Cyber issues

So after attending a cyberbullying and cyber safety training recently I think I am ready to shut the doors on hollandbabymama. It didn't turn out the way I intended and I think my eyes have been opened wide as to what kind of sick stuff people are into. All along I have wanted to protect the identity of my family and be free to say what I want, but I don't think I can have both. So hopefully I can find some way to archive some of the stuff about the kids, because one day they might be interested in how I felt about motherhood when they were so young.

Local news

Since C's first birthday party we've been frequenting Montello Meat Market on the south side for all our special event meats. Burgers, brats, etc. They are super friendly and genuinely nice people. Their meat is incredible and their commitment to providing Hollanders "real" food and sustainable local consumerism is awesome. On our recent visit for brats it was a family affair but I was kind of distracted and accidentally left C is the car even though he said he wanted to some in with me. Daddy left Bieber alone in the car long enough to escort C into the butcher shop and I was flustered to say the least. Also along that day was Auntie Whiz who was as distracted as I was with the amazing variety of brats to choose from. She was also in awe of their Disney World Grand Marshal certificate hanging up by the cash register and had to trade ideas with Tony and Tina about how we might someday be selected for that honor. We threw in some Michigan made pierogies in our basket so we weren't just walking out with 16 brats. And the finale at the meat store is the giant jar of smarties that Tony always asks if Cnote would like something out of! Auntie Whiz took all the meat home while Daddy and the boys and I continued on our way down town for haircuts at Salon Cheveaux. Poor B, cries his eyes out like we are savagely beating him the entire time he is getting his hair cut and it is awful. C on the other hand sits like a champ and just can't wait until it is time to drink some lemonade and maybe eat a piece of candy when he's done. So that part of the excursion was not as fun, but needed. The kids aged like a year a piece with their short new cuts. Bieber especially looks a lot older. Psst...please stop growing you are both perfect right where you are!
Last stop of the weekend was Cranes orchard for the pumpkin patch picking. We had two measly pumpkins survive the icky squash bugs that hit our garden this year. Gross. So we definitely had to go buy pumpkins for Halloween. We all got "cute", charged up the camera, and headed out to the patch. Daddy and C did lots of hunting for the perfect pumpkins, while Auntie Whiz and I tried to coral B who wanted to wander all over. I think this annual trip is one of my favorite things we do. Wish we had a better camera so our shots would look more profesh, but oh well.

Collective sigh please

School starts for real tomorrow. Up until last week it was all voluntary, followed by 3 days of pd and a lovely weekend. Daddy and Cnote met up with Grandma and Grandpa at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo for a totally cool adventure while B went to daycare and mom cleaned. Why is I spend my "days off" cleaning the house? Shouldn't I be thoroughly enjoying wine-o-clock somewhere, or reading a book on the beach? Or combining both activities...

Aunti Whiz and Uncle Tom came for the weekend and arrived right as we were putting C to bed, which was nice for him to see her. He actually still went to bed pretty well must have been the twenty minute nap in the car home from Kalamazoo that did him in. On the nap note, B chose to skip his morning nap twice this weekend. I've been wondering if it is time to pull it but wanted to wait until we are into the swing of thing with back to work. Both times he tried to zonk out around 11ish so clearly he's not able to make it until 12:30 without a little crankiness seeping through. We'll see. Growns up had fun with bonfires, margaritas and fireworks Saturday night. Both children were up bright and early Sunday while we waited for the coffee to kick in.

Monday turned out to be a nice slightly chilly day with Daddy and C taking off with Murph for a morning hike on the trails while mommy and B vacuumed and clean. Hmmm noticing a theme here. The whole fam tried to go out to brunch but our restaurant was closed and we ended up at McDonalds. Oh well, led up to a nice cloudy gray which makes great napping weather which is always appreciated.

Hoping I can sleep tonight but already feeling jittery and it's only 7:00. So long summer.

