Chile, and marshmallow man

Brandon went to Chile for spring break.  It was actually for a class, but that doesn't make much of a difference.  Once he was gone I high-tailed it out to my parents' house and had fun sharing my bed with two kids since neither of them will sleep through the night, completely failing at my diet and exercise goals, and probably scaring Ashley out of ever having children.  Brandon was supposed to get back on Tuesday morning but his flight was cancelled, and he ended up stuck in Lima for the day, where he saw catacombs and had what was apparently the world's best seafood.  After one of the longest days of my life, I finally got him back on Wednesday.

He got splashed by the angry ocean.

He toured the Atacama desert.

He made friends with some llamas/alpacas/vicunas... whatever those were.

He saw the Andes... from a distance.

And he checked out some flamingos.

We have all loved having him back.  I just had to add this picture.  In case you haven't held a chubby naked baby in awhile... you should.  It's great.

Since there's nothing else to blog about...

Someday, maybe I will be able to go on one of Brandon's trips with him.  For now I just get to see the pictures he takes and be happy that at least one of us got to go.  Brandon has a talent for capturing nature at its most beautiful.  And it doesn't get much more beautiful than Belize.  It's been more than a year since this trip and I'm still jealous.

This is kind of turning into a photography blog. Sorry.

I warned you.  I have been doing a LOT of photoshopping.  And yeah, I know there are a lot of black and white here.  It's just an easy way to fix a photo if the colors aren't interesting enough. 

I love Charlie's expression here.  He makes this face all the time.  Mom actually took this picture-- it's not from an angle I would have considered but I like it.

Charlie looks scared for his life, as would I be if I had Violet as a big sister.

This one is Mom's favorite.

Overlooked

I have free reign over Brandon's computer for now, so I have been looking through lots of old pictures for ones to photoshop.  Sometimes I see a picture once but I don't realize for awhile how beautiful it is.  I guess that's the great thing about going through old pics.  

I think this one looks like a painting.  It was a drive-by shot we took while we were in Montana, and the blurriness and crooked horizon may bug some people (I know it bugs Brandon).  But for some reason I love those little imperfections.

Johnston Canyon.  The pictures we took there never seemed to do this place justice, but this one caught a little of the ice blue water and beaming light.

Another drive-by shot.  People think there isn't much in Idaho, and in some parts it's true.  But there is value in simplicity.

Rialto beach.  I was in one heck of a bad mood on the way there, but once I stepped out of the car and saw this beach, even my stubborn pride couldn't keep me from having fun.

Catching up on the cameras

I'm not a very good blogger lately.  I could blame it on having a second child but that actually just gives me more to blog about, so that isn't the reason for my delinquency.  The reason is that whenever I get on my computer, Violet whines and begs me to let her watch videos of herself.  I know, she is just like me.  And when Violet is not whining at me, my computer usually refuses to let me transfer photos from my camera.  And let's face it, without cute pictures of my kids, nobody cares about my posts.

So we shall start the weekly recap with Valentine's day.  Ours was about as romantic as you can get when you're sharing your bedroom with 2 kids.  (Yes, that is still going on.  Is it sad to say that I've just gotten used to it at this point?) But Brandon got me a nice new rug for our living room and he played golf with Violet on it all evening, so it turned out to be a good day.

 

 The next day, Violet decided that she would force me into potty training her.  Yes, the day after I get a brand-new rug.  Perfect timing.  And how did she force me into this?  Turns out, all you have to do to force your mother into potty training you is to take off your pants and diaper every chance you get and run around the house naked.  So I said, "Okay, but you had better go in the potty."  And she did.  I almost took a picture of it when she did.  Yes, a picture of pee.  But it's not just any pee.  It's Violet's first pee on the potty.

On Friday Violet went to her cousin's birthday party at Stephen F. Austin state park in the pouring rain.  It was just about the cutest party I had ever seen.  But what did the kids get excited about?  Running through the mud, obviously.  This is what Violet looked like when she was all done. 

We found some dirt in her ear at church today. 

 Am I forgetting something?  Oh, yes.  I have a second child.  No, really, sometimes I forget. He's that good.  Violet has been really cute with him lately and sometimes she snuggles up with him when he is on the couch and puts her blanket over them both.  She then gives him a stuffed animal and puts his binkie back in his mouth whenever it falls out.  She's a very loving sister.

 Also, she has figured out how to take pictures.  Hehe.

 And this last one is one I found on the camera from when Brandon's family was here.  She got to try a space helmet on at Johnson Space Station. I thought it was pretty cute.

I'm drooling

It was a good week to be a mom.  It started out with Charlie's baby blessing on Sunday and can I just say, I have never seen a more handsome baby boy in a little white outfit.  I practically drooled over it.

