and some more on poop....

Well, I worked this morning, and am quite happy that today was the last day of summer camps!  Back to nursery school and regular fall hours next week.  Katie watched the kids for me, and Jesse was very pleased to make mommy and daddy some cookies (with some help from Katie).  He is finally over his stomach bug (it lingered a few days after the initial horrible day I wish not to speak of).  Here he is a happy healthy boy rocking Janna's hat!

And here are the 2 Vance girls looking very cozy and happy.

It seems Jesse just got over the worst of his stomach issues, and it hit poor Dave pretty hard and heavy middle of the week.  Dave is feeling a bit better today, and had an appetite for the first time at supper tonight.   I was thinking how well Janna and I have done to evade this.  I am the one doing the most of the cleaning and cleaning up, and Janna is 1 and into everything, so I was thinking at supper how weird it is that neither of us have come down with it.

Janna was super grumpy all day, and fought sleep at bedtime tonight.   Like yelling and hollering and bashing things around in her crib.  Usually if one of us goes in and snuggles her for five minutes, she will settle right in and we won't hear from her again until 7 am.  Well, Dave and I both went back in her room a few times.  After multiple check-ups, snuggles, and some tylenol, we decided there was nothing more we could do.  So we put on an episode of Friday night lights and settled in to try and relax and let the wailer put herself to sleep.

Well, I really get freaked out by motherly instincts sometimes.  About 15 minutes in, I just had to check on her.  Something was not right.  Sure enough, she had an explosion that went all the way up her back to her hair!   I guess she wasn't so lucky.  Dave and I ran a bath, attacked laundry and her crib,  got her changed and comforted.   Was it ever nice having only one child to deal with- and help on top of that!

 I felt so bad for being frustrated with her attitude and restlessness today, the poor little thing is sick and her stomach probably felt awful all day.   So, we agreed to let her snuggle with us and share some popcorn while we finished our tv episode.  You could tell she felt better after getting all that out, but was she ever tired.  She just flopped on us for most of it- asked for some more popcorn, and did spill water all over Dave.  In the end, our 45 minute show took us almost an hour and a half to get through with all the interruptions.

It's now 11, and Janna is back in bed, and FINALLY asleep.  Yay!  I really hope this passes quickly for her, and that Katie and I continue to be bug-free!  I should get to bed.  I have to work in the morning, and do some heavy duty cleaning! Thanks for reading, I'm out.

Deadly combinations

Today I had to wait in line with both my children for 45 minutes.  Service Ontario and toddlers, are two things that I try to avoid at all costs.  But, out of necessity, today was the day I undertook the battle. 

You see, Katie is in the process of switching insurance companies.  As a “house-sharer,” when  she needed my license number for her new company, I discovered it had expired over 2 months ago!  (and had the wrong address on it.... Whoops... )  With her insurance running out in a few days, and me scheduled to work the next few, I knew I needed to get it done this morning.   I had no time to arrange a sitter, and a playdate scheduled for the later morning, and so I just  decided to go for it.  

I made my best case scenario plan up last night.  I would arrive at service Ontario 15 minutes before they opened, and hopefully be in and out.  If there was already a line up, I would take the umbrella stroller for Janna and some sugary snacks and books to entertain them while waiting for our number.

Well, we made it 10 minutes before opening, and I was feeling quite proud of myself for getting the kids ready and out the door on time.  However, my heart sank over two things when I walked into the building.  I counted, and there were 26 people already in line!  They weren’t even supposed to be open, yet!  And secondly, there was no “take a number and sit to wait.”  There weren’t even any chairs.  It was an old-fashioned- roped-off- follow the bends- wait in an actual line, system.  Ahhhh!   Making 2 little children stand and do nothing for even one minute is hard enough!  We put Janna in the stroller with a book, and I tried quietly entertaining Jesse with songs and stories and questions.  About 10 minutes in, he sat on the floor, sighed, and said, “I don’t like this room.  I want to leave.”  And Janna started rocking and bouncing violently in her flimsy umbrella stroller while squawking, in a desperate attempt to communicate, “ I want out of this.”   Jesse decides to be the boss and lecture Janna on her behavior, and while I’m trying to tell him to simmer and that mommy is the boss, he lowers his head, glares at me, points his finger in my face and and booms in a deep voice for the whole room to hear, “ No mom.  You are not allowed to talk to Janna.  I’m allowed to do it.   I don’t have to listen.”  

Jesse is in this testy stage where he is trying to assert some space and independence, and while I have been trying to give him certain opportunity to do this, talking to me like this is NOT OK.  He knows it, but the other thing the smart little cookies has picked up on, is that there isn’t too much I can do about this behavior in certain situations..... like this one.   

Now, it’s one thing if you are stuck somewhere loud and open, or private and small to deal with misbehaviour.  However, in a room that is DEAD quiet as 30 people wait in close confines with NOTHING TO DO, you just know that everyone is watching you and how you are dealing with your kids.  And I just HATE that feeling.    HATE, HATE, HATE, it.  I bent over to his level and did my best to communicate quietly that he needed to stop with the ‘tude, and NOW.   And I could tell he was just assessing how much he could get away with as we had our little chat.

