note, last night Gramma said she was talking about "silly Mommy" so at least I make her smile in her dreams!

Bumble torture

Long time no write! We have been out of town at a convention in Arizona and Gramma Lou has been on kiddo duty. We got home about midnight and I wanted so very badly to bust into their bedroom and wake them up and give them big giant hugs. It was the first time I have been away from Ben for any significant amount of time and although I had no Benny withdrawal symptoms while I was at the convention knowing they were in such good hands, as soon as it was over I couldn't wait to get in the car and race home trying very hard to be disciplined with my driving speed for 6 hours!

This morning I heard Ben stirring and Gramma Lou getting him up. I tried to take advantage of having help and closed my eyes to go back to sleep but I just tossed and turned because I wanted to see him so bad! I got up, snuck into the living room and laid down on the floor on my belly. It took a few seconds for Ben to catch sight of me, and when he did the biggest ear to ear smile broke out on his face and he hauled butt across the floor, climbed up into my arms and gave me the longest biggest hug he ever has. It was one of those amazing moments where time stops and hearts explode!

When Emma woke up, I went into her room and hopped in bed with her. She said, "Mommy!" with a big grin, then immediately asked, "Is Gramma Lou home?" I guess it is safe to say she enjoys her time with her gramma.

Both kids have been enjoying watching Rudolph on the dvr all week in preparation for Christmas. Ben is crazy scared of the Abominable Snow Monster and it never ceases to crack us up to watch his reaction when he comes on the screen. The first time we see him, Ben will burst into tears. The next time he will just crawl away and hide behind the table or chair or whatever is nearby to protect him! Then as the show progresses he gets a bit braver and will peak out from his protection and eyeball the tv. Finally by the end of the show he is pretty comfortable with the big white guy and will watch without any adverse reaction. He will repeat this process EVERY TIME we watch Rudolph! HA!

Gramma leaves tomorrow so we are going to have our first Christmas present opening session now. Get the camera ready!

Here comes Santa Claus. BOO HOO HOO HOO!

If you look closely, in the background of these pictures is Jolly Old St. Nicholas. But by the looks on our children's faces, you'd have thought it was the Boogey Man. They were petrified. PETRIFIED! And I talked Santa Claus up all day with Emma. I told her how awesome it was going to be to sit on his lap and tell him what kind of presents she wanted for Christmas. She was so excited! ...until he walked in the door and she RAN the other way. AWESOME!

Here is a comparison of last year's reaction to this year's reaction:


As you can see, not much of a difference. Maybe by the time she is teenager...?

As I type this I am burping up a doughnut. (TMI?) Emma didn't eat much dinner at our ward Christmas party tonight. Why? Because she discovered the dessert table as soon as she walked in the door.

Evidence:

At one point in the evening she walked over to me wearing a doughnut with one bite out of it on her index finger. Picture it. Little hand, small pointy finger, giant doughnut with one bite on it like a wedding ring... She hands it to me saying, "Here, Mommy." Apparently she wasn't fond of the taste - weird kid - but she thought I just may enjoy it, which I did! My girlfriend sitting at the table with me concurred that doughnuts with one bite taken out from your toddler have no calories in them, so I ate it up. YUM! (Don't be jealous Daddy.)


Tonight we tivo'd Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer so Emma can watch it every day until Christmas and I can start using and abusing the "naughty and nice" thing to my advantage. Considering tonight's reaction to Santa, it probably won't work, but a Mama can dream, no?

...I'm a toys*r*us kid...

Benny is testing out his legs. He is pushing off the furniture more and more and standing for a few seconds before bending his legs and falling to the ground. He has finally gotten the hang of "Robble Robble" (i.e. the sesame street walker) too, and is having a blast wandering around the living room and down the hallway. Yesterday he pulled himself up on one side of the kitchen cabinets and walked down the length of them holding onto the handles. Today he circled the coffee table. It is only a matter of time before my baby boy is no longer a baby and turns into a "toddler".

