Friday, January 27, 2012
I Heard the Weather is Nice
I just saw a post on Facebook about what a beautiful day it is. So I did what any person in the 21st century would do. I verified this said beauty via weather.com. Because really? Why would I actually walk the ten feet to my front door and step outside? Something is very wrong here. To remedy this, I suppose I'll get out of my PJ's and take the kids outside to enjoy what the internet told me. Yes, that means I still haven't taken a breath of fresh air even after deciding to publicly berate myself through this post. Oh internet, how you've made my life so much lazier. I'll have to write a complaint to Al Gore about that.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Measurements and Milestones
I already did Gideon's 1 year post so I won't totally bore you but I wanted to be sure to record his most recent stats since we saw the doctor last week.
-Length: 31 inches
-Weight: 23 pounds, 1 ounce
-Loves: anything that spins (think wheels on toy cars), peek-a-boo, being gently tossed
-Hates: when the vacuum turns off (weird, I know), diaper changes (still), taking medication (this made his recent double-ear infection even more miserable than it already was otherwise)
Gideon is a champion stair-climber and a champion babbler. He has started pointing to things of interest and has assigned sounds to certain items. His very own "words." He's becoming more interested in solid foods but he definitely still prefers nursing. He's also working on walking. See for yourself but please ignore my annoying-sounding excitement in the background. If you count the little shuffle steps at the end, I think he takes about 5 consecutive steps. Pretty cute.
And here are Gideon's obligatory Baby & Elephant photos starting with his first week and ending with his 12-month shot. May is probably my fave.
-Length: 31 inches
-Weight: 23 pounds, 1 ounce
-Loves: anything that spins (think wheels on toy cars), peek-a-boo, being gently tossed
-Hates: when the vacuum turns off (weird, I know), diaper changes (still), taking medication (this made his recent double-ear infection even more miserable than it already was otherwise)
Gideon is a champion stair-climber and a champion babbler. He has started pointing to things of interest and has assigned sounds to certain items. His very own "words." He's becoming more interested in solid foods but he definitely still prefers nursing. He's also working on walking. See for yourself but please ignore my annoying-sounding excitement in the background. If you count the little shuffle steps at the end, I think he takes about 5 consecutive steps. Pretty cute.
And here are Gideon's obligatory Baby & Elephant photos starting with his first week and ending with his 12-month shot. May is probably my fave.
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| January, 2011 |
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| February, 2011 |
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| March, 2011 |
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| April, 2011 |
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| May, 2011 |
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| June, 2011 |
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| July, 2011 |
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| August, 2011 |
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| September, 2011 |
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| October, 2011 |
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| November, 2011 |
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| December, 2011 |
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| January, 2012 |
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
What's the Quickest Way to Make this Mama Feel Inadequate?
Give the toddler play-doh. Technically it's not even "Play-doh," it's homemade sculpting clay. You'd think that in itself would make me feel adequate. I took the time to look up a recipe, read said recipe, mix the ingredients, cook, and then color the clay (staining my hands with food coloring in the process).
But here's the thing. Caleb is in that "Mommy can do anything" phase, which I guess I should be excited about. But his expectations are just too high! I handed him the dough and right away he started with the requests. "Mommy, make a hammer, make a screwdriver, make a crocodile, make a robot." I feel like I'm in an art class nightmare. I can't make those things. I admit that in the past I've attempted some of those things and Caleb is very gracious and pretty much accepts the blob for whatever I tell him it supposedly represents, but still. I know better now. I tried to steer him in a different direction. I made a snake, I made a ball. But nope, he couldn't be swayed.
It starts out with making a snowman, simple enough. I can do that. But then he wants the hat. Next up? He wants a train track, okay...that's doable. Then suddenly he wants me to sculpt Thomas the Train, funnel and all. Come on! The degree of difficulty only increases. I explained to him that I just cannot make these things. He wasn't okay with that. Finally, I just folded under the pressure. It was time to make dinner anyway. So I slyly suggested it might be time for a TV show and I had him quickly clean up the dough. It's now safely back in the cabinet...where it might stay until Caleb realizes I'm not Superwoman or not an artistic one anyway.
But here's the thing. Caleb is in that "Mommy can do anything" phase, which I guess I should be excited about. But his expectations are just too high! I handed him the dough and right away he started with the requests. "Mommy, make a hammer, make a screwdriver, make a crocodile, make a robot." I feel like I'm in an art class nightmare. I can't make those things. I admit that in the past I've attempted some of those things and Caleb is very gracious and pretty much accepts the blob for whatever I tell him it supposedly represents, but still. I know better now. I tried to steer him in a different direction. I made a snake, I made a ball. But nope, he couldn't be swayed.
