Boobie Talk with a Big Weaner

We had a bit of an exhausting weekend. Milo is now weaned from his mother's bosom. He was NOT pleased about it and let me know by screaming loudly into my ear for a couple of hours on the first night. But he's doing great now and goes out like a light at bedtime. He just crawls up into my lap when he's ready, pops his thumb in his mouth and five minutes later he's out. He is sleeping much, much better through the night now that he's been cut off from the late visits to the All Night Titty Bar (as my sister so eloquently calls it). As for me, I got painfully engorged this time for several days, and am still not completely "dried up." I don't remember it being quite as painful or lasting as long when I weaned Huck, but I was pregnant at the time, and Huck was a couple of months older than Milo is now, so I think I had pretty minimal milk production. Therefore, my boobs didn't blow up like hot, rock hard melons. It was rather impressive if you didn't mind the fact that I seriously wanted to cry every time a gust of wind blew by me.
We have been having a lot of sleep issues lately, which is what prompted the weaning. Or, rather, prompted completing the weaning. Technically, I started dropping feedings in June, but still held onto nighttime and sometimes naptime feedings. Anyway, we weaned Huck from his pacifier in mid-October, and with the pacifier went his naps. At first, that was very difficult for me, as naptime has always been my downtime during the day--whether I napped myself, or cleaned up (yeah, right), or blogged, or worked on crafts, or watched General Hospital--it was my only real "me" time of the day. So it was a rough transition for me. I started looking into preschools. But now we're all doing much better. Bonus: I don't have to coordinate naptimes, which was always very stressful for me. Now Milo gets to pass out whenever he feels like it and I don't have to try to get Huck asleep sometime in that window. Huck still has issues grasping the concept of "quiet time" (or, in his words, "QUIET TIIIIIIME!") but he does play well by himself, for the most part, and I do get a little bit of time to myself during Milo's nap. The other benefit is that he goes down to bed earlier and pretty easily now with minimal delay tactics ("I need water," "I'm hungry," "I need medicine," "I need to poop," etc.) So I feel like we have our evenings back and are not fighting to get him to just GO TO BED, ALREADY!
The other nighttime issue we've had for too long was Huck crawling into our bed at night. We were complacent about it for too long, and eventually Steve pretty much moved out of the bed. We'd start out in our own beds, but by midnight it was always me and the boys in our bed and Steve in Huck's room or on the couch. So this weekend we were also very consistent about bringing Huck back to his room every time he came to our bed. The first two nights we had to get up several times. He never got upset about it, but he was persistent. Last night he didn't show up until 4 am, when I helped him use the potty and he went back to his own room. So it seems to be working and I'm hoping that within the next few days he'll stop coming in altogether and we'll all be sleeping much more peacefully soon!

Medley

Why, Hello. Looks like it has been a month exactly since I've updated this blog. I'm trying to update Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! at least twice a week now, so that's where all of my blogging efforts have been dumped. Unfortunately, that leaves this blog a little high and dry. Steve was motivated to update for about a week, but the novelty has worn off, I think, and here you are left with no news about our kiddos or cute pictures to get your biological clocks all wound up!


The big news with Milo is that he's not a baby anymore. He is talking up a storm. Mostly words that start with "B" like ball, bath (don't even say "bath" around him unless you're prepared to give him one. The kid is single-minded and insistent when he gets an idea in his head), Babs. He's also trying out harder words like "pancake" and "vitamin" which sounds like "blaaaahbamaaahhhhb" with a lot of wagging tongue action, but is definitely "vitamin." I've lost count of how many words he has because he repeats just about everything he hears. Also, he is a second child, so who keeps up with that kind of thing?
Milo is also into Pixar Cars now. Amazing how he imitates Huck's actions. If we are in a store and he sees an image of Lightning McQueen or Mater, he will point and get very excited about it. He plays in ways Huck never did because he has Huck as an example. There is a lot of pretend play at a much earlier age.

