In Need of a Panda

Collin and I were reading a book today about Zoo animals.

We got to the page about the Panda, and he began telling me all about them before I had a chance to say a thing.

He began to tell me about how Panda bears eat bamboo. Lots and lots of bamboo. And how ween need a Panda bear be cause we have bamboo in our back yard and the panda will eat it all. But then we don't want the panda to get hungry, so we need to grow more bamboo to feed the panda.

His thought process in impressive! I tried to tell him that a panda would not be very happy in the yard, but we all know he didn't believe me.

Arguing with Ones Self

We are, again, trying to nighttime potty train Ethan. 

I bargained with Tony that since he's up nights, anyway, he could do nighttime trips, and I'd do morning time trips. I forgot that he'd be gone and I was on my own anyway. Bummer. 

The key is not to wake him up, just take him sleeping assume the potty-Ingrid position, and quietly tell him to go. It usually works. 

Tonight I went to get Ethan and take him to the bathroom. Preliminary check of his bed was all good, he was still dry. This has posed a challenge, especially when he throws a tantrum like tonight, so it was a good sign.  

As soon as I scooped him up he started stirring. First some mumbles. Then, "NO!"  Then "YES!" shortly thereafter. 

Mumble. Mumble. Moan. "YES!"  "YES!"

I'm gearing up for the pissed-off toddler screaming tantrum that will happen when he wakes and finds himself in the bathroom. 

I stand him at the toilet, drop the pants, his eyes flutter. "YES!"

(Quietly) "Ethan, go pee in the.... " Success!

I didn't even have to wipe the bowl afterward. 

Now, if I'm really lucky, Collin won't have nightmares and I'll get almost seven hours' sleep before my alarm goes off. It's not likely, but I can dream, can't I?

In Collin's Dreams

Ethan woke up at 6:30 this Sunday morning. And he'd wet the bed... again. We spent some time cleaning him up and then snuggling on the couch. 

I was wandering through the house collecting laundry, when I hear Collin's voice coming from his room, counting. I go lay down with him, and he snuggles in close.

Then he tells:

"There was a little, teeny, tiny yellow car with a propeller in the dead grass. I picked it up and was trying to get home." (Now I know this is a dream.)

"I was 15 strong (we discuss unit and amounts all the time) squeezing the car to keep it from flying away.  I squeezed it really hard!

Me: "Who else was there?"

Collin: "The people in the car were tiny!"

Me: "Maybe they were scared of you because they were tiny, and you were humongous, like Kevin" (We watch the Minion Movie a lot.) "Then what happened?"

Collin: "Then our house disappeared and we were trying to find it."

Me: "Where did it go?"

Collin: "It was a mystery and we were trying to find it."

That was the first time he's ever told me about a dream!

Collin is also working on learning to spell his name. He spells it so often, even Ethan is spelling it! I tried to teach Ethan to spell us own name a few days ago. When I got to "h", he said it was gross.

I was spelling to for his again this morning, and again, "gross", and resumed spelling Collin. Tony laughed and reminded me that when I was a kid I didn't like the letter G, and felt bad for F that it had to be next to such an awful letter.

We're all a little weird!

I wub you

The house is dark, and I'm tip-toe-img around the house, hoping they don't hear me. But I hear them. 

"I wuv you, Ethan."

"I wub you, too, Col-yin."

I think things have finally clicked for these two. Last night I went to go check on Ethan, and he wasn't in his bed. I thought that little stinker was in my bed again. I went to check on Collin before retrieving the little one, and two little heads pop up to look at me. 

No whining about being squished. No complaining about invasions. No pushing, kicking or hitting. No jumping or kicking the walls (as is Ethan's habit I'm Collin's bed). They were both laying quiet and snuggling. 

Whatever possessed me, I went over and scooped Ethan up, before they could have the chance to fight. They both protested for Ethan to go back to Collin's bed. Who am I to argue brotherly love AND SHARING?!?!

This was how they spent the night. The entire night!  It was adorable!