It starts out with making a snowman, simple enough. I can do that. But then he wants the hat. Next up? He wants a train track, okay...that's doable. Then suddenly he wants me to sculpt Thomas the Train, funnel and all. Come on! The degree of difficulty only increases. I explained to him that I just cannot make these things. He wasn't okay with that. Finally, I just folded under the pressure. It was time to make dinner anyway. So I slyly suggested it might be time for a TV show and I had him quickly clean up the dough. It's now safely back in the cabinet...where it might stay until Caleb realizes I'm not Superwoman or not an artistic one anyway.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Nice Running Into You
...literally. After posting about Christmas, my husband kindly reminded me that I had forgotten to include a significant event from our Christmas travels. I was in a really good mood while writing that post and I think I kind of forgot about this little nugget of badness. So, in an attempt to accurately remember Christmas, 2011, here goes.
It was a day like any other except that we were in NJ visiting my parents, Matt had off work, we were able to leave the kids with my parents long enough to do some shopping and go out to eat. Okay, so maybe it was a day unlike any other. Anyway, we had just finished our romantic lunch at my hometown's new Sonic because we're fancy like that. I pulled out of the parking lot sipping on my grape slushie (first time having a Sonic slushie and it was awesome!). We approached a red light. Matt and I were having a rather sweet conversation about how cute Gideon is. I put my foot on the brake, looked at Matt, took a sip of my grapey goodness, saw that the person in front of me had inched forward, took my foot off the brake, looked down to put my drink back in the console, and then it happened...
I hear Matt say, "Heather, NO!" I look up to see the vehicle in front of me at a full stop. I slam on my brake or what I thought was the brake but what happened to have been the accelerator (possibly the dumbest thing I have ever done), then quickly slam on my brake again. We lurch forward, directly into the back of the vehicle in front of us. Um...oops?
My front end is crumpled. Matt is not happy, but he maintains his composure surprisingly well. I am not happy either but my composure is shot. I sit there just staring while Matt gets out to speak with the other driver. I hear her mention that this is the first accident she has ever been in and then I start crying. She looks through the window at me, I roll down the window. She says to me, "Am I mad? Am I yelling? Am I being rude? The important thing is no one is hurt. This kind of thing happens." Turns out the woman works in collision and "deals with this sort of thing everyday." I am still crying and I apologize to her a few times, telling her I have "no idea how I did that."
I buck up and stop crying then call my parents to let them know we'll be longer than anticipated. As soon as I get on the phone with my mom, I start blubbering again. The other driver sees me and lets Matt know that he might want to get in the car and talk with me because, "She's on the phone and she's crying again. She looks very upset."
Once I'm done crying again, I get out of the car and speak with the other driver. She recommends a repair shop nearby and talks to us about what will happen at this point. She remains calm and understanding and nice. It was weird in a good way.
While we wait for the tow truck, I list for Matt all of the positive things present in this event:
1. The kids weren't in the car. Not that they would've been hurt since the incident occurred at no more than 8 mph, but they would have been freaked out I'm sure and it would've made me even more upset.
2. The other vehicle was a large pickup truck with a steel-reinforced back end. So, she drove away with very minor damage.
3. I rear-ended the nicest woman on planet earth who was actually concerned about my emotional state.
4. We were in my hometown where my parents were only a couple of miles up the road and they were available to help us with the whole ordeal.
5. Matt was with me when this happened. Apparently, I freeze under this type of pressure. So, I'm really glad Matt was there to handle calling the insurance company, talking to the cop, etc.
Long story, somewhat shortened: The cop comes does his cop thing, my dad shows up so we can transfer stuff from my car to his car, the tow truck comes and takes away my car, we go back to my parents' house, Matt and Dad drive to Enterprise to pick up a rental car. We have since returned the rental and are trying out the one-car-family deal while we wait for my car to be repaired. It wouldn't be half-bad if the one car we have remaining wasn't a stick shift that I'm not confident enough to drive solo.
Oh and it turns out my reckless driving is beneficial for my son's verbal development. Caleb has added another few sentences to his word bank:
"Mommy crashed the car."
"Car gotta get fixed."
"They will fix it with a screwdriver."
