Household Duties

I will be the first to admit that I SUCK at house keeping. I am not sure if it is my lack of motivation because the kids mess it up right behind me or if it is my lack of attention span. I am going to go with the latter of the two. It's now 9 am. I have been out of bed since 5 am. In that time I have

1. filed bills and paper work that has been sitting on my desk for 2 months
2. finally made labeled folders for business stuff
3. messed around on the computer
4. put dishes away, left the dirty ones in the sink
5. ran the washing machine (cloth diaper day)
6. put 1 load of clothes in the dryer
7. loaded 1300 wedding photos into lightroom to soft edit when the kids nap or if I find a 5 minute break. those 1300 are only of the bridal party from Saturday
8. put Siena down for a nap
9. made my self breakfast, forgot about it in the microwave and ate it cold
10. find random laundry around the house and collect it for washing
11. put Cole in time out for pestering the dog and waking Siena up
12. Cuddle with kids
13. make Siena a scrambled egg
14. ran the washing machine (cloth diapers)
15. call In and Out and inquire as to why the 6 french fries Siena ate on Saturday gave her massive diarrhea and gas for 2 days. This kids is seriously letting off farts that last for 3 minutes each.
16. pick up goat cheese and eggs that Siena threw on the floor
17. clean floor by her high chair
18. put Cole in time out for hitting me
19. cleaned toilet
20. ran the washing machine (cloth diaper)
21. washed high chair tray, left rest of dirty dishes sit in sink
22. cleaned litter box
23. made my bed
24. helped Siena drink from a cup


and after i finish this blog post I am going to

1. move clothes out of dryer to coffee table
2. move cloth diaper to dryer
3. get both kids dressed (they are both in nothing by a diaper and underware
4. eat an orange
5. clean the bathroom counter
6. sweep
7. wood floor mop
8. clean out fridge
9. let dirty dishes still sit in the sink
10. possibly organize the laundry room / office shelves so I can have access to the top of the dryer again
11. try to vacuum the dog, I am sick of the hair
12. clean off my dresser
13. pick up kids room
14. cuddle kids more and try to make cleaning a game


Any thing else I can do by noon when it is nap time and I get 2-3 hours of peace from cleaning, kids, and I do nothing but what I want which usually involves editing, internet and the camera. And a Dr. Pepper.

While Cole is at Grandma's house for the night

we pretty much do nothing and love it.

Life update

This little guy is finally "over" having a sister.  The presents have stopped coming, mom and dad are still paying attention to her, thus I must now act out.  He is desperate for attention and he will try to get it any way he knows how, whether it involves biting Siena (hard), stomping Onyx's feet, throwing his toys at anyone and everything, or just throwing the BIGGEST tantrums we have ever witnessed.  I feel bad for the little guy.  He seems sad some times.  I do my best to give him one on one time but Siena wont lay in her crib or the swing for more than 5-10 minutes with out screaming.  She has been going on these nursing sprees and she wont take a pacifier so if she is not on the boob she is not happy.  We did figure out that if we need her to nurse I just have to give her to Mike and she will be hungry in 5 minutes.  We aren't sure why?  

When Cole does get the attention he is seeking, he is the most loving, cuddling little guy.  He even lets me take pictures of him now, even though they all end up with a face like this.  Today I got him to do an exercise video with me.  He lasted through the warm up part but he was copying what I was doing.  It was so cute.  When I do let Cole hold Siena, he loves it.  He sits on the couch like a proud big brother and smiles.  He leans in to give her kisses a lot, but some times he sneaks in bites and I know because Siena will start crying.  Cole is also asking to nurse.  I wont let him for fear of being bit.  He walks up to me when Siena is nursing and points to my boob and then points to his open mouth.  I tell him "no, that is for Siena", he glares at me and then walks away.
Cole is still sleeping great.  This past week he has been getting up at 4:45 am but at least he was asleep by 9pm!  Cole is also hiding his fingers in his mouth when I ask for them (wash or cut nails, etc...)
This little girl has started to hold her head up!  Each day she gets better and better at it.  She feels so big to me now!  But when you think about the fact that she is still smaller than the average newborn it puts it in perspective for me.  I can't not imagine life with out her.  When she isn't being feisty and screaming for more food (her screams may not even be considered loud to some people) she is just staring at us with her big BLUE eyes.  I love how in pictures, like the one below, it looks like she has a mohawk.  That is the only spot her hair is thin in. We think she must have been wedged down there when the hair starting growing that that side didn't get the opportunity to grow hair.  Siena grunts all night long.  During the day she is pretty quite.  At night she is a noise making machine.  She has also started grabbing my hair which reminded me why I cut it off when I had Cole.  Siena's eye lashes are also more noticeable and looking like she will have her brother and fathers eye lashes.  Lucky girl!
Both Mike and I are doing great!  It does feel like we are constantly doing house work, but we always find time to play.  We both get way more sleep than anyone with a newborn and 2 year old should.

