P365 week 3

Day 15- Sunday 1.11.09 - A very lazy day.  About the only thing accomplished was giving the kiddos a bath.  They really like bath time.  Well except for washing their hair.  They always make a huge mess out of the bathroom by splashing water everywhere.

Day 16 - Monday 1.12.09 - I love facebook.  It's been really nice keeping in touch with friends and family from far away.  It's nice to have a sneak peak into everyone's lives.  I try to update what I'm doing and thinking via status updates.  Here's what my updates have been for the few months

Jan 16 Dawn is freezing, -27 actual temp at the moment! 7:49am
Jan 11 Dawn hopes this week is better than the last 3 at work. 9:17pm
Jan 8 Dawn is ready for a day off work. 10:25pm
Jan 7 Dawn has extremely chapped hands from making eyeglasses. 7:25pm
Jan 4 Dawn is feeling really lazy today. 2:52pm
Jan 2 Dawn is tired from a BUSY week at work, ridiculously busy, and feeling beat up by cranky customers. 10:23pm
Dec 31 Dawn thinks super glue is not so super. Note to self... refrain from using super  glue near laptop. Or even using it at all.
Dawn is trying to stay awake to ring in '09, Happy new year everyone!  9:50pm
Dawn needs ice skates to get to work today.
Dec 24 Dawn is no longer having Christmas eve dinner at her house due to insane amounts of snow. Christmas eve has been postponed until Tues the 30th. :(.  9:32am
Dec 23 Dawn had a really late night finishing Christmas gifts for her employees. 1:49am -
Dec 21 Dawn spent the evening decorate a gingerbread house with Trevor. 9:28pm - Comment
Dawn feels like she lives in the arctic. 12:02pm
Dec 20 Dawn is wrapping a bazillion presents it seems. 10:26pm
12/16/08 Dawn is thinking of changing her job title to conflict resolution specialist (or elementary teacher) due to a REALLY crappy day at work. 8:53pm
Dawn is waiting for a locksmith because the lock to her store is a piece of crap. 7:36pm
Dawn is thinking it's going to be a slow day at work since it's snowing. 9:10am
12/12/08 Dawn is stuck in the slowest bank drive-thru ever. 2:29pm
12/11/08 Dawn has been sick for 4 days and not missed a day of work while some her employees thinks it's ok to call in all the time. 10:42pm
12/9/08 Dawn is taking the kids to see "octaclaus" tomorrow because Trevor wants "en-imy" for "kiss-mas." 9:46pm
12/7/08 Dawn thanks Liz for getting her hooked on myfarm :P. 7:32pm
Dawn had her plans for a nice family portrait thwarted by cranky kids.  5:58pm
12/6/08 Dawn is listening to Trevor singing, "i wike eating snowman, snowman yummy ummy, snow snow snow" while eating coolwhip. 8:50pm
Dawn can't find a pair of black 3t boys pants in all of Waterloo :o(.  8:38p
12/5/08 Dawn is playing in photoshop, making a holiday letter. Maybe I'll even get them sent out this year. 10:58pm
12/4/08 Dawn & Travis had a date night courtesy of the kids daycare. Ahhhh free childcare even if it was just 2 hours. 10:29pm
12/3/08 Dawn is having a online chat with Dell technical support. Though it sucks having to hit every key twice, it's better than talking to someone who can't speak English. 4:34pm
Dawn thingks something is wrong with her laptop. The keys are "sticky" aking typing difficult. 11:24am
Dawn wonders if she should get a black or white stove, thinking black looks better but it may be a magnet for kiddo fingerprints.  12:25am
Dawn is buying a new stove tomorrow.  12:24am
12/2/08 Dawn just realized there is a facebook app on her blackberry. 9:58am
12/1/08 Dawn is wondering if she is a horrible mom because she briefly thought about taping her son's mouth shut like her dad did once when she was a kid.  9:06pm (ok, before you call dhs... the thought crossed my mind but I wouldn't do it.)
Dawn is having a glass of wine (or 6) now that her naughty kids are in bed!  9:04pm
11/30/08 Dawn is making her list and checkin it twice.  5:07pm
Dawn is packing away baby stuff for yardsale in spring, ~sniff~ my baby isn't a baby anymore. 3:23pm
11/28/08 Dawn is wondering if you can get food poisoning from eating REALLY expired fruit snacks. 11:05pm
11/27/08 Dawn is finally waking from her turkey coma.  6:33pm
11/26/08 Dawn is wondering what she was thinking shopping at wal-mart the day before thanksgiving... nuts! 7:06pm
Dawn is getting ready to shop for T-day cooking marathon, macaroni salad, Chocolate Espresso Torte with raspberry sauce, blueberry jello salad.  3:26pm

