Last night was one of those awful nights where you wake up to a loud scream at midnight. You wait for a few minutes in hopes that it was just a bad dream or a random cry out and that you won't really have to get out of bed. After about 3 minutes you realize that even though you have only been in bed for 3 hours, its time to be super mom again.
I went into Blythe's room and she was still laying down, but crying so I moved on to plan B, which was to rub her back for a few minutes in hope that she would settle back down and we would both only lose a few minutes of sleep. Well a few minutes came and went and then I walked out of the room and well she wasn't exactly o.k. with that.
O.K. plan C - take her out of the crib and rock with her for a little bit to comfort her, she didn't like plan C.
On the plan D which I know NEVER works, but yet I decide to try it again. I bring her to bed with me and she wants to sleep on my chest. She settles down for 15 minutes or so and then cries out a little bit, tosses and turns, and then settles down for another 20 minutes. I know that I won't sleep if she is in the bed so since she has been content and quiet for a while I decide to try and put her back into her crib...IMMEDIATE screaming.
Plan E - last resort, make a pallet on the floor so that I don't have to worry about her falling off the bed and maybe one of us will sleep. Oh and time for some Tylenol because clearly those bottom I-teeth are trying to make their debut. No fever, no signs of being sick, just pain. So Blythe and I nestled into our not so comfy pallet on the floor. Blythe was content to be sleeping as long as she was either laying on me or laying on my arm. Which is always fine for the first 10-15 minutes, but then you get an itch to move or shift or you get brave and think that you can slowly ease your arm out from underneath her...WRONG. After trying the slow arm removal I was reminded of a Friends episode where Joey talks about wishing he could chew his arm off and then roll over without any consequences. Even though it was 2am by now and I was exhausted and my 26 week pregnant body wasn't exactly thrilled to be camping out on the living room floor there is also a sweet state of mommy bliss knowing that your little one just wants you and wants you close. So I laid with her the way she wanted me too and breathed in her fine little hair and freshly bathed body.
Jason came home at 2:30 and we got to do a shift change. He was able to successfully nestle in with Blythe on the day bed and I was able to return to our bed, mattress and ALL!
Talking
Blythe is talking up a storm these days. The other day we had this conversation and I think it was pretty funny.
[Blythe hands me a link and tells me its broke. Clearly it must be broke since it is not a complete circle.]
Blythe: mamma it broke
Me: Blythe, that's not broke it's a link
Blythe: [licks the link and gives me a funny look]
Me: no, no, Blythe, not lick, LINK, see it can connect to another piece
Blythe: momma lick [and hands it to me to lick], and fix it, it broke
[At this point I decide that link and lick sound too much alike so I concede, we can learn the difference between lick and link another day :)]
3/30/10
3/29/10
Bunnies, Eggs, and Friends
Ian, Mike, and Baby Anna came over this afternoon for an afternoon of crafts. We decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and do our crafts outside.
Paper Plate Bunnies:
Blythe's Bunny
Mike's Bunny
Ian's Bunny
As you can tell, Michael was certainly the artist of the group. Blythe was more interested in taking the marker tops on and off and Ian thought it would be more fun for mommy to write "ABC's" than to decorate the bunny himself. It is so fun to see their little personalities in action.
After our paper plate bunnies it was time to see what kind of mess we could make with egg dying. Note: eggs dye better with vinegar and warm/hot water, but I forgot about the vinegar and hot water isn't exactly toddler friendly. So the pink dye was pretty much the only one that adhered to the eggs:
Apparently Blythe has spent too much time in the kitchen with mom as she thinks eggs have one purpose:
She was a little perplexed as to why they weren't runny
ah man, I cracked them all, now what?
Look mom I separated the yolk from the egg white
We ended the day with story time by Mr. Romansky:
Paper Plate Bunnies:
Blythe's Bunny
Mike's Bunny
Ian's Bunny
As you can tell, Michael was certainly the artist of the group. Blythe was more interested in taking the marker tops on and off and Ian thought it would be more fun for mommy to write "ABC's" than to decorate the bunny himself. It is so fun to see their little personalities in action.
