A Little Wall

Let me help you with that

2012-02-08T09:00:00.000-06:00

Sometimes you just need to practice holding up your head. Even if you are 3 years old.

And really it is best that your brother learn early on that everything he has is yours.

You will help him play with it.

The Same Love

2012-02-06T09:00:00.002-06:00

I could just stare at this face all day. This was taken two months ago. His eyes are bigger now, as are his eyelashes and he is in a constant state of smiling. Yet my adoration of him has not waned. It was tested, mind you, with the whole throwing up on me for a week and trying to stop breathing shenanigans but we persevered and I still cannot imagine my life without him. How did I not know he was waiting to come to us to cuddle with me, beam at his brother and become obsessed with Norman?

I do a lot of thinking about the challenges and joys of having two kids. It is so stressful and crazy yet sweet and surprising. I read the below on another blog and thought it summed up having a two kids pretty nicely.

"The earth shakes when the doctor places your firstborn in your arms. Your love for him is colored by terror because you are positive that he is going to die with each passing minute. You bring him home understanding that the Universe has made a mistake, that someone more qualified, more motherly will show up to retrieve him soon. So while you wait, you play house for awhile. You do not trust that he will be able to navigate his world. You eye his doctors, his playmates, his teachers, even his grandparents with great suspicion. Will they be gentle enough with him? He is so sensitive.

Holding your second, you become human again. You are elated and concerned. Your firstborn is replaced. You can’t look at or listen to both of your babies at the same time. So you look at your baby while talking about your firstborn. You say, hold on honey far too many times. Your guilt is relentless. How will you convince them both that they are the center of your universe?

This new angel seems like a stranger at first, and then your firstborn does. Suddenly he appears to be a giant. You wonder when he’ll start pulling his weight already. You are worried you’ll never find your balance. What is the right division of time, love, attention, fear, worry?

But then again, you have your moments. When they smile at each other, when big retrieves little's toy, touches his hair, tickles his feet. When you hear two giggles coming from the family room for the first time. When you and your husband look at the two of them on the floor and exchange a glance that means – look at what we did. We’re doing it. We’re making a family. "

Perils

2012-02-03T09:00:00.000-06:00

My sister can attest that having a bigger sibling means sometimes you have a cupcake wrapper put on your head and called a hat. And you best keep it there and not complain about it. Just appreciate that it matches your outfit.

That's right - I am in there too

2012-02-01T10:30:00.000-06:00

I don't know why I feel such vindication at the sight of these two pictures; me at 3 1/2 and Zach at 3 looking so much alike. Oh wait, yes I do. Because EVERYONE that sees my boys immediately says "Oh they look just like their father". So SNAP they do not look like Alex all the time. Just because they are all boys with the same head shape and hair cut does not mean they look totally alike.

I would like to add that my dad took both these photos. So he has been getting this I-will-cut-you look for 33+ years. Lucky guy.

A Treat for my Sweet

2012-01-25T09:00:00.000-06:00

I have been feeling like my big boy has not been getting a whole lot of attention from me now that I am back at work. After work I run to get the baby from school, then Zach and we rush home to put James down for a nap since he does not sleep at daycare. So Zach and I have some time together, but it always seems harried to me since I am usually trying to also make dinner, get a bottle ready, unload our bags, etc.

So when James was home with a back-up care nanny instead of school I decided to take Zach for a treat. I told him we could get ice cream or cupcakes. He choose cupcakes so off to Crave we went. I had this whole image in my head (some might say a vision) that we would eat our cupcakes and talk about his day and it would be so sweet.

It was OK. He didn't really like his cupcake, mainly wanted to fire off 50 questions about the cupcake store that I did not have the answers for (why are they not working here? what are those people eating? why is this top pink?) and did not want to tell me about his day. Oh well, I tried and I have the picture to prove it when he tells his therapist that his mother neglected him. I will counter with the fact that he looks slightly demonic in the evidence. So there.

Just breathe

2012-01-23T11:59:00.000-06:00

This weekend was not what anyone would call a fun-filled weekend. James was admitted to Texas Children's Hospital with low oxygen levels due to his brochiolitis. We got there around 11:30 on Saturday and left about 2 on Sunday. I will spare you the details (that my poor co-workers got) but the basics are this: He has bronchiolitis (brochitis for babies) and was breathing very rapidly. When the doc checked his oxygen level it was 90. It should be between 98-100. In the ER when he took a nap it dropped to 88 which is what got us admitted. They basically just watched him during the night and on Sunday morning they did a saline nebulizer treatment and suctioned him out. That seemed to make a huge difference as he was taken off the oxygen and took a long nap. We both did. He is doing about the same today, but there is nothing to be done for him, unfortunately but to watch him, suction his nose and try to get him to rest.

