My Dear Mother

Let me tell you some things about the woman who carried me for 40 weeks and then was stuck in hell labored for over 24 hours.  She is a petite, spitfire of an Asian woman.  She born in Korea and has 6 living siblings, two died in infancy, 5 of them being women.  She is the second oldest of those living siblings.  She not only raised me as a single mom, but she took in two of her younger sisters and raised them when the family was brought over to the US.  We also took in her brother and her father for a few years as well before they headed west in search of gold.  (Not really, but it sounded good, right?) 

She was able to leave an abusive relationship in a country that she only lived in for a few years, speaking broken English with a thick accent.  (I still have to translate some of what she says for my sibbies!)  She raised us to the best of her abilities and busted her ass at work so that we could live in a house together and be one big happy family.

She dated, but she never brought those guys around me unless she knew they were worthy enough to meet her monsta princess.  (Maybe it was really because she didn't want me to scare them away.)  She met a wonderful man who I now have the privilege to call dad and birthed two more beautiful babies all while working full time on the opposite schedule as my father so the wee ones didn't have to go to daycare. 

She is always on the move ready to serve anyone and everyone hand and foot.  You don't have to ask for anything from my mom, she just gets it for you.  It's like she has ESP and senses what you need, when you need it.  The first thing she does when I walk in the house is take my baby out of my hands so I can get a break.  She LOVES Kaitlyn and Tyler and pretty much takes over with their care as soon as I enter her house.  She is the one I credit with getting Kaitlyn potty trained.  She never undermines my authority and respects my stance on parenting my children. 

She is the most wonderful mother and grandmother a girl could ask for.  I hope I have lived up to all her expectations that she has had of me.  I only wish that my children feel as much love for me as I do for my mother.

House Hunters

So, we have decided to join the world of home ownership.  I am so excited!  I have been wanting to own my own home for quite some time, but we were definitely not ready until  now.  We moved around a lot when we first started living together because we were always looking for a better apartment.  We didn't buy in Colorado because we didn't know how long we would be there.  We are now tired of paying rent that is more than what we can get a mortgage for, so there really is no reason for us not to buy right now, especially with the housing market the way it is.

I am now addicted to the Home and Garden channel.  Jerry is too BTW.  I love House Hunters!  I know that we will look at waaaaaaaaaaaay more than three houses.  I anticipate looking at at least 50 before we find the one that is in the neighborhood, is livable and in the right price range.  I also like watching Designed to Sell to get ideas for our home.  This is supposed to be our starter home so we might at well look at resell value while we're at it.  The house we buy is probably going to need a lot of updating, but that's the price we're going to have to pay to live in the neighborhood we want for the price we need.

We are working with a fantastic mortgage guy who has gotten loans for a good number of people in my family.  He also happens to be a licensed realtor so that a big plus.  He also went to Purdue University which means he's an Indiana boy which means he scored a lot of points with Jerry.  We have about 11 properties that we want to look at and we have 4 scheduled appointments today so I'm excited that we are actually moving forward with this.  Wish us luck!

She's Only Two You Know

So Kaitlyn has been verbal for a long time.  She saw Kung Fu Panda on TV, pointed and said "bear" thus the beginning of using her words.  She accumulated a lot of words fast.  By her first birthday, she had over 125 words in her vocabulary.  (Yes, we sat down and wrote them down and counted them.)  She was speaking in full sentences by 17 months.  She knew all her colors, shapes and body parts by then too.  People always think she is older than she is because she speaks so well.  I always thought that it was because she is big for her age, but no, it's because you can clearly understand what she is saying to you.  I never really thought that she was advance in any means, I just thought it was normal.

She had her 2 year well kid check-up last week and she is a healthy little girl; perfect in every way.  The nurses kept saying they were amazed at her speech, but I thought they were just being nice.  When the doctor came in, not our usual pediatrician but the other one that works in the office, she looked Kaitlyn over.  She was asking me questions about Kaitlyn and instead of me answering them, Kaitlyn did.  She was really amazed at how well Kaitlyn spoke and how clear she was.  She was also impressed with her comprehension.  She compared Kaitlyn's speech to a four year old! 