Emma had another accident free day. Turns out she is no longer a toddler and is turning into a little girl.

Does this mean I finally have to grow up, too?

Ben gets a huge kick out of taking a bath with his big sister. He splashes like a madman and laughs and squeals with delight. Emma likes to "wash Benny's back" and I enjoy watching them play together. The only hairy thing is getting them out when bathtime is done. I pluck Ben out first, get him dried, lotioned, and dressed, then I snatch Emma out and do the same. Only challenge is, when I am drying Emma, Ben is trying to crawl back into the tub to play more. I didn't notice until it was too late, but tonight he tossed his shoes in the draining water. I rescued them before they got soaked so hopefully they will dry by morning.

Emma just screamed out, "Mommy, HELP! I'm stuck. Please, Mommy, HELP!" I ran in there to see what was the matter and she said, "Mommy, Emma laying on Dee-it. Dee-it stuck!" (Dee-it is her name for her blanket. Don't ask. I have no idea who what when where why or how that name came to fruition.) "Emma, roll over so you can grab Dee-it yourself. You don't need Mommy's help." "No, Mommy, you do it. Please! Dee-it stuck!" I yanked it out from under her, covered her up and haven't heard a peep from her since.

Dialogue from Casa Califa:

Heard around my home today:

"Ben, get your hand out of there." - as I am trying to change his diaper and he keeps grabbing at his junk.

"Mommy, what are your thoughts?" - said Emma, as I am staring off into space daydreaming about something or other.

"Emma, is it pee pee time?" "No, it's sneeze time. Ah-choo!" with a big giant fake sneeze.

"Emma, did you pee on the floor?" "No, Mommy, it's just water." "Then why are your pants wet?" "It's okay, Mommy, you buy new ones."

As I was putting Ben's jammies on him tonight Emma ran into the room. "Mommy, I'm home!" "Where did you go?" "I don't know but you wanna hug me?"

And just to put you in the Christmas spirit, Emma was singing, "Rudolph the red deer nose..."

And just to make you smile, as we put her to bed, "I love you Emma." "I love you, Mama." Music to my ears.

My own island of misfits.

Lots of sassafras but with equal amounts of fun and amusement from 'ole toddler today. I can't quite remember the order of how it all happened, but here were some of my favorites.

As Daddy was making lunch and I was feeding Benny, Emma was mouthing off at me bossing me around and I said to her, "Don't you talk to me like that. I am the boss." She replied with even greater sass, "No, you not the bus, you a train!"

Later, she didn't like the pace at which I was cooking dinner so you came up behind me and smacked me on the rump saying, "I smack your butt. You in timeout!"

Ben has discovered that if he pulls himself up on the Arrowhead water dispenser he can now reach the lever that dispenses the agua. Guess what Ben likes to do every time he crawls into the kitchen now? Well, today, as Ben was breaking the law, Daddy busted out "the voice" and gave Benny a solid, "NO!" in that bowel shaking earth quaking rumble that he has mastered and scared the crap out of the poor baby. It completely scarred him as every other time Ben tried to pull himself up and I said "No" ever so sweetly, Ben burst into tears! If he wakes up screaming in the middle of the night tonight I can bet that he was dreaming of that darn dispenser and Daddy depriving him of all his fun.

Maybe that is what we can get him for Christmas - a 5 gallon jug of water to waste all over the kitchen floor. Best present ever!

Everyone loves crock pot beef stew!

A skirmish has broken out here in the Batter household. While blood has yet to be shed, lots of tears have fallen. Emma has discovered "pride" and when it gets in the way of our day to day dealings, she ends up in timeout or like tonight, in bed without milk or story time.

She is a very sweet good little girl 90% of the time, it is just that other 10% that pushes my buttons. Tonight she was tipping her sippy cup upside down and watching the milk drip out onto the floor. I asked her to please stop but she blatantly disobeyed me and ended up with a swat to the bum and in timeout. I told her when she was ready to say 'I'm sorry' she could leave time out and join Ben and me for some book reading. She screamed at me, "I'M NOT SAYING I'M SORRY. EMMA GOOD GIRL. SHE NOT SORRY!" "Oh, really?" I replied, "If you aren't going to say I'm sorry then you can go to bed." I plopped her in bed and closed the door. I think that surprised her as she then was just whimpering but not screaming at me like she sometimes does.

