Toddler to baby advice

KK really wants her brother to get mobile... as does he.

The other day, she asked, "Why JJ not walk?"

I told her that he doesn't know how to walk yet and we have to teach him.

So she said to him, "You just pick your feet up."

Right.



JJ is still trying to figure out how to crawl.

I asked KK to show him how to do it.

She thought it would be better to just explain it to him: "You just stick your bum up in the air."

Yeah... gotcha.

Conversations with KK: He not perfect

So we seem to be getting this sharing-a-room-thing down with the kids. We have been kind of playing every bedtime by ear, depending on who is more tired, but once they are down, it seems to be working very well.

Monday night, I was on my own with the two kids. In that scenario, the most effective option is to put JJ down first, then finish up devotions with KK in the living room until JJ is sleeping soundly. JJ was down and KK was minutes away from going in.

We had just brushed her teeth, when she said to me, "I not want JJ sleep in my room everymore."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because he not perfect. Yesterday he perfect, but he not perfect everymore."

Confused, I asked her, "What is perfect?"

Beaming she answered, "ME!"

Status Update

Are you a facebooker? I sure am. One of the things I'm addicted to is the status updates. They are like my new method of self-expression. More for me than anyone else, I think! This week's status updates have been all over the map.

Anywho, I've had a hard time blogging this week. Not for lack of stories to tell. In fact, I have 3 posts sitting in my drafts right now, that I just don't feel it's right to post.

I posted earlier this morning and have since been going back and forth about whether it was appropriate. It felt fake to talk about life outside of the sadness and grief that has followed the loss of our friend Con. But I posted it and it's there.

Whatev.

So it feels better to follow-up an unrelated post with a quick update on how we're doing over here. I've been busy. Another reason why it's hard to blog. I have much to catch up on after our camping trip and I haven't been sleeping well. Evenings have been spent helping Peanut-lover debrief after spending time with his friend helping him debrief and grieve. This is all new territory for Peanut-lover and I'm proud of him for carrying on. He knew when he started this friendship that it would come to this and still he persisted.

I'm sad, but not overwhelmingly so. It still hasn't really sunk in for me. It's hard to believe that that sweet woman is gone. That we don't get to see her anymore. But mostly I'm just busy. And a little scatterbrained. Can you tell?

Thursday night will be the viewing and that will be very hard. Friday is the funeral and internment. Fortunately, Peanut-lover's sister will be coming to stay with us Thursday night to help out with the kids. This sister is amazing, by the way. She has a two-month-old and is coming out to help us. This is the same sister that stayed with us the night before JJ was born, so that we wouldn't have to worry about KK just in case I went into labour. Which I did. Anyways, I'm very grateful to her for her generosity towards us.

We are not entirely sure about how much to expose KK to. Con loved KK very much and would want her to be there. Our plan is to leave her at home for the viewing, but to take her to the funeral on Friday. We won't take JJ to anything, just because it'll be easier not to. After the funeral, I'll run KK home and feed JJ, then leave them at home while we go to the internment.

We haven't decided yet if we will let KK see Con's body at the funeral. We've tried to be as open as possible with her about what has happened. She is very perceptive and would know if we were trying to hide something from her. I think it might help her with the finality of it if she can see Con's body. I know it can be a little freaky for us, but KK hasn't quite hit the fear part of the imagination stage yet. So she really can't imagine outside of experiences she has already had. By that I mean, she won't be able to imagine some of the things we do when we see a dead body.

I don't know though, so I turn it over to you guys. Do you have any experience with young children and funerals? Any advice you could share with me?

Faking it

When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was grow up. Now that I'm technically there... all I can think is when am I going to feel grown-up?

Sometimes I feel like I'm faking it, an imposter, and one day, everyone is going to discover that I'm not really grown-up. Especially when I'm around other grown-ups... as in everyone I hang out with!

Peanut-lover says to me, "You feel like you're faking it... as in, you feel like you're faking having two kids, a job, and a mortgage?"

No, not quite. Just faking being grown-up.

