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This is funny to me for two reasons. The first one is obvious: this just reminds me of something my 16 year old brother would say. He is pretty tech saavy and while my dad is too, my mom is not (sorry mom). He constantly gets frustrated with her for asking him how to use programs on their computer or ipod.

The second is because I constantly get “butt calls”! Because my name starts with “A” I am at the top of a lot of peoples phone book and when their phone decides to call someone it is always me. So let the be a lesson to you, lock your phone!!

My mom has been visiting the past few days and while we were at the store yesterday we decided to wander through the flower section. Sweet Pea got very excited and asked Nana if he could have a plant of his very own. Much to his excitement she got him one!

We thought it would be fun to make a craft out of it so we went and got a flower pot for him to paint and put his plant in. Before bed tonight we got out all the paints and watching him create his masterpiece!

After he painted we went onto the balcony and scooped some dirt from my flower pot into his.

In goes the plant!

It is now proudly sitting on the shelf next to his bed.

Also, I saw this great movie trailer on the blog Mommy Life (which is one of my favorite blogs). It is a documentary that follows four babies, each from a different country, through their first year of life. It looks really interesting and I can’t wait to see it!

The last month or so Peanut has been ready to go to sleep at night around six. This is not good for me because if she goes to bed at six then she is ready to get up for the day way before I am. So we have had a find ways to keep her awake AND happy until seven.

So at six we eat. She must be my daughter because food definitely makes her happy. After that we strip her down and give her a bath. She loves, loves, loves taking a bath. She isn’t even six months old yet and the second she gets in she splashes and giggles. We go back and forth between bathing her in the bathtub and bathing her in the sink. Tonight the sink won out. I fill the sink with water and bubbles and then plop her in. It could probably keep her happy until late at night if I let her stay in the water. Anyways, here are some picture my mom took of the occasion:

When Sweet Pea saw that Peanut was getting a bath he HAD to take one too. So we plopped him in the sink next to her!

The past week or so we have had a horrific time getting Sweet Pea to go to bed. I have only seen his behavior in one other place, the show Supernanny. Yup, it got that bad. I always watch that show with the comfort of knowing that my kids don’t (and won’t) act like that. But this week something was different. What was happening to my child? He was fine during the day. We played and laughed and he obeyed like he normally does.  But then he turned into a little monster at night — screaming, getting out of bed, and fighting us at every turn.

When stuff like this happens, we don’t just shut him in his room and let him cry. We really try hard to think about what could be going on. There IS a reason for bad behavior. We like to try to fix it, not just let him cry and hope that works. We realized that the only major thing that has changed in the last few weeks was us moving Peanut back into our room. That and he is getting older and he is really testing us and pushing boundaries.

So here is what we did: We have two bathrooms in our apartment, but we have almost zero closet space. So we use the bathroom in our bedroom as storage and we all use the bathroom in the hallway for our needs. I simply moved around the boxes in the “storage” room so Peanut’s pack’n'play fit in there. Then I had Sweet Pea help me move it in and told him we were making Peanut her own room. He was VERY excited about this. So now they both have their own room (even though Peanut is still basically in our room…I can open the door to the bathroom and touch her from my bed).

Also, on our way to bed I grabbed a piece of paper and a crayon. When we got to his room I told him he was going to help me make a list of things we do before bed and then we were going to follow them. Here is what he came up with (with a little prompting from me):

1. Go to potty and brush teeth.
2. Read two books.
3. Sing our song (we always sing Old Rugged Cross before bed)
4. Pray
5. Pick an animal to sleep with
6. Cover up with blanket
7. Hugs and kisses
8. Mommy and Daddy go to other room
9. Go to sleep

Each time we did something we would refer to the list to see what was next. He was so excited and got a grin on his face every time. And tonight he went to bed without any fuss at all and fell asleep instantly! Tomorrow we are going to make a more permanent list and hang it on the wall for future reference.

It is such a great feeling to know we FIXED the problem, and not just put a little band-aid over it. Our kids are real people with real feelings. We can’t just ignore bad behavior and hope it goes away. We have to figure out what is going on and fix it. It is hard sometimes to figure it out and can be even harder to solve, but it is always worth it.

After everyone woke up from nap today we went on a walk to the duck pond. When we got there a butterfly family was following us. Then they all got lost and we had to find them. Sweet Pea searched and searched through the leaves and grass and finally found the brother butterfly. Then he found the mommy and daddy butterfly hiding in a pipe. Then the sister butterfly appeared as if from nowhere. Then the family decided they wanted pancakes from McDonalds, so they got on a BIG airplane and it took them there. Then Sweet Pea and I turned into butterflies and we flapped our wings all the way home.

{FYI — This is fictional, all from Sweet Pea’s imagination.}

It has been so long since I have written my brain is just spilling over with stuff to tell you. So much so that I am sure I will leave something out.

So I will start with Charles. He is awesome. In December he completed his first full semester in grad school. During that semester we had an infant, he had knee surgery, he was working full time, and going to school full time. We figured if our family could make it through that we could make it through anything. Not only did he make it through, he made it with a 3.7 GPA! I can’t imagine how he would do if we didn’t have to deal with so much on the side. The  spring semester started this week and he has jumped right in. He has already started reading and writing and it is only the first week.

He is also finished with physical therapy for his knee. The therapist was very impressed with his progress and his knee is very strong. He just has to keep doing knee exercises for the next few months before he can start doing sports and such. He is looking forward to joining a basketball league and I really want to start taking dance lessons with him.

Sweet Pea has hit the two and a half mark. The sentences he puts together always amaze me. He understands the concept of before and after, up and down, behind and forward, and under and over. He can count to 14. He also recognizes the numbers 2 and 5. If you ask him how old he is he will say 5, not 2. If you ask him his name he will say Mickey Mouse.

He loves our keys. He can pick out the key to our apartment, stick the key in the door, and unlock it. He can also pick out the keys to our cars. He loves to build with blocks and legos. His favorites are to build garages for his cars and barns for his animals. Oatmeal is still one of his favorite foods, although peanut butter runs a close second.

We started potty training this past Wednesday and he is doing amazing! He is accident free during the day and about half the time at night. I’m sure part of the reason for this is his love of chocolate kisses and marshmallows. He gets one of each whenever he goes. We also have this really awesome Lightning McQueen potty seat and….well that says it all. And we have been constantly watching this Elmo video (which I think Charles and I find more entertaining than Sweet Pea):

Little Peanut has hit the five month mark and she is so much fun! She is rolling over and sitting up. She grabs for toys when you hold them out to her. She babbles and talks. She makes the “d” sound and Charles is convinced she is saying “dada”.She is starting to recognize us. When we get home she gets really excited to see us. It’s awesome!

So far she has tried peas, carrots, and sweet potatoes. She loved all of them, but we have only done carrots once because they made her little tummy upset.

She is now sleeping back in our room. She was doing well sharing a room with Sweet Pea, but he was not. He has become quite the master manipulator at bed time. He figured out that he could start crying and we would whisk him out of the room so he wouldn’t wake Peanut. So basically he just started crying for no reason so he wouldn’t have to go to bed. No good.

So we are now back to our original sleeping arrangement. For the most part I am ok with that, but every now and then I feel a little claustrophobic. With someone in every room and Charles studying in the living room at night there is nowhere for me to go.

As for me, I am just grateful to be home with my kids. It is hard, but I can’t imagine anybody else raising them.

I have also realized in the past couple months that I have let myself get lost in my kids. So my goal this year is to become my own person again. Not really sure how to go about that, but I am going to figure it out.

Well that is us in a nutshell!