Compare to Sister’s Blog: Month 11: Diaper Free at the Beach
Lookit my teef!
Note: From this point daily entries will be posted in a Monthly Digest.
12/22 Day 303 S: A fifty fifty night last night and a pretty uneventful day. We got the big wake up and after nap pees and were dry out on errands. For the most part it was a pretty lazy day. I think we are resting up for the holiday.
12/23 Day 304 Su: A night of misses last night, but we caught most of the morning poop! Yah! On another note, I also managed to wrap gifts before Christmas Eve this year…shocker!
GrandMaMa came over to watch football with Daddy Man and I left the Littles in their care so that I could organize and wrap on the kitchen floor. I couldn’t find the name tag extras I had printed out. Oh well. We actually have several gifts under the tree this year so it look quite pretty. I don’t put bows or ribbons on the packages. That would be just asking for the cats to come over and play. We have a hard enough time keeping the ornaments on the tree!
Of course, my distraction meant that when I came back to see how things were going there were six diapers wet on top of the pail. We’d had a pretty 50/50 morning with the big “get up” pee being the major victory. Daddy Man forgot that Mini Moose holds back, so if the diaper isn’t soaked he should put him on the potty to finish if he can.
Tomorrow, I think I’m going to make cookies with Itty Bitty and we have a party to go to and then off to GrandMaMas this year for the holiday
12/24 Day 305 M: Caught one last night but mostly misses which is okay. Some of our nights are big winners so I don’t sweat the ones where we miss. We got the wake up wee and after morning nap wee and our usual random misses of the morning. And we missed the poop. Bah! Mini Moose was trying to climb the barricade and let a pasty, stinky one out. Eww.
I know Daddy Man thought I was Cuckoo, but I wanted to make sugar cookies from scratch with Itty Bitty this year. I just sort of … let time get away from me…again. But I didn’t want to use the store bought cookie mix because you have to put so much flour in it to get it to cut right (because I have a hundred cookie cutters that I never use any other time!) and it is usually over sugared. I used my favorite chef’s (Alton Brown) recipe and they came out awesome! Even my forgetting to take the butter out of the fridge and having to oh-so-carefully nuke it to room temperature didn’t mess up the recipe. And they had sweetness without being a sugar shock. I added a bit of vanilla because I like it. Next year I’ll use real vanilla beans rather than extract. I’m drooling already!
I also made the mistake of reading facebook and got into the conversation about Royal Icing…so of course…I had to make it for the sugar cookies and of course I wasted three hours last night looking up recipes for the best icing and how much to dilute it and the best way to decorate on youtube. Anyway, I had to have Daddy Man help Itty Bitty with the mixer while Mini Moose clung to me like white wash on a fence because he was mad he did not get my attention this afternoon and missed me. He was latched on for all he was worth. I did manage to get him stuffed full of milk and hand him back off so that I could color the icing and put it into squeeze bottles so that Itty Bitty could decorate with me. We managed to get enough done for party presents tonight and we will decorate the rest tomorrow.
I had also had the idea to pop popcorn and string cranberries and pop corn with Itty Bitty, but I always have bigger crafting plans in my head than I ever seem to manage to accomplish!
As for EC. We had some small successes but misses certainly won today due to distraction. However, during the Christmas Eve party Mini Moose, though cranky because he was light on Mommy time and clung to me like glue and was less social than usual, was dry he whole time and took two potty opportunities.
It really isn’t a fluke. When I carry him we have ridiculous success!
12/25 Day 306 T: Merry Christmas! I never really sleep all that well before a holiday or before the first day of work or vacation. That means we had a pretty good night of catches since the moment Mini Moose stirred I was able to rectify the need to pee. Plus, the bathroom was only three steps away. Itty Bitty had a few incidences of night disorientation and almost fell off the bed. I was prepared for that though and had pillows stacked on her side. The bed is full sized and it is soooo much smaller than a queen! Daddy Man stayed up with his brother and ended up sleeping on the couch where he could snore the house down in contentment.
The only person up before the kids and me was GrandMaMa…of course! We had breakfast and spent a very long morning helping the kids open gifts. The big winner for Itty Bitty was her very own, REAL, kids guitar from her Uncle (Daddy Man’s Brother). He and his friends spent time finding the right one, shunning lesser instraments, and tuning it for a three year old. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is!
We got serenaded by a song Itty Bitty wrote herself. As far as we can tell it is called “Oom Bego” or “Ot Sego” and that is the main lyrics. Do we have a singer/songwriter in the making? I’m glad I had the foresight to empty my camera card so that I could capture the moment on video.
We had a good laugh about GrandMaMas “small” tree. Because she wanted to do something more simple this year.
It is just about the fattest tree we’d ever seen with a girth that took up half the living room. Hah!
