Quick Before I Get Sidetrack'd

So, as I related in my last post, we had a wonderful time last weekend with family.  It was not, however, all smiles and giggles. When you have two parents who prefer to be close to home, you end up with two children who prefer to be in their usual environment.

The kids travelled remarkably well.  Boo slept most of the trip, and Little sat in her carseat and talked and played the whole time.  Yep, you read that right, she talked the whole trip.  She is her mother’s daughter.  They made the trip home nicely, too.

The problem arose from being out of routine for four days and being with strange people people we don’t see often.  I’m not a strict scheduler (although, sometimes with Boo I wish I was), but we do have a definite pattern and rhythm to our days.  The kids know when we’ll eat, when it’s naptime, who we’ll play with, etc.  I also have two children who sleep in their own beds, in their own rooms, and in the dark.

All of this was thrown out of whack while we were travelling.  Because of the number of people involved, mealtimes were somewhat sporadic.  Because of the laid back nature of our visit, naptime would sneak up on us.  And because of space issues, Little slept in the room with us.

She was totally thrown off by the fact that Boo and the sun rise before 6 o’clock a.m.  Waking up at 5 one morning, 5:30 the next, and 5:45 the last made for one irritable girl well before her normal naptime.  Add to the mix that there were 4 children age 3 and under and 10 adults living under one roof with another child (age 5) and several other adults coming in and out, and Little was having a tough time with overstimulation.  She did wonderfully the first couple of days, but by Sunday she was definitely ready to be in her home with only her Mommy, Daddy, and brother.

Then there was Boo.  His tummy trouble that was aggravated by something(s) I ate; the poor guy was crying in pain on Saturday, and there wasn’t much we could do to comfort him between doses of medicine.  He also decided that it was a good time to attempt learning to suck his thumb, so I don’t think he slept as well as usual because he was knocking his paci out of his mouth and waking himself up.

Overall, the children behaved well and were in good spirits, but there was enough crankiness to make me glad we don’t travel again for awhile.  Or, maybe I was the one who was overstimulated and cranky; I know I was happy to get home Sunday as well.

From Little – as we prepared to go to the zoo yesterday – “skeeto bite no go to zoo.”  Yeah, if I could figure out how to leave mosquito bites behind I’d be a rich lady.

New to her vocabulary – “paw-der” for pillow

From the potty training diary – she has pee-peed in the potty once, but she won’t wear training pants because apparently they hurt (she spent 30 minutes pulling at them the other day before she finally brought me a diaper and asked me to put it on).  I’m not sure she’s really ready yet; we’ll give it some time.

From The Boy – during his 4-ish a.m. feeding this morning I laid him down in the floor to change his diaper.  He proceeded to roll over from his back to his tummy.  Whaa?  You’re only 9 weeks old boy!

On sleeping – he’s up to 6 hours straight for the past several nights.  We’re still getting up two times, but I’m hoping that we’ll cut out the 4 o’clock feeding before long.

And from the pacifier files – I haven’t yet decided whether it is our friend or not.  It is much better than sucking on my pinky, but it presents it’s own set of challenges (like when he loses it during the night).

As for me – I almost let myself get heat exhaustion yesterday.  4 hours at the zoo in 85 degrees weather, the last 2 hours of that with Boo in our black wrap, and only about 8 ounces of water don’t make for good times at the end of the day.  Fortunately, I’m feeling much better today.

And finally, from “file it under random” – I glanced at the Pay Per Post form in my SIL’s sidebar earlier, and the default birthdate is June 19, 1906.  I’m thinking that 102 year old bloggers are a bit hard to come by.

That’s all I have for now.  Hopefully, tomorrow I can put coherent thoughts together and bring you a well constructed post.  We’ll see.

I saw this meme posted at Lu’s the other day and thought it would be fun to play along.  This one is all about the kiddos; here are the rules:

1. Link your tagger and list the rules on the blog.
2. Share 7 facts about your kiddos on your blog…random, weird, funny…whatever you want!
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post
4. Don’t forget to let the tagged people know!

7 things about my kids:

1. Little thinks that any time we leave the house we are going to church or to see her friend David.  It’s a constant refrain of “see Daydee” and “go to church?” no matter what day, time, or where we’re actually going.

2. Little equates Barnes & Noble with chocolate milk (this is her treat while we get coffee).  If we say we’re going to the bookstore she starts asking for chocolate milk.  As soon as we pull into the parking lot she starts asking.

3. For the first six weeks of his life, The Boy would only suck on Matt’s or my finger, never a pacifier.  It took us six weeks and four types of pacifiers before he finally started taking the Mam pacifier that was the first kind we ever tried.

4. The Boy has started cooing and smiling.  He will lay on his blanket or sit in the bouncy seat and just coo away.  Most of the time he reserves his smiles for Daddy, but one day last week he was grinning from ear to ear at Little.  It was too cute.

5. Little pays too much attention to my morning “getting ready” routine.  She always pretends to put lotion on her legs, makeup on her face (using a makeup sponge, of course), and product in her hair.  She’s also been known to try and put nursing pads in her shirt.

6. Little loves music and she loves to dance.  She dances to music on TV, music we play on the computer, and music that plays only in her head.  She spins and jumps and dances all over the living room and kitchen.  I think she will really enjoy dance classes when she’s a little older.

7. Little refers to pajamas as “dubba-jays”.  I have no idea how the “p” in “pj’s” became “dubba”, but it has; in fact, she often calls them her “dubba-dubba-dubba-jays.”  Silly girl.

So there you have it, more things about my kids than you probably wanted to know.  Now I’ll tag Lauren, Sheryl, Lisa, Leah, Diane, and anyone else who would like to play along.

...at the end of the day you have spit-up on the front and back of your shirt and your bra

...in addition to all the spit-up there is new-baby poop on your shorts

...you are happy to have time to clean the bathrooms

...four hours of consecutive sleep is a great night’s sleep

...you never know where on your person you might have various unidentifiable substances

...you have more joy in watching two little people grow and develop than you ever thought possible 

The kids and I have survived our first two days alone together and even survived our first solo outing!  

Boo had his two week doctor appointment this morning, so I loaded up both the kiddos and headed off to see how the little man is doing.  He got a great report.  His weight is up to 8 pounds 14 ounces (14 ounces above birth weight and 1 pound 5 ounces above 3 day old weight) and he has grown a half inch already!  We were a bit concerned because he will only sleep in the carseat or the swing; when I asked the doc about it she said it was nothing to worry about, that he probably just has a bit of reflux so a  more upright position is more comfortable.  She suggested putting a phone book under the head of the crib mattress to elevate him a little, so we might try putting him in his big bed this weekend (the crib as opposed to the carseat sitting in the cradle).  Otherwise, all was well.

Going into the trip I was somewhat apprehensive about how Little would handle the visit to the doctor’s office.  She did great!  She looked a bit unsure when the nurse first came to get us, but I think she quickly realized that she wasn’t the one who had to see the doc.  Of course, I’m sure it helped that the nurse gave her a lollipop right after we went back to the exam room. 

We all made it home in one piece, enjoyed some lunch, and then napped.  Now we’re looking forward to Daddy getting home in about an hour and a nice, peaceful weekend at home.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!