Naughty or Nice?

Nope, I am not talking about Christmas. We were having a normal hectic morning, trying to get both kids and a whole lot "crap" in the car before 8am. On most mornings I am pretty sure I look like a pack horse when I am walking out the front door... kiddy backpack, overflowing diaper bag, travel mug with extra bold coffee + 2 extra shots of espresso, bottle of water, wallet, keys and laptop and possibly something I am currently forgetting, oh ya, cellphone. (On on the rainy days add a toddler in rain boots, rain coat and his absolutely necessary gigantic, bulky umbrella) Thank god the sun FINALLY came out today!
Anyway, this morning Maz was already in the car (squirming 6 month old isn't so easy to add to the above list), so Carver and the packhorse made our way out the door to the car, I began loading all our "stuff " in on the passenger side and heard an unmistakable thunk on the other side of the car, I drop everything on the seat and run around to the drivers side...Carver is throwing rocks at my car??!!?! And these were not tiny pebbles...I Yell, "Carver Madden - STOP"..he stops immediately and just stares at me (not used to mom yelling quite that loud) I am obviously upset (yes, at almost three, he has quite an arm) Mike comes outside to check out the commotion, as I try to get a response to the still shocked Carver, I try to get him into his seat, by this time Mazzy is extremely unhappy at being in her seat and the car not moving, I ask Carver for the 3rd or 4th time what on earth he was doing to mommy's car?? In the tiniest, sweetest voice I hear "but mommy, I was just trying to make your car dirty so daddy and I could wash it again" "I'm sorry mommy, please don't be mad" "your happy now, your happy now"
Well what do you say to that?
Apparently he REALLY likes spending time with his daddy, washing mommy's car!!
I did assure him I wasn't still mad..but he was not to throw ANYTHING at the car again..and yes, there are some dings on the driver side front fender...

Happy 6 Month B-Day Baby Girl!!

Mazzy is 6 months old today, in some ways it feels like we just brought her home...and then you see all that she can do already...

sitting unassisted (OK, still an occasional face plant) smiling and laughing at just about everything and everybody, she really is a very happy baby, eating cereal, downing 7 + ounce bottles in less than 10 minutes, eating all kinds of mushy "baby" fruits and veggies (even though some always comes back up because of the reflux...yuck on anything green).

Grabbing water cups off the table, ya that makes a big mess, but not as smelly as spilled beer (I told daddy she could reach anything..and actually hold onto it...temporarily) She loves her bath time. She tries to "hold" the water as it flows out of the shower head. She is growing up so fast. A little social butterfly and oh what a personality already...now I know what all those "older" moms mean when they say every child is different (ya, the moms that were crazy enough to have 6 or 7 kids, hehehe, won't be me!)

Sometimes we think she reminds us of Carver when he was this age...and sometimes we just look at her and we know she will always be her own little person. Love you Maz!

Where has all the good sleep gone?

Okay, so it is official, Maz is teething (no teeth breakin thru yet) and boy did I pick a bad week to make the Binky's disappear. Carver isn't asking for them...yet. He did the 1st night and we are now starting night #3. I guess I never realized how much of a "security blanket" his Bink's were (oh for those of you that haven't figured it out the "Bink's" are his pacifiers). He has been "scared", especially tonight. He isn't asking for his Bink he just seems upset. He says its too dark, he doesn't know where I am...I have already been in his room three times in 45 minutes. Any one that has any ideas I would love to hear them.
The last two nights he has woken up at least three or four times EACH night and needs me to go in his room and give him a stuffed animal or cover him up. Between him waking way more than usual (which has been hardly at all unless he has to pee, for many months now) to Mazzy waking every 45min to an hour starting around 1am (just enough to wake me so I have to put a Binky in or turn on her sound machine) I HAVEN'T SLEPT IN THREE NIGHTS!!!! AHHHHHH!

NO MORE BINKY !!!