The big gift from us (really Daddy Man) to everyone was tickets to see Les Miserables in April and the big gift from GrandMaMa to us was a renewed membership to the Y. Yay! I made sure to write down all the gifts the kids got so I could do thank yous. You know whenever I find time to do actually DO what I think I’ll do in my head. The monetary gifts we got from my family from our Merry Thanksmas trip to my family managed to get Itty Bitty a rather nice collection of catridges for her Leap Pad and that went quite nicely with the Fairly Lunch Box I bought for her in the spring that I wrapped for Christmas so she’d have a place to store them.
Itty Bitty also loved the gift from Daddy Man and I…a Melissa and Doug trainset (a score of a toy using accumulated points from his credit card!) . Daddy Man, Uncle, and Itty Bitty have had a grand time playing with it and some wood Chugginton Trains she got as stocking stuffers are compatible with it. Even Mini Moose got a little learn and play train with stacking cups and shapes. We still have some gift cards to spend but we’ll do that tomorrow when the sales are on.
As for EC? It went okay, though we had to use a diaper cover because we just didn’t know when the poop was going to show up on G-Mas white carpet. We had some catches but also when we missed he was soaked as it is much harder to see when you miss right away with a diaper cover.
Itty BItty and I decorated the rest of the cookies while dinner was cooking. We made our holiday phone call and then we all fell asleep and sleep through our agreed upon dinner time! After we woke up, we groggily ate, laughed, and then made our way home.
12/26 Day 307 W: Oh how I love our bed, let me count the ways! There is nothing like your own nest, your own back friendly bed, and the familiarity of your own home. We had decided not to bring the gifts we bought for the Littles out and left them home so either today or tomorrow we’ll open them for an extended Christmas. It didn’t make sense to haul it all out and then haul it all back.
Before we did that though, we went out to use the gift cards the kids got for the toy store. We got Itty Bitty a couple more cartridges for her LeapPad and two dolls Rapunzel, and Merida. For Mini Moose Daddy Man found a big Little People farm for Mini Moose that they can grow with and play with together.
Our EC success last night was all misses and we did miss the random afternoon poop…and then missed poop three more times! Sheesh.
12/27 Day 308 Th: We had a better night last night. A solid 50/50 and a pretty good day with a few small misses. We also finally Opened our own gifts under the tree finally. We enjoyed a nice day of rest together. Ahhhhhh.
12/28 Day 309 F: We had a very good night of 2 catches and 2 misses. Still working out the bugs. Mini Moose nursed a lot too. Today is Grand Mama’s birthday and how that woman manages to get her own cake before we have a chance to do it for her… Oh well. At least she got exactly what she wanted. Itty Bitty sang to her with her guitar.
Mini Moose and I were in pretty good EC sync with the only major miss being poop but no pee soakers.
12/29 Day 310 S: A rather good night of catches last night with no misses until we got up and I made the error of putting Mini Moose down on the floor first rather than on the potty first. He looked at me with these big eyes that said, “What were you thinking in breaking our groove?”
We went for breakfast today since Daddy man is going to be gone tomorrow for the day and he wanted to spend some quality time with us. We had breakfast at our favorite place down the street. I discovered a problem with my credit card and had to call them up to see what was going on. We were dry while out with one potty opportunity and then hits and misses in the house (big hits, small misses — which is very good! He does try to hold it!)
12/30 Day 311 Su: Daddy man was gone all day today with GrandMaMa and his brother. One of his gifts was a ticket to see a football game. It is mighty mighty mighty cold out there! It was just me and the Littles all day. I was a lazy lemur and decided to watch a series on Netflix, I left us all in our Pajamas, prepared leftovers, and let Itty Bitty play her new Leap Pad cartridges to her hearts content. Mini Moose nursed and peed and played and climbed and nursed and climbed and peed and pooped…twice. And I missed it…twice. Both times he had been climbing on the “poop chair” which he successfully managed to climb into for the first time and was so pleased with himself that he couldn’t stop doing it! After the first time he got in it, he had no trouble thereafter.
I don’t know why I produce climbing monkey babies.
12/31 Day 312 M: Happy New Year’s Eve! We are totally partying hard. We are planning on staying in our PJs again, maybe ordering some food or Daddy Man making us some garlic bread pizza, and watching TV and playing with the kids all day. Then an hour before midnight we’ll watch Dick Clark’s Rockin’ Eve without Dick Clark. I’ll have a glass of wine, Daddy Man will have a Rum and Coke, I’ll pull out the same hats and horns and noisemakers we’ve used for years and we’ll make lots of noise.
This will be Itty Bitty’s fourth NYE and the third she’s stayed up for. The first one, she just couldn’t hang being only 3 or 4 months old. Mini Moose napped from 9-11 and then woke up to ring in the New Year with us! Of course, he looked like he thought we were nuts as usual.
We caught the poop that was produced today and had a pretty good 60/40 catch rate despite our distractions and totaly laziness!
We had a big storm the other day so there is lots of snow and Daddy Man made a sled run for Itty Bitty and we had a good time (or rather they had a good time) out there sledding. Mini Moose did not really like the restrictions of the Ski Suit and couldn’t really move. He wanted to be carried and did indulge us in a short ride on the sled before he complained to be picked up. He yet again looked like he thought we had all lost our minds! After about half and hour I brought him inside because his face was cold. I also realized that this is the last year Itty Bitty can wear her ski pants and we’ll have to get her new ones and pass on these to Mini Moose. Ski Pants you can move in…snow suits just make baby Snow-Starfishes. Hah!
