Big Changes

Life has thrown me a curve ball to say the least. There are about to be some major changes in my life. For one of the first times in my life I am listening to my gut and my brain, not my heart or impulse. I know what needs to be done and in the long run I know that it truly is for the best (for me and the kids) . I am completely torn up inside, but I continue to try to be strong for my kids. It is time to really grow up and be a responsible adult.

Aria's First "Steps"

She is a walking machine with that thing. She sees it and goes right for it, pulls herself up and takes off. It is hilarious how upset she gets when she crashes and gets stuck. She will be walking on her own soon!

Night #2

We are definitely getting somewhere. I believe I got up around 11:30 to give Aria her nookie and that's it. She did wake up and did her interment yelling/crying for awhile around 4am, but I could tell she still had her nookie. Sure enough she fell asleep on her own. Only 2 nights in and we are certainly making progress. Mommy is very happy!!

Bet you never heard this before

My son just came running out of the bathroom saying, "Mommy, I made stink nuggets!" I am still laughing. As I am writing this he just came up to me and said, "Mommy, baby have a gina?" (with a long "i"). What a night.

First Night---Okay

I put the pack and play in the living room last night for Aria to have her first night without Mommy running to her every whimper. Midnight rolled around, so far so good. She slept right through the time she usually gets up the first time. Then Mommy was in the bathroom for the next 2 hours because an alien decided to have a sleepover in her tummy. By now it is 3am, I am finally able to get some sleep. 3:15 am, the crying starts. Usually I would get up and give her a bottle. The crying isn't even that bad, not her usually blood curdling screams, but more of a sporadic cry and whimpering. At 3:45 it is starting to get bad and Robin says "I can't take it anymore, she's been crying for 3 hours!!" Ummm, he must have been dreaming or something because it has only been a half hour. Anyway, I gave in and gave her her nookie. Once again there was silence. So all in all it was a good night. She got up a little after 6am, I gave her a bottle, then back to sleep until 8:45. I expected much worse, I just wish she could fall back to sleep without her nookie. One step at a time...We will see what tonight will bring.

Spring Cleaning

Even though it is barely 40 degrees and was snowing this morning, I decided to start packing away all the winter stuff. It is supposed to reach 78 degrees on Friday again, so I don't want to see snow pants and boots when I open the closet door anymore. I also need to get to the store to get a few more storage bins to go through all the kids clothes. The shelves are overflowing in their closets with clothes that no longer fit. I went through my clothes (and some of Robin's) and have a bag of clothes for Goodwill. If I haven't worn it in over a year, its gone! We really hope to move this summer, so I am trying to downsize in advance.

I am at my wits end with Aria not sleeping through the night. I know the problem is that I can't let her cry herself back to sleep when she wakes up in the middle of the night (I don't want 3 kids up instead of one). She is over 10 months old and does not NEED to eat at 2:30am. I really think if I give her 1 week of me not going in there at night, I might break her of this habit. But what do I do with Stephen in the mean time? I thought about letting him camp out in the living room, but will he stay on the couch or air mattress and actually sleep. And then Robin gets up at 5:30 to go to work, will he sleep through that?? Do I put Aria in the pack and play in our room, and we suffer for a week while she screams all night? Do I put the pack and play in our closet (which is huge by the way, our washer and dryer plus a dresser and nightstand is in there with plenty of room to spare) and let her sleep/scream there? HELP!!! It doesn't matter what time she goes to sleep at night, or when she last eats at night, or what her naps are like during the day. Trust me I have tried everything except let her cry it out at night.

Only in Wisconsin...

I can't belive that it was 76 degrees on Saturday and now I woke up to flurries. WTF??

Spin Class Update

So spin classes are HARD! I am really sore everywhere from my butt to my knees. I actually went and bought those ridiculous padded bike shorts for my boney butt. I sweat like a pig and can barely walk when the class is over. So overall.... I LOVE IT!!

Picnic!!!

Saying "Cheese!"

Beautiful Day

It is soooo nice out today. I took the kids on a really long walk in the double stroller to the playground. It was quite the workout for me, walking probably 2 miles while pushing 50 pounds worth of kids in a stroller. If only it wasn't so windy. It always seems if it is nice out, there must be 30 mph wind gusts. Anyways, Stephen loves being in the double stroller and had a blast at the playground. I was really annoyed when we got to the playground though. Some hooligans poured soda down all the slides, they were pretty sticky and nasty. Stephen didn't seem to mind though, it just slowed him down a bit. Its a shame because this playground is really nice, only a year old. And who is the genius that decides to put wood chips on the ground at playgrounds. There is nothing like trying to dig slivers out of 2 year olds. All playgrounds should have that really bouncy, soft, astro-turf stuff.

Oh... if any moms out there have any suggestions on shoes that a 10 month old can't take off, I'd really appreciate any ideas. As you can see in the picture, Aria doesn't have any shoes on. It is impossible to get her to keep any on her feet.

