Long time

So the summer flew by and I didn't spend much time blogging and not too sure if I will have time in the upcoming months - having three kids keeps me quite busy and the extra time I do have I like to catch up on a little R&R.

Anyway, I'm back to work and things are crazier than ever with the house being on the market, renting/selling the Chicago condo, Holiday preparation, birthdays, being a Creative Memories consultant, organizing Home Alone for Libertyville Junior Women's club -- the fall seems to be our busiest social time of the year and then come January we crash and have nothing to do....

To help my friends & family with their Christmas shopping I have created wishlists for me and the kids on Wishpot - you can find it at http://www.wishpot.com/lists.aspx  I may add a list for Kevin, but I find gift ideas for him harder to come by.

Pictures

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2573240015/a=5702183_5702183/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

No Time

I apologize for the lack of posts - I have started a couple, but haven't had time to finish them and things are a bit busy now with April 15 quickly approaching.  I happen to be on a lunch break for a seminar right now, so I have a few minutes.

Monday I had a great day with the kids.  The weather was nice, and I just wonder if that had something to do with it.  The kids woke at 7am and we were dressed, fed and out of the house by 9am (usually its hard for me to get anywhere at 9am w/out waking up early - 10am is a better time for us).  Anyway, since we had the time, I went to the gym and worked out while the kids played.  My workout was not interrupted by a call back to childcare - the call came when I was on my way there (Sebastian was hungry - first time call for him).

Next stop was the pet store - since having kids my poor cat, zu-zu, has fallen to the bottom of the importance/attention list (have I mentioned previously that BC I had plants?   I don't now, all have expired.)  Zu-zu was in dire need of food and cat litter.  I have been trying to go to the pet store for weeks and finally just got the chance (I actually bought her a small bag of grocery store brand cat food - that is how crunched I have been for time).   Going to the pet store is actually a nice activity to do with the kids since there are often dogs they can pet and they enjoy seeing the animals - birds, fish, reptiles, etc.  I allowed Mazie to "run free" during this trip and she did quite well - stayed with us the whole time and wasn't too handsy with the inventory.  Since Mazie wasn't in the cart, I gave PJ the cart option and he took it - he was happy to be pushed around.  Mazie got a kick out of petting a little dog (she likes dogs, but can be easily scared by them, so the smaller the better).  PJ didn't care to get out of the cart to pet the dog.  I think Mazie is my key to getting a dog in the future ;)

We then stopped at the grocery store.  PJ asked me in the morning to go to the store for mini wheats and I thought - "heck, I probably need to go to the store, but am not desperate to, so I could make it a quick and hopefully stress free trip."  I forgot PJ's cart at home.  I thought this was going to be a problem.  It turned out not so since, again I gave Mazie the option to "run free" and she took it and PJ sat in the cart.  Again, Mazie was pretty good and not too handsy in the store.  We started in the produce section and she picked up items here and there, but it didn't bother me so much especially since, I was like "ok, we can buy that sweet potato or sure you can eat that apple."   PJ requested yellow cheese from the deli which I gave him.  It was noon when we went to the store and I intended that they snack during the trip on healthy store purchases - makes for happy, occupied children.  I ended having a grocery trip longer than I intended and tired out my little girl by going up and down several isles -- she isn't yet two - so its a lot of walking for her, but she was a trooper.  By the end of the trip Mazie wanted in the cart -- I didn't have room in the cart at this point and although I could have carried her for the last five minutes, I didn't want to set the precedent.  Fortunatly, I was able to get her to walk till I was finished.  (It also helped that I had a box of goldfish opened and used those as treats to get her to follow me and keep up -- have I mentioned how children are like dogs?) At the end of the trip Sebastian had had enough of his carseat, but he had been so good considering he had been in it for over an hour.

After the grocery store we went home (it was about 1pm) and I let the kids play and eat lunch outside.  Putting them down for nap for their nap at 2pm went relatively well.  Next thing I know its time to make dinner.  I expected K home later than usual, but since I was having such a good day with the kids I decided that I would attempt to make dinner (mashed potatoes, steaks, & broccoli) and not use the TV as babysitter, but let them go outside and play instead.  PJ took me up on playing outside and Mazie stayed close by and played in the sink and with her stuffed elmo while I prepared the food.  K came home and everything was done and I wasn't going crazy chasing children and cleaning up messes.