Happy New Year!
1/1 Day 313 T: Happy New Year! It is 2013 and I can’t NOT believe it. Mini Moose will be a year old next month and I’m quite shell shocked thinking about it. Wasn’t I just pregnant like last week!?
Mini Moose has been quite the crank. We’ve been housebound a few days not wanting to go out in the cold…and least not me. I don’t like the cold. Daddy Man took Itty Bitty out sledding again though. That’s his element! I stayed in with Mini Moose who amused himself with nursing, a nap, toy flinging, trying to put toys in other toys, climbing, and teasing me with two and three steps in a row. He gets such a big smile on his face when he does it.
GrandMaMa came over to watch the sleeding fun, watched some football with Daddy Man and then went home to finished dinner. She wanted us to go over for a New Year’s dinner after the kids napped. We didn’t manage to get there until 7:00 because the Little Slept late but it was better than having them sleepy and cranky! Pork and saurkraut and broccoli. Mini Moose wasn’t interested in eating though he did suck on a stalk of broccoli for amusement. Even Itty Bitty wasn’t very hungry. Daddy Man and myself made up for it though because we were both starved.
We hung out while the Littles played and explored before heading home. Daddy Man is back to work tomorrow.
We had a good catch rate at GrandMaMas and at home we caught many pees but missed that darned poop again! Oh well. It is the EC cha-cha…a little forward, a little backward but it is still part of the dance right?
1/2 Day 314 W: It was GrandPapa’s birthday today so I had Itty Bitty call him and sing him Happy Birthday with her new guitar. He got a kick out of it. My credit card is still out of commission and I spent too long today trying to get it resolved. I was assured that by midnight this morning that it should be fine, and when I called they said nothing was being flagged and they couldn’t understand why it wasn’t working and assured me that it should be fine. The last time I called back (like call number 8) this condescending automoton tells me that it won’t work because they do not do their updates on holidays or Saturdays. I said, “Um…today is neither Saturday nor a holiday and I was told yesterday that midnight this morning it would have processed by midnight today. Corporate Tool tells me that by midnight is when the system will update. Ummmm….that would be technically tomorrow now wouldn’t it? Apparantly, no one can override anything or fix an obvious snafu of automation.
Well, unless of course you are a six figure customer and then, of course, they’ll send you a CARE package and wash your feet while they rectify the situation yesterday.
GRrr.
Did I talk about EC yet? No? Obviously we had some major misses in the afternoon while I was trying to get things resolved but last night was only one miss and we had a good morning, missed the poop twice, had a afternoon of misses, and a fairly good evening of catches.
1/3 Day 315 Th:
Back on track with a pretty typical night and day. A very respectable 75/25 rate in favor of catching. Woo hoo! I curse the poo!
1/4 Day 316 F: I rather miss my Daddy Man with him being back to work this week, but it was a short week so that was good. EC last night was very successful with 100% catches for the three pees. Now that the issue with my credit card is resolved I won’t need to reach through the phone to strangle someone.
EC today was not as successful but still a mighty fine 50/50. We are getting better at the sit, pee, done. It is the timing of that moment that we are working on. Missed the poop. Awww man! Every time Mini Moose climbs (and he has been climbing everything from the toybox, to the ottoman, to the poop chair, to anything he thinks will get him higher.) He inevitably poops if he puts in lot of ab effort. He pooped about five times today from all of that effort! And the weird thing is that it is never, ever the same texture. It is like…each time he poops he poops a different layer. Ew.
Itty Bitty sweet talked me into opening Mini Moose’s new Little People Farm (I don’t give the Littles the new toys all a once) and they were playing together…not always nicely. She picked up ALL the toys and said, “I picked up all the toys really fast and nice? Please oh please can I have the farm.” What could I do but gasp at a clean floor, heaping toy basket, clasp pleading hands of a three year old and say, “Okay.” You would have done the same!
1/5 Day 317 S: We had caught both pees last night. Yay for us! We missed the pasty morning poop, boo! But it was noticed as it was happening so…yay! After out big morning pee, I handed Mini Moose back to Daddy Man and went back to bed for three hours. Now, don’t get too excited. Itty Bitty woke up at 9AM one hour after I went back to bed and woke me up as she left the room looking for me. I was so buried under blankets in a hibernating ball that she didn’t see me and came back into the room after talking with Daddy Man. She curled up beside me for about 30 minutes whereby she woke me up again as she left. I did get to have two hours of slumber uninterrupted and I was so deep in sleep that my ear was numb and I got a crick in my back from sleeping in the same position for so long. Ouch!
