Happy Birthday!

Dear Little Dude,
Today is your day! I simply can not believe that you are already one. Your daddy thinks this year went by faster then any other year ever! I kinda agree. I'm so glad it was a leap year, I got a whole extra day with you as a baby!

Some day you might look at this blog and wonder why I rarely ever write about you. You might wonder if it's because you just didn't do anything worthy of writing about or if I just didn't think that the things you do are important. It is neither of those things. You do SO many wonderful things that I just don't have time to write about them. You keep your mama very busy!

You are so smart! Everyday you remind me of that. You are walking (running really!). You are talking (mama, dada, nigh nigh aka pacifier, airplane, you call both Patches and Cuddles ba or baba, and I've heard you calling Stowa something that sounds like her name but I can't quite replicate it). You wave goodbye and you clap whenever anyone says Yay! You're starting to dance which makes us all laugh. It is just so cute! You're trying your best to jump. You are getting so close!

You love your big sister. You'd follow her anywhere. She's your buddy! She loves you too but she does wish you would leave her stuff alone and please stop pulling her hair.

The cats are a great source of amusement for you. Cuddles prefers that you keep your distance. Patches seems to enjoy when you snuggle her. You are already so gentle with them. I think the love of animals is in you already.

Know what else you love? Airplanes! For some reason you adore them. You hear them before the rest of us, point up to the sky and stare as they fly over. You said airplane before you said dada. Silly boy.

I love you baby. Forever and for always. I'm excited to see where you take us next!

Mama

P.S. When we woke up today I looked at the clock. 7:40 am. The exact time that you were born. I thought it was a really cool coincidence.

Halloween

Stowa is going to be an astronaut (with a helmet and backpack, those things seem to be VERY important to her). Little Dude is going to be an alien.

I'm undecided if I should dress up as the space ship or if I should turn the stroller into a space ship.

Walking update

Little dude is walking around now like he owns the place. It seems to have happened overnight. He was taking a few steps here and there. Then today BAM he's walking all over! Going to be into even more trouble now!

Da plane, da plane

Little dude says a few words now. Mama and airplane. Dada once and a while but sometimes he's talking to the cat. Ni ni seems to mean pacifier. And he says the last part of stowa's name.

Walking is coming along nicely. And he had a great time swimming over the weekend! He got to go to his very first state fair!

Uh oh!

We've got a walker!

Little Dude took his first wobbly step today.

As if he didn't find enough trouble before! The boy is keeping us busy. Very busy.

Astronaut!

Stowa has decided what she would like to do when she gets big.

She wants to be an astronaut. She plans to fly to the moon. She'll have wings like an owl. Once she gets to the moon she is going to look for fire flies.

It's adorable to hear her tell it.

How?

Itchy skinned his knee while *trying* to do a sumersault today. I laughed so hard I snorted. Dude can not do sumersaults.

Stowa can though. I think girlie needs to be enrolled in a tumbling class. Or circus school! She could learn to juggle and do cartwheels!

We're getting there

When are they officially potty trained?

Stowa has done an AMAZING job at this potty training business. She was ready for it, no doubt. She's made it easy on me. While I do remind her to use the potty, she pretty much just goes when she needs to. We've had very few accidents this week. Like I can count them on one hand.

She's even waking up dry. She has been wearing diapers at night but it's been dry the last few mornings. I think we're going to take the leap and skip it tonight.

It's only been a week. It seems too easy.

Boot camp

Potty training boot camp. Yeah that's right my 2.5 year old still isn't potty trained. She was doing really well about two months ago. Then we went on a trip and it all went to hell. She's been so darn cantankerous lately that I haven't even bothered to try.

On Sunday though, I asked her if she wanted to wear panties. She did. She picked out a pair. And there we go. We're getting potty trained. 

Reeces' Pieces are her bribe of choice.

Amazing customer service

Holy customer service batman. Amazon is awesome.
We ordered a crib tent in October 2009. It was recently recalled for safety issues.
Amazon sent me an email telling me about. They said I could send it back for a refund. I thought it was a mistake. It's been 2.5 years.
I just got a check in the mail for the full purchase price.
I freaking Love Amazon!

Sorry for the typos. Posting from my phone doesn't always work out so well.

Milestone machine

Little dude got another tooth on Friday.

He figured out how to crawl on Sunday afternoon. It's awkward and slow but he does it.

