Naptime Catch Up!

Ahhhh.... Tuesday..... afternoon.....

Both kids are on the VERGE of napping. I once again can't remember my last blog post.... so hang on a minute while I go back and see where I left off.

Okay, let's start with the weekend. Saturday. The big 4th of July. Yeah, it was lame. I woke up and the kids were up and I was like "what are we going to do today!?" and Evan kinda groaned and rolled over and I couldn't get an answer out of him. Ardyn was her usual charming self but I knew that I needed a break. So I decided to get in the shower and hoped that once I got cleaned up, Evan would be in a better mood. While I was in the shower I can hear the TV come on, and Marek SCREAMING and it just went on and on (peaceful shower) and then when I came out I see that both kids are abandoned and Evan is in the restroom. That made me pretty cranky. Seriously. Can't wait for 10 minutes so I can shower in peace? So I get Marek and get myself all dressed, then nurse him, get him all dressed, pack a diaper bag, and get Ardyn a drink. I packed up all my scrapbook stuff, load everything in the van, load Marek and his diaper bag in the van, and Evan is STILL in the bathroom. So I shout down the stairs to Evan that Marek and I are leaving, going scrapbooking for the day, and that I hope he and Ardyn have a wonderful day. Silence. "What made you decide that?" Um, probably you not giving me a straight answer and acting like we were going to AGAIN sit at home on our butts because it's raining and we didn't want to take the kids to the parade in the rain, etc etc.

So Marek and I ran away. Got a full tank of gas.... and went to Grandma Deb's where my scrapbooking supplies are. It was a fabulous day then. I scrapbooked from about 2pm-12am and got 12 pages done, and most of them fully embellished and journaled. FABULOUS. I totally need to do that more often. I don't mind taking Marek with me, because I would either have to stop and FEED him, or stop and pump for him, so not a whole lot of difference there. But Ardyn just does not do well sitting still or entertaining herself while I scrapbook.... unless we are on home turf and there isn't much she can hurt, and has all her own toys.

Sunday we were pretty relaxed around home, just anticipating that night. We went to Walnut for a cookout at my cousin Jessica and her husband Jim's house, and then watched the fireworks on the front deck, which is up really high and right across from the park where they set them off. The party was great, and the food was good. We took the kids for a wagon ride over through the park, though there wasn't much to do. There were rides this year (just like 4 or 5) but they weren't really age appropriate for Ardyn... so we just walked around a bit. Change of scenery does wonders for a toddler. Ardyn was all dressed up in fabulous red, white, and blue attire, and I actually felt a little bad because she was like the ONLY kid in red white and blue? Seriously? That's part of the fun of the holiday, especially for kids! You can't pass up an excuse to dress fabulously?! She had on the Gymboree Grass Skirt Sandals, and a stars and stripes dress, and fireworks hair ties, and a tiara with red white and blue, and a favulous matching wand, and red white and blue beaded bracelets. She was loving it, and we got lots of looks and stares at the park, but it was kinda making me feel uncomfortable, like there was a pedophile watching her or something. A little to Jon Benet for my tastes.... but for the family party it was great....

We really had a nice time, but there was one girl there (who hopefully doesn't read my blog, or MAYBE Hopefully does) who was drinking and smoking and had Two kids (one about Ardyn's age) and was not paying ANY attention to them. In fact, she spent the whole night either OUTSIDE while they were INSIDE, or vice versa.... or on the complete opposite side of the deck from her kids. It was making us really nervous, both for their safety, and for Ardyn's. Jim and Jessica have an AWESOME front deck, that has lots of stairs leading up to it, and I would have to venture a guess that the deck is at least 10 feet from the ground. I normally wouldn't worry, but the deck is a little dangerous for small bodies, because the rails are much farther apart than a "standard" deck, I'd guess about a foot apart. The same is true for the spindles on the stair railings. And it was a real worry issue for me, because Ardyn would want to go look over the edge, and would lean, and I was terrified she would fall and break her neck. But the other mom wasn't paying a damn bit of attention to her kids, and the younger one was easily able to fit through those rails, and was always walking dangerously close to the stairs, and it was just too much. At one point, I saw this girl's daughter (who was WAY old enough to know better) push another child and that child's parent had to step up and tell her to knock it off, because the girl's mother was nowhere to be found, and when she was she was either indifferent or not paying a bit of attention.