Anyone else ever feel like that?

A Hard Post to Write

Many of you know this already, but for those of you who don't... very early Saturday morning, our friend Con ended her battle with colorectal cancer. This is the same friend that I wrote about here. She leaves behind a devoted husband and two boys, 13 and 9.

I have struggled with writing about it for a few different reasons. Firstly, I don't want to use their sad story as "material" for my blog... in fact, I dread the thought. And also, I don't like writing about gloomy stuff or anything that might draw attention for the wrong reasons. I like being silly and goofy. I like writing about light-hearted stuff.

But tonight, my heart is not light and it just feels wrong to write about silly stuff. And I don't want to NOT write, because I like you guys. I like how you come back for more every day and support me with comments, here or on facebook or email. So I don't want to just go away. And I want my blog to be an honest journaling of my life. So that is why I write tonight.

The connection I had to Con was that our husbands work together. Three years ago when she first was diagnosed with cancer, we hardly knew her and only knew her husband from work stuff. But Peanut-lover felt strongly that he needed to support her husband, so he started going to the gym with him every morning before work. Through that time, they became close friends and over the past 6 months, we have spent a lot of time with Con and her family.

The last time I saw her was less than two weeks ago in the hospital. She looked tired, but otherwise very well and was anticipating being discharged on the weekend. She knew she had only weeks to live, but was intent on fighting until the very end. She wanted more time with her boys.

We went on our camping trip and cut it short by a day because of the rain. We got home on Thursday afternoon, unpacked, started in on the laundry, had supper, got the kids to bed, finished a movie, turned off the lights... then the phone rang. We learned that Con was not well and Peanut-lover decided to go to the hospital to support his friend for a few hours.

Friday morning at 8:30, we learned that Con was not expected to survive the day. So Peanut-lover went back to the hospital, along with another coworker and stayed there until the very end. He came home at 6:30 am and caught a few hours of sleep.

These days have been hard for us. Not hard like they are for her family, but still hard. And I can only tell our story. There is sadness and grief, exhaustion, confusion, and frustration. I am trying to be strong, because Peanut-lover is trying to be strong to help his friend through the grief. I have not had much opportunity to grieve myself. My role is to take on more at home so that Peanut-lover is freed up to be with his friend. I got really frustrated with the kids today, which is shameful because Con, a mom, had to leave her two boys behind yesterday.

I'm also struggling to explain to KK what has happened. She can't possibly grasp death or grief, but is noticing the sadness and will notice Con's absence. She talked about Con all the time. She will miss her. I've told her that Con was very sick and that her body stopped working. I've told her that usually when people get sick, they get better, but sometimes they don't. I've told her that Con has gone to heaven and we are all sad because we don't get to see her anymore. I don't know what else to tell her, so I just repeat these things over and over every time they come up. And they come up at the most unexpected times.

If I seem absent, it is because I'm running on autopilot. I'm catching myself lost in memories or sad thoughts and not even realizing that my children have been needing my attention. I feel like I'm walking through jello. So I need to try to use my focused time on my children.

Blogwise, I'm not sure what this week will look like. I hope it will not all be sad. It might be a little bare. I do have some funny stories that I want to tell. I just have to figure out how to weave them in at this sad time, without seeming disrepectful or fake. Bear with me...

Happy Birthday Harmony

**disclaimer: Hi mom. I know it's your birthday today too. But you're ageing gracefully in Greece, or Italy, or Sicily, or somewhere else amazing. Clearly, you don't need a birthday post to make your day! Happy Birthday!**

Today is my BFF Harmony's 29th birthday. We've been friends now for 15 years! Longer than not. And my life has been greatly enriched since we met.

We met at family camp 1993. Ah, the good old days. Two boy-crazy teenagers. Ok, I was boy-crazy. She liked boys.

We've been inseparable ever since. Well... unless you count that there's an entire country separating us and we've probably only seen each other twice in 8 years. But our hearts are inseparable.