Best way to spend the morning before heading off to work

Vomit, goals & a weird toddler

Last night I spent 4 hours awake with Siena.  I went to bed at 7:15 last night hoping to get in a few hours of sleep before she woke up hungry.  In between the phone ringing and Cole sneaking in to our room I managed to get some sleep...until Siena woke up at 9:30.  She wanted to nurse, and nurse, and nurse.  This kid goes on nursing kicks each day at different times so trying to schedule around it is virtually impossible.  So she nursed until 10:30 when she then decided to vomit it all up.  And by vomit I mean projectile spraying of vomit on to me and the back of the couch, saving a little bit to spray out her nose.  After I freaked out for a minute,(this was my real first experience with a vomiting kid.  Cole has vomited once in his entire life and it was over a year and a half ago) Mike helped me clean it up.  Then the little princess was ready to eat again!  So I let her nurse thinking I would give her the benefit of the doubt that maybe she just spit up (umm ya nice denial there). So she nursed for another 45 minutes.  I am surprised there was any milk left at this point but there was because when I took her back to our bedroom to sleep she proceeded to spray vomit once again while laying down and it was directed at my face.  After cleaning that up I sat with her in bed hoping she would fall asleep, but no she wanted to nurse again.  I waited about 15 minutes still hoping she would give up and fall asleep but no such luck.  I let her nurse again and at 12:30 am she was finally asleep and so was I.  But 1:15 rolls around and guess who wants to eat again!  Seriously she is a maniac!  Luckily no more vomiting occurred however she did spike a small fever through out the night.

This morning I called the Dr's and they wanted me to bring her in since they don't like seeing any fevers in babies under 2 months of age.  She got a clean bill of health, looks like it was just a small flu virus running it's course.  She is also gaining weight well, another half pound, she weighs out at 6 pounds even.  The doctor also wants me to put alcohol on Siena's umbilical cord to dry it out and that makes me want to vomit.  I can't handle that at all!

I had my 2 week check up this morning.  I am allowed to drive again!  Yay for me!  Even though I have no plans of going anywhere it is still nice to have the option to leave if I wanted to.  I have lost 12 of the 32 pounds, so I have 20 more to go to meet my goal of losing 30 pounds by May.  We will see how it goes.  Losing the weight is hard for me because I am so used to eating what ever I want with no worry and that is not the case when you want to lose weight.  As soon as I can exercise again I plan on getting back to curves and maybe doing some at home videos also.

I am exhausted, not from the all nighter, but from Cole and his newest behavior.  He is throwing everything in sight.  It doesn't matter what it is, his food, his toys, his music table, the phone, the remote, our shoes, etc... it all gets tossed in any direction at any time.  I also spend all day keeping him from hurting Siena.  Sure he has his sweet moments of wanting to give her kisses and hugs, but the rest of the time I am shielding her head from him.  The only way to have her safe in the house is in the crib in our room, with the baby gate up so Cole can't get in the room.  If he does, he is throwing things in the crib.  I don't want to leaver her locked up all day in the crib, but at the same time it is hard to manage Cole and her together.

