Why nothing is ever done around here...

Mike thinks I sit on my butt all day watching Oprah.

But here is an example of why it takes me 14 hours to do things it may take someone else about  3 minutes to do....

While I am thinking about it...

Anyone have any thoughts on why Harlee is regressing with sleep?

She was sleeping 7pm - 6am - which was perfect.

....and then it was 7pm to 4am to 6 am

Now it is 7pm to 2am to 5:45am.

I get up, hand her a pacifier and she goes back to sleep. We had to lower the crib mattress so I took out the bumper and now her pacifier is always on the floor. I would ignore it all together and wait it out, but she stands up in her crib, jumps around and cries like it is morning.

The biggest problem with this is, aside from her sleeping like a 3 month old, is that I get up at 4:30 am to do my school work before everyone wakes up.......

Anyway, she is teething like crazy..anyone know if teething causes something like this and it will self correct?

Or have any fabulous suggestions? Thanks!

And a Steve update...

I suppose that no one is aware that I have another son.....I am just going to accept it. Harlee is apparently a boy.

Per 99% of the people she meets.

I have stopped correcting people because I am so over it.

Look dental hygienist, my kid is wearing a turquoise onsie with a pink elephant and glitter on it with ruffled sleeves, she is NOT a boy, says my mom...to which she replies ":Well, she is wearing blue, it through me off" Uh, actually, it is turquoise with ruffled sleeves, and a PINK elephant!

This is one of MANY examples, so I have taken to calling her Steve.

Jesse disagrees and thinks it would be far more humorous for people to say "What is his name?" and then I say "Suzy".....

But really, I could put her in a pink tutu with a rose in her 4 hairs and people would still call her a boy...so why bother.

My mom loves to tell the story about when I was a baby and some lady came up to her and told her "Don't you think that outfit is a bit girly for a boy?"

Idiots

Harlee Steve is 8 1/2 months.

She crawls if she is lazy.....if she really needs to get somewhere, she army crawls. She has one arm that is super buff because of it.

She pulls herself up on everything and cruises around, so we put this together for her:

We also had to lower the crib mattress down not one, but two notches.

She has 2 teeth, but refuses to eat solid food of vegetables. She lives only on bottles, and stage 2 fruit or carrots. I have taken to being sneaky since carrots are so potent and will try to sneak a teaspoon of beans or peas into the carrots. She has not caught on to that UNLESS I put it in a new bowl.....

I put finger food on her tray at every meal and you should see the hulk come to life! She grunts and rips of her bib, and then grunts and pushes, literally pushes, the tray off of the latches on her highchair onto the floor. Hello? A little dramatic don't you think?

She LOVES the camera. And will stare at it with her huge eyes every time it is around her...

My cat is her buddy. Ever since I brought her home from the hospital, my cat was freakish about her. If she cries, my cat comes and finds me...or sits outside her door. When I would go get her, the cat would run in after me.

She still does this but now, in addition, sits right beside her while she plays.

She is also a mini homemaker I guess....

Brody is 3!!!

Holy Crap!

Some notable things about B at 3

1. His new phrase to use ALL the TIME....... "Maybe later".

Do you want some crackers? Maybe later

Do you want to swim? Maybe later

Go pick up your toys. Maybe later

2. He absolutely will not have anything to do with using a toilet. Instead he says "Maybe later"

I have tried bribes. He goes in there with us, he is not afraid of the toilet, and in fact, will get mad if someone else flushes it before he is allowed to. I have taken off his diaper and stayed strong. 5 days strong. He continued to pee on the floor and walk around in wet pants and not only not tell me, but not even be bothered by the fact that he was standing in his own pee.  So, I was sick of it all, and clearly he is not ready...so diapers it is.

3. He is a determined "little shit" as my dad lovingly calls him. He does what he wants to. If you want him to do something he does not want to do (like go in the house to play rather than play outside - oh the horror) you pretty much have to threaten to spank him with a stick before he will listen.

And he will "fake" doing something productive to avoid it....like in the example above, he will start to come inside, but then stop to "fix" the doormat.

4. If someone around here is doing ANYTHING, he has to be in the middle of it helping and if you tell him he can't help, he will flip out! he will scream loudly over and over "I WANT TO HELP! I WANT TO HELP!" and he does...

If Mike is building, Brody will get his tools and work. I can't load or unload the dishwasher without him being in there grabbing things and putting them away or into the dishwasher...he is very good at loading the silverware...

But his favorite thing to do it take the trash to the dumpster...go figure.

