Total Ditz...

The vertigo is gone, but so is my brain. I don't know what my problem is.

Tonight I made pasta for dinner (yummy Cheesy Baked Tortillini) with pasta for a side dish (yummy Spaghetti with Asparagus) and didn't even realize it until it was ready to eat. We decided to eat half of one dish and freeze the other half, and eat the other dish for dinner the next two nights. Thank goodness we're big on using leftovers. (It was nearly as bad as the night I made chicken enchiladas with baked beans for a side. Totally weird combination. The bean recipe was named something off the wall and I didn't realize they were baked beans until they were done.)

And then I put up some curtains I hemmed, and noticed once they were up that one panel is an inch shorter than the other panel. What the heck, I swear I measured them correctly...

On another note, Madeline started calling me Mom today. I don't know where she got it from. I don't think anyone calls me mom to her, but maybe they do and I just don't notice? I don't know, whatever it is, it makes her sound too grown up. Hopefully she starts calling me mommy again tomorrow.

Oh, and she's just too cute. I wax a lady's eyebrows every couple of weeks at my house (she used to be my neighbor before I moved), and this time when I got the table out, Madeline said that she wanted her eyebrows done. She kept saying "Eyebrow, me? Eyebrow, me?" So she laid down on the table (a portable massage table), all little on this big table, really still with her eyes closed and her eyebrows raised while I pretended to put wax on them and pretended to pull the wax off. She was so completely serious about it all.

A Gross Sound

Spit up splashing when it hits my wood floor. Disgusting...

2 Fingers + 2 Nostrils =

Well, what else are you supposed to do? It just makes so much sense.

Maison's 1st Cereal

We started Maison on cereal yesterday. I've been meaning to start since he turned 4 months, but time just flies by. It's so different from when Madeline was a baby. With her it seemed like it took so long for everything. When she was 4 months, she already seemed like such a big girl. I still think of Maison like he's a newborn.

And I have already forgotten everything from when Madeline was a baby. Can I start him on oatmeal cereal instead of rice (since that's what's in my cupboard)? How much should I feed him? How do I mix it? Etc., etc....

Well, I decided the oatmeal wasn't going to hurt him. Yesterday he didn't get much down, but it was my fault. I had him in the bumbo, which I think sat him up too straight, and I mixed the cereal too thick. Today we did much better. I stuck him in the bouncy chair and mixed the cereal up nice and liquidy. After a few bites, he actually started opening his mouth when he'd see the spoon. Then he'd make the funniest, disgusted looking face once the cereal was in his mouth.

Here's a picture of one of his first bites:

I ♥ San Diego

I really, really do love San Diego. I don't know how anyone couldn't. Someday I will live there or at least spend a good amount of my time there. That's one of my long-term life goals. Guess I better step up my Ebay-ing.

The weather was FANTASTIC! The past 2 Mays that we've gone, we've had crappy, cold, gloomy weather, but this year was the absolute perfect, adults sitting on the beach, kids playing in the water, weather. We always stay at the same hotel, right on the boardwalk, all together (us plus my parents and my 2 nephews) in a 2 bd 2 ba suite with a kitchen and washer and dryer. It's definitely not a fancy hotel (The Beach Cottages), but comfortable and very convenient.

Here's my dad in his quest for "the all over perfect tan".

We played on the beach everyday. The boys learned to boogie board and got really good at it. Madeline loved running from the waves and playing in the sand. I didn't bring her any swimwear because I didn't think she'd want to get wet, but she did. She was wearing sweat capris the first day and it was incredible how much wet sand they could hold. I ended up buying her some swim trunks that had to be held on with a ponytail holder because they were way too big.

The kids & I followed my parents and my nephews there and back, which was pretty tedious. Between the boy's potty breaks and Maison's feedings, it took us 7 hours both ways. I think I remember me & Thor making it in 4 1/2 hours the first time we drove, so this trip was much longer. Madeline did very well, she's always been a good car rider. I haven't had to resort to the in-car DVD player yet, so she just be-bopped to music and stared out the window. Maison is not quite as easygoing as she is, and had a tougher time with the long ride.

Thor was able to arrange his schedule so he could join us for a couple of days. He flew in Friday evening and flew back to Vegas on Sunday afternoon. The rest of us didn't leave until Monday afternoon. Here he is chillin' on the patio of our hotel room.

When we weren't out on the beach, we were in the hotel room playing Wii. OMG- so fun and I'm not a video game lover at all. I am convinced, however, that the Wii was developed by Chiropractors to drum up business by getting all of us old, sedentary fogies to play 12 games of virtual bowling, 4 games of virtual golf and 3 games of virtual tennis within a very short time span, so we'd end up with carpel tunnel, and cricks in our necks, backs, and elbows.

