Why people with kids stop hanging out with their kid-less friends

We’ve all been there. A friend has a kid, you go and see the little bundle of joy a couple of times, and then you never hear from your friend again. Sound familiar?

Don’t worry, it’s not you. You haven’t done anything wrong. Us moms don’t suddenly hate you, or think we have nothing in common anymore just because you haven’t yet spawned.  It’s not even us. It’s the kid(s). 

At first, it’s fine. The tiny infant is portable. He sleeps in his pram/baby capsule/portable bassinet where ever we go without any fuss.  Just give him some boob or bottle (which ever you prefer, I’m not judging here), then BANG, he’s out cold in a milk induced coma. We can meet our friends at a cafe, the shops, their house, wherever. We can chat while the baby sleeps, then our friend(s) can hold him and pinch his adorable little cheeks and talk to him in that annoying baby voice when he is awake. Easy.

When the baby starts sitting, we can still catch up with our baby-less friends. Maybe at their houses instead of a cafe or the like because now the baby wants to sit up all of his waking hours. Sitting up is obviously super awesome.  Whilst practicing awesome sitting, baby also wants to be amused, mostly by us, but also by some toys. So we need to have a blanket for baby to sit on, and a bunch of toys. That could get messy at a cafe, plus some unobservant patron could accidentally trod on our little bundles of joy.

Then the baby starts crawling. Just think back a little bit. Is this the stage you stopped hearing from your mother friend? Probably. The cafe is out. Imagine baby sitting in a high chair/pram/our lap whilst we attempt to have a conversation with our friend. Baby doesn’t want to be sitting. Duh. That is so 2 months ago. Now it’s all about crawling! Baby screams due to being restrained in a chair/pram/lap until we put him on the floor for his crawling leisure. He crawls like a mad man towards other patrons, goes under a table and tries to eat their shoes. Seriously, that is what they do.

Ok, so maybe we can go to our friends house. Seems plausible, right? Wrong. Child-less friends do not have child-proof houses. We could go over there, but instead of having a nice catch up, we’d be spending the entire time keeping our cheeky crawlers from pulling all of our friends books off the shelves and ripping them to pieces, banging his head on the corner of the coffee table as he crawls past, opening all of the kitchen cupboards and breaking all of the dishes, eating the toilet brush in the bathroom, pulling all of the DVD’s out of their cases, checking if Swarovski crystals bounce, etc. Not to mention baby-less friends don’t think about small objects that babies can choke on and hazards are everywhere in a non baby-proof house. This, of course, stresses us out, we don’t get to talk to our friends at all, and our crawling babies get annoyed that we keep taking him away from all of the breakable delights he has his eyes set on.

He will pull all of your things off of you shelves and attempt to eat them.

Maybe our friend is super awesome, and they put everything they don’t want to get ruined on a higher shelf that crawling baby can’t reach, just so that we can come over. So that works. For a while.

But then baby starts walking. Now even more stuff is within babies chubby grasp. Baby is way more coordinated and determined, and our friend can’t possibly walking baby-proof her house just so we can come over. We are too embarrassed to tell our friends that our rambunctious toddlers will tear her house apart unless we have our eyes on him every single second, coupled with many “no, you can’t play with that’s” and lots of tantrums. There is no point of going to our friends house because we won’t be able to have a conversation anyway.

Oh, and there’s the nap times too. Going anywhere more than 15 minutes or so away and actually being able to stay for a while messes with nap time. Did I say nap time? I meant mommy’s sanity time. Seriously, you don’t want to mess with that. You might think “oh, it’s just one little nap time, it can’t hurt, right?” Yes, it can. You’re not the one who will be trying to comfort a screaming child who is throwing himself backwards or banging his head on the floor and won’t calm down for anything at 5 pm when we’re trying to make dinner because he is over tired.

Our child-less friends often invite us out at night time, when the kids are asleep, but we don’t really want to be out late because babies/toddlers don’t know about weekends. They haven’t yet discovered the joy of sleeping in. Nor do they let us enjoy it. Ever. Plus, by the end of the day, we just want to sit on the couch and enjoy a moment’s peace, not drag ourselves out to some loud place where we will spend the whole time trying not to fall asleep.

So we kind of just lose touch. By the time the kids are old enough not to destroy everything in site and do as they’re told, we feel extremely silly calling our childless friends again because it’s been so long and we kind of feel like an ass.

Childless people, there is an easy solution to this problem: Go to your mother-friend’s house for a catch up. Call her, and tell her you know it’s hard to get out for a catch up, but you’d love to see her, so even if you have to drive for an hour, you’re happy to come over. Mothers off babies/toddlers are usually happy to have company that can wipe their own butts and speak in proper sentences. Especially if they bring lunch.

Then when the kids are older, we can go out to cafe’s and stuff again. Just bear with us, parenting is hard.

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Copyright 2012 Sheri Thomson

Interview with a mom of twins

Have you ever wondered what it’s like having twins? I have.  As soon as I had Hannah, I thought oh my gosh, how could someone take care of TWO babies at the same time! 

Or maybe you haven’t thought about it. Either way, I interviewed a mom of twin girls, Brooke Bigger.

When you went in for your first ultrasound, did you have any idea you were expecting twins?
When I took my first pregnancy test, and it was positive, I made my first appointment with an OB and got in when I was 10 weeks along. We didn’t have any idea we were in for such a ‘treat’!

