Tuning Tuesday...

Today gets to be Tuning Tuesday because the piano was tuned this morning! It took 2 whole hours, but it sounds great and now I could actually teach someone on it. (I'm vaguely considering starting Moose on it. With some great little kid books of course. I'll have to check the selection. For now, just a thought.) Moose had preschool today. Then naps happened. (Yay!) The afternoon was unremarkable. Computer games, some small me-tasks, books to read, then pancakes and bacon for dinner.

Is it so funny that my kids love bacon? (I like to say they get it from their Grandpa, my fantastic Dad. Happy Birthday Daddy!) Moose seriously ate like 3 strips of bacon at dinner. He actually ate more than me, since he ate 2 pancakes and I only ate 1. Monkey even ate decent today. Cheerios, applesauce, some macaroni, crackers and cheese, pancakes, and yes, a few pieces of bacon. :)

I feel like I'm finally past the caution stage of eating where I don't eat things for fear they would make me throw up. But now I'm starting to feel (already) like I'm in the stage where I fill up really fast, so I can't eat much. (Bummer!) I don't know if this will pass and then come back later on, when it usually hits, or if it's just coming early. But it's no fun to finally feel like you can eat things, only to have to seriously limit your portion size. (Or keep the tums handy, which I've already had to use.)

Although, I find there's always room for ice cream or chocolate. Just saying. :)

Just A Monday...

There really wasn't anything outstanding about today. It was just a good day. I say this in a good way. Today was a good day. Nothing really specific that comes to mind that I wanted to write about. But it feels good to have had a pretty normal day. We had a friend over this morning (who lives far, so it was a treat) and that was really fun. The boys played, Monkey stalked around, we made some Halloween cookies. Good times. During naptime I was hit with a productive bug and tried to do as many of my projects as possible. (I did pretty good too. Not finishing as much as I wanted to, but feeling so good about what I did finish.) We had a great dinner of fried fish, rice and zucchini. Family Night, with some more frosted cookies as our dessert. The hubs is attempting to put the kids down. I only say attempting because lately Monkey only goes to bed with me. But all I do is lay her down in her crib, on her little pillow (a new thing. It's tiny.) and sing a few songs. She's still been a bit of a crank pot today, so we'll see. Although we already gave her some yummy tylenol to help ease the canine pain. Can't wait til this teething business is done. She was still picky-ish today. Cheerios, cheese, saltines, applesauce, milk, apple juice, bread, and maybe a bite of rice. Oh, and frosted sugar cookies. Of course those are okay. All in all a really good day. Hope tomorrow is equally good. We're getting the piano tuned. (Can I hear a hooray?) Very excited for this. Now when my mom mails me a copy of "Bridge over Troubled Waters" I can play it and it will sound fantastic. Can't wait. :)

Picky Eater...

I can't really talk about being a picky eater. I was a very picky eater growing up and didn't broaden my horizons until after I was married. Even more so until after Monkey was born, for some odd reason. But with kids, you have no idea what their tastes and preferences will be. We're not super tolerant of picky eaters (gotta avoid creating more like me, right?) and make our kids eat a little of everything. Because of it, (and probably because he's like the hubs) Moose is a fantastic eater and eats a wide variety of things, that makes a Mama proud. But Monkey is still a bit young and getting teeth, so she still can't handle the full gamut of foods. This makes her occasional picky bouts harder to deal with. She's currently getting all 4 canines at the same time, giving her occasional discomfort and food issues. Today was one of those days. Outside of Ritz crackers, milk or juice, she hardly touched a thing. Even foods she generally loves, like saltines or grapes. She had a few strawberries from our dessert, but otherwise didn't want anything. We even offered her a fruit bar, which are her favorite, and she turned it down and asked for milk. What do you do? I try not to let myself get up in arms over it, because with my kiddos, this sort of thing generally doesn't last longer than a day or two at most. And the last 2 days, the hubs has spent more time with her during meals, so I can't really account for what's been going on. I'm usually the food giver with her, so I know how to read her signals and body language really well. I may be more persuasive or convincing about making her eat a reasonable amount of decent food too. But whenever they're teething, I try to let things slide knowing that by tomorrow she's going to be hungry, and when she finally decides she wants to eat, I'll be there with something yummy and nutritious.

Regular Saturday...

Now that the hubs is no longer working Saturdays (yay!) he's home for a more regular feeling Saturday. He's been working Saturdays since late May. It's been so long, it feels so luxurious. When he spends a whole day at home, he's usually extremely productive the whole time (barring sickness or a bad night's sleep.) so it's always fun to see what happens.