Day 17 - Tuesday 1.13.08 - I must have my coffee daily.  Starbucks is most preferred but to expensive for everyday.  I white chocolate mochas in the winter and carmel mocha frapachino in the summer.  I usually get Starbucks on the days that I have to close.  If Dr H beats me to the coffee pot I'm out of luck.  I can't drink his coffee because he uses 3 times the normal amount, resulting in a really thick coffee "syrup"  It's a nice excuse to treat myself a few times a week.

    

Day 18- Wednesday 1-14-09 - This year could become the snowiest winter in history for us.  Last year this time we had 17.9" This year to date we've had 34.9"  Last year was the 4th snowiest winter in history with a total of 53.9"  We've got 33" more to go to make history.  It's a record I would prefer not to see.  I'm really sick of shoveling snow.  Here's the stat's courtesy of KWWL

1. 67.8"…1950-51
2. 59.4"…1961-62
3. 57.6"…1992-93
4. 53.9"…2007-08 (updated Apr 4)
5. 52.5"…1904-05
6. 48.8"…1928-29
7. 47.2"…1996-97
8. 46.6"…2000-01
9. 46.3"…1978-79
10. 46.2"…1971-72

Day 19 - Thursday 1.15.09 - Jayden is very much playing the 2 year old these days.  This picture she is demonstration her defiance in saying "Noooooo!" with her whole body.  We here that and "Minnnnneee!" about a hundred times a day.

Day 20 - Friday 1.16.09 -  Baby it's cold outside!  More records for the record book.  I took this picture before work.  When I looked at the weather channel at home it was -27 not even factoring in the wind chill.  I got my nails done and of course couldn't put my gloves on and smudge my polish.  In less than 5 minutes from there to work my fingers were numb and hands were really red.  The heater couldn't even keep the car warm.  I heard on the radio you can get frostbite in less than 8 minutes and if you throw a glass of water in the air it freezes instantly.

Day 21 - Saturday 1.17.09 - Books are a big deal in our house.  Trevor wasn't thrilled about having his picture taken.  I couldn't even get a smile after bribing him with chocolate.  Jayden's shirt says, "I can't talk yet but I have a cow girl attitude"  it's very fitting.  Subzero temps and the kiddos won't keep their socks on!  

Will I ever get a nice family portrait

I had this super cute dress for Jayden that I planned to use for Christmas family photos.  I wanted a coordinating outfit for Trevor in red, black, and white.  I searched every store in the mall and all the suitable boys holiday attire had navy blue in it, while all of the girls clothes were all red and black.  Why oh why is this?  I finally found the perfect sweater at Old Navy and it was on sale.  Then I just had to find black slacks for him to match.  One wouldn't think this should be that difficult.  Again I went to every store in the mall and Target.  No luck.  The closest I came was 2t black sweat pants at Walmart.

Fast forward to the next day, picture day, all was going good.  The kids were excited and I promised Trevor if he was good he would get to go see "Octa-claus"  (Santa Claus in Trevor speak)  He said he would, "Say cheese, smile."  The photographer arranged us and did his thing.  Trevor was smiling nicely and the photographer snapped one picture but Jayden was scowling.  The next ten minutes were spent trying to get Jayden to smile and Trevor was still cooperating.  But Jayden wanted no part of it, finally by the time she cracked a little smile, Trevor was D.O.N.E.  He had a full scale meltdown and we gave up.  We had to drag him out of the studio and carry him through the store screaming.

The scheduled us for 5pm to try again.  But I decided to give up and not even try.  It's just not worth the hassle.  Maybe in another 3 or 4 years I can get a decent family picture.  So there's no evidence of our little photo shoot.  But, here is a picture of their super cute clothes.   I guess you'll have to take my word for it how extremely adorable they were.

Oh what a day!

I had the day off today and thought I would take the kids to get their pictures done since we hadn't since Jayden was 1 month old. I had to go into work for a bit in the morning to do a quick partial inventory so the kids ate their breakfast at my store while I worked entertained them. I'll have to remember how much of a hassle it was trying to coral them and get them to eat rather than trying to rip the store apart. More cheerios got crunched into the newly cleaned carpets than into their tummies.

