Quoting Stella #3

Stella has created a whole new color scheme for our family.  The colors in this group are the "day time" and "night time" colors.  Any time we ask Stella about a color that she has to imagine, for example, what color she wants her new room to be, she tells us "Uuuummm day time blue."

At first she was just saying day time and night time about blue, so I thought she was talking about sky blue.  Now we have realized that she has correlated darkness (as in night time) and light (as in day time) to colors.  What a smart little bean!

What a day...

This whirlwind started bright and early because its Tuesday School Day / Mommy's Easy One Baby Day at our house.

7:15 - Got brother up to feed him

- Got me up to get dressed

-Got Bean up to get ready for school... there's about a 99% chance that she will scream and cry about not wanting to get her clothes on, socks on, shoes on, hair fixed, and/or go to school. Fun!

--Michael got up and did Bean's lunch and breakfast... total lifesaver.  He ended up dressing her too and it was surprisingly tame. 

-Loaded the babies up to go to school... lots of crying

-Drop off... more crying

-We're free (this is where it starts) so we run grab a starbucks.  Thank goodness.

-Sweet friend Emily calls and has a sick newborn and needs me to watch Hannah (19 mos) so she can run to the doctor.  Of course I say yes and am more than happy to help.

-Get home feed and dress Yates.

-Check email quickly...can't reply, just read.

-Hannah comes over.

-Call my mom to ask her if I need prozac b/c I am unbelievable grumpy, pissed, mean, mad, annoyed for no reason.  

-Play with Hannah and Yates

-M leaves to go have lunch with work people.

-Yates gets sleepy, feed him, run put him down for a nap.

-Play with Hannah.

-Fix Hannah a snack.

-Unload the dishwasher.

-Emily returns to get Hannah.

-Y wakes up while she's here, they go home.

-Pick up toys.

-Gigi (M's mom) calls.  I ask her if I should get some prozac and chat for a sec.

-Feed Yates

-Neighbor across the street, Emily, calls.  Has a job interview and needs me to babysit Violet (2) while she runs to do that.  Of course, again I say yes and am happy to help.

-M returns with a little news.  His business unit has been sold and he is uncertain about his job.  Oh really?  Aren't we building a house?  Fantastic!  He is freaking out a little bit.  Where's that PROZAC??

-Run Y outside to swing for a second before Bean comes home and sucks all of the attention out of the galaxy.

-Realize I've got some sort of itchy rash on my back.  I think I'm getting hives or something b/c the stress level over here is not healthy.

-Run inside to make a sick, fast sandwich to eat so I don't just die.

-Eat sick sandwich while I reload the dishwasher.

-Load up Y to go pick up Stella.

-M informs me that he might just quit and start his own company and asks how little we can survive on while he does this.  Ok... I'm ok...

- Home appraiser calls to come come appraise the house at 5.  Fabulous!

- Builder calls with lots of questions.

-Get home.

-Feed Yates

-Violet comes over.

-The girls play really well, no incidents.

-M leaves to run some errands but says he will be back to help me get ready for the appraiser.

-Emily comes back to get Violet

-Open the front door to let Emily and family out and the dogs run out.  The neighbor's son, who comes over every single day with his 3 dogs drives up with his windows down and Sasha runs to attack his dog who is hanging 1/2 way out of the front passenger seat.  I run and practically have to tackle her to get her off of this car and dog.  Cool.  

-Get babies and dogs back inside.

-I start frantically trying to clean up our 1/2 moved out 1/2 disaster zone home that has been full of kids all day while I carry Yates around and Stella is begging me for pickles of all things.  

-I am sweating, running, making beds, wiping things, sweeping, sweating, running... 

-4:58 Michael comes home.  Great.  I am mad, but don't say anything.  What do you say?  He helps finish picking up.

-Appraiser arrives and does his deal.

-We go outside to play in the nice weather.  Kids gotta play even when the mommy and daddy are about to lose it, right?

-Try to take a family picture b/c Bean is supposed to have one for school. (Mind you that you can only take her picture these days if you lie and tell her that you are actually taking a picture of something near her, not her... no paparazzi for Bean.)  

-Gabby (M's dad, still evacuated from Houston) comes by.

-Feed Yates

-Pack toys, diaper, snacks.

-Load up to go to dinner.

-Have a good talk with Gabby and good dinner.  Feed Yates.  Everyone behaves thankfully.

-Come home

-Get everyone's pjs on.

-Play

-Read Stella's books and put her to bed.

-Feed Yates and get him to bed.

So I know no one really cares about the minutia of my day, but I was already thinking I needed prozac before it even really started.  Also we have been staying up until 1 and 2 working on decisions for the house and have frazzled nerves as it is... and yes I still have an itchy rash on my back.   

Things to be thankful for:

1.  Stella and Yates have been angels lately.  

2.  We are building a new house.

3.  At least I didn't have to go the grocery store again, right?

Night, night...

Mowing, Crusing and Venting

Yates and Daddy on their 1st mower ride together.  Yes, Yates is mowing in his dinosaur pjs.  Doesn't everyone???  He looooved mowing by the way and made his little growl noise (he growls at things he likes) the whole time.  

Yates seems to be in a big hurry to walk.  Now that he figured out crawling, he seems to be on to the next thing.  His #1 mission all day every day is to get over to any and everything that he can pull up on.  He pulls up on the couch, the hearth, the ottoman, the dog, dressers, tables, a leg (if one is still for too long).  I also caught him going from the ottoman to a toy and from the ottoman to the couch.  I can't figure out if he's really trying to learn to walk or if he is just fearless.  Call me crazy, but a 7 month old baby cruising between pieces of furniture just seems odd.  He is so precious either way.  