The guys are getting restless, so quickly about Huck: we've joined a homeschooled preschoolers group. I don't plan on homeschooling beyond preschool, but it is a good group for doing some structured activities with other kids his age since most of his other friends are in regular preschool. We're also doing a weekly Mommy & Me type class called "Rhythm, Rhyme and Fun" that he loves and he also started piano lessons last week. He LOVES the piano lessons and I thought we would have to do half lessons (15 minutes only) because of his age, but after the first full half hour lesson we came home and he immediately wanted to get on his keyboard and do his piano "homework." I'm excited about that. All of my sister's kids started piano at an early age and it almost seems like music is another language that they have always known.
Here's a medley of Huck singing and rapping. He learned to "rap" from watching Steve, so forgive him:

Huckleberry's Three!

Huck's third birthday was yesterday! Unfortunately, Steve had to miss it for a work trip, but we did celebrate with a birthday party in the park on Sunday. I have been sick and we had guests in town, so this was a super toned down version of my usual birthday party craziness. I read somewhere once that you should invite the same number of children as your child's age, so I told Huck that he could invite three of his friends. It was a good rule and I think I'm going to stick to it for future birthdays. Pictures are up on Flickr. For his actual birthday yesterday I took him to the park in the morning, McDonald's with a huge Playplace for lunch and then Chuck E. Cheese's for dinner. He had a good day.

Checkin' In

I've decided to write for the next five minutes and get out as much brain fart as I can in that time. I'm officially sick. Sick! Just in time for our weekend houseguests to arrive, Huck's birthday party and Steve leaving town on Monday for a business trip. Sorry, Jeff and Foy, if the toilets are gross when you get here, but I'm sick. SICK! Maybe you guys can clean them for me. Maybe you can stay for the whole week that Steve is gone and watch the kids and I can run off and do single lady things.
I signed Huck up for a fun class today. It's called Rhythm, Rhyme and Fun! And it's exactly those three things. Singing and dancing and cute parades with funny hats and banging on drums. Huck liked it a lot and I'm glad to have something social for him to do at least once a week now that all of his friends are in preschool. Milo had fun in the class, too. He followed all the big kids around.
We are going to a new pediatrician. I liked out old one, but it was too long of a drive, and I had always been to lazy to do anything about it. So our new doctor is close and she was great with the kids. We just had Huck's 3-year check up and Milo's 15-month. Both kids are doing great. Good and healthy except for the snots.
Still trying to get our car fixed. I hate dealing with other people's crappy insurance.
My book proposal is coming along. It's still very much in the brainstorming/laying out stage. I switched gears for awhile and went with a whole new idea, but ultimately decided that I wasn't at all that excited about the new idea and I kept coming up with projects for the first idea. So I went back to my original idea and now at least I know I have a second book idea in me if this one takes off, right?

Five minutes are up!

The Best Guys There Are

You might think that your kids are cute. You might think that they are smart. You might even think that your kid is special. You know what I got to say to that? Why you trying to front on Huck and Milo's Cute-tip? Don't even try to throw down no "My Baby did the darndest thing . . ." because Huck and Milo will Jello pop yo booty. And brains? Milo poops extra brain cells twice a day - He don't need em. He gots extra, son. Check it - the Dude just turned one. One!

Huck is feeling sick right now and his snot face is better looking than all them Gap Kids combined. We had considered naming him "Handsome" before we even meet him. I regret not doing that now. Handsome Huckleberry Haske. People would introduce them selves, "Hi, I'm Ayddin or Ashtynn or D'Brae'on or Gayton . . . I can't remember" They would even be bored by their own name. And then Huck would politely respond, "I'm Handsome." And he'd be right. Put your eyeballs and ear holes on this if you want to get how ball-bustingly rad this dude is:



AWESOME!

