Tire trouble

I had to put Emma to sleep in the crib tonight. For those of you who follow the blog regularly you may be thinking, “Oh, no! Why the setback?” I’ll tell you why – I’m freakin’ tired and didn’t even want to chance a struggle tonight!

Why are you so tired, Mommy?

Well, a few weeks ago I had taken Brian’s car to our beloved mechanic for a regular oil change and tune up. He rotated the tires for me and mentioned that they were pretty bald and we should consider getting 4 new ones. I figured I would get around to it when Ben was a little sturdier – say 5 years old – but alas, today was the day that I could procrastinate no more. As Brian was getting out of the car at the office this morning he heard a hissing sound as if a tire were going flat. “Sucks to be that guy…” he thought as he entered the building.

Turns out, upon leaving the building an hour later, Brian realized he was “That Guy” and took off his tie, got all manly and changed his flat tire. “Why didn’t you just call AAA?” I asked, “We pay them good money every year to do just that.” I think he was administering himself penance for his earlier “sucks to be” attitude.

He made it home on the donut and traded cars with me. I loaded the kiddies into the bum car and off we went to the tire guy. Now, if you recall, Emma MELTED down last time we were at Crappy Lube getting the oil changed in my car – and that was only a 20 minute fix it. I dreaded to even think about how I was about to spend my afternoon…

Turns out the tire guy quoted me 90 minutes to do the job (new tires and balancing) and it took THREE HOURS.

Ben was his usual amazing quiet happy sleepy farting self. The only time he cried is when Emma tossed her play elephant on him and frightened him. He was quickly soothed and didn’t make a peep until he got home.

Emma, you ask? How did she fare? Well have I got a story to tell you!

Actually she was the perfect angel! Whaaaaaaaat? Yes, dear readers, EMZILLA was fun, flirty with the others waiting, sat quietly, looked at books and magazines without tearing them to bits, said please and thank you, enjoyed the fish in the fishtank… and I could go on and on. I was so proud of her. We were there during her naptime and I thought she was going to get cranky and lose it in public, but nope!

But, Batter Bunch Fans, the key to the previous sentence was – and those of you who are parents already know what I am going to say – was “in public.” You see, the minute she got home she melted. Melted like the Wicked Witch of the West. I believe I even heard her scream, “I’m shrinking. I’m shrinking.”

Okay, I exaggerate. But she was waaaaaaay cranky by 7pm and I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind to deal with it, so into her jammies she went and straight into the crib. Big Bad Ben can sleep on the big bed tonight. He’s only 3 months old and it’s not like he is rolling over yet or teething.

OR IS HE?

Yep, Ben rolled over yesterday – we are pretty sure it was a fluke, but he was chilling on the bed with Daddy and all of the sudden – bloop! He rolled over.

Then today while nursing him, I sneezed a mighty sneeze and scared the crap out of him. He pulled off the boob and howled – mouth wide open so I could get a good look at his gums, and I’ll be damned if I didn’t see a little white what I thought was a pustule on his gums. “Oh, Ben, ouchie, what is this pustule I see?” Then I touched it with my finger and it was sharp! A wee little bone of tooth poking through. Crazy thing is – it isn’t the usual front top or bottom tooth, it’s the canine on the bottom left. WE GOT US A VAMPIRE!

But, Ben, I will love you just the same. Just don’t get all fussy if I start eating a wee bit more garlic than you are used to and it changes the consistency of the milk.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is why I am “freakin’ tired.” I am sure there will be many more days like this, but today I am especially drained. Oh yeah, and thankful that I am blessed with two amazing children. And an awesome, sexy, suit wearin’, tire changin’ husband. Life is good.

Umma's

Ben has truly moved away from being an infant and is a full blown baby now. He doesn't want to be flat on his back in the pack and play anymore - preferring instead to be in a sitting position propped up on the sofa or in his car seat or on someone's lap. His big blue eyes follow Emzilla everywhere - partially out of amusement to see what she is doing and partially out of fear - when will she strike next!