She's the only friend who could hold me as I suffered my first heartbreak. She's the friend who knew everything bad about me, and somehow loved me anyway. She's the friend who has seen every side of me... even the blue side... and I don't mean sad, right Harm?! She's the friend who tolerated sleep-overs where I tended to launch my "orthodontic appliance" blindly across the room at her and talked straight until I fell asleep.

She's the friend I didn't support when she had her first baby because I was in school and had NO CLUE. She's the friend who patiently waited 7 years for me to catch up in life with her, so we could be close again. She's the friend who was first to find out I was pregnant with KK, back at the last, wonderful time I saw her. She's the friend I turn to when I need to talk (email-talk) about mommy things. She's the friend who says that yes, it is hard, but you'll get through this.



That's us in grade 10 or 11. I'm the geeky looking one on the left. She's the beautiful one on the right. Just looking at her feels like home.

When we were in high-school, we often tried to pretend that we were twins. We had an elaborate story to explain why our last names were different. We managed to convince a lot of people. At teen camp the year she was 16, she didn't want to pretend anymore because I was still 15 and she wanted everyone to know that she had her driver's license (and I couldn't pretend to be 16 because I didn't have mine).

Happy Birthday Harmy! I bet you're wishing you were the younger twin now!

I am so proud to see the woman you have become.

Always know your friendship means the world to me.

Note to Self: At least the bathtub's clean now

(Please excuse me while I give myself a little pep talk)

Try to look at the bright side of things here...

You've been meaning to clean that tub for days... ok, weeks... ok, a month. Now it's all sparkly and clean. Doesn't that feel good?

And you have to admit, it was pretty funny to see Peanut-lover come running out of there, shrieking like a little girl, "There's a poop in there! JJ pooped in the tub! Come get him out!!" Seriously, two kids and he's still afraid of a little poop?

And hey, you got out of the bedtime routine because you were busy cleaning said tub. Let's be honest here, you're not so crazy about watching Daddy act out two Cabbage Patch Kids fighting over who gets to pray. For 10 minutes. Every. Single. Night.

And you know, at least you weren't in the tub this time.

A really great idea

I saw this great idea at Rookie Moms.

They are called Mama Merit Badges. Little badges that you give yourself when you know you've earned them. And you'll know. Breastfeeding, diaper changes, medical, restaurant etc. You can iron them on whatever you want (diaper bag, t-shirt) to show that you've survived a particular element of being a mom.

You can find them here. You can read stories about when other people knew they'd earned one here.

Is it weird that this idea makes me cry?

I found my bad momma jeans

Has anyone seen my bad momma jeans? I need to put them on again. Oh, there they are. Thanks.

Last Wednesday, I had a very busy day. I did 6 loads of laundry, cleaned out the fridge, cleaned up the kitchen, trimmed everyone's nails, painted the female nails, started packing for camping, updated the budget, and played hard with the kids.

Oh, and the kids napped on alternating schedules, so I didn't even lie down all day.

By bedtime, I was done.

Actually, two hours before bedtime, I was DONE.

But JJ wouldn't settle. Nosiree. He wanted milk to come out of my empty milk-storage-devices and was not willing to work at it to get some. He was mad!

Add to that, we've been trying to get him to sleep in the room with KK. You know, in his own crib? And having a little trouble working out the logistics of that. Him first? Her first? Both at the same time?

No, not both at the same time. We tried that and 10 minutes in, we had two children wailing. JJ was removed from the situation and proceeded to take 3 hours to settle again. So, no. Not both at the same time.

Back to Wednesday night. I finally decided to start him out in the play pen in our room. He normally will settle without crying, or possibly cry out a couple of times before he settles. Did I mention I love his thumb?

This time, he cried for a few minutes. Maybe a few minutes longer than I should have left him. I had honestly had it and he wasn't letting me comfort him anyways and well, I was too busy putting my bad momma jeans back on (that's my way of saying I was a bad momma) (just in case you're wondering).

