Oops She Did It Again!

My friend, April, has a blog (which is kind of how I started writing mine in the first place, because I was so inspired) and has mentioned several times how her son, Riza, has pooped in the bathtub. She hasn't mentioned several times about one pooping incident, each time is a separate pooping incident. Needless to say, it seems to me the warm water does something for him because he poops in the tub a lot. Every time I just laugh. I am one of those lucky people who's children have never pooped in the bathtub. Maybe once, but if so I don't remember, and I think I would remember that monumental occasion and I really don't. Of course, my memory stinks so I could be wrong. But as far as I'm concerned, if I don't remember it, it didn't happen. I digress. I say lucky because there's really no skill of parenting involved. It's not like good parents' kids don't poop in the bathtub and bad parent's kids do. This is just one of the few things I have been lucky with.

That does not mean I don't have my own pooping stories to tell. There's the one where Andy was an infant and his poop shot about six feet across the room. That's Charlie's favorite story and he wasn't even there. I have more frustrating poop stories centered around potty training with Sarah that I care to remember. The other day with Amanda, however, takes the cake.

If you remember, and really how could you forget something so crazy, I have been doing cloth diapers with Amanda and EC (Elimination Communication, aka infant potty training). I love the cloth diapers and wish I had done it with all of my kids, really, but that's not part of this story. The EC is. The other night we were getting the kids ready for bed, so I took Amanda to the bathroom before I put on her bedtime diaper. She pooped, which was fantastic, because she's been on a little pooping strike since August. I guess it's very common, at least my other EC friends have told me so, that around this age babies like to show their power and will refuse to stop going on the toilet. She was doing it like a champ in August, and then stopped. She's been great with the peeing, but not so much on the pooping. Way more than you want to know.

So in the last couple of weeks she's finally coming around with the pooping in the toilet again. Yay! That means a lot less dirty diapers. After she pooped, I set her down and remembered that all the overnight diapers were in the dryer, and I would have to go downstairs to get one. I told her to go find Daddy and went down to get a diaper. Charlie was doing something in the game room so wasn't really paying attention to Amanda at the moment. I came back maybe two minutes later, it wasn't that long. I found her in Andy and Sarah's room with poop all down her leg. Ahhh! I scooped her up, and yelled for Charlie to find the poop while I plopped her in the tub and washed her off. She had done a lot of damage in those short two minutes. Of course all the pooping had been done in our bathroom. Remember, the bathroom that still has carpet on it because we haven't taken the time to get it tiled? The one that Andy puked on just a couple of weeks ago? Ugh.

This time I remembered what to do. I told Charlie to go get the corn starch that I had stocked up on after Andy puked. While I dressed the baby he covered all the spots with corn starch. Unfortunately, Amanda rarely has solid poop. It's usually very soft and this particular evening was kind of runny, so there were several spots on the bathroom floor. No worries, we'd vacuum up that corn starch before we went to bed and all would be good. Except later that night we realized that funny sound we'd been hearing in our vacuum was a broken belt and we'd need to get a new one before we could vacuum up all the corn starch. Unbelievable. Fortunately it was Friday night so Charlie and Amanda went out to get a new belt the next morning.

Before that trip to the vacuum store, however, I slipped up one more time. I had just taken Amanda to the bathroom and she had pooped, again. This time of course it was more solid and would have been easy to clean up off our bathroom floor, but was sitting where it was supposed to be in the toilet. Charlie told me no more commando and went upstairs to get a diaper. I let Amanda down and told her to go wait for Charlie at the bottom on the steps. She did, but as Charlie came down the stairs not 30 seconds later he noticed that she had peed on the floor. Are you kidding me? I couldn't believe it. Again, while I got her diaper on he cleaned up the floor. Oh, how I love my husband. What is up with that kid? The last couple of days I have made her sit for an extra minute or two before I let her down just to be sure she is totally done, because obviously things are moving a little slow down there.

The good thing is, the corn starch worked. It didn't get all the stains out but they did come out with the special floor cleaner the professionals left the last time they came. It did work by removing all evidence of smell and all accompanying liquid. So now you know.

Kid Quote of the Day

Sarah: That makes me sad.

Andy: Sarah, you were born to be sad.

Can't remember what they were talking about, but pretty much everything "makes" Sarah sad so Andy was spot on.

The One Where Baby Eats French Fries

You know how they say (you know, THEM) that the more kids you have the earlier they do things? So true. Amanda can do things her siblings never did at her age, and stuff that other kids her age aren't even thinking about. For example, when she wants a drink, she gets a sippy cup and lid and takes it over to the refrigerator to fill with water. When that doesn't work, because she is too short to reach the water dispenser, she brings it to me or one of the kids. How many 15 month olds do you know that do that?