We were playing Japminton in the backyard this afternoon as Daddy had a bit of extra time off work. Emma kept asking for the rackets, "Come on, Mommy, Umma's!" or "Umma do it, Mommy. Daddy! Umma, do it!" She would swing the racket like she was going to hit the ball, but then would hold on to the ball and let the racket go flying. HA! One of these days she will get the hang of it.

Also, all those fun musical electronic toys she got for Christmas - just collecting dust. They bore her in minutes. She is Little People crazy - playing exclusively with them and the Barn, Zoo, and House - and utilizing the legos to build fences and pig pens and chicken coops. I am thinking to ask for only more Legos and maybe Lincoln logs for her birthday - no more electronic stuff!

Whack!

As I was nursing Ben this morning Emma decided she wanted some attention (sound familiar?). When I couldn't give her my full attention, she decided to take it out on Ben (sound familiar?). The "take it out" was a solid smack on the noggin (sound familiar?). Except today, when Ben started wailing Emma knew from the look on my face that she was in big trouble so she said to Ben in a whispered voice, "Hush, Ben. You're ok. Ben, no crying, hush, hush." as if she could get him to stop crying so I wouldn't be mad at her. Priceless.

Speech fun

It is nap time for all of us, but I haven't blogged in a few days so I wanted to write down a few of Emma's funny phrases before they were lost forever somewhere in the cells of my brain.

Last night Brian and the kids were at our friends house and Emma was READY to go. She kept saying over and over: "Come on, Daddy, gotta go! Car? B-bye, b-bye!"

The other day on Sesame Street, Elmo had a segment on dinosaurs. Emma fell in love with the word. Now, everything is a dinosaur. The animal crackers she has been eating forever? No longer hippos, and cows and elephants - but dinosaurs. The giraffe on her wall? A dinosaur. Because she now understands 'pretend' - when I growl at her like a monster coming to get her, she laughs and calls me a dinosaur...

She is also still calling the tea set my girlfriend gave her 'popcorn' and her security blanket 'tia'. There have been times she has woken in the middle of the night and can't find TIA because she is sleeping in the big bed. She'll fuss "Tia! Tia! Tia..." until I get up and find it and then she passes back out.

Speaking of passing out. Can't. Keep. My. Eyes. Open...

...but I did not shoot the Deputy.

Let's get one thing straight. I am the boss.

Lately it seems there is a new Sheriff in town. Madame Sheriff has herself a sidekick most would call the Deputy - I call him Ben. Madame Sheriff - or Emma for short - has been ruling the roost as of late.

Now, don't get me wrong - I still call the shots (I am the boss!), but it seems our time is dictated by her 'schedule.' What time did she wake up? When will I have to give her lunch? How much more time before her nap? Will she wake up cranky and want dinner immediately? Do we have time for a bath or just a quickie shower before bed...?

Today this new Sheriff attempted a mutiny - and I didn't like it, didn't like it at all. You see, I value a nap. Naps are important - they rejuvenate the mind and body, they make a certain Sheriff less cranky in the evening, they give the Supreme Ruler time to wash the dishes... Today Emma went down for a nap at 3:00pm. By 4:20 she was still jibber jabberin' away in bed, she finally knocked out around 4:30 and slept until I woke her up at 5:30 because I was afraid she would never go to bed... Then she was Les Miserable all evening and didn't fall asleep until 9pm - exhausting me and weirding out the Deputy.

Now, I know what you are thinking. Maybe she has outgrown naps. NO! TODDLERS NEED NAPS. (Remember, the dang dishes need to get washed!) But what seems to have happened is the days pass so quickly and she is so full of energy that she doesn't get put in for a nap until later and later each day. Sooooooooo, tomorrow I will be disciplined and put her in for a nap right after lunch. If she sleeps - great! If she doesn't... I will try again and again until I have her back on her old schedule.

She is a quarter Latin, by the way. Those crazy Latin folk take siestas every afternoon after lunch. I say, respect your roots!

Yesterday... All my troubles were right in my face.

Emma's 21 month well visit to the pediatrician did not go well. Oh, don't worry, she is fine physically, it was the emotionally part that had a bit of a problem.

