Mitchell’s really using his words lately. It’s awesome. But the other day, he told me that he needed to wear his hat to the pool because it was hot. I have no idea if he meant “hot” or “hott”, but both are accurate.
And, of course, potty time.
Monthly Archives: May 2015
Happy 19 weeks, Rosalynn!
Rosalynn is nineteen weeks old now!
Every day I look at her and wonder when in the world she got so big. Just look at those thighs! She’s started enjoying the little jumper already.
But she still looks absolutely adorable at nap time.
She even started enjoying tummy time!
Aaaand…eating her doll’s face.
It pays to have cute kids!
The other night, Justin and I went to a place called Fricker’s. It was the weirdest combination of bar and family restaurant I’ve ever seen. It was actively trying to be both a bar and a place for kids. You know, a place you can go to have a few beers and nobody will judge you for telling the kids to go play and leave you alone. At least, that’s the impression I got from our fellow diners.
Anywho. Rosie sat in her car seat for quite a while playing, and Mitchell decided that he needed to sit on my lap. When Rosie decided she no longer wanted to play in her car seat, Mitchell saw no reason that he should have to vacate my lap. Quite a normal situation. I was joking with Justin about only needing to get a two-top when we go out to eat. As usual, Mitchell was being terribly adorable with Rosie. We were all laughing and having a good time when I noticed that the surrounding tables were watching us. A lot. Two of the tables were older couples and one was a couple about our age, and they were just staring. Neither of the kids were acting up or fussing, and the people were all smiling, so we continued on our merry way.
Eventually, Mitchell and I finished eating and went to see what this “back room” was all about that all the kids kept flocking toward. It turned out to be a version of skee ball and some claw machines, but we had fun anyway. One of the staring people followed us in and said she was going to be buying our meal that evening. I couldn’t believe it. I said no, of course, and she said that her and her husband had just had such a good time watching us and our kids and that our kids were so well-behaved that they just wanted to pay us back by getting our meal.
It was just so unexpected and nice! And it was the perfect pick-me-up. We had a bit of a rough week around here as Mitchell decided he was no longer potty-trained. I have my suspicions as to why, but the fact remains that we’ve had to start completely over. We’re still working on it. And I’m by no means saying that I’d convinced myself he was rotten or anything, but it was really nice being reminded that he IS a damn good kid when we go out. He sits there so nicely and talks to us or watches other people. He doesn’t yell, he doesn’t try to run around, he doesn’t even fuss usually. I’m so used to him being so great that sometimes I forget that other kids don’t have the patience that he does. Going to a place like Fricker’s will sure remind you of that, with or without the awesome person buying your dinner.
Of course, right after she said she wanted to buy our meal, Mitchell decided to “creatively win” as Justin called it.
So anyway, thank you mystery person!
Wow, what a weekend!
It’s been a wild and crazy weekend with Grandpa. For me, it was a bit of a sleep-deprived weekend, because it turns out I gave birth to a new breed of superhumans who don’t need sleep. At least, that’s me putting a nice spin on getting up every half hour for three nights in a row, getting a couple nights of miraculous two-hour stretches of sleep, then going back to half hour stretches for a couple nights. Oi. These kids.
Anywho. Big weekend of the kids being adorable!
Rosie has started attacking everything in sight, including hangers. I know she can’t be teething, but holy cow. I guess she’s trying out for the vampire olympics.
I found a tripod at a garage sale and we set it up and tried to get a good picture of ourselves. You know those really funny sequences of pictures where in every single picture, one person looks ridiculous? Yeah. That’s what happened. Mitchell figured out how to work the camera, so we have 40 pictures of one of us looking ridiculous, and Mitchell looking ridiculous in every single one. Because he’s developed a posed picture face. It involves getting as close to the camera as possible, then looking goofy.
He’s also developed a fondness for Kingsley. Kingsley doesn’t reciprocate his feelings.
Today I took the kids to the sprinklers at the local park. I expected Mitchell to jump right in there, but instead he spent an hour and a half running laps around the perimeter. Every once in a while he’d get close enough to get wet, then run back out. Rosie was less than thrilled about being there, but when you look that good in a sun hat, you have to get out once in a while.
Finally, Mitchell’s favorite book right now is Sheep in a Jeep. So much so that his sand box has been converted from a construction site to a reenactment of the book. It’s pretty damn adorable, even if I have to repeat the same lines over and over and over and over again (“Jeep goes splash, Jeep goes thud, Jeep goes deep in gooey mud!”). In case you’ve managed to stay away from this book equivalent to a Top 40 song (it gets stuck in your head), it involves some sheep in a Jeep getting stuck in the mud, some pigs pushing them out, then them wrecking the Jeep. Mitchell tries to quote the whole book while reenacting it.
A. Dorbs.
The times, they are a changin’.
Times are changing quickly in our little house. I’ve been present for everything and I still hardly recognize my children.