After a few minutes, I noticed his crying was a little more distressed than usual. So I went in. And there he was, arm pinned behind his back, nose all bloody. NOSE ALL BLOODY? My baby boy has a bloody nose?

We still don't know what happened. It dried up right away. But, needless to say, the boy got nursed to sleep, laying in bed with mommy that night.

The bad momma jeans are back in business.

Conversations with KK: She doesn't even know what she's talking about

We're driving home from visiting the in-laws. About a 90-minute drive. KK announces she needs to pee, really bad. Of course we're at the spot where there's nowhere to stop for 20 minutes. (And no, she won't pee on the side of the road, thanks for asking. Tried that once. She. Was. Horrified!)

Anywho. I tell her we just have a wait a few minutes for daddy to find a gas station.

She's quiet for a minute or two. Then, "Mommy, that a gaschicken?"

"A what?"

"Gaschicken"

"What?"

"GASCHICKEN"

"I don't know what you're saying."

"GAS-CHICKEN!!"

"I can't understand you. Daddy, do you know what she's saying?"

A pause.

"Mommy. What me saying?"

SHE doesn't even know what she's talking about!

Fortunately someone does. Daddy comes to the rescue, "She's saying 'a gas station.'"

"Yeah, a gas chicken"

Oooooohhhhh, right...

NOTE TO SELF: Camping Prep

Don't tell your 2.5 yo daughter you're going camping until you're right ready to go. As in, at-the-door-everything-packed-in-the-van-cat-fed-water-off-lights-off-everyone's-peed ready to go.

And especially don't tell her 4 hours in advance, when you still need to spend the entire morning packing.

Unless of course you want her to sit at the door in her bathing suit and rubber boots, holding a naked barbie and a purple crayon, saying every 3.8 minutes, "It time to go NOW!"

I'm just sayin'.

One experiment that actually worked

I've always been a bit of an experimenter. Not a good experimenter mind you. My family is vigorously nodding their heads as they read. I was just really curious. And not very, um, scientific.

Like the time I studied whether shampoo tastes the same as it smells. (It doesn't.) (Not even the kind with honey in the name, which is what got me started in the first place.)

Or the time I was baking and substituted baking powder for baking soda (or vice versa, I can't remember). We didn't eat those muffins.

I'm actually famous in my family for the hand lotions I used to invent. Not in a good way though. (Can I get an Amen, Lisa?)

My brother Some would say that most of my ex-boyfriends were experiments gone wrong as well. Hey, at least I learned from them. Well, some of them.

But the other day, I got one right.

Yay me!

I have been trying to cook frugally, but deliciously lately. Fresh herbs are expensive to buy and no, I can't grow plants! I nearly killed my cactus.

I needed fresh mint in this recipe. Sometimes I'll substitute another dried herb if I don't have it on hand, but this time I really felt the recipe needed the mint to complete the flavour. So I replaced some of the water in the recipe with strongly brewed mint tea. And it WORKED!

I may have turned the corner on my history of bad experiments...

...or not. Time will tell.

Conversations with KK: Get this off my finger!

It was naptime. KK and I were cuddled up in bed and I kept dozing off, but she was having a little trouble settling down. I noticed she kept rubbing her nose and I thought she was just picking it and flinging boogers.

That probably would have been a bigger deal if I wasn't dead exhausted. Just so you know.

Finally, she turns to me and says, "Mommy get this off my finger".

So I wipe it with my hand and close my eyes again.

She keeps fidgeting.

"Mommy, it not come off!"

The thought crossed my mind to pop it in my mouth just to be silly and horrify her... and possibly distract her from the finger which clearly does not have anything sticking to it!

Boy, I'm glad I didn't.

So glad.

"Mommy, I not pull something out of my bum".

Uh, what??

"My bum bothering me. I not pull something out of my bum."

"Is your bum itching? Were you trying to scratch it?"

"No. Not everymore. Now my finger smell at me. Get it off!"

Ooooohhhhh. So she was smelling her finger and trying to get rid of the smell. Gotcha.

A quick trip to the bathroom followed, and fortunately, that was the end of it.