I mentioned to my husband that I had such a wonderful day with the kids.  And some of the things (besides what I mentioned above) that made it so nice were - PJ only threw three fits - one upon arriving at the gym (he didn't want to go), another at naptime when I changed his diaper and wouldn't put butt cream on him since he was just stalling, didn't need it, and the cream wasn't easily accessible, and a third in the tub, for a reason I can't recall.  Mazie wasn't into everything.  Mazie only threw a fit when we were walking across the grocery store parking lot b/c I made her hold my hand.  PJ sat on the potty for me while I was already in the bathroom at the gym changing Mazie and Sebastian's diapers -- which is a bonus to get it all done at the same time - nothing so obnoxious as changing one diaper, getting the things needed - wipes, cream, diaper, washing your hands, putting stuff away, to discover that you have another diaper to change and have to go through the whole routine over.  I hate it when this happens and I end up washing my hands three times in a row - my poor hands have no chance at being soft and moist with three kids in diapers!

Pictures

Check more out at:

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2486045015/a=5702183_5702183/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Chuck E Cheese

Sleep Deprivation

Its Saturday night, K and I just get settled down to watch a movie after putting the kids to bed and then.... wa, wa, waa, waa, waaaaa!, waaaaa!  little bit has decided that he is not going to continue sleeping.  I know that if I take 20 minutes and feed him he'll go back down, but I think he should be sleeping longer stretches at a time.  I make the decision to let K feed him a bottle - give him the enjoyment of feeding the baby and give myself a break.  The night goes on and he wakes up every 2.5 hours or so - it is SO tiring.  His last wakeup tends to be around 5am - makes it really difficult for me to get up since I know it will be 530 or later after I get to go back to sleep and its like what's the point of going back to sleep and the bed is SO comfy.  I go grab the baby and bring him into bed with me so he can eat and I can snooze, figuring just a morning snooze with mom won't turn into a habit.  Well, after last night, I'm not so sure - baby was back to his tricks waking every 2.5 hours and last wake up at 5am  - this time I decide to stay in his room.  I feed him for 25min - he eats and falls to sleep, and I put him back in bed and he starts crying loudly.  I swear the little bugger expected me to bring him in bed with me and was protesting.  K keeps telling me Sebastian is too young to be sleep trained - but I have a hard time believing a four month 16lb baby can't make it 6 hours without waking up (he did manage to do this for me once last week - so I know he has it in him, somewhere).  PJ was the same way, and I remember he wasn't sleeping through the night until he was 8months - but he was a bit on the light side, so my doctor advised me not to cut back on the feedings and even so, it took some major training to get him there.  Mazie wasn't so difficult.  (Of course the two have flip-flopped now they are older, PJ is the better sleeper and Mazie is my early riser).  So the question is to sleep train or not?  I may wait another month or so, but I could really use a solid night of sleep.

Escapee

My husband and I were watching some TV during naptime and we heard some noise from PJ and Mazie's room and what sounded like a child playing out of bed.  Kevin mentioned that this morning he found PJ on the steps to his bed and he said "I just sitting on the steps Da"... yeah right.  So I go upstairs and expect to catch PJ out of bed.  When I open the door who is staying right before me?  My little Mazie Rose - out of her crib, out of her sack and a big smile on her face.  I couldn't help but laugh.  PJ was still in bed and said "Mazie got out of her crib"  K and I have known that Mazie was ready for a big bed, but were trying to hold off because we weren't so sure she'd be as trainable to stay in bed as PJ.  Well, I guess she made the decision for us - down went her crib (and back into the babies room - who happens to be growing so quickly he was almost too big for the bassinet), and out came the twin for her.  After putting PJ and Mazie to bed tonight the first 45 min went well - no pitter patter of little feet (it helps that our living room is directly below the kids room) but then I hear PJ call out "Mazie out of her bed".  Kevin went up and gave her a good woopin' hoping to scare her into staying into her bed - I hope it works.  Sometimes its nice to have a tattle tale.

