Christened as a mother

I have been very lucky as a mother with my boys. Both of them really did not spit up much as little babies, the occasional little bit of crap out of the mouth, but nothing big like I had witnessed from other little babies. Colby did get me once with a bit of blessing from his mouth after his first experience with rice cereal, but again not too big.

This last week it finally hit me, literally. Brady had been out of sorts for several day, not wanting to eat, a low grade fever and only wanting to be held. So I did the best I could to hold him and tend to his every need. Then it happened. We were sitting rocking and watching something on the tv and he said "belly urts." I replied with "oh you are fine, here drink some more Pedialyte." Wrong answer, not 10 seconds later he turned to me and shared all of the contents of his stomach. He shared and he shared, boy did he share. I think I was in so much shock, I just sat there for a minute. Dexter on the other hand decided he found a free breakfast that Brady was sharing with him too. I did the best I could to set Brady down on the floor, stand up and get the dog outside before he too was sick from eating whatever this disgusting mess was all over me. Then I stripped Brady down before heading to the laundry room to do the same for myself. Everything was straight into the washer and at this point I did not care that I was mixing colors with whites. Brady starts crying and I am desperately wanting a shower, but a quick towel off with baby wipes will have to do. After we were dressed and the rocker cleaned up, I sat back down and reminded myself that I love being a mother and taking care of my two little ones, but the next time Brady says his belly "urts" I had better grab the closest thing possible.

Yes I am blessed as a mother and happy to say that today everyone seems well.

Month of firsts

Our little boy Colby turned 6 months this past weekend, it is so hard to believe that he is already 6 months. Every time I think of how quickly he is growing, it makes me sad yet happy. He is becoming such a big boy. Size wise he has way passed Brady at the same age, I think we may have our own little linebacker!

Over the last month there were many firsts for the boys. It is amazing how fast it happens and how many can happen at the same time. Here are a few:

*Brady is now sleeping in a big boy bed. We bought the boys bunk beds for future use and Brady is sleeping in his bed. The first few days he was not sure he wanted to stay in the bed and would end up falling asleep on the floor. I found him one afternoon on the floor with all of his animals, his diaper off, but pants on. He managed to pull his pants off, take the diaper off and put his pants back on, backwards (and they were jeans). But now he LOVES his bed. And I love the fact that when he wakes up he actually stays in bed. He has his bucket of books right next to the bed, so he will wake and either read or talk to his animals on the bed. It is so cute to listen to him on the monitor.

*Colby is eating food, well rice cereal, but we consider it food. It took a while for him to take to the taste, I for one would never take to that taste (if you have never tried it, give it a shot). He gagged a lot and spit it out for weeks, but finally persistence paid off.

*Colby also started to crawl, the army man crawl that is. I know I am in trouble with both of them being mobile now. Forget the gym, I am sure I will get plenty of exercise with chasing them.

*We took an overnight trip with the boys to "test" out the hotel room idea. We wanted to see how traveling will work, not too bad but it could have been better. It was lights out in the room at 8:30 and Brady was finally asleep by 9:45. I think I slept the least, worrying that someone was going to roll off the bed. Any tips on hotel sleeping would be greatly appreciated. I am not sure when will take our next trip, but at least we know it is possible to get to sleep.

I am sure there were many more firsts this last month, but my mind is failing me right now. Besides I figured those who read this and check for updates from me would just be glad to read something.

My new washing machine

Brady loves to help me with laundry, he will push the laundry basket to the washer, help me load the washer, transfer to the dryer and then push the laundry basket full of clean clothes back to the bedroom (hopefully this will stay through his teenage years). So it was no surprise to me when he picked up the dirty clothes from the front room and took them to his bedroom to put in the laundry basket - or so I thought. I guess he decided I needed a new washing machine - see picture.

Finally snow

I admit I am about a week late posting this, but we had a beautiful white Christmas here. It snowed, snowed and then when we thought it was done it snowed some more. The Northwest is not prepared for this kind of weather, so it was nice to just hang out at home for a while. We did venture out once the cabin fever really started to hit and were again reminded of why we should have stayed home. Jamie and I both grew up driving in snow, so a few inches is no big deal to us. On the other hand, drivers here are one of two extremes. They either go way to fast for the conditions or WAY to slow. Chains are very popular here (also because of ice) but after the snow is gone, some still drive with chains - I guess fearing it will snow again.

Brady loved the snow, we would bundle him up and take him out multiple times a day. He would fall over and just say "up dada" or "up mama" - it was so cute. He really did not do much in the snow other than walk and fall down, but he loved it. On Christmas day we ventured to Multnomah Falls for a short hike in the snow. It was beautiful - but again we risked our lives out driving in the snow. I think Colby enjoyed the snow too, he never cried when we were out in it.

Tonight it is actually snowing again, I guess this is the snowiest winter in some 40 years. Bring on the snow, we love it in our household.

Dexter did it.

The last month in my lack of posts we have missed Brady's birthday, a trip to SLC for my sisters wedding. Thanksgiving and a visit from Jamie's parents. Sorry I have not posted well, hopefully this one will make up for it.

I was cleaning in the house today while Colby slept and Brady was running around playing. It started to get quiet so I know Brady was up to something. Pretty soon Brady came up next to me and kept saying "Dexter" - usually he wants to know where Dexter is to see how soon he can start tormenting him. So I played along and told him Dexter was laying down by the Christmas tree. The way a 2 year old can be he was adamant - he kept saying Dexter, Dexter, Dexter. Finally I gave in and took him to Dexter. He ran up to Dexter and started pointing by his side saying "no, no no." I looked and Dexter had an ornament from the tree (Brady's favorite thing to do lately is pull off the ornaments, which leads to a timeout each time) right beside him. I am 100% sure Dexter did not put the ornament there, but rather some help from a 2 year old.
What am I to do, put a dog in timeout?

Halloween - yes I am behind

Last year I shopped for months online to find Brady just the perfect Halloween costume - he was the cutest turtle you ever did see. This year was the complete opposite, I was out the week of scanning stores for any costume that did not resemble evil or a Disney character (nothing against Disney, I just figure while I have the say I will choose). One good thing about shopping so late is that costumes are mostly at least 50% off. We went with a puppy for Brady and a pea pod for Colby.

We decide along with the other 2000 people to head to the mall for trick or treating. The weather was not great here, so we decided to stay inside. We soon found out that Brady was terrified of any scary costume, mostly the evil Joker from Batman and the black and white skeleton costumes. Each time he way one he grabbed his dads leg and held on tight. I think we made it to 6 stores and then he was done. Fine with us and we headed off to playland. Colby like usual slept the entire time.

When we arrived home there were still trick or treaters out, Brady could not figure out why so many people were coming to the door and getting Dexter all excited. Luckily it did not last long.

Watch for more posts soon when I have both boys sleeping to update on birthday #2 and how things are going for us.

The dreaded four letter word

This weekend we heard the dreaded four letter word from Brady that I had hoped we would not hear or at least he would hold off until he was a bit older. For those of you who know Jamie, it was not one of THOSE four letter words, he did teach him this one though.

I was busy making lunch and Jamie and Brady were playing when I heard it. Brady took something from Jamie and Jamie replied "mine" - I shuddered internally knowing what was to come next. Almost immediately I heard Brady say "mine" - and most of the afternoon I kept hearing it. Now "mine" has entered into his ever expanding vocabulary and to my husband I am eternally grateful.