How did the doctor/sonographer/(whoever told you) tell you?
The OB did a quick ultrasound when I went in for my first appointment at 10 weeks. She says, “Well I have a surprise for you guys, I’m picking up two heartbeats!”…..If I wasn’t already lying down, I think I would have fallen down! I did start crying, and my husband almost fell down. We were barely ready for one, and we get two thrown at us right off the bat!

Are your twins identical?
Yes they are identical

How do you tell them apart?
Right off the bat we put Presley in pink so that we wouldn’t get them mixed up. Presley got a pink hat and Darynn got any other hat to wear. And we always tried to put Presley in a more solid color pink onsie or swaddle blanket. We then found that Darynn had very prominent veins on each side of her head, and Presley did not. So once we figured that out, we quit dressing Presley in all pink. Now that they are 2, their personalities are totally different which makes it easy.

Did you get to eat heaps of extra food when you were pregnant, or is that whole eating for three thing a myth?
The doctors actually put me on a “175 grams of protein per day” diet right off the bat, so yes, I was pretty much eating for 3 LOL. They gave me examples of what I would be eating for each meal and snack….and I thought “How in the world am I going to eat this much food!?” I just ate a lot of cottage cheese, protein bars, yogurt, beans and beef !

After you pushed out the first one, were you like “oh f@#k, I have to do that AGAIN?! Or did you have a cesarian?
I had a c-section at 37 weeks. When you have identicals, they can develop TTTS (Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome), which is when one twin can get more blood/nutrients then the other, and the other can become weaker. So I had to go in for ultrasounds every 2 weeks so that they could keep an eye out for the TTTS. It can also develop all the way up through delivery….so to decrease the chances of them developing the TTTS, the doctor just scheduled my c-section for 37 weeks. But no….we are not planning on having anymore kids! There is a chance that we would have twins again! LOL

Did you breastfeed, and if so, how did that work with 2?
The doctors syringe fed the girls right from the get go. When it was time to feed at the hospital, I would start out nursing them, and then the nurses would slip a tiny tube into their mouths and get formula in on top of the breast milk. My body didn’t produce enough milk for them, I don’t know if its because I never went into labor, but I couldn’t even produce enough for one. I tried, but it just couldn’t happen. So they were pretty much bottle fed from the beginning.

Did they both bottle feed at the same time?  How did that work if you didn’t have anyone else to help?
We bottle fed them at the same time. If my husband wasn’t there to help me, I would set them up in their Fischer Price Rock N Play rocker chairs, and I would sit in a chair and hold the bottle for them. Once they ate more, I tucked a blanket under each side of the rocker to make a little sling for the bottles so I didn’t have to sit there and hold the bottles up for them! I had to get creative in how I fed them, or else my back would get really sore for bending over all the time! LOL

Did they both wake up at the same time in the night for a feed?
If one woke up, we would just wake the other up to keep them on the same schedule. That is the most important thing I think as a parent of twins, getting them on the same schedule right off the bat! It saved me in the sleep and sanity department!

Did you/Do you dress them the same? Do you prefer dressing them the same, or different?
I dress them similar. I usually buy the same/similar shirt in different colors or designs. Occasionally I will dress the same.

What is the best thing about having twins?
We get twice as many kisses and hugs, and twice as many cuddles. I love that they have a built in playmate and best friend….they will always have each other!

What is the worst thing?
The fighting between them, and the tantrums! Oh, and double the dirty diapers! I think I changed 9 poopy diapers in one day before!!

Do they eat the same things, or do you have to make 2 separate meals for them (because that would suck!)?
They eat the same thing….I will refuse to make them different meals!

Do they fight for lap space and time with you?
Occasionally….but I end up just putting one on each side of me, they typically don’t fight over me or their dad.

How do you go grocery shopping? Do they have twin carts/trolleys over there?
If I have to take them with me, I just put them in their stroller and hang a basket off the stroller. But if I have to get a lot of items, I wait to go until after my husband gets home, or I have my mom come watch them.

Do they all share a room?
Yep!

Did they reach milestones at the same time?
Usually within about a week or two of each other. Presley took her first steps first, then Darynn was two weeks behind her.

How did you take them out when they were babies? Did you carry one and put the other in a sling? Double stroller?
Double stroller, or my husband and I would each carry one.

Do they like playing together or do they mostly fight?
For the most part they play really well together, there are daily fights over toys, but we have been teaching them to share ever since they could start taking toys from each other. And we try to buy toys in twos so they can each have the same toy.

What is your most embarrassing story involving the twins?
Honestly….my husband and I can’t think of an embarrassing story!! The girls have always been really good, and we were always good about changing their diapers after every meal and as needed (so no horrible blowout stories).

What is the best advice you could give to someone about to have twins?
Getting them on the same schedule right off the bat! If you let them have their own schedules, you will never get sleep!

Anything you want to add?
I would say the one item that saved me, was the Fischer Price Rock N Play rocker. My girls spent a lot of time in theirs, they slept in them, they ate in them, they played in them. They keep your baby at a 45 degree angle, which really saved us on the spit up! It made it easy to push them from room to room, and I didn’t have to worry about them getting into anything while I was taking a shower or getting some chores done…. We really got our monies worth out of those things, and they were only like $30 a piece! I think we used them up until the girls were a year old!

