At three years and three months old…

Filed Under Are you kidding me?, Attitude, Talking, Three Years Old | 1 Comment

Bailey said, “Mom, you messed up my very whole life!”

You want to know how? I wouldn’t let her sit and watch tv instead of taking a nap. I can hardly wait to see what the tween/teen years have in store for us.

But she is still the most wonderful little girl in the world and always will be, no matter what she says or does. And THAT is spoken with a mother’s love. God gives us blind love for our children, I really believe this.

Funny Bailey Stories

Filed Under Are you kidding me?, Talking, Two and a half years old | 6 Comments

A few funny things she has said lately. I just don’t want to forget anything! This is the cutest, funniest, most trying age.

This morning she kept bugging me for candy. At one point we had the following conversation:

Bailey: Mom, can I have a lollipop?
Me: No, not now.
B: How bout now?
Me: No.
B: How bout NOW?
Me: NO!
B: What about a candy can? (candy cane)
Me: No.
B: Well can I have a T-R-E-T?
Me: (In shock) What does that mean?
B: Moooommmmmm, it means CANDY!

She also uses a lot of “time” phrases… such as:

I do it every day.
I saw that movie last week.
I will go there on Sunday.
My favorite? “I will wear underwear next year.”

She talks about her baby brother a lot. The most common things to hear:

I love you Taylor Owen!
It’s okay baby Taylor.
That’s my little brudder.
Let’s call him Potato. (Yes, she has decided that his new nickname is Potato.)

The other day she was watching this movie my mom got her. My mom told her it was just for little girls. Bailey turned it off and said, “I don’t like that movie. It’s for little girls, but it’s too scary for me. It’s for other girls.” (FYI the movie was NOT scary at all, that is her standard excuse when she doesn’t want to do something)

Mommy you’re my best friend in the whole wide world.

A few nights ago she woke up crying during the night. I thought she had a bad dream or something so I went running into her room. I was trying to be a good mom and console her. I was giving her kisses and telling her I loved her. She looks me straight in the eye and says in a stern voice, “Go BACK to bed, Mom!”

She has also been known to say, “That’s too many kisses, Mom!” (Now you see why I was praying for a child who liked to be held, right?)

The other day she came in my office and saw an empty candy jar. (Yes Emily, I already ate ALL the chocolates you gave me the other day!) She looks at all the wrappers and says, “Wow, Daddy was a piggy. He ate all those candies!” Sooo I just let her think it was Daddy.

Yesterday I went in Taylor’s room and she had her shirt pulled up, and she was holding one of the breast pump pieces up to her chest. Awesome.

A while back, she kicked me in the leg when she was mad. Then she looked up with big innocent eyes and said, “I’m sorry Mommy, I didn’t see you there!”

Oh, life with an almost-three-year-old. It’s never dull

Taylor’s Birth Story

Filed Under Are you kidding me?, Birth- Taylor, Doctor Stuff, Newborn- Taylor, Second Pregnancy | 11 Comments

Now that he is a week old, I decided it was high time to write Taylor’s birth story before I forget the details. Things have been a little crazy at our house since he came home.

On Wednesday, February 17th my nesting mode kicked into high gear. I was on a mission to make sure EVERYTHING was finished. I took Bailey to her last cooking class, then went and did grocery shopping. During her nap, I baked brownies, wrote some thank you notes, and got a few packages ready to mail out (clothing etc I sold online). That night, I went to church with Bailey to work doing childcare for the Wednesday night events. I sat in a chair and relaxed and it was actually a pretty low-key evening. Bailey and I stopped by the church library to get a few new movies. I asked to have them for a month just in case I had the baby early, so I didn’t have to worry about returning them.

On the way home, I started having what felt like an achy lower back and period cramps. That had happened on and off for about a week but just a slight, dull ache. Once I got home I ate a bowl of cereal and took a warm bath and I felt much better. I woke up a few times during the night thinking my back was still achy but it wasn’t even worth taking Tylenol for. Around 5:45 a.m. I woke up having what I thought were mild contractions. Around 6:00 I woke Jonathon up and told him what was going on. At this point the pain was still just crampy.

I got up and washed the dishes that were in the sink and switched the laundry to the dryer. The contractions were consistently about 5-8 minutes apart but starting to be stronger. I called my mom to see if she could get ready in case we needed her to come over. She suggested that I call my doctor’s exchange and ask them what to do. The doctor on call said that since it was my second baby and I was already at least 3 cm I should go ahead and come in to L and D. My mom headed over and I got in the shower. Bailey woke up at some point during this and was excited about Grammy coming.

