The Mayo Knows!

When I was pregnant with Jamie, I had some mayo in my fridge that expired on my due date. I thought that was funny and even a bit funnier when that became his birthday too. "The mayo KNEW!"

So I bought some knew mayo awhile ago. I never look at the dates before I buy them, only after they've been opened in my fridge for a bit. Well I looked today and it's June 7, Erin [my niece's] birthday.

I think this mayo expiration date thing is on a roll. I'll have to remember it next time I get pregnant and see if it's right. Maybe I'll hurry up and use my mayo and get another one and see if it predicts my SIL's baby's birthday...

Marcus' Camera

I got Marcus a kid camera for his birthday and I've only emptied it once. Well he brought it up to me because it wouldn't take pictures anymore because it was full of 668 pics! So I took them off and we're going to journey through his photography skills.

Marcus' arm and chest in white, my jeaned leg and jamesen's foot

couple self portraits

one of gary

LOTS of jamesen!

he even got me in there!

and some randoms

Lots of coughs

Whatever Marcus had, Jamie now has. Well, Marcus' after croup whatever he had. Jamie's coughing pretty bad now, poor baby! If you could keep him in your prayers. I'm worried it'll turn into something worse. Marcus is still coughing too so it's no fun. We've had some pretty LONG sleepless nights the last couple days.

Something has it out for my knee...

or my kids and I'm just that good.

a few weeks ago, we put a baby gate in the arch doorway thing between the stairs and the living room. Most the time if I'm holding both kids I will go around because it's not worth it to me. This one day... pardon me saying it if you don't want to read it, but I had to pee, bad! So I took the short cut. Only problem is, Jamesen's little walker was right on the other side of the gate because Marcus likes to make his hopping over the gate easier with it. Long story short, I stepped over the gate and went to put my weight on my foot but my foot went into the handle on the walker. I had one chance to free my foot and it failed. Luckily the kids were fine, but with them in my arms it was an extra 45ish lbs all onto my one knee.

You should have seen my bruise. It lasted forever.

About a week ago [give or take] my bruise was finally gone. My body heals itself really slow when I'm pregnant or breastfeeding so I had the bruise for about 3 weeks. Anyways, back to the point. I've climbed the stairs with a kid on each hip countless times. Multiple times a day for 7+ months and I've never had an incident. Well I don't know what it was, but I tripped up them tonight and would have face planted with both kids had I not stuck out my knee [yes the same one]. Sadly Marcus slipped out of my arm on impact and hit the back of his head on the stair. Luckily though I had fallen most of the way already so it really didn't hurt him. The kid's got a hard head.

Lucky for us, Sabe was home. He's got a 6th sense, I swear. He knew to go home from camping the night before Marcus was born and he was on the phone with his mom, telling her he had to go so he could help me up the stairs when I fell. He's been on the phone before and I carried both kids up by myself without incident. I actually thought to myself as he was telling his mom that he needed to go so he could help me "That's strange. Usually he just meets me up here" and that's when I fell. It's a good thing he was here because it took me a second to pick myself off the floor and Marcus was crying. I probably would have had enough adrenaline to get up and pick him up again but my knee was throbbing. I limped for a bit after it happened.

So either something has it out for my poor knee, or for my kids. I'm thinking it's my knee though, because anybody who's a mom or knows a mom, knows that she will sacrifice any part of herself to keep her kids from harm. They know I'll stick my knee out and they think it's funny to see me desperately try to keep my kids in my arms and out of harm. It's the stupid binkie stealing house elf!