Sunday night he decided that pulling himself up would be fun so he did it. He looked so proud of himself standing there by the ottoman.

And we have a

TOOTH!

It's about time. Little Dude finally has a tooth. Barely visible, but definitely there.

He also has/had his first black eye and his first bloody lip. It's been a rough couple of days.

Yesterday morning he face planted into the hardwood floor. Thus the black eye. It's already faded a lot. Unless you KNEW it was there, you probably wouldn't notice. Happy 8 month birthday buddy!

Then today he face planted into the floor. See the theme here? Yeah, he dove into the floor and his pacifier cut his frenulum (the little thing that connects the gums to the top lip). It bled forever. He didn't appreciate me having to put pressure on it. Blood doesn't freak me out but when it just wouldn't stop bleeding I thought we might have to go get it checked out.

He thinks he can crawl. He gets on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth. Then he gets pissed that he's not getting anywhere. At that point he gets himself back to a seated position and then he cries. It's funny.

If you're happy and you know it

Clap your hands!

Little dude learned how to clap. It's adorable!

On the move

Well, he isn't crawling yet but he is on the move. Little Dude is scooting all over the living room. Usually to find whatever paper might be around. Or Big Sister's toys.

He still doesn't have any teeth and he has little to no interest in food.

He does have this completely adorable head tilt thing when he's smiling at people. He gets this big smile on his face and then tilts his head to the right. Kills me.

Not surprisingly, peek-a-boo is his favorite game. If Stowa can take a few minutes away from her work, he loves when she plays with him.

He's been waking up at night again. Boo. I think it's teething pain.

The cute things they do

Little Dude: He's really close to figuring out the whole crawling business. He goes from sitting, to his belly, and then up on all fours. It won't be long until he's moving! He doesn't like solid food. Blah to all of it. He's becoming more vocal. Lots of screeching. I'm trying to get him to say Mama. He laughs nearly every time he sees Big Sister. He thinks she's awesome. He is also out growing clothes like it's his job. He is a very happy little guy. Totally an easy baby. Totally love the little guy.

Stowa: Introduces herself as Dr. Stowa Way. Adorable. She uses "baby talk" when she talks to the cats. She sings a lot. Makes up little songs about what she happens to be doing. Just like her dad. I may make up songs a lot too. She's learning to tell jokes. Knock, knock jokes in particular. If it's true that a sense of humor is a sign of intelligence, the kid is a genius. I'm teaching her to identify different birds. She's pretty good at it. She loves play doh, painting, digging in the sand box, and playing games (Uno Moo is a favorite). Two year olds are a special brand of crazy, but for every time she tests my patience, she turns around and is a sweet, kind, funny little kid that I can't get enough of.

Feeling very lucky this Mother's Day.

Hmm...

Not sure I like the changes that Blogger has made.

Dizzy

I'm dizzy. Very dizzy. Not sure why.

I need to go to bed but I feel too dizzy to get up.

Also, it feels like my legs are switched around. It's weird.

No I am not drunk but I kind of feel like I might be.

Looks like she'll live

Patches that is. She finally started to eat on her own. Granted she's mostly eating cat treats right now but she's eating enough of them that Itchy thought she was well enough to pull her feeding tube. She's totally digging tuna flavored stuff. The kids and I went to our local pet supply place and found some more treats and an actual tuna flavored food. Stowa insisted that we also buy her a purple dish. Stowa is very excited that she helped make Patches feel better by getting her a purple dish.

She's still not 100% but she's probably going to be fine. She's playing fetch like a kitten again. It's almost annoying. But then we remember how sick she was and we throw the damn fluffy for her. Again. And again.

Here's some advice if your cat ever needs to be tube fed. Just go ahead and use Clinicare Liquid Diet from the get go. Totally worth it.

Little Dude

He had his six month check up yesterday. Yeah that's right, Little Dude is already 6 months old. I know. It's flown by. We had a backyard fire and made S'mores to celebrate.

He weighed in at 17 lbs and is 2 ft 3 in tall. He seems to be on track developmentally.

Stranger anxiety is setting in. I think it's going to be bad. He cried when the doc was talking to him. And she's really nice. And good with babies.

