Recent Talkings

(I did write Michael's birthday post on his birthday...but I haven't yet taken the pictures off of my camera so it is coming eventually!)

Here are a few of the funny things Michael has said lately

Michael:  Cars?  Trucks?
Me:  Yes, there are cars and trucks.  They are picking up people from school.  During the day these people go to school.
Michael:  People go school!

Ever since then I've heard endlessly about people going to school.  When I say we are going shopping Michael says, "no, people go school".  This lead to another conversation...

Michael:  Daddy?
Me:  Daddy's at work
Michael:  Daddy go class?  Daddy go school?  People go school!
Me:  Daddy is at work today.  He has class tonight.  Yes, people go to school.
Michael:  (horrified) Elli go school
Me:  Elli is too little to go to school
Michael:  Ok, Michael go school
Me:  You are too little, too.  You are two, you go to school when you are three, almost four.
Michael:  Five!  Michael go school!


This next conversation now happens every time I need to change Michael's diaper.  I can say that I'm proud he's learned to count, even though it took me threatening him with time out...
Me:  Michael diaper change
Michael: NOOOOO!
Me:  Michael come lay on your pad now
Michael:  No diaper change!
Me:  Come on
Michael: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5!
Me:  Really?  Just come lay down!
Michael:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5!
Me:  1, 2, 3
Michael:  Come here!
Me:  Come here now!
Michael:  Time out?
Me:  4, if I get to 5 you go to time out
(Michael runs over to me happily and lays down)
Michael:  5!
Me:  We didn't get to 5, you laid down before we got to 5
Michael:  NOOOO! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5!


Michael has a little piano that has 5 keys that are numbered with different colors.  He can set it to the piano mode or the learning mode which tells you the number on the keys and the color.  You can also change the language on it.
(Michael picks up some of his colored puzzle piece shapes and hands me a yellow one)
Michael:  Jaune
Me:  Yes, jaune, where is vert?
(Michael hand me the green piece)
Me:  Good job!  How about bleu?
Josh:  What the crap are you saying?
Me:  Michael knows his colors in French
Josh:...Michael where is the yellow piece?
(Michael hand him the green piece)
Josh:  No, that's green, how about blue?
(Michael hands him the yellow piece)
Josh:  No, that's yellow, buddy.  Why are you teaching him colors in French if he doesn't know them in English?
Me:  I'm not!  Michael turns his piano to French mode and gets upset if I turn it to English.  So now he knows his colors in French.
Michael:  Mama, rouge!  (handing me a red piece)
Me:  Yup buddy!  Good job!
Josh:  What have you done to our son?

Two

Aww, two is finally upon us.  Or better yet, another birthday is upon us!  It seems so recent that we celebrated Michael turning one...

While so much has changed, so much hasn't as well.  He's still our cute little guy.  He still loves cuddles and back scratches.  When new situations occur he is always cautious, then dives head into whatever it is.  He loves singing, especially pat-a-cake, head shoulders knees and toes, and a little hello song with clapping.  He loves naps and milk.  Water is still his favorite thing, the bath has always been a go-to, but he loves pools, water slides, and sinks.  Elli is still his favorite person (even though she technically didn't come around until he was 14 months).  So not much has changed that way.

Now for things that have changed.  Michael speaks all the time, ALL THE TIME.  It's actually hard to get him to quite down for a few minutes, but he's always been hard to quite down.  He has learned to listen and help around the house.  He loves the trash.  Whenever I change Elli's diaper he puts it in the trash.  Whenever he sees a wrapper on the ground he puts it in the trash.  He loves to sweep, even our carpet.  The hamper is always full of some dirty, but mostly clean clothes he has pulled out of his drawer and added so he can help.  The dishes and laundry are his favorite.  When he needs a diaper change he informs me and then lies down on his pad.  He loves people.  Anyone and everyone, from the family members and friends he asks for all day to the random people at the grocery store he says hello to.  If he hears anyone saying good-bye, he will also say it.  He loves the park and the slides, he has slowly grown out of running straight to the slide and started looking around to see what else the park has to offer.  He loves grass and snow, stomping leaves, and playing with dirt.  Our favorite place to go to is the zoo, and he has a book at home of all the animals and can point a lot of them out.  He can't decide if he prefers the giraffe, the rhino, the elephant, or the polar bear.  His favorite toys are his Lego's, which he even sleeps with.