When Andy was little, we were very careful about what we let him eat. Well, except that one time when he was only 10 months old and we fed him some of our Thai food and forgot that it was covered in peanut sauce and peanut sauce has, well, peanuts in it. Luckily he does not have a peanut allergy. But in general, we were careful about what we gave him and tried very hard to make sure that it was healthy. We wanted to instill good eating habits in him and make sure he didn't eat a lot of junk and get fat or have his teeth fall out. So, he was about 2 1/2 or 3 before we gave him french fries. Every time I would run into my friend, Lisa, she would say "Has Andy had french fries yet?". Her daughter ate nothing but french fries, so she couldn't fathom that my kid didn't eat them at all. Looking forward, it worked out pretty well. Of course he likes candy and junk food, but he makes very good food choices and almost always chooses fruit over fries.

Sarah was a different story. She would see Andy eating fries, and therefore she wanted them. She was probably about 18 months when she had her first fries and never turned back. When she has the choice she always picks fries, unless her friends are picking fruit then she goes with them.

Amanda hasn't really had fries. Maybe one or two here or there, but not really. Definitely not before she turned one. But yesterday, she definitely got to try them out. We had to run an errand before Sarah went to therapy and we were running out of time to go home and have lunch. So I went through the Chick-fil-A drive-thru to get us some lunch. I gave Sarah hers in the car and was going to share mine with Amanda when we got to the therapy office. As soon as Sarah got the hot little bag in her hand, Amanda started asking for some food. Now, she can't say any real words, but when she wants something to eat she says, "mum mum mum". I think it's from when we used to give her Mum Mums, the baby rice cakes, all the time, now she thinks that's the word for food. So there she is, looking at Sarah, saying "mum mum mum" over and over again. The food was too hot to give to her, so she just kept saying it. Finally I heard Sarah's hand rustling in the bag and a few seconds later Amanda stopped talking. She finally had her delicious waffle fry. You could tell when she was ready for the next one, because the "mum mum mum" started all over again.

So how's she going to turn out? Is she going to be like Andy, and choose the fruit, or Sarah, and choose the fries? I'm hoping we'll break even and have her somewhere in between, but truly when she eats french fries is the least of my worries. It's the other stuff she's going to do early that really scares me.

Kid Quote of the Day

Sarah: I'm going to pass gas on your car seat because you did that to me.

Andy: Well, I have two seats, so I'll just smell them both and sit in the one that you didn't do.


Yeah, I think she wins either way.

R&R

I just got back from three days in sunny Orlando with the girls from Myrtle Beach. Okay, to clarify, as Sarah says they are not girls, but yes, women. Also, none of them are actually from Myrtle Beach, they are just the women that we always go to Mrytle Beach with (yes, I know I just ended a sentence with a preposition). Are you up to speed now?

Anywho, we spent a wonderful day on Friday at the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot. The weather was nothing short of fantastic and the lines were not long at all. We ate our way all around the world, it was delicious. I love the Food and Wine Festival and want to go back every year. Charlie doesn't like it as much and that's why this year we went without him. It was pretty weird being at Disney without any kids or a stroller. I haven't been there without a stroller in over seven years. It seemed like we were walking so fast and we didn't have to weave in and out of anybody. The only sad thing was we didn't have anywhere to put our packages. In fact, we weren't really sure what to do with them. We almost rented a wheel chair just so everybody could rest every once in awhile and we would have somewhere to hang our bags. In the end I just brought a good sized shoulder bag that did the trick.

On Saturday we shopped and shopped. I tried not to shop, because I have been doing that a lot lately, so instead I played the game, "how much money can you make your friend spend?". It's a great game. Basically, you encourage your friends to buy things, clothes, shoes, whatever, so you don't feel so bad about the amount of money that you are spending. We also have a "who spent the most money?" contest, and after every store declare who the current winner is (there, I did it again). Luckily that day I was the big loser.

Overall, we had a great time. Lots of eating and shopping and eating some more. We were going to hit a movie but we ran out of time. I got at least eight hours of sleep both nights and came home rejuvinated. Charlie took great care of the kids and they all had a wonderful time.

So why am I not so, so happy? I don't know, I should be. I got away for the weekend and the house didn't fall apart. In fact, it looked just about how I left it, which is a big deal. I'm glad everything went well, because that means that I can go away again. But that's where I'm having the issue. When Charlie is gone for the weekend, it's always a nightmare. I'm so tired and the kids are cranky and everybody misses him. When I'm gone, they are so happy that they are with Charlie they don't even care I'm gone.