We took the kids to get pics taken on Saturday. Stowa's are adorable. Very cute. Little Dude was just not having it. So his pics, while still cute, aren't that great. Whatever. He was all tears until we got home and then it was all laughs.I grounded him for the weekend. I don't think he noticed.

He started eating some solid food. He licked a carrot and a cucumber. Did not like. Ate some avocado which he seemed to enjoy.

He loves when his big sister sings songs to him. Loves it. He thinks she's hilarious.

First Food

Little Dude got a taste of his first food today. Avocado, yum. He ate a bit of it but seemed pretty blah about the whole experience.

He also got a taste of cucumber. Did. NOT. Like.

Feeding tube, the third

Itchy took out the second feeding tube on Saturday. It just wasn't working right.

Patches was nibbling some food and we were hoping her appetite would return.

Today we realized that it had to be done. She just wasn't eating enough.

So she has her third feeding tube now.

She may look like her daddy

But she's a smart ass like her mommy.

Today Itchy asked Stowa if she could say shoe in Spanish. Her yes was followed by silence. So Itchy asked her how she says it. Her reply: shoe in Spanish.

Well played Stowa. Well played.

No gold star for you!

This is what Patches ate. Not the exact one, that would be gross.

Already?

Patches had her feeding tube removed today.

It was promptly replaced with a new smaller feeding tube.

Also started a new antibiotic since it's already infected.

This is going to be a long and winding road.

Sick kitty

Update on Patches

So my very sick kitty is still sick. The good news is that it isn't cancer. The bad news is that she has late stage hepatic lipidosis. She's as yellow as a school bus folks.

Itchy took her to work today to put in a feeding tube and to do a liver biopsy. After opening up her abdomen, they saw that her stomach had been perforated. Eta: It came close but didn't actually perforate.

I love her, but geez she is stupid. She had eaten a plastic star (Stowa and I had used them for craft projects). It was hard plastic. Five sharp points.  If it had gone into her intestine, she'd be dead.

Her liver looks like crap. Hopefully with a feeding tube in place and a ton of meds to help her stomach heal, she'll be ok. We shall see. Itchy is confident that she will recover. I'm confident that Itchy knows what he is doing.

Now that's Klassy

Yep that's Klassy with a capital K. Sitting at kwik trip. Watched one of their employees smoking. She was carrying an awesome camouflage and blaze orange purse. And she was like 12 months pregnant.

Yep I am judging her.

Sad

At this time last year we were dealing with Cuddles and his refusal to eat. He ended up with a feeding tube. He's fine now, gained back all the weight (and then some). We still watch him closely.

A couple of months ago, Patches started getting weird about food. She went from being the cat who would eat ANYTHING to a cat that would only eat canned food. She lost a lot of weight. Within the last two weeks she started refusing to eat unless Itchy was sitting with her on the floor. Even though her teeth looked ok, we thought she just needed a dental. Itchy got her scheduled.

Today we found out that Patches has fantastic teeth. But she also has a crappy liver. Her blood work showed elevated liver values. Rads showed some fatty tissue that looked like tumors. Ultrasound confirmed that it was just fat, there were no other abnormalities.

More tests are being sent out and she'll start meds today.

Of course

I love that Stowa has started answering questions with "of course".For example, when you ask her if she will pick out a book, her answer us "of course"! It's just so sweet.

Alright then Elaine

Stowa has been eating muffins for breakfast the last few days. But she only eats the tops.

Scooting

Little dude figured out how to scoot. He can only go backwards though.

Thank you Fisher Price

Ok, so Fisher Price may not want my ideas but I still like them.

I might even love them. The reason? One word: Neglect-a-roo. I mean Jumperoo.

We got it out over the weekend and Little Dude LOVES it. I think he may like it more than Stowa liked it. He kind of goes crazy in there. Which is adorable.

Patches is getting old

Happy birthday Patches!

I have an idea

Stowa is busying being cute these days. Sure there are days that I want to throw her on the next bus to boarding school, but overall she is a sweet and funny little girl.

She's big on having ideas. She often walks up to me and says "I have an idea". Her idea is usually "65 98". I haven't deciphered what it means yet but I always tell her that it's a great idea. She has also learned the alphabet. She can sing the whole thing. I love it.