I should have given up and just gone home but since the mall didn't open for another hour and we were going to do pictures at Penneys we went to Target to waste some time and money. I can't leave Target without getting Starbucks. The kiddos didn't want their juice and cheerios. They wanted my carmel mocha Frap. And man did they want it. I got a purdy new comforter set in an effort to make my room a little nicer. (It looks great with my new lamp and sheet set. Hmmm now I just need to paint the walls, get a new dresser and put up some pictures.)

I got some shoes and clothes for the kids on clearance and we headed for the checkout. Why is that kids always do this huge freakout at the checkout. It happens to me every time. I changed Trevor's clothes in the car because I found the cutest outfit for him that matched somewhat with what Jayden was wearing. Freaking out the whole time.

Again I should have given up. But those pictures were going to be taken!

At Penneys there were a ton of people and I hadn't thought ahead to make an appointment so it would be an hour before we could get in. So we wandered the mall. I got Trevor yet another pair of shoes that looked better with the outfit than the ones he had on. We ran into CVS and got some cereal bars for bribery a healthy snack. I spent some more money that I didn't have on a cute necklace. (But it was on sale!!!)

We went back and waited. And waited. And waited. Trevor entertained himself by dumping the box of crayons they had on the floor not once but 3 times. There was ALOT of them. Once he tried to step on them and grind them into the carpet but I reminded him he had done enough damage to carpets at my store! He tried to color on the chairs and on the wall when I was tending to Jayden who was confined to the stroller but starting to get antsy. Luckily I noticed before he did any damage.

Finally it was our turn. The last time we went to Penneys they had the table that kids sat up on and the camera on a tripod. I guess they don't do that anymore. Trevor was free to run on and off the backdrop freely. He didn't really want anything to do with having his picture taken, which is why it's been over a year since we've had them done. We tried getting him to play catch. She managed to get only 2 pictures of him, though they aren't great, at least they were pictures. Most of the time he was running from the girl and pointing at her saying, "No Pi-tur!" with and angry tone and matching scowl.

While we tried to get Jayden to sit still for her pictures Trevor rummaged through their drawers and props. He brought me all kinds of photo albums, magnets, key chains, etc. Jayden though a little easier to photograph was unsure about this crazy girl making strange noises and wouldn't sit still either. The first few shots were of her clinging to my leg with a scared half smile. Luckily she warmed up a bit and we were able to get a few great pictures of her.

I really wanted to get a few pictures of the two of them together. I tried to get Trevor interested in the bench that Jayden had been sitting on and they started fighting over it and smacking each other a bit. So I found another bench and fished out a cereal bar. I didn't even think to take it out of the wrapper. This luckily all happened while they were on the backdrop so she was able to quick snap a picture before Trevor realized it and ran away leaving a trail of crumbs on their backdrop.

I really wish I had thought to take it out of the wrapper before handing it to him because the only picture of the two of them looks like a Honey nut cheerio advertisement. They both snarfed it down like a couple of hungry wolves. Duh, they didn't eat hardly anything for breakfast and it was quickly approaching lunchtime.

Trevor was losing his cool pretty quickly so I handed them another cereal bar and thankfully that kept them both busy while I picked out and paid for the pictures. On the way to the car Trevor threw a huge fit and threw himself to the floor in the middle of the store and I tried the walking away thing and he would run to get around me and throw himself down right in front of the stroller. He did this 3 times so I had to pick him up and carry him out while still trying to push Jayden in the stroller. This continued with kicking and screaming all the way to the car.

Once in the car he thrashed and screamed all the way home. I tried turning on the radio and he only screamed louder and kicked my seat. When we got home the tantrum continued and he was trying to fight with Jayden. So he got put in timeout while I made lunch. He was red and covered in sweat by this time.

His antics were then mirrored by Jayden so now I had two kids having bloody freakouts, not staying in timeout and trying to smack each other around. Gahhhhhh.

Finally lunch was ready and though there was crying and whining through it, it was at least better. Finally it was nap time. And all was finally quiet for two blissful hours!

