THEN THERE WAS TODAY

On some mornings my two overly rambunctious little ones are no match for my mommy skills; I can juggle both of their needs all the while keeping volume in my hair and a permasmile plastered on my face. I can prepare a bottle for Harlyn, whip Khage up some pancakes and maintain a complete state of patience while both kids yank on my pant legs and scream for attention.

And then there was today.

Khage was in dire need of my time at the exact moment that I discovered a fresh deposit in Harly's diaper. So I changed her while attempting to distract Khage from realizing that I was tending to her more urgent need first. Somewhere between wake up time and breakfast these two got the best of me.... that patient and unruffled mommy could not be summoned from inside of me.

It took me all of 20 minutes before I realized that during that diaper change I forgot to place a fresh diaper where the dirty diaper once belonged, I just snapped on her onsie and tended to Khage.

Thank you pee spot for making me aware of my massive mommy fail for the day.

Disclaimer: that spot is most definitely not urine. I couldn't possibly stumble upon a pee spot on the carpet and snap pictures of it right in front of the guilty party, and her brother, for fear that they would both assume this form of activity was favorable.

Could you imagine days from now when Khage has an inkling to pee in a corner somewhere in the house, Of course we are allowed to pee on the carpet Harlyn. Remember last time you did? Mom was so proud she ran to grab her camera to take photos of it like it was the first time I successfully went poop on the potty.

(I can't be the only person who took a picture of their kid's first turd on the potty... right?)

So instead I huffed and puffed about it, cursed that perfect mommy for not making an appearance today and cleaned it up... then I did what any normal mommy blogger would do: I poured water on the carpet to stage the original accident once both kids were down for a nap.

A nap in the window seat.

 

 

I have no words.

Lets just soak it up.

Let Her Freak Flag Fly

There are some babies who just eat, sleep and poop.

 

Then there is Harlyn.

 

When she was just a few months old we could already see glimpses of her personality, but now that she's older it refuses to be contained. This ones a hot mess.

 

For starters the girl lacks all manners completely. She shovels food into her mouth like an animal, and those feet comfortably placed on the table during dinner... really child were you raised in a barn?

 

Remember those scary baby faces (mentioned here) well they are only getting worse... or better depending upon if you dig this kinda look.

 

And if you are in the market for a smile... this is really the best its gonna get. No sweet little girl smiles coming from this one. Between the nose scrunch and evil eye its going downhill pretty quick.

 

Then she climbs into things all of the time. Great if she would just stay in them for longer then a few seconds so I could take a break from chasing her around.

 

 And we can slap a bow and some ruffles on her all we want but its not going to change the fact that already she reeks of a tomboy. If given the opportunity she will hightail it to the garage to seek out tools and other potentially dangerous things. After all she is her father's daughter.

 

And she is constantly hanging her fat little diapered butt up in the air. Which seems cute enough, until you realize that the girl's pluming is pretty overactive and this may be her way of letting you know that a changing is in order.

 

 I love her and all her strangeness... but a little class wouldn't hurt.

 



The Price He Pays for Fun

 

Safe to say this new addition to Khage's face happened on Daddy's shift.

 

Its not like these things don't happen on my watch.

Its just that these things don't happen on my watch.

 

Its really not Daddy's fault, the guy just isn't a Mommy and we can't blame him for that.
Trust me I have tried... its a worthless battle.

I am surely not saying that things have NEVER in history happened when I was supervising, because they have. But those accidents were all pretty minor and I blame the eyes on the back of my head.
Not the front ones.
The front ones rarely let me down.
But those rear eyes... those things aren't apart of the original design. They are still working through some kinks. I'm thinking by the third kid they'll be solid.

What it really comes down to is fun. Daddy is a dirty little fun haver and Khage is along for the ride... until he's not anymore because he flew out of the bike trolly.

No seriously Khage flew out of a bike trolly.

Brad says faulty brittled straps but I say it was the fun that flows through Brads veins... darn that fun. Darn it right to heck. I guess I am just too safe... safe and superficial. That face has to be in family portraits and I like it better when its not ridden with road rash.

Good thing this kids a quick healer.


 

Farmer in the dell.

But 'round these here parts we like to say farmer in the side yard... we don't have us a dell.

In fact I am not even sure what a dell is.

Googled it...Because this blog is fun AND educational. A dell is a small valley among a lot of trees.

I told you we didn't have a dell.

But we do have farmers.

And this farmer is mighty proud of his harvest.

 

Then this one just sits on the job and reaps the nutritious benefits.

 

 

In addition to the scrawny carrots, we also have regular sized ones, bushels of romaine, red lettuce, cauliflower, eight tomatoes (yup, only 8), and heaps of spinach.

 

For our first go at farming I am pretty impressed with ourselves. I would have been happy just to see the plants grow in size... its really just an added bonus that some of it was edible.

 

Now excuse us while we go plow the fields.

 

Well, we are not going to do it right this second but that phrase makes for a pretty decent closer on this post. And did I mention we don't even have a plow... we just kinda turn up the dirt with a shovel and a pickaxe.

 

So, in summarization: no dell and no plow. Obviously we are running a pretty scanty operation over here... such is the life of a few farmers in the suburbs.