Poor Mister Man take 2

He's got croup. After I posted the last post, I called the on call dr at his pedi and she heard him coughing over the phone, said it was croup and told us to go back to the ER, so off we went. They gave him some steroids and said that it's something that goes away on it's own, but the steroids should help. They seemed to help yesterday, but he woke up today hacking up a lung again and refusing breakfast. My poor kid :(

I host a playdate every Wednesday and it's gotten to the point where if someone's kid is sick, I ask them not to come because Marcus seems to catch everything. He's been sick back to back to back all winter. It's so sad :(

Though it's a good thing I"m still breastfeeding the Jamie man because everything has passed right over him without effecting him at all! Speaking of the Jamie... He is sleeping SO crappily lately. I'm feeling allergies coming on and *luckily* I passed them onto the boys. His nose has been running really bad and he's been having a hard time breathing, so sleeping sucks. He tosses and turns and whines and cries and sits up and cries and whines... it took me and Sabe an hour to get him to go to sleep last night. He was asleep, but fidgeting a lot when I was watching the olympics last night and then woke up right before I went up stairs. It wasn't fun! Then of course he woke up super early like kids do. Crazy! You'd think they'd sleep in but nope!

I found myself last night wishing Jamesen would hurry up and get out of this stage. And then I thought about what I was thinking and took it back, lol! It's one of those "be careful what you wish for" things. Not only will he speed past this stage as quick as a blink of an eye, he'll soon be in High School, married, having kids of his own and I'll be wondering where the time went. Though I have to admit, being a grandma is going to be the BEST! The baby without the sleepless nights?? Heck yeah!

Ugh, Poor Marcus

My poor little Mister Man :( First he was puking, now he's wheezing. Yesterday he was fine, then he woke up from his nap barely able to breathe at all. I gave him some Ibuprofen and then we waited for Sabe to get home to take him to the ER. I opened up the front door and we stood by it. By the time Sabe got back, he was breathing a bit better. Sabe said that he was acting fine at the ER, that he ate and drank, unlike the rest of the day, and that his breathing was fine. They run the ER cold so I know it helped him breathe better. They said they couldn't hear anything and his breathing was because he was crying so hard when he woke up from his nap.

So then he woke up this morning and was wheezing again. So much for the ER's thoughts on it seeing as how he hasn't been crying. SO LAME. I hate that ER with a passion. Seriously they're the most idiotic dr's I've ever been to. They don't listen to you at all, they just take a glance and tell you "oh you just gotta wait it out!" I hate them so much, it's so ridiculous. If Marcus had the tendency to not breathe while he was crying, it would have shown up a long time ago, not at 2.5.

I'm so insanely frustrated and tired. And I can't get a hold of Sabe to get the car to take him to Dr. S. either. I'll keep you posted.

Oh and my MIL reminded me... I forgot to update everyone on Jamie's bump. The neurologist called me back and she's sending me to another one up in Louisville. She said the bump is where a vein and and artery meet. She left me with pretty much no information but I have some nurse friends and they helped me from googling since googling medical stuff can be scary, lol. I'll know more when I go to his appointment to the other neurologist.

I hate all these no answers!

So Blah

We've been pretty blah lately. It's been really snowy so we've not done much of anything. Poor kids are stir crazy!!

Anyways, Marcus is sick. He got the flu and puked everywhere multiple times on the night of the 14th. He hasn't puked since like 6 am on the 15th, but he barely ate anything at all yesterday. He ate breakfast again to day [a couple bites, like yesterday]. I hope that means he's getting better. On another note, he cut two of his 2 year molars! Well, part of them.

And on even another note, here's a cute vid of him singing.

Sorry if this is short and crazy, but I'm really running on barely any sleep. The last 3 days I've gotten like 3 hours max each night. Sick/teething kids and puking husbands mean no sleeping for me. Yes you read that right, Sabe caught the flu from Marcus, bringing his flu count for this season to 2.

Ok, sick kids are calling, gotta run

Determination

You know, I used to think that Marcus was the most determined kid in the universe. You should see him. You can actually see his brain working out a problem and he doesn't stop until he's figured it out. It's scary to watch when it deals with climbing something but fun when it deals with him learning something new. No go back and read my first sentence because this post isn't about my dear Mr. Man...

Click here

He's only just 7 months old. Like, literally a couple days over 7 months. Marcus wasn't doing this until over 9 months. Never in my life after Marcus but before Jamesen did I think that my second child would be more... [for the lack of a better term] Marcus then my first! There were so many times with him that I would think to myself "I'm so glad that the second is opposite of the first. I won't have to deal with this until later!" Who was I kidding?? I totally jinxed myself beyond anything. Marcus started walking at 9.5 months and was walking 100% of the time/crawling by 10.5 months. If we keep this 2 months ahead thing going, Jamesen will start walking this month.