Yes, I know they love me, but they love Charlie more. Or at least they act like they do. Maybe because he is more fun, that has a lot to do with it, but also because they just don't see him as much. When they're with him they play. He is so great about playing with them. When they are with me we are rushing everywhere, going from activity to activity, and when we are home I'm trying to make dinner or do laundry or something. I'm not a fun mom, just Mom.

I'm sure I'm a broken record, you've heard this before. I'm okay with it, it's just that sometimes it makes me sad. Years from now when my kids are my age, what are they going to remember? How are they going to think of me? Are they going to have fond memories of me in their childhood or is Mom just going to be on the sidelines while Dad is the main attraction?

Right now I'm too tired to deal with it, and that's part of my problem. Give it some time and the fun mom will come out again. I know she's in there, she just covered with piles of dirty clothes.

Kid Quote of the Day

"What is your favorite type of death omen?"

-Andy. Yep, we've moved on from Percy Jackson into the world of Harry Potter. No more questions about gods and demi-gods, now their all about death eaters and omens and dementors. Good times.

Big Snotty Baby

Amanda had her 15 month well visit today. She did awesome. Well, really, it's not a test, I'm not sure how you can do poorly, unless your kid can't walk, is grossly overweight and can't do any of the things they ask you about. Amanda did pretty well. Off the bottle, check. It helps that she was never on a bottle, but I get a check anyway. Walks, check. Feeds herself finger food, check. Communicates, check. I didn't say talk, she doesn't do that, but she communicates very well, even if it's not really with sign language. She's got us right where she wants us. Points to her body parts when you say their names...huh? Really, I'm supposed to be teaching her body parts. Actually, Charlie has been working on it with her, but me not so much. When I joked to the nurse that I didn't know I was supposed to do that, she asked if Amanda was my first. When I told her she was my third, she just laughed and said something like, "Yeah, you don't really do that by the time you get to the third. They'll learn it eventually." She is completely right!

So my baby who won't be a baby much longer weighs 24.5 pounds and is 30 1/4 inches tall. That's 42nd percentile for height and 73rd percentile for weight. Yep, just like mom and dad, short and fat. In her defense, both of her siblings were like that when they were babies and it all evened out. So I'm not worried at all, a healthy baby.

The thing I did want to talk to the doctor about was all her snot. I thought it was mostly allergies, and it turns out for once I was right, but what to do about it? Every time the weather changes or there's a big wind she has a non-stop runny nose and drainage for at least a week. She's already on Zyrtec, so what next? He recommended she throws back a little Benedryl as a chaser. That should do the trick. It might help her sleep better too. Hmm, not a bad idea. Really, I'll do anything to stop the snot because she seems so sad and her face is all puffy and she coughs like crazy when she first gets up. Also, her hair is just about the length of her nose so if you don't put it back it gets in the snot. In the morning her hair is actually stuck in the dried snot under her nose. It's so sad and she is so miserable as you try to get it out. Poor, poor baby.

I asked about seeing the allergist, but he wants us to wait on that. Of course. She doesn't really exhibit any of the symptoms for which he would send a baby to an allergist, but this isn't something I want to mess with. We'll see how the Benedryl goes.

Other than the extra chub and the snot, she's doing great. She's one big happy baby. Hopefully it will stay that way. I could use a break from the craziness.

Arf, Arf

Amanda will be 15 months old tomorrow. She goes in for her well visit in the morning. When we went in for her one year well visit one of the questions they asked, to make sure she is developing correctly and on track, was "How many words can she say?". They were only looking for between 1-3, but I know tomorrow they will want it to be more. Right now, we're still at zero.

I could use the excuse that she doesn't talk because she has a brother and sister that do all the talking for her, but that's not quite true. She spends a lot of time with just me, while the kids are at school, so they aren't always around to do her bidding. I'm not sure why she doesn't speak. She doesn't even say hi. The closest thing she comes to a word is when you give her something to eat and she really likes it she says "mmmm". That's sort of yum, so maybe yum is her first word? Oh yeah, this kid isn't going to have any eating issues growing up.

She doesn't talk, but she makes lots of noise. When she wants something she say "ma", loudly and repeatedly, I think because she is trying to say more. So today Sarah was eating a Wendy's frosty in the car while we were waiting to pick up Andy, and Amanda sat there next to her just saying "ma ma ma" over and over again. She screams when she doesn't like something or doesn't get what she wants and she cries when she doesn't like what you say or do.

I've tried to teach her sign language, and she's slowly starting to use it. Andy and Sarah also used sign language, and it helps a ton. I don't teach them anything fancy, just more and eat and milk, stuff they need on a regular basis. Once someone asked me if I taught my child how to sign bird, and since that doesn't help me in any way I couldn't understand why I would want to do that. If it's going to make my life easier, I'm all for it. Otherwise, no need.