The Walls swooped right in and got Zachary. Dave and Tami came over and took him to the birthday party he was excited about. I have not gotten the recap on that, but I can only imagine Dave and Tami were mildly terrorized as it was at a music place so their involvement was required. I don't particularly like it myself. Liv and Vince kept Zach over night and into Sunday which he loved. When he got home all he wanted was to see his brother. Seriously, he kept saying that. "I want to see my brother". Of course he thought he was still wearing the mask from the hospital which was obliviously part of the draw.

Please notice we cut down his pacifer to fit under the oxygen tubes. He was a real trooper with the tubes. The nurses kept commenting that he was so little to not have it taped to his face. Like tape on his face would have made anything better. Negative. If he took it out I just put it back in. But he forgot about it for the most part. Well, until I turned my back to put in my contacts. Then this happened:

Here was the interesting part for me. I did not want to leave the hospital. Alex was all about getting discharged, he was asking the nurses and pestering the doctors. Me? I was very content. It took me a while to realize why. Then it came to me, all that was waiting for me at home was laundry, a dishwasher that needed unloading and a 3 year old who would for sure be acting up for attention. Plus they were sending me home with a sick baby and nothing that could be done but wait and see. No thank you. I would have stayed for days. I might go back tonight and see if Denise can come make my baby smile and Mary can bring me the dinner I ordered.

3rd Birthday Party - extreme details

2012-01-20T09:00:00.000-06:00

If you could not tell already from my post about the invites I created for Zach's party I was kinda obsessed with his theme. And by 'kinda' I mean 'totally' and by 'his' I mean 'mine' so much that I refused to change the the cupcakes to red from blue and yellow. I just caved and let him have a red cupcake (technically the only thing he asked for). I copied basically the entire party from Sarah over at Create Studio, which I found on Pinterest. She is the one that sweetly sent me her favor tags and water bottle covers. I ended up recreating her images after I bought some mustache clip art on Etsy. Did you know they sell mustache clip art? Yeah, neither did I.

Cupcakes with chocolate mustaches on top

Just one red one for the birthday boy

Individual veggies & ranch dip (that went basically untouched)

and chocolate pretzel cigars

The proper usage of said cigars

Nugget tray, the label says, "Real men eat chicken"

Could you die for these waters? I did.

I loved them so much I took another picture.

Sophie sporting a mustache

No one told me mine was on crooked.

Littlest mustache wearer Lily

Prior to the party I sent an email to all attendees to clarify that

the party favors (below) were NOT edible.

They are two toned crayons made using the same mold as the chocolate.

The Chillens Museum

2012-01-18T09:00:00.002-06:00

Zach had his third birthday party at the Children's Museum (or Chillens museum as he says it) on his actual birthday. It was really nice to do it that day so we did not have to celebrate twice and get him all confused. He already believes that he gets presents for about a week during Christmas time.

The museum did an awesome job of setting up the room in my requested colors of blue and yellow (what? they said I got 20 balloons and table covers, of course I was going to ask to just have blue and yellow) and best of all, my house stayed clean. But truly the best thing (in my opinion) about the museum is that the kids get to play for about 45 min to an hour before eating/cake. So they are worn out that night.

We had better attendance than I thought given it was the Friday before Christmas and though we were missing some crucial friends (Big Ben for one), Zach had a awesome time with the fun friends that were able to come. If you recall the theme was Little Man, and James is dressed accordingly.

All the kiddos seemed to enjoy the huge climbing structure.

Even though it SPECIFICALLY says 5 and up.

Zach and his fav Auntie Alison

The super, super cute Sam Prewitt.

Zach refused to smile for any photos so this one was caught on the fly.

An aeronautical engineering making a rocket. Of course.

Zach and his ladies.

My big three year old singing Happy Birthday to himself.

Halfway to a Year

2012-01-16T09:00:00.000-06:00

As Zach was turning 3 (blog post to come on that sneaky weepy day) Alex and I commented to each other that it was not as hard to believe that Zach was three, as it was to believe that James was about to be 6 months old. Where has the time gone? How is my roly poly baby halfway to a year old? This cannot possibly be correct, I must have done the math wrong.