Tonight they asked to do it again, I agreed, there's a lot more taking this time... they've counted to ten a dozen times, and lots of renditions of Twinkle a little Star. 

We've been awfully busy lately. School started in August, Tony had two weeks of and I was relieved of child drop-offs and pick-ups. And then all the social and networking groups geared back up after the summer break. And I signed up for a civil litigation class in Sacramento.

And then my evening-time babysitter dropped off the face of the planet. 

I've been a little stressed. 

This morning started with Tony setting the house off before five am, as somehow be panel got deprogrammed. 

It ended with a car wash, because the boys love it, a picnic in the living room with chicken nuggets and French fries, and a walk with the dogs. 

I'm exhausted! But it was a really good day. 

Question: do we think they'll go to bed anytime soon?

Snarky Four Year Old

I went to Collin's room to wake him up this morning, but the first thing I do is check the bed before I sit. Yes, he has wet the bed for the third day in a row. 

I wake up at 5:30 to get completely ready before waking them, or it won't be happening. So, after strategic placement of my washed, pressed, and dressed self, I begin waking him with kisses, back-rubs, and a wake-up song to the tune of happy birthday. 

He rolls over and tries to ignore me. 

I persist. 

"I need you to stop talking, and leave me alone to sleep." This kid....

As I type this, I am sitting on the front porch step, in my nice work dress, in 95 degrees, waiting for my son to realize that he is, in fact, able to get himself out of the car. His screaming doesn't affect me much anymore. 

It's been 20 minutes. 

Little conversations

Me (talking to self): Alright. What do we need?

Ethan (mouth full of sandwich): Um, cauliflower. 

Me: You're adorable!  Can I keep you?

Ethan: Um, no. 

It's not the first time I've asked him if I can keep him. He consistently says "no". Does that absolve me of college tuition?

Potty Training the Second Child

(Throwback post from June that never got posted)

Ethan loves the toilet. He'd follow Collin into the bathroom, stand on the stool, and drop his pants. Then look at me like: "What now, Mama?" He could also start and stop peeing on command, which was the routine during every bath time. Yuck!

Tony had a two week vacation, therefore I planned for him to potty train the boy. I trained (am still training) Collin!

Day 1: He peed everywhere until lunch, when he finally made it to the toilet for the M&M reward. Now after every successful peeing in the potty, he yells "Yay, Candy!"

Day 2: "Yay, Candy!" still continues, and he's now taking himself to the potty half the time. 

Day 3: He thinks he's got this down, now he's testing Daddy's patience and peeing everywhere. His favorite is to pee on the back porch step, through the screen door while he's inside the house. It's delightful!

Flash forward a week and he has no wet accidents, but successfully located poops are troublesome. 

Flash forward to the present (October) and he poops in the potty 4 times a day without hesitation, and without the reminder of a reward. He will, however, wet his pants on purpose, for no known reason, but especially if he's having a tantrum.

While we work that out, I'm still buying extra strength pet stain and smell remover, by the gallon, and I pour it straight into the washer. The pet store knows us all!

And Don't Do It Again, Mama!

I keep a lot of Collins artwork and things that come home. Even after it's been folded in a million creases, crammed in his back pack, and smoothed on the bus. It's displayed proudly on the walls in his room. 

But the printed pictures of creepy looking I-don't-even-know-what-that-is where all he did was add stickers?  Garbage. Letter traces where I can barely discern the pencil line? Round file. 

Today I got caught. He went to throw something away, and I happened to be in the kitchen. He looked at me accusingly "How did this get in here?" (The garbage can) "Why did you do this, Mama? (With attitude.) You don't put my art work in the garbage! This is my artwork!" He picks it out (still clean, don't worry). I remind him that he did not see how it got in there, and he doesn't know who did it. He walks over, looks at me sternly, wags his finger in my face, "And don't do that again, Mama!"

I couldn't help it, I laughed at him. It was so funny that my four year old was using the words he ignores against me  all-out giggling. 

