I do it!

Pardon my slacking, I've been busy building myself an igloo. The fourth (fifth??) snow storm in the last 3.5 weeks is headed our way tonight, which is really just so awesome. If you're someone who likes that much snow. Which I don't.

Brendan started his new daycare in the beginning of the month. They love him and say he's doing really well, making friends and having fun. Problem is the whole drop-off thing, which as I've complained about already, is the job of yours truly. The first week he actually did really well and I felt a little silly that I had been so anxious and dreading this transition so much.

The second week, on the other hand, didn't go quite so well. He cried and held onto me for dear life. How I would have loved to stay there with him all day and make him feel better, but I have a job and it's now an hour away so I don't have the luxury of time. Not to mention, they don't want me sticking around making things worse and it doesn't help him get adjusted if I baby him. I have to take the opposite approach and peel him off of me and run out the door. So that's what I did. Then I got in my car and cried.

It made me think of that first day I dropped him off at daycare after my maternity leave was over. It was sooooo much harder on me than it was on him. And it's the same now. He puts on a great show when I leave but I know within five minutes he's fine and having a dandy old time. But I feel awful for hours after. I just keep telling myself that he won't remember any of this a few years from now. I also tell myself that when he's testing the limits of my patience and I do something ridiculous like growl at him and make him cry. Yes, I'm a horrible mother.

So yeah, two and half is an interesting age. His vocabulary consists mostly of No! My turn! I do it! and I don't want to! He moves at a glacial pace, inspecting everything in his path, doing things when he's good and ready and not a moment sooner. Which is why we have a delightful morning ritual of him running away from me when I try to get him dressed so we can get out the door at a reasonable time. He doesn't get the sense of urgency and I learned quickly that you can't rush a toddler because it backfires and they resist even more. So either I'm trying to outwit him and trick him into letting me get him dressed, or I'm peeling off his pajamas and shoving his clothes on him all while running after him. Fun stuff.

It's all about Jedi mind games at this age. They're too young to understand "later" or "tomorrow" so there's no reasoning with them. You need to give them choices, but not too many because you overwhelm them. I'd like to start potty training him but he's much more interested in sitting on the potty and using up all the toilet paper while he pretends to wipe himself (he shoves the toilet paper into the potty between his legs). Oh, and he's discovered the joy of picking his nose.

I'm really making B sound like a beast, but this age is truly a lot of fun. He's so much more independent and the things he says are just hysterical. He teeters between being super affectionate and telling me he loves me "toooooo much!" and yelling at me because I had the audacity to sit in "his spock" (spot) or take the hairbrush away because he's brushing the wall. Which has the same effect as scratching nails on chalkboard, by the way.

I've heard that age three is actually harder than the terrible two's. I'll admit it, I'm kinda scurrred...

Snow!




Making a snowman with Daddy


Decapitated snowman












Brendan is 2.5 years old!

Houses and ducks and tantrums, oh my!

We are officially homeowners! We closed on the house on the 29th and then B and I left for Maine with the family the next day. The big move will be on the 21st so the next two weeks will be a blur of packing and getting everything ready.

Mima, Papa, Keith, Shannon, Lauren, B and I stayed in one cabin in Maine and then our extended family stayed in another cabin up the lake a bit. It was great to see everyone; we hadn't seen some of our family in almost 10 years!

Brendan was super toddler on the five-hour car ride up but things took a turn for the worse pretty much as soon as we got there. I had a stage five clinger on my hands the entire nine days we were there. Would not go to anyone but me; had no interest in going in any of the boats; insisted on being pushed in the stroller or carried if we went for a walk or to the beach. To make things even more awesome, he developed a fever for two days and threw up all over himself and the pack n' play during one of his naps. Thankfully Mima stayed composed and led the cleaning crusade. Once his fever broke he was covered in a rash so it was pretty clear that he had roseola.

Now that we're home again he's back to his usual charming self. Tonight he insisted on sitting on the potty not once, but three times in a ten-minute span. He has yet to actually do anything other than sit on it. I bought it just after he turned two to see if he had any interest. We aren't going to actively start until he shows more readiness signs but it's fun to pretend for now. He has this bit of a quirky thing where he must be completely naked when he goes on the potty. I've tried in vain to convince him that he can keep his shirt on but it's clearly a pointless battle.

Anyway, once he gets on there he insists on some quality reading material. As it happens, we have a magazine rack next to the toilet so he'll ask for a "sassine" (magazine) after he hoists himself up on the potty. And wouldn't you know, the only magazines available for perusing happen to be Maxim. So here's my naked toddler sitting on the toilet looking at women in their lingerie, pointing out their belly buttons and various other body parts, asking where their clothes are. To which I answer, "hmmmm, I don't know." Brilliant! Methinks someday that answer won't be good enough. I'll let Daddy handle it when we get there.

Here are some pics of the house and our trip. Enjoy!

The house!


Living room


Dining room


Kitchen


Family room


Car ride up to Maine - YGG!


The beautiful view from the dock


The cabin


Colors! (Brendan's way of saying "coloring")


Aunt Lauren fixing puppy's broken arm


Peaceful moment with Mommy


"Unkew Keef" sizing up the canoe


Tantrum #274


A very brave duck


Mima and Papa


Tantrum #568


The very adorable Sam, Elena and Megan


The family (minus Kenny, Betsy and Paul)


Tantrum #942


A very serious game of roofball


A rare sighting of happy Brendan!



Brendan is 2 years, 1 month and 11 days old today!

A whole lotta goings on going on

My lack of blogging is not due to a lack of stuff to talk about. Quite the opposite, in fact. Kenny and I are in the process of buying our first house (our first house!!), so between that, being very busy at work and trying to squeeze in family time it's been too nuts to find the time to write.