How much weight did you gain when you were pregnant?
About 65 pounds (29.4kg)! 😦

How did you lose all that weight?
I didn’t do much, it just started coming off when I got back on my normal diet. I did start going on nightly walks down our road, but it was nothing that really got my blood pumping! LOL

Did the skin on your stomach get all…how do I put it…saggy? You know, that look when you stretch something out a lot and then put it back to shape, but it looks all funny?
I heard about a body wrap that helps to tighten, tone, and firm your skin by ItWorks, from a friend on Facebook, so I decided to give it a try. It totally worked for me! My stretch marks weren’t as noticeable, and my belly button looked normal again for the first time since I got pregnant…. and all this happened in a matter of 3 days! My “sag” wasn’t as saggy and I knew I had to get the word out about this wrap, so I decided to sign up and spread the word!

So you are a distributor for ItWorks. Tell us a little bit about the wraps.
The wraps are all natural, and they can be cut to target anywhere on the body that needs a little tightening up. You wear the wrap for 45 minutes, and you can start seeing results in that amount of time! The wrap ingredients continue to work for 72 hours after removing the wrap. All you have to do is drink water, about 1/2 your body weight in water ounces a day for those 3 days. Some people don’t see results after the first wrap, since everyone’s bodies are different. Some people may need to use 2-3 wraps before seeing results. Results can be as subtle as changing the texture of the skin in that wrapped area, to reducing the appearance of stretch marks and cellulite. Results can last anywhere from 2 months up to 6 months depending on the persons lifestyle and eating habits.

Of course, I had to try one of these wraps. I saw lots of posts on Facebook about them by Brooke (we went to high school together, just FYI…), but hadn’t heard of them before that.

She sent me one ages ago, but you’re not supposed to use them when breastfeeding, so it just sat there, waiting. Sigh.

I know, Daniel has been weaned for a few weeks now, but I also wanted to wait until I had a kid free 45 minutes so I didn’t have anyone wanting to be picked up, messing up the wrap, or worse, pulling on it in delight. You know how cheeky my kids are!

I opened the packet and unfolded the wrap, applying the lotion side on my stomach. The skin on my stomach has been stretched to the limit twice now, then shrunk back to size. Unfortunately, it has that stretched-then-shrunk look to it as well. Sigh. Especially around my belly button. My measurements before the wrap were: 26 inches (66.04cm) around the smallest part of my waist, and 28″ (71.12 cm) around my waist at belly button height.

Wrap is on, with cling wrap over it to keep it in place

It felt quite cold. I thought it was just because that’s how lotion always is when you first put it on (unless it’s hot outside of course). But it stayed cold the whole time. At least it felt cold. And tingly. It was nice. I felt like I was getting some sort of swish spa body treatment done. Except that I was doing the dishes while wearing the wrap. Gotta multi task when you have 2 kids! It would have been much nicer to sit on the couch and watch a cheesy chick flick while I waited the 45 minutes. Or maybe laying down and reading a book. Oh well.

When I took the wrap off, I rubbed the excess lotion into my skin, took some photos and measured myself again. I wasn’t actually expecting to lose anything. 26 inches around the smallest part of my waist. 27.5 inches around my belly button (69.85 cm). What?! I’m not complaining though.

My skin felt really smooth and soft and lovely. Less stretched looking? I’m not sure.

Over the next 3 days, I continued to measure and take photos. My measurements went back to what they were before wrapping. Until today, 72 hours after wrapping. Now, the smallest part of my waist is 25.5 inches, and around my belly button is 27.5. My stomach feels less poochy at the bottom, and I feel less bloated. The skin around my belly button is still saggy/stretched looking, but the skin below my belly button feels firmer.

Progressive shots. Not sure what happened to my day 2 photos. I think the camera ate them. Sigh.

Progressive, from the side. If you’re wondering about that scar on my hip, it’s where they took a chunk of bone to stick in my leg. But that’s another story for another day. No, I’m not trying to make the scar less obvious with the wrap, I like my scar.

Over all, I really liked the wrap experience. I think with regular wrapping my belly button skin would probably improve a lot.

If you would like to buy your own wraps, supplements, etc. or have a wrap party (you can even have online wrap parties!), contact Brooke. She can ship the wraps to you anywhere in the world:

Brooke’s It Works website

Phone number (USA) 425-328-7627. We offer a Loyal Customer program where Loyals get products at wholesale cost (they pay what I pay), saving 20-50% on their orders. Only 3 monthly orders is required for the first 3 months, after that they can order when they want and get the Loyal Customer price for life. There is no minimum purchase amount, and the Loyal Customer can change what is sent to them each month so they don’t always have to get the same thing. They start saving on their very first order.

If you enjoyed reading this, please vote for my blog. All you have to do is click the link below. That’s it… Clicking the link brings you to the Top Mommy Blogs home page. You don’t have to do anything else. Any clicks from my site to theirs is a vote.  THANKS!

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Copyright 2012 Sheri Thomson

That’s not water

I keep the bathroom door shut. Mostly at all times. Hannah is big enough to open and shut the door as she needs. The exception of course, is when I’m putting water in the bathtub and getting the kids ready for their evening bath.