First of all, so sorry for the tiny print on the last update..I was using my mom's computer and didn't realize I had changed the font (I was also really tired).
No more Binky!!! To everyone that knows Carver you know he has had a Binky since birth and at times has been very attached to it, daycare has helped alot by not giving it to him during the day and most recently (since he moved up to the "big kids room" the 3 and 4yr olds) he doesn't use it at nap when he is there. We haven't been so lucky at home, we give in at nap time and bedtime, however we have been limiting it to these times for over a couple months now. He was been being good putting it away right after these times. Well we came back from VT yesterday afternoon and once again he didn't need it in the car while he napped. So at bedtime I whispered to Mike NOT to get the two Bink's when we got his sippy cup of water (that had been his routine for quite awhile) He asked before we went upstairs to bed and I told him....we must of left them in VT because I couldn't find them. He didn't seem convinced but he only whined a little bit. I gave him two soft 6inches "blankies" just in case he needed something to help him sleep. He fell asleep within 15 min. .....I did need to go back into his room about 4 times which isn't normal but he went to sleep WITHOUT Bink's!!!! Yay! I don't know what will happen tonight but I think it was a success, and Mike probably thinks I am nuts but we had to do it soon, he is almost 3yrs old!!! This morning I told him that if we find any Bink's we will have to put them in an envelope and mail them to the babies (we have talked to him about doing that for a while now) He sort of agreed, so we will see what happens. I am sure one or two will pop up in his toy bin at some point. I also have told him that he is such a big boy now that he is ready for his big boy bike. He has learned to ride at Grandma Nete and Grandpa Fred's on the last few visits, thanks you guys:) And everyone knows only BIG BOYS get big boy bikes. He seems okay with mailing any Bink's we find, I will let you know how that goes!

Oh what a long day...

Ahhh, so where do I begin? Mazzy decided that 4:50am was a good time to brighten my morning, little did she know shut eye would have been much more enjoyable on a Saturday (even though she is still pretty darn cute even before 5am) Every morning seems to start with me waking to some rustling and sighing, I pretend I don't hear her (her crib is in our room because of a lack of bedrooms in our very tiny 150 year old cape...ya that is another story)..however she seems to know I can hear her, she continues to move until I hit her ocean sounds lamb, then I put her binky back in...this usually continues for about 15 min. until there is just no soothing her and I am forced to roll out of bed and get her out of her crib..which initiates her realization that I am actually AWAKE and then she proceeds to shriek with happiness, and me, I cringe that she may have woken her brother across the hall. I know, not very nice of me to shush her when she is so darn happy to see me, but sheesh I don't want TWO kids up before the crack of dawn!!! We then go downstairs, Mazzy gets a bottle, I get my coffee. And did I mention my NEW ESPRESSO MAKER just came in!! So yes I now have to put at least two shots of espresso in my am coffee ( I am officially a caffeine addict). This morning was no different except Carver made his appearance at 6am, I think he remembered we were driving to VT this morning to visit his grandmas, papas and cousins, aunts and uncles. It was Christopher's 4th B-day Party and Carver has been talking about this party for over a month now!! Anyhow, after alot of hemming and hawing (ya those weren't really the words that may have been used) Mike and I managed to get both kids and a whole lot of crap in the car for a three hour drive..did I mention Mike was only getting us all in the car but he was staying behind...no I don't know how he managed that...I was probably too exhausted trying to remember how much crap we needed for one night away to remind him to get in the car. (ya I am that slow sometimes, that is why I now have an espresso machine:)
Okay, alot of run on sentences but I have been up from 4:45am until now (almost 9:30pm) and two kids can be a challenge, I would love to know how octomom does it??? Well Maz slept the 1st 2 hours of the drive, even though Carver felt in necessary to rub her head occasionally (the car seats are side by side so he can "help" sometimes) It would have been cuter except I was so nervous he was gonna wake her up before we got close enough to grandma, well we may have made it all the way but about 45min away I hear "MA I GOTTA PEE". The yell didn't wake up Maz, the stopping the car on the side of the road and hurrying to get him out of his car seat DID wake her up. She was really good the rest of the way, Carver grudgingly handed her toys at my request (god forbid he takes his eyes off his DVD) Yes, I am a "bad" mom, I let my son watch DVDs on any road trip longer than 20min, and yes I "give in" pretty quick, what can I say I would rather hear "The Letter Factory" a 100 times than whining, The "A" says ahh the "B" says buh....I won't get into it, you should get the idea.
The part was a hit, I think, there was mostly alot of running, screaming, cake, ice cream, balloons...a definite birthday party...
All in all it was a pretty good day, Mazzy was good (even though I am sure she is teething) Carver had minimal whining and... I got to see a friend visiting VT all the way from Texas!! She was so sweet to drop in on us this evening with her daughter (she had a very long and trying day too)...needless to say I am sure I looked a bit ragged and somewhat worn out, I was very happy to see them, and had the kids been given more time they would have played happily with balloons for hours!!