Today we went to the new house to check on some electrical stuff (fun!) and I packed a big bowl of snacks for Stella and Yates.  Stella did a great job keeping Yates entertained and handed him cheerios and stars one by one the whole time we were there.  Yates thought it was the coolest thing to have Stella handing him snacks.  He thinks Stella is the coolest thing most of the time which is also really cute.  

A little vent for mommy:  I am coming to the realization that I am severely self deprecating.  I stress myself out over the things that I'm not doing or not doing well and obsess over how to be better.  For example, I am terrrrrrible about going to the grocery store.  I hate it.  I hate everything about it.  I don't like planning meals b/c nothing ever sounds good to eat.  I don't like wagging the kids to the store.  I never know what to buy for snacks.  I hate buying food that goes bad really fast. (Little ticking rot bombs, eww!)  I don't like how much groceries cost when you check out.  I don't like buying food that is unhealthy (but we all know thats the good stuff).  I don't like the way the grocery store smells.  I don't like the people at the grocery store.  I don't like having to run around at 3000mph to cook a meal with kids crying at my feet and hanging on my legs after I do make it to the store.  Whew.  I went to the grocery today... can you tell?

Whatever.  Today was a really good day.  Everyone was sweet.  Stella didn't have a single fit, which is amazing after her terrible last couple of weeks.  We got lots of errands run, mommy cooked dinner and everyone is bathed and in bed.  You can't ask for much more : )

 

I didn't have any good pictures to post so here are 3 from a year ago today : )

Our Favorite Song

Michael and I have chosen this as our favorite song because its so cute!

Yates just loves it because the ABCs really are his favorite song.  Lucky for Stella : )

"Ay, B, C, D, E, oF, G, Aych, I, Jy, Ky, Amenapee, Coo, Ah, As, Coo, Ah, V, Dabajoo, Ahx, zYei, N, Z.

Know Beana Ay, B, C, zit time sing zit me. Clap for me?"

First Grover just wanted to sit in the highchair with Stella.  Then he wanted to help her eat her dinner.  That Grover!!  Yes that is cheese in his mouth.

"Shool and The Crawler"

Stella had her first day of school this week, on Tuesday.  She was so excited to go the day before school, but oh no.  She woke up the morning of school and was not wanting to go at all!  She cried from the moment she got out of her bed and was still crying as I walked away from her class room.  I felt like a terrible mommy b/c we had the wrong shoes.  The kids are required to wear tennis shoes and socks.  Not only is this UGLY, we didn't have any tennis shoes that fit.  I went to the mall and seriously scoured every single store.  No suitable shoes in the entire mall in her size.  You know that kid that gets in trouble for breaking the rules when its really their bad mommy's fault?  I was paranoid all day that she was going to have a note pinned to her chest or something when I picked her up that made her feel bad all because of the stupid shoes.  Guess what.  Nothing happened.  Found some shoes and we'll be ready for next week.  More importantly, when I picked her up from school it was "So much fun!"  She's been telling me that her "shool" was so much fun ever since.  Hopefully we'll have fewer tears next week.

It is always fun to have days with Yates.  To let him be first and only for a change.  I wish that he had more undivided time with us, but I guess this is just the way it is for number 2.  Luckily he is a sweet boy.  He is a sweet boy who is officially crawling, by the way.  He is also trying to pull up on things.  I think he is way too little to be doing that, but I guess he can't help himself with all of that super strength he has.  He also has these 2 little bottom teeth that keep getting bigger and they are sooo cute!  I wish I could get a good picture of them.

Today Dara and I (and our 4 kids of course) attempted to recover 6 dining room chairs for a friend/client.  What makes us think we can do these things, I do not know!  We're already outnumbered by babies.  Anyway, we were in the midst of the usual chaos, nothing out of the crazy, loud ordinary and Stella had a little melt down.  She has recently started telling me when she is sleepy and ready for a nap, so we had that little conversation and whisked her away for her nap.  She got up and we thought everything was going to be ok, but oh no!  She completely flipped out.  Sweet Michael had offered to take Shelby, Stella and Yates to the "outside park" in the wagon and had little ice creams and spoons for them to eat on the ride.  Fun, big, big fun right?  No way.  Stella screamed and cried and wouldn't let anyone go to the park at all.  She wouldn't even eat the ice cream!  What?  Craziness.  I mean she has never flipped out so bad.  I didn't even know what to do.  She was doing that wild hyperventilating cry thing (that I might have done once or twice.) I didn't even know what to do.  Any suggestions?  

Anatomy of a flip out, stage 1, 2 and 3:

After she pushed the wagon back up the driveway with Shelby and Yates calmly along for the ride, she insisted that everyone go back inside.  I got her, sat her down and tried to get her to calm down.  Eventually she calmed down enough for me to have her "help me" use the sewing machine to make the cording for the chairs.  After that she was fine, but I really thought we were going to need a straight jacket or something.  She seems too little to be having such wild freak outs and I don't know if I should spank her or hold her.  Ahhhh, the joys of motherhood : )

Speaking of motherhood... what about that Sarah Palin?  I'm a fan!  5 kids, breastfeeding working mother, son in the armed forces, pregnant teenage daughter and a down syndrome baby????  #1 How can she do all of that?  #2  Could she be a better picture of every American woman?  Brilliant choice John McCain.