Usually Daniel is content  ridiculously happy to stand at the side of the bath and eagerly watch the water  level rise as he flaps and squeals in delight like he’s trying to flag down a passing toy boat.

Not the other day. Hannah was half stuck in her shirt, one arm in, one out, the head hole half up her nose, as she tried to remove 2 shirts over her big head at the same time.

“Mommy, can you help me?” She asked

“Of course sweetie.” Giggling “Are you stuck????!!!!”

Meanwhile, Danny, mischievous as he is, took the mom-is-busy-with-Hannah opportunity to get to Hannah’s potty as fast and stealthily as he possibly could. No worries, it was house cleaning day, and I had scrubbed that potty just a couple of hours before. But I still don’t let him play with it. I don’t want him to think it’s ok. Yuck.

“Daniel, no, we don’t play with the potty!” I said in vain as he lifted the lid and shoved his chubby almost-1-year-old hand inside.

And then I saw it.

But it was too late.

As I rushed over, he turned his head, looking at me with that gleeful I’m-so-proud-of-myself smile that is so big, he has to squint his eyes to make room for his cheeks. He made a joyous noise and splashed his hand  in the pee some more.

All in the space of a couple seconds.

Thank goodness it was bath time. And thank God it wasn’t poop.

Ick.

If you enjoyed reading this, please vote for my blog. All you have to do is click the link below. That’s it… Clicking the link brings you to the Top Mommy Blogs home page. You don’t have to do anything else. Any clicks from my site to theirs is a vote.  THANKS!

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Winter bonfire

It may be the middle of winter, and 0 degrees in the morning, but who cares, it’s bonfire time!

Some friends of ours have a property nearby, and we often go over for dinner and games. Ok, Aaron often goes over. I sometimes do. It’s a bit hard with the kids. I used to go more often, but Hannah slept quite well in the portable cot. Daniel not so much.  They invited us for dinner and a bonfire, and I really wanted some s’mores, so I decided to come to.

Hershey’s S’mores Kit

The afternoon was spent gathering and chopping wood. Not me, everyone else. I was busy making sure that Daniel didn’t eat rocks and Hannah didn’t poke her eye out with a stick. I would have loved to help though, I like that sort of work. I grew up on a property and going horse camping, so that stuff is right up my alley.

Hannah loved getting ready for the fire. She decided that she needed to carry the biggest log she possibly could, and spent about an hour gathering little sticks and putting them on the not-yet-lit fire. Oh, and she also thought it would be a great idea to get bucket loads of dirt and pour them over the log pile “for the fire.”

How she carried that, I’m not quite sure.

By the time the fire was actually lit, Hannah was exhausted and just wanted to go to bed. I thought she’d love fire roasted hotdogs, but she wanted no part of them, only eating a bit of the bun instead. Sigh. Of course she liked the s’mores though. The Aussie version with Milk Arrowroot biscuits instead of graham crackers (since we don’t have those here), and some chocolate I got at Aldi instead of Hershey’s (since we also don’t have Hershey’s here, and after sampling the chocolate on offer over here, I’ve come to the realisation that Hershey’s chocolate does, in fact, suck).

Rome #3100 Chrome-Plated Steel Marshmallow Roasting Sticks, Set of 2

Did I mention we were staying the night? Yeah. So the kids went to sleep ok after a bit of crying and consoling. Then Daniel woke for his usual 10pm feed (the only one he was having over night, which has since been dropped).

Teeth brushing time!

I put him back in the portable cot, he turned over, and went back to sleep.

Graco Pack ‘N Play On the Go Travel Playard, Go Green

But then the screaming started. Sigh.  I patted him. Shushed him. Patted some more. Picked him up. Laid with him on the bed. Offered more boob. Nothing would work. He cried for an hour straight, with no sign of letting up.

Crap, I forgot to bring the panadol. Sigh.

Natrabio Children’s Teething Relief, 1 Ounce

Instead of keeping the rest of the house awake all night, we gathered Hannah up, and drove home.

Daniel screamed for half the night even though I gave him panadol.

But in the morning, I knew why. He had another tooth. Poor baby.

We drove back as soon as we all woke up in the morning and no one knew we’d even left.

“Mommy, can we have another sleep over at M’s (name with held for privacy reasons) house?”

Sigh. Maybe when they’re a little bit older.

I should have brought my digital SLR to get some decent photos, but I didn’t. So here are some not so good ones from my $50 point and shoot (which doesn’t like tricky lighting).

Also, check out my review of Abigail the interactive story buddy.

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If you enjoyed reading this, please vote for my blog. All you have to do is click the link below. That’s it… Clicking the link brings you to the Top Mommy Blogs home page. You don’t have to do anything else. Any clicks from my site to theirs is a vote.  THANKS!

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Copyright 2012 Sheri Thomson

The zoo and Luna Park

In addition to the little family get together with a Mickey Mouse cake, and way too many presents from Grandma, Aunty Jess, Romana (Hannah’s best friend’s Mum), and I took her and Violet (her best friend) to Taronga Zoo. AND, we had the yearly joint birthday party with the other 7 kids from our antenatal class. This year, it was at Luna Park (you know, the amusement park right next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge that was shut down for ages due to noise complaints from all of the richies living in the multi-million dollar apartments over looking the harbour. Well, it is really loud with all the rides and music and screaming…).

