Exhaustion

This week has been unbelievably exhausting.

Potty training has dramatically improved. But it is still the most frustrating thing I have ever done. Evie is now averaging far more successes than accidents. Accidents mainly occur during naps, car rides and of course overnight. I know it's going to take a lot more work before she's actually potty trained, but I'm so excited that we're making progress.

To make life more exhausting, the way schedules have worked out this week, I haven't seen my dear husband since Sunday really. Last night was our first time actually sitting down together all week. Soloing two little people all the time plus a full-time job is a lot of work! So the little down time I've had has been spent trying to catch my breath and get caught up on chores, not leaving a lot of time for blogging.

But I have had some good blog ideas and I hope to have the time to write on some of them soon. Thanks for hanging in there and continuing to be a reader! I appreciate you stopping by.

Potty Training

Well, it has begun.

Potty training.

And it is HORRIBLE.

Oh my gosh.

So, this weekend, Evie comes into the bathroom and insists on using the potty. I didn't ask her. I wasn't planning on starting it. She just strolls into the bathroom, points at the toilet and says "potty." Then she starts trying to pull down her pants. So I help her with her pants and diaper, put her little potty seat on the toilet and sit her down. She wants to sit there for about 30 minutes. Which is fine. This is her show after all. And finally! She poops and pees. Honestly, I think my jaw hit the floor. It took me a minute to even clap and cheer I was so shocked! So we get off, inspect her work. Cheer again. She flushes. Gets a snickers and then sits in the living room in her pull-ups, watching an episode of Dora on the iPad while she eats her treat.

I then commenced calling everyone.

So she ended up going potty successfully 3 times on Sunday. Three times! I was so excited! I was actually kind of bummed that it was bed time.

On Monday, we got up early because Sissy had her four month check-up at 8:30 a.m. Evie spent about half an hour sitting on the potty. She didn't want to leave the potty but unfortunately we had to go. So we met Ma and I passed off Evie and took Elly on to the doctor.

Long story short, I had to leave Evie at my mom's for the night because the shots made Elly feverish and sick. Elly got lots of snuggle time and I was hoping the one-baby situation at my mom's would make potty training more successful. I was wrong. Evie has gone two days without a single success. All we have to show is a lot of time spent watching her sit on the toilet, a lot of wet training pants and many more soaked pull-ups.

This is so frustrating! And no one has anything encouraging for me. So I feel so lost and aggravated. The only thing I can think of is Evie "gets" potty training at home but doesn't "get" it anywhere else yet. But I don't really know if that's true or not. And right now I have only 2 days a week that I can really focus on potty training and that doesn't seem consistent enough to really accomplish anything.

So any words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

This sucks.

Summer

I don't know what it is, if it's the summer time or just because my children are older or what but I'm tired. Maybe both.

I have always planned on being one of those parents that was active with my kids. I don't want them to remember their childhood as days spent laying on the couch watching TV or playing by themselves because their parents don't have time or whatever. I want to do THINGS. Whatever they may be. Board games, puzzles, movie night for when the weather is blah. But when the weather is nice I want us to be outside. I want to go to the park, the library, the zoo, local historical farms, local tourist spots, the playhouse, the pool, ANYWHERE. I want them to see as much of the world as I can show them. I don't think you have to travel all over the country and spend a small fortune on family vacations to get your kids an adventure. Kids can learn so much just from taking a walk down Main Street or going to the park or the library. You just have to take the time to teach them. Talk to them. Explain the world to them. That's what I want to do.

But anyways, our family adventures have left me exhausted and with absolutely no time for blogging. And I'm sorry. On top of that, work has been INSANE so that just adds to the exhaustion.

This is my eldest baby...swimming.

She actually swims. All by herself. It is amazing and wonderful and somehow really sad. The more she can do by herself the less she needs her Momma for. *sniffle* But it is so adorable!

She's such a good little swimmer!

And such a sweet big sister she has become! Watching them interact as Elly gets bigger is amazing. They have been siblings since Elly was born but they are really becoming sisters.

Look at her helping lil Sissy out! So sweet!

The zoo trip was a HUGE success. Elly was briefly happy, briefly fussy, then asleep for a few hours. Our biggest challenge was keeping Evie in the stroller. We would let her get out and walk until she started wandering off then we'd have to wrestle her back in the stroller. And of course we had to tackle the issue of Evie not really "getting" the whole zoo concept at first. We got into the zoo and we were in the little square with restaurants and gift shops and exhibits. And Evie loved it. But we wanted to go see the animals and she thought that meant we were leaving and threw a hellacious tantrum. Until we saw the giraffes. Then she was happy and excited and totally infatuated. But then we wanted to go see the lions. And she threw a hellacious tantrum. Which continued until we got to the chimpanzee exhibit about 10 minutes later with brief pauses when we saw the lemurs, looked for the wild pigs, listened to the lions roaring, etc. But the chimpanzee was right there at the glass.