The moral of the story? Two-year-old fingers are best cleaned with soap and water. There are just some things that momma spit wasn't made to deal with!

The girls are back in business!

Welcome back :)

You'll be happy to hear that my plugged duct has cleared up and fortunately didn't develop into anything more serious. Even though I went through some duct trouble with KK, I was a little nervous this time because it wasn't clearing up very easily and it hurt so bad. When I had duct trouble with KK, it was easy to deal with because given the opportunity, KK would have breastfed for 21 months straight, regardless of whether milk was coming out or not. JJ on the other hand, can't be encouraged to feed more often and after a couple minutes, he's done and in goes the thumb. So the dang thing took a lot longer to clear.

I felt it was appropriate for JJ to wear this shirt, considering all the boob work that was going on in the last few days.


As advised by my friends, I tried feeding JJ by dangling over him and it worked really well. Then KK came in to see what I was doing and the look on her face, seeing me in that position, was some kind of combination of complete horror and shock. I swear she thought I was trying to smother him.

Thanks for waiting around for me to get things cleared up. I should be back to my funny self (if that's what you think I am) by tomorrow :)

TMI: Plumbing trouble

(A note to my two three male readers: this one's for the ladies... so SCRAM!)

(You boys still here? Well, consider yourself warned!)

Ok ladies (and my persistent male readers), I've got some plumbing issues. Y'all, I've got a plugged duct. A massively plugged duct. You know, in one of the "girls". And while I don't mind being perky again, it is only a one-sided thing, so the perkiness is really just showing off the un-perkiness of the other girl.

Oh, and did I mention that I'm packing around an extra 3 lbs of water? Yeah, that's thanks to a little hormonally-driven water retention (Seriously Dad, I warned you!) So it extra hurts.

Why am I divulging this information to the bloggy world? I'm going to have to take a couple days off. This duct unplugging business is a time consuming matter. I got some great tips from my facebook friends, so the next couple days will find me dipping her in a bowl of hot water, and dangling her "unelegantly" over my son, trying to get gravity to help. Oh and breastfeeding, lots of breastfeeding.

So I will meet you back in a few days, shall we say Wednesday at 7 am sharp?

See you then!

TMI: Easy diaper Change

I just changed JJ by holding him sideways over the toilet and pulling out the leg opening of his diaper.

Plop!

Perhaps the child needs a little more fiber?

A new perspective on bugs

My fear dislike of bugs has been well documented.

Something happened on Tuesday that may change that.

I was getting veggies out of the fridge when I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye.

I didn't really even realize I'd seen it at first. But then my brain said, "Peanut, something just moved. Tiny things that move are not welcome here."

So I looked. And right away, the chills began.

People, I've fallen so far from the days when I used to collect grasshoppers and ants. Now, just looking at a bug gives me chills and makes me nauseous. I have no control over this. It just happens.

But then... the chills stopped.

I watched as this little bug picked up a crumb from my floor.

(That's right mom. I have crumbs on my floor. I know you and dad taught me better. Floors are not my responsibility. Have you read my chore schedule? See. No floors on the list. Someone else deals with floors and he's been really busy lately.)

This little bug, my friend the bug, picked up a crumb and started to carry it away. People, he was cleaning my home! Hey, anyone who cleans is welcome in my home.

Until the cat gets him. Which she did.

Win-Win. (Except for the bug).

10 Things I've learned from my child

So the writing prompt at Absolutely Bananas this week is for 10 things I've learned from my child. I love these writing prompts! I kind of miss school and they feel like an assignment. An easy, optional assignment. Right up my alley!

If you're here for the first time, it might help you to know that my daughter is nearly 3 and my son is 7 months. Clearly, I'm just a beginner...