Hannah about to blow out the candle on her Mickey Mouse cake

We took the kids on the train to the zoo, with the plan that Daniel would sleep in the pram on the train and then be all rested and cheerful when we got to the zoo.

Yeah right.

That didn’t happen. Sigh.

Instead, he proceeded to scream for most of the hour long train ride. I pushed the pram forward and back, forward and back a million times whilst everyone stared at me wondering why I was not picking up the screaming baby. Hannah was happily playing a Dora The Explorer iPad game in the other pram seat.

Phil and Teds Dash Buggy With Doubles Kit Black

Well people, I was trying to get him to sleep. I put a blanket over the sunshade of the pram so he couldn’t keep himself stimulated from all the people faces and scenery flying by. A lot of times, he does scream in the pram before falling asleep. It’s the wind down.

I think he would have slept too, if the old asian man in the seat across from us didn’t get up from his seat and pull the blanket up so Daniel could see, followed by making goofy faces at him for half an hour. I tried explaining that I was trying to get him to sleep, but was met with a toothless grin, nodding head, and broken english “He just want to see. He happy when he can see.” Sigh.

By the time we got on the ferry, it was almost lunch time.

More screaming. He was hungry and wouldn’t sleep.

Finally we got him to sleep after lunch. At the zoo. After I breastfed him at a table in the food area. A man came over and asked if he could have one of the chairs I wasn’t using. As he was asking he saw that I was, in fact, breastfeeding a baby, and he went bright red mid-sentence.

Fisher-Price Little People Zoo Talkers Animal Sounds Zoo

Hannah had a great time at the zoo with her best friend Violet. Hannah got a camera for her birthday, and she and Violet took a lot of photos at the zoo. I made a blog for Hannah’s photos. It’s interesting what 3 year olds take photos of. Here is her zoo post if you’d like to see it.

Last weekend was the Luna Park party. Hannah has been looking forward to it for months. Every time something came in the mail, bills, menus’s for delivery Chinese food, whatever, she would get it out of the mailbox and happily exclaim that it was from Luna Park, about her party.

I think she could have stayed at Luna Park for 3 days straight, riding rides repeatedly, and still not get bored. She’s a daredevil.

I’m have a giveaway on my reviews blog at the moment, win one of two book packs containing What to Expect When You’re Expecting, What to Expect The First Year, and What to Expect The Second Year. Entering is fast and easy, and open to people worldwide. Go here to enter.

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If you enjoyed reading this, please vote for my blog. All you have to do is click the link below. That’s it… Clicking the link brings you to the Top Mommy Blogs home page. You don’t have to do anything else. Any clicks from my site to theirs is a vote.  THANKS!

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Copyright 2012 Sheri Thomson

It’s not poop

Aldi often has random things. For those of you who don’t know what Aldi is, it’s supermarket from Germany that mostly sells it’s own brands, and it’s cheaper than your usual supermarkets. It’s kind of like Costco.  If Costco decided to stop taking steroids.

Anyway, the other day they had meatloaf. Already made up, no preservatives, vegetables already inside it, in it’s own disposable baking tray, not very expensive, meatloaf. Awesome. If you recall, I don’t eat beef . I think it tastes vile. Aaron likes it though, but I hardly ever cook it. I want the kids to eat it too and not be a fussy pants like me.

Tempo Meat Loaf Mix, 12-Count Box of 2.75-Ounce Packets

So I bought the meatloaf. Any beef that I don’t have to stick my hands into or actually touch in any way, shape, or form, is great. Yes, I’m one of those weirdos who doesn’t even like to eat food was cooked next to beef. The beef will contaminate it. Duh.

I baked the loaf in the oven, then cut a piece for Daniel and another for Hannah as part of their dinner (in addition to corn on the cob, and some fruit. Don’t forget the meatloaf already had other vegetables in it. Like peas. And carrot).

Daniel, hoover that he is, couldn’t get it in fast enough. He devoured that meatloaf like it was going out of style. The other day, he stole a lamb cutlet from a platter of them and ate it like an ice cream cone. But that’s another story for another day. He’s such a boy….

I put Hannah’s 3-separate-areas, melamine plate in front of her. She looked at it all funny. Her index finger slowly came forward and poked the meatloaf.

“That’s POOP!” She exclaimed.

Don’t laugh. Don’t laugh….

“It’s NOT poop!” I told her, containing my inner fits of laughter, “it’s meatloaf.”

“It’s poop! We don’t eat poop Mommy.” She told me, all matter-of-factly.

Everyone Poops

“It’s not poop Hannah, it’s meatloaf.” The laughter was getting harder and harder to contain. I still wanted my little comedian to try her meatloaf. Or at least believe me that it was not poop.

“No, it’s definitely poop.”

Once Hannah is convinced of something, there is no changing her mind. She is stubborn like that. Sigh.

She got up out of her chair. She no longer sits in one of those booster seats that doesn’t let her escape because of it’s buckles. She says she’s a big girl now and had me take the booster seat off of her chair.

The First Years Disney Princess Simple and Secure Booster

“Sit down Hannah, it’s dinner time. You don’t have to eat your food, but you have to sit at the table during dinner time.”

“I have to go pee-pee.” She’s clever. She goes pee-pee during dinner every. single. night. Sigh. But I can’t really refuse her the use of the potty either.