Anyways, 45 minutes later after a few more talks with Jesse, many ridiculous games and rounds of Eye-spy, Janna is seriously losing it, and Jesse is starting to try and sneak out, we finally get our turn.  I was bracing myself for the news that there was some document I needed, or maybe even that I was at the wrong place, but 2 minutes later I walked out 50 bucks poorer, but with a valid driver’s license.  Thank the Lord.    

I hope to never have to mix service Ontario with a 1 and 3 year old again.  However, I must say that overall, I get less stressed out by my kids and find myself taking on bigger things with them than I would have a year ago.  I’m sure that in a few months when we add baby 3, I will look back and think life was a piece of cake with 2, and laugh in the face of any such outings with just 2 children.  So, for now, I am happy we got the document, nobody was hurt, and we weren’t kicked out of the building J

Hope you’re all having a wonderful Wednesday. Thanks for reading, I’m out

on Being Pregnant the third time around...

Another weekend has passed, and it was pretty eventful and non-eventful at the same time.  I had a busy work shift on Saturday, followed by a busy late afternoon outing with the kids, followed by a nice evening scrapbooking, organizing, and then relaxing with Dave.  Today we had the kids outside bright and early before it got too crazy hot, went to church, all enjoyed naps after lunch, and now the kids and Dave are cozied up watching a movie.  I’ll go snap a picture:

I’ve been feeling really pregnant this weekend.   Obviously, I’ve been pregnant for a while, but with 2 little kids there isn’t too much time to dwell on it.  Well, it seems trimester 3 hit and I find myself having a hard time doing certain things I forgot about entirely.

-        Washing the dishes in the sink.  My stomach is just in the way.  I have to turn my body to the side or sort of bend my knees and hunch over.  Likewise, lifting and switching and sorting laundry is one of those uncomfortable tasks.

-        Putting on pants, socks, shoes, and painting toe- nails.  Space is running out....

-        Cleaning up toys at the end of the day.  All the bending and standing makes me feel like I could go into labor.  I have reverted to 3 tried and true methods.  1. Use the broom to sweep all the toys to the corner,  then put them all away.  2. Kick the toys across the room at the corner, then put them away.  3. “Daaaaaaaave.....”

-        Physical activity beyond the usual (mopping, lifting, walking quickly) gets these INTENSE super strong, breath-taking Braxton hicks contractions started very easily.

-        Snuggling with my babies.  It’s hard to cozy up to read a book to them.  They want to sit on my lap, and are sort of out 6 inches without comfy back support.   Janna has taken to trying to mount the top of the baby bump in order to snuggle in closer.   It is quite funny and painful.

Poor Janna has no idea what is about to rock her world in a few months.  When I make “baby in belly” references, she usually just lifts up her shirt??  Jesse on the other hand is very excited about his new sister.  He keeps asking when she is going to “pop” and be here.  I’ve resorted to talking about the leaves on the tree (fall time), and after Halloween.   He keeps asking if we can “go to Halloween.”  I have this fear that after trick-or-treating, he is going to arrive home expecting a new little person, and be totally disgusted and disappointed that she has yet to arrive.  Jesse is quite gentle around my belly and if he pokes or bumps into me, he leans over to it and gently rubs it saying, “ Oh, sorry, baby.  I didn’t mean to.  You’re fine.”  He also randomly tells me that the baby is crying and will give it a little kiss or pat.

The other thing that has HIT me the past week is all the comments on being pregnant.  I guess I’m at that point where there is no mistaking me as anything other than pregnant, and the question “ When are you due?”  And “This your first?” comes up a ton.  Especially at work.  When it was my first, I found the responses to be big smiles, tons of advice, and tons of questions.  With my second it was like, “Congrats. You’ll be busy! Do you know if it is a boy or girl?”  With this baby, the responses are like,          “Are you crazy?”  “Wow, you’re brave,”  “When will you stop?”  and today at church one of the ushers said, “I think you two do a little too much celebrating (wink). ”   It’s funny, cause none of the reactions phase me at all.  Dave and I couldn’t be more excited and thankful to add another precious life to the Vance clan.

Katie and her BF Justin were commenting on my recent belly boom last night, and I felt the need to show Justin some pics of how HUGE I got with Jesse.   SO I pulled up the pics I had about a week before Jesse came along.  Please look at these and feel free to laugh at how unnaturally round I am!  I sure did. 

So,  I then dug out some pics of me with Janna.  This is just a few days before she arrived.   I was quite a bit smaller, and 10 pounds lighter!  

This inspired me to compare my belly now with shots from both babies, and I dug through my pregnancy journal to compare weight and inches.  And it would appear that baby 3 is tracking much closer to Jesse (8pounder) than Janna (5).  Yikes!  I feel like my body can’t carry more than an 8 pound baby, and it makes me a tad nervous.   Last night, after making these connections, Dave and I sat down to watch the first episode of the second season of Friday Night Lights together.  It began with a child-birth.  I was like, “Dave... I just don’t wanna see and hear this right now.....”   Anyways, that’s all I will ramble about for now.  I need to feed my children!  Thanks for reading! I’m out.   