Me and Moose went to a friend's birthday party, so the hubs spent the morning/afternoon with Monkey. He hasn't done that since, maybe since she was a newborn. Probably not even then since she was breastfeeding back then. It was fun for him and her. She just loves Papa time and I think she was in heaven, once he decided to stop trying to ignore her. (In his defense, he was doing dinner prep, laundry, and chores.) After me and Moose got home and he was in bed, I was able to head off to JoAnns for the first time in a long time and get a few finishing touches for some projects and some Halloween touches for the house. Moose is SO excited about Halloween. This is the first year he's been able to anticipate it and he's so excited! It's so contagious. Then we spent an evening together eating dinner and watching Beauty and the Beast. (I probably enjoyed it more than Moose did.) It was a great day. We had corn on the cob at dinner and Moose was able to try eating it on the cob for the first time. I told him how much I liked it when I was little and talked about our corn stalks in our front yard growing up. Not in the backyard, the front yard. Good times. :)

I have really missed these "regular" Saturdays. At one point, the hubs had both kids with him on their hands and knees with rags mopping the kitchen floor. Needless to say, it was awesome. :)

Head Bonks...

So we were on our way to drop off the kids for a date tonight. (Digiorno pizza/breadsticks and the end of Season 4 Alias.) When I was getting Monkey in the car, she walked into part of the door, getting a nice, small red welt on her left temple. Upon arriving, Moose was getting out of the car and when he shut his door, he caught his nose with it. It wasn't bleeding or broken, thank goodness. But he might get a good sized bruise on it, although it's been a few hours and it's not looking too bad. But it sure was super sad when it happened. To both of them. I was super close to whacking my head on a freezer door at Albertsons while we were getting our pizza. I guess it was just one of those head-beating days. (So long as there aren't any major bruises or headaches, I think it'll turn out alright.)

And Baby 3 is now an apple. :)

More Preschool...

So I had my second day with the kiddos today. It turned out SO much better. I had 4 kids today, the addition is 3 1/2 and a sweetheart. I was less physically prepared, but more mentally, which completely balanced out. Monkey sleeping in til 9:45 didn't hurt either. My favorite activity was cutting out sugar cookies with my leaf shaped cutter and frosting them in brown, red, and orange in honor of our new and wonderful season. The kids had a good time, they spent significantly less time in free playtime, and I felt really good afterwards. Yay for that.

And one of the moms told me that on Tuesday on the way home, her little one told her something along the lines of "B, Bus". (B was our letter Tuesday.) So yay! Something I'm doing actually sticks. And when the hubs asked him about school today, he remembered that our letter today was "H". A good day. Glad I won't have to do this again for 5 weeks, but I ultimately had a great time.

The rest of the day was spent in recovery mode/cleaning up. Moose didn't take a nap really, so that always crimps my style just a bit. But those two crazy kids are in bed, and me and the hubs are looking forward to the remainder of our science fiction miniseries tonight. (Netflix fans!)

Maybe Monkey will sleep in again tomorrow...  :)

Preschool and Parks...

So I didn't post after my preschool adventure yesterday. Sorry to keep any of you in suspense. My mom had to call just to find out how it went. It wasn't bad. It wasn't what I expected. I only had 3 of 5 kids. With the group I had, the dynamic was a bit different. Moose is 4, the youngest won't be 3 til February. The other one will be 3 in December. The youngest is super comfy at our house, the other little one thinks he is her boyfriend and mimics him a lot. This made the group dynamic slightly difficult. I wasn't as prepared to educationally entertain as I was to teach. It's been so long since I started doing this with Moose, that I forgot how hard it can be. He's so big now and has a good attention span. So it was difficult. But I'm better prepared for tomorrow, I think. I had an activity that went over really well last time, and I think I have one for tomorrow that will definitely be a hit.

Anyhow, today was a great day. Well, I had to wake Monkey up at 8:45 so we could make it to Moose's 9:00 doctor's appointment 10 minutes late. And he got the flu shot. (One sad Moose.) But the doctor gave him a strawberry lollipop per request and that helped a bit. After that fun outing, we packed a picnic, stopped by the library for a renewal of books and videos, and ran over to the park for a playdate. The doctor inspired me to take Moose's bike. (It was one of the developmental questions, "Can he ride a bike?") He hasn't ridden it very often due to weather and living upstairs. So we took it and he had a good time. He asked to ride it again after his nap, before dinnertime and we all went downstairs and he rode around our small sidewalk area. He actually did really good! I was very impressed. I even showed him how to back pedal and use the brakes. It was really fun and I enjoyed watching how well he rode. (Monkey had a good time during all this too.)

So overall, a good preschool adventure (a learning experience for me) and a great day outside today. I love this fall weather with sunshine and cool temperatures. Awesome! So here's to a hopeful great preschool day tomorrow, with another big kid in the group. (Yay!)

Discipline Day...

Today wasn't a bad day, just have to say that. But there was one huge moment that made me think about discipline. Let me lay it out for you.