As I may have mentioned, our pediatrician is an elderly Grandpa type, and, Emma is scared to death of him. From the minute he walked in the door, she shrieked. I tried every trick to calm her - I could feel her little heart just a thumping inside her chest as I struggled to hold her during the exam. Of course it didn't help that she got two immunizations - but thankfully they were the last in the series for children!

We made it out alive - but with lots of snots and tears on my shoulder.

We came home and I busted out the Little Peoples Farm with all the animals and tractors. We used Legos to build a pig pen, a chicken coop, and a corral for the sheep. I showed her how to pretend the farmer was driving around on the tractor delivering food to all the animals. It was the first time I think she "got" it and for the next few hours she went crazy. She kept calling the pig pen, "piggy's house" cracking me up and we had heaps of fun.

After lunch, we attempted to get a break from the 103 degree Valley heat and hit up the Topanga Mall. I needed some stuff from Target which I was able to buy in less than 15 minutes (I'm getting good at the fast shopping!), and headed over to the play area. I took Emma's shoes off and deposited her with the other toddlers crawling all over the other animals and slides. As I went to take Ben from the stroller and put him into the Baby Bjorn carrier, Emma decided she had zero interest in the play area and bee-lined for the carousel next door. With bare feet she goes tearing past me while Ben is only half into the carrier. I quickly finagle the straps, grab my purse leaving the stroller and go running after her. She was running full speed around the fence trying to find the gate entrance so she can go for a ride. I was trying to grab her hand but the kid was desperately in search of the magical door. I would have been happy to oblige her in a ride but I didn't have any cash on me and the $3 ticket could not be purchased with my debit card. I thought about digging in my purse for quarters - but really - did I have 12 of them in there? I doubted it. So I scooped her up on my left hip, with Ben in front in the carrier, grabbed the stroller steering it one handed out of the mall into the oppressive heat of the paved parking lot with Emma screaming, "Mommy, ride!!" over and over and over. Poor Ben was also crying because of the close quarters with his banshee sister. By the time I got them into the car and packed up the stroller I was spent. I am spent reliving it while typing!

Needless to say, I earned my salary yesterday... Wait? What? I'm not getting paid to be a Mom?

Oh yeah, a smile from Ben and a "piggy's house" is payment enough!

Interjection junction

I am sitting here typing one handed because Bennelloni is slowly falling asleep in my left arm. We are lounging on the sofa, the ceiling fan is whirring and it is a balmy 85 degrees at 8:17pm.

I am in a grateful mood. Grateful because today was Sunday and Sunday means family day. I got to spend the last 12 hours with my 3 favorite people - toss in two hours of catching up with some old friends at their house and meeting their new baby, and top it off with some Japanese "Badminton" in my back yard as the sun was setting. The skies were blue, the sun was hot, and I was happy. Still am.

Toddler phrase of the weekend: "Wow, wow, wow!" said with dramatic intonation.

Infant phrase of the weekend: "Ooo ow. Eee!" squealed with a big gummy grin.

"Come on, Weavie!"

Today was another one of those glorious days where I look back at the past 15 hours and say to myself, "What did I do today?"

Well, let's start with Ben. In his mere 12 weeks, he has only peed on me twice, pooped on me once, and puked on me once. Not a bad record - until today. Today, Ben decided to break all the rules and started out his day by peeing on me. Then at lunchtime, midnursing, he pooped the messiest of poos all over me. Then, because that wasn't fun enough, after I cleaned him up and got fresh clothes on him (and me) and finished nursing him, he decided all that clothes changing jiggling was enough to make a kid puke and did so. All over his clean clothes and all over mine. But wait, I'm not done! 20 minutes after cleaning him up for the vomit incident, I was nursing him again to top him off/calm him down and what does he do? PEES ALL OVER ME AGAIN!

4 changes of clothes - for both of us... He's lucky he's so dang cute!

Luckily, Emzilla was tons of fun today. We had a playdate at the park with her friend, Evie. They played very well together for over a hour - a record for me at the park! They were holding hands walking around the play area - too cute - and encouraging each other to go down the slides sans mommy. Emma finally conquered the twirly slide solo, then proceeded to go down it about 15 times in a row. She kept calling Evie, "Weavie" and we were cracking up.