When I put Ben in his crib 10 minutes later, she pleasantly asked me for some milk. I asked her if she was ready to say, "I'm sorry." She said, "No. Emma good girl. She not sorry." again, but at least this time she wasn't yelling at me. I then told her when she found a way to say "I'm sorry" she could have her milk. It has been 15 minutes and her pride won't let her yet. HA!

She is currently in bed saying, "Emma sad. Boo hoo hoo hoo." Yes, she is actually saying the words boo hoo hoo hoo. I don't know where she learned them, but it cracks us up when she fake cries with them!

On a pleasant note, this morning when I opened the curtains and the sunlight streamed into the window, Emma caught sight of the dust particles floating in the air. She yelled excitedly, "Mommy, sun fuzzies! I'm gonna catch 'em!" Then streaked through the beams with shrieks of delight. The memory almost makes up for tonight's battle... Okay, it more than makes up for it.

We made it to the park today for a walk around the duck lake and then some time on the playground. It was 44˚ when we arrived and 52˚ when we left. COLD! But the sun was strong and the air was clear after yesterday's rains so it was the perfect morning. Emma found herself a new pal-for-a-day in a 20 month old boy named Clint. They ended the perfect playdate by jumping in the leftover puddles from the storm. Both children were soaked to the bone, but couldn't have been happier which made me smile even though I had to strip her naked in 52˚weather for the car ride home so her seat wouldn't get soaked.

On a completely random note, Ben looks exactly like Daddy. I see it more and more every day. His beautiful blue eyes that the pediatrician said would stay blue are even turning brown. Now, I happen to like looking at Daddy, so I don't mind the changes, but I did slave away for 39 weeks so my ego was hoping I would at least get a little something for recognition. Emma is a good mix of Daddy and I but to hear her speak - she sounds just like Daddy. For example, today she randomly said, "Mom, I want some chocolate." (Daddy's favorite...) Then tonight when I was making dinner she informed me, "Mommy, Emma want mac and cheese." Again, just like her father!

Ben made it known that he has had enough with the baby food and doesn't care about the diaper rash (which is all cleared up) when Emma had to use the potty mid-dinner. I put her bowl on the table and we raced into the bathroom. When we were finished, we returned to the table to find that Ben had snatched the bowl off the table and had dumped the contents on the floor and was sitting in the middle of it all shoving fistfuls into his mouth. YUM!

Sleep deprived, but happy

What a weekend! I think we've gotten about 10 hours of good sleep since Thursday. We are all exhausted but it was worth every minute.

I love having company - I just wish we resided in a place that was company friendly! The kids gave up their room for the long weekend to our friends and their 18 month old and we all slept in our bedroom. The first night Emma slept with us and Ben slept in the playpen. That was disastrous. And by disastrous I mean – "adjective 1. causing great distress or injury; ruinous; very unfortunate; calamitous: The rain and cold proved disastrous to his health." or my personal example: "Emma woke up at midnight screaming, which woke up Ben, who wouldn't go back to sleep and just wanted to play resulting in Emma not going back to sleep until 4am - DISASTROUS."

At 2am Brian, Ben, Emma and I were all laying in our bed wide awake watching a baby Einstein dvd. Brian and I looked at each other and just laughed. What else could we do?? Needless to say we were pretty beat up Saturday but that didn't stop us from having a blast hosting a bbq for all our LA 'family'. Emma did awesome on the potty the whole day - even with all the commotion - only 2 accidents, we were very proud of her!

Last night we finally got smart and after the kids fell asleep, we swapped them out putting Ben in our bed and Emma in the pack and play. We all slept until 5am when Mandy and Doc and Avery woke up to get ready to go to the airport. We were sad to see them go, but happy to back to normal. I have spent the morning cleaning and doing laundry and cleaning up after Emma who seems to have forgotten how to use the potty. Argh. We will dive back in full force when she wakes from her nap.