Rosalynn has become a cheerful, interactive, content little girl. When she cries now, it’s because she wants something (generally, the boob). We’re finally getting to the point where I know what she wants and what all her different little cries and grunts mean. She wants to be involved in everything and is happiest when someone is talking to her, something her brother is more than happy to do. This morning she even decided she liked tummy time! I put her on her belly, and when she seemed somewhat content, I thought I’d steal a few minutes putting dishes away in the kitchen. Five minutes later, I realized I hadn’t heard a peep from her, so I ran around the corner, dreading what I’d find, when I found her laying there, perfectly content, watching her brother play.
And then Laika decided to get in on the action. I’m not sure if it officially counts as Rosie’s first rollover since I think she was just trying to dodge a dog head, but I’m counting it!
She also loves playing with her toes right now.
Rosie isn’t the only one full of change right now. When we went to the speech test on April 28, he knew about fifteen recognizable words. It’s about three weeks later now, and I have lost count of the number of words he knows now. He gains at least one word per day, usually several. Last night we were reading an ABC book and, out of curiosity, I pointed at a few words he’d never said before and didn’t say anything, just waited. Sure enough, he said a few of them! One of them was apple, so today at the grocery store he was thrilled to see the samples of apple slices set out. Every time we’d round an aisle and he’d see the stand, he’d ask “more apple?” I couldn’t say no. He had at least an apple’s worth of apple slices.
The miraculous on-his-own-initiative pee happened yesterday morning, too. I was downstairs and heard the dreaded “Ya Ya pee!” I came around the corner and he was bouncing at the top of the stairs, “Ya Ya pee! Ya Ya Pee!” He very excitedly led me into the bathroom to see his success. I’d been telling him that he would get a special new backhoe when he went to the bathroom on his own, so he got that, which he immediately dubbed “new pee backhoe.”
Side note: white underwear + red paint = mild freak-out moment. It was a cool art project, though!
After one and a half days with no accidents and no prompting from me to go to the bathroom, he upgraded to real underwear instead of training pants. He looks so grown up!
One of my bribes has been Hot Wheels when he poops in the potty. Today, just as I was getting out of the shower, I heard “Ya Ya POOP!” He then ran into the bathroom and started yelling for a “new poop car”. Since he’s been having a hard time telling the difference between a fart and a poop, I said I had to see the poop first. The look on his face was like, “Wait, what? You’re KIDDING me.” He’d already flushed it. But luckily, he’s a toddler, and left evidence. So he got a new poop car. A little bit later, thanks to his awesome mom’s luck with Craigslist, we went to pick up a Power Wheels car. We pulled up in the driveway and the guy opened his garage and wheeled the car down the driveway. From the backseat I hear Mitchell go crazy and yell, “NEW POOP CAR!” Oh my gosh, child, please don’t call it that in front of this stranger. Thankfully, he didn’t. He also didn’t forget about it for the rest of the afternoon or evening. It might become an obsession.
The cutest moment was when we had to put it away and he got upset that he couldn’t “open Mommy’s door” (garage door) to park it.
His imaginative play has become much more involved. He has an entire construction site set up in his magic sand, and he can tell if any car has been moved while he’s been away. He’s also really into feeding people still. He prepares meals for everyone while I’m cooking, and later he feeds his Little People.
I can’t wait to see what the next few weeks bring!
TWO.
Mitchell’s obsessed with the number two right now. He points out every number 2 he sees, and gets thrilled when he notices two of something. Two blue eyes (“Poor Daddy doesn’t have two blue eyes, he has two brown eyes”), two ears, two nails (yes, he ignores the other eight), and…two shoes.
Oh, he’s going to be really upset if someone finds that picture in ten years.
And now drawers are boats.
FOUR MONTHS.
Rosie is FOUR MONTHS OLD. Well, as of Saturday. And I promise the picture is from Saturday, but I’m just now getting around to posting. These kids are demanding!
That picture is the only one I could get of her not eating the number. She’s very enthusiastically embraced the stage where she puts everything in her mouth.
Good news for 4 months: we just got the all-clear from the doctor’s office! No more weight checks! She’s now 13 pounds 10 ounces (47th percentile) and 24.5 inches long (52nd percentile). The doctor said she’s meeting all of her developmental goals and even meeting a few 6 month goals. She didn’t like her shots AT ALL. Her poor thigh gets so sore after shots. Thankfully the sound of rain calmed her down.
Her favorite thing right now is her toy bar. She gets so excited when I lay her down under it that her legs and arms start flailing and it’s all I can do to keep hold of her. As soon as the music starts, she starts laughing.
She’s starting to roll over, but just to her side and it mostly seems accidental so far. She doesn’t particularly enjoy it yet.
All in all, other than today, she’s a cheerful, adorable little girl. I get stopped constantly so people can tell me how cute she and her brother are. Every time I go out with her in her sling I get stopped by at least one person asking about it. I should make a whole bunch and just carry them around in the car with me and offer to sell them to whoever asks about it. They all say she just looks so content in it, and it’s true. She loves it. She’d live in it if I’d let her.
I’m so happy she’s decided she likes me. I really wondered there for a while!
Oh, child.