This afternoon I tried out a new game on her. Remember Concentration, that card memory game? Well, we played the "I'm only 21 months old!" version of that - which was to place all the card face down, then Emma turned them over one by one naming all the pictures as she flipped the cards. Good fun!

Finally, this evening for dinner I placed a plate of chicken and avocado and rice in front of her on the table. She decided that forks and hands were not allowed this evening and buried her face in the place like our dogs at their bowls! I was laughing way to hard to yell at her. When she saw me laughing, she started laughing, and we giggled like school girls for a good 5 minutes.

HEY!

Emzilla has always enjoyed music but is now at the stage where she is starting to 'sing' along with her favorite songs. She really just repeats the key words over and over, but it is definitely not speaking anymore and is singing. She will 'sing' along when she hears the songs and I often hear her singing when she is playing. Today while in the car, Daddy and I got a big laugh when Daddy changed the stereo from her CD to am radio so he could hear the sports update. "Hey!" she yells with the most exasperated look on her face.

One of those songs is a Backyardigans ditty that goes, "Please and Thank you, that's the secret of the Nile. Please and thank you get you practically anything you want with a smile." Emzilla sings it this way: "Peas and sankyuu seequit. Peas and sankyuu seeesquuuuuit." And when Ben cries, she sings him her favorite lullaby, "Hush hush hush hush." when stems from another Backyardigans song, "Hush little mermaid, goodnight." except 'hush' is the only part she can get out.

She is also figuring out gestures. The "Come on, Mommy." with her little hand clenching and waving me on cracks me up every time. And she has picked up on my usage of, "Bye, ____ (insert object we are trying to get her to put down or get away from)." Today she wanted me to get off the lounge chair with Ben and help her put a puzzle together. "Come on, Mommy. Bye, chair. Bye chair." The kicker is she is talking to the chair exactly like I talk to whatever it is I am trying to remove from her.

BUT, my favorite discovery of today was the finger puppets. Someone gave me a "Hunny Pot" full of Winnie the Pooh Classic finger puppets for a baby shower gift. I often play with them using silly voices directed at Emma. Today my heart burst with joy as I watched her pull the puppets out of the pot, put one on her finger, and in a silly voice question herself, "Hi, Umma (her pronunciation of Emma). What doin'? Go walk? No? Outside? Ok... Bubbles?"

Ha!

Ben was his usual rockstar self again today. He is still sleeping lots - sleeping through dogs barking, sister squealing. I'd be concerned with his sleep patterns but I remember Emma slept lots and lots when she was a baby, too. He made it through the night again, waking at 6am - except today we both went back to bed after this early feeding and didn't wake back up until 8:30 when daddy got up. NICE!

Emzilla

I have to warn you. My short term memory is pretty terrible. So terrible that I can't remember if I wrote something about something and I have to review my past blogs to see if I already mentioned it. But sometimes I just don't have the time to review - so if I am repeating myself ever, blame it on my lack of sleep. OH WAIT - can't do that, because I have been getting 7 hours of straight through uninterrupted sleep for almost a week now! But Ben is getting me up at 6am daily and I haven't been going back to sleep after that, which is something I haven't done since grade school. I find it oddly cleansing to nurse Ben as the sun is coming up and enjoy my alone time with him. Now if I could just put down the computer and do some exercise or yoga before Emzilla woke up - that would be a stellar start to the perfect day.

Emzilla, you ask?

Yepper. That is my new name for her... Stems from Easter Sunday and me trying to get a nice pic of the kids and their Easter baskets. Of course, Emma wouldn't look at the camera - she was much more interested in checking out the booty in the basket - and when I say booty, I mean the goods that other family members purchased for her because, once again, I have failed as a mom and didn't make any effort to get a celebratory gift for my kid (that makes 1st birthday, Christmas, and now Easter...) - but you all know my reasoning behind that, she gets way too much stuff from family and friends and won't remember anyways. My friend said this is the last holiday I will be able to get away with that cheap attitude as she is going to start having memories that will last real soon (that is unless she takes after me and my limited capacity to remember... but I digress).

Emzilla, you ask?

As a picture says a 1000 words, I'll just post the pic and you can imagine what went down afterwards.