NO WAY!

Hey, Emma, let's have some lunch.
"NO WAY!"
Hey, Ems, you want to play outside?
"NO WAY!"
Bugaboo, please give Benny the monkey. He wants to play with it.
"NO WAY!"

Who taught her this phrase??

Potty training is still going well. Only two small accidents today... Then tonight, she actually said to me, "Mommy, pee pee time!" We raced into the bathroom and she peed on the potty! Whohoo!

My East Coast best friend (vs my West Coast) is in town for a long weekend. She has an 18 month old. I haven't seen her since she had the baby, but since we talk on the phone 4 or 5 times a week, it is almost as if she never left and it has been 3.5 years. When she pulled into my driveway and her husband pulled this cutie pie little girl out of the back seat I had a weird moment of "alternate universes" colliding. You see, they are the couple with whom we used to party hearty and have spirited conversations into the wee hours of the morning. And now we are both parents with cute little tow head children and are in bed by 8:30pm and our spirited conversation is limited to talk of poopy diapers and runny noses!

It was so cool seeing her interact with her daughter. She is a great mom and her husband is awesome with Avery, too. I am looking forward to Saturday when the entire "LA family" is together again... I'll try and post a pics of the rugrats soon.

So close...

I haven't been posting because I don't want to jinx it. "It" being the whole potty training thing.

The "something" I have been waiting for to click in her brain has indeed clicked and I THINK SHE'S GOT IT! We are down to just one or two accidents a day if that. She still doesn't speak up when she has to go, but we are pretty good at judging her "pee pee dances" and if we ask her if she needs to go, she doesn't hesitate to run to the bathroom. She continues to get a huge kick out of our praises and the stickers on the chart game. We are blowing through charts pretty quick now, so I have to start making them bigger!

Ben is continuing his preparation for entering the WWE when he is old enough. He has the wrestling skills down, and is getting pretty good at the theatrical part of it as well with his dramatic outcries and comedic goofy faces. Maybe I will make him a cape for Christmas and put him in some bathing trunks and video his antics so you will believe me when I say the kid is only 10 months old but has mad skills.

I hate overalls, too.

Emma and I had a giant fight this morning just before we were walking out the door. Surely it will be the first of many of it's kind. We had a very heated discussion about what she was wearing and what she wanted to wear. As she is only 28 months old, I won, but I am not sure of how many more of these battles will tip in my favor!

Today's battle was over a stupid sweatshirt. Oh, I'm sorry, a Disney Princess sweatshirt. I am pretty sure the designer of this sweatshirt never had kids, or at least never had a daughter. You see, the sweatshirt is a cute pink hoodie with the Disneyland logo on the front and the 5 popular princesses on the back. Yes, you read that correctly. The princesses are on the back - where a 28 month old CAN'T SEE THEM. She wanted ever so desperately to wear the sweatshirt, but she wanted to wear it backwards so the princesses were "Right here, Mommy!" as she slapped her belly. "But, Emma, the sweatshirt is a hoodie, you can't wear it backwards. You won't be able to see and it just may choke you." "NO, MOMMY! PRINCESSES RIGHT HERE. EMMA WANNA SEE 'EM."

We wrestled for a good 5 minutes until I tossed the darn sweatshirt cross the room and found another one without a hood and the princesses on the front. It was blue and didn't match her outfit what-so-ever, but it was a compromise that she accepted and I was able to get her into the car and we got our day underway. OI!

Potty training was awesome today. No accidents. WOW!

Ben was non-stop chatterbox fun all afternoon. Soooo adorable.

At 7:30pm, Emma said, "Mommy, Emma tired. (fake yawn) Go take a nap. Need pajamas." I almost fell off my chair! Auntie Cole helped me put her to bed and we didn't hear a peep from her the rest of the night. Must be a full moon!