I again reminded him that he hadn't seen, and couldn't know, who did it and how. (Lawyer-in-Training?) And, please, show me what your artwork is about. It's on the counter, we'll show Daddy, and about the time that the counter clutter matches up with garbage day, it'll go away again. 

A Few Rough Weeks

In the middle of February it was decided that Collin had completed all of the Special Ed curriculum and would move to regular preschool.  We aimed for Spring Break, so that he would start the new school after a week off.  I mentioned to him that he would be changing classes, so the idea wasn't completely foreign.  He handled that by chiding to no longer poop in the toilet. For a month! I wanted to strangle something.

Now that he's switched schools, he pretends to hate it.  He tells me "My day was bad" every single day. But he stopped crapping himself, so it's an improvement.

This past weekend was super rough. Ethan had nasty diapers Thursday and Friday.  Saturday morning, Ethan woke up at 1:30, crying.  I was tempted to ignore it, but I cannot sleep when I know they're awake. I walked toward his room, and the smell hit me in the hallway.  I was dreading that diaper... But a diaper would have been preferable.

I cleaned up Ethan, the bed, the blankets, and the carpet, and spent two hours snuggling, rocking, singing, and doing anything else I can think of to help him sleep. Nothing.  Then he got sick again! Good kid, didn't fight me to be sick in the garbage can while I held him.

How does a two year old stay clean while being sick? He managed.

At that point I was done.  I cleaned up the room, changed the sheets agains, and woke up Tony (which is an act of God in its own right).  Ethan refused to stay in his bed, Tony and Ethan laid down and went to sleep on the floor in the middle of his room.

Then Collin slept in and wet the bed.

Since he was sick, we didn't give Ethan his allergy medicine.  Of course, the next night Ethan woke up coughing.  It took me another hour to get him to go back to sleep.  Monday morning, Collin was in my bed.  I had to carry him back while he complained that I was hurt his neck.  He's just lucky we didn't wobble and slam into the wall!

Now that I was awake I heard Ethan coughing pretty strongly, and his breathing rattled. It sounded bad, so I got him some water and cough syrup. But all that coughing wasn't enough to wake hm up, so I had to wake him to help him drink it.  Naturally he had a hard time falling back asleep.  About the time I got back in bed, Collin was walking his little self back in.  I have high hopes for sleep tonight, but little expectation.

Snuggles

Collin has finally gotten over his anti-snuggle phase. 

While Ethan was napping he said he was tired and wanted to lay down in my bed. Then he wanted me to lay down and snuggle him. Then he wiggled in close, gave me a kiss on both cheeks, and wrapped his arms around my neck in a big hug to go to sleep to. It was really nice!

At the office, we get these daily papers to keep up on the current events, but uneven have time at work to read them. So, I brought home my stack and started to read them while the boys had their down time before bed. Ethan decided my newspapers more interesting than his cartoon, and was reading with me. 

There were papers everywhere, and I'm going to pass them to my coworkers all wrinkled. 

Last night Ethanwanted to read them again, so we went and got one of my favorite kid books "Chica, Chica, Boom, Boom" and smuggled and flipped through the pages. His little "boom boom" is so cute!  He insisted on taking it to bed with him, along with monkey blankie, minion blankie, Mouse, and Captain America, while the mobile played him lullabies. It's amazing he has bed space left for him!

Annual Check-ups

Have you ever taken two kids to the doctor's office for an extended period of time? Seriously, I needed to go to work to recover from that kind of time off!

To preserve my sanity, and sick time, I scheduled the boys' appointments at the same time.  Aaaaand if we'e already missing school and work, we went to the Chiro while we were at it. 

Nothing bad happened at the Chiro, it just sucked up some of my kids' ability to behave in public. Once we got to the doctor's office, they were all out of "well-behaved with a sane Mama".  