One more side note: I start my spin class today at the YMCA. I am kinda nervous. I am worried about my butt hurting from the seat and I hope I can keep up.

Aria is getting really close to walking. Yesterday she was cruising along the side of the couch and bench. And going between the two. She no longer just flops down on her butt, it is a very slow squat down. She is going to be walking before she gets any teeth or sleeps through the night. I think she has her milestones a little mixed up.

Happy Easter

Of course I forgot to bring my camera with to Milwaukee for Easter. I am waiting to get some pics emailed from my Mom and possible my sister too (hint hint guys). Overall I think the kids had a great time, and so did the adults. We started off with an Easter egg hunt at Auntie LeAnne's house, that went perfectly. I highly suggest color-coding eggs for the kids so there are no fights about who got more. Next we headed over to my uncle's house for the BIG family get together. I am always a little stressed at these get togethers. It is really hard to keep track of a 2 year old and keep a 10 month old happy when there is 27 people everywhere. But again, everyone had fun and ate a lot of yummy food.

This is what I have to deal with:

Oh Brother...

In the 5 minutes it took me to write my previous post, Stephen got into some mischief. He found the neosporin that I have been using to help Aria's mole heal. Lets just say I have one very shiny, greasy little boy in the bathtub right now.

PS- Aria's biopsy on her mole came back fine.

Craft Time

I found a fun craft project for Stephen to do for Easter today. I can't tell you what it is, so we don't spoil the surprise for those receiving one of his masterpieces. It involves painting, coloring, cutting and gluing. I did learn a valuable lesson tonight: If the project involves painting and coloring with markers, always do the painting last otherwise Stephen will get really pi$$ed that he can't paint anymore. In the end Stephen was very happy with his creation. He has been telling me which one goes to which person, and I better not mix them up or he will yell at me. I will post pictures on Sunday of all our Easter festivities and projects. So check back then!

See the similarity?

Messy Messy

It drives me crazy when she does this with food all over her hands...

Sooo Big

"Look Mommy... I can squish my food in my hands"

As I said in a previous post, Aria has been refusing to eat baby food. She wouldn't eat anything I would feed her, but she would chow down any of her little snacks that she can do herself. I refuse to let her just eat Gerber puffs and Baby Mum-Mums all day long. Now I have a ginormous mess every time she eats. I got those nasty Gerber Meat sticks, and toddler stage veggies that she can pick up and eat, I also got the pasta bites so we will see how that goes tonight for dinner. I figure if she will eat a french fry that her daddy gave her, than I can step it up even though she has no teeth.

Is it Weird if...

....Someone who has only met your child 2 times, asks to have him be the ring bearer in his wedding?? It is a little unusual to me. I get it that the guy is Stephen's Godfather's brother, who also happened to go to high school with Robin, but like I said before. They have only seen each other 2 times that I can think of. I am not sure how Stephen will do, unless Robin is in the wedding party too (which I haven't heard that yet). And, I am annoyed that this wedding is supposed to be on August 8th, which is the weekend following Stephen's and my nieces birthday's. I guess we will have to celebrate with the family the weekend before.

What's New

Not Much. Things that are on my mind today:
*What to put in the kids Easter Baskets
*Should I try to get in for a trim and some high-lights this week
*How am I going to be creative to get Aria to eat (She does not like to be fed anymore, so I need to come up with creative nutritional foods for her that she can pick up and eat, with NO teeth)
*I hate my kitchen table and want a new one, it is impossible to clean and keep it looking that way
*I hate my clothes, so I need to get a new outfit that I will feel comfortable with myself for Easter (It would be nice if it was warmer outside)
*How do I get a 2 1/2 year old to understand that you need to sit quietly at church (yesterday was a disaster, but in the kids defense we had to be there for 3 hours)
*When will I get to sleep straight through the night again????

To quick

Aria has gotten much to quick for me. She is my little shadow all day. She is a pro at speed crawling and pulling her self up to stand. She has even managed to walk along the couch a few times. Yesterday she threw me for a loop though. I was giving her a bath last night, I turned to grab the towel, in the half second I looked away she managed to pull herself up and stand in the tub. It scared the crap out of me. I instantly had visions of her slipping, knocking herself unconscious, and drowning. Obviously that would never happen because she is never out of arms reach in the tub, but still scary to me. She also loves "so big," looking in mirrors, and what I call dancing to any music (she basically bounces on her but and flaps her arms).

Must Vacuum Now

The belt in my vacuum broke the other day. I suppose it is my fault, I let Stephen vacuum too. He sucked up something still unknown that busted the belt. I vacuum EVERYDAY, so I am dying to get my new belt. I would love to get one of those Dyson ones for like $600, but that will never happen. I guess we will just get the $4 replacement belt.