1. Sleeping in until 8 am is sleeping in.

2. The outfit matches if the little girl thinks she's beautiful in it.

3. No one messes with mommy's naptime. NO ONE!

4. Potty-training may be life's greatest accomplishment.

5. There is no better more honest mirror than a 2-year-old child (except maybe a 3-year old?).

6. No matter how many pictures you take, you will never remember how tiny they were.

7. There is no one way to do this parenting thing right. If it works for you, it is the right way!

8. The bottom of the laundry pile, sadly, does NOT exist.

9. Kids get over hurt feelings way faster than mommy gets over their feelings being hurt.

10. A love for God and a desire to worship is not taught, it is inate.

Now go read about more things people have learned from their children. But if you're here for the first time, I welcome you to look around a little first. I'll make it easy for you: go here to get to my main page.

Playing favourites

Well, I know you have all been extremely concerned since KK started telling me "I not like you everymore". Ha! Just kidding. You all know I'm grown-up enough not to take it personally.

Right?


Right?


Ahem.

The other day, she was in the van with the Peanut-lover and out of the blue she says, "Daddy, you not my favourite."

"No? Who is your favourite then?" asks Daddy.

"Mommy"

I guess I'm out of the doghouse now.

Later we were having dinner and we like to play this game where KK pretends to talk for JJ in this high-pitched little voice. She came up with it herself and it has been a source of a lot of laughs lately.

So we're asking JJ to say things like "Mama", "Dada", "I love mommy" and they're all being repeated by this high-pitched little KK voice.

Then Daddy says "JJ say 'Daddy's my favourite'"

And what does the high-pitched little KK voice say?

"Daddy's not my favourite!"

Oh boy, did we laugh. Especially me. Because you know. I'm the favourite. Today.

The Difference Between Boys and Girls

*disclaimer: my research scientist husband has informed me that this is not a good scientific study because my sample sizes are too small and I don't have a control. BE AWARE this is NOT a scientific study. If you googled "scientific studies on the difference between boys and girls" and ended up here, you are in the WRONG place. Maybe try google scholar. Or ask your mom*

KK: quiet, intropective, shy, plays with dolls, obsesses over babies, sings, dances, afraid of bugs, plays quietly often

JJ: loud, very social, laughs easily, will go to anyone, always trying to jump, eats dolls, grunts, farts constantly, never stops moving

I was surprised how early I noticed the differences between these two.

Let's go back to the very beginning (ok, not quite). When I was pregnant with KK, I had a little morning sickness for the first few weeks. With JJ, I was sick all the time for twenty weeks! I felt KK move first at 17 weeks, JJ at 9 weeks. You know how big a baby is at 9 weeks? The size of a grape. He was one active little grape!

After JJ was born, everyone asked if I noticed any difference having a boy this time around. For the first few weeks, I didn't really see any difference (it was the sleep deprivation). But then I started to notice something: Jacob never stops moving. Only in his deepest sleep does he finally stop. He is going to run circles around me when he gets mobile.

I was warned about this by my friends that have boys:

"Strap on your running shoes now"

"You have to run boys twice a day"

"Read? Hah! He never sits still long enough!"

KK, our quiet little world is about to get shook up. Are you ready?

Weaning: Not the Answer to Every Breastfeeding Problem

I was watching the mom show the other day and they had a segment on breastfeeding. Great! I'm very pro-breastfeeding so I was happy to see that they were covering it.

They had the show's doctor aswering some moms' questions about breastfeeding. One mom had a 7-month-old who was starting to become very distracted during feeds. You wanna know what the doctor's solution was to this? "Well, the World Health Organization recommends a minimum of 6 months of breastfeeding... and he's 7 months, so maybe it's time to wean him."

WHAT???!!

That was his complete answer to "my baby's distracted during feeds"???

I sure hope she had the good sense to let that go in one ear and out the other. To take it as just one guy's opinion. (And by the way, the WHO's recommendation is exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months, and then continued breastfeeding up to 2 years and beyond). But what about all the other moms that were watching and didn't realize that this man, who is not an expert in breastfeeding and is most definitely NOT a mom, was only giving one option. Some moms don't know that they can research stuff, or don't have the resources to research stuff. And a LOT of people take doctor's advice as gospel. (In fact, part of my annoyance comes from being chastised by my own doctor about breastfeeding KK beyond one year.)