While I was in the shower my contractions got noticeably stronger. I got out and tried to put on makeup and get ready. About halfway through blow drying my hair they really started hurting and I gave up. I think the contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart. At this point I just told Jonathon we needed to leave. It was about 7:20. Once we got in the car everything went a little crazy. The pain really got bad but I was trying to decide whether or not we should drive through McDonalds and get some breakfast. (Obviously I was not really being rational at this point!) Then I decided to scrap that idea and hurry up and get to the hospital so I could get my epidural. The contractions started coming almost every minute after this and I was panicking a little bit. I was yelling at Jonathon to go around the traffic- of course it had to be morning rush hour- and at one point I thought I should get out and walk instead. He cut a few corners and we made it to the hospital. The last five or ten minutes I could feel a lot of pressure from the baby. I kept saying, “This is not okay. He’s going to come out.” I was panicking.

When we got to the hospital I jumped out of the car to go up to the maternity floor. I told him to park and meet me inside. The woman at the desk was all calm and slow and I was like, “MY BABY IS COMING OUT!” I think she thought I was exaggerating, then I about doubled over against the couch and she got on the phone to call a nurse. I was checked in at 7:55 a.m. and they took me straight back to a delivery room. When we got in the room I told them I needed to pee before getting into bed. When I sat down to pee my water broke but I don’t think I was even aware of it. I was fairly sure I was going to die from the pain. They put a gown on me and helped me into the bed. The house OB checked me and I was 8 cm at this point. I remember having either two or three really strong contractions where I freaked out. The nurse was yelling at me to look in her eyes and breathe with her.

I started asking where the anesthesiologist was. They said they had called her and she was on her way. I was saying, “I can’t do this, I swear I can’t, I need an epidural.” But it also felt like I was ready to push. They told me I had two options, I could either wait and lay still and get the epidural, or I could go ahead and push him out. The nurse said if it was her she would just push because it would help with the pain and it would be over sooner. I asked if it was okay since I was only at 8. They said that I was probably at 10 and they went to check me and they were like, “oh, he’s right there and he has hair!” I believe I pushed once for his head and either once or twice at the shoulders. I could feel him slide out. The actual pushing didn’t really hurt compared to the contractions so I was glad I just went ahead and did it. But that’s the story of how I gave birth without an epidural!

The house OB was the one who delivered Taylor. My OB walked in just a few minutes later. Apparently the anesthesiologist got there while I was pushing, too. They let me hold him right away and he was MAD. He was still really covered in white stuff from being a little early. They cut his cord (Jonathon didn’t care about doing it this time, he said it was kind of weird and not a big deal). She said I had torn a little bit but it was very minimal. I said that I did NOT want stitches after I had done all that without drugs. She said since it stopped bleeding with pressure that I could skip the stitches. Taylor’s APGAR scores were 8 at one minute and 9 at five minutes.

He was 7 pounds exactly, and 19 inches long. He arrived at 37 weeks 3 days.

Look at his proud daddy!

In love with my little man…

First family photo

Heading off to my room!

Rough Week

Filed Under Are you kidding me?, Into Everything, Two and a half years old | 2 Comments

I know I mentioned this on Facebook (what, you aren’t all friends with me on Facebook??) but last week Bailey and I had a really rough week. I just really don’t have the energy to chase her down as much as I need to when she starts getting into stuff or running away from me. She has also been taking advantage of the time that I am in the shower or getting ready. I leave the door open so she can always come find me… but she knows I can’t see her!

So last week while I was getting ready- one day she colored on the couch with markers. Thank God they were washable. Daddy left them where she could reach them. She has NEVER colored on anything other than her own skin before so I was really shocked. She also got into some of my greeting cards that I made and messed those up. Then another day, she got down the Sweet Pea soap from the guest bathroom and “washed” the couch. And another day, she washed the tv stand! I was thankful that we have black faux wood tv stands and glass coffee tables and stuff like that instead of super expensive heavy wooden furniture. At least it wipes down easily. Then another day last week she tore apart a book and shoved little spit wads of paper up her nose. I got to pick all of them out later for her.

This is why I worry about having two children.