The one thing Amanda does do is bark. It's a combination bark and chirp like a bird. Any time she sees an animal, or hears a dog bark, she starts barking. It's really cute, and shows she is recognizing things and understanding how things work. The other morning she was sleeping in our bed because her allergies have been driving her crazy and she can't sleep at night. She woke up, sat up, and started barking. I'm not sure why, maybe she heard the neighbors dog barking, but she just kept going. Now when I ask her what a dog says, she barks. Of course, if I asked her what a zebra or giraffe or donkey said, she would bark then too. It's not the point of what sound she's making, it's that she knows it's an animal and makes some sort of noise.

This is the stuff that I love about babies and their journey into toddlerhood and further. They don't know anything, but they slowly start to figure it out and piece it all together. She understands so much that we do and say, I just wish I could get into that little head and figure out what she's thinking. The fact that she's not talking, I'm cool with that. Because if she' anything like the other two, once she starts she'll never stop. So for now, I'm perfectly happy with some barking here and there.

Escape

Amanda is trying very hard to open the front door. See, she's even on her tip toes. I'm going to have to start watching her a little closer. Before you know it I'll be finding her playing in the front yard with stray dogs.

Kid Quote of the Day

Me: Sarah, can you go tell Daddy goodnight so I can put you to bed?

Sarah: No, because he said I couldn't lick.

Me: Well, you shouldn't lick other people's tongues, it's kind of gross. (She was trying to lick Amanda's tongue earlier)

Sarah: No it isn't, it's awesome!

Oh man, are we in big trouble in a few short years!

Kid Quote of the Day

"When I get a phone I think my ring tone will be Paranoid."

-Andy. Yeah, when he finally gets a phone when he's fifteen or sixteen, I'm pretty sure he's not going to want Paranoid by the Jonas Brothers as his ring tone.

Why Is It So Hard To Follow The Rules?

With little kids in the family, you have to have house rules. That way, when their friends come over and tear up your house you can say, "Andy, can you please tell your friends the house rules?", and hopefully your kid will get their friends back in order. It doesn't really work, but you still have to have them. You also need them so you have an excuse to punish your kids every once in awhile. Ha, just kidding, but seriously, you have to have house rules so the kids know what you expect from them. They don't have to be difficult or lengthy, just rules of the house that everybody knows and agrees upon.

One of the rules we have that the kids, never, ever follow is "No talking to Mom or Dad while they are on the phone". We try to explain to them that when they talk to us while we're on the phone it makes the call even longer and it's rude to the person on the other end and it's disrespectful, but they don't care. My kids could be completely quiet doing their own thing and as soon as I pick up the phone to call someone, anyone, they will run in the room and have to talk to me that minute. Or start fighting. Loudly.

They know they aren't supposed to talk to us while we're on the phone, but they can't help themselves. They truly cannot stay away, they must find a way to communicate with us. Andy thinks that not talking to us means he can use his made up sign language to talk to us instead. So he won't actually speak, but he'll make all these weird hand gestures and faces that are so distracting you have no idea where your conversation is going. Or he'll whisper, because that's not really talking either. They just don't get it.

Yesterday, I was talking to my brother on the phone. The kids were in the living room and I was in the office so I could have some privacy. I could hear them in the other room, but they weren't fighting and seemed to be getting along okay. Amanda, of course, was in the high chair, her personal prison, so I knew everything was okay with her. All of a sudden, Andy came into the entryway (the office is off the entryway and when sitting at the desk that's exactly what you see out the door) completely naked. Huh? I was trying really hard to concentrate on my phone call, but it's pretty hard with a naked seven year old boy standing in front of you. Especially one that is constantly claiming he needs his privacy and won't change his clothes in front of me half the time.

Soon after Sarah came into the room and they both started telling me that she took his clothes off. Huh? He's seven, she's four. There is no way she took his clothes off of his body without him wanting her to take them off. I shooed them out of the room, telling Andy to get dressed, so I could finish my conversation. At that point Andy hugged Sarah and she said, "Ugh, Andy got penis all over my shirt". She took off to the living room and the next thing I know she was back and then she was naked. Seriously, I can never get these kids to change their clothes, but when I don't want them to do it they're all over it.

I finally finished talking to my brother and looked at the kids.

"What's our rule?"

"Don't talk to Mommy when she's on the phone."

See, they know the rule. It's just getting them to follow it that's the problem.

Kid Quote of the Day

"Oohhh, don't put that in your mouth. Your nose was lighting up!"

-Andy, telling Sarah to take her light-up wand from her Halloween costume out of her mouth.