Our first play group

It was a nice outing overall. We went to the mall and he played on their indoor playground. It's right by the escalators and he enjoyed watching people go up and down. There was a gray haired lady coming down and he said rather loudly in a greeting to her, "Hi pa-ma." I guess that must be a universal term for someone who's old enough to be his grandma or grandpa. He calls Grandma H that when we talk on the phone and called Grandpa G that the other day when visiting. Anyway... the lady grinned and seemed to think it was funny. And he said it probably 5 or 6 more times later when we shopping as we walked towards or past people.

His greeting to everyone these days including me is, "Hi Dawn, how are you?" in a sing-song voice. He said it a few times in the play area and again to pretty much everyone we encountered while shopping afterwards. He picked it up I suppose from Travis' greeting when I come home from work. He's been saying this every time I walk in the door and I tell him, "no, I'm Mommy" and he grins. I thought it was just a greeting for me until we took him to the Dr last week and he said that to everyone in the waiting area. He kept everyone entertained, people thought it was hilarious.

And lastly his new little trick when were were in the play area is catch-me-if-you-can, a favorite of all children it seems. He would stand by the entry way and wait until I looked at him then he would take off. At first it was just wandering, then he realized I would chase after him. Game on I suppose. Grrrrr. So much for relaxing and chatting with friends. Apparently the person who designed the play area is not a parent. They put the seating along the opposite side of the entry way, which by the way is completely open so no way to coral the kiddos in. I was so worried he would run off when I was distracted by Jayden and I wouldn't be able to find him.

The kiddos were good while we wandered the mall. It was the first time I'd taken both of them shopping at the mall by myself. Our double stroller is massive and a pain to push because it steers really poorly. Some aisles were extremely difficult to maneuver. I was happy to find a brag book style desk frame to sit on my desk at work so I can put mini digi-scrap brag book pages in it. I've been looking everywhere for one. I also got spring coats for the kiddos. I can't wait for the weather to get better!

Little Thief

Trevor always tries to steal my nursing pillow and blanket that I always use when I nurse Jayden while on the computer. He pulls the blanket through the gate and sometimes manages to get the pillow too. He gets mad when I take it back.

Mr. Crabbypants

Wow, today has been a very trying day. We went to a visitation and took the kids along. Trevor has always been wonderful at events of any kind not usually shy and not throwing fits. Well today he was in a perfect mood until the exact moment we walked in the door to the funeral home. He threw himself on the floor and threw a fit. It was just inside the entry only 1 or 2 other people even in sight so it wasn't the crowd. He just wasn't having it.

We tried walking around outside and coming back in. Tried to get his grandpa to coax him in. Cookies. Toys. No dice. There was a 6 month old "bay" (Trevorspeak for baby) And she was right next to the entrance into the room were everyone was gathered. So we talked to the baby for awhile and tried to ease in. Nope.

Back outside for a walk. Back in fits continued. Finally after another visit with the baby I entered the room with him and he was ok and even in a good mood when we were sitting with family. That was until he found a book he wanted that belonged to an Autistic boy who had left it sitting on the chair in the row beside him while he wandered around. I normally don't let Trevor just play with other kids toys without it being a sharing kind of thing and especially didn't think it was a good idea to take the toy of the boy who was so attached to this special book of his. Freakout to end all freakouts. Luckily there was a bunch of people and it was really noisy so only our close family sitting next to us was subjected to his rolling on the floor/kicking and screaming. And so it was time to go.

We had planned to go out for dinner as we had a gift certificate that needed to be used for the town that we were in. Yeah, that didn't happen. Mr Crabbypants was on the warpath the rest of the evening. I was so glad when he finally fell asleep after crying in his room for a half hour.

Near miss

Trevor has this lovely little habit of throwing his toys over the gate. Not thinking we’ve had Jayden’s swing parked next to the living room gate for lack of a better place to put it. Last night when Jayden was in her swing Trevor flung a metal tractor over the gate and it hit her swing! Oh my gosh! I freaked out. It would have seriously hurt her if it hit her in the head. Needless to say… the swing was promptly moved.

Our little Adventure

Today Travis is still sick and in bed most of the day. Trevor still is stuffed up and tires out easily but seems to be getting better everyday. Brian is still sick. And worst of all now Jayden has a stuffy nose. I’ve been checking her temp with every nursing since she started the bili blanket and thankfully she hasn’t been running a fever. Taking care of both of the kids for the last 2 days mostly by myself makes for one tired mama!