YIKES

This face just about sums up how I feel about my day went today. Yikes.

I was really hoping for an easy going, slow moving day at home.  Dave has been away on business since Wednesday night, and after picking him up late last night from a car rental place (and thus getting to bed 2 hours later) I was a bit groggy today.  Dave had to take off first thing to hit up the end of his staff retreat, and so on top of being tired, I was car-less.  Do any of you moms feel the same doom when you know you have no wheels for the day?

Anyways, the projectile barf started from Jesse at breakfast time after promptly eating a bit of egg, banana and PB toast.  Gross.  Dave was just on his way out the door, and kindly cleaned up the floor, table, chairs before bolting for work.   I bathed Jesse and got him set up on the couch with a bowl while Janna screamed in anger over being left to eat breakfast by herself, and perhaps the smell?  This is a good shot of how Jesse spent most of the morning... snuggled on mommy sweating while claiming he was cold and holding his tummy preparing for the next possible on-slaught.

Lucky for me, as I have often mentioned, my kids like to be different from each other.  Janna took the role of happy silly girl for the day- and here she is all dressed up.  She did this all herself and it's like the costumes inspire giddiness in her.  She ran around as fast as her little legs could go grinning and giggling in her very bohemian(???) get up.    

Jesse started to show some life later in the morning, and we even ventured into the front yard to get some fresh air for an hour before lunch.  Jesse downed some fresh biscuit at lunch, and I thought maybe we were in the clear.  I had cancelled a lunch date with a friend due to the sickie and was feeling like maybe he was fine, but then the action from the other ended erupted.  I won't expand on this, but let's just say Bath #2 for the day was a non-negotiable absolute.  Janna joined me in the bathroom for this one, and got into loads of trouble by climbing into Jesse's old potty, slipping on wet spots, trying to scrub the toilet for me, and yelling at Jesse for no apparent reason, " YaAAA Ga Goo Esss Jess.. BUMMMMM... Aahhhhh"

Anyways, my nap time break was certainly filled to the brim with disinfecting and cleaning and laundry, and I was quite happy when Dave returned home early at 3!  We kept the kids fairly happy until bed time, and I am crossing my fingers they sleep well tonight, and the rest of us evade this bug!

Thanks for reading.  2 days in a row... I'm on a roll!

Bring on September

Some of you may hate me for saying this, but it feels like the summer is over here at the Vance house!   Dave is at a meeting in Guelph today, has a staff retreat tomorrow, and then is back to school full days on Monday.  Momma is back to flyin’ solo with the kids.    

Can I just say, I love Fall time!  I really enjoyed school growing up, so this time was full of glee as I picked out new binders and jeans, prepared material for the cheerleading team and anticipated a new year.  Having been out of school for 10 years now (and university 6), I still revel in the cooler weather and make the most of September.  I usually purchase a new notebook and a few pens to record some new goals new budget, new schedule, new ideas.  It excites me right down to the core.  With the kids there are lots of fun things to plan and prepare- and I had fun pulling out and going through all Janna’s fall clothes and reorganizing all her storage bins.  

I was quite impressed with Dave’s commitment to daily blogging over the summer, and it has inspired me to try and keep on top of blogging better this coming year.   I have no plans of blogging everyday- but am going to try to at least post a few times per week.   Not huge posts, but hopefully the smaller moments that might otherwise be forgotten.  This plan may fail entirely... we’ll see....

So, for my post today, I just want to comment on how cute Janna is.  I feel like she got bashed a bit over the summer blog for her up and down disposition that seemed to fall hard and heavy out of nowhere. Lol.  Ok, she can be quite the diva lately, however, this morning she spent a good 30 minutes entertaining herself with her PJ shorts.  She discovered many ways to wear them on her head and had fun running around and bashing into things not being able to see!  So funny...

She just loves to accessorize this girl!  Last night as she was helping me organize all her clothes (another passion she seems to have adopted lately), and she came across a bunch of knitted hats for the up-coming winter.  She tried about 4 of them on, and clearly decided the red one was her favorite.  She wore it to bed last night, and woke up with it on her head this morning insisting on wearing it for breakfast. 

 Another exciting thing this morning was that Jesse made it through the night dry!  He has been potty trained for a year now- but not night trained.  We tried for a week or so putting him in undies for the night,  but he could not seem to make it 12 hours and would wake me up in the middle of the night needing to pee.   After seeking out some advice from other people, I tried putting him on the flush last night around 11 right before I went to bed.  He barely woke up when I took him to the bathroom, peed, and went right back to sleep- waking up totally dry this morning!  He was so proud of himself.  Every night when putting him to bed he’s been telling me,     “Mom- I will try not to pee.  I will really try.”  Here is he is doing some play dough this morning.  Obviously, very proud of himself