 When Charlie sleeps (which is a lot) he keeps us entertained with his little sleep smiles.  They're small and fleeting, but I caught one here.  Again, I drool in adoration.

 Mega drool.  I never want to forget these tiny little rolls.

 Little glimpses of a personality are starting to show through on him.  He can recognize me (or at least I'm convinced that he does).  His eyes follow me (roughly) across the room and when I come and play with him he smiles a lot.  He makes little happy noises and LOVES to cuddle. 

And my other child-- she is fun, too.  I take advantage of every holiday because she gets really excited about celebrating little things.   On Monday she helped me make a little Valentine's box and on Wednesday she went to a party and came back with it overflowing with love and candy. 

 Later that week it was raining so we stayed inside and made a tent in our living room.  I gave her a bowl of Craisins and a pillow and let her watch the Lion King.  She was one happy girl.

My monsters

Whatever happened to my newborn? He turned into a giant chunk of "I take up half the couch." Mmmmm... I love chunks.

And Violet? She is still insane. She convinced me to buy Oreos on Monday and the next day I found her with a bajillion of them on our coffee table, opening them and just licking the cream out. Lately she has been under the impression that I will buy anything she sticks in the cart. Maybe that's because it's true. It doesn't take much to convince me to buy Oreos.

She has been delighted by all the rain here. I can't blame her. I did the same thing when I was little.

Is it bad that I'm jealous of her legs and she's 2 years old? What am I going to do when she's 17?

I'm not sure what to make of this face.

The happy puddle splashing was just the calm before the storm. It's a good thing that I don't mind being stared at, because I've had to carry her to the car screaming quite frequently this week. She REALLY didn't want to leave those puddles.

The pictures on my blog tell a lot of lies.

I used to be honest. Down-to-earth. Realistic. But from the looks of my last post, now I'm just one of those moms who does nothing but post cheesy pictures of her kids and talk about how precious they are. Someone shoot me now.

So maybe I should tell everyone what the past couple of weeks have really been like. They started off with a 2-day stay in the NICU for what was really just a bad case of the sniffles. (Okay, so it was RSV, but there was no fever and his lungs were clear.) That was followed by our insurance company telling us that even though they charged us for Charlie's coverage, they didn't actually add him to the plan. (insert angry conversation with insurance company here.)

We came home from that and everything was back to normal for a few days. Then Saturday morning we noticed that Violet's carpet was a bit sloshy. As you probably know, sloshy is not a word you should ever be able to use when describing your carpet. So we had to pull her bed and everything else to the front of her room and pull up the carpet by the wall (the paint on the wall was also bulging with water underneath.) Apparently a pipe had broken in the wall. On Monday some workers came to fix the pipe by tearing holes in Violet's wall, exposing rusty pipes and moldy plywood, and leaving us without running water for the day. Luckily I have a friend a few units down, so I was able to run to her house and use the bathroom from time to time. The last time I used the bathroom, however, the workers finished and left while I was out... and they locked me out of my house. I had to jump the fence onto our porch to get back in, and after that we went to HEB to get some groceries. When that was done and I came back to my car, I realized that I had lost my keys and couldn't get home. (Not to worry-- I had a huge bag of Julios chips that I emotionally purchased to keep me company.) I sat searching my car for the keys with a screaming baby for about 30 minutes before I finally remembered to check the cart we had used-- by some miracle, they were still in there. After that I figured I had earned a BerryHill fish taco. (And that makes twice that I mention rewarding myself with food. Maybe next time I should reward myself with a strenuous workout.)

And right now our family members outnumber our bedrooms four to one. The emotional eating might be going on for awhile.

Can't they just stay this way forever?

Violet keeps things interesting

Anyone want to see a list of the medical problems we have had in the last week?
abnormal newborn screening results
abnormal re-test results
fever
sore throats
runny noses
congestion
coughs
yeast infection (or in Violet's words, "itchy bum")
eye infection
and my favorite... projectile vomiting.
And somehow, I still enjoy having two kids more than I thought I would. Not that I thought that I wouldn't enjoy it, but I did think that there would be days where I wanted to shoot myself mixed moments where I loved it. Instead, there are days when I love it and moments when I want to shoot myself-- a totally manageable combination. For me, having two kids isn't much more difficult than having one. Of course, it isn't easy when your one kid likes to communicate by screaming, or try to see how high Charlie's bouncy chair will bounce while he's still in it, or point to your stretch marks and ask why you have stripes, or tell you that she wants to potty train and then proceed to pee on the floor and yell "I'm pee-peeing!" and then poop in the closet after she specifically told you she didn't have to poop, or try to lift your cover and expose you while nursing at the park, or shove you out of the way 86 times a day and yell "Let me do it!"
That's okay, because no matter how hard it is to deal with these things as they happen, I laughed even harder thinking about them just now. I totally love my kids.