“Ok, go pee-pee, wash your hands, then come straight back and sit at the table.”

She did. Only she didn’t sit in her chair, she went and sat in Aaron’s chair (he was still at work. He doesn’t get home in time for the kids’ dinner).

“That’s not your chair Hannah, that’s Daddy’s spot.”

“I don’t want to sit next to the poop!”

I couldn’t contain my laughter any longer. I know I shouldn’t have laughed but how could I not?

“It’s not poop Hannah. Look, Daniel ate all of his meatloaf. He loves it. He wouldn’t eat it if it was poop.”

So she got down out of Daddy’s chair, picked the meatloaf up with her fork, carried it over to Daniel’s booster seat tray, and shook the fork until the meatloaf fell off.

“Here Daniel, you can have my poop since you like it so much.”

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A spank in the bath

Hannah and Daniel love having baths. Hannah more so when Daniel’s not in there. He has a habit of trying to climb on her, taking her toys, pulling her hair, and annoying her in general. Little brothers….

Of course that’s not limited to just the bath, it’s pretty much all the time, but that’s not the point.

Yesterday they were having a bath (they still bathe together, it’s too hard to do it separately. I wonder at what age that becomes unacceptable?) when Hannah wanted to move to the other side of Daniel.

She got on all fours and stuck her butt in the air. I’m not quite sure why, but that is what she did.

Daniel, right next to her and facing her in-the-air-butt, gleefully seized the opportunity, spanking her bottom without hesitation.

I thought Hannah would put her whingey voice on and say “NO! DANIEL!” But she didn’t. She started laughing too. And then I started laughing. Sometime during all the laughing, her butt ended up back in the bath water.

Hannah stuck her butt in the air again.

Daniel spanked her again.

Laughing ensued.

I started to get uncomfortable.

She stuck her butt in the air again.

Daniel face planted her butt-cheek and gave her a bite as they laughed and laughed.

I sat there dying of embarrassment, even though no one was around and then had to explain to them that we don’t bite bottoms. Or touch other people’s bottoms. Which is kind of hard to do when I always give their chubby little baby butts a light spank when they get in the bath. And I always pretend to eat Daniel’s chubby arms and cheeks (er..the ones on his face). Sigh.

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When I’m three (part 2)

As you’ll probably remember, Hannah is not so into pooping on the toilet/potty. But, she wears underwear and had absolutely no issues with doing all of her pooping in those. Sigh.

In the morning, she excitedly told me that she could open the door because she is a big girl now.

Sure enough, she toddled over to the bathroom door, fiddled with it for a bit and to my surprise, it opened (we have very high door handles, she can only just reach them. And only on her tippy toes). She was delighted. And I made a huge fuss.

“Good job Hannah! You’re such a big girl now!!”

She’s been telling me that she’d poop in the toilet on her birthday.

Related post: Poop in the shopping centre

Well, she turned three yesterday. She had a fantastic day. She helped me make waffles for breakfast (at her request).

We went to McDonald’s for lunch. Again, her request. Not the she ate anything. She did eat a few chips, but Daniel ate all of her nuggets. Yeah, my little chubba at 4.5 nuggets. He had a go at all 6, but he dropped some on the ground. She played on big slide thing there with YaYa and found rat poop all over the top of the slide. Awesome. Just what you want your kids playing in. YaYa told the manager who looked about 12 years old, but he just stared at her as if she was speaking a foreign language. Seriously, he didn’t say a word when she told him. Just that what-the-f$*#-do-you-want-me-to-do-about-it, why-don’t-you-clean-it-up-yourself stare. Great managing, McDonalds.

Mc Donald’s Play Hamburger Container

At least she drank her apple juice. She didn’t eat her nuggets or drink the babycino that YaYa bought her.

Nugget in one hand, chip in the other. That’s how he rolls.

Aaron got off work an hour early so that he would get home at 5:40 instead of 6:40. But then the trains were all delayed and he got home at 6. Stupid Cityrail….

Thomas the Train: TrackMaster Thomas Rides the Rails Starter Set

She opened a million presents (because Grandma got her way too many. As usual.) whilst wearing the blue party hat that she really, really wanted.

She is obsessed with Mickey Mouse, so The Jess and I made her a Mickey Mouse cake. Ok, Hannah and I baked it, The Jess decorated it. She’s all skilled like that. She told me she wanted a pink cake and a chocolate cake, so we made strawberry cake and mudcake and swirled them together. YUMMY!

Mickey Mouse Hoodie Hat

We (and by we, I mean me) put all of the used wrapping paper and paper from the presents, and paper bowls from the cake and ice cream (what, I didn’t want to wash up 7 bowls. I don’t even have 7 bowls!) in a garbage bag and put it in the kitchen. Which, I might add, is on the other side of the baby gate. The side Daniel is not allowed on.

I didn’t give Daniel any cake. He’s not even 1. He doesn’t need cake. Next thing I know, he’s sitting next to the fence with a paper bowl covering his whole face. He was slurping what was left of the ice cream out of that bowl and squealing in delight.

“Daniel, NO!” I told him. How he even managed to get the bowl, I’m not sure. Boy’s got skills when it comes to food. I took the bowl from him which prompted screams and revealed a nice layer of ice cream in his hair.