We're scheduled to close on the house on the 29th and then Brendan and I are leaving on the 30th for a weeklong trip to Maine with Mima, Papa, Aunt Lauren, Uncle Keith and Aunt Shannon. We're going up for a family reunion on my mom's side and seeing folks we haven't seen in many, many years. We're all super excited! Daddy is saving his vacation time for our big move so unfortunately he won't be able to come with us. :(

We had Brendan's birthday party at Mima and Papa's house two weeks ago with family and some friends. I still can't believe my little man is two years old already.

His two-year check-up was yesterday; he's up to 35.5" tall and weighs 28lb 7oz. So back to the 75th percentile for height and the 50th percentile for weight.

B started the visit in very good spirits. He played with some toys and read me a few books while we waited to be called in. When we were called back he led the way, then decided that maybe he remembered this place and maybe he didn't want to be here after all when he saw we were going into one of the exam rooms. "Up, Mama." I picked him up and he clung to me for dear life. It's not easy getting a lanky two-year old undressed while he suctions his body to yours and pleads with you not to let go.

I wanted nothing more than to just scoop him up and run out of there but I figured one of us had to act like an adult and since technically, I'm that person, I played the role of the Stepfordesque Mommy and smiled while I told him in my most pleasant voice that everything was going to be all right. After crying and saying "no, no, no" and looking at me with crazy eyes while he was measured and weighed, he finally calmed down and got distracted by books and a few toys that someone had blessedly left in the room.

Now, I very clearly remembered the doctor saying at his 18-month appointment that he wouldn't be getting any vaccines at this appointment. So you can imagine my surprise when she said that someone (who obviously has no children) made the decision that toddlers should get an extra dose of a particular vaccine. Ugh. In walks the nurse who tells me to lay him down and HOLD HIS HANDS OVER HIS HEAD like some sidekick in a torture routine while she sticks his meaty little thigh. Brendan cried and cried and cried.

Next up: down to the lab for bloodwork. In all honestly, I considered calling it quits at this point. Then I had a little pep talk with myself where I told me to man up and get this over with. So down to the lab we went. He had calmed down at that point and was flirting with all the lovely ladies in the lab while we waited. They called us in and I was told to have him sit on my lap, then BLOCK HIM IN WITH MY LEGS AND HOLD HIS ARM OUT SO THEY CAN STICK A NEEDLE IN HIS ARM AS THICK AS A BANANA AND DRAW TWO VIALS OF BLOOD. Yes, I'm shouting. Yes, it's necessary.

Thankfully his veins drain faster than his Mama's. Screams and cries and Mama's heart breaks but I kept my Stepford grin on and mustered up all the pleasantness I had left to hold him and tell him that the torture was done and everything was going to be all right. He cried all the way out to the car then passed out.

I told Daddy the next check-up is all him. Mama's done.

Here are some pics from B's birthday party. I haven't taken a whole lot of pictures lately but am going to try to remember to bring the camera this weekend.

Wearing his adorable shirt that Auntie Jilly found on etsy.com


Blowing out the candles with Uncle Scotch







Brendan is 2 years, 2 weeks and 3 days old today!

Deezus!

Despite the fact that Brendan is still super picky with what he'll eat, he's somehow managing to grow like a weed. We haven't had him measured since his 18-month appointment and it's damn near impossible to get him to stand still long enough to measure him but I think he's grown at least 1.5" since then.

His vocabulary is also growing by leaps and bounds. His newest thing is saying Jesus all the time. I know I should hang my head in shame over the fact that my child uses the Lord's name in vain and whatnot, but I find it kind of funny that even though his Daddy says lots of fun 4-letter words (the kind that rhyme with truck and pit) he picks up the word Jesus.

I have a habit of saying it as a replacement for other, less toddler-friendly words (like the kind that rhymes with grassbowl). For instance, when I'm driving in the middle lane of a three-lane highway and some driver merges onto the highway and immediately MUST move into the middle lane. Even though THERE IS NO ONE IN FRONT OF THEM FOR MILES and they have to CUT ME OFF to perform this manuever. So out comes, "JESUS!!!" instead of... well, other things that wouldn't be very nice. I never realized just how much I say this until he started repeating me. Thankfully he says it "Deezus" so I doubt most other people know what he's saying.

Brendan is still delightful as a daisy when he wakes up in the morning (and he still wakes up by 6am most days, waaahhh!). On one recent morning when it happened to be my morning to sleep in, I heard him saying "Mommy, Moooommmmmy, up peas (please)." So I opened one eye and said "Tell Daddy to get up." And he whispered, "Daddy's beeping (sleeping)." Why he recognizes that Daddy is sleeping but it doesn't matter that Mommy's eyes are closed is beyond me.

I say this about every age, but this age is sooooo much fun. I'm going to miss this baby talk stuff when he's speaking in full sentences with perfect pronunciation while giving his valedictorian speech at Harvard. At the tender age of five. Because my kid is a genius. Move over Doogie Howser.

Blowing bubbles with Nana (sometimes known as "Nina" although I'm not sure why)








In an attempt to get him to eat more, I thought I'd use fancy food presentation. In a fancy ice cube tray. Left to right: red grapes, cucumbers, swiss cheese, cheddar cheese and pizza, all cut up into bite size pieces. He ate the pizza and grapes. It was a valiant, if not particularly successful effort.


Walking around one of Mima's gardens (Mima is G'ma Annie's new name that B just came up with)






Taking a sip of "wattuz" (waters)










Trying on Daddy's work "shyooz" (shoes)





Brendan is 23 months and 3 days old today!