Cracks me up

So, Violet LOVES Charlie. Pretty much thinks he's the coolest thing in the world. And when she talks about him, she makes me laugh.

Violet: I want to feed Charlie.
Me: How do you plan on doing that?
Violet: With my big breasts!
Me: I don't think so. Only mommy can feed him.
Violet: Oh yeah. I have little ones.
.............
(as Charlie is crying in the car)
Me: Violet, can you find Charlie's binkie?
Violet: No.
Me: Please? He really needs his binkie.
Violet: No, he's fine.

This year's plans

Last year's failures have not deterred me from making a list of resolutions for this year.  I've heard a lot of people say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.  I'm pretty sure that's actually not the definition of insanity.  But if it is, then we are all insane for making resolutions year after year.  I guess there are worse things to be than insane.

1.  Enjoy cooking more.  I really don't like to cook.  Violet tries to "help" and Brandon doesn't like a lot of the same foods that I do (sour cream, avocado, tomato, bell peppers, cream cheese, soups). If I find easier recipes that my family actually likes, maybe it will be less stressful for me.  And maybe with Bexar's help, I will make more desserts, too!

2.  Make more friends.  I've finally accepted that Jennifer isn't around anymore to go out to lunch with me all the time.

3. Paint 5 things.  Didn't happen last year, and who knows if it will this year.  But there's no harm in making a goal.

4. Excercise... a little.  Maybe I will do a 10k by the end of the year now that I have a nice jogging stroller.  I know, I'm really reaching for the stars here.

5. Take a fun family trip.  Maybe Sea World, or Enchanted Rock, or Guadalupe, or all three.  Brandon gets to go to Chile, Australia, and France this year, so I think we can manage a small Texas trip.  Or I could just go to France with him.

6.  Take good pictures.  I took a few baby pictures of Charlie already, but I still haven't captured that bright-eyed look he has in the morning.  But I LOVE those chubby cheeks.

 

By the way, Charlie was 9 lbs 12 oz at his 2 week checkup.  Normally they only expect the baby to be back at birth weight at the 2-week checkup.  Mine gained a pound and a half.  He is a beast.

2011: the year of good intentions.

I had such good intentions for 2011, but once more, my plans all blew up in my face. I guess my expectations for last year could be divided into 2 categories: things I wanted to do, and things I wanted Brandon to do. Let's have some fun and take a look at how these resolutions turned out.

Things I wanted to do:

go camping at least 3 times

go on a trip in May

paint 5 pictures

pick dewberries

go kayaking

Okay... I did none of these things. Well, I did go on a trip in May. I threw up for the first day of it and spent most of the rest of it in bed. Between the drought and the ridiculously hot summer, camping and dewberry picking were not in the cards this year. Ditto for kayaking. I managed to paint 2 pictures but after that, my laziness got the best of me.

Things I wanted Brandon to do:

finish his last full year of school

enjoy his internship

interview for a full-time, non-internship job

This part makes me laugh out loud. Instead of finishing school, Brandon committed to 2 more years of schooling. He enjoyed his internship but turned down their full-time job offer. And their part-time job offer. And now he is planning on another internship next summer.

Yeah, things don't go as planned. But it's good. We still managed to have some fun, and Brandon is now on his way to getting a Ph.D and being even more employable. I can wait, because I have these to keep me company:

Happy New Year's Eve

Don't worry, Charlie was only in the sun for the time it took to take these pictures.

Bedrest

Remember how I posted a bunch of baby pics on Monday and then never gave any updates?  Well, this week has not gone exactly as expected.  I am on bedrest. Apparently there was a complication in my epidural where I leaked some spinal fluid and now I have a spinal headache that is suppsed to last for 5-7 days.  If you're not familiar with that, it's a massive throbbing pain that comes on any time you lift your head.  For me, it sucks.  For those around me, it's quite entertaining.  I still have to get up to do things like go to the bathroom, but I can only do it bent over so that my head isn't upright.  So just imagine me walking around like I'm trying to touch my toes.  It's cute.  And to think I was looking forward to a speedy recovery...

Luckily, Charlie is awesome.  I was worried about having to nurse a newborn baby while being physically unable to sit upright or lift my head, but he figured out how to do it while I'm laying down.  Last night he woke up only one time in an 8-hour stretch, so I'm surprisingly well rested, too.  Violet is having fun with her aunt right now so the only thing I really need to worry about is entertaining myself while on my back all day.

This is the fourth day since my epidural.  If all goes well, I will be fully functional within the next couple of days.  But there is a chance that I may have to experience Christmas horizontally this year.

Welcome to the world

This is Charlie.

8 lbs, 4.7 oz.

Eats like a lion, sleeps like a lamb.

Delivered by the best doctor ever.

Loved by everyone.

And about to meet his big sister...