They have a new nurse's assistant. It's a guy, and I don't think he has kids. He made me take off Collin's shoes (while holding onto Ethan) to weigh him. When Collin wouldn't get into the scale, I had to lift him into the infant scale (then go catch Ethan). Did then there was his height. Did we do Ethan while we were there?  Of course not!  Ethan still has to be down to his diaper to be weighed. I seriously would have stripped him right there, but he took us to the room, I stripped Ethan, and we went back to the scale. Not far away, just annoying. 

Oh, and since Collin is four, he needs a hearing and vision screening does it matter we took him to an audiologist  a year ago and he was within normal limits?  No. So now we're trying to get my uncooperative son to cooperate. Started out rough, and he kinda nodded instead of raising his han, but he finished. Now for the eye test (Ethan is wandering around in a diaper and socks). Collin and I stood on the line, while Ethan tried to wrench himself out of my grasp, and the guy asked what shapes they were. Andwers started with Circles and squares and something that looked like and apple, and quickly became cylinders, cubes, and something he couldn't recognize. My kid!

We get back to the room, Ethan is bored out of his mind, still just in socks and a diaper; and Collin refuses to strip down and wear the paper gown. He ends up in my cardigan, backwards. Spirit of the law, right?

What seems like forever, but was really not long at all, and Doctor is there and exam is fine. Except that Ethan needs a blood test and Collin needs shots. Why not get it done, right?

I hate holding down a screaming child while they get shots. I can ignore a screaming child like a pro, cause they're faking or having a tantrum; but holding them down when they're in pain?  That one is hard for me. Shots were done and off to the lab. Thank goodness it's all in the same building!

The lab was behind, and boring. Except for the water cooler, that was super interesting. Collin and Ethan were taking trips to the cooler, imagining independence; but in reality my eyes were burning the back of their heads. They had everyone there absolutely smitten! And Ethan got his blood drawn without a peep!

Maybe next year will be easier when they're older. Just maybe. 

Vacation Weekends

Because when on vacation, why not work?

Saturday, Tony and I had to go to Modesto. We took the boys to Nana and Papa's house. They ask me at least daily to go to Nana and Papa's house. They'd move out if we'd let them!

Collin has been asking to paint his bedroom green for months. I don't know where he got the idea, but he brings it up once a week or so. Sunday, we decided that this was the weekend to paint!  It was the first project we successfully finished in one single day!  Especially impressive since Collin was helping to paint. 

Would you believe I made it all the way around the room and the tape line actually matched up?  It did!  I mean, it should have, I used a level the whole way around the room, but when does planning actually make a difference with home improvement projects?  Almost never. 

Collin loves it, and I'll get used to it. I've been wanting to do something creative with his room, now I find myself planning Ethan's room decor. 

After a while, Collin got tired of waiting. And he was plain tired from playing at Nana and Papa's house, so he went to lay down and i let him watch TV. 

While I was painting, Tony was in the garage building shelves and creating storage space. It's so much nicer in there!

I even BBQ'd a nice dinner which the boys didn't eat, but Tony and I really enjoyed. It was a good weekend. 

I Love Shoes as Much as I Love Coffee

I had to go to Modesto today to retrieve my husband. I thought, I'll go early and shoe shop while he does whatever. I've been wanting to check out a particular store for some time. Due to small people, as I pulled into the parking lot, hubby texted to come get him. I was bummed. 

In the end, Tony went shopping with me, laughed with me when I asked him to hold my purse (it's magenta), and talked me into a couple of pairs of great heels I would have talked myself out of.

And then we went to lunch. It was a good outing!

A Pain in the Neck

When I finally get the boys to sleep and collapse into bed, I know that I won't get to sleep through the night. These two, together, are worse than a newborn!

Collin first came into our bed at 11:30, a mere 45 minutes after I finally fell asleep. He wouldn't go himself, so I stumble-carried him to Homs bed. Tucked him in, kisses and "love you's". 

A couple hours later was time for round two. Again, he wouldn't go to bed himself, so I stumble carried him. 

When my alarm went off at five, imagine my (non) surprise at his presence in my bed. Imagine, if you will, we have a queen size bed. Tony sleeps like the dead and cannot be disturbed. 

