Car trouble

I spent about two hours this morning trying to get my car fixed. I will spare you the boring details about the car and no, it's not completely fixed. We called the dealership and someone said they can fix it quickly, like fifteen minutes. So I brush my teeth and hair, throw on some tennis shoes and load Stella into the car. I am in exercise pants and a sweatshirt and Stella is still in her jammies. We weren't looking super cute but it was supposed to be quick.

Of course, it was not quick. Luckily they had this play room so I didn't have to entertain Stella the whole time but yuckidy, yuck. I tried to wipe off most of what she was playing with because it was covered in a layer of grime. I'm not exaggerating. Everything looked like it had been in the garage sitting in an oil puddle. I'm really not a germa-phobe mom but this was just gross. On the bright side, I was really impressed with how well Stella did. You never know with that kid! She was a doll up until the very end when she started saying "home, home, home". So cute.

I was really prepared though. I bought myself a new diaper bag recently and I didn't skimp on it. Mike thinks I'm ridiculous for how much I spent on it but it was my birthday money and it's something I use everyday. I wanted something a little more functional than what I'd used with Stella and it had to be roomy enough for two kids. I am very happy with my purchase. The print is very cute and colorful and I just love all the pockets. Get this...I even get my own pocket. Yes ladies, you heard my right, my very own pocket! Isn't that the life of a mom? The kids get the entire bag for their stuff and I get a pocket. Oh well, I like my pocket.

Eggs vs. Eggo's

Stella has recently started sleeping in lately and let me tell you how wonderful it is not to get up at the butt crack of dawn. For a long time we would stumble out of bed half asleep and lay on the couch and watch cartoons. It's really hard to feel awake and ready to start the day when it's pitch black outside. So our routine was cartoons on the couch, with a small bowl of Cheerios and a cup of milk for Stella. I'm not really into cooking breakfast at 5:30 or 6am.

7am is a much more functional hour. Since we are both awake at this time, we haven't been following our noraml routine. This is good because it cuts out a little T.V. time. Another bonus with this change in wake-up call is that Stella is hungry! We have been skipping the Cheerios and by the time we get breakfast going she is starving.

Hungry is helpful when all I hear every morning is "waffle, waffle, waffle". The girl is addicted to Eggo's. It is rare I get her to eat something that's not on her 5item menu . What I would like her to eat though is eggs. She has a bizarre love/hate relationship with them. One day she will eat them and I think great, something we can add to the menu. Then when I try again it's like I just gave her poison. She yells "don't want it, don't want it"! And she cries. Really? Do we really need to cry over scrambled eggs?

Yesterday I decided to give it another try. It had been a couple weeks since I'd cooked eggs for her and I could tell she was really hungry. I put the eggs on her tray and walked away. She stared at them for a second and then just started inhaling them! She even said "yummy". I wanted to do the "I told you so" song and dance but I figured her eating the eggs was victory enough. So moms, if you want your kids to eat, just starve them! Next on the menu for breakfast: spinach. Or is that pushing it?

She has gone pro

It is no secret that kids are messy. Toddlers in particular are very messy. The messes had been pretty mild until the last couple of months. Now she entertains herself by emptying bathroom drawers, dumping out baskets of toys, taking apart all of her puzzles with no intention of actually putting them back together etc. It’s quite frustrating when I'm cleaning and she is alongside me making a mess with something else. I could go on and on with the stuff she likes to get into.

I am trying to keep my sanity by attempting to have some acceptance for this stage in her life. I can't possibly spend all day cleaning up after her so I just have to deal with having a messy house most of the day. I do make her pick some things up but as quickly as she can make a mess it takes her about ten times longer to clean it up. I just try to maintain age appropriate expectations.

Up until this morning I would say Stella was a semi-pro mess maker. She was doing well but still needed to color on a few walls or smash a little more play dough into the carpet before she could really go pro. Well today she made the leap to a total professional. In fact, we are probably going to get her a uniform where we can post her sponsors: Clorox, Resolve and Huggies baby wipes. Today she made the mess of all messes. If you are wondering what it could be let me just tell you, today we attempted to begin potty training.