Summer Sickies

Hand-foot-mouth a virus that begins with a fever and turns into a red blotchy rash and both of my kids got it after their first two days back at daycare last week. They don't have any in their mouths but the sores can also appear there. Awesome return to work for me already pulling a sick day this week when B came down with the fever too. But they're fine if not a little unsightly because of the blotches on their hands and feet. Hard to believe that there is no treatment other than tylenol for the fever, and yet no vaccine to prevent it. The nurse I spoke with said it was going around Holland right now big time. On top of it Bieber's 4 eye teeth are coming in so sleep is something that only comes in 30-90 minute stretches. I was literally in rocking him every 2 hours last night. Daddy took his turn at 5:30 this morning and never came back to bed before it was time to get ready for work. So looks like we will lay low again this weekend to make sure we aren't out infecting others with our germs.

Roomba!

B is officially on the move. He took his first steps at 13 months, and then really took the next month to get the whole walking thing down. We often find him wandering aimlessly usually with a shoe in his hand looking a little bit like a confused mental patient. Daddy has coined the phrase Roomba after the automatic vacuums that just go from room to room cleaning your carpets. May I mention that I would love to have one of these gadgets? I'm sure that the dog would just go ape shit and attack it while we were out, but I know people who have had them with two massive dogs and their house was impeccable. Not a dog hair to be found. A new trick Boots has learned is to pick up objects and throw them down the stairwell over, under or through the baby gate. If you can't find something like your shoe, the remote or a sippy cup it is a likely place to check.

Feels like summer is winding down. First trip into school yesterday....not ready.

Shit my kids ruined

I often watch a few minutes of Rachel Ray at 2:00 before Bdizzle gets up from his nap. Recently she had a book featured, Shit My Kid Ruined. The author has a website and I had read about the book in a parenting mag anyway. Not more than a few days later after a few too quiet minutes I walked into C-notes bathroom to discover that B had put a bunch of toys and bath crayons in the toilet which did contain pee as C never flushes without tons of prompting and reminders. I snapped a picture but alas, the camera is never charged and ready for me to transfer it when I actually have a minute to write about it. So one day, it'll make a great piece. Check out the website or book if you need a pick me up shitmykidruined

Summertime, time to kick back and unwind

Swim lessons begin tomorrow. We go every day for two weeks at 11:00. Word on the street is that one of our neighbors will also be there with her two boys. Hoping that this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship! We've been prepping C for being independent and being with the big kids because Bieber and I will be with the babies doing the mom/tot class at the same time. Lately when he has to try something new he's been pulling this shy act and not wanting to do it. Haircuts last week were one of these times. The first time we went to this place he climbed right up and it was no big deal and B and I sat in the chair next to him and they both got their hair cut simultaneously. 2nd time we had to cajole him, try to bribe him with a sucker, then finally just had to pull out the serious/mean mommy voice put B down, lift C up and make him get in the chair. On this visit I made the mistake of dressing them up like cute little dudes only to be disappointed that they were both covered with hair despite wearing the capes. Oh well, fleeting but still cute. Next week our kindermusik classes begin as well. Each boy gets to go with mommy while the other one will stay home with a baby sitter. I think it will be good pre-school like practice for C, and Boots will just love to get his groove on. The boy has some serious rhythm and especially likes when daddy puts on classic R & B. For C Note it was always the Honky Tonk Country channel so its amusing to see the difference in their musical taste. With Boots' dark latin features I think he's gonna be a hit with the ladies.

Rick Snyder - Super Hypocrite

Rick Snyder - Super Hypocrite

Greenhills School

Rick Snyder's daughter attends a private school in Ann Arbor where middle school tuition costs $17,865 and high school tuition costs$18, 225 and you can expect your books to run you another $400-$600. So if his daughter's school can't successfully educate children on the state stipend per pupil, why is that he expects the public schools to be able to? Check them out at greenhillschools.org

Birthday Bash

This holiday weekend we celebrated the boys birthdays with an awesome family party. Both sets of grandparents and our favorite aunt, Auntie Whiz as well as Uncle Tom were in attendance. Highlights include B grabbing his candle and burning his hand and howling like a maniac thereby forfeiting his smash cake experience. Woody made an appearance for C-note and has quickly become his new favorite toy. There was lots of excitement when the decorations were spotted for the first time. He kept yelling decorations, more decorations as he wandered about checking for more. The excitement increased exponentially when Auntie Whiz arrived with the Buzz and Woody baloon bouquet! The weather was sketchy all weekend with lots of fog, threats of rain and humidity until Monday which was sunny and beatiful. We spent our day hanging out at home, shopping for our hanging baskets, getting ice cream at Captain Sundae and playing in the new Nemo pool. Murphy even got to go for a boat ride with dad on the pond.
Next up, wrapping up the school year and on our horizon swim lessons, music class and possibly jury duty for mommy.