Therefore, he's got of the bed, Collin has a third of it, and I've got the sliver that's left over. Seriously, laying in my side, and my butt is overhanging the edge. That's how little space I had!

But it's time to get ready for work, so I stumble to the bathroom. And when I got to put my hair up I realize that I can't move my head without excruciating pain! I can't look to the right, look up, or even hold my head in its normal position!  I blame the child, sleeping like an angel, drooling all over my pillow.  

I've been to my Chiro twice today, and he let me borrow the electrical stimulation machine (I operated it for ten years in us office, I'm qualified!) and here I sit, end of the day, and I can still barely look up or to the right. Driving was something awful!

And when I told Collin to stay in his bed until my alarm goes off, he replies "I am!" I reminded him, "No. You were in mine and Daddy's bed three times last night. He stops, "oh." 

My children...

They Grow Up Too Fast

My baby turned two today.  I'm a little sad about it.  Maybe nostalgic is a better way to describe it.

About a month ago, Ethan discovered he had an opinion.  He discovered "NO!" and how to use it, how to open any door knob every made, avoid sleeping at nap and bed time for at least two hours, and have absolute meltdowns for no reason I can think of. And he looks so darn cute while he does it!

He's my little rough and tumble kid.  He loves to rough house, climbs on everything, and bolts outside as fast as he can, while giggling, into the street.  He's a runner, this one.  I have to hold the hood of his sweatshirt to keep him from running out of daycare.  Then he discovered that my hold allows him to deny gravity and walk at a 45 degree angle, so he tries to run anyway.

Every morning he wakes up, stand at in the door (appropriately hindered by a baby gate) and calls for me.  At least once.  Then he demands his daddy. He tries to bolt to find daddy, and I have to catch him to change his diaper and dress him. He demands that he turn on the light, then complains that it's bright.  IN the end, we do the whole procedure with his blankie over his face, and he talks to me from under the fluff.  It's adorable!

He and Collin are finally playing well together.  We caught Ethan sneaking into Collin's bed twice the other night.  He loves his brother!

If you lay down, he will stop what he's doing to come lay on you.  He gives great kisses, but sometimes forgets to make the smacking noise, he thinks a hug is putting his head on your shoulder, and says the cutest "I love you!"  Sometimes, hugs, kisses, and I love you's are even spontaneous.

He eats like his food is vanishing in front of him, and begs for more until I cut him off for fear that he will do harm to his stomach.

We're starting to have conversations more, I love listening to the back and forth between him and Collin. Any phone call is "PAPA!".  Last night it was, "PAPA! NANA! GG!" It was Papa.  He wins!

He's generally happy, outgoing, and very loving.  He cares about others, and tries to help out.  And if you don't let him help, he demands you let him.  Lights.  Doors. Cooking.  And any/all buttons.

I love this little guy!

It's Been a While

(I wrote this is January, bet never got it posted) 

We have been really busy this last month!

Let's start with my new job.  I has opened my own law practice in August.  It was going well, but I already getting burned out of the back and forth the constantly occurs in family law issues.  And I wasn't making any money, because I'm a sap.  Nobody should let me manage my own billings...

On the 16th of December I was by the courthouse when I ran into an old professor of mine who had also been my supervisor for an internship I had done. He's always been one of my favorites. We chatted for a minute and then went on our way.

The next day I was at the office when the professor randomly called me.  He asked if I was interested in legal research and writing motions.  He said there was a very good firm in town who needed some help. If I was interested, he'd give them my name. (Turns out the partner of that very good firm was in professor's office during the call.)

One Friday I had an email from one of the associates to schedule an I review for the following Tuesday. The next Tuesday I had another interview with the partners. Wednesday I had an offer in my email, which I accepted. And, oh, by the way, I started at the beginning of the year. 

Short story, in the course of three weeks I my name was submitted for a position, and I interviewed, closed my practice, moved out, and started the new job in an entirely new field!

On top of the holidays, illnesses, and everything else. Seriously. Busy. Whew!