We had surprising success with EC as I cleaned the living room and Daddy Man fixed the couch spring. Mini Moose napped on my lap on the couch while Daddy Man took Itty Bitty outside to play with the sled and pelt her with snowballs while she ran around like a loon, flung herself in the snow, ate it, and then got up to do it again. After that we went on a trek to the new building I’ll be working in so I would know the route when I drive it alone. It’s not that bad and only a 10 minute longer commute. I’ll have to do a few dry runs. Which reminds me that Mini Moose stayed dry the whole trip and didn’t pee for another hour after we got home so…that was about 2.5 hours of no pee. His bladder capacity has thrown our timing off again but we are doing rather well in spite of it.
Mini Moose took 8-10 independent steps in a row several times today so he is working his way to full on bipedal locomotion. So proud. Yet, so sad! I have forbidden anyone from calling him a toddler. He is a walking baby!
1/6 Day 318 Su: A very good EC night with all catches (three) and a rather good morning. We were lazy and lingered and other than sweeping and vacuuming the living room I didn’t get much done. Not that it seems to matter how much I do, the mess is ever present.
Not much to say about today. Hits and misses. Three poops missed too
I promised Itty BItty I’d take her out in the morning to play in the snow while Daddy Man watched Mini Moose until grandmama came over to watch then both while we went to go see the Hobbit! I found a mini hill in our backyard between our house and the neighbors that made a very dandy sled run and I had a good time acting like a kid at 9AM. Itty Bitty enjoyed it too, though she spent far more time with her face in the snow eating it than sledding in it!
Daddy Man and EC didn’t fare so well since Mini Moose gets put out if his bladder isn’t full enough. I am just glad that Daddy man had poop detail this time!
We went to the movie matinee but skipped going to dinner and came home instead to rescue GrandMaMa who sounded strange on the phone. Funny thing is that we expected that it was Mini Moose making her exhausted and delivering a poop bomb (which he did) when in fact it was Destructo Girl because she was very tired from our morning play but didn’t want to take a nap! GMa thought it was funny that we told her exactly how Mini Moose would behave with playing and climbing into mischief, pee, play, pee, making his hungry cry, pee some more, nap, pee, and then when you weren’t paying attention blast you with a stinky mess. And that’s how it went with him!
Oh well, we’ll get dinner another day.
1/7 Day 319 M: Another spectacular night of catches 2 for 2. We got the morning wee but then had a terrible afternoon of little misses one right after the other. I spent most of the day picking up toys, folding laundry, and chasing the baby as he climbs and explores. He loses his mind if I leave the room so I try to keep him with me except for situations like going down the cellar stairs because I’m a clutz and I have enough trouble bringing up the laundry without distraction much less with one.
Fates were kind to me today and both littles took naps…at the same time. I did lose my patience several times and yelled. I’m suffering from a bit of cabin fever myself and I can’t go anywhere because the tires are flat.
1/8 Day 320 T: A good night 3 for 3 and a regular day of many hits, than some misses, then hits, then a few misses. My patience is much improved today. I made a point of getting out of the house which is good for all of us and of course great for EC.
1/9 Day 321 W: We had all catches last night. Woo Hoo! Our morning had some big catches and some small misses. Daddy Man filled up my flat tires last night and I was able to get out of the house go to story time for an hour, and go get some groceries and do some errands. I managed to get his surprise party invitations, a late birthday gift for GranpaD, and a very very late Christmas gift for Daddy Man’s half Brother’s little half Sister who is not blood related to Itty Bitty or Mini Moose but we don’t care and she is henceforth known as Little Aunt L . Mini Moose refused a potty opp at story time, refused one before we left, and fell asleep when we shopped for groceries and that meant when he woke up he had a gigantic pee and was soaked by the time we got home.
I missed several when we got home because I was scrambling to get the invitations out. I decided to print out the info and glue stick it on to save me time and it still took an hour. I managed to make the post office before it closed with 15 minutes to spare. Stamps sure got expensive — 45 cents! I remember when they were 20 cents, my mom remembers when they were 10 cents, and my grandma pish poshes and says in her day they were a penny!
Anyway, I caught the after nap mega pee and then Daddy Man came home and took over while I made chicken parm that he requested yesterday. The man is gong to look like chicken parm one of these days! It came out fantastic and Daddy Man said — “The chicken is awesome.” And if you are aware of my Daddy Man feeding woes…you will understand that it is equivlaent to a 20 Michelin star chef telling me they give my cooking one of those stars.
EC in the evening was a lot of misses, one of them Mini Moose peed out the side of the diaper and made a puddle on the floor. Dry prefold in the belt still on!
Mini Moose “puppy pees” a lot. When he gets excited or sees us going to the bathroom he pees even if he just peed ten minutes ago! He continues to poop when he’s putting in a lot of effort to climb. It has been a challenge as we wait for his sphincters to catch up with his acrobatics.
There was no poop deployment today and I’m a bit skittish as to when it is going to appear.
Oh! And one of the times I was out I totally put a diaper cover on Mini Moose’s naked butt not realizing I had left him without a prefold until we got back home. He was dry for an hour and a half thank goodness!