Shortly before the hubs came home, Moose was gearing up to play his vSmile on the tv. Monkey, however, likes to play with the power buttons on it. So, of course, he starts telling her no and putting his hands over the buttons. This, of course, makes her angry. I was sitting right next to them at the time. So I ask him to step back so I can handle her quietly and on my own. But he refused to move his hands from infront of the buttons. He moved his body away, but wouldn't give up. I asked him multiple times to move back, but he wouldn't do it. So I snapped at him to back off and he responded by throwing his controller on the ground and throwing a fit. To which I immediately said, "Go to the corner." To which he began to throw an even larger fit. Complete with screaming and flailing limbs. Now, his limbs are getting pretty darn big, so it can be hazardous. I proceeded to pick him up and take him to the corner. In the process, getting hit by said limbs the whole way. He was full on screaming at this point, and well, my tone of voice wasn't much better. I guess pregnancy has made me a bit more emotional than I realized. He sat in the corner and cried for a while.

During his tantrum, Monkey kept wanting to be near him, which he doesn't like. So I looked at her and said no, shaking my head. She gave me an unhappy look, so I just started ignoring her. Then she starts bawling too. I wanted the hubs to walk in at that exact moment so he could see the insanity for himself. But he didn't.

Anyway, Moose eventually calmed down and we had a big talk. Monkey moved from one tantrum to another after that point. I didn't take a really deep breath until they were both in bed.

It's been a long time since Moose has acted that way. I didn't enjoy the flashback. We're finding Monkey's misbehaviors are becoming more intentional, and you'd better believe she's going to learn the meaning of time out and I don't think she's going to like it as much. (75% of the time now, she thinks time out is cool.) Monkey's biggest thing now is screaming at us. It's very intentional and really obnoxious. We'll see how it goes.

I'm hosting Moose's preschool group tomorrow. I've got some sweet stuff planned. Hope it all goes as planned! (Because does it ever?)

The belly...

So I just noticed that my last post was my 200th post! Woohoo! I haven't done 100%, but I'm proud of what I've done and enjoy the thought process that goes into thinking about my days and my kids. It's good for me.

So, the belly. When we went to the football game on Friday night, I noticed for the first time that I have a belly. I know it's there, and I've been aware that I'm starting to show for a while now. But it's just not been that apparent to other people. The pants I generally wear are somewhat loose (aka comfortable) so you can't really see the belly much. But those ones were dirty, so I pulled out another pair and they're more form fitting than my regulars. Because of this, you could actually see the belly. I was pleased. I like seeing the belly. I know that at 14 weeks they say the uterus is just getting above the pelvis, so it's natural to start showing now if you aren't already. But I like it. Since I can't feel the baby yet (although I'm pretty sure I actually have, maybe twice, but only in very strange positions.) and haven't had an ultrasound yet, the pregnancy is still not very real from day to day. I know there's a baby in there, and I don't doubt that everything's okay. But I just don't feel all that pregnant everyday. But once the belly is coming and hanging out, the feeling comes. And I like it. I like feeling pregnant. Not feeling nauseated. Very different things. I like feeling pregnant. I love that glowy feeling of "Yes, there's a baby growing in my belly. Isn't that awesome?"

And it is awesome. :)

Football and Poop...

So we did go to the Homecoming Football game yesterday. What a blast! We learned from our previous experience and made a few changes to hopefully keep the kids happier and be able to stay longer. We almost lasted the entire game! We had a garbage bag full of popcorn from home (in our backpack of course), a leftover calzone from dinner (which were homemade and turned out awesome!), some small plums that the kids adore, drinks, and sticker books for Moose to enjoy.  We were ultimately only missing 2 things that would've made the night completely smooth. (The hubs brought a coloring book, but no crayons, and we brought Monkey's paci, but not her baby and with her, the two sorta go together.) But overall, so great! Moose loved halftime and danced along with the band. He tried to cheer for the team too. He had a hard time remembering "Go Wolfpack", and we knew one of the players, so he opted to cheer "Go Bryan!" the whole time. It was also a super warm night, and me and the hubs didn't even wear our coats. It was great!

So, the poop. I had to mention this, just because it's kind of become Monkey's thing. Although I have to give her credit, she did try and warn me this time. I was home alone with Monkey for the evening and gave her a bath to kill time and keep her happy. She played for a long time. I was sitting in the bathroom reading a book. She tooted a few times, and everytime she'd point at her bum. I'd acknowledge what happened, and then go back to my book. Then a few minutes after the last toot, she pointed to her diaper on the counter. I talked to her about it, "Yes, that's your diaper." but didn't think too much of it. (Like I should have.) Within 5 minutes, she was sitting and playing with a cup. She held the cup up and looked at me, pointing inside the cup. I figured she had a toy in there, so I looked. Guess what was in the cup? You guessed it. Poop. She had scooped some up inside the cup. My talented daughter. So needless to say, bathtime was over, and I had the task of scooping out the rest of it.

Oh, the joys of motherhood. :)