Recall the nerd

Seriously people, these attacks on the kids of Michigan aren't the way to solve the imaginary budget crisis here. If the rest of these attacks on education, educators and unions are successful my family will be lucky if we can pay for our health insurance and daycare while I am at school if I even have a job left.

fightschoolcuts.org
firericksnyder.org

I have a blog? Really?

So I guess I need to update this thing. Work has been so busy and for the past few weeks any minute after kids' bedtimes has been spent writing my evaluation project so the last thing I have wanted to do was spend more time typing anything.
Of note- Bieber went on a 4-5 day nursing strike that had me in frequent tears as I am not yet ready to be done nursing. Why do people automatically think you just stop nursing when these things happen? I got weird comments from people at work like maybe it is just time to switch to formula- as if I would quit this close to the one year mark. I think it was just a teething issue, but we've all also been dealing with a hella-cold that has serious breathing implications for babies who can't be propped up on pillows. We seem to have turned the corner on that, all except me who is dealing with seasonal allergies on top of that.
Annual neighborhood garage sale helped us say goodbye to some baby things, furniture and garage junk that we were thrilled to get rid of. Other than a few key baby items I think I can unload on craigslist we bagged the rest of it up and took it to goodwill the every next day. I said farewell to all of my small pre-kids purses including two coach purses from the late 90s and early 2000s. Can you believe I used to have discretionary income to burn on stuff like that? Last night with only 10 minutes to spare I remembered I had an appointment set up for a pedicure at the salon. I made it downtown in record time and was only a few minutes late. Got all caught up on the gossip mags I won't spend money on and booked another one on the way out. Why is it I never thought to book these on an evening during the week before? Saturdays are too busy with so much do get done, but a Monday night ritual pedicure complete with leg massage was divine. See you in 4 weeks Miss Cassie!

Spring Break Recap

Last Friday began our break. Sent the kiddos to daycare and took the day to get lots of stuff done. Was supposed to work on my report for work that is due this week, and kind of did but not really. Procrastination station. Ended up spending the morning hours working outside in the yard preparing the garden beds for spring which was delightful though hard and dirty work. Dug out 2 dead and or dying bushes and can't wait to buy new things to go in their place. Hoping to get daddy to take out 2 more bushes that I have hated since the day we moved in in 2004. Quick lunch, shower, nap and out of time. Had to scoot out to run final errands and get the boys. Even when I drop them off late, I feel badly making them stay later than they would normally be there so I don't push it on these days off. With daddy out of town for the weekend we had an easy dinner of pb&j sandwhiches cleaned up and got the house ready for auntie whiz who was to arrive after bed time.

Luckily, everyone cooperated and went to bed. Juggling two kids in the bath and bed preparation isn't the easiest task, but I managed. It seems that C can kind of gauge when he needs to just suck it up and go with the flow because Bieber ain't having it and is wailing. We call it B-panic when he just goes from zero to 60 with the screams. He has no patience and turns it on pretty quickly. Funny how when I was a babe/toddler one of my nicknames was "crybaby" he seems to have inherited some of this. Auntie Whiz showed up and we enjoyed a few glasses of wine while going through the maternity clothes to determine if she wanted any of them in the event she does decide to become a mom. (Huge neighborhood garage sale last Saturday in April, so we have to get crackin on organizing all those clothes and baby gear we are set to get rid of. Hoping for good weather, cant' believe it is so early this year.)

