Portsmouth & Complainy Post

Grady and Great Grammy and Grampy

Grady and Great Grammy

Moira pretending like it's her 5 year birthday party. Grandma put some candles in a pancake.

johnny jump up

Grady and Nana and Pop

At the lodge pool

Grady and Connor McClure, one of my longest lifetime friend (Leslie Rodeheffer)'s baby. Les and I lived across the street from each other and our mom's hung out when we were little. We then spent every morning 2 chairs away in home room from 6th grade until High School. Connor is ADORABLE, as you can imagine if you've ever seen Leslie! This encounter between Grady and Connor was funny b/c 1. Made me realize how huge Grady's head is and 2. Grady freaked out b/c he was afraid of Connor! I am not used to babies who are his age, about 10 months. All the 3 year olds know you aren't supposed to put your fingers in baby's eyes, etc. But 10 month olds don't. I forgot and had grady on the floor and he started screaming and I noticed connor's fingers were in his eye sockets. After that, everytime Connor would come near him Grady would freak out and get really red and SCREAM! (which he never does). It made me laugh though and that stopped the screaming. Made me realize he needs some baby friends.

Moira fell asleep with M&M's in her hand on the way to the lodge pool. Apparently she woke up at 5:30 am at Grandma & Grandpa's house and said "googly mooogly" or something to grandma.

I made this sweet diaper cake for a friend. It's a combo big-brother present too b/c I put suckers down in each diaper and have sippy cups with the brother's names on them. I also rolled matching bibs up and put those in place of some of the diapers and stacked toys and spoons in the ribbons. It was fun to make. Funny though, Moira looked at it and said "Mommy, I want a sucker, but not one that tastes like diapers" and did a shudder at what I presume was the thought of a poo flavored diaper.

I am always so behind on the blog these days. I blame facebook.

Where to begin. Chris worked most of the weekend weekend before last and so I was starting to go insane by early last week. I called the Grandparents in Portsmouth and got the A-OK to drive down there and trash their houses for a few days. I think what makes me insane more than anything else is the trashing of the house. And this is funny b/c I used to be a big slob. Here is my official apology to my parents and all my college roommates and Chris before we had kids (although he never cared). I think it's b/c we are home so much (even though we get out and about at least once every day), it's all I can do to just keep up with laundry and dishes, let alone the enormous amount of mess that a 3 year old can make. And now that Grady is into hard core solids 3 times a day, we have all that mess. It's just all a mess! Anyway, fortunately we have grandparents to go and visit to take some of my edge off. I did feel bad b/c I went to drop off this diaper cake to a friend and she just had a baby. She was having a hard time, 1.5 weeks after c-section and she asked me if it gets any easier, dealing with 2 kids. I said, oh yes, it totally does. Then she asked me why were were going to Portsmouth and I said "Oh, I was about to go insane, so I just threw all of our stuff in the car and we are driving away". I realized later that probably didn't make her feel any better.... We had a nice visit. We went to the Lodge pool one day, visiting Great Grandparents, and mainly just laid low. Honestly, it was nice for me to get to put Grady to bed w/o having to rush it so Moira doesn't get bored and come in and disrupt him while he is doing his last feeding. I am always so nervous b/c at 5 1/2 months, right before he goes to bed, he really needs quiet and no distractions or we need to start all over. It's asking a lot of Moira to ask her not to come into his room those last 10 minutes. She does pretty good but every now and then we have some sort of "emergency" and she'll bust in yelling or half crying. Anyway, it was nice to just focus on him. Poor second child- I focused on Moira ever single night before bed for 3 1/2 years and he kind of gets dragged along for the ride. Good thing the guy is easy going, he has to be! Although I don't totally believe the "second child is always easier" rumor b/c I have had several friends with colicy/fussy seconds, so you never know. Now what was I saying... I don't remember. Oh yeah, it was nice to just put one kid to bed and wake up with just one kid. So much easier. I had forgotten! Chris is always at work when Grady goes to bed around 7 and barely gets to see Moi in the week- only if she's happened to nap in the car will he get to see her much. It's just me all day. And w/o Moira napping, it's a looooong day. I was remembering how good I had it when Moira was Grady's age. She was pretty much sleeping through the night. She'd get up at 7 am, we'd play. She'd nap from 9-10:30 and I'd do 45 minutes of exercise then shower and get ready. Then we'd go out and about. Then she'd nap again from 1-2:30 and I'd clean the house and dinner prep. Then we'd play a little bit and she'd take a late 3rd nap when I could do some laundry or house clean, work on a craft or e-mail. Now with 2, I just don't get anything done!!! Although, I have realized I can do more when they are both awake than before. Like today. I laid Grady on a blanket and put on a show for Moira in our room and rode the exercise bike. Grady let me go 25 minutes. He just plays with his toys and looked out the window. Every now and then I just say "hi!" and he smiles. Also he loves his jumparoo so I can fold laundry while he does that and Moi plays computer games or reads book or whatever in the playroom. So it's not sooooo bad, just busy. And I could really benefit from a husband who is home at a reasonable hour, but now I'm just talking crazy. Chris's firm is just really busy. Always.

Okay, enough complaining. Here are some funny stories.

Moira was on the trampoline today and she was just looking at me not moving. I said "what are you doing?" She said "You have to click the mouse button to make me jump!" Perhaps too many computer games... Also, she's been adding "dotcom" to the end of random words. Like "mommy, can you get me a Popsicle.com". She is really good at the computer though, and it is excellent when I want to put Grady down for a nap. She plays Nickjr.com, noggin.com, and playhousedisney. In fact, she can open Internet explorer, go to favorites, pull down her game and then scroll through all games. Her preschool offers a computer class and I was thinking she could probably teach it.

Grady is working himself into a half way decent nap schedule FINALLY. He had been taking 4-45 minuteish naps all day. That's fine, but it just seemed like I was constantly putting him down and getting him up. Very frustrating for Moira who would get excited to finally have mommy time and then he was up. She even started turning off the monitor when he was napping so I wouldn't hear him get up (scoundrel). The last few days I've tried to keep him awake a little longer in the morning even though he is fussy for the last 20 minutes or so and he's been sleeping about 1.5 hours twice a day with a shorter 3rd nap.

My back is killing me from carrying him around. I really think I have to stop typing now b/c it hurts sitting here so long! I asked Cheryl who also has an enormous boy if it gets better once they start walking and she said no, b/c you still have to carry them in the parking lot and whatnot. She said that it even feels like one side is getting longer than the other. Grady was 19.4 lbs when I weighed him at home the other day. Oy.

Okay, I could write more, but will have to do for later.

Oh, and I am excited b/c the first Internet "friend" I have made had a baby yesterday. I have been reading this blog for about a year and I finally e-mailed the writer when she was talking about her feelings about having a baby and how it would affect her daughter, so I had to send her the "Loving Two" poem I put on Moira's blog. She wrote me back and didn't think it was weird that I started my e-mail "you don't know me but I read your blog". Apparently she gets that from time to time. Anyway, she comments on my blog sometimes and I comment on hers. She is such a good writer and I love her daily stories and pictures. They had a boy yesterday and even though I don't really know them, I feel like I do and am very excited for them! www.bellyville.net.