Puppy Love

I have a childless friend that I frequently talk to about my children and she often makes comparisons with my children’s behavior and training to that of her dog. She generally prefaces her statements, with “I know people hate it when I do this, but I had a similar issue with my dog….” In truth, her analogies don’t bother me at all. And actually, I have found children to be quite similar to dogs, up till as certain age, at which point, I would say they become better than dogs. Those of you that gasp in disbelief that I say this I suspect are either 1. Not animal lovers or 2. Have not fully looked at the similarities. Let’s start with newborns and babies – they would be akin to puppies – all newborns can do is cry, sleep, eat and crap – they haven’t learned any tricks and are more/less fully dependent on their mom/caregiver. Although this complete dependence quickly fades both baby and dog remain puppies for quite a bit. The puppy must be taught everything and much patience is required for training as are babies. Babies use diapers, puppies aren’t housebroken, puppies get into everything and require close watching, babies also require constant watching so as not to harm themselves or ones property, both babies and puppies are starting to learn “tricks” – such as how to sit, roll over, walk (walk on lease), learning the word “no” – in teaching these tricks we can use positive reinforcement – giving puppy or baby praise, a treat (biscuit, cookie, etc), negative reinforcement – letting a child continue to play with a new toy if he/she puts away the old toy (taking off the shock collar when the dog stops barking) or punishment – spanking or yelling at for doing wrong. Your puppy then becomes a dog as a child becomes a toddler. They can both do “tricks” on command, they are quick learners, and both can follow simple directions. At about age 4 (I am surmising, since I would say that none of my children are quite to this “Better than a dog” stage, although PJ is daily gaining ground) I would say the child begins to surpass the dog. The child starts to converse intelligently, learns to read and write, is more independent in dressing and feeding.


And in case you didn’t know, I used to have a dog, and I loved my dog, and I miss her greatly and I would love to get another dog. When I look at all the crumbs on the ground from my children’s meals, I think, the dog would clean that up.  But with three very young children I know now is not that time to get a dog. I don’t have the time or energy to look after a puppy and begin to train her. When I get the urge for another baby I will start looking at breeders – planning on having four legged fourth child, and hopefully by that time one of my children is begging for a dog, since I can’t “officially” get on until the kids want one. However, one of the benefits of being the Mama is convincing the kids that dogs are awesome and they need to tell their Da they want one.

For More Pictures

Having technical difficulties with snapfish and it won't publish to the blog so to see more of the pictures

Go to :

/http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2421210015/a=5702183_5702183/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Little Bit

K says Sebstian isn't much of a little bit - and compared to other babies his age, I suppose K is right - at his last doctor visit on Feb17 he weighed in at just under 16lbs, however compared to my other two kids he is a "Little Bit".  Sebastian, or Bastian (as pronounced by Mazie and PJ) is a happy little baby.  He enjoys being talked to and being played with.  Preston has fun reading books to him and Mazie loves to smother him with love.  Occasionally Mazie and PJ will be a bit rough with him, but he is a tough little guy and handles it well.  At 3.5+ months I still haven't seen him roll over in either direction and am not too sure that he can (there have been times when I put him in his bed and later picked him up and I couldn't remember if I had laid him down the same way I picked him up).  Sebastian generally likes to sleep on his stomach, although if he is being snuggled can be pursuaded to sleep on his back.  He likes to sit in his bouncy chair and try to bat the toys, and when lying under his play center he knows that he can make noise with his feet and move the "poles" and shake the toys hanging above him when he kicks.

Trouble Jr.

Can't you just see the trouble this one gets into?  Mazie is my curious risk taking independent thinker.  Yes, she is me reincarnated.  She's just adorable though, isn't she? (Mazie happens to look a lot like me, if I do say so myself).  She loves to snuggle and hates the word "No".  Right now we (Kevin and I) are trying to get her to control her emotions (displeasure) better, but its tough, especially for me because I have both PJ and Sebastian vying for attention, its hard to stay tough and focus.  Now that I am thinking about it - she may realize this and be using it to her advantage.  For example, the other night I was putting Sebastian to bed sitting in the rocker feeding him and I had her sitting next to me, which was fine, until she started wiggling around and Sebastian started wiggling and I was trying to make a phone call to my MIL.  I ended up booting Mazie from the chair, which resulted in a melt down - and it was sad, since I knew she just wanted to sit next to me, but Sebastian needed his time and needed to be fed.  However, she was freaking out so much that I needed to discipline her and put Sebastian down and told her that she needed to stop or she was going to bed.  Well, she didn't stop, so I started to get her in her Pjs - part of this process required changing her diaper - at this point, having my full attention she says "potty" - so it puts me in a quandry - do I say no and continue to put her to bed, or let her go b/c I don't want to discourage the potty use.  I decided to let her use the potty.  She goes pee pee, which now makes me think "Can I really put her to bed (i.e. punish her), right after she used the potty?  Can she make the connection the putting to bed is for her temper tantrum that happened five minutes ago?"  I decide probably not, so I give her another chance and tell her I have to feed Sebastian and she can't sit next to me, and if she cries she's going to bed.  I sit down and feed Sebastian and she comes in the room and wants up and I tell her she can get on my legs, which makes her happy.   I suppose in the end we both got what we wanted, I was able to peacefully feed Sebastian and she got some mommy time.  Did I mention that while this was going with Mazie, I had PJ watching and telling me "mommy, I'm being good"  (Which I acknowledged and thanked him for) And then after I get settled, and Mazie calmed down he decides that he's going to push her out of the way and close the door on her.  I swear, can I catch a break? 