Saturday morning the kids went for their first portraits together. I've been waiting for B to be able to pull himself up to standing, but since this is taking forever, we finally just did it. I knew we needed to get them done as he is losing his baby look more and more each day. PS, C wanted nothing to do with it, so we got good shots of B and hardly any good ones of big brother. Other than that we just hung around the house all weekend.

Sunday, daddy arrived home about 30 minutes after bedtime so didn't get to see his boys until morning. It was nice to have the day together after missing daddy all weekend. Monday - Wednesday just flew by with not much going on. Tuesday we went to meijer to pick up a trike and some sun shades for the kids windows for the trip home. Wednesday we went to the bank and got gas. Thursday couldn't come fast enough for us. After an early lunch we took off for Grandma and Poppas house where we spent a glorious end to our spring break. Hanging out at the house and playing all day with the new trike, cool monster tent and even some cousins came over for dinner. We had a great sunny day to drive back to the west side and Sunday proved to be a fabulous and 80 degree day. Daddy got to test out his new boat with his lil mate, while B and I talked to them over the walkie talkies C dizzle got for Christmas.

Tomorrow, just another manic Monday, but feeling ready for it. I think at this point we have 9 weeks to go. Look out summer here we come!

Pacis, Puke and a Possum

Last week, the boys and I returned home from our day to find about 6 nasty puke spots from Murphy. He had knocked everything off one of Bieber's shelves to get at the 2 pacis that were perched there for safe keeping. For the record, he loves pacis and will eat the nipples and leave the hard plastic parts in little piles. Our solution for this was to put them up on the shelves so they were safe. On this fine day though the baby monitor camera was half way across the room, the clock was face down stopped at 7:30 am which means that in less than 30 minutes of our departure that morning he had succeeded in his quest, and yes there were the remains of the two pacis. This was not your ordinary dog vomit, these stains were dark (perhaps with blood) and our spray carpet cleaning solution was doing nothing but spreading the mess. It was all I could do not to puke myself. This left us with one useable paci since B is super picky and his particular pacis are hard to find. They come with protective caps so you can't see the shape of the nipple until you buy them and open them. (This leaves us with a total of 8 that are the wrong damn kind, he just spits them back out.) Anyway...back to the story, so it was also my night to get my hair did, so I put B to bed said adieu to C-dizzle and tried to get some new pacis at Walgreens in an attempt to save myself a trip all the way to target. No dice, as soon as I opened the package I could tell they weren't the ones he likes. So I get my hair done and begin the journey to Target at 9:00 at night. Hello...that's like my bedtime. So I'm driving around suburban Holland, haulin a little ass...and yes, you guessed it an unlucky possum crossed my path and thunked somewhere underneath my car. Ick, ick, ick. I got to target and inspected the car half expecting to see fur and blood and guts, but luckily saw nothing. Ran in and for the love of god they were out of his particular pacis. So I bought two different possibilities and luckily one was ok, but a little small, more of a newborn, infant size, but the right nipple shape. So I got home with no further animal issues and boiled them up to be ready for the handful of times each night that I pop in to replace his paci. Fast forward to Saturday morning and C and I are like the first people at Kohls so we can buy a stinking carpet cleaning machine to at least clean the carpet if not get it back to its original color. And all week long I've been hiding the pacis before we leave in what I hope are dog proof locations. He's seriously lucky that he didn't do some damage to himself. Not the brightest pup in the pack, but he sure is persistent.

Skate or die!

So bedtime is an ever changing process at our house that this week has some fun new things added to it. Starting yesterday we finally got both boys in the tub again for some seriously funny bath time. Bieber loves to splash and play and Cnote was for once totally into the idea. Tonight, though neither boys was supposed to get a bath but since we found them after dinner rolling around in C's pee that he chose not to mention was all over his bathroom floor instead of in the potty, they were both stripped naked and thrown in the tub for an impromptu bath. Once lil B is all tucked in for the night we be-lax by watching fresh beat band and sometimes have an apple, pear or tonight was raspberries for our bed time snack. Then its off to brush teeth, read, dance, spin, fall down, get squashed like a bug and now drumroll please- skateboarding. Skateboarding consists of C stepping on your back (you hope cause it don't feel nice on the front) and balancing himself saying, I'm skateboarding you, I'm skateboarding you. The first time he did this I was laughing so hard I couldn't stop because even though he has a lil people skateboard guy, I don't know where he might have really seen someone skateboarding, but somehow he got it. He's actually quite good at finding his balance.