A lot of this has changed in the last year because he wasn't walking then, but now he is.  And running everywhere.  Oh, and skipping, marching, and as of today, hopping.  He also spins around in circles on demand.  He dances by shuffling his feet really fast, shaking his head, and swinging his hips.  He climbs all furniture and chairs, any way he can.  He climbs my dresser by pulling out drawers and then climbing into them.  He runs away with my shoes, spoons, and utinsels, and hides them from me.

He is a cute little guy and we love him very much.  His baby is fading a little more every day.  We see his stomach going away, his arms and legs thinning and getting longer, and his facial features become more defined as the days go by.  He has a head full of hair and a mouthful of teeth.  Next year he won't have any baby left to him.  I'll try not to focus on that too much and enjoy everything new he's accomplishing.

Happy Second Birthday Michael!

Michael with his partner in crime, Max

11/11/11

Two years ago today I begged for the little baby inside of me to come out.  Prayed.  Then begged the doctor to induce me.  Yes, I wanted an 11/11/11 baby.   But that wasn't the only reason.  Mostly I just wanted a baby.  I wanted to sleep more than 5 minutes without having to pee.  I wanted to roll over in bed without asking Josh to push me.  I wanted to walk without waddling.  

So I prayed some more.   Then begged some more.  I had an appointment that morning, so I asked my doctor as logically as possible to induce me.

First off, I had PUPPPS, which he usually induced people for.  At that point he looked in my chart and realized he had never written down that I had PUPPPS.  Nice.

Secondly, to have enough time to recover I really needed to have the baby on a Friday so I could have the help at home over the weekend.

Third, I had extra fluid, possible IUGR, a possible infection (which I did, why don't people believe me when I say my water partially broke, it can happen!), was on partial bed-rest, and had a subchorionic hematoma.  At this point I needed a whole hospital staff to deliver this baby (instead I only had a nurse when he was born).

Fourth, and extra important.  I was dilated to a 4, A 4!!!  I had been for 3 weeks.  So technically I had been in labor for 3 weeks already, so let's get this thing over with.  Isn't that what hospitals are known for?  Pushing labor as quickly as possible.

Fifth, and probably most important.  I had two due dates.  One on 11/13/11 and the other on 11/20/11.  Ummm, with how massive I was shouldn't you error on the side of caution and assume I'm almost due anyways?

He laughed and walked out of the room.  Never to be seen again.  Okay, well he showed up when the hospital discharged me, but I kinda wish I'd never seen him again.


My plans were spoiled.  Massively spoiled.  Josh worked late that night and I went on a long walk.  Okay, so I walked for a half hour and only went about a mile.  You should have seen the stares I got from passing cars.  I was surprised none of them stopped and asked if I needed a ride to the hospital.  I was crying when Josh came home.  No, crying doesn't cut it, bawling.

Poor, poor, poor Josh.  He did what any good husband would do, he took me to dinner.  To an authentic Mexican place.  He lured me by saying that spicy food could help.  Then he found funny shows to watch convincing me that I could laugh it out.  Or maybe if I laughed hard enough my water would break.  If you had to ask then you don't know a very pregnant me very well, yes, I cried myself to sleep.

Little did I know when I sat down to eat my tamales that I was 12 hours away from going to the hospital, and 20 hours away from having a baby.  Here is a little bit about Michael's birth.  A lot of things went wrong.  But I'll never forget how small he was when I first held him.  Happy almost Birthday buddy.  I'll write a post only about you tomorrow.

How?