Someone told me that they SAW her drink 8 drinks, and that was just what they SAW. And then she left with those two kids.... Ugh. Of course when Ardyn started getting antsy while waiting for the fireworks, I went to the van and got her something to do, her Dora backpack with some crayons, and paper from Jim and Jess's printer, and Dr. Seuss books and some Dora figures, and a Magna Doodle. I also brought her a snack. Of course, as soon as I broke out those toys, the other kids came to sit down and play. Which was fine, but at the same time, I was supervising them, if at all. Then the little boy started putting all of Ardyn's toys in his mouth, and chewing on them. But he was like two, again, old enough to know better, had he been taught. And Evan was really upset by that, to the point of asking me to just pick up the toys and take them away from Ardyn. I had to tell the little boy to please stop putting toys in his mouth. As a parent, nothing is worse than another mother who doesn't care about or pay any attention to what her kid is doing. Especially when the child is too young to be unsupervised. The boy's grandma was there, but she was as uninterested as the mom (now we know where she got her supervision skills, right?) I felt badly for Jim and Jessica, because it wasn't their responsibility to watch the kids either, and I could tell it was rubbing several people the wrong way. At one point in time the boy had Evan's keys and cell phone and we had to get it back, and another time his mother sat him all by himself in a chair next to MY mom, as if my mom was supposed to watch him. He sat there for the longest time, just sitting there, and we all felt so bad for him! So the cookout was fun, the fireworks were great, but we were a little uncomfortable about the whole situation. We discussed that maybe next year we will go to the cookout and visit for a while and then take a blanket down in the grass to wait for and watch the fireworks.... which might be a good bet because Ardyn really needed to run off some energy and have a change of scenery, and the front deck was not a place to run and play. And if Marek is big enough to be running next year (should be!) it will be alot harder to keep up with TWO toddlers! So we may have to re-evaluate how we handle that next year.

Fireworks were good, I was afraid of how Marek would handle them, being young and that being his bedtime. He did great. No crying. He sat on my lap with his pacifier and watched contentedly for a while with wide eyes, and then fell asleep. Ardyn was a little scared at first, and covered her eyes and ears, but then she got used to them and was really enjoying herself, especially dancing to the music. I had gotten her a 6-pack of glow bracelets for $1 at Wal-Mart, and they were red, white, and blue, so she was loving it.

Both kids were passed out before we even got out of Walnut. When we got home, I sat in the van and ate Ben and Jerry's chocolate ice cream while the kids slept in the back. Yesterday was Monday. I was very busy. The dryer repair man came to fix the dryer door, and the window that Sears gave us was "8am-5pm" which REALLY had me peeved. At least I didn't have to take a day OFF work. I decided that I was going to stay home and clean while waiting. It took me almost ALL DAY to clean the living room. I picked up toys on the porch, in the living room, and dining room. Then I put Ardyn in her bedroom with all her toys, and shut the gate across her doorway, so that I could vacuum and mop. She was so Irate with me, and kept screaming "OPEN GATE!" but I knew that I couldn't get anything done with the toddler tornado stringing things across the rooms. I vacuumed and mopped. I pulled out ALL the furniture (not sure how long that had been!) and vacuumed and mopped UNDER everything. Then I cleaned off all the tables, and the baskets under the tables, and then I washed the leather couch and loveseat, all over (even the backsides) and then I put on leather conditioner, and leather protector. I hadn't been able to do that since I was pregnant with Ardyn, and I used to do it once every 6 months like they recommend. Then I decided to re-arrange the living room entirely. That was pretty cool, it's different. I like it. I like things to change now and then. Because out house is laid out a certain way, with lots of closets, doors, windows, doorways.... it is difficult to do very many layouts in each room.

All the work was totally worth it, especially when I saw the look on Evan's face when he came inside at the end of the day. He had been working in the yard. It was REALLY hot, but he mowed, and then he shoveled and hauled mulch over from the farm for our flower beds, and shoveled it all into place for me! Wow! When I got done with all the cleaning, I was exhausted and filthy. I washed my feet and brushed my hair and teeth, and when Ardyn woke up from her nap we went to McDonald's for supper. No way I was cooking! Then the kids and I came home and played in the front yard. I put everything back where it went after Evan mowed, and lit the tiki torches, citronella candles, and started a fire in the fire pit. We sat outside until after dark, when Ardyn started to get cranky, and then I put her to bed. Then I did a BUNCH of laundry folding and hanging, and put Marek to bed IN HIS OWN CRIB for the very first time.

