Low Moments in Parenting: Poop Edition

The title should have sufficiently warned you.

Low Moment #1:

Over the weekend, I noticed thatboth Sebastian and Collette hadn't pooped in a couple days.  This is typical (but still not good) for Collette but very odd for Sebas.  I gave them both some Miralax in their milk - Collette stole most of Sebastian's and, shocker, pooped the next day.  However, as of yesterday night, Sebastian still hadn't pooped and I could tell he was trying to and couldn't.  A lovely chat with a friend who is a former nurse (hi Megan!) pointed me in the direction of suppositories.  I hoped it wouldn't come to that but more Miralax did nothing.  So, after school today, I got to give my son some medicine up his bum.  Why don't any parenting books EVER mention this as a possibility?

Low Moment #2:

Matteo puts everything in his mouth.  Dog food, bark mulch, crayons, whatever.  I try not to spend too much time worrying about it.  Whatever he swallows will probably just come out the other end, no problem.  My theory was confirmed when I changed his diaper to see the poop staring back at me - the unlucky googly eye untouched by the digestive process.  Ew.

Ma

Worst First Birthday Present Ever

After one too many people mistook Matteo for a girl, I decided it was finally time to cut his hair. At his age, I figured it was pointless to take him to a hairdresser and that I should just do it myself. I guess I forgot about the part where I have no idea how to cut hair.

Poor guy.

We put the p-o-o in pool

Saturday was Auntie Kim's annual summer cookout and Wiffle ball tournament for which we made the trek out to Grafton, about an hour's drive. (For us, that's a lot.) We were expecting record heat that day (over 100 F) so my sister's neighbors were kind enough to offer up their pool to those of us bringing little ones. They have 4 kids of their own so adding a few more to the mix is no big deal.

After having some snacks and playing a bit inside, Auntie Stacey and I got the kids dressed in their suits and headed over to the pool. None of the kids know how to swim so we have to hold them the whole time we are in the water, even with their life vests on. After being in the pool for about half an hour, Collette said the P-word. Normally, this would not be alarming. She is potty trained and gives ample warning when she needs to use the bathroom, especially where poop is concerned.  However...she has been on a potty strike, of sorts.  She now refuses to go to the bathroom anywhere outside of home.  Even if a I have a potty ring (just like the one at home) and put it on someone else's toilet, she screams and cries and kicks and just. won't. go.

So, when she said "poo poo," I bolted out of that pool, knowing that she must be pretty desperate if she's willing to go when we're not at home.  As I was running upstairs, cradling Collette, to the bathroom, I realized there was already a bulge in Collette's bathing suit.  I was too late!  Once we were in the bathroom, it didn't take me long to realize that she was done pooping and it was now trapped in her bathing suit.  This was a low moment in parenting for me, to date.  Getting the poop into the toilet and trying my damnedest to not get any on my hands or all over my sister's bathroom was nearly impossible.  Meanwhile, Collette was crying that she wanted to go home to poop (a little late for that!!) and fighting my every move to get her de-pooped.

I somehow managed to get her clean and not ruin my sister's bathroom in the process.  She was still crying, though.  Traumatized, no doubt.  Then, I looked out the window, which faces the aforementioned pool.  And I see everyone evacuating.  And I know it can only mean one thing.  Poop in the pool.  To say I was mortified is an understatement.  I wanted to curl up into a little ball and just die of embarrassment.  Alas, I am a grown up and we grown ups have to face these things.  I changed Collette into her dry clothes and headed over to the neighbor's yard, my head hung in shame.

I climbed up to the pool deck to assess the damage.  And there, right in the middle of the pool, was a fairly large poop.  And it wasn't a floater, because that would be too easy.  No, it was a sinker and it was sitting at the bottom of the pool, mocking me.  My brother was there, laughing at me and disgusted with me, simultaneously.  I asked him where Kerry (the owner of the pool) was and what the "plan" was.  Do pool owners have special equipment for such things?  No, they don't.  The plan was to use a pail and the pool cleaner net thingy to dive down to the bottom of the pool and scoop out the poop.  So, Kerry and I put on some kid goggles, each got a pail and net thingy, and took turns diving for poop.  Ya...that really happened. 