I thought about the kids in Kaitlyn's daycare class, comparing their verbal ability to hers and really couldn't think of a child who speaks as well as she does.  The ones that do were already 3 when we took her out for summer.  We saw a little girl who used to be in her class that is 3 days older than Kaitlyn and she is just now really saying words and associating them with what she is doing or wants.  (This little girl has been in the same class as Kaitlyn since they were 6 months old.)   

I guess this is why I sometimes get frustrated with Kaitlyn.  I expect her to behave older than she is because she speaks and comprehends things and concepts so well.  I got SUPER frustrated with her when we were potty training because she wouldn't tell me she had to go potty.  I would always have to just take her and if I waited for her to tell me, it was too late and she would say "I pee peed in my underwear!"  I would cry every night thinking I was doing something wrong and I constantly researched tips on potty training and find that I was doing everything all the "experts" were saying to do.  I didn't understand why she didn't get the concept.  Finally I had to tell myself that she's only two and she will eventually get it.  (Thankfully she is now fully potty trained.  She even wakes up in the morning and goes all by herself.)  I remind myself every day that she is only two and it is normal for us to have to tell her over and over to do, or not do, something and not to get frustrated.  She may have the verbal ability of a four year old, but she still has the mind of a two year old.    That's ok with me though...I love my two year old :)

6 Month Update

Tyler my love, you have been with us for half a year already!  Where does the time go?  I mean, I really wanted you to be here with us but I didn't want the time to go by so fast.  I have to admit, there were times when I really wanted you out of that fussy infant stage, but I want you to be my baby forever. 

6 month stats:
Weight: 24 1/2 lbs.
Height: 27 1/2 in
Diaper Size: 5
Sleeps: 10 hours a night

You are such a big boy now.  You sit up really well and only fall over if you are reaching for a toy that is far away and even then you fall with grace.  Your mode of travel is mostly rollie-pollie style.  You LOVE to roll around on the floor and do not lie still for even a minute.  We're going to have to put the padding up so you don't smack into the tile step of your playroom.  You are starting to army crawl and I'm in big trouble.  We had a cage nice set up with baby gates for your sister, but it's not a practical solution for this house.  I'm just going to have to tether you to the wall watch you like a hawk.

Boy, YOU CAN EAT.  You love to eat.  You eat solids 3 times a day and have 6 five ounce bottles.  You eat baby oatmeal mixed with any fruit or veggie.  You have tried squash, peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, apples, peaches, pears, and bananas.  I will mix in some exotic stuff like avocados and mangoes soon.  When you eat all your stage one foods, I will start you on stage 2 because you need a thicker consistency with your food.  I'm hoping you will slow down soon so you don't eat us out of house and home, but I'm not holding my breath.

You still are the happiest baby in the world.  You smile at EVERYONE and EVERYTHING.  You love to laugh at your sister and she loves to make you laugh.  Everyone notices your smile.  I pray that you keep your happy composure and will to smile at everything your entire life.  I know you will win over a lot of people with that smile in the future. 

You babble, A LOT.  You say da da and love to say it over and over again.  You usually really get on a roll when you are tired and start saying da da with much more enthusiasm.  You don't know what it means yet, but you will soon.  You are adding la and ga into your ever growing vocabulary. 

You got your first tooth the day after you turned 6 months!  I saw a little white on your bottom gum and sure enough your little tooth had sprouted.  The other bottom tooth burst right through the next day, so now you have two little, bottom teeth buds.  Now I will have to be careful when I stick my finger in your mouth because you have been known to chomp down in the past.

Can we stop growing up now?  You and your sister?  I want you frozen at this age forever.

Let Sleeping Babies Lie

In their own cribs for crying out loud!  I am tired of whiny mothers who co-sleep with their children or who keep them in their bedrooms in a bassinet next to the crib complain about how they don't get sleep because their babies don't sleep.  I'm also tired of them whining about how when they do try to put them down in their cribs, they hate it.  Well, duh!  It's because they are not used to sleeping in their cribs because they never have done it.  You have established a pattern of letting them sleep with you or in your room with you so that's all they know.  Don't you know once you start something with a child it is REALLY damn hard to stop?  Both of my children slept in their own cribs the very minute they came home.