I never got her name but it was nice running into you ma'am. You made an unpleasant experience pleasant-ish...if that's possible.
It was a day like any other except that we were in NJ visiting my parents, Matt had off work, we were able to leave the kids with my parents long enough to do some shopping and go out to eat. Okay, so maybe it was a day unlike any other. Anyway, we had just finished our romantic lunch at my hometown's new Sonic because we're fancy like that. I pulled out of the parking lot sipping on my grape slushie (first time having a Sonic slushie and it was awesome!). We approached a red light. Matt and I were having a rather sweet conversation about how cute Gideon is. I put my foot on the brake, looked at Matt, took a sip of my grapey goodness, saw that the person in front of me had inched forward, took my foot off the brake, looked down to put my drink back in the console, and then it happened...
I hear Matt say, "Heather, NO!" I look up to see the vehicle in front of me at a full stop. I slam on my brake or what I thought was the brake but what happened to have been the accelerator (possibly the dumbest thing I have ever done), then quickly slam on my brake again. We lurch forward, directly into the back of the vehicle in front of us. Um...oops?
My front end is crumpled. Matt is not happy, but he maintains his composure surprisingly well. I am not happy either but my composure is shot. I sit there just staring while Matt gets out to speak with the other driver. I hear her mention that this is the first accident she has ever been in and then I start crying. She looks through the window at me, I roll down the window. She says to me, "Am I mad? Am I yelling? Am I being rude? The important thing is no one is hurt. This kind of thing happens." Turns out the woman works in collision and "deals with this sort of thing everyday." I am still crying and I apologize to her a few times, telling her I have "no idea how I did that."
I buck up and stop crying then call my parents to let them know we'll be longer than anticipated. As soon as I get on the phone with my mom, I start blubbering again. The other driver sees me and lets Matt know that he might want to get in the car and talk with me because, "She's on the phone and she's crying again. She looks very upset."
Once I'm done crying again, I get out of the car and speak with the other driver. She recommends a repair shop nearby and talks to us about what will happen at this point. She remains calm and understanding and nice. It was weird in a good way.
While we wait for the tow truck, I list for Matt all of the positive things present in this event:
1. The kids weren't in the car. Not that they would've been hurt since the incident occurred at no more than 8 mph, but they would have been freaked out I'm sure and it would've made me even more upset.
2. The other vehicle was a large pickup truck with a steel-reinforced back end. So, she drove away with very minor damage.
3. I rear-ended the nicest woman on planet earth who was actually concerned about my emotional state.
4. We were in my hometown where my parents were only a couple of miles up the road and they were available to help us with the whole ordeal.
5. Matt was with me when this happened. Apparently, I freeze under this type of pressure. So, I'm really glad Matt was there to handle calling the insurance company, talking to the cop, etc.
Long story, somewhat shortened: The cop comes does his cop thing, my dad shows up so we can transfer stuff from my car to his car, the tow truck comes and takes away my car, we go back to my parents' house, Matt and Dad drive to Enterprise to pick up a rental car. We have since returned the rental and are trying out the one-car-family deal while we wait for my car to be repaired. It wouldn't be half-bad if the one car we have remaining wasn't a stick shift that I'm not confident enough to drive solo.
Oh and it turns out my reckless driving is beneficial for my son's verbal development. Caleb has added another few sentences to his word bank:
"Mommy crashed the car."
"Car gotta get fixed."
"They will fix it with a screwdriver."
I never got her name but it was nice running into you ma'am. You made an unpleasant experience pleasant-ish...if that's possible.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
A Year of Lessons
Gideon turned one year old today. I feel I've learned quite a bit in the past year. Having children is like being a perpetual student. As a parent, there isn't a day that has passed that I haven't learned something. Sometimes they're vital life lessons, other times it's less important stuff, but there's always something. Here's a brief list of some things I've been taught since having Gideon.
-A mother's heart can indeed be stretched to welcome and love an additional child just as much as she loves the first.
-The newborn sibling makes it way too clear how non-newborn the older sibling is.
-As a couple multiplies their family, their love multiplies as well.
-Having a second child makes it very evident that all children are different and that being a mom does not equip me with the knowledge necessary to fix other people's kids. This is certainly a humbling experience.
-When there's a fussy baby to be soothed, we're willing to takes risks to soothe him.
-Once an especially trying phase of babyhood has passed, the feelings of gratefulness do not fade! I'm still throwing praise up to my main man JC (that's Jesus Christ for those of you not on a first-name basis with him) for getting me through Gideon's first few months.