I actually don't think it will be quite that soon. I think he'll start around 8 months because Marcus had better balance than Jamesen does. Marcus for heaven's sake was standing in the middle of the floor before he even hit 6 months! Jamesen isn't quite that good but he's doing it more often.

And you know what... we're having one more kid... and I hope that third times the charm and I get a lazy baby who is like a baby we met at Chick-fil-a the other day; 9 months old, had been sitting since just after 4 months and no signs of crawling yet. How lucky is that lady?? I was jealouuusssssss!

Craving the Rio

For those of you who aren't fortunate to live in Utah, Arizona and Nevada, there's a place called Cafe Rio. Sabe and I were HOOKED after only eating there once. It was all I craved while pregnant with Jamesen. It's actually really popular. It opened up a place in Vegas right before I had Marcus and by the time I went down there for my friends wedding this past October, there were 5 places in Vegas. Yes, it's that good.

Sabe and I have both discussed our first Cafe Rio trip. It's going to happen the second we both get back to Utah. Marcus love the Rio and I know he'll be excited to eat it again and we'll introduce Jamesen to the Dark Side since he'll be almost one by then and can have that kind of stuff.

I'm drooling just writing this.

Too bad they don't have a Rio in CO since the boys and I will be flying there while Sabe drives.

Speaking of Colorado... Patrick is turning one in 2ish weeks and I've still not met him and I'm a bit sad about that. I won't meet him until he's like 15 months old. How sad is that?? Marcus and Erin saw each other quite a bit in their first year seeing as Britt and I were a state apart. Too bad we don't all live in the same state. I'm really jealous of girls I know who live in the same city as their moms and sisters. It's pretty depressing actually.

Speaking of living near family, can you cross your fingers and pray that our next duty station is Fort Carson, CO? We'll be about an hour away from Brittanie and I could REALLY use a friend that I don't have to worry about ditching me or being my friend just because there's nobody else to be friends with.

And something else totally random... the Wii Board Sabe got me while back broke. We came back from Christmas vaca and it wouldn't recognize the Wii and I finally got my new one today! Stupid nintendo has been holding onto the things so the price has been rising. Really irritating! I had to shell out $50 extra bucks to get a new one. LAME.

Ok, that's my random post of the day.

Pitter Patter of Little... Hands

The bottom floor of my house is a rectangle. The top half is one big room with the tv/living room area on the left and the dining area on the right. If you go from the top right, to the bottom right you'll go through a doorway that has no door into the kitchen/laundry area. Going from the bottom right to the bottom left you'll pass through another doorway [that has a door] into the little space right inside the front door and the stairs to the upper floor. There's a "doorway" [it's about the size of a door but it's just a space] going from the bottom left to the living room in the upper left. This area has baby gate blocking off the stairs so Jamesen can't get to it.

Any time I leave the living room and go into the kitchen or any of the "lower part of the rectangle", Jamesen will follow behind me. I'll be switching out laundry, cooking or cleaning and I'll hear the pitter patter of his hands crawling along the floor to find me. Then I'll look around the corner and his face will pop into view and split into a huge wonderful grin just for me when he sees me.

I will admit, sometimes I leave the room just so I can hear the pitter patter of his hands, knowing he's crawling as fast as he can to come find me. That ear to ear grin is one of my favorite things in the universe.

Jamie's bump

We had the ultrasound for Jamie's bump today. He was really squirmy since he hates things touching his head, but he did ok for the most part. It's an artery that's swollen. The part that's swollen will most likely need to be removed. The radiologist that I talked to didn't want to say too much since he's not Jamie's dr, so I'll know more when the lady gets back to me. I'll of course update everyone when I know more.