Where was this guy when I needed him?!

How was YOUR weekend?!

I see summer!

I'm just going to skip over the fact that I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks, that I turned 30, celebrated 5 years of marriage and that I went to Montreal to celebrate during my blog hiatus.  I'll get back to it when I feel like gathering my thoughts.  In the meantime, let's talk about summer!

Yes, summer is almost here (or already here depending on how you define summer for you and your family) and I am surprised to be excited about it.  Surprised because last summer was awful - the kids were in a rough patch (18-24 months, you were not my friend), we had record heat for the last two months of my 42-week pregnancy and my A/C was broken for most of that time.  Last July pretty much turned me off to summer forever.  Or so I thought.

This year, with Matteo and all the classes for Sebastian and Collette, I feel so rushed and busy.  Getting Matteo down for a nap and on time so I can wake him up in time to get out of the house and into the car and to whatever overpriced activity I signed us up for has been exhausting!  Not that I wouldn't do it again, I'm just tired of it now.  I'm ready to take a leisurely pace that compliments summertime so well.  With the twins starting school in September (albeit just 2 mornings a week...), I am excited to just go with the flow and live schedule-free.  Sure, they will still have a nap schedule - I haven't completely lost it!  But I won't feel the need to have each day planned weeks in advance.  I'm already relaxed just thinking about it!

So, as of Saturday, if you wanna hang out with some super cool toddlers, a very cute baby and me, we are officially free :)  And we have a kiddie pool - all are welcome.

Totally worth it

It's things like this that make me realize having 3 kids in less than two years isn't so bad.


And the change of clothes for all three was totally worth it.

Escapee

I think the kids know when Billy is on an overseas business trip because that seems to be the time when they do new, and often naughty, things. This time, Sebastian is the culprit. New (and naughty) behavior: crib escaping.

It started (and ended, actually) on Sunday morning. I went into their room and saw that Sebastian's crib was empty which could only mean one thing. He finally realized he can climb out of his crib. I have known for a little while that he is physically capable of doing it, even while still in his sleep sack. Both he and Collette use toddler sleep sacks that have special foot holes. Also, the sleep sacks are on the long side for Sebastian, who is short for his age. So, the sleep sack still gives him plenty of mobility, being so big. However, I was hoping he would just take for granted that he had to stay in his crib and not realize that "hey, I can just climb out of this stupid thing and do whatever I want!" So much for that.

I called Billy (who was in Beijing at the time - he has since made his way to Kuala Lumpur) and told him what happened. I told him what our options were: get crib tents, use the travel beds we already have, switch him to a toddler bed (shudder). Then I remembered one other suggestion I heard from someone in my mother of twins club, not sure who or when but it was filed away in my brain for this very moment. This person had taken out the bottom of the crib that hold up the mattress and simply put the mattress on the floor but within the crib. This only works if your crib sides come close enough the ground that the mattress can't be pushed out. Luckily, our crib fit the bill. Billy agreed that we should try that way as it seemed the easiest thing to do. I quickly got to work removing the support platform and put the mattress back in on the floor. This gave us about 8 extra inches of depth and now Sebastian's head barely reaches past the crib side.



Now I'm just waiting for Collette to make her escape. It's fine though. I'm ready!

I didn't want to jinx it

That's at least one reason why my Valentine's Day post is 2 days late. The other being that I am a bad blogger.

Valentine's Day was pretty uneventful this year. No exchanging of gifts. Just a nice dinner out with me and Billy. Cards to one another. Flowers. The kids did some crafts:

Collette's Valentine to Daddy

But it was Sebastian who made this a special Valentine's Day. He gave me the gift of going a whole day without crying. To be honest, I'm not sure if that was the first time or not. But it was the first day that I ever noticed that he didn't cry. So, either way, it was a big deal for me. Maybe he is turning some sort of corner, developmentally. His language is doing much better but he is still progressing at his own, slow pace. Or maybe it's just his age. In which case, I hope this is more of a permanent shift and not just one of those phases. I can deal with crying every so often but everyday, multiple times a day crying fits over (seemingly) meaningless things is hard on me. Oh ya, and him.