Ms. Thang had an absolute blast. She loved the sand and the water and playing with her cousins. She learned lots and seems like a different girl now that we're home. Her new favorite thing to say is- "stay here, I'll do it." She tried it to go in the ocean- uh sorry, but no way. And today she tried it to put herself down for her nap- she couldn't get into her crib, but would have been nice for me. And she tried it to get Maison up from his nap- again with the crib problem.

She is also now playing around with plugging her ears while singing and talking to herself because it sounds funny.

I ♥ Vertigo

This is supposed to be my I ♥ San Diego post, but I'm too busy ♥ing vertigo right now. It's very strange. The doc said that "there is a disfunction in my body's balancing system caused either by a virus or just some sort of blockage in (some kind of gland or something in my ear)." I have motion sickness from just having my eyes open. Also per the doc, it should go away in a few days. He prescribed the motion sickness patch, but so far does not seem to be working all that wonderfully.

I, once again, being the worry wart that I am and thinking I'm going to die from a horrible infection, went to the doc without waiting it out a couple days, and paid my $75 copay to be told that it'll just go away on it own. Just like I've paid 2 plumbers and an air conditioning tech this year to be told that my heater was not broken, and that my house was not going to collapse in a giant sinkhole caused by a leaky drain pipe.

Bleh....

Google Doodle

I use Google as my homepage and love when the logo changes on special days, so I thought this was neat too: http://www.google.com/doodle4google/index.html. You can go there and vote on drawings done by school kids for one that's going to replace the Google logo one day in May. There were some really amazing doodles done by kids in K-12th grade.

Lunchtime Poll

A quick poll for any of you toddler-having folk out there who wish to answer.

What do you feed the little boogers for lunch? I'm not very creative and generally serve poor Madeline the same things over and over.

• Peanut butter sandwich with fruit
• Peanut butter and banana sandwich
• Peanut butter and jelly sandwich with fruit
• Cheese sandwich with peas
• Grilled cheese sandwich with peas
• Homemade frozen pizza
• Frozen chicken nuggets with dipping sauce and peas
• Cheese quesadilla with corn and salsa

That's pretty much it. She's mostly vegetarian, more like fruitatarian, except for those chicken nuggets. And I've gotten in a rut where I serve her what I know she'll eat, but I'm really looking for some new ideas. Unless maybe this is what most toddler menus look like?

Happy Mother's Day Mamas!

I hope everyone had a good one. We had a little brunch here at our house with family. Good food and the kids all had a blast. Madeline was POOOOPED when it was over. When I put her down for her nap, she asked for her babydoll, and by the time I walked out to the patio to grab it and got back to her room she was fast asleep. She ran her little butt off with the big kids. The big kids are great with her and include her in everything, which is really nice.

Here's something that I remembered today as I was trying to find something to wear that fit my milk boobies and my mama hips, and didn't show my poochie belly. A wise old woman once told me to make sure I took a picture of myself naked before I got pregnant because I'd never see my body like that again. Well, it wasn't really an old lady, just a friend who had already had a baby, but she'll be a wise old lady someday (before me!). Anyways, I didn't do it, I thought I had a fat ass back then anyways. Now I do kinda wish I could look back and compare. Not that it'd do any good for my self esteem now, but it'd be funny to see how differently I used to think I looked, compared to what I think when I look back. I'm not boohooing about my post-baby body, I'm very thankful for how I made it through pregnancy, I just can't believe that I used to be selfconcious.

Oh, here's another nice note. This funny thought kept jiggling around in my brain today, too. That someday my kids are going to look at pictures of me taken now and say, "Oh my gosh mom! You look so young here!" or "Wow mom, you used to be so pretty!". What brats. Why do we have kids again??

I must be feeling old today. I'm feeling like mother's day isn't for me. I'm not the mother, I'm the kid. What the heck happened?

San Diego Here We Come!

Not for another week, but still, it's very exciting. Next week at this time we'll be at our favorite cozy hotel at Pacific Beach and the weather forecast looks great! Thor's not sure if he's going to be able to go with us though (whaaaa!) because of his work schedule. Turns out that when you're the boss your schedule is sometimes even less flexible than when you're not. Who would have thought? I'm really excited to see Madeline on the beach, I think she's going to have a blast.

Madeline's Dentist Visit

Madeline had her first dentist appointment today and she was so, so, so good. She kept her mouth open really wide while they cleaned and counted her teeth. Except after she noticed that the cleaning tool tickled her tongue, then she kept trying to put her tongue on it and a 2nd hygienist had to come in and hold it out of the way. It was funny to see the hygienist try to explain to her how to bite down slowly on the x-ray paper. She's 2, she totally didn't understand.