Cole is resisting time outs also.  It took us 15 minutes tonight to get Cole to stay in his time out for 1 minute.  It is seriously exhausting.  He thinks time outs are funny....  I can only guess that the little guy is frustrated with losing some of the attention and he does not know how to deal with it or explain it to us.

On the bright side, Cole woke up from his nap this afternoon asking for me to make him a salad.  He can be such a weirdo.

The Boys....

....making dinner for their ladies.....

The aprons were Cole's idea.  He insisted that Mike wear one.

The past 48 hours

We have been home for 48 hours now.  It is definitely an adjustment.  Mike has really been doing a wonderful job keeping us all happy!  He is cooking great meals. Tonight was Trader Joe's Gorgonzola Gnocchi and salad.  Surprisingly Cole ate his whole plate!

I am having to re-learn how to go to bed earlier.  Our first night home I did not get to bed until 4 am because I lagged at getting into bed and then little miss Siena decided that she wanted to have an all night nursing party from midnight to 4 am!  Last night she let me fall asleep by 1 am so we are getting closer to a normal bedtime.  I have a hard time falling asleep knowing my little one is wide awake and looking at me.   I have to treasure every minute of those big blue eyes since they are only open for about an hour a day right now.

Siena is not a crier which is wonderful.  Cole wasn't either so we are so happy (lucky??) to have another mellow baby.  We took Siena to her first dr's apt. today.  She is 4# 14 oz and is still 17 inches long.  The dr. was pleased that she was an almost an ounce over her birth weight.  As far as percentiles go she is in the 0.8% percentile for her age.  I had to laugh at that one!  Not even at 1%!  It will be fun to see how she progresses up that scale.

Cole is really enjoying his new found big brotherhood.   He has been giving us some problems but nothing out of the normal for himself.  Tantrums here and there but he is keeping on his schedule thanks to Mike so life hasn't changed to much for him.  He has started saying his own version of thank you.   He says "Please do".  Cole has also mastered burping, which he does on a regular basis now.  He also belly laughs every time he hears a burp or fart.  Gotta love boys!  

I spend all day holding a sleeping baby and just staring at her.  I just can't get enough of that little girl.  I have to remember to give her to Mike to hold so he can get his hugs and kisses in also.

So far so good.  Just wait until next week when I am on my own.  I am sure the update wont be as positive.  There may be a little bit of tears going into that one.  :-)

The daily schedule of a toddler with out a newborn around

5-7 am: Wake up time.  All depends on when mom sneaks out of the room and gets caught if Cole happens to be in bed with us that night.

7-8 am: 

Breakfast 

watch toons - Wonder Pets, Dora the Explorer, Mickey Mouse Club

8-11:30 am:  

sometimes toon watching spills over into here also 

helps mom with laundry, he loves to load the wet clothes into the dryer, you have to watch out for things he throws into the washing machine

plays outside if it is not too cold

destroys the house

begs for candy

help bring in firewood for wood stove

feed fuzzy guys random food and drinks

over react to any siren that might go up the freeway

climb on to mom and dads bed, play answering machine messages and delete them if the correct button is hit, turn on all lights and radio and then leave the room

put together puzzles

11:30am - noon: 

lunch time

Noon - 3 pm:

Nap time!

3 pm-6 pm:

More play time (see 8-11:30 am for details)

6 pm: 

dinner

7 pm: 

bath time

spill water on the floor

7:30 pm - 8pm

run laps around living room

step on the dogs feet to torment her

8 pm-9 pm:

cuddle time on couch

9 pm:

bed time

midnight to 3am:

wake up at least once and run into mom and dads bedroom

What a day!

For Christmas my mom treated me to a pedicure.  I finally turned in that gift certificate today and boy was it worth it!  It was an hour long foot and leg massage and you get your toe nails painted before you go.  It was so nice I actually fell asleep. They lean you back in these zero gravity type chairs and massage away.  For a very pregnant lady it was so nice to be able to lay back with out sharp pains.