Barrel of Bunnies

Phew! I am beat up. I love getting 7 hours of straight sleep, but these 6am risings are a challenge when I am still making up for 6 months of poor sleep.

We had a very busy day and we are all pretty wiped out. We had a napless Emma in her pjs by 6:15pm and attempted a 7pm bedtime. She fought sleep for about 40 minutes and has finally crashed. She has realized she can get out of bed on her own now that she is in the big bed, but she can't quite reach the doorknob to let herself out of the room. She wanders around fussing, knocking on the door, pleading for me to let her out. I've been letting her do that for 5 minute spurts, then I go in, give her a hug and lay her back onto the bed. Each time I can see her getting sleepier and sleepier, then finally dreamland.

She did a great job entertaining all our friends for our Easter dinner this afternoon. "Ah, dude!" was a big hit, as was the ever dramatic, "Oh, no!" when she dropped her plastic egg full of the barrel of monkeys (that were actually bunnies) game and they scattered all over the floor.

The house is eerily quiet right now and I want nothing more than to go sleep... But I need to nurse Ben in an hour so I will hold my eyes open with toothpicks and countdown the minutes until my potential 5th night in a row of straight through sleep comes my way...

Good Friday

Yep. It's 8am and I am blogging. We have been up since 6:30am. All of us, you ask? Yes, indeed.

You see, Emma is LOVING sharing a room with her baby brother. She has had zero problem with the transition to the full size bed and no jealousy with Ben in her crib. She thinks it is hysterical to wake up with him nearby!

The downfall? If one wakes up early, both wake up early! But I am not complaining because Ben went to bed at 9pm last night and slept until 6:30am. The best part? I didn't wake up in the middle of the night to pee or breast feed or yell at a stinky dog or tell my husband to roll over because he was snoring! Not only did Ben sleep through the night, but MAMA SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT. (Insert visualization of Mama doing a silly dance around the living room...)

Good Friday, indeed!

Snug as a bug!

Emma woke up from her nap from the previous post safe and sound. She didn't fall off the bed and she didn't seem to have any crib withdrawals! When I went into the room to rouse her, she smiled slyly as if she got away with something sleeping in "Ben's bed."

When I put her to bed tonight, I asked her which bed she wanted to sleep in. All she kept saying was, "Tia," which - if you remember - is her word for security blanket, go figure. Tia was on the big bed, so I laid her on the bed and she snuggled right in. It has been 20 minutes and I have yet to hear a peep.

A few funny language things today:

When I was getting Emma out of the bathtub, Ben started to fuss. Emma said, "Hold on, Ben." - which is what I say to Ben if he is fussing and I am trying to finish something up. Ha!

I usually read to Emma for about 15-20 minutes before she goes to bed. Tonight, she wouldn't let me read the stories properly. She decided she was going to read to me, and when I say read I mean identify each person on the page as "boy" or "girl". It was hysterical. She would turn the page, point to a character and say, "girl" or "boy", then point to another character and do the same. She made it through 2 books just saying girl and boy. And, if you are curious, she got all of the gender guessing correct - except for this one little boy in the Little Peoples book that looked rather feminine to me, too!

Her vocabulary is definitely expanding and she continually surprises me with her sentences. I can usually make out what she is saying, but my favorite sentence today was a bit tougher - it went something like this, "Mommy! Cow E I O ga blah doo doe de dia!" To which I replied, "Wow! Um, really? Unbelievable!"

Bed envy

Operation "Ben's Bed" is in progress and we are happy to report that our plan seems to be working. They nap and sleep together in the same room and one's random cries doesn't seem to wake the other. We have been calling the big bed "Ben's Bed" and Emma has picked that up. She climbs into it whenever possible and enjoys rolling around in the large space. When she wakes from her naps/overnight sleep, she jumps up and down in the crib saying, "Baby Ben! Baby Ben! Ben's bed! Ben's bed!"

Maybe tonight I will ask her if she wants to sleep in "Ben's Bed" and gauge her reaction...

Ben doesn't seem to care where he sleeps as long as their is a boob nearby when he wakes up. Just like his daddy...