My Little Princess

I thought PJ had the cutest smile in the tortilla chip picture.  He went through a period where anytime

a camera was brought out he would hide and refuse to have his picture taken.  Apparantly he's gotten

over that phase because now when I bring out the camera to take pictures of Sebastian he also

wants his picture taken.

In the picture where PJ is eating the cookie he is at the Valentines Day Meetup.  I made special cookies for the meetup as Valentines.  I used Sluby's moms sugar cookie recipe (which is to die for) and after frosting the cookies (with help from PJ and Mazie) I put each cookie in an individual clear bag with ribbon and hand made tag saying "Happy Valentines Day".  I also helped PJ and Mazie make Valentines to give out.  We gave out a 3rd Valentine, which was store bought and had the Disney Cars characters on them (these cards were requested by PJ when we passed them in JoAnns while shopping for supplies for the other cards, so I thought, why not).  It seems that store bought cards have gotten super generic/cheap and they don't even have envelopes to put them in.  These cards had little heart stickers, which I presumed one was supposed to use to hold them folded together.  I showed PJ how to put the stickers on (at first he just wanted to stick them on the cards) and he was actually able to do it - it appears that his dexterity is getting more fine tuned.  I went "all out" with the Valentines because at last years Valentine's Day meetup I brought only store bought cards, and it seemed that everyone else had cute hand made cards and I felt like a schmuck with the cheap 99 cent cards and thought I could have made cards with my kids, I'm creative.

My work has only begun...

I’ve been up for the past five hours and have spent most of my time picking up the house and doing laundry, which I started because I needed to file papers and get the guest bedroom ready for my MIL to sleep in – the bedroom is clean, but I still haven’t had a chance to file, one of the major tasks I have set out to do today, but it appears that time is quickly passes and I still have to go to the gym, pump, eat lunch, hang clothes, go to the store, and oh, yeah, relax on my day off. I suppose this blog should count as relaxation, but I don’t know if it qualifies and I am combining it with lunch, which I can’t skip because I’ll get a headache or feel sick if I do, at which point I am totally useless.


My house has been driving me nuts – toys and crap everywhere! I find myself picking up after myself, Kevin (K), PJ, and Mazie (fortunately our cat Zuzu doesn’t create clutter). I’m not a neat person naturally, so it takes a lot for me to handle myself, much less the items of three other individuals. And as I mentioned earlier it takes forever to pick up and put away and that is BEFORE attempting to clean. Before having children (BC) my husband and I used to have a game we played and it kept the house pretty neat and then it was easy to clean (and by clean I mean get out the soap, water, vacuum, dust, etc.). Now I can’t even begin to clean b/c I have hours of picking up before that can happen. One might suggest a solution is have the children pick up after themselves after playing – while I believe this should happen – it’s not easy to do, when you are trying to get out of the house on time and have things to do other than supervise picking up and I find nagging the kids constantly to be wearing. While picking up today, I thought that now PJ is older and possibly Mazie too would learn to pick up after themselves without being told by starting a reward system – when I see a child picking up w/out me having to hound he/she gets a star on the frig and once there are ten stars he/she has a special trip to the bookstore to play and pick out a book. Maybe ten is a bit much and I should start with five so the kids get the concept. I of course could go with a reward when the child picks up without asking, but a chart on the frig would be a constant reminder to pick up after oneself. It also seems I have a desire to create a chart b/c I have thought about implementing one for potty training purposes, but haven’t executed one.

Oh, my head!

I have a nice headache, and usually I would nap to get rid of it, but the urge to blog is too great.  Maybe if I don't think about it will just disappear.