By the way, yesterday was also a no-cry day. He almost lost it over a new car puzzle during our EI session but held it together. We'll see how today goes. So far, so good.

***

On a separate note, thanks for your input on the preschool thing. More on that later.

Blame it on Christmas, El Salvador and the iPad

It has been over a month since I have updated here - definitely my longest stretch to date. I have no good excuses but my lame excuses are that I had too much to do for Christmas, I was in El Salvador for 2 weeks and I have been playing with my new iPad non-stop. (I know I can blog on my iPad but my typing skills are already horrible and only get worse when using the iPad.)

I have so much to write about that I'm not sure where to begin. It was Matteo's first Christmas. It was the first Christmas where the twins understood that they had gifts and knew to unwrap them. Hopefully next year they will know not to unwrap other people's gifts. We began 2 new Christmas traditions: Christmas pajamas (on Christmas Eve) and Christmas croissants baked by yours truly. It was my first time making croissants (used the bread machine to make the dough) and they came out OK: A- for taste, C for looks.

Three days after Christmas, we got on a plane (and then another) to head to El Salvador. I was really anxious leading up to this trip - I am pretty comfortable being outnumbered by my kids when I'm at home or out and about in familiar places but running through airports to make connections, not so much. In the end, the trip was fine. Sebastian and Collette were great, mostly thanks to copious amounts of snacks and the potable DVD players. Matteo did well but didn't nap as much as I would have liked. He did poop though, which may not seem weird but he only poops once a week. And he saved it for the plane. And then he did same thing on the way home. Figures.

Being in El Salvador was great. Billy has all the pictures on his iPhone and we haven't been home long enough to upload them all to my computer but I'll be sharing them soon enough. With so many adult hand around, it truly was a vacation. Next year will be even better since I won't be nursing a baby every two hours. The beach was so much more fun now that the twins are a year older. Last year they didn't even know how to play in the sand. This time, they could have done it for hours! The ocean was a bit overwhelming for them, even though it didn't have waves, but it's just as well. One less thing to worry about.

And now, we're back home, covered in 2 new feet of snow. Leading up to Christmas and New Years I had been very exasperated with life. But our vacation did its job and feel renewed and energetic. Lord knows I need it!

Two vs. One: Part 1

When I announced that I was expecting for the second time, everyone's first question was, "is it twins again?!" to which I answered a very relieved "no!" Their next comment to me was always something along the lines of, "well, one baby will seem so easy compared to twins!" And that's what I was hoping, too. I didn't want to jinx myself and end up with a colicky baby so I tried to keep hush about it. Now that Matteo is here (and more than 3 months old!) I no longer have to worry about that. He's no longer a newborn and I can now compare notes from his first 12 weeks with the twins' newborn days.

As expected, having one baby is way easier than having two. For me, it's so much more than just a question of two vs. one. I always said that I was grateful to have two (mostly) happy newborns and not one very fussy one. So, here is what really stands out to me as the difference makers in my own two vs. one experience.

Preemie vs. Full-term:

Sebastian and Collette came nearly 6 weeks early and that impacted a lot of what we had to do for them as parents. Going back and forth to the NICU, measuring their every ml of formula-enhanced breast milk, lots and lots of doctor visits. It was the main reason I pumped instead of nursed. Having two preemies was scary and stressful, for the most part.

But, as new parents, I must say that there were nice things about it, too. The nurses taught us so much about how to care for a newborn and they got the twins on a wonderful eating schedule that made sleep very possible for both of us. With Matteo, the nurses didn't show me anything with the baby. I got no CPR training, no lesson on how to bathe the baby. Hardly any free stuff. And then two days after giving birth, they kicked us out. Of course, I left the hospital with an 8lb. baby who could nurse without any issues so it was fine. I would take a full-term baby over a preemie any day but there were a few benefits (for us) to the latter.

Overall, I worry much less about Matteo and a lot of it has to do with how he started his little life. Some of it has to do with now being an experienced parent, which I'll get into in a separate post, but mostly I trust nature to take its course with him. With Sebastian and Collette, I still find myself using their adjusted age in my head sometimes. Not sure when that will go away...