It's strange how I feel about Marek. I can't tell you how much I adore Ardyn, and how much I adored her from the start. But because I was a first time mom, I just couldn't appreciate how quick she was going to grow, and how much she would make me happy, and so I think that although I enjoyed her and loved her to my fullest, I just didn't know how quickly she was going to become a toddler. And now with Marek, I feel so attached to him. Double the attachment almost. With Ardyn my attachment was more one of fear and anxiety. I was terrified that something would go wrong. I was terrified that if I left her for a second, someone would slip her some formula, or something would happen to me and I would never return to her. With Marek it's a more relaxed attachment, and I think that allows me to focus on quality time with him, and on laughing and cuddling, and being really appreciative of every silent moment that I get to spend with him, because having 2 kids, they are few and far between and I know that he too will grow WAY too fast. He already is! (*tears! oh my!*)

Ardyn slept in the cosleeper in the beginning, but while I loved having her there, it was almost more anxiety producing, because every single sound she made, I had to turn the little light on and check her. Was she breathing? Was she okay? I was so paranoid that I couldn't sleep sometimes. Every little sound she made woke me and I was not sleeping well, even when she was. But she did make a TON of sounds in her sleep also. She slept throught the night for like 10-12 hours when she was TEN DAYS OLD. Her time in the cosleeper was fairly short, maybe 2 months.... and she went to her crib. She was sleeping through the night, but then it got to the point where if she woke, she smelled me, and she would want to nurse, even if she didn't NEED to nurse. It was also getting exhausting to wake up with every little sniffle she made. She went into her crib one night and never went back to the cosleeper. Now with Marek, keeping him next to me has been a mixture of necessity and attachment. I am purely and totally attached to him. It's a little embarassing to admit, because we are supposed to be the ones who want them in their own room, but seriously, there are often times that I think I could let him sleep there forever and we would both be perfectly happy. There's just something about that boy, that makes the two of us attached pretty strongly. So last night was emotionally hard on me, because it was like "Oh god, he's growing up, he's moving to his own room!" where with Ardyn it was another exciting milestone for the first baby, with Marek it's something that I dread, his growing up so fast! So right after I put him down, I got myself ready for sleep. I was in bed by 11:30, but couldn't sleep without him there. It was the strangest thing. I know lots of people who say they can't sleep if their husband isn't home, or isn't in bed with them, and I have always thought that was the Strangest thing.... and here is me, not being able to sleep because the baby is not next to me. But I finally did fall asleep, after watching his chest rise and fall on the video monitor. Ahhh. My big boy. And he slept till about 4am, and then I went in and fed him in the rocker in the nursery. That also brought back so many memories of mid-morning feedings with Ardyn. The rocker hadn't even been IN the nursery as it moved into her room when she did. I just put it in there last night. And then Marek went right back to sleep in the crib and stayed there till he woke at about 8:30 this morning. (*More tears!*) he's growing up already and he's only 3 months old!

So. Then I showered and got myself ready, and got both kids dressed, and we went to the MOPS playdate. This was the first MOPS anything that I had attended, and it was really nice to see other ADULTS and moms. I felt bad because Ardyn did really well (as expected) until she saw that Kelsea had "her" Dora Thermos cup. You can try till you are blue in the face, but Ardyn has a one track mind and you can't explain to her that Wal-Mart sells them and that there is more than ONE Dora cup on the planet. Oh boy was she determined to get HER cup from Kelsea. That's when I knew it was time to go! We went to Wal-Mart for some errands and to pick up a prescription. We found plates, cups, and flatware, all turquoise, on clearance for $1 a pack, and I bought enough for her Birthday Party. Then I found some mermaid napkins online that I like. Expensive but not really much more than ones you find in a store. If I use all solid stuff that I got on clearance, and just the mermaid napkins, I can justify ordering them online. It should run less than $10 for all the napkins I need.

I am *hoping* that the weather is nice, because we can then put helium balloons on the fence out front, and she can have a nice outside party. I did get the cake pan yesterdayday (bought used on eBay) and also got the Cricut Cartridge "Life's a Beach" to make her invitations. It has an ADORABLE Mermaid! I can hardly wait to get the invites made, so hopefully I can do that instead of scrapbooking on Thursday at moms. I am "considering" trying to cut out the Mermaid body, and the using Ardyn's head (a photo) as the Mermaid's head/face. But, we will have to see about that. Depends on what I can come up with! A birthday party at home, yet another reason to get every room in this house organized and cleaned! LOL.

Well, I have more to say (shocking, I know) but I am out of time as we are supposed to be attending an open house tonight and Ardyn is still napping and we aren't packed yet. LOL. Baby steps. So, stay tuned, more to come, perhaps this evening if I am lucky.