Here's what I would have told that mom:

First, good for you for making it past the first six months. They are the hardest for breastfeeding and 50% of moms who want to breastfeed, quit in the first 4 weeks.

Secondly, be patient. This distractable period is short and, although very frustrating, if you make it past this time, you will get into the most rewarding period of breastfeeding. With my children, I noticed the same thing at about that age. Suddenly they are aware of the world around them. They will get used to the sounds of home eventually.

Thirdly, it may be that your baby is frustrated with the flow-rate. One thing I noticed was that once my milk supply had settled, it took longer for my milk to let-down at each feed, so the baby would pull off because he wasn't happy with the flow rate. But if I kept letting him relatch, my milk would let-down after a minute or two and he would feed happily.

And finally, there are so many benefits to breastfeeding that increase the longer you breastfeed. Benefits for both the baby and you. Like decreased risk of obesity, reproductive cancers, osteoporosis, and other diseases. Read about them here. Click here to read about reasons to breastfeed beyond 6 months. Here's a list of 101 reasons to breastfeed. I'll stop now.

I totally get that breastfeeding is a personal choice. How long you breastfeed, exclusive breastfeeding, whatever. It's all a personal choice. I'm not criticizing anyone for their choice.

What I don't get, is why some people think it is important to encourage weaning. Breastfeeding is hard. It takes commitment and energy. But if a mom wants to do it, I think everyone around her should encourage her as much as they can.

So help her problem solve, commiserate with her, bring her food or water when she is nursing. But don't tell her that weaning is the answer to her problems. That's none of your business!

(Ok, now I feel better. Glad I got that off my (still breastfeeding) chest.)

Five things I love about JJ

1. He thinks everything is funny.

Literally everything. I wash his face and he laughs. I take his shirt off and he laughs. He farts and he laughs. He even laughed through one of his immunizations. Sometimes he'll get in a mood where he's just waiting for anything to happen so he can laugh. All it takes is for someone to look at him and the giggles start. He really is a happy little dude!

2. He sucks his thumb.

Everyone seems to think it's a bad thing. I'm quite aware that it will be a problem in the future. But right now, it's a benefit. A HUGE benefit. Isn't self-soothing one of the first goals of mommying?

3. His chin.

He has this tiny little chin that is just perfect for kissing, and nibbling on, and tickling.

4. He's always on the go.

He's not really mobile yet, but he will be soon. It terrifies and excites me at the same time. I'm a "quiet play" kind of mommy and I'm pretty sure quiet play is not going to do it for him once he gets moving. And that's good for me. I need a large push to get outside. I have a feeling we will be spending a lot of time outside soon.

5. He's all mine...for now...

...but I know Daddy will win him over soon...

Click here for more Five things I love about....

Conversations with KK: Trying to Break Mommy's Heart

Yesterday was a rough day behaviour-wise. And the kids were acting up a lot too.

It got to the point where I had to discipline KK for her defiance. Usually, we resolve the issue and come to a place of forgiveness and peace with each other before we leave her room. This time, I guess we weren't quite there when I let her out of the room.

I'm just finishing up packing the diaper bag while KK is using the bathroom.

KK: Mommy, I not like you everymore.

Me: Well, you don't have to like me. I'm still your mommy.

KK: I not like you. You hurt myself.

Me: Mommy doesn't like it either, but you need to learn to listen to mommy. Do you need to have a little cuddle with me?

KK: Yeah. (sniffle)

So we cuddle until she seems happy again and I thought that was the end of it.

I'm tucking her in bed and we are chatting about her day as we always do.

KK: I not like this mommy. I want my red (other) mommy.

Me: What other mommy? You only have one mommy.

KK: I want my nice mommy. The mommy at yours physio.

(That's what I get for telling her that I need a break for physio so that I can be a better mommy)

Again this morning, "I not like you mommy". I have a feeling I'm going to be hearing about this for awhile...