(Of course, not all twins are preemies so this experience is certainly not universal for twins and their moms. And there are lots of singletons born prematurely, as well.)

Stay tuned for Part 2. I gotta spread this one out if I'm going to make through my mini-NaBloPoMo.

Mini NaBloPoMo - Day 1

It's been really difficult for me to devote time to blogging lately (reading, commenting and especially writing) that I was looking forward to NaBloPoMo as a way to motivate myself. But naturally, November 1st came and went (along with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th) so I can't honestly participate this year. However, I have a plan to do a half-NaBloPoMo. Think of it like a half marathon. Except way easier.

I am starting today because today marks Day 1 of a 15-day solo parenting spree. That's right - me and my 3 under 2 gang are all alone for 15 straight days as Billy is on a business trip to Asia. I told him how jealous I was that he gets to go on this exotic trip and he looked at me like I was crazy. He knows that flying across the world so that you can work 12+ hour days is not a fun, exotic trip. He kept going on and on about how much he didn't want to go and how he'd miss us. Grass is always greener, and all that shit.

Since I'll be posting every day for the next two weeks, I will be piggybacking on some memes out there. I haven't done a Halloween post (I'll save that for later!), so I'll participate in LauraC's Show me the Mommy! with a little sneak preview:

Me and Tater at our Twin's Club Halloween party that I co-organized

Stay tuned to keep me honest with my mini-NaBloPoMp!

Spoiled or Neglected?

I go back and forth thinking that my Matteo is one of these two extremes. Although lately it's leaning more toward neglected. Poor guy.

When we first brought him home, he got all my attention. Nursed every two hours. Was held all the time. Snuggled with me in bed. Rarely sat in a swing or bouncy chair. And now that he is older and I'm on my own with all three, he still gets held a lot, at least compared to the twins when they were his age. When we are out and about, he gets to ride in the Ergo instead of being in a stroller. Being just one baby, its so easy to have him with me, on me, all the time. I feel like he's mine. I don't have to share him with anyone. A momma's boy in the making!

Matteo, 2 weeks old, napping in our bed

But then there is the neglect that comes with being a third child to a harried mommy. Lately, he has been spending a lot of time on his play-mat. I did the same thing with the twins, but I usually "played" with them, took their picture, talked to them. When I put Tater on his mat, I go off and do 100 other things, 99 of them for his brother and sister. I have so few pictures of him, its embarrassing. I drag him all over the place - play dates, gymnastics class, EI play group, errands - with little respect for his nap schedule*. I'm not sure how long I can keep this up. At some point (soon), it will be too hard to just treat him like luggage.

And the crying continues

This is one of those times where I openly solicit advice from my dear readers. I wrote last week about Sebastian's crying, one of those , "oh, being a parent is tough, huh?" kind of posts. But now I seriously feel like I have a problem. Or I think I do. I guess I'm not sure - that's part of the advice I seek.

Like I said in that earlier post, Sebastian has always been a crier. And when you have a baby, its so easy to chalk it up to being a "phase" or just part of that age. But it seems like with him, we never get out of it. To a certain degree, I can accept this. It seems that he is a just a sensitive boy. And he is allowed to be sensitive. I took up the advice I got in the last post and am reading some books on highly sensitive kids. Its helping, but truthfully, not that much.

Basically, I feel like I am not cut out to parent my son. And I feel like he can't enjoy "normal" activities because he gets so upset. I have brought up the issue with EI (a few months back) and they actually suggested letting him have his pacifier when he got upset. They said its age appropriate for a kid his age to have a comfort object and if that was his, and it's the only thing that helps him self-soothe, we should allow him to use it. So, he gets his binky whenever he needs it at home, in the car and in his crib. But I simply can't bring myself to let him have it in public. As if it's the scarlet letter of incompetent parenting. And it's in these public situations where we find ourselves in trouble.