-Older siblings start using younger siblings far earlier than one might imagine.
-That seriously, even when you think you're having the WORST day ever, there's someone out there having a much worse day. Count your blessings people!
-Everything about being a parent is much less able to be controlled than I had hoped it would be. I'm learning to accept that.
-If there's something special you want to do with your children, don't let the potential stress involved get in the way of sharing the experience with them.
-The magic of Christmas is totally reborn when you have children.
Happy Birthday Gideon! Thanks for being such a great teacher. I'm hopeful I'm returning the favor!
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
It Came and Went
So, Christmas came and went and I promised myself I'd update the blog with a Christmas post. Then New Year's came and went and I told myself that the first week of January is still sorta-kinda, technically, not really, but excusable enough of a time to do a Christmas post. But that week came and went and I neglected to post...again. So here we are the day before Gideon's first birthday and I'm determined to record this Christmas appropriately since I know tomorrow requires a birthday post. Because in all reality this blog is mostly for me. It's sort of my baby-book/photo-album/memory bank. I apologize that I'm all late with this since you're most likely over the Christmas holiday and now you're shopping for Valentine's goodies or something. But I can't not immortalize my children's Christmas via the interweb, right? Right.
We decorated for Christmas at our house in mid-December. I was wary of doing so, thinking that both kids would be all about un-decorating the tree. We didn't get/decorate a tree at all last year which was lame and depressing. Turns out, having a tree wasn't so bad. Caleb is becoming a better listener and amazingly, Gideon is not nearly as persistent as Caleb was at his age, so we were easily able to deter him from taking ornaments off the tree.
Matt did an awesome job decorating the outside of our home but I wound up never getting any photos of it. I'm bummed about that. The lights looked great though and as it became dark each night, Caleb would peek out the window and declare, "It's kri-miss!" (rhymes with "Grimace," the purple McDonald's character). He loved looking at the neighbors' lights too and I really looked forward to his nightly excitement.
We headed down to North Carolina to spend Christmas with Matt's family. This includes his mom, dad, two older brothers, future-sister-in-law, his maternal grandparents and Theresa who is a dear family friend. We spent several days there and had a great time! The boys thoroughly enjoyed being completely spoiled and doted on by their relatives. Matt and I even squeezed in some one on one time to do last minute shopping since we had grandparents available and willing to watch the little ones.
Matt's mom had a Power Wheels Jeep for Caleb to play with while we were there. It took Caleb some time to figure out the steering but then he mastered it enough to go in circles and he did so for a while. Future Nascar racer? Perhaps.
Gideon finally sprouted his upper teeth while we were down there. He literally got his two front teeth for Christmas. Funny.
Gideon took is first steps during our visit. I don't have any photographic or video evidence of that but I wish I did. There are witnesses though. Anyway, he was standing up without holding onto anything and took one step toward me, later he took two. Right foot then left foot then a graceful fall into my arms. He's been working on that ever since.
Matt and I actually wore real clothes as opposed to the uber-casual look we typically sport . See?
Brett and Kristi brought their new puppies over for everyone to see. Caleb LOVED the puppies, not sure they were very into his eager affection though.
Caleb got his first professional haircut while we were there. Thanks Nonna Rose!
Wow! After typing it all out, I realize we had quite an eventful holiday in NC. I'm not done yet though and if you're still reading, bless you! We headed home two days after Christmas. We stayed home for a night to recuperate and then headed up to NJ to visit my family. I have some really cute pictures of my kids with their cousins (my sister's three kids) but I'm 98% positive that my sister would prefer I not put pictures of her children on the internet. She's paranoid protective like that. Just trust that they're cute pictures. Other than those, I didn't take any others. Therefore, I have none to share with you. We spent a couple nights in NJ, did the gift-opening thing again, ate a ton of food again, and basked in the joys of being surrounded by family again. It was a great Christmas! I hope your Christmas was great too!
Here are my 2011 Christmas memories:
We decorated for Christmas at our house in mid-December. I was wary of doing so, thinking that both kids would be all about un-decorating the tree. We didn't get/decorate a tree at all last year which was lame and depressing. Turns out, having a tree wasn't so bad. Caleb is becoming a better listener and amazingly, Gideon is not nearly as persistent as Caleb was at his age, so we were easily able to deter him from taking ornaments off the tree.