It was so neat! Of course she threw another tantrum when we left the chimps. But soon after she began to understand the whole concept of leaving one animal to see another.

Then she relaxed and enjoyed the ride.

Her favorite was probably the polar bear. He was awesome, but aren't the polar bears always awesome? He wrestled a trash can lid, splashed in the water, yawned, swam. He was great. She threw another fit when it was time to leave his enclosure because we were all starving.

She enjoyed lunch. Though the price was ridiculous. And next time we will NOT be eating in the park. Lessons learned. Paying $3 for a bottle of water and $5 for a PB&J is ridiculous.

But still, it was a good trip. Considering its pretty much our family vacation this year we got off pretty cheap. We all had a good time. Got plenty of exercise and Evie and Elly took great naps. They both really love the souvenirs they acquired. So that's pretty much been my week.

By the way, this baby is 4 months old now. Holy. Crap. Blowing my mind how fast it goes with the second one. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

The Featherless Duck

When Evie gave up her pacifier we went and bought her a stuffed animal, hoping to replace the paci attachment with something a little less babyish. That day we bought a stuffed dog, one who Evie named Leash and who has since been played with rather haphazardly. Instead Evie has fallen in love with Duck. Yes. Duck.

This is Duck. The infamous Duck these days. Because Evie cannot go anywhere without this blue-furred creature. And this Duck is not to be confused with the chicken named Duck. They are in no way related. And Evie gets aggravated if you get confused.

I spend a lot of time with this duck because this duck spends a lot of time with my kid. I kiss Duck goodnight. I feed Duck breakfast. Duck has to have a special seat on the couch so he can watch TV at night. Duck has to be fed a snack. I have to watch Duck play the piano. No joke, Duck plays the piano. And my child insists that I spend a lot of time interacting with Duck. Guess she doesn't want him to be left out.

There is a distinction between cluck-cluck Duck, Evie's pet chicken, and this duck, who goes just by Duck. I know it seems a little confusing.

I initially thought that it was pretty cute, Evie's mild obsession with this fuzzy critter. Then as the mild obsession became more serious, I worried about whether or not this was a healthy fascination. After some searching online and some reading through parenting books I discovered this is apparently completely normal. Apparently just as infants are becoming incredibly independent toddlers, sometime during their 2nd year, they develop a strong attachment to some sort of lovey. Not all toddlers do it, but a lot do. And it's not only normal, it's good for them! Apparently having something there to support them helps support their budding independence and helps them to cope with the fears their increasingly complex imagination comes up with. Kinda neat.

So I'm back to indulging the obsession. While simultaneously keeping it in check. Duck is not allowed to go outside and play. If Duck goes with us on trips to the store or other errands, he has to stay in the car. When we go to the park or for a walk, Duck can go with us, but he is not allowed out of the stroller. Duck has to have regular baths. All in all, we don't typically have a lot of problems out of Duck. It is occasionally left up to me to make sure and remember Duck though. There have been mornings that in the rush of getting both babies, myself and Mushu (who goes to doggie daycare at my mom's boarding kennel) out the door, Duck is left behind. And I have to make sure that Duck has made it to the car, otherwise we might be 10 minutes down the road and have a meltdown because Duck isn't in the car.

It is sometimes a complicated life I lead...

My mother's eldest child's oldest daughter

I am absolutely infatuated with this girl. Of course, as her mom I suppose that I am required to love her quite a bit. Her wild curly hair. Her perpetually scraped-up and band-aid covered knees above her bruised shins. Her crystal-clear-water-blue eyes. I love her. But sometimes she does things that I hope she won't grow out of when she's older and realizes how brave she is being.

Today I watched as she nonchalantly removed a large collection of spider webs from her playhouse and climbed up. She just swiped the webs, wiped them on the grass and went along playing. She ignored the half dozen spiders as they fled for their lives, she just plopped down on her slide and slid down. I marveled at the hundreds of women I know who would have screamed and shrieked as the small orb spiders scurried away.

I know as she gets older she will be told that as a girl she should be afraid of spiders. And there are plenty of reasons to be cautious with spiders (especially the potentially poisonous ones) but there's no reason she can't be a little diva and still be fearless.

It's just so neat to know that she doesn't have to grow up and be a total wuss about bugs. Like my serious phobia of camel crickets. Eek those things are sooooo creepy.

They grow!

So over the weekend I planted my tomatoes. I can't believe it, but they've already grown. A LOT! They're like little kids. But thank goodness I don't have to buy them clothes. Wouldn't that look silly? hah! It won't be long until I get to use my tomato cages though at this rate.