Two good examples: First, we have been doing an EI playgroup since March(ish). The playgroup is very low key and parents stay the whole time. The first half hour is open play, which goes over quite well. No surprise there. The last half hour is circle singing time and that's when the crying starts. 6 months in, Sebastian still cries (and I mean wails, not whimpers or whines) every time we get to the parachute. No matter how much I prep him or remind him of what will happen, he loses his shit every time. And I know what his issue is: he wants to go underneath the parachute. But that doesn't happen until after we shake the parachute and after we go on top of the parachute. So he cries and cries and cries until its time to go underneath. Often, he is too upset by that point to even go under. I have tried holding him in my lap, reassuring him that it will be time to go under soon. I have tried ignoring him. I have tried removing him from the situation. I have tried counting down until its time. But nothing has stopped his anger over this.

The other new fit-inducing activity is gymnastics. The thing is, he likes gymnastics. He likes doing the obstacle course, walking on the balance beam, going down the slide. He especially likes the trampoline. And this is where things start to go south. Yesterday, he was on one the little trampolines. I told him he could have ten jumps and then it would be the next girl's turn. I counted to 10 (very slowly, something we do all the time at home with turn taking and has worked very well) and when I told him his turn was up he got off. But then he immediately wanted to get back on, demanding that it was his turn again. I explained to him that he could have anotehr turn when she was done. No dice. I explained to him that there was another trampoline in the room he could use. I even brought him over there and told him he could have a turn. No dice. He was completely distraught and not able to recover for about 20 minutes. Additionally, he got even more upset while we were in the big room because he didn't want to wait for his turn on the big trampoline. Like the parachute, this is an activity we do every week. Part of me feels like he should be getting used to it.

I'm at a loss. He wants to do these activities and have fun but he seems to sabotage himself. And I try to help him cope but nothing I do seems to make a difference. It would be easier if it were just about him but he has a twin sister and I can't do separate activities with them. I feel like we're damned if we do, damned if we don't. Lastly, it doesn't help matters that he is the only child acting like this. Others may cry from time to time but he is the only one who does it every time over the same things. It's hard to not feel like I'm doing something wrong.

Will we ever get past it? Or will we struggle with this at every stage of his development until he moves out?

Capisce??

Sometimes, I feel like I don't give Collette and Sebastian enough credit. They are growing up so fast and I honestly am having a hard time keeping up. I often think to myself that certain things are far beyond their mental grasp and more and more, I am wrong.

It should be obvious. They talk SO much more. They understand more of what we say. They *seem* to listen more. So, it would follow that they are capable of doing things at a higher level. For example, I didn't think they really understood dress-up play. And, to some extent, they don't. It's not like they can act out mini-plays with each other in costume. But I didn't even think that they would like to dress up in funny clothes. Surprise, surprise - I was incorrect. They have been having fun trying on all sorts of things, most recently, our sweaters and sweatshirts that have been pulled out for the (wonderful!!) cooler weather.

Here they are, in Daddy's sweatshirt, which they both insisted be zipped up while they reminded me that it was "papa's!":




So, I am having to reevaluate how I interact with them and really start treating them like big kids and not babies. Thank goodness I have Matteo for that :)

One Month!

Believe it or not, Matteo is now over one month old! And he is doing so well - eating and sleeping are both still great (back to waking up once at night now that his bedtime is a firm 730pm) and as he is more aware during the day, he is starting to enjoy his play mat and bouncy seats more.

The day after his one month birthday, he got to attend his first wedding. My dear friend/surrogate sister tied the knot on Saturday and Tater stayed awake to watch the whole ceremony. The commotion was too much for him, though, and he had to nurse twice during the reception to help him fall asleep. Thankfully, by the time dinner was served, he was out cold for the night. Billy and I even got to dance a bit before packing it up.

Also, I am now officially "on my own" with kiddos - my MIL left after 3 weeks of tremendous help. Tonight went really well though. Not a single tear was shed during bedtime and Matteo only started to fuss right at the end as I was getting Sebastian and Collette into their sleep sacks. I may have to add feeding the baby into their bedtime routine but we'll see. I'll be tweaking things as we go but I now know that its definitely doable. Hopefully things go just as smoothly tomorrow night when I actually have to bathe them...!

Lastly, we will continue the tradition of chair pictures with Matteo. Same chair, new baby! Here he is in his wedding outfit:

Matteo, one month and one day old

Keep an eye out for more posts coming up. I have a lot to share after being away from the blog for so long.