Nine Months

 

 A few special facts about our sweet girl:

She has become quite the little scaredy cat

She has six teeth now

I cannot emphasis enough how frustrating it is to change her diaper & dress her because she CANNOT sit still

She can successfully climb off furniture and down the stairs

She talks baby babble all day long

She loves playing in the shoe basket and tampering with her nightlight

She will lay down on the floor as if she is exhausted then pop up within seconds fully energized

Hey hair blows every so sweetly in the wind because its so wispy

She has taken a few steps on her own

She says Dada but rambles it off all day long and to no one in particular

She has got a mean case of the crazy legs

Squirrely is the best adjective used to describe her

And

Between that adorable face and the quirky personality she is absolutely the best girl in the world.

 



8 Months

A few special facts about our sweet girl:

She has four teeth

She loves food and still hates to drink her milk
She is quite the little climber

Meat is her favorite.. chicken, beef and fish, she loves it all

She says Mama and will wave bye bye

She refuses to fall asleep in our bed with us no matter how many times we have tried
She scrunches up her nose and scowls a lot for no reason at all
She has started going down the stairs not just up anymore

She no longer yanks her bows off her own head within the first few minutes of me putting them on

She loves knocking over blocks, I hardly have time to stack them before she is already swatting away
She can entertain herself most of the day simply by exploring 

Twice now she has remained standing after letting go of the couch

This girl is still ALWAYS moving, fidgeting or flailing around
and
as much as I hate to see our baby grow up, I cant deny how exciting it is to watch her as she learns new things and becomes more independent.

My two favorite little things

Khage and Harlyn are my absolute favorite little things.

If you really want to get technical cheese is my number one favorite thing, and any other form of food falls into second place as my next favorite thing. Because lets face it neither cheese nor food kept me awake a few nights ago until 3:30 in the morning simply because they wanted to hang out. And I'm also pretty sure cheese and food are not the culprits for the snot streaks left all over the shoulder of my sweater this passed week. But this is all neither here nor there.

My kids are my absolute favorite people. There, that phrase sits right with me.

They are so great together. Alone they are pretty great too... but pair them up and they really compliment each other. Like peanut butter and jelly. Assuming the peanut butter was super protective over the jelly and refused to let her anywhere near the stairs or around anything potentially dangerous. I hear him all throughout the day yelling noooo, that's a chocking hazard and he can then be found with his hand half way down her throat digging around while she screams bloody murder because you know who died and left him in charge.

Note to the peanut butter: your hand can also be a choking hazard.

And that jelly, boy does she love Khage. He can bring a smile to her face instantly and can send her into the cutest little giggle fests. Give me a handful of cheese and a few snacks while I kick back and watch my two lovers laugh together... that my friends is pure magic to my Mama heart.

Seven Months Old

A few special facts about our sweet girl:

She is rarely ever still, she twirls her feet in tiny circles up until the moment she falls asleep

If you grunt at her she will grunt right back

She fell down 3/4 of a flight of stairs before Daddy caught her

She opens and closes her hands repetitively when she wants something
She has really quick reflexes and will grab things the second they are within arms reach

She is boycotting purees and no longer wants to be spoon fed
I turned my back for a second and caught her splashing around in the toilet, ever since then if she sees the bathroom door open she will hightail it over there
She is very impatient, she will continuously smack the back of her head against her high chair until we feed her another bite
She has her two bottom teeth
She stands at her baby gate shaking the railings and screaming until we release her from baby jail
She doesn't care much for strangers
If she's climbing the stairs and sees us coming she will try and quicken her pace before we can catch her
She likes scratching her fingers over different textures
She never stays mad very long, she can be in the middle of a tantrum and we can get her smiling within seconds
and
She is literally the most wonderful girl in the world. We count ourselves blessed just to be her parents.








 

 

Christmas 2013 in a Chestnutshell

Based upon the date, its safe to say I have been putting off this post. Once Christmas was over we were ready to wash our hands of it. Any and all proof that Christmas ever happened was thrown up in the attic a day after the celebration. One single day.

No lie.

Everything needed to go. We even had the little green remnants of the fake tree vacuumed up before Harlyn had a chance to down a few.

That is a lie.

I did spot one little faux pine needle in her dirty diaper just yesterday. Right when I thought we had successfully moved on from this holiday there it was, in all its poo glory, taunting me.

The only things really left lingering about are the Christmas cards taped to the fridge, and that's only because I have a hard time tossing the faces of our friends and family into the trash bin. If only we had a paper shredder.

We just never got into Christmas 2013. Brad and I tried to make the best of it for the kids but sadly it just wouldn't stick. There was too much going on in the month of December to really focus on the joy that the holiday brings, and it has totally become centered around gifts instead of what's really important. It all just takes away from the magic and the moments being spent together as a family. And to think this was Harlyn's first Christmas. That poor girl got bamboozled. Thank goodness she's not too bright.

You didn't let me finish.

I was going to say, thank goodness she's not too bright just yet. We haven't given up on her completely.

Even our elf on the shelf got swindled of fun. He made an appearance a few times before he was permanently perched on the tree like a confounded tree topper. I even baked cookies in an attempt to force the spirit of the season into this home, surprise surprise three dozen consumed cookies isn't exactly the recipe for joy. Just a good old fashioned need for bigger pants.

We failed this year and we know it. But I am here to say next year will be great. At least it better be or else we will relocate ourselves to Mount Crumpit. That's a How the Grinch Stole Christmas reference.

 

 

Merry & Bright? Look whose being ironically clever. Nicely played Christmas card. Nicely played.