Nesting-ish

Filed Under Are you kidding me?, Marriage, Second Pregnancy, Tackle It Tuesday | 1 Comment

I keep saying I am going to post the wedding pictures on here. And then I think of more things that need to be done around the house. Critical things, you know, like getting our Disney photos from FALL 08 in an album. Or updating Bailey’s baby book. Or selling her old clothes online. (Okay, at least that one earns me more shopping money). Anyway. I am in that phase, where I find random paint spots that need to be touched up, or decided to empty and clean out the fridge WHILE making dinner. Or start thinking about selling our house altogether and call around to get a price or home insurance quote.

I’ll share a funny story though. It wasn’t funny then, but it’s pretty funny now. I was in a bad mood by the time Jonathon got home from work. They changed the hours of my favorite post office and so I didn’t get a package shipped out today. Because I used the ONE size flat rate box that doesn’t have online postage available. That got me all set off and I stomped upstairs to start dinner. Jonathon said something about how I’m doing some things but not working up to my potential. Um, I’m sorry, I’m busy growing a human right now.

Then he made a comment about how he was tired of this (giant) stack of stuff all over the countertop. So I threw the entire stack across the kitchen floor at just the right angle so that it would scatter everywhere. And I looked him in the eye and said, “There. Now it’s not on the countertop.”

I love pregnancy hormones. And I was NOT the one who cleaned up the mess. You know, because I am busy living life below my full potential, so I just let other people do those kind of things.

Not just a fluke

Filed Under Are you kidding me?, Diapers/Potty, Two and a half years old | 1 Comment

Today I jumped in the shower while Bailey was having a snack and watching tv. We were getting ready to go to gymnastics. She still had her pajamas on. As I was finishing my shower she came into the bathroom. She was like “Look Mom!” and through the steamy shower glass I see this brown thing in her hand… I bet you know where this is going…

After I calmed down we flushed it, washed her hands, and I went in the living room to find her jammy pants and diaper on the floor. Thankfully there were no other “remnants” anywhere. Someone needs to start wearing a onesie, I think.

Tuesday Toot- Should I Even be Proud?

Filed Under Are you kidding me?, Diapers/Potty, Second Pregnancy, Sleep, Tuesday Toot, Two and a half years old | 3 Comments

So I’m supposed to talk about an accomplishment, something I’m proud of, etc.

Should I mention that I functioned all day on just three hours of sleep (thank you horrible gas pains, I thought I was in labor! I have honestly never felt anything quite like this. Jonathon finally went to the store at 2 a.m. to get me Gas-X.)

Or that I cleaned poop out of Bailey’s bed this morning? After listening to her yell “Mom! Come in here! You hear me? I need you to come in!” I thought she just woke up early and told her to go back to sleep. So I finally sent Jonathon in and he’s like “Help! There’s poop!” So I go in and she says, “Look at all the poops in my bed! There’s poops in my own bed!” And those little turdlets were all lined up and arranged. Nice.

Or should I tell you that I worked doing childcare this morning at church and I wish that my old co-teacher was still in my room with me? Long morning.

Or maybe I should just tell you that Bailey and I both got to take a three hour nap this afternoon

Handbags- Worth Reading!!

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This was sent to me in an email but I think it’s worth sharing. I was absolutely disgusted when I read this, and it makes me think about how I always drop my purse on my kitchen countertop when I get home. Not anymore!

Have you ever noticed girls who set their handbags on public toilet floors,
then go directly to their dining tables and set it on the table?
Happens a lot! It’s not always the ‘restaurant food’ that causes stomach
distress. Sometimes ‘what you don’t know will hurt you!’

Read on………….
Mom got so upset when guests came in the door and plopped their handbags
down on the counter where she was cooking or setting up food. She always
said that handbags are really dirty, because of where they have been.
It’s something just about every woman carries with them. While we may know
what’s inside our handbags, do you have any idea what’s on the outside?

Women carry handbags everywhere; from the office to public toilets to the
floor of the car. Most women won’t be caught without their handbags, but did
you ever stop to think about where your handbag goes during the day.
‘I drive a school bus, so my handbag has been on the floor of the bus a
lot,’ says one woman. ‘On the floor of my car, and in toilets.’
‘I put my handbag in grocery shopping carts and on the floor of the toilet,’
says another woman ‘and of course in my home which should be clean.’
We decided to find out if handbags harbor a lot of bacteria. We learned how
to test them at Nelson Laboratories in Salt Lake , and then we set out to
test the average woman’s handbag.
Most women told us they didn’t stop to think about what was on the bottom of
their handbag. Most said at home they usually set their handbags on top of
kitchen tables and counters where food is prepared.
Most of the ladies we talked to told us they wouldn’t be surprised if their
handbags were at least a little bit dirty.
It turns out handbags are so surprisingly dirty, even the microbiologist who
tested them was shocked.