After the pedicure we went to Kane's in Grass Valley.  I had a grilled turkey wrap with avocado, Ortega chili, lettuce, tomato, and chipolte ranch dressing.  The best part, it was only 419 calories and I could only eat half because it was so big!  That's my kind of meal.  Plus I love that a restaurant would put calories on the menu.  Oh yeah, my side salad was 28 calories minus the dressing.  

Later in the day we took Cole to the park to enjoy the 70 degree day!   I took a mile and a half walk around the park with Onyx while Cole and Mike played at the play ground.  Cole has recently become scared of the tall, tall slides so instead of going down them he runs to the top, drops his hat down the slide and then goes back down the stairs, over to the small slide, slides down on his belly, gets his hat at the bottom of the slide and then runs back to the lower level stairs and climbs right back up to drop the hat down the slide again.  It is actually pretty funny to watch because he does it the exact same way every time.

When we got home, Cole helped me make pesto and then we relaxed and watched a movie.  Tomorrow is supposed to be cold (49 degrees) so I think we made the best out of our sunny day!

Napping with Legos

Cole has never been the type of kid that will just fall asleep where ever he may be.  He plays hard and will go with out a nap if we would let him.  So yesterday morning I was editing some photos and Cole was on the couch playing.  Suddenly it was a little too quite so I went to do some investigating and this is what I found.  He woke up after the second flash and asked me "What is that?" and then went right back to sleep.  He made the transfer to his room with out a peep and was asleep for 3 1/2 hours.

Guessing game

We have two guessing games going on in our house at the moment.  

The first one is called:  What will Cole greet me with tonight at 2am?  Last night it was with the alligator that is larger than him.  It was pretty funny trying to figure out what is was carrying in the pitch black.  Every night it is something different.

The second is called: what will I find in the sub woofer?  When putting the christmas decorations away I decided to check in the speaker again.  I was not expecting all this to come out!

A day with Cole

Cole is starting to repeat things we ask him to say.  He will say "mom" "dad" and "bub".  Bub is uncle russell.  They are pretty good friends.  Cole has on occasion punched Russell in the leg to get his attention.

Uncle Russell and Cole

Pretty much what he looks like every morning.

Bagel in one hand, milk in the other.

All though today he actually has clothes on which has not been the case for the past week or so.

Onyx startled by the camera.  I was attempting to capture upside down dog.

Dinner at Rubios - I am so thankful Cole loves to eat here.

We took a new approach to Cole and restaurant settings.  He got to have his own chair and not the high chair.  He was so happy!

The only way Cole drinks milk at Rubios.  Notice the clear plastic lid on the milk carton.

Loves those cheese quesadilla's!

Spanish Rice - one of his all time favorites

After Rubios, Barnes and Noble, Trader Joes, and Winco.

I'd say he was ready to go home!

Of course he had to help us unpack the groceries.

He loves to eat Mike's cereal.

Fever's cause strange behavior

Tonight is night 3 of Cole and his fever.  He is impossible to get to bed.  We have had him in our bed by default when he wakes up in the middle of the night screaming.  I am blaming teeth this time since he does not have a runny nose, coughing or sneezing.  I can see the 4 vampire teeth in the front coming in.  I refuse to stick my finger in the back to check for molars for fear I may lose a finger.  

He is extra sweet when he doesn't feel good.  When ever I am around him he gives me hugs and kisses - not sloppy ones- and wants to cuddles non stop.  It just warms me up and makes me so happy.   Two nights ago he spent almost 45 minutes giving Mike and I kisses - back and forth.

Cole has also started this new things whenever he sees something new, interesting or just when ever he feels like saying it.  He says "hmm".  It is hilarious.  It is like he is genuinely interested in this particular item or maybe he is perplexed by it, I am not sure.

This is where Cole is spending the majority of his time these past few days.

When daddy gets me dressed...

 I look so silly that it makes me want to dance!

A weekend of nesting, renergizing, and refueling.

I woke up on friday with the nesting bug. And it was going strong. I have given my self 10 weeks to complete everything that I want done. So if this one decides to come when Cole did that is 10 weeks from now!


First project:

Clean out the fridge.