So I skipped going to the gym today and instead did chores, after taking the kids to Gymboree.  I was hoping Sebastian would sleep through class like he did last week, but to no avail, he was bright eyed and bushy tailed, so I had to tote him the whole time.  At the end of class I decided to feed the baby and let PJ and Mazie play while the crowd died down.  A passing mom asked if PJ and Mazie were twins (which I happen to get asked a lot, and while they do look like sibilings it seems pretty obvious to me that Mazie is younger) at anyrate, I nicely replied no, and told their ages and the woman mentioned she had twins and said how calm I looked and how she'd be going crazy.  At the time I was calm.... and stayed calm until we got to the grocery store, which is when my stress level increased ten fold - Mazie started whining about being strapped into the cart, Sebastian was fussing, PJ told me he didn't want to push his shopping cart anymore (which starts me thinking - how the heck am I going to push my cart and his?), and alll I was trying to do was find my groceries in an unfamiliar grocery store, and although I was in the cereal aisle I couldn't seem to find the 12oz. sale rice krispies.  I was close to losing it, but instead I gave up on the rice krispies, kept the cart moving, hoping to calm sebastian (he fell asleep), convinced PJ to continue pushing his cart and unstrapped Mazie and my husband doesn't think I am good at multi tasking....  The storm passed and I was able to finish shopping.  I was waiting in the only cash register for 15+ items  when told to go to the less than 15 isle that no one was at.   Still calm.... I unload my groceries and see a man buying one item behind me, and thought he didn't know what a wait he was getting himself into and I continued slowly unloading (have you ever tried to grab grocieres out of a cart that is half covered with a sleeping baby in a car seat?) and I looked back, and the man was gone - good move on his part.  I then get out my coupons and begin to tear out the appropriate ones and a line starts to form behing me.and I start thinking - I swear I am not that person with a zillion things in the 15 less isle -- I was TOLD to come here.  The cashier asks me if I want help out  and I accept gladly.  Before having children I never needed help out and with even one child I wouldn't have accepted it, but with three, I'm all over it! And I figure I am paying the service by paying the higher prices.  My little caravan travels out the grocery store and I notice PJ has a the greeting card I picked out and I wonder if he had given it to the cashier to be paid for, then I look at Mazie and she is munching the apple I gave her while in the produce section, and I know I definitely dind't pay for that, and lets be honest when checking out I may have thrown in a coupon or two of which I ddin't buy the items.  We get to the car and I let the "help" unload all the groceries into the car while I strap the kids in, taking full advantage of the service, which I just realized I probably didn't pay for at all.

Day 1

Like I don't have better things to do than blog.... who knows how frequently I will actually update this, but it sounded kinda cool and I happen to have skipped my nap today so I have a few free moments.

Today the kids (PJ, Mazie & Sebastian) and I played outside for a bit (much to my chagrin) but PJ was asking to go outside this morning and since it wasn't precipitating and was in the 30's (i.e. not that cold) I figured it was the least I could do for my son. PJ had a blast running up and down the driveway with his truck and scooting on his tricycle. Mazie wasn't as thrilled to be outside, but went with the flow. Unfortunately, that meant getting her brand new adorable pink pants, filthy, which necessitated that I change her before we went to gymnastics.

At gymnastics PJ did pretty well - he is getting better at doing his somer saults and jumping on the trampoline. Mazie was a little bit of a "B" but what does one expect out of an almost two year old? I think her favorite activity is hanging on the bar and swinging - now whenever we see a bar (usually a coat bar) she feels the need to hang on it - thankfully she isn't that heavy and one hasn't ripped out of the wall. It was also entertaining to watch her "run" after the hoops - I say "run" b/c she was supposed to run after them, but she just walked... probably thinking "why do they insist I run after these silly hoops and bring them back?"

After gymnastics we went and had lunch (which I packed from home) at the gym (lifetime fitness). PJ asked me for some juice, which of course I didn't have since I don't buy juice boxes and rarely give the kids juice, however juice can be purchased at the gym - at the expensive rate of $1/box (at which point I might as well buy the lunch at $3 and get the sandwich, fruit and chips too). I was feeling slightly generous and although I was too "cheap" to buy two juice boxes for $2 I bought the kids the smoothie of the day - blueberry pineapple for $4 (had them split one drink) - thus costing myself an extra $2.... you can see the logic there.... Maybe next time I go to the grocery store I'll suck it up and buy some juice boxes. Oh, and did I mention that Mazie managed to spill her smoothie on her new shirt - thus completely ruining today's cute outfit - so much for having a girl and getting to dress them up.