1/10 Day 322 Th: We were so busy yesterday that Mini Moose didn’t nurse nearly as much as he normally would (I’d say about half) and he made up for it last night. As a result he peed no less than 8 times and we only caught one.
At 5:30 in the morning I did a dimwitted thing…
I knew I missed the pee because he was super soaked, super squirmy, and had that weird “gotta go” latch as he nursed. I noticed that for some reason his Wee Willie was like a mizzen mast. I thought it was odd but I dismissed it as a male early morning thing and was so sleepy that I just wanted to stuff it back in a fresh prefold without getting up so I could get back to whatever sleep I could catch. Somewhere in my mind my brain was telling me I should get up and go to the bathroom and take the baby with me. I’d forgotten what that Winkie sign means with Mini Moose. But as I was laying there while a very very very restless Mini Moose was trying to climb onto my face. I must have fallen back to sleep for a few seconds becausr when I woke up his belly was pressed into my nose and I didn’t know which end of him was his face. I was a bit annoyed and so put him back tucked into my arm with my hand holding his bum while he was still latched. He squirmed and squirmed and juuuuuust as I was drifting off I felt him relax and then felt something strange on my hand.
A poop. A messy one.
I cursed myself up down and sideways. He DID try to tell me he needed to go. I was just too dense to get the message the first 20 times.
Thankfully, it was mostly on my and the wee pad on the bed and a bit on my shirt. A little bit got on the blanket but it was dirty anyway so no harm no foul. I kicked the blanket on the floor, cleaned up half-assed and went back to bed. Yep. I did and he went back to sleep right away too.
And that is how our day began. We had a big pee catch after that we got up, a couple of misses, then Itty Bitty got up and we went back to the post office to mail the late gifts we got yesterday but I didn’t have time to wrap. Then we went on a road trip to the new building where I will be working next semester. That was 30 minutes there and thirty minutes back. Unfortunately, Mini Moose woke up before we got home and had his wake up pee in the car. He was groggy and didn’t cry but he certainly wasn’t pleased with being both wet and hungry.
He didn’t pee again until after a feed and nap — a big one. And then lots of little misses as he still doesn’t seem to be fully emptying the bladder in the afternoon and I get busy. By this time Itty Bitty I had 100% in training pants and right now Mini Moose is in trainers about 10% of the time. I think I’ll step it up. The poop is what is keeping me using the prefold and belt system it just isn’t solid yet the way Itty Bitty’s was which gives you a chance to catch it mid-poop and I think I know why. By this age, Itty Bitty was eating about half a banana every morning and I just haven’t offered it consistently to Mini Moose.
Anyway, this weekend I think I’m going to have to rearrange our baby barricades because this little imp has learned how to move the ottoman go get to Itty Bitty’s corner, can climb onto the toybox, and can push another bookshelf endtable with his head to squeeze through to the stairs and dining room. He is into things far more than Itty Bitty was because she didn’t have a sibling to follow around.
1/11 Day 323 F: Last night we caught all three pees! YES! We seem have found nurse and pee position that works for us both finally. We caught a random poop (yahoo!) had a miss after we got up and then I put him in trianing pants and had him on my back most of the day. We had several successful potty breaks stayed dry from about 10 to 4pm before we had several misses in a row.
I spent most of the day moving a mess from one place to another in my attempts to rearrange furniture to upgrade the “baby barricade” so that the little will have more room without Mini Moose using objects to climb on to get onto the toybox to get into restricted areas. I also decided that I a sick to death of fetching toys from the vortex under the TV and couch. I found some left over thick poster board and made a makeshift kick board under the TV unit and put a rolled up receiving blanket under the space in the toybox so that toy suck is no longer a problem. I plan on doing some similar toy blocking under the couch and love seat as soon as I find a suitable medium like pool noodles or packing styrofoam.
I told Daddy Man not to ask me what I did in 4 hours of work but to just say, “You worked hard. It looks great. I love you.” and to then smile and be quiet. Hah!
We are in disagreement over the loss of Daddy Man’s bookshelf end table which is now a plug blocker and barricade set Kitty-Corner and just a bit out of convenient reach. He wants to move it back but he’s not here until the evening and I suggested he use an unbreakable cup with a lid. A bonus for me is maybe I can come downstairs now and not have at least 1 or 2 empty cups in the living room!
It seems a bit easier to me now to clean up ToyGeddon without having to go spelunking and I was able to happily make the Alphabet Train permanently accessible with its 26 blocks. Before, I was rationing its use because it is quite big, doubles as a riding toy — unbeknownst to me also a ladder to get to other things — and one can only take so many times of tripping on it and stepping on the pieces. The added floor space makes a big difference to me. Mini Moose worked with Daddy Man to put the blocks in the hole on the top and the boy became even more obsessed than before. I am amused because it looks like the train is pooping into it’s caboose. Hahaha!
My next task will be to clear off one shelf on a Mini Moose inaccessible bookshelf and relocate Itty Bitty’s books and some play necklaces and jewelry Mini Moose would just destroy or stuff in his mouth. He seems so much more mouthy than Itty Bitty was. But Mommy Brain makes you mis-remember or forget things entirely (you know so you are willing to breed again).