We have been preparing her for weeks for this day. She is very excited about the potty. She loves her Dora potty seat and enjoys sitting on the toilet and flushing. She has been showing some signs of readiness and has even peed on the potty twice. I was all set to start this morning. We had her big girl panties, Dora of course, and planned to be home the majority of the week to do the training. I fully expected to have a few accidents but what I got was beyond my worst nightmare.

Thinking back I should have known with the very first accident that she wasn't ready.

Accident #1: We were in the bathroom helping her dolly practice going potty when I noticed she was wet. She was probably wet less than five minutes but it didn't even phase her. She had underwear on and could totally feel the wetness and it didn't bother her one bit.

Accident #2: I was giving her lots of juice to increase her opportunities to go to the bathroom. We had just tried to go to the potty about five minutes before and it was a no go. We had gone back to the living room and as I was looking at her she looked down and there she went on the carpet. Sweet.

Accident #3: It happened in seconds. I heard a grunt and oh no, but oh yes she did. I tried to rush her to the bathroom so she could finish but apparently things are flowing just fine for her. Glad to know we won't be needing any reading material for the bathroom. Luckily she was still into wearing the underwear at this point.

Accident #4: She tires of pulling her panties up and down and ditches them. I figure what the heck, if she pees I'm going to have to clean it up anyway, so what's the difference? We are having issues with her snacks at this point. Lately she thinks it's fun to dump out her bowl of goldfish on the table then fling them onto the floor. Today she had Cheeze-its and after she dumped them on the floor she thought she should also smash them into the carpet. My patience was a little lower at this point and I decided this behavior needed a time-out. So what does she do? Yep, she pees all over her time-out chair. Her chair is not plastic.

This whole process had become increasingly frustrating and thoughts of self doubt and failure began to creep into my mind. There might have been a tear or two by this time. I am pregnant after all so let’s keep that in mind. Though I am losing confidence by the minute and my patience is wearing thin, I press on! This was supposed to be hard right? And that brings me to our last and most catastrophic accident.

Accident #5: She had her morning poop already, were good to go. I can focus on at least getting her trained to pee on the potty. We can do this! Wrong, soooooooooo wrong. We are playing in our play room and I leave her side for maybe a minute. I stop in my tracks, it's quiet. As I walk back into the front room I hear her say "messy, messy". OH GOD, PLEASE NO!

A little side note about me, I am not good with emergencies. I freeze, panic and freak out before I figure out how to handle the situation. A few months ago when Stella was sick she threw up all over me and my bed. Luckily, Mike was home so I just yelled "Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiike!" He looked at me like I was crazy for just standing there but I was dumbfounded.

So I am standing there looking at Stella, who is naked from the waist down, witnessing what is quite possibly the most horrific site I’ve ever seen, and I am temporarily frozen. There is no Mike to yell for. It was horrible. Let me remind you she was not wearing underwear. It was everywhere. On her toy horse, her hands, in between her toes, smashed into the carpet. Holy crap, literally, how did she do this in one minute! I finally jump into action and run her into the bathroom but she is touching me! She is touching me!!! I put her in the tub and she touches the wall. I am looking at the evidence on my arms but can do nothing because she is going to get it everywhere. I grab some baby wipes and do my best to wipe her hands and feet. I leave her in the tub for a second so I can go grab what hasn't been smashed into the carpet before the dog can eat it. Are you gagging yet? I don't know how I managed this without throwing up. I must have been in shock.

I got the situation somewhat under control and cleaned out the tub so I could get her cleaned up. I must have soaked her in that tub for a half hour. I scrubbed her down twice and double checked her finger nails. After she was cleaned and dressed I had the joy of cleaning off her toy and doing my best to clean up the carpet. My conclusion after day one of potty training, SHE IS NOT READY. I think we both may need months to get this nightmare of a day out of our minds before we will try again.

I have some feelings of guilt, failure and disappointment but now I mostly feel relieved. If we had to continue training tomorrow I might just go crazy. Seeing that I'm pregnant I'm already half way there so it would be a quick trip. Like most mistakes I make as a mother I feel bad for a while but I am forced to move on for the sake my family and my own sanity. If you dwell on these things I think it takes away from your ability to be a good mom and wife. Live and learn right? The memory of this day, and the smell for that matter, might stick with me for awhile.