Life with 3 under 2

Now that Matteo is three weeks old, we are all starting to get used to each other. Sebastian and Collette like their new little brother. Or at least they accept him as part of the family. They like to give him kisses and Collette will even go so far as to bring him blankets. They both like to point to his body parts - a little scary when they try to poke him in the eye. And Sebastian especially likes it when he wears onesies that feature cars. Other than that, they pretty much ignore him which is much better than acting jealous. Hopefully things will stay this way once I am on my own with them and they aren't getting all that extra attention from Mimi (my MIL).

As for Matteo, he has inserted himself nicely into our lives. He must now how spread thin Mommy will be because, for a newborn, he seems to be making things pretty easy for me. He nurses like a champ and has since day one. He gets right down to business and is finished within 15 minutes, sometimes just 10! This makes feeding him and watching after the twins manageable. And he is already developing some very promising sleep patterns. He generally takes a longer nap from about 9-11 and then again from 130-330. Otherwise, he seems to take shorter naps, especially in the evening when he is nursing more frequently. Plus, he is already showing signs of readiness for an early bedtime. he gets crabby and needy around 6pm if he isn't asleep. If this goes on, I will probably just incorporate him into the twins' bedtime and that way they will all be down by 730ish. That may mean I have to give up my one night feeding (usually around 130am) but it might be worth it to have my evenings back. Or is that idea totally age-inappropriate?

So, all in all, life with 3 under 2 is going well. It's hard to believe that in such a short time I opened and closed the book on having babies. It'll be a tough first year but I know it'll pay off in the long run!

Babies (the movie) - One Mom's Take

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I won tickets to go see the new movie, Babies. I actually did get to go see it with Billy, thanks to Tanya for offering to babysit!

I wasn't sure what I would take away from this movie before seeing it. Part of me thought I would learn some new ways to do mommy things after seeing how other women in other cultures do it. However, I ended up coming away with something very different, something I almost didn't realize until I read another, completely unrelated blog post, about work-life balance.

I don't talk a lot about work-life balance in the "traditional" sense because I don't have a job outside the home. However, that doesn't mean that I don't understand what it might be like for those parents that do or even have similar struggles myself. Either way, I have come to realize that our lives (here in this corner of the world) do not easily accommodate babies. Think about all of the things we need when we have a baby: crib, bottles, safety gates, diapers, exersaucers, strollers, a gazillion toys. And we think all of this stuff makes our lives easier. And in a sense, it does. But we only need all of these things because our lives pre-baby are so ill-suited to infants and toddlers that we have to acquire all this stuff to make it work.

The example in the movie that most drove this point home for me was the boy in Namibia. His family was, from what I could tell, the least "western" of all the families (US, Japan, Mongolia were the others). He had no "toys" - he played with rocks and sticks and cups and other things that were already around him. He wore no diaper - not even a cloth one. His garment looked the same to me as those of the older boys in his family.

But more importantly, he just hung out with his mom and his aunt and his siblings and cousins while the grown-ups continued to do what the did everyday before he came. They did their work while they loved him and fed him and taught him and cared for him. There was no need for "work-life" balance. Work was life and life was work. The babies seemed to just fit right in. Their lives were not completely uprooted by having a baby. That's something I wish we could experience. Unfortunately, the lifestyle we live here is just not designed with babies in mind. They cost us a fortune in childcare, whether we pay for it or forgo our own paid work to do it ourselves. They ruin our nice furniture. They are constantly breaking our nice things. They nearly kill themselves falling off all our hazards. They isolate us from the world we once knew.

Now, its not like I'm ready to ship up and move to Namibia. I'm too accustomed to all my stuff. And I would fry under that sun all day. But, I do envy how motherhood works over there, at least from what I saw.

Has anyone else seen the movie? What did you think?

Thank You Isis!