I also packed away all of the prefolds because they are too short now to stay in the diaper belt securely without a cover, though I am keeping 6 just for outings because they are less bulky in a diaper cover than the flats. My stash is now down to 3 dozen flats and training pants. The flats are for nights (I still haven’t found a better way to curb the winkie problem For some reason I seem to be missing some trainers! I should have a dozen but only found six so far.
1/12 Day 324 S: We caught all 6 pees last night! Yah! Well, really it was 4 pees in the night and 2 first thing in the morning as we lingered in bed.
Daddy Man is going to go to a football game with his Mom tomorrow so it will be just me alone all day. To make up for he suggested we go to the Kid’s Gym with the Littles. It wasn’t open when we went so we went to look at a house on the market that Daddy Man was fantasy shopping with yesterday, then we jaunted over across the street to a local town library I haven’t been too and let the Littles play for an hour in the Children’s wing then went back to the Gym for a couple of hours. Itty Bitty is so tall now she doesn’t need a booster pad to put the mini basketballs into the kids’s basketball hoop they have set up. She was so surprised she called to us excited that she could do it and we were obliged to watch while she did it again to show us. With Mini Moose we 2 catches when out 2 misses.
1/13 Day 325 Su: Wow. Mini Moose peed at least 8 times last night and I only managed to catch 3. It was perma-latch again. Needless to say, it was not a night of restful sleep for me. Itty Bitty, I can safely say, next to the cats is the one creature in this house that gets the most sleep ever!
We did catch half a poop. Half a poop is better than no poop.
Have I mentioned the pinching? Oh, Mini Moose and I have words about his need to try and pincer grip pinch the Orbs of Life. He can’t help it, I think, and I can’t help but feel the desire to fantasize about flinging him off onto space on a trebruchet.
Anyhow, Daddy Man is gone for the day and I’m just beat. They did bring me a giant coffee, bagel for me and Mini Moose, and a muffin for Itty Bitty before leaving. I decided that today I was going to do nothing except some diaper laundry, eating, and couch potato-ing. Really, if you can’t sleep and are exhausted and have no where to be…REST. Screw the house, chores, and other non-essential ‘things to do’. It isn’t worth wasting what little energy you have doing anything but surviving and mood stabilizing.
We are taught that we have to get stuff “done” and…a lot of the time the “stuff” is not life essential. And for what? Our Christmas tree is still up. Does anyone care!? Laundry has been folded for a couple of days but not put away. Sure, it miffs me that I seem to be the only adult in the house who knows where they go…but really…the house hasn’t fallen down because of it. So…even though it is hard. We’ve got to let go.
1/14 Day 326 M: We had a 50/50 night last night (2 miss 2 caught) but then we caught the poop this morning! I had just put training pants on Mini Moose and he crawled to me, stood up, complained, and then I heard a liquid toot. EEEEEkkkk! Waaaaaait! I made a mad dash for the bathroom, put the boy on the potty and…boy…am I EVER glad we caught THAT. It was copious, stinky, chunky, and just plain retch worthy.
That almost makes up for the rough night we had last night. Because both Littles took such a late nap (7:45pm for Mini Moose) and 8:10pm for Itty Bitty — it took a long time for them to both settle for the night. Itty Bitty wasn’t so bad…about an hour later than usual. Mini Moose on the other hand was restless, trying to do crocadile death rolls, crawling, jumping, climbing and being all kinds of crazy. Daddy Man was really no help since he drank too much at the football game, felt ill, and …well… you know. Daddy Man also informed me that in the 45 minutes he had him while I was helping Itty Bitty to wind down, he fell asleep and when he woke up the apple core Mini Moose had been munching on was completely GONE. Core and all. Fantastic. I suspected a belly upset on top of the wiredness. It was a darned big leftover apple core that Itty Bitty didn’t finish. Since I too was wired up with Temporary Insomnia from being just spent from the day, I got up, went down stairs and turned on the TV while Mini Moose screamed, latched on, screetched, latched on, complained, latched on, yelled some more, latched on, pinched me, screetched, latched….and repeated until he wound down made goo goo noises on the nipple then finally fell asleep at around 1:30am. I on the other hand…saw 3AM.
Mini Moose was ready to go at 7:00AM but I managed to get him to cat nap with me until 8:00AM.
And if anyone out there feels like they are some sort of failure for not being a Donna Reed or Mrs. Cleaver mom. Don’t be. Itty BItty has been in the same outfit since Saturday and slept in it too. Why? I’m busy growing a baby and if that means all I manage to do is keep the Littles alive so be it. The world isn’t going to end if you spend three days in the same clothes. It isn’t as if we have been mud wrestling or teasing a skunk with a pokey stick. Frankly, I don’t even get the point of pajamas anymore. Think about it. They outgrow clothes over night so why do we have an extra set of clothes they wear half the time instead of just letting them wear clothes to bed and get double the duty!? Just let it roll around in your brain. See, if we all just let our kids wear regular clothes to bed then WE will be the normals and everyone else will get the eyebrow raises. Right? Win win.