This morning I took the kids to some garage sales. Mitchell loves garage sales, and Rosie loves sleeping, so it worked out for all of us. We pulled up at one particular goldmine of a garage sale and the proprietors immediately grabbed Rosie to take her to the shaded patio. Mitchell then ran off to play with their son. I wandered there for a bit, grabbing adorable paraphernalia and an end table that I swear I’m going to get all crafty on, wondering whether I should be enjoying the childless state of shopping or if I should be worried about the fact that strangers were baby-talking my sleeping daughter, when I found my answer: Mitchell can’t be trusted. The little boy had taken Mitchell to his sandbox. They were happily pushing toy construction equipment around, chatting amicably, and it didn’t seem to bother the older boy a bit that Mitchell was not wearing pants or shoes, both of which were laying a few feet away. Why? When I asked, Mitchell pointed out that there was dirt on them. So, duh mom, they needed to be removed.
Oh, child.
It did serve a purpose, though. I offered them half price on everything and they happily took it and even walked everything to my car for me. I’m pretty sure they wanted to be rid of the creepy pantsless toddler, but whatever. New haggling tactic!
So close to the finish line!
Justin’s coming home tomorrow afternoon (he’s been gone since Monday). We’ve made it four whole days without him, and we’ve been doing pretty well, but it’s definitely a good thing he’ll be home tomorrow. Mitchell really misses him. There have been a couple instances tonight when he thought he heard the garage door open. It wasn’t pretty.
In true Miranda all-in fashion, for some reason I decided that this week was potty training week for Mitchell. I had all these visions of Justin returning to me standing victorious next to a totally-potty-trained Mitchell, but instead he’s going to come home to a house that has a lovely urine smell and a toddler so pumped full of liquids he swishes a bit as he walks. Turns out my child is not one of those awesome kids who gets potty trained in two days. He’s been going on the potty a few times per day for a few weeks now, but still wearing a diaper so accidents were no big deal. I’ve been told (by many people, including complete strangers) that potty training will never be successful as long as the kid is still in diapers, so I bought a pack of training pants and decided to go for it. So, ever since Monday, every half hour you can find us in the bathroom. Rosie’s also decided this week that she needs to eat every hour (including all night), so I feel a bit like a ping pong ball right now, just running back and forth between the two. But, after buying another couple packs of training pants, some bribery hot wheels, and an extra potty seat, I think we’re on the right track.
The Hot Wheels are a reward for when he goes poop on the potty. So far he’s gotten two. So he carries them around calling them his “poop cars”. It’s hilarious.
I also bought a little backhoe and told him he got it when he took himself to the potty with no prompting from me and went potty. So of course every time he walks into my room and sees it, he says he has to go pee (yes, he insists on saying pee instead of potty) and then asks for the backhoe. So I told him it was for when he was playing or doing something else and went potty in the potty before he went in his pants. So, a couple hours later, he’s going down for a nap and comes running out to pee. And then asks for the backhoe. I have no doubt that he was just avoiding nap time though!
You really have to be specific when asking him to do something. If there is a loophole to be found, he will find it. A favorite of his is at bed time when I tell him to go lay down in his room. He goes just inside his doorway and lays on the floor. When I tell him to move up to the bed, he’ll lay his head on the bed and nothing else. He’s just so hilarious.
Rosie’s decided this week that she’s pure angel (except for the waking up all night thing). She smiles and coos all day long. However, today she was responsible for one of my more embarrassing moments. I met a couple ladies while doing a mom and tot hike, and they offered to keep me company today. So we went on a hike and then went to a fairly upscale little restaurant for lunch. It went really well. All the kids behaved. Rosie played in her car seat until the last ten minutes of our meal, then I held her on my lap. Shortly after holding her, I felt something wet on my leg. Yep, she’d pooped all down my leg. It was everywhere. So there I was, in this restaurant, with a child with poop all over herself and poop all over my leg. I honestly considered “spilling” my iced tea all over myself to cover the stain. But I didn’t. I put her back in her car seat (no way was I going to attempt that change in the restaurant), tried to position the car seat in front of my leg as best I could, walked through that restaurant with the best salmon I’ve ever tasted but don’t know if I can return to now, and stepped outside right into a grade school field trip. Every single little brat immediately started yelling “Ew, what’s that smell?!” I finally got back to the car and realized that the diaper was much worse than I expected. Every single article of clothing she was wearing had to be removed. She even had poop on her socks. How do you get poop on your socks?!
She thought this was all hilarious, of course.
So she got to ride naked the whole way home. Every once in a while I would forget and breathe through my nose and gag a little.
We went to the park a lot this week. Mitchell discovered that slides create static.
Mitchell’s obsession this week is backhoeanddumpcar. Yes, dump car, not dump truck, and yes, all one word. They accompany him everywhere. He’s decided that his sand box is dirt and spends most of his day scooping up sand with the backhoe and dumping it into the dump truck.
Did I mention that Rosie is adorable?
And Rosie’s adorableness + Mitchell’s adorableness = way too much for for me. Let’s just hope they’ve outgrown that adorableness when they’re old enough to gang up and ask for things.
The Magnificent Ms 