Rolling..trying to catch me dirty

So Bieber has had his first rides in a shopping cart over the past few weekends. He kind of enjoyed our first trip to target, but the 2nd trip to Menards I ended up having to carry him. He just couldn't get his balance and I didn't have enough blankets with us to prop him up in the oversize basket. C dizzle loved this kind of outing when he was young so I was kind of surprised that Bieber didn't. Oh well...in due time. Since I am out of the swing of things I didn't have my handy package of anti-bacterial wipes so I was kind of happy to carry him at the hardware store. Love how Target has these industrial size canisters of wipes right at the entry way.

Bieber is sporting about 9 teeth and had a bright pink cheek when I picked him up at daycare this afternoon so 10 can't be far behind. They are keeping him tossing and turning and sleeping fitfully, but this morning when I went in he was face down, bum up totally snoozing. The daylight savings time caught up with him and C both. The morning was one melt down after the next and I was totally late for work.
Following up with an earlier post, more milk than meat, I was sad to have to throw out 26 bags of milk last night that was beyond it's freshness date. This is not an easy thing to do when you know the hours and effort it took to produce, package and freeze it all. Clearly we are nearing the end of nursing, but I'm not looking forward to it and don't want to rush B out of his babyhood.

Messiest pets on the planet

I think our cat and dog are the just about the biggest mess makers in our house. They both are total pigs when it comes to their food, leaving bits and pieces underfoot and thoroughly irritating me. With B on the move I find it even less tolerable than normal. So seriously let's think twice about any more pets in this house after these ones make their homes in heaven.
Sconnie guests came for the weekend and a great time was had by all. We made our first trip to the inside playground in months and it was a huge success for all. Even B had fun in the jumper and having his meal in a new environment. We are working off 2s and on to the 3s with me unable to remember how to start real solids. We tried mushy banana with little success this weekend and I just don't remember how I did it with C. Grandma is helping us out with PTCs this week so hopefully she can share all of her infinite wisdom on using the food grinder and/or beginning real foods. Gotta love it when Grannies do daycare and bring cases of dipes! Score.

Bite me!

By the end of the week, Sweet B should have 6 teeth in. Needless to say he has been a drooly, whiny little machine lately. Tylenol helps at night, but the busy time between arrival home, supper and bed time is full of lots of whining and wanting to be held and it just isn't feasible. Poor guy. We had been awaiting the arrival of a top tooth, but a bottom one snuck in first, then the top and now the other bottom. I am guessing that the 2nd top tooth isn't far behind. The only thing he seems to want to bite or chew on productively is a sippy cup with cold water in it so we've been going with it. He has begun to really roll around wherever he wants to go and crawling is sure to happen any minute. He's also been waking himself up at night by rolling on to his stomach which he doesn't like at all. I don't remember it bothering C at all to roll at night and I know he slept even better once he was used to sleeping on his tummy, so hopefully B will get over the surprise of it and learn to like it. For now, he is propping himself on his side by hooking his feet in the slats of his crib which is pretty innovative if you ask me.
C's back to being a great little helper and he's been getting lots of treats for listening at home and at daycare. We took Valentine's this year for all his friends and he seemed very proud to hand them out to everyone. Of course they were Buzz Woody valentines. He did go to bed in new non Buzz Woody jammies thanks to Grandma and Poppa for the valentine care package. Uncle Mark snuck in a quick visit this past weekend and Auntie Whiz is coming on Friday. Hopefully the warm weather continues and we can get outside for a little while this weekend.