The Big 03

It's boggling my mind how close Marcus is getting to 3. Jamesen getting close to one isn't as bad as Marcus getting close to 3. I've done a first birthday before and he's been around less so, yes it boggles my mind that he's on the other side of 6 months now but not like the fact that Marcus has one month to go before he's halfway to three. I swear that I just had him. that we were JUST celebrating his first birthday. That only yesterday was his second birthday.

I changed all his clothes to 3T yesterday and it just really hit me how big he's getting. He seemed like so much more of a baby when he couldn't talk. Now all the sudden he's talking all the time, growing out clothes he's been in for about a year, able to get himself dressed, put on his shoes [he actually gets them on the right feet every time too], sleep through the night, is able to put himself to sleep at night, and can tell me if he wants or doesn't want what I'm giving him.

It's funny though, both boy's birthdays this year are right around family weddings. Carl's getting married a few days after Jamesen's first birthday and Nano's getting married the day after Marcus'. I can't wait to do Jamesen's first birthday. I hope it's better than Marcus where only 2 people came [Lynne and Miki]. I'm going to do an icecream theme for it. I've found some really cute stuff online that I'm going to use for it. I'm really excited! Marcus' party will be down in Vegas and will be a Thomas theme since he's so obsessed. We'll probably have a pinata! He's old enough for a pinata at 3 right??

Ok well Marcus is wanting outside and keeps saying, "Abbeye!" so we're going to go see his girlfriend :)

Dude...

Marcus is OBSESSED with trains. All we watch all day long is our two Thomas DVD's. I bought 3 more so we had more of a variety because I'm getting sick of them. All I hear all day long is, "Choo Choo!!" while he grabs my hand to take me upstairs and play with his train table. All I have to say is choo choo and he stops his temper tantrum or smiles and looks at the camera. He's cute. It's a good thing I don't mind trains. I think I know what his next birthday's theme is going to be though. Mom since we'll be celebrating it down there, can you see if they have a Thomas cake pan? :)

I stand all amazed

Marcus' speech having a breakthrough has really helped in the whole listening department [well most of the time]. While he was a beast when he was hungry and tired, after he was napped and fed he was pleasant. When I told him to get off the coffee table, he did, almost right away. That NEVER happens. I always have to yell at the top of my lungs to get him to do something. It was so refreshing.

Of course, bribery always works too. He's becoming obsessed with "choo choo" 's. He only wants to watch train DVD's [I ordered a few more Thomas DVD's because we're both getting sick of the ones we've got being watched over and over. He was freaking out in Target today and all I had to say was "Choo choo!" and he stopped his tantrum and starting singing the theme song from Choo Choo Soul.

Jamesen's really amazing me too. It's funny, people will see him climbing, walking, pulling to a stand and standing without holding onto anything and say, "WOW he's so tiny! Was he early?" And I tell them no he was right on his due date and that he's actually really tall for his age. They'll then ask how old he is and it's funny to watch jaws drop when I say 6 months. He's so speedy, so amazing to me.

I found myself complaining to a random stranger [who did the jaw drop thing. She had an 8 month old who wasn't doing anything that J does] about how hard it is to have 2 busy bodies and how jealous I was that her first son didn't start crawling until almost a year old and walking at 18 months and how she didn't expect her little girl to start crawling anytime soon. To be honest, I sort of feel like I got the raw end of the deal. Neither of my kids sleep well at night. Marcus only sleeps through the night half the time and lately he's been waking up multiple times a night. It's hard to deal with two busy bodies on now sleep.

I need to remember how amazing my children are. To think of Marcus having the best balance of any two year old I know as something amazing, not something that's a pain in my backside. The fact that Marcus can climb stairs perfectly at 6 months is amazing, not something designed specifically to irritate me. My children are amazing and I need to remember that. On days like today when Marcus is really testing my patience, I need to remember his sweet smile and how it totally melts my heart. When Jamesen is crying and needy, I need to remember that he won't be this little much longer. Soon he won't want me to kiss him and hold him and love him. He'll be grown up and embarrassed of me.

I looked at my ticker today and realized that Marcus is one month away from being 2 and a half years old. He's halfway to 3. Already. Boggles my mind!