These two were so cute, they (or I should say we) decided they should stay out of the rain Sunday morning so they were watching "Max and Ruby" in the car. Carver and Pacey are new best friends (at least according to Carver!) :)

Ready to Party...@ bedtime!!

Rain Rain Go AWAY..

Well that sum's up our weekend...now don't get me wrong, we had a pretty good weekend (overall) but why oh why did we not check the weather forecast BEFORE packing up an almost 6month old and an almost 3 yr old to drive 2hours to a campground we have never been to, unpack and set up camp, camp for one night, have it start pouring rain around 11pm and NEVER STOP RAINING??? Yes, this does mean we packed up camp very early this morning, in the pouring rain, that actually went well, the kids watched a DVD in the car while all the parents packed everything (really, really quickly). Did I mention we told Carver all about the zoo we were taking him to today, do you think even though no one slept very good in the ALL night rain that we would possibly get out of doing this?? IN case you are wondering the answer is YES we still went to the zoo (in the pouring rain), after packing our campsite (in the pouring rain). However, we had to stop at a store and get the kids raincoats and "shoes" to slosh in. And by the way, suddenly Carver loves shopping and picking out his own shoes and his own raincoat (NO i didn't have much of a say in it) Would you argue with a 3 year old that went to bed too late, didn't sleep very well, was too excited to eat breakfast and had already asked for the 100th time WHEN ARE WE GOING TO SEE THE ELEPHANTS? (Mazzy was actually an angel, until the 2 hour drive home when she decided she really didn't want to do anything but fuss)
Carver did have a great time at the zoo, he really loves animals of all sorts. Ummm, "the zoo" (York's Wild Kingdom in Maine) was thankfully quite small so after circling around in the pouring rain for a little over an hour we were all soaked and ready to get some lunch (except for Carver of course) There was some persuasion to get him near the exit (lucky for us this is where they keep there ONE elephant) Then in our delirious soaked and extremely exhausted state someone mentioned going to Chuckie Cheese for lunch and games. (We may have simply inhaled too many citronella candles around the campsite last night) I am still not sure what inspired this "extra" to our day. I had never been to Chuckie Cheese (neither had Carver). However, when Mike and I were talking on the drive there (we were following our friends that live in the area) we mentioned Chuckie Cheese a few times, as we pulled in to the parking lot Carver got all excited and kept saying "Chuckie Cheese I see the sign way up high." I have no doubt he actually new it was something fun but I have no idea HOW he knew///Mike and I stared at each other in complete disbelief, Who was this kid? You seriously would have thought he had been there a million times?? Carver played games, didn't eat a thing, got lots of coupons which he thankfully traded in for lollipops (yay, just what we needed at the end of a long day) I will leave it with...yes we all survived. And as I was walking through the kitchen to change Maz's diaper this evening (freshly showered and finally with clean DRY clothes) Carver looks up at me and says in his oh so innocent voice,"mom you are beautiful"....ohhh to have the eyes of a child:)

A "Link" added to my page

Just a quick note, you will find a link on the right side of my page...this is to a fundraiser, below you will find their "story" on their blog -you can go look, you aren't required to donate:)
I have added it to help them in their journey..."Zoey" is a little girl born with Downs Syndrome (and a multitude over other medical issues) and 8 months ago she was diagnosed with leukemia. She has just battled this horrible disease for many months and is finally back home with her family (did I mention she is only 2 !!) Her mother and sister will be running in a marathon in Oct. If you can donate great, if not just say a little prayer that she will stay in remission. As you will see from the pictures on her website http://www.littlewonders-heather.blogspot.com/ she is pretty darn cute with a whole lot of spunk!!

A bit of this and that...