Snowfreezyicetastic AKA Blizzard 2011

Thank you arctic winds from the north east for your 40 mph gusts, 15.9 inches of snow and 5 foot drifts. We have had 3 glorious days off work/daycare this week and are headed into the weekend. It was to be a busy day if I did have to go in, so I was most grateful for the late phone call this morning. I was just about to blow dry my hair when the robo call came in. My WOOD-TV8 text had been blowing up first for the other cancellations, so I was taken off guard when the phone began ringing instead. Wednesday night we were alerted about 9pm that we weren't going to have school Thursday so all last night I was intrigued by the closing going across the screen. Got pretty excited when I saw that HPS and some charter schools had already called off. We're almost out of bread and have no bananas so a trip to the grocery store is in order and I'm getting a little stir crazy too since I haven't left the house since Tuesday. Confession, not a big fan of leaving the house with two kids in the middle of winter. Since I refuse to put the infant carrier on the shopping cart since my instruction booklet specifically says not to, and you read/hear horror stories of babies flipping over and out- that does limit the space in a shopping cart when you put the carrier in the basket. I am anxiously awaiting warmer weather when B can be taken out of the carrier and sit in the cart, but then what of C? Always something new to figure out.

Short weeks

So after the last post, we were blessed with a snow day. Even better daddy was out of town for work so it made one less morning that I had to hustle the kids to daycare all alone. We had a great day playing downstairs and of course watching one of the toy story movies. C talks about watching buzz woody when we get home every morning on the way to daycare and again on the way home. His day is not complete until we watch it. Sadly neither one of us is any good at saying no to this as it does free us up to get other stuff done. We do try to limit it to one viewing a day.
This week C earned us another short week by throwing up all over himself as I was getting him out of the car at daycare. We knew he wasn't acting himself that morning but he didn't have a fever so the plan was to take him to daycare and see how the day progressed. Most Mondays ours are the only two kids at daycare so we knew it wouldn't be that big of deal if he ended up being terribly sick. So we went inside, got cleaned up and drove back home. Since we were relaxing at home trying to rest it did end up being a double feature day with buzz and woody being shown twice. Other than an early nap and not much of an appetite he was fine so the rest of the week proceeded as planned.
Friday was a no school day so the boys went to daycare while I took a much needed break. I ran errands, went out to brunch, grocery shopped, short nap and scored some new work and weekend clothes for myself. Debated a new pair of jeans, but just wasn't liking the selection. I'm back to my pre-baby weight but things just fit different and I'm not a big fan of my hips right now. They make me feel fat even though the scale says I'm not.
This morning as we were pretending to feed birthday cake to Mickey, monkey, bear, Buzz and Gus Gus, C and I decided to make cupcakes and have a real birthday party for all the guys. So we went in the kitchen and made the cupcakes, then later once they cooled we frosted and decorated them with sprinkles. We set the guys up on the counter, lit some candles and sang happy birthday. The cupcakes were delicious and it was hilarious. Even B got in on it since we pulled his high chair right up. Too bad for him mommy won't give him any cake until his real birthday. B turned 8 months this weekend so later today the plan is to take some measurements and pics to commemorate the big milestone. He's working on a top tooth that could seriously come in any time now so he can feel free to stop chewing on everything, mommy included.

Not gonna do it

as in update this blog, need snow day now! if only I could drink gallons of coffee a day I think I could manage it all with energy and a smile, but since I can't bed is calling my name.

Happy New Year

Babies make for early new years celebrations. I made it up for the ball drop then headed off to bed within the next 15 minutes or so. With both 2008 and 2010 it was kind of sad to see the year end as both were great years for our little family. But time marches on and we are back at it... the daily grind of work and daycare, dinner & bath time. Speaking of bath time- getting Lil C ready for bed has turned into an hour long, not so fun anymore production so tonight I had this ingenious idea of adding a timer to the event. We simply told him that all of activities had to happen before the timer went off. When the timer went off we had to be in bed. It actually worked. Not knowing if it would light a fire under his butt or not, I first set it for 15 minutes, but ended up adding about 7 minutes to it once I could see it was working and we were going to proceed through reading time without any major melt downs. Seriously, if we can keep it going I will be thrilled. He is a little crazy when he is tired and we find it challenging to get him calmed down and by the end of it I am on edge. He's a great sleeper, but lately I don't look forward to the process of getting him there. Fingers crossed please!