This is what happens when Aunty Jess is supposed to be watching him

It was a busy, fun day. But did she poop in the toilet or potty? No. She didn’t poop at all.

So never goes 2 days without pooping. So today was p-day. Poop on the potty day. She told me she would because she’s “a big girl now.”

We drove an hour to see some friends today. She didn’t poop. We came home. She didn’t poop. Had dinner. Still no poop. Had a bath. I got them ready for bed.

“Did you poop?” I asked Daniel. It smelled like his brand. A quick sniff of his clothed butt (sometimes as a mom, I kinda feel like a dog) ruled him out.

Crap.

“Hannah, did you poop?”

“No.” She told me in that weird I-really-did-but-don’t-want-you-to-know-I-did voice.

And then I jumped out the window.

Ok, not really. But that’s what I felt like doing.

Instead I lost my marbles and told her she has to wear a nappy until learns how to poop on the toilet. She screamed and cried and kicked, but she’s wearing a nappy.

Sigh.

One day, she will poop on the toilet. One day.

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An afternoon at home

“Mommy, I want to do craft!” Hannah told me.

“Hmmmm…Ok, if you sit up at the dining table, you can do some drawing.” I told her.

“I want to paste.” Sigh. There certainly won’t be any pasting at the table. I’d end up with a bunch of random, torn pieces of paper all stuck to the table.

“No sweetie, not at the table.”

“How about at my desk?” Cheeky little monkey, she always has a solution. But I can’t let her paste at her desk because Daniel is awake and he likes to eat everything he is not supposed to. Paper. Paste. Pens. Crayons. Stickers. Pencils. The list goes on. And Hannah’s desk is within his chubby little reach. Plus he stands at her desk, swiping all of her things while she’s trying to make stuff, and if I don’t let him swipe her things, he holds on to the desk, rocks himself back and forth like a madman, and makes obnoxious tantrum/whingey noises. Sometimes to the point of whacking his face on the desk. Or bathtub. Or whatever it is he may be tantruming on. Sigh.

I feel bad because I used to do craft with Hannah all the time. Before Daniel. Now it’s a bit hard.

I set her up at the table with her art supplies. Out of Daniel’s reach. She gets out her paint pens and gets her art on. Daniel is happily pushing a car around the living room floor on his hands and knees.

Painting at the table

I take the opportunity to make dinner. It’s hard to get time for that, without one whinging and the other attempting to climb up my leg whist whinging. Did I mention whinging?

Stir. Check on the kids. Chop some stuff. Check on the kids. Add to the pot. Check on the kids. Repeat.

Where’s Daniel? He isn’t pushing his car around. He isn’t getting into the drawer.

I look over towards the table. Hannah’s paint tubes are everywhere. Her hands look like half a dozen paint tubes vomited all over them. Paint tubes are all over the floor. And there is Daniel, sitting under the table eating a tube of paint. Cheeky boy.

His mouth is an interesting shade of blue. And sparkley. Luckily it’s non-toxic.

I get up to get some wipes.

As I kneel back down, he puts something questionable in his mouth. As I shove my fingers in his mouth in a vain attempt to retrieve the questionalbe item, he swallows it.  An old pea maybe? Lucky I vacuumed the day before. Can’t have been too old. I try to pick up all the food that falls on the floor when they eat, but the carpet is brown. It’s like camouflage.

I clean Daniel up and take Hannah to the bathroom to wash her hands.

Daniel follows us in, lightning fast, and shoves his hands in Hannah’s potty. He has an obsession with it. He leans over and to give it a chew. Ick. I leave Hannah standing on her monkey stool washing her hands while I pick Daniel up to avoid a probable e-coli infection.

I clean him up again.

Dinner time.

“I don’t want it.” Hannah says without trying it. She won’t even get in her chair. Like merely going near her wholegrain macaroni pasta bake with spinach, chicken, peas, corn, and carrots would give her leprosy (Aaron and I had it for dinner too. It was delicious by the way).

Daniel likes the pasta. He eats quite a lot. And then decides that he needs to sweep his tray clean with his arms. He puts his forearms on his tray and flaps them back and forth like windshield wipers on red cordial, knocking the rest of his food to the floor in an instant. Sigh.

He takes a drink of water from his sippy cup and then spits half of it back out. Just like he always does. Sigh.

I get a wipe and attempt to remove the food from all over his face.

He cries, turns his head from side to side remarkably fast, and grabs at the cloth with both hands. Apparently he likes having a face full of food.

Time for a bath.

Sassy Bathtime Pals Squirt and Float Toys

I get some wash cloths and turn the water on in the tub. I get Daniel in the bath and have to call for Hannah a million times before she comes.

Daniel thinks it’s great fun to shove his face in the water and eat bubbles. And drink the water. He coughs. Apparently it didn’t go down so well. But he does it repeatedly anyway. He finds it hilarious. I don’t, I sit there hoping he doesn’t actually inhale any of the water and drown, dreading every second.

After a while he gets a little too rambunctious and tries to stand up on the side of the slippery bath. I have a non-slip bath mat in there, but it doesn’t go right up the sides of the bath. Once (probably more than once), he hit his head on the side of the bath. He’s a bit wild like that. I sit him down, but he just gets back up again, shoves his face in the water, giggles, and then tries to climb the bath again. Time to get out….