1/15 Day 327 T: What’s my name again? Not much to report today. I’m doing nothing but keep the kids alive, catch any nap that falls in my lap, and try not to eat my young… Mini Moose is just CRAZY. He crocodile deathrolls when nursing, he wiggles, and arches and just doesn’t keep still! He is climbing on the couch now. Yep. He has realized he is tall enough and strong enough to haul himself up. Which I wouldn’t mind except he goes for our female cat who does not like to be goaded. I don’t want a repeat of the last bloody incident when he grabbed her tail and yanked it while she was sleeping. I don’t know where he gets his energy…oh right…he sucks it out of his parents. Itty Bitty is wired up too. This too shall pass. Just need to tie a knot in that rope and hang on.
Last night’s EC catches were spot on…got all three (or was it four? three I think) and then we had all morning and afternoon in training pants and then took out four trainers in a row with pee misses but we did catch half a poop…or rather more like 3/4 in the morning. After that first big acoustic toot on the floor I grabbed him up lickity split and dashed to the loo just in time to catch the toxic sludge. It had three distinct color splats…like one of those fossilized rock formations. Gross yet fascinating.
1/16 Day 328 W: It was an EC bust last night, missed all three. Mini Moose is still very restless at night what with taking 12 steps practically every time he decides to stand up and go. He wakes me up every time he’s got a situation so it is still a lot of me not waking up in time or misinterpreting which wake up is for wee and which is for nursing. Ebbs and Flows.
There was story time today but the icy winter storm made me decide to stay in. I think we are all getting stir crazy because I keep loosing my temper. That’s not right and I feel horrible when I fly off the handle and yell. We are all a bunch of crabby pants when we get cabin fever. Thank goodness we all managed to fall into a long nap. First Mini Moose, then me, then Itty Bitty. It was refreshing. If it wasn’t for the fact that I needed to get some paperwork done I would have stayed sleeping for another two hours, but after Mini Moose woke up and Daddy Man got home I got up. Itty Bitty slept an additional hour.
EC was kind of off today. We caught the GIGANTIC poop in the morning though (could it be that Mini Moose is going to be a consistent morning pooper finally?). I did a little victory dance. Couldn’t help it. I didn’t even mind the three afternoon and evening poo farts. Those don’t count as misses because they were really farts that happen to have a sneaky passenger.
1/17 Day 329 Th: Last night we caught one and missed two and then had a great morning of catches and a pair of training pants that stayed dry for several hours but then…I missed the poop. And then …. missed a second poop. Like. Ew. Though, I have to say the addition of banana is helping to change the …er… output to a more favorable…um…texture.
We had a lot of errands to do today. I had to go into work to do some printing, then found out I am not going to work the amount of hours I thought so I was really bummed. Timed to drill another hole in my belt. This just really sucks. That’s all I’m going to say about it because it will make me more blue.
Scored a $3 pair of pants for Itty Bitty and a $3 sweater/shirt for Mini Moose, bought the wrong gift for Daddy Man (who thankfully has not figured out the surprise waiting for him on Saturday) and Mini Moose was dry the whole outing until we got home and then we had a bunch of misses. Keep on Keeping on.
Daddy Man decided to make his own chocolate peanut butter birthday cake (and Itty Bitty helped). I said nothing to dissuade or draw any attention to the fact that we have a surprise party coming. If you give the Dude ANY clue at all, even if it is obscure he’ll figure things out. It is the way his brain works. He was very pleased with himself and Itty Bitty was overjoyed at helping him.
1/18 Day 330 F: Happy 40th Birthday Daddy Man! We started off our day with a very successful EC night with just one miss. I had Itty Bitty call Daddy Man at work and leave a message on his work phone. She sang him Happy Birthday with her guitar. That is sure to make his big heart melt into a pile of Daddy Goo.
One more day to the surprise!
How did EC go last night? It was kind of off. Mini Moose woke me several times to nurse but I only caught one pee and I missed two that I missinterpreted as nursing when it was for peeing. Hey, at least we are communicating. It is just that there is a lag time right?
We got out today even thought it was really frigid out there. It takes forever to get us all dressed in layers and in car seats and onto the road. But we did get to se Elmo and Cookie monster for a few minutes live (the show at the local science center was sold out). Itty Bitty managed to get a hug after fighting her way through other tots and pushing an adult or two out of her way in the crush of pint sized fans bearing down on the two poor souls in the furry suits like guided missiles. She got what she wanted, came back and moved on to other more interesting things. Gosh, I love this girl.
Mini Moose continues to get more upright mobile. He lets himself plop on the floor when he wants to change direction, or shifts to crawling when he wants to go fast, but he now knows he can go several steps consistently if he gets a good momentum going. We had a rather gigantic pee miss while there and then he was dry and refused an potty opp until we got home. We had 50/50 success when we got back home and….dagblagnabbit…I missed the poop! This morning I almost cuaght it but he produced one little rabbit pellet and then slams me in the evening with poopageddon. I curse the poop. You have won many battles but I…yes, I…will win in the end.