I'm very excited for them to grow up and start producing something! So much that I'm tending them daily and fret over them like a mother hen. No, really. My kids are jealous. But I absolutely cannot wait to eat the first tomato that I grew myself. I'm not sure why. I don't really understand it. But something about it seems very real and earthy and neat.

Evie was dramatically less help with the planting than I had hoped. She wanted to crush the flowers and pull leaves off the tomato plants at first. After I discouraged that behavior she did try playing in the dirt a little. Then she discovered that playing in the dirt meanT there was dirt on her hands. *gasp* So she gave that up pretty quick. But she did get a kick out of watching me play in the dirt and occasionally patting my back. Guess I was doing a good job.

Otherwise her only activity during planting was forcing me to regularly call to her to come back on the deck. When Josh got home from work we were still outside planting. He was exhausted from work, but he watched us plant and kept Elly happy.

Now that the plants are safely ensconced in their happy little pots, Evie loves to go out and smell them and pat them. She's quite proud of the work "we" did.

I changed my mind on sharing half of my plants with my mom. I felt a twinge of over-protectiveness and selfishness and decided to keep four of them and let my mom have two. I kept two of the beef steak and two Rutgers. I am amazed by how much they've already grown!

I also filled four pots with flowers. Two full of bulbs and two full of live plants. I've made no progress on my gate or my paint, but they are next on the list. Our deck is already more homey and decorated with the pots of tomatoes and flowers sitting around. I can't wait to have an evening at home with the whole family so we can grill out and have dinner outside.

The rest of my flowers are doing well also. My day lilies are doing their thing. They are just the best flower because they're practically impossible to kill and they proliferate wildly. The blanket flowers that I thought were going to be black-eyed Susans are also doing well. I'm a little disappointed that they aren't what I thought they were, especially since black-eyed Susans are my favorite flower. But I'm getting over it now that they're blooming.

I am so excited about all the possibilities and activities for this summer. Last summer Evie was still so young and then by this time I was pregnant again, so our plans were rather limited. This year, although Elly is very young, Evie is old enough that she will enjoy going on trips and doing things outside. I cannot wait.

It's a wonderful life...

When I first found out I was pregnant with Elly, after the initial "Oh...my...God..." moments..or weeks, in all honesty, my biggest worry was little Evie. My poor sweet baby whose life would be forever altered and for whom there was no way to prepare. There was no way I could set her down and explain to her what was coming and how much all our lives would change and reassure that it in no way reflected any change in my feelings towards her. The silver lining to this black cloud was the hope that Evie would never remember life before her baby sister. And a desperate hope that since Evie couldn't remember a life before Elly, Evie wouldn't be able to imagine life without Elly.

We are not even six months in...heck, we aren't quite four months in, but I feel like in that sense at least, we have been successful.

Baby bunching is hard. Very hard. If you are considering doing this intentionally, I don't recommend it. Honestly. I'm sure in another year or two, the challenges of the first six months of Elly's life will have blurred in my mind and life will be so much better that I might be crazy enough to tell someone it was worth it. God, I pray that it IS worth it. But right now, even with things pretty much calmed down, I wish that Evie had been at least six months older before our family of three became four. I think just 6 more months would have made our lives unbelievably easier. I also don't think it would be nearly as hard if I weren't working full-time. But I am. So that's just something we have to deal with.

It doesn't help that Elly is a challenging baby. Even my mother who raised two children classifies Elly as a "difficult" infant. So it's not just me! But Evie doesn't know that her little sister cries too much and spits up too much and doesn't sleep enough. To Evie lil Sissy is an integral part of our daily lives. And it touches my soul to see how attached Evie is to Elly.

When Elly cries, Evie is immediately front and center wanting me to fix it. When Elly wakes up, Evie wants to touch her, pat her, kiss on her and talk to her. When Elly eats, Evie wants to watch, comments, fusses and makes suggestions. When we go outside, Evie insists Sissy comes and if Sissy is napping or otherwise occupied, Evie feels that she needs to check on the baby at regular intervals. If Evie thinks Elly needs a blanket, a bib, a toy or a pacifier, she rushes to meet that need. It is adorable.

When I have taken Evie places without Elly, Evie gets incredibly upset. She also worries if Sissy goes somewhere without her. Elly in turn watches Evie with rapt adoration. When Evie comes within a couple of feet of Elly, Elly kicks her feet and grins and coos excitedly. She is infatuated with her big sister and no matter what Evie does, she can do no wrong in Sissy's eyes. Even if Evie gets mad and hits her or throws things at her, Elly continues to smile up at her.

But I feel like we have all finally gotten into a good schedule and life is pretty stable. Elly has started playing with toys and sitting up by herself some. Since she's started on solids she has been spitting up less and sleeping more regularly. We've almost even gotten her on a napping schedule! Holy crap! Things are going well, and next week we are bravely taking the babies to the zoo.