After our paper plate bunnies it was time to see what kind of mess we could make with egg dying. Note: eggs dye better with vinegar and warm/hot water, but I forgot about the vinegar and hot water isn't exactly toddler friendly. So the pink dye was pretty much the only one that adhered to the eggs:
Apparently Blythe has spent too much time in the kitchen with mom as she thinks eggs have one purpose:
She was a little perplexed as to why they weren't runny
ah man, I cracked them all, now what?
Look mom I separated the yolk from the egg whiteWe ended the day with story time by Mr. Romansky:
3/28/10
The Big Event....that wasn't
This weekend was Texas A&M's annual Big Event. We participated in Big Event last year and had great success. We were sent a team of CORE boys who ripped up brick and shoveled dirt to create us a nice garden.
Our neighbors who have a wooden slatted exterior house had their entire house re-painted in about 3 hours. Our neighbors have a lot more surface area to paint than we do since we have mainly brick so we figured we would have Big Event paint the outside of our house. This was a fairly small project and we figured we wouldn't even use up their entire 4 hours, we now know that was wishful thinking. When Big Event came to evaluate our job they even had us add on a few projects in hopes of having them work the entire 4 hours. We added painting the pool room and the garage.
It's a good thing we didn't get around to prepping the garage and the pool room for paint because our crew didn't even finish the exterior of the house or the pantry. Our pantry was a nasty yellow color so we decided a fresh coat of white paint would be nice and our pantry is pretty small so they should easily be able to get the pantry and exterior done...right??? WRONG.
Don't get me wrong this was all free labor and of course you get what you pay for, we just never in a million year, thought that they wouldn't finish. We didn't exactly NEED another project on our list.
We had 2 people painting this pantry for 4 hours. I went back and did a second coat in.....45 minutes with a toddler to entertain. Oh Texting, what have you done with our hard workers???
Shed in the works, hey at least this was finished!
One the sunny side, we had amazing weather on Saturday and enjoyed suckers and kisses from daddy!
Our neighbors who have a wooden slatted exterior house had their entire house re-painted in about 3 hours. Our neighbors have a lot more surface area to paint than we do since we have mainly brick so we figured we would have Big Event paint the outside of our house. This was a fairly small project and we figured we wouldn't even use up their entire 4 hours, we now know that was wishful thinking. When Big Event came to evaluate our job they even had us add on a few projects in hopes of having them work the entire 4 hours. We added painting the pool room and the garage.
It's a good thing we didn't get around to prepping the garage and the pool room for paint because our crew didn't even finish the exterior of the house or the pantry. Our pantry was a nasty yellow color so we decided a fresh coat of white paint would be nice and our pantry is pretty small so they should easily be able to get the pantry and exterior done...right??? WRONG.
Don't get me wrong this was all free labor and of course you get what you pay for, we just never in a million year, thought that they wouldn't finish. We didn't exactly NEED another project on our list.
We had 2 people painting this pantry for 4 hours. I went back and did a second coat in.....45 minutes with a toddler to entertain. Oh Texting, what have you done with our hard workers???
Blythe helped me organize the canned goods.
My intention was to take some before and after pictures, but the after clearly will have to wait for another day. The crew finished painting the shed and 3/4 of the front of our house. We had 11 students. Jason and I just laughed as we thought that we could have accomplished this same job just the two of us in that amount of time. So we have changed our thinking to having our house re-painted by Big Event to our house being primed by Big Event and then we can go back and paint it. For those of you coming to town for Easter, bring your painting clothes :)
Side and back of the house, not touched :(
Porch, one girl literally painted around that window for an hour+
Shed in the works, hey at least this was finished!
One the sunny side, we had amazing weather on Saturday and enjoyed suckers and kisses from daddy!
3/23/10
Free Day
Apparently March 23rd is a popular day to offer freebie's. It started this morning at the office when a co-worker gave us each a coupon for a free Starbucks pastry and ended today at Ben and Jerry's where Blythe and I had a free scoop!
Of course after the free ice cream scoop we had to hit up a park! It was SHORTS weather.
Someone else is learning how to climb!
I keep forgetting to post this video, but look at my little girl, she RUNS. Here she is running to Oslo, excuse the bad video quality.
Of course after the free ice cream scoop we had to hit up a park! It was SHORTS weather.