Some of her other cuteness includes, but is not limited to:

• Standing just outside my bedroom when I'm laying the baby down for a nap YELLING "I'm being quiet mama"
• Letting us know that we're awake now because our eyes are open
• She puts on her white bathrobe and tells me that she's just like daddy at work
• I made her a wrap for her baby because she wanted to wear her baby like I wear my baby
• She exclaims that things are her favorite
• She has memorized a bunch of her books. No more skipping pages.
• She insists on hearing the story of how "she was born in a hospital and had a checkup" every single night before bed
• She loves her baby brother and tells him all time
• She loves the cats and is so gentle with them
• I think she's convinced that her name is Dr. Stowa Lastname
• Because of that, we all get check ups everyday
• She has decided that her aunt is Goldilocks
• Bedtime is always 2 more minutes away
• She uses the bouncy seat as a trampoline but she tells us she's doing pull ups
  

4 months old

Little dude is my tiny giant. He's weighing in at 15 lbs and he's 2 feet 1.5 inches. Hitting all the appropriate milestones. Yay for big healthy babies!

Two handy hands

These are clay imprints of both kids at three months old.

We're on a roll!

Little Dude rolled over today! He's been trying so hard the last few days. Tonight when I was getting his bath ready he did it! Back to front. Proud mama tonight.

Little Dude

I think I've got a case of "second baby" syndrome. It involves a lot of guilt. You know how with a first baby, the parents have a plethora of pictures and a baby book over flowing with cards, notes, etc. And then with a second baby, there just aren't as many pictures and the baby book is purchased but it's not quite filled out. There is more to it, but you get the idea.

I feel bad for Little Dude. I try to take pics on a regular basis. But our camera is on the fritz. I feel like I use to blog about Stowa a lot. I don't blog in general as often anymore, but when I do it's never really about Little Dude.

Poor kid.

So here is my update on him. He's adorable. Lots of smiles for mama. He thinks I'm the best thing ever. He sleeps from 9:30 pm to 8 am, waking only about once to eat. He's a chunk. I'm totally blaming him for the severe back pain that I had last week. I think he's going to get bottom teeth soon. He's pretty drooly and hasn't taken his hand out of his mouth in a about a month. He's thisclose to rolling over from his back to his belly. He is a snuggler. Also a bit of a Linus, he loves having a blankie with him. Not any specific blanket yet, but I can see him being a kid with a lovie.

And with that, he is up from his first nap of the day.

Bring her back!

Hgtv needs to bring Sandra back!

Captain drool

Little Dude has become a super drooly little dude. He is Captain Drool. Between all the drool and the crappy Target diapers, he goes through a lot of clothes everyday. I'm sick of laundry.

I ordered his amber teething necklace yesterday. I can't wait to get it. I hope it works as well for him as it did for Stowa.

Itchy's new baby

The new tv is here. It's pretty big. Itchy survived his withdrawls and is in love. Stowa was pretty excited to see Elmo this morning. I like it but I don't like having to use to remotes. Yes I am THAT lazy.

Updates

Holy crap the baby is already 3 months old! He's awesome. He is a super sweet guy. Lots of smiles and giggles. I can't believe he's already three months old! Babies grow too fast.

T-Mobile got back to me with a new reason for denying my rebate. Apparently it wasn't where I purchased the phone, it's that I got such an AMAZING deal on the phone plan. Umm, right.

Itchy is totally going through tv withdrawls. He's practically shaking. A new tv has been ordered and should be delivered by Tuesday. I'm pretty sure it's a Caleco and yes, we did get the rust proofing*.

* Watch more of the Simpsons if you don't get that.

Shopping for a new tv

<p>After I got the kiddos to bed, I was sitting on the couch. I kept hearing a crackling sound. First I assumed Patches was being naughty. But she was sleeping nicely on the bean bag chair. Then I thought it was a bowl of rice crispies. But I only eat those in bar form so they wouldn't be snapping, crackling, or popping.</p>
<p>I asked Itchy if he heard it. He said no. I asked him to turn the tv down. Then, like magic, he heard it too. It was coming from the tv area. He acted like it was no big deal that a place that has a million things plugged in was making noise.

To humor me he went to look at it. Apparently the tv plug in was sparking and was freaking hot.

I think a.) we avoided a fire
b.) I'm not going to sleep well
c.) the fire extinguisher is going to be next to my bed
d.) we need a new tv

I'm sure there are people out there that would just live without it. But seriously, I like tv. What else would we do around here? Read and talk to each other?