Microbiologist Amy Karen of Nelson Labs says nearly all of the handbags
tested were not only high in bacteria, but high in harmful kinds of
bacteria. Pseudomonas can cause eye infections, staphylococcus aurous can
cause serious skin infections, and salmonella and e-coli found on the
handbags could make people very sick.
In one sampling, four out of five handbags tested positive for salmonella,
and that’s not the worst of it. ‘There is fecal contamination on the
handbags’ says Amy. Leather or vinyl handbags tended to be cleaner than
cloth handbags, and lifestyle seemed to play a role. People with kids tended
to have dirtier handbags than those without, with one exception.
The handbag of one single woman who frequented nightclubs had one of the
worst contaminations of all. ‘Some type of feces, or possibly vomit’ says Amy.

So the moral of this story is that your handbag won’t kill you, but it does
have the potential to make you very sick if you keep it on places where you
eat. Use hooks to hang your handbag at home and in toilets, and don’t put it
on your desk, a restaurant table, or on your kitchen counter top.
Experts say you should think of your handbag the same way you would a pair
of shoes. ‘If you think about putting a pair of shoes on your counter tops,
that’s the same thing you’re doing when you put your handbag on the counter
tops.’

Your handbag has gone where individuals before you have walked, sat,
sneezed, coughed, spat, urinated, emptied bowels, etc!
Do you really want to bring that home with you?
The microbiologists at Nelson also said cleaning a handbag will help. Wash
cloth handbags and use leather cleaner to clean the bottom of leather
handbags.
THIS IS WORTH SHARING!!! PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO YOUR GRANDMOTHERS, MOMS,
DAUGHTERS, GRANDDAUGHTERS AND GIRLFRIENDS !! !!

So this week has been fun…

Filed Under Allergies, Are you kidding me?, Asthma, Difficult Stuff, Doctor Stuff, Firsts, Sick, Two Years Old | 8 Comments

We started out with a visit to the pediatrician on Monday because Bailey had trouble breathing during the night. Once again, her lungs were fine, ears were fine, nose was fine, etc and no explanation for the breathing or chronic coughing. They assume it’s her allergies again. Meanwhile I am getting much less sleep than I need to be.

Tuesday her coughing seemed to be getting worse. Then Tuesday night she fell and busted her head open… resulting in an ambulance ride and a night at the hospital. The reason we called the ambulance- other than the massive bleeding- was because she started falling asleep right away. I actually sat on my front porch to make sure the ambulance could find us. It’s funny the things you do when you panic. I had the sense to change my shirt and grab my phone and charger on the way out the door too. The police and firetruck showed up first because the ambulance came from another district. She started calming down right away because she was excited about all the sirens and lights. Silly girl. We rode with the lights on but not the siren because they didn’t want to scare her. She had to sit on my lap on the stretcher- the other option was them strapping her down alone which was just not going to happen.

They were able to use glue instead of stitches or staples on her injury. I was glad because it is supposed to scar less. The worst part was holding her down to get it washed out- it took the doctor, two nurses, and Jonathon and me to do it. Then after we were released she started throwing up so we had to spend the night at the hospital. Several drugs, an IV, and a ct-scan later, we were released. Her results were all normal and we were told to keep her head dry for a few days, limit her activity, and don’t let her bump anything. That was Wednesday morning so my mom picked her up and let Jonathon and I sleep and get stuff done around the house.

By the way if anyone knows how to get blood out of your carpet, please let me know. Of course it’s right at the top of our stairs near the entryway. I have gotten it to fade but not a whole lot. I have been looking for something also to pad our doorway with. She needs some kind of fall protection or corner guards. The spot where she hit her head was in the doorway to our kitchen. It’s one of those cut out doorways that doesn’t have a door frame in it- basically drywall with metal in the corners or something. Probably the hardest place she could possibly have hit her head of course. So we need to fix that. The things that you don’t think of babyproofing until your child gets hurt…

Wednesday she seemed to be recovering from the head injury but she started coughing until she threw up. Back to the pediatrician on Thursday morning about the coughing (again) and to get her head checked. Her ped ran a test and had us do a chest x ray. The conclusion is that she most likely has cough-variant asthma which would explain why she coughs all night long for weeks at a time. We are borrowing a nebulizer for two weeks and if that stops the coughing then we will talk about a preventative treatment plan and visit a specialist. They think it is allergy-induced because it’s much much worse in spring and fall, and seems to come along with a runny nose. Yesterday we did her breathing treatments every four hours, once during the night, and today we have spaced them back to every six hours. She has only coughed a handful of times (even in the night) since starting them. So I think this is working!