See what's in his crib?  It's a play mat.  In the very edge of the picture you can see the bottom of Elli's crib, it is perpedicular to Michael's.  The play mat was folded behind it.  I put them down for a nap in their room together.  Not my smartest idea, I know.  But I had stuff to do and they were both tired.  After a half hour I couldn't figure out why neither one was sleeping.  I walked in on this.  A happy boy with a play mat unfolded in his bed (however he reached it and got it in there) and a grumpy girl who wanted to play with the toys hanging from the mat.

They don't take naps together anymore, no matter what.

Where have the shoes gone?

Lately we've had a big problem in our house.  We've been unable to find shoes anywhere.  We'll find one in the living room and another under our bed.  Sometimes one will be in the bathroom.  It's not uncommon to find one in the kids room hidden under a pile of legos.  Why would we have the problem?  Well this is why:

He wears our shoes around day and night.  He even tried on some of Elli's shoes but was quickly frustrated and gave that up.  Some days I'll hear him whining and asking for shoes, I'll go find him and see that he is having a problem walking while wearing one of my shoes and one of Josh's shoes.
It's a real dilemma for this little guy.

Thankfully he hasn't tried my heels yet.  I'll just keep the doctor on speed-dial for whenever that happens.

Moops

Michael loves spoons, or moops as he calls them.  He has one he stole from a picnic set from my grandmas house and he won't go anywhere without it (he will only leave the spoon if he has two legos instead).  I'll be doing dishes after lunch and I'll find him stealing dirty spoons out of the dishwasher to eat the rest of his lunch with....yeah gross.  Josh and I find our measuring spoons hidden in his room.  Thankfully we have 6+ sets of them.  If this wasn't enough to convince you of Michael's love affair with moops, I photographed it

Oh Today...

It all started when Elli had a blowout diaper.  I decided to put her in the tub.  Well Michael wanted to get in too, so he dived head first into the tub, fully clothed.  I caught him mid-dive before he smacked his head.  It doesn't help that ten minutes before this whole thing started Michael dumped at least 20oz. of water on the carpet in my room.

Then he started trying to bathe her, all while sucking on the washcloth while doing it.  

Don't worry, Elli had her own toy to suck on.

Then he kept making her laugh.  Unfortunately Elli is a little camera shy, but here is what kept happening.  

When Michael got bored of bathing her he thought he'd bathe me, again, fully clothed.  He would stick his hands in the water and then rub them on my jeans.

Sometimes I'm so frustrated, but I still have to laugh at these kids.

Halloween

I know, I know, I'm behind on this.  Last week was so busy and hopefully this week slows down a little.

Here are my cute kids

Michael is woody, even though he wouldn't wear the hat.  Elli is a cute spider.  I think her eyes might be bigger than the eyes on the hat...

Like usual we went to my sisters house and had dinner then went trick-or-treating in her neighborhood.  Michael has learned all about candy now.  He kept asking for a cookie or a treat all night, and still is if he catches a glimpse of his candy.  Currently it's sitting on my kitchen counter with a dish towel over it so he doesn't see it and ask for it every 5 seconds.  Poor boy, all I let him have was some marshmallows and suckers.  I'm thinking I'll save the rest of his candy to bribe my primary class.  This little guy doesn't need any more sugar, I can't keep up with him now.

Next year he will probably want to pick out his own costume.  Hopefully he loves Toy Story because we can just reuse the costume.  I bought the shirt big so he can wear it as a church shirt for the next year...okay, he's so little, maybe the next 2 years.  Maybe by then he'll be able to say "there's a snake in my boot".

To Milk, Sleep, and Dry Diapers!

Milk-drunk baby pictures are always some of the sweetest.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

She just wanted to cry.
He just wanted to tickle her.
She didn't know what to think.
He knew to go straight for her toes.
She smiled at him.
He laughed.
She kicked him.
He laughed harder.
She got annoyed and started crying again.
Rinse.  Repeat.

What my blogging teaches my kids....

If I can sit in front of my computer seemingly doing nothing, they can sit in front of their computer seemingly doing nothing as well.

What we do for toys

Sometimes a girl just wants to play with her toys...even if it means dumping the whole basket on herself and getting stuck in it.