5. He twirls his hair. Where does he get that from?

6. If you tell him "I love you" he will say " I love you more" and if you say "I love you more" he will say "Don't say I love you more, say I love you most"

7. He talks nonstop from the second he wakes up to the second he goes to sleep....

8. He sleepwalks sometimes. So we still have to keep the baby gate up on his room at night.

9. He would rather eat cherry tomatoes and grapes than anything Else - including cupcakes.

I Love you B!


So, for day 1 of his birthday celebration, we took him to the petting zoo in San Juan. I had reasonably high hopes for this excursion. He was pretty much okay with everything except riding on the pony. Because I am evil, I forced him to go anyway knowing he would like it once he stopped freaking out and stopped being so stubborn. But, because he is so stubborn, he would not admit he liked it at all.........he cried and screamed the entire first lap, and then on the second lap, although he was not longer screaming, he would not look at any of our faces....

Then for his other birthday celebration, we had a party at our house. He knows nothing about birthdays really, and has 1 friend, so it was mostly adults. Not that he cared. By the time his party started at 2pm, he was on his 2nd bath, and still dirty from playing outside....and then he was exhausted on top of it.  When it was time for him to blow out his candle, he didn't want to, nor did he want to eat his cupcakes....he wanted to drink water.

The Weekend

Was supposed to be Brody's 3rd birthday party.

We had about 5 on the guest list.

So, we made the decision to move the party to this Saturday and go to a funeral to support a good friend, leaving the kids at home. On the way home, Mike offered to take me out on a date night.

So we went home and talked to the kids and checked to see if the house was still standing. The house was in reasonable condition and no one was injured, so they happily sent us off to dinner after hooking the play station 3 up in the living room with surround sound.

We went to Ra for sushi because we are cheap-asses and they have a Saturday night happy hour where you can eat about $200.00 worth of food for about $20.00. It was really strange because I can't tell you the last time M and I went out with kids, let alone without.

Next door is a new restaurant/bar that opened up recently and while walking by, M noticed that they were broadcasting the Pay-per-view fight that he was dying to see but would never spend $100.00 to buy....So in we went and I spent the rest of date night watching UFC........hey, at least we were out.

I would like to think that since Jesse doesn't have a good reputation with, let's just call it, "handling business", he would have taken this opportunity to "kiss ass", and Janee, who is a neat freak, I figured would be the last person to be in the midst of messy problems...So upon waking up Sunday, I freaked out.

Pizza plate with pizza on it turned upside down on the couch, with cheese on the cushion (Brody's fault - Jesse left the plate there right side up, Brody must have been playing with it. Seriously?)

Trash all over the floor

Dishes not rinsed, not cleaned, still sitting on the table looking nasty...and on and on...

Sucks because M and I were thinking we should have a date night once a month.....

Maybe next time we should just leave Harlee in charge......She was the only one who left no mess anywhere... ;)

She's gone

So she showed up Friday at 6 with balloons, and ice cream cake, a cowboy hat and a child-like attitude.

It was like watching a 7 year old dance around because she wants to open her Christmas presents Christmas morning.

How do you act like that when you are saying goodbye to your own children???

So she left after her 1-hour visit and come to find out she gave Jesse $200.00 in Tilly's gift cards and $50.00 cash, and Janee got $100.00 in Tilly gift cards, $50.00 to Old Navy and $100.00 cash.

??What??

What about the money for her medical necessity?? Orthodics to hopefully prevent her from having foot surgery, that she couldn't come up with the day before because "the ecomony is terribly right now"?

Must be nice to be able to find money when you are doing "fun" things like kissing your kids ass because you haven't seen them in 4 months and are moving out of state.........

"Can I see the kids for a few hours since I am moving?"

"You could have been seeing them every week but you chose not to. You can have your normal 1 hour"

"Can I at least bring Janee a cake?"

"That is fine. By the way, we tood Janee to the foot doctor and her feet are really bad. She could need surgery if they problem is not corrected now. We got her custom fit orthodics. My insurance covers 95% up to $200.00. they cost $500.00 so be prepared to pay half of that bill"

"The ecomony is really bad right now and so money is tight"

"Try raising a family"

Favorite quote of the day

Nevermind that I am up at 4am and in bed at 11pm trying to finish school to get a job...and nevermind the average $250.00 a week on groceries we pay, which is increasing with Jesse as he works out......and the fact that Mike pays for 120 miles of gas everyday to get to and from work.....

And Mike has to hear  "The economy is tight" sob story?