For those of you who are local, I'm sure you are familiar with Isis Maternity. I first learned about this gem from a friend who did an internship there for his MBA. His wife was pregnant when I was pregnant with the twins so all of us went to one of their guest speaker events - I think it was about children and brain development. We went on to take their "Parenting Multiples" class which I HIGHLY recommend if you are expecting twins and in the greater Boston area. My personal favorite thing about Isis, though, is there selection of baby/parenting/nursing gear. They sell a lot of things that you can't easily find at Babies 'R' Us, especially their nursing and pumping stuff. We have yet to partake in any of their baby/kid classes but I would like to try them out once they are a bit older.

I told you all a while back how I won an Ergo carrier from them. I also mentioned that I won tickets to see Babies - also courtesy of Isis. As if all that wasn't enough, they invited me to special event where they announced their new name which I agree better reflects their services: Isis Parenting. The event was lots of fun, although I had to rescue Sebastian from the babysitting room - such a momma's boy. We learned about Isis' new brand and got to see a great cooking demo from a local Boston chef.

The next night was the Babies movie event. All the ticket winner received free goody bags with nursing mom essentials. I got a kick-ass pumping bra - much better than the one I had last time. These things have come a long way! The movie was adorable but I'll save my thoughts on that for another post.

So, a big thank you to Isis Parenting for letting us into your world this past week. I will continue to sing your praises and will remember to use your new name!

My Job Here is Done

We finally took the plunge and purchased some oversized plastic contraptions for Sebastian and Collette. One for their playroom, one for the backyard. Needless to say, it was love at first sight on both accounts. And now, it's like I don't even exist. Ahhhhhh... :)



PS - If you are local, consider yourself invited to enjoy in the bliss that is giant plastic toys.

Sitter Worthy?

The other night, a MoT friend of mine (and next door neighbor, go figure!) invited me out to dinner with some women from her other moms group, one for working mommas. It was at the Melting Pot so I got my ass into gear and found a sitter. Nothing motivates me more than melted cheese and melted chocolate.

The dinner was great, albeit LOOONG. 6 mommies at one table leads to lots and lots and lots of talking. Which was great and a needed change of pace. As we are sharing war stories (read: poop, vomit, and pumping stories) one of the women asked us if we remembered that episode of Seinfeld where Elaine is buying up all the sponges because they are being discontinued - she used the term "sponge-worthy" as in, "do I want to use one of my remaining sponges on this guy??" Anyway, our mommy friend said that she and her husband use the same thought process, only applied to having a night out and hiring a sitter. Would this "event" be worth finding and paying a sitter? Maybe. Maybe not.

Of course, that night was sitter-worthy. Again, melted cheese and chocolate - what more do I have to say? But there are some things that don't make the cut so easily, at least not for me.

• running errands alone: NEVER sitter-worthy
• doctor appointment: NOT sitter-worthy
• emergency doctor visit: sitter-worthy
• shopping: NOT sitter-worthy
• date night with the hubs: sitter-worthy
• club meeting (mom's group, book club, etc.): NOT sitter-worthy
• gym/exercising: NOT sitter-worthy

What do you think is sitter-worthy?

I Love This Age

Today, we had no plans. Just one of those days where there is no play date scheduled, no class, no EI, no special errands to run. But hey, it's no big deal these days. Lately, I feel like I don't need a plan. My kids are at that age where they can play at home or play outside and it's all good. This makes life seem so much easier than it was even a few months ago.

We went to a new park today that wasn't a huge hit with the kids but they still had a good time. When we got home, it was 11:20, still a while before lunch around noon. So, I opened the patio door and let them go outside if they wanted. They toddled on out while I racked my brain for lunch ideas. As I was preparing their food, I could hear them laughing up a storm outside. I stuck my head out to see what was going on: they were chasing each other around their little plastic house, playing peek-a-boo through the windows, opening and closing the french door. After 20 minutes (a substantial amount of time in Toddler World), I had to beg them to come inside and eat. It's amazing how much fun they have in the yard together doing a whole lot of nothing!

And for me, it's so freeing. I can see them from the window and the patio door. I can hear them easily if something goes wrong. The yard is fenced so I don't have to worry about any runaways. And I get to cook/clean/whatever while they have a blast. And when I'm done, they're happy for me to join them in their silly games. And I'm even happier to oblige. I know they won't be like this forever, sadly. This is one phase of childhood I will sorely miss once it's gone.