I took my first outing with both kids in tow. We went to take back the bili blanket and go to target. Mistake #1 going by myself, Mistake #2 going when it was Trevor’s naptime, Mistake #3 going when it was super cold outside, and mistake #4 spending way too much time at Target.

Usually Trevor does a good job walking down the side walk and to the garage. Of course he chose today to wander of the sidewalk and into the very muddy yard. I had Jayden in her carseat in one hand and in my other hand was the diaper bag and keys with the case holding the biliblanket unit on my shoulder. By the time I put everything down and chased after Trevor he fell in the mud. I got him back on the sidewalk and headed towards the garage. By the time I picked everything back up he buzzed right past the garage and headed for the alley. Grrrrr

I finally get him in the garage and loaded into his carseat in the van. When I go to put the base for Jayden’s seat in the van, the seat belt won’t lock in. I had forgotten that since it is older it doesn’t have the locking seatbelts. So back to the car it goes, I get her loaded, then get Trevor out of the van and into the car. I really should have given up at this point!

When we get to where we have to drop of the biliblanket, I have to carry Trevor, Jayden in her carseat, plus the blanket because Trevor throws a fit and won’t hold my hand to walk across the parking lot. He throws a fit in the lobby because I make him sit on a chair when he wants to run around and get in trouble. Do you think I give up and head home… nah… we still go to Target because I need to shop ya know.

He did really good for awhile. Saying “Hiii-eee” to absolutely everyone we encounter. Laughing uncontrollably every time we come across kids goofing off. (Gee… I think that’s a glimpse of my little troublemaker to be) I’m buzzing along getting things I need and things I don’t. Trevor’s keeping himself occupied with things I give him to “be in charge of” and we trade out frequently to keep him occupied. All is good until we are in the automotive section and he freaks out when I won’t let him have the WD40 and amor all. That was a tantrum I was not going to give into! As if I’ll let my baby play with a bottle of toxic chemicals. He screamed all the way to the check out. At the checkout he cried a little and “talked” to the cashier in his woeful way; surely telling her what an awful mommy I was.

After checking out I realized I had forgotten to take any pictures of our outing so I snapped some en route to the door. People probably thought I was nuts taking pictures of my cranky toddler! Trevor fell asleep before we were even out of the parking lot. Jayden slept through the entire trip. As I pulled in the driveway I realized I forgot the one thing that sparked the trip to Target… some nursing camisoles. Grrrrr

By the middle of the afternoon I have a tickle in my throat. Ugggg, I so don’t need to get sick now.

Potty mouth

Trevor has just learned his first naughty word... grrrrr. I don't use fowl language all that much but apparently he picked it up somewhere. He delights in saying the word shit. And now he says it ALOT! I have no idea how to break him of it. He's too young to have the "you can't say that word" conversation. I'm planning on ignoring it and hopefully it will go away.

We thought that maybe he was just testing sounds and that it was part of his babble. Or maybe he was trying to say something different. But I caught myself saying it pretty loudly last night... I don't know why. So maybe I say it more than I thought??? But as soon as it was out of my mouth my little parrot boy was saying it over and over and laughing. So yeah... he has a fowl mouth. :o( I guess we have to be more careful now with what we say.

Terrible 2's?!?!?!?!

Oh my gosh, Trevor threw a big ol' temper tantrum this evening. Tonight was officially his first time out, after he threw a toy at me. He's had throw himself down on the floor tantrums before but this was the first time he went out of his way to throw something at me. Grrrrrr. I'm not ready for this.

I was going to help him with a lollipop and that was a big mistake. Rather than sticking it in his mouth he wanted to just put his fingers in the sticky mess then wanted to wander around the toy room and get the sticky mess everywhere. I don't think he's ready for them yet. And if he gets another anytime soon he will be in his highchair first. He got pretty torked off when I took it away. He threw himself down in the corner screaming and picking up toys that were near him and tossing them away from him. Then he picked up a block, walked across the room and threw it at me!

He's had a bit of a bad day today. This morning his uncle, Brian, was watching him in his high chair while I ran upstairs. When I came down Brian was saying to him in a nice voice, "no no Trevor, you've got to stay in your chair" Trevor did the lip quiver, sob sob, then WAAAAHHHHH!!!

Now he's at the gate to the computer room crabbing and throwing all of his toys in here.
I had a long day at work and dealt with crabbos all day, I'm not ready to deal with a crabby babe tonight.

~sigh~