As much as I hate for my child to have asthma- it could be SO much worse. I know someone whose three year old just got diagnosed with CF, and I kept thinking of all the crazy things that could be causing the coughing. I am thankful to have an answer and that it is getting better now.

The first few treatments, she hated it. Now she will hold the mask herself if I let her sit in front of the tv while we do it. That’s a small price to pay to avoid two of us holding her down for the entire treatment!

Back from Oklahoma

Filed Under Are you kidding me?, Birthdays, In-Laws, Two Years Old | 1 Comment

We just returned from a weekend in Oklahoma (the most boring state EVER, sorry if you live there. I mean, I feel sorry for you, not that I am insulting you.) We went to visit Jonathon’s parents and celebrate his dad’s 70th birthday. I have come to the conclusion that his dad is a pretty nice guy and his mom is the one who is off her rocker.

One thing that happened to confirm that, was that she hit our car (in their driveway) leaving a huge scrape and a dent and didn’t tell us. Just left to go shopping… she figured she could let us know later. Right, because that’s the normal choice. The good thing- kind of- was that it was the dealer car we had borrowed because they still have our van while they wait for a part to come in to fix a seatbelt strap. So at least we can just give the car back to them and give them the IL’s insurance info and we won’t be without one of our cars while it’s being repaired.

We did have a few cute Bailey moments, of course. At one point she said, “Daddy, my so hungry!” He asked her if she would like a cracker, and she said, “No thank you Daddy, my belly’s fullded! I need fruit snacks!”

She also had so much fun playing with her aunts and uncles and cousins. Have I mentioned that the rest of Jonathon’s family is completely normal? It’s just his parents that are so weird. I’m not sure how that happened. There was a lot of family in town because they had come in for his dad’s birthday, and also because quite a few of them live within an hour or two of his parents. It makes me wish that my side of the family was bigger- I would have loved growing up with a big family like that!

Bailey with her grandparents

Ready for Grandpa D’s party

With cousins Grace and Isaac

And my hubby! I never post any pics of just him and he is the best guy in the world.

My Bailey Bug

Filed Under Are you kidding me?, Talking, Two Years Old | 1 Comment

Oh, and yesterday- she got in trouble and afterwards she walked over to where I was sitting on the couch, pressed her face up against my face, and said “You SOOOO pretty, Mommy!” They learn to scam people at a young age. How can you be mad after that?

There is a reason

Filed Under Are you kidding me?, Into Everything, Two Years Old | 3 Comments

This is why Bailey can’t use markers without being stripped down to a diaper AND having close supervision. Her body automatically turns into a drawing surface.

Stupid Thing I Did

Filed Under Are you kidding me? | Leave a Comment

So you know how my health insurance completely screwed me over? I made the mistake of trying to get some health insurance quotes online. Um, I have these random idiots calling my cell phone now trying to sell me insurance. This one company, I had to tell them like four times to take me off their list. It’s been really annoying. Don’t do what I did. Lesson learned.

You will not even freaking believe where our camera is

Filed Under Are you kidding me? | 5 Comments

It’s at Best Buy again, getting “fixed” again supposedly. This is the fourth time now, same issue every time. It has never truly been fixed. Funny that our extended care plan runs out this month. I told Jonathon they are just buying time so that it’s expired when we get it back… and when we tell them it doesn’t work again they will tell us tough luck that our plan is expired. They should have replaced it by now- four times for the same thing. Isn’t there something like a lemon law for all products and not just cards? Does anyone know? I am really angry.

So good luck with raising a child who’s not a total brat

Filed Under Are you kidding me?, Random | 2 Comments

I witnessed this scene in the grocery store last night:

Little girl (about six years old, walks up to cashier): Yeah, I’m here to get a sticker.

Cashier: Can you say please?

Little girl: Rolls eyes and ignores cashier

Little girl’s dad: (speaking to cashier) “Yeah, good luck with that.”

Um, did I just hear him correctly? His daughter was being rude and not using her manners, and instead of correcting her, he told the CASHIER good luck with that? Even at Bailey’s age, I would have told her something like, “This lady is not going to give you a sticker until you say please. We use manners when we ask for something.”

And we wonder why some kids are so bratty.