I felt like I was in mini-world because it was a children's dentist and everything was in miniature. The little patient chair was so cute. Even the visitor's chair was like the kind the kids sit in in preschool, which I thought was strange- aren't parents the ones always sitting there? My bootie felt huge in it.

I'm sure the hygienist thought I was wacko snapping my pictures, but hey, the first dental appointment is a big deal in my book. And she just looked like such a big girl.

Sleep Training

I hate sleep training and I don't do it well. I lack consistency. I put Maison down when he's "drowsy but awake" (per The Books) and he almost goes to sleep, but then he starts to fuss so I go in and put his binky back in his mouth or rub his belly, rub his face, or let him hold my hand (finger) until he's nearly asleep again. After the 3rd or 4th time going in, I finally pick him up, cradle him close and feel his whole body relax, "ahhh, this is where I'm supposed to be." Then he's asleep in seconds. I just can't resist. It IS where he's supposed to be.

I figure that I must do something right, because Madeline puts herself to sleep fantastically and has been for about a year (with just a few blips in between). So if I can just make it through the next 8 months, 240 nights, bedtime will be cake.

Maison Rolled Over!

Really, this time. Stomach to back. Last time was just a fake out- he was on a slope.

I don't put him on his stomach much because he's not a big fan of the position. But today he was kicking and moving so much while on his back I almost thought he was going to roll over that way, so I put him on his belly to see what he could do. Right away he started kicking and I could just see that it was going to happen, so I ran the 12 steps to get the video camera- and, of course, when I turned back around he was already over on his back. Luckily, I flipped him back over, turned on the camera and he did it one more time for me (what a good boy!). Then he was done doing tricks and wanted to be picked up.

He's getting so big so fast. I'm just in love with how cute he is. I could never picture myself with a baby boy, bugs and mud and gross stuff like that always came to mind, but now every time I see a baby boy I melt. Maison has the best round head I've ever seen. When I rock him I rub his head- it just fits so well in my hand. And he still curls his legs up to his chest when I pick him up and put him on my chest after he's been sleeping, like a newborn. I just love it.


On to other, Madeline, stuff...

Oh, the DRAMA!!! I think I'm pretty lucky as far as Madeline's temperament goes. I always call her crazy and a maniac and whatnot, but really she's a very good, very cuddly girl. She has her moments everyday, but they don't last long. Even while she's throwing a fit she listens to what I say, so I can usually distract her from whatever it is she's screaming about ("oh my goodness, come here quick, I think I see your binky under the toy box!"). And she'll even listen to reasoning sometimes ("honey, look at the trees, it's way too windy to go outside..."), which I think is pretty good for a 2 year old.

But TODAY, oh my goodness, fits, fits and more fits. About, I don't even know what. About cookies and binkis and bubbles and balloons, about her lunch and throwing shoes and her squirt bottle, and books of mine, and the cat not coming in the house, and going outside and coming inside. Nearly everything that happened today had a fit involved somehow. Although I did make it to the grocery store and back with no incidents- an hour and a half w/ Maison in the chest pack. He actually spit up on the floor in one of the aisles- gross (yes, I cleaned up). And Madeline kept saying "ew, guy, yucky," loudly, about the man in front of us in line. I really need to stop feeling guilty about not going to the gym, that is exercise enough I tell ya.

And, I just want to mention how cute toddler talk is. I'm just fascinated by the learning process Madeline is going through learning to speak.

She calls herself "you" and she calls me "me". She says "thank you" when you give her anything- even something she doesn't want. She says "sorry" to me if I accidentally bump or hurt her and she says "okay" instead of yes which is fine if I ask her if she wants more water, but funny if I ask her if she bumped her head. She calls all big things "mommy", all trucks and most men "daddy", all little things "baby". She calls for things while she looks for them, like I call for her or the cat- "stool! stool!". "The park is "swing-slide", water is "ice". She says "whoooooaaa" when we turn corners in the car. Just too cute.

Happy Cinco De Mayo. Unfortunately, I forgot the margarita mix at the grocery store today, so we weren't able to celebrate properly.

The Difference a Year Makes

So I've been trying to get my pictures all organized and into photo books and have made it up to this time last year. It's makes me so sad to see how much Madeline has changed in such a short time. At least the physical changing seems to be slowing down a bit, although the developmental changes are still coming super fast. This time last year she had been walking for just over 1 month and we thought she was just the cutest thing toddling around. Actually, she WAS the cutest thing toddling around.

Also, this time last year we didn't even know Maison was with us. Boy our life has changed.