Someone else is learning how to climb!
I keep forgetting to post this video, but look at my little girl, she RUNS. Here she is running to Oslo, excuse the bad video quality.
3/22/10
Determined and Persistent
I have never seen another toddler so determined. Whether its putting shoes on or off or buckling a car seat, if she decides she wants to do it, my golly, she is going to do it. Even if she has to stay at it for 45+ minutes. Heck, I know moms of toddlers that wish their toddler was occupied by something for 5 minutes, let alone a boring pair of shoes or a snap for 45.
She has mastered the art of taking her shoes off and pretty much mastered the art of putting her shoes on. Thanks to the 'sparkle,' 5 sized too big, shoes that Marcy sent home with us. She can get those on really well and she has gotten better at putting on her correct sized shoes as well. Of course now that she has mastered the shoes she is moving on the shirts and pants, watch out world this girl might be naked most of the summer :).
Yesterdays major determination project was buckling the car seat. When we returned home from the park she was not ready to get out of the car so I let her play in the car, windows unrolled and I was within ear shot, while I got dinner going. I went out there ever 5 minutes and asked her if she was ready to get out and she said "door, close." Clearly I was not welcome in there.
She has mastered the art of taking her shoes off and pretty much mastered the art of putting her shoes on. Thanks to the 'sparkle,' 5 sized too big, shoes that Marcy sent home with us. She can get those on really well and she has gotten better at putting on her correct sized shoes as well. Of course now that she has mastered the shoes she is moving on the shirts and pants, watch out world this girl might be naked most of the summer :).
Yesterdays major determination project was buckling the car seat. When we returned home from the park she was not ready to get out of the car so I let her play in the car, windows unrolled and I was within ear shot, while I got dinner going. I went out there ever 5 minutes and asked her if she was ready to get out and she said "door, close." Clearly I was not welcome in there.
She got the top buckle, but were still working on the bottom one. As you can see from the pictures above she did give up on the bottom buckle and ventured into the front seat. I have no idea how she climbed up to the front since there is virtually no room between her seat and the bead rests, but then again she is a 'curtain climber.'
P.S. the homemade rolls, just in case you were wondering, were awesomely delicious!
3/21/10
Spring Break
Friends and Parks
The University was closed on Thursday and Friday so I got to have an extra long weekend with my little and her friends of course. We enjoyed the beautiful sunshine, fast slides, swings, and playing babies with Oslo.
Little Maddie exploring the rocks. You have to keep a very watchful eye to make sure none of those little rocks jump into her mouth.
We have learned that all this park play time has turned Blythe into a 'curtain climber' (according to Mamo, good thing we aren't curtain people and don't have any). Blythe is able to climb just about everything in our house. She figured out she can put one foot on the kitchen chair cross bar and hoist her other leg up and onto the chair. Of course once she figured out how to pull herself onto the chair she has also learned how to climb onto the table, counter, or any other object within arms distance. I do have to give Blythe credit for cleverness. I have told her numerous times that she cannot climb onto the table because the table is for "hands and food only." Well since I normally tell her no legs on the table she figured out how to do the inch worm (she first pulls her tummy and then wiggles the rest of her body onto the table) and then proclaims "hey I got here without using my legs." Nice try baby, but your legs are still on the table...10 points for creativity and cleverness though :).
Someone was a little eager to get to the zoo!
Hats!
The University was closed on Thursday and Friday so I got to have an extra long weekend with my little and her friends of course. We enjoyed the beautiful sunshine, fast slides, swings, and playing babies with Oslo.
Little Maddie exploring the rocks. You have to keep a very watchful eye to make sure none of those little rocks jump into her mouth.
We have learned that all this park play time has turned Blythe into a 'curtain climber' (according to Mamo, good thing we aren't curtain people and don't have any). Blythe is able to climb just about everything in our house. She figured out she can put one foot on the kitchen chair cross bar and hoist her other leg up and onto the chair. Of course once she figured out how to pull herself onto the chair she has also learned how to climb onto the table, counter, or any other object within arms distance. I do have to give Blythe credit for cleverness. I have told her numerous times that she cannot climb onto the table because the table is for "hands and food only." Well since I normally tell her no legs on the table she figured out how to do the inch worm (she first pulls her tummy and then wiggles the rest of her body onto the table) and then proclaims "hey I got here without using my legs." Nice try baby, but your legs are still on the table...10 points for creativity and cleverness though :).