The Big Reveal

I wasn't going to talk about this yet, but it seems like more than a few people took my "working on other projects" post as code for "had a mental breakdown." First of all, I would like to assure everyone that I have not gone bat guano loco. What I am doing is a two-fold project--I'm focusing my energy into my crafty blog, Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! whilst simultaneously working on a book. Basically, I have been following a handful of crafty blogs for a few years, and I've watched the authors come out with these really wonderful books, and I thunk'd to myself, I thunk'd, "Marigold, you could do that just as good as them girls." I won't go into details about the book project here, and, frankly, I'm a little nervous about even mentioning it because I have a pretty poor track record when it comes to completing big projects I make up for myself. But I know that I'm a good writer and a talented crafter with good, solid, creative ideas, and that if I can muster up the self-motivation, then there's a big ol' book deal in my future.
As for Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky!, I am trying to build up a larger following for that blog. I'll be posting to it weekly from now on with projects that I've completed, tutorials and giveaways. In fact, there's a giveaway going on right now for a cute set of blank notecards that I made. All you have to do is leave a comment on the post (click!) and you will be entered into the giveaway. It's open to friends and family, too, so don't be shy about entering! The winner will be announced on Friday on that blog.
Also, if you are on Facebook, you can follow me on the Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! Facebook Fan Page and you'll get updated when new things happen on my blog or in my Etsy shop. There will also be exclusive giveaways for Facebook Fans. So become a fan! Do it! Do it now! I appreciate the support.

Also, I don't know if you'll be hearing much from Steve here anymore. He went nuts.

What's Going On Here?

You're probably asking yourself why Steve, the negligent father and "DH", is all of a sudden chiming in here. You came here for the particular charms of Marigold, the fantastic mother and "HM", and got some cheap substitute. Well, Marigold has gone Britney Spears Batty. Mariah Carey Cuckoo. Lindsey Lohan Looney. Elizabeth Taylor Touched. Jacko Wacko. (is it still too soon?)

Not really.

Really she decided to be lazy from now on. "No more w-o-r-k." She said the other day. "If I'm going to do this lazy thing, I'm going to do it right. This not your mother's apathetic laziness. I ain't even going to stand up from now on." And then she flopped over on the couch ,popped in the colostomy bag, and stopped talking altogether. A few days ago she got wedged between some couch cushions and we haven't seen her since. I think she even has some kind of manifesto, but it would be too much work to mumble. So it remains a mystery.

Not really.

Really she off to the jungles of Borneo to study the eccentricities of the male Myrmarachne jumping spider. She has long held more than a passing fancy for this particular arachnid and their thespian antics. They have evolved to look like leaf carrying ants, a strategy that plays into the antipathy many predators have for the aggressive, noxiously armed, and ecologically dominant social insect. This is not too unlike her and my relationship, on several levels.

Not Really.

Downtown Disney

STEVE: We decided to go to Downtown Disney this morning for the first time. I looked up how to get there first and we were off. Here is how we made a 20 minute car ride into an hour and a half:

1) So far so good. Getting off the freeway. (This is at about 15 minutes.)
2) Impromptu stop at K-Mart on the way! (Maybe 20 minutes)
3) Didn't notice that we were already on the right street (Katella) because of our cool new toys. so we continued north for two miles. I think that we hit every red light and then decided to turn around. (add 38.54 minutes)
4) Turned left on Lincoln because it deemed familiar. (maybe another 45 minutes to 3 hours - it is unknowable.)
5) Turned left on Harbour because I know Disneyland is somewhere on Harbour. Oops - the other way. (3 days later.) By the way, there is a really cute neighborhood with cool old-style houses up here.
6) Hey! There's Disneyland I can see it! (We celebrated Huck's birthday in the car.)
7) Too much traffic and red lights - can't get into right lane. Must turn left then U-turn. Finally, we are on Katella. (Seasons come and go and we are still driving.)
8) We turn right into the Disney park because signs point us this way. (My beard has grown past my navel.)
9) Signs continue to point us past the left turn we should have made into the parking lot. Must U-turn again - the fourth. (People outside our car windows wear unrecognizable fashions beyond our generation's understanding.)
10) We are there! And it only takes 5 minutes of parking lot circling to find a spot! Everyone is so happy! (We died and decomposed while taking the kids out of the car.)

Maybe we should get a Garmin. Or I-phone. Or whatever the kids are sporting these days.

Downtown Disney was good.