The kids are in bed and I just had to mention what my little boy said as I tucked him in tonight, "mommy your hair is so beautiful"...the sweetness and innocence of an almost 3 yr old!! (had any of you seen me you most definitely would not have agreed, my hair was pulled back in a makeshift ponytail with crazy fly aways hanging out every which way!) As cute as this comment was, I do have to mention just about a week ago when I was getting ready for work - I had just gotten dressed and was bending over to pick something off the floor and Carver says "mom your Butt is so big" Mike laughed so hard I thought he was going to forget to breathe!....I am starting to wonder if my son will be needing glasses soon??

Cutest thing - as I left Mazzy dozing off tonight in her crib and as I was leaving the room I saw her little fingers rubbing her blanket as if to soothe herself to sleep, sweet and I had never seen her do that before, then I stuck my head into Carver's room to see if he had fallen asleep yet, his eyes were closed, Binky in his mouth, arm around his sippy cup of water, and doing the exact same thing Maz was doing...soothing himself to sleep with his Pooh blanket! I don't think I would have just missed this before and ironic I saw them both doing at the same time!!

Reflux.Reflux.

As most of you probably know Mazzy was diagnosed with reflux about a month ago. For the most part it means she spits up ALOT and usually all over us, the floor, her toys, her clothes. It was also effecting her sleep but mostly that was just at night. Hmmmm, when the rest of us like to get a bit of shut eye too! For the most part it is just an annoyance, except for the part when she decided she would add a twist to the whole thing and occasionally stop breathing at night. It is called apnea and it was explained as her food coming back up and burning her throat...over time causing irritation and swelling in her throat area, hence not breathing. (I think that was what the doc said.) So we put her on prevacid and that seems to work okay for the breathing trouble but not the spitting up EVERYWHERE. It is supposed to neutralize stomach acid so it doesn't burn when it comes back up, however, as you can guess her formula still comes back up.

This whole thing seems a bit strange to me, considering she seemed to do okay until she turned about 4 months old, she spit up but we never thought it was excessive, she slept 10 or 12 hours a night only stirring a bit and never stopped breathing in the middle of the night. Then BAM she turned about 4 months old and it was like someone delivered us a different baby.

I took Carver in to our "new" pediatrician on Monday for an ongoing rash (turned out to be eczema) and we talked briefly about Maz. He felt strongly we should change her formula, so we did. (I am willing to try anything to hopefully get her off a medication) He suggested Similac Sensitive RS. It is made with a rice starch that makes it thicker (to make it stay in her belly where it belongs) Seems to be working, except for the part where she has been eating rice cereal for the last month and we started adding vegetables (sweet potatoes, carrots, peas) and fruits too. Well low and behold some veggies are acidic too. Can anyone guess what we have been "wearing" this week...

Nice and Early

My little Mazzy has once again decided that 4:50am is a great time to wake up. (at least it is better than yesterday..3:55am!!) It doesn't seem to matter how late we keep her up at night, she still likes to be an early bird. (Yes mom, it must be pay back for all those mornings I got up early when I was a kid, however I thought I made it at least 6am!!) The funny thing is she isn't even starving, she just wants out of her crib and downstairs to play. And if we don't do this quick enough her brother will most definitley wake up.
I am pretty sure Carver use to do something similar but he never slept very good through the night either. She does pretty good throught most of the night. Carver can usually sleep from 7 or 7:30pm until 6 or 6:30am. So I guess there is hope for us yet.

My babies. Too cute.

What's this all about?

I am now moving into the technical world of blogging...not even sure where to start. Maybe with..... I can finally breathe because the kids are in bed and hubby is outside planting a garden.

For anyone that knows us, the garden thing is probably a HUGE mistake, we cannot even seem to keep a catus living for any amount of time. Actually I do recall a time when Carver first started crawling, there had to be a few living plants because I remember cleaning ALOT of soil off our den floor.

Life with two kids and (that would be two small kids) and two working parents can be.. IS..very difficult. Why does nobody ever let you in on this BEFORE the little bundles of joy arrive??? Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade them for anything..but HOLY COW this can be really tough!!!

Carver is the fun loving, sometimes so serious, almost three year old. And Mazzy the almost sitting unassisted, eating EVEYTHING in sight, almost 6 month old. I swear there is never a dull moment in this household (though we desperately wish there still was!)