Jerry spent the first week on an air mattress in Kaitlyn's room.  He had to get up and turn her soother on a few times in the beginning and she was fine.  I do have to admit that she did nap in her bouncy seat during the day.  It was the only way I could get her to nap during the day without having to run up and downs stairs every 30 minutes.  I tried the pack and play at first, but she would wake up as soon as I put her down.  She only napped for 30 minutes at a time, so it was so not worth it to take her all the way up stairs, then come all the way back down to get some work done.  She also napped every hour and a half so that would have been a lot of running up and down stairs and with a chihuahua trying to deliberately trip you on your ever move, it just wasn't worth it.  However, at night, she ALWAYS slept in her crib even if it took and hour to get her to fall asleep.  I didn't want to start a habit of putting her in bed with us.  First, there is no room for mommy, daddy, baby and Peanut.  Second, Jerry snores like a freight train.  She would have never gotten to sleep with all that noise.  When she turned 6 months, I did put her down to nap in her crib.  I knew she would be starting daycare and she needed to learn how to nap in a crib.  I would lay her down with her paci and lovie in her crib, turn on her music and make sure her shades were closed.  In the summer I would turn on her fan because she had a south facing room and it would get really hot in there.  She has NEVER had a problem sleeping in her own bed, ever.  When we transitioned her to her toddler bed, she did have a little problem at night adjusting, but we also just moved into a new house.  It lasted a whole week and she's not had any problem since.

Tyler was a little different.  For some reason, house in Florida are not built for cold.  We are the sunshine state, but it still gets cold here.  The year he was born was super cold.  It was so cold, it was snowing on the day after he was born!  Our house was definitely not built to withstand the cold.  His room was like a freezer.  He could not sleep in there for the first week.  I also had to make modifications in his room so he could sleep in there during the winter.  I had to put blankets in his windows so the cold air wouldn't seep in.  We also had to leave his bedroom door open and turn the heat on to 85 which caused us to have two months of $400 electric bills.  He also slept in heavy pjs, socks, a swaddle blanket, a hat and gloves on his hands.  I felt comfortable with him in there as long as the door was open and the heat could get in.  He used to be able to fall asleep anywhere, but now because he's so used to sleeping in his crib, he can't fall asleep on his own anywhere else.  All I have to do is rock him a little bit with music playing softly in the background and then kiss his little noggin when I lay him in his crib and he falls asleep instantly.  His nighttime routine is so established for him, he literally closes his eyes as soon as the lights go off.

Maybe my kids are angels or maybe it's because with both of them, I didn't start anything I wasn't going to continue for a long time.  It's really not that difficult people.

SAHM STFU!

Yeah, you heard me.  Stop your bitching!  If I hear one more SAHM (stay at home mommy) whine about how their lives are so hard and their job never ends and how they have to keep a clean house and cook dinner and fulfill the needs of their husbands I will post hateful comments on their blogs until they want to quit blogging!  (Or ban me from commenting.)  You CHOSE to stay at home with your kid(s).  SUCK IT UP!  Yes, it is hard; I get that, I know because I am a mommy too.  However I don't complain about the endless diaper changes, runny noses, doctors appointments, etc, etc.  That's what I'm supposed to do because I am a mommy!  It's my JOB along with my full-time JOB as a teacher.  Would I like to stay at home with my children full-time?  Of course I would, but I also like going to work and helping other people's children as well.  I don't knock SAHM at all.  It's what some of them dreamed of doing their whole lives.  It works for them and their family.  But seriously, quit whining about it.

Also, just because your husband is the sole bread winner in your family does NOT mean that he gets a free pass to do nothing when he comes home.  He signed up for being a husband and father as much as you signed up for being a mom and a wife.  Jerry works full-time while I stay at home with the kids during summer and he still has to do his share of the housework, plus spend time with his children.  He knows that I work just as hard as he does, it's just a different kind of work.  Nothing changes because I'm home with the kids.  (Well, I cook now because I have more time to prepare a fancy dinner instead of our usual 30 minute meals.)  If your husband doesn't pitch in then that just proves that one or both of you doesn't believe that being a SAHM is work.  The proof is in the pudding people.

And also, don't complain about all the free stuff you get for doing reviews and give-a-ways on your blog.  That just makes you look like an ungrateful snob. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a diaper to change and a nose to wipe.