Humor. Keeps my marbles together.
And…ow….plugged duct again in my right boob from going too long this afternoon with out a baby suckling like a starving piglet.
1/19 Day 331 S: Last night Mini Moose was incredibly restless and Daddy Man joined us in the family bed sensing that moral support was needed. Of course Itty Bitty was asleep peacefully, Daddy Man drifted off in 10 seconds, Mini Moose was restless still but was more settled with the Daddy heat source and mimicked Daddy Man’s sleeping pose. I was up for another hour and then did the nurse and pee tango the rest of the night. I know this is all because of the walking.
A lot of pee misses last night but we got the morning pee, a giant poop, a half poop, and then two missed fart poops. Whew! We were in training pants the whole morning and Mini Moose was toddling all over. He particularly likes to carry objects from place to place. When the rest of the family woke up around 10AM we ate and then ventures out to a library with a gigantic play room in the children’s wing then went over to the gym. EC was a miss! Three potty opps that were too late! That hasn’t happened in ages. The kids had a good time though Daddy Man told me another Mom told Itty Bitty to keep her hands to herself when Itty Bitty went over to comfort the woman’s son. GROWL! You don’t do that to children. You might say, “Thank you for trying, but My-Sneezy-Snotty son doesn’t like to be touched” or “He just wants his mommy right now, but it was nice of you to try to comfort him”. She then lost him later in the hall and didn’t notice until a staff member brought him back. I still feel like I want to pounce like Mrs. Jumbo (Dumbo’s Mamma).
That aside, Daddy Man almost spoiled the whole surprise party thing by wanting to go to his Mom’s early. Luckily I convinced him that a nap was needed for the Littles and we should go home first. When we got to his Mom’s (Grandmama) a little after 5:00 he was sooooooooo surprised! Oh we got him good! We earned the right to gloat! It is hard to keep secrets from the guy! Surprise Daddy Man! We got you good! Itty Bitty got a little freaked out when she ran into a room and met with a wall of people, but I headed her of before she could blow everyone’s cover. She clung to me for half an hour! So unlike her, but understandable.
We had no EC luck as I was too late every time with all the distraction, but we had success again when we got home that nght even though the Littles were very, very tired and wired!
1/20 Day 332 Su: We took it easy today. Grandma came buy to watch football and bought a new batch of the rice and steak tips that was gobbled up in five seconds yesterday and Daddy Man didn’t get to have any.
EC last night was all catches. 3 for 3. Mini Moose is holding longer so the pees in the night are much bigger. I’ve increased the wee pad layer as I still do not use a cover over the flat and belt. Mini Moose was in trainers all day and we had soiled one with a poo, but we only missed 25%, the rest was finished in the potty.
Mini Moose moves like crazy and is now 50/50 walking and crawling getting better day by day. He is also squatting more which was the start of the poo miss that luckily I noticed in time. We have just about gotten the sit, pee, done erfected but he’ll still complain while he is peeing! My goodness. It is like he is mad at his own bladder.
We took down the tree and Christmas decorations today! It was a good tree, barely any needes fell and we didn’t even water it this month. I then spent the afternoon organizing the dining room where the tree was back into a play area for Itty Bitty were she can have her play kitchen, art coffee table with a box under it holding vintage Little People, Weebles and Lincoln Logs. She can also play with wooden trains and tracks in this baby-free zone. We don’t usually eat in there so why not let it get use is what I say! I can still see her play from the living room. She even has finally learned to put the toys away when done without being asked 90% of the time. She has room to play and it is easy to pick things up since there is only one spot where things might roll under.
1/21 Day 333 M: Well, last night was a miss fest. 5 times. Oh well. I think we are ready to move on from the basin to the little potty at night. He has gotten so long now t is getting awkward to nurse and pee the way we have been. When we got up though, he had a gigantic morning pee and then I put him in training pants. We were dry and successful until 7:00pm when I missed the poo bomb. Twice.
I’d carried Mini Moose n my back all day, stopping only for potty breaks. It was a holiday but Daddy Man was at work and it was ridiculously cold out! I decided to vacuum and sweep with Itty Bitty lending me a hand with the dustpan and brush (she is quite the expert), did dishes, started laundry, and put away the last of the holiday decor.
Once I put Moose down he decided to poop. Then I thoght it was safe until Itty Bitty informed me that the baby was stinky. Ewww. That second one was a big mess on te floor! Goopy breastmilk poop. We ran out of fruit and there have been no bananas to firm the output.
Oh well. All day in trainers is still a win!
12/19 Day 300 W: Itty Bitty slept until 10:00am while Mini Moose deemed fit to start his day at 7:30. At least he only peed once last night so EC rate was 100% though he did get made at me for the time I offered a pee and he didn’t want a pee. I explained that he could at least try kicking me once for “nursing’ and twice for “peeing” so I’d have a fighting chance at fulfilling his wishes promptly.
Pottytunities for Two 