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| Caleb decorating with Daddy. |
Matt did an awesome job decorating the outside of our home but I wound up never getting any photos of it. I'm bummed about that. The lights looked great though and as it became dark each night, Caleb would peek out the window and declare, "It's kri-miss!" (rhymes with "Grimace," the purple McDonald's character). He loved looking at the neighbors' lights too and I really looked forward to his nightly excitement.
We headed down to North Carolina to spend Christmas with Matt's family. This includes his mom, dad, two older brothers, future-sister-in-law, his maternal grandparents and Theresa who is a dear family friend. We spent several days there and had a great time! The boys thoroughly enjoyed being completely spoiled and doted on by their relatives. Matt and I even squeezed in some one on one time to do last minute shopping since we had grandparents available and willing to watch the little ones.
Matt's mom had a Power Wheels Jeep for Caleb to play with while we were there. It took Caleb some time to figure out the steering but then he mastered it enough to go in circles and he did so for a while. Future Nascar racer? Perhaps.
Christmas Eve at the Pladna household involves a big Italian meal. Dee-lish! Shortly after dinner, it was bath/bed time for the kids. The boys got matching Christmas jammies from Matt's parents. This is the best picture I have of that. Clearly, they weren't very into the pictures that evening.
Christmas morning, our family was up before anyone else in the house (no surprise there). Nonna Rose woke up and allowed Caleb and Gideon to open a couple of items before the rest of the family woke up.
One of the things Caleb got was a little pair of real glasses (with plain lenses). He looks SO adorable wearing them.
I was pumped that Matt gave me a new camera, so just for fun, we spent some time doing this:
I got some cute shots of the little guys in their Christmas outfits, courtesy of Nonna Rose.
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| Nonna Rose and her grandbabies. |
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| I'm thinking he'll be an engineer. |
Gideon finally sprouted his upper teeth while we were down there. He literally got his two front teeth for Christmas. Funny.
Gideon took is first steps during our visit. I don't have any photographic or video evidence of that but I wish I did. There are witnesses though. Anyway, he was standing up without holding onto anything and took one step toward me, later he took two. Right foot then left foot then a graceful fall into my arms. He's been working on that ever since.
Matt and I actually wore real clothes as opposed to the uber-casual look we typically sport . See?
Brett and Kristi brought their new puppies over for everyone to see. Caleb LOVED the puppies, not sure they were very into his eager affection though.
And this is just my husband being himself. I love this man!
Caleb got his first professional haircut while we were there. Thanks Nonna Rose!
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| Before |
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| After |
My absolute favorite picture from our Christmas trip. Gideon with his great-grandfather.
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| Representing the 1st and 4th of 4 generations. |
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Fibber McGee
As Caleb gets older, his creativity becomes more apparent. A while ago, I wrote about Caleb's attempt to outsource his clean-up task. Well, now he has taken to telling fibs. Last week, Caleb was sitting at the table with a bowl of dry cereal. Gideon was in his highchair eating his own portion of dry cereal. I look up to find Caleb with a tipped bowl of cereal, a naughty look on his face, and the unacceptable action of swiping all the cereal onto the floor. I demanded that he stop doing that and that he pick up the cereal immediately. He started to do so then refused then required a time-out for further convincing. After he served his time, I asked him what he did to get in time-out (the usual question he gets after an offense). He looks up at me wide-eyed and says, "The baby knocked it off the table." Gideon wasn't even in arm's reach of the table.
Yesterday, Caleb followed me into the kitchen. When he spotted a box of Band-Aids sitting on the counter he told me he needed one. I let him know that he did not. With that, he starts hopping up and down and convincingly fake-crying while yelling, "I need a Band-Aid. I have a boo-boo on my foot."
I thought children didn't start telling fibs until they were a bit older. While the act itself is not acceptable, there's a small part of me that's proud Caleb is able to formulate little stories. I've read that it's a sign of intelligence. Or perhaps it's a sign of future sociopathy. I choose to believe the former. Either way, the kid is stinkin' cute!
Yesterday, Caleb followed me into the kitchen. When he spotted a box of Band-Aids sitting on the counter he told me he needed one. I let him know that he did not. With that, he starts hopping up and down and convincingly fake-crying while yelling, "I need a Band-Aid. I have a boo-boo on my foot."
I thought children didn't start telling fibs until they were a bit older. While the act itself is not acceptable, there's a small part of me that's proud Caleb is able to formulate little stories. I've read that it's a sign of intelligence. Or perhaps it's a sign of future sociopathy. I choose to believe the former. Either way, the kid is stinkin' cute!
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