Waco Zoo
Someone was a little eager to get to the zoo!
Grandma and Grandpa Behren's met us at the zoo for a picnic and Grandma baked delicious cookies for Blythe and all her friends. Thanks Grandma :)
As if all the animals at the zoo aren't enough entertainment there was a slide where you could slide through the otter tank. Blythe wanted "more, more."
Once with Mommy
And once with daddy
Blythe enjoyed the large animals the most (I think that's because those were the ones she was able to see), especially if they were moving. We enjoyed all the animals, but the 'munkey' was our favorite.
I know, all of these are SO similar, but I just couldn't pick a favorite.
At the end of an exhausting day at the zoo everyone needs a friend to tote them around, thanks Mike!
Hats!
At some point during the break our little cutie decided she liked hats and that everyone should wear them. I agree, I do LOVE her in hats.
I know, your laughing, but when she brings you a hat and says "hat" and pats her head, are you going to tell her no or that it's too small??? This momma isn't going to.
Baking, Baking, and more Baking
It was time for cinnamon roll attempt #2. This time I decided to try out the dough hook that came with the Kitchen Aid mixer. Note to everyone: WOW..this thing really works, I mean it's magical. I put in the wet ingredients and then gradually (remember I didn't do that well the first time) added in the flour. The mixer did an amazing job, as in there was no hand kneading work left to do. Beat the heck out of kneading and adding a little more water, repeat, for 45+ minutes like with the first batch. Within minutes this dough was elastic and sticky just like the directions said it should be. Oh and an added bonus, it was warm and it just looked OH so perfect :).
We decided to make just half of it into a cinnamon roll and the other half into regular rolls (we will have the regular rolls tomorow night so stay tuned). We ate up the cinnamon rolls the next morning and they were a lot less dense than the first batch and tasted divine!
After using the kitchen aid mixer I can proudly say that I will not be purchasing the Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, $2.50 for 5 anymore! Homemade cinnamon rolls taste TONS better and if you have a mixer with a dough hook they are not very challenging to make. Of course you do have to plan ahead since you have to let the dough rise, but hey we all know I am a planner.
After the GREAT success with cinnamon rolls part 2 I decided we should make some homemade pizza crust and have vegetarian pizza for our no meat Friday dinner. The pizza crust turned out equally as tasty, so much so that mom and Jason insisted that we have pizza again Saturday night because they just didn't get enough.
Even if all the homemade dough tasted bad, having fun in the kitchen with this little lovely would make it all worth it!
Sunday
Sunday is a day of rest, and resting we did. We napped, finished up the Easter banner, and ate popcorn. I love my little family.
3/16/10
A not so ordinary Monday
Mamo is in town this week and Maddie's grandparents are in town Monday and Tuesday so our Monday routine was a little different. Blythe still joined her friends for her Monday morning playdate, but she got to take Mamo with her. Since Maddie was with her gandparents this afternoon Blythe had Mommy and Mamo to herslef. We suspect tomorrow afternoon will be grey and rainy so we had to hit up the park. Of course we meet up with our parkner in crime.
Oslo and Blythe
One of Blythe's favorite words is Apple, pronounced "AApple." The problem is that she doesn't really like to eat apples, but she likes the idea of eating an apple. Espcially when Mrs. Lauren helps her get it started. She typically bits off a small piece and then spits it out, repeat. Oh well, maybe she is enjoying some of the sweet apple juices in the process.
If it's not babies, it's shoes
Trying on Momma's rainboots
And walking in Dada's shoes
Oslo and Blythe
One of Blythe's favorite words is Apple, pronounced "AApple." The problem is that she doesn't really like to eat apples, but she likes the idea of eating an apple. Espcially when Mrs. Lauren helps her get it started. She typically bits off a small piece and then spits it out, repeat. Oh well, maybe she is enjoying some of the sweet apple juices in the process.
If it's not babies, it's shoes
Trying on Momma's rainboots
And walking in Dada's shoes
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