Hannah refuses to dress herself even though she can. Instead she stands next to the change table and cries/whinges as I attempt to dry, moisturise, and nappy Daniel. Daniel is crying too. He hates getting dressed. He’s screaming and flailing and doing butt lifts, making it nearly impossible for me to get his nappy on.

I take him off the change table and try to put his clothes on. He turns into a giant pretzel, making it super hard to get his sleepy suit on. Hannah still refuses to clothe herself and is whinging in my ear the whole time.

When I finally get his clothes on, it’s Hannah’s turn.

I put her on the change table to put a nappy on for night time. Daniel pulls himself up on my pant leg, nearly pulling my pants down, looks at me with those big brown pick-me-up-please-mommy, googley eyes and cries when I don’t.

I get Hannah down from the change table and sit her on my lap to put her feet in her pant legs. Daniel thinks we’re having some sort of awesome fun piggy pile. He crawls over and excitedly stands up next to me, pulling Hannah’s hair and giggling whilst trying to get in my lap.

“NO DANIEL!” Hannah yells. Sigh.

Just a typical afternoon in the Thomson house.

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Beef Casserole and Dumplings: for baby to adult

This is the second instalment of  how to make every bite count , in which I review a few recipes for The Main Meal, and of course, attempt to get Hannah to eat meat, and teach Daniel to like, well, everything. As I said in the last post, Hannah pretty much eats like I ate when I was little, and that pretty much drives me nuts. Sigh. At least I eat better now. Apart from the red meat. I still don’t like that. Ick. Except kangaroo. Yeah, I don’t mind a bit of the Aussie icon. All of my fellow Americans are probably cringing at that about now.  All the Aussies are probably muttering something like “good on ya mate.”

This week, I cooked Beef casserole and Dumplings. And by cooked, I mean cut up some stuff and threw it in the slow cooker. How I love the slower cooker. Especially since I have kids. I like that I can throw some stuff in there in the morning when the kids are fresh and will entertain themselves, instead of trying to cook something at 6pm when they are tired and whingey and trying to hang off my legs and poke out each other’s eyes.

As you can see, I opted to go with the ‘to cook in a slow cooker’ method. I was going to use sweet potatoes instead of potatoes since neither of my kids like potatoes, but Coles was out of them.  At 2pm on a Sunday. Random. So I stuck with the recipe and got normal white potatoes.

I wouldn’t say that the prep time is actually 15 minutes. Maybe I’m just a slow chopper, but by the time you add up all the meat and veg chopping and peeling,  plus the zucchini grating and squeezing (which, mind you, is a very messy job) and dumpling making, it was more like 30 minutes of prep time. Luckily it was in the morning, and the kids were cooperative.

Last week, Daniel was in the lumpy/mushy category. Oh wait, I did the last recipe review the week before last. Then we were at Tresillian and I didn’t get one out that week. Sigh. Anyway, last time he was lumpy/mushy. Now, he’s all into the finger foods. I took him and Hannah to the shopping centre the other day at dinner time and bought Hannah a McNugget happy meal (yeah, she’ll sometimes eat chicken if it’s in the form of a nugget. Just like her mommy…). Daniel ate half of her nuggets! He loved them. Just FYI, I don’t always feed my children greasy food. For lunch that day, he had mild green chicken curry with a side of peas, corn and carrots. So there.

This recipe suggests putting the finger food portion into a nice little ramekin/bowl.

HA! Maybe all children aren’t as wild as mine, but if I did that, the ramekin would end up broken on the floor, and the food would be either a) all over me, b) all over Daniel, c) all over the floor with the dish, d) all over the walls, or e) all of the above. No dishes are ever used with my cheeky little monkey, so I just plopped it all on his high chair tray for him to finger.

This is how he eats his food….

He grabbed a carrot and clumsily put it in his mouth. And then spit it straight back out. Sigh. I put a little piece of beef on a spoon and gave that to him. And that went straight back out too. He started making annoyed noises and vigorously rubbing his hands back and forth on his tray, flinging food off it as he did. Daniel didn’t like it. At all. Sigh.

For toddlers, the recipe suggests the little bowl again.

Hannah is fine with little bowls, but prefers one of those melamine plates with the different sections. Since they had steamed vegetables at lunch, I gave them a side of kiwi instead. And cheese. I know Hannah likes cheese. At least there was something on her plate that I knew she would eat.

She took one look at that plate and declared she didn’t want it. She wouldn’t even sit down. She came over and stole the cheese but refused to try anything else for 10 minutes. I finally got her to try a tiny bit of carrot in exchange for giving her something else to eat if she didn’t like it. After all, I just wanted her to try it! She put it in her mouth. And then spit it out onto the floor. Sigh.

When Aaron got home from work, I dished him up a big bowl of the casserole. He likes beef. He was thrilled to be having beef again. I never make him beef. Except for the last time I reviewed one of these recipes. He took a bite.

“Um…I think I want something else for dinner.” he told me. Sigh.

“What’s wrong with it?” I asked.

“It has no flavour.”

This one was a complete miss. Sigh.

If you do want to make it (maybe add a bit of something for flavour…), here are the instructions to make it into smooth puree, and lumpy/mushy:

You can find all of the Make Every Bite Count baby to adult recipes in the e-brochure here.

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