Make up your mind baby

We have had two ultrasounds in the last two weeks. The first one, done by the doctor, was supposedly a girl. Now we've had the official ultrasound and it's looking more like a boy. The uncertainty is driving me nuts, I really want to know! Now I'm getting excited about a boy but with a huge cloud of doubt over it. Why couldn't the kid just spread its legs and show us the goods? It was being a total prude and even crossing its ankles for a while. Sure, a surprise would be fun, if I was good at waiting. But I AM NOT good at waiting!

This baby is causing me a whole lot of craziness and it's not even born yet. I have done some embarrassingly stupid things in the last few weeks and I totally blame the pregnancy. Some people think there is truth in this pregnancy "side effect" and others think it is a myth but I am here to tell you pregnancy is like being mentally challenged. I don't really feel like sharing the specifics of my idiocy but lets just say it hasn't been pretty. It has brought me to tears multiple times and I just keep praying for my brain to return to my head very soon.

On a positive note Stella has conquered her fear of the big bathtub. She had the kind of fear that caused full on crying, screaming fits. It has been quite a while since I've tried to put her in there because the last time was so sad and traumatizing. Who knew all it would take was a little time and a really fun looking Little Mermaid bath toy. She got the toy from my sister in-law for her birthday and I have been telling her she can have it only in the big girl bathtub. Stella has been taking it out of the closet and bringing it to me to open for weeks. So I finally put it in the tub and it worked! She saw the sparkly teal castle in the bathtub full of bubbles and couldn't wait to get in.

Little things end up being big accomplishments in my household. Next thing to tackle...potty training! Wish me luck.

Baby bump

If you haven't seen the bump lately, here it is in all its glory (I'm taking a little video of Stella's birthday). So far still feeling pretty good. My hips are a little sore, kinda weird. Sleeping isn't all that comfortable and unfortunately it's only going to get worse. Not much to complain about but I still like to, I am growing a human after all!

Toddler strikes again

Anyone remember my little vampire? Well she is back. Only this time she has almost a full mouth of tiny and very sharp little teeth. I really wish this whole teething process would end soon. She still has about 7 teeth to go, I think. She doesn't get that fussy which is a plus but she is definitely biting again. She has bit me twice in the last week so hard that she broke the skin. Tonight she thought she'd take a little chomp and I couldn't help but yell out a little profanity. I try to watch my language around her because she is a total parrot these days. But after this unexpected shock of pain to my shoulder I yelled out "s**t"! Followed by "that freakin hurt"! Both she repeated multiple times. Mike was sitting with us during the whole fiasco and we both had to contain our laughter. Of course I don't want my sweet little daughter cursing but why is it so funny to hear a little person say such naughty words? I would feel a little bad if she hadn't bit the heck out of me but I think I get a free pass on this one.

Every day is new

I have to say one of the most rewarding and fun things about being a parent is watching your child learn and grow. From day one they are little sponges who absorb the world around them, just waiting to put their observations into action. Even though we know the day will come that a normal healthy child will say "mama" or "dada" it is still the most amazing thing when they do. I am such typical mom who gushes with pride and joy when my daughter says something new. Stella learning to speak really seemed like one day she didn't and the next day she did. Every day after that was a new word, then two, three and now to many to count.

From very early on Stella has loved books. Reading has always been part of our daily routine, before nap and bedtime. Now that she is a little older she brings you a book and pretty much demands that you read it to her that very moment. Although it's not always convenient can you really complain that your toddler wants to read? So I try to oblige her as often as I can. Another thing that amazes me is that she knows the entire alphabet already. I don't mean to brag, oh wait, I do, but she is barely two. I'm sure there are many children that have learned them sooner and I've seen those babies on T.V. that can read but this is MY kid. So it's pretty cool.

All this active learning happening on a daily basis has got me feeling like I'm not keeping up and I want to make the most of her learning abilities. I have no desire to push her further than she is ready to go but I feel like you can't be passive in this process. Its up to me as her mother to educate myself on her development and how I can help her learn. I find it fascinating. I think the most important thing I can do for her right now is provide her with the opportunities to learn and let her go at her own pace.

I don't think it's ever possible for me to stay a step ahead of her. Toddlers are just too darn smart and they learn at a quick an unpredictable pace. I hope her knowledge of the alphabet will translate into becoming an early reader but if it doesn't she is still my little genius. I look forward to seeing what this next year has in store for her.