Meaning throw everything away and wash the entire inside with soap and water.

Now I realized we needed food. So groceries went on the to do list.

Cole is great at unpacking groceries.

Second project:

Move changing table out of Cole's room and put it in the new location for when the baby comes.

So I lost one of my pottery barn desks to the poo table

Third project:

Rake all pine needles in the driveway.

There is still another huge pile off to the side that you can't see.

For you city folk, this is only after the first rain storm.....

Cole was a great helper until he began attacking my car.

Fourth project:

Stock firewood

This was the second truck full we added to the stack.

We have about 3 times what you see here in our carport and we are hoping it lasts till January. If not we have pleanty more under a tarp on the property.

We choose to heat the house with the wood stove rather than pay for electricity.

Fifth project:

Accomplish a feat I never thought would happen....

Get my son to actually smile for a picture

After a long day of nesting I wanted to get out and walk around the new addition to the mall. Amazing job they did!

Good buys

Batman Converse for Cole

$10

Rainboots for Cole

$16

(yes I realize a nose is missing)

Would you believe me that I went shopping after it was confirmed it was a girl and I bought NOTHING for her. Seriously! I guess I am not feeling it yet.....

Got to walk through H & M and drool at all the clothes I can not wear at this time in my life. I guess it is good to go into clothing stores when pregnant. You wont spend any money!

Ate at my ALL time favorite place to eat. I think last night was the 4th time this month...

The best way to end the weekend.

A ginormous bon fire.

I have no idea what that is flying in the flames by the tree. To me it looks like a dragonfly.

History repeats itself

Well we went to have the 3d ultra sound yesterday afternoon.  Mike and I had a jam packed day of Roseville shopping do - why you ask?  We had no child with us!  Woo Hoo!  Cole stayed with Grandma and Grandpa while we headed down the hill at 2pm.  We were so excited on our way to Sonotech.  We kept talking about how excited we were to finally have the sex confirmed, how much we had done on our list before the appointment and we how would probably get home at a decent time since we were child free....

Enter into Sonotech.....full of people......1 hour behind......and they only take cash, which they failed to tell me on the phone.  I don't carry $100 in cash on me at ANY time.  So Mike leaves to get cash while I sit, and sit, and get up to pee, sit some more, pee again....

We finally got in the room and waited patiently to see our child face on the screen.  The ultrasound tech put the cold wand (not heated up like at the classy places) and started moving around.  Well he said, she is still a girl, but she is so far down in your pelvis I don't think we can get a good picture of her, but we will try.  Up comes the 3d picture and she looks like Cindy Lou Woo from the Grinch.  No kidding!  He kept refering to her "cute little nose" but that's about all we saw - a nose.  She had the cord, her arms, her feet and legs all smashed up in front of her face, with her chin tilted upward and her face resting on the placenta.

So the tech said - go outside walk around and we will do the next appointment and then try again.  So 30 minutes later.....  Even worse......  At least I got the head measured......she is measuring at about 1 week small. 

For those of you that know about Cole's 3d ultra sound this was history repeating its self.  We went on a friday - he was eating his foot.  We walked around and now he had everything crammed up there.  We came back 2 days later an the best picture we got was Cole smashed up against the uterus making his adorable face chubby and distorted.

We got our money back and were told to come back in a few weeks.....I am not sure if we will.  I did get what I wanted confirmed...the sex....for free.....why go back for a picture?

We did not get home until 10pm.  So much for getting things done quickly.

My guess is this little girl will be running from the camera also!  Not want an aspiring photographer would like in their practice subjects.....  :-)

Cole & Dylan

Big News! Cole officially knows how to say his name. He walks around saying Cole, although it sounds more like cool or co. Too cute. The first name he knew was Dylan.

I walked into the room to find them both with hats that I had not put on their heads.

They procceded to go through all of Cole's hats each taking turns wearing them.
Cole always has to assist Dylan in everything!

Even if Dylan doesn't want the help.

Cole making a very important phone call

He was walking around the house having a conversation with him self and whomever was on the other end of the phone.