But I digress. As usual. This month, James started to sit up, a very wobbly stay-very-close-and-pretend-to-be-an-attentive-mother sitting position, but he is SUPER excited to be doing it. He also rolls front to back and vice versa and does that all over the carpet. Though he still forgets that he can roll off his tummy and routinely bangs his face into the carpet and starts to cry.

He is still just a delight to everyone that comes in contact with him. Even, surprisingly enough, his brother. James has realized that Zach is there and fairly entertaining so he now beams at him when he catches sight of him. Granted, that smile usually turns to slight tension as he is being hugged and gripped by an enthusiastic 3 year old.

James started school officially this month and his teacher said he was already a favorite (I promise this was volunteered to me). She said that everyone who comes in comments on how cute and sweet he is. He is just so happy to have someone talking to him, his face lights up and you are rewarded with the biggest, wettest smile. As Zach says "Mommy, I got a smile from James!"

My baby is huge and I want to cry.

James at 5 months

James at 4 months

James at 3 months

James at 2 months

James at 1 month

Christmas Evenings

2012-01-13T09:00:00.001-06:00

Our nighttime routine with Zachary is dinner, bath, short video/movie, brush teeth, then reading books in his room and off to bed. Then he adds about 10 minutes of stalling which includes saying his prayers ("I am thankful for Jesus and Mary and Joseph and Norman."), telling me what he is thinking about (to ward off bad dreams), what he is having for breakfast and then usually he needs another drink of water or to go to the bathroom. Again. Anyway, once we got the tree up in the living room and the stockings up on the fireplace I suggested we read books by the fire.

It. Was. Awesome. Alex told me I needed to tamper down my giddiness. Neither Zach nor I cared it was usually 65 degrees outside, we fired up the gas fireplace, turned off all the lights and lit the candles on the mantle.

Sometimes James was up and sometimes not. This was one night where they were in matching Christmas pajamas both laying on the floor listening to me read. It was so sweet and lovely.

But of course when I tried to take their pictures without a flash (the tree looked better that way, obviously) they both decided to roll and move all around. Oh well, this is usually my life anyway. Me trying to stand still while two little boys are blurs around me.

Elf on the Couch

2012-01-11T09:00:00.001-06:00

We did not do the whole Elf on the Shelf thing this year. Mainly because I barely knew what that was, but also becuase the little elves creep me out. We did, however, record the cartoon based (loosly) on the book, Elf of the Shelf and Zach fell in love with Chippy and the song Extravaganzalorious. I am not kidding, that is the song and I could sing it for you at a moment's notice. With accompaning shoulder moves.

But I digress. He watched the movie almost every night after dinner while drinking his milk. We recorded it off CBS or something so it was about 15 min of movie and 10 min of commercials. Usually when there is a commercial my DVR spoiled child comes running yelling, "The movie is not ON!" but apparently with this one he just wanted the commercials. How do I know? Because my child can sing the majority of the Nook commercial with Jane Lynch.

Chris was over for his birthday and we were all suckered into watching the movie with Zach and he busts out with "Nook support is always treeeeee! [free]" and we about fell off the couch. So of course instead of being horrified that my child knows a commercial, we made him sing it again. And again. I am going to try to video it because it is hysterical. He really knows the whole thing. If you sing one line - he will reply with the next. Sad but oh so funny.

I wanna hold your hand

2012-01-09T15:03:00.000-06:00

In my car Zach and James are right next to each other so someone could still sit in the backseat if they ~~are forced~~ so want. When we were in St. Louis and rented a car we separated the boys. This lead to a huge meltdown on the part of Zachary. He loves to hold James' hand in the car - no matter if James likes it or not. I do often hear, "Mommy his hand is wet!" to which I reply, then don't hold his hand. That is not an option.

Do I look too thin in this hat?

2011-12-20T09:00:00.001-06:00

Because people might think my Mamma doesn't feed me.

Thanksgiving in the Loo

2011-12-17T21:40:00.000-06:00

This year was our every-other-year trip to St. Louis for Thanksgiving with Vince's family. I am not going to go into the hassle/hell of travelling with a 2.5 year old and a 4 month old. If you have done it you know and if you have not please take my advice and DO NOT DO IT. Or at least schedule better flights than our heidous choices of an 8pm and 8am flight.

Here is James in IAH ready for his first flight. This was before I was bouncing him up and down the aisle and watching the person squeezed into the seat next to me play Angry Birds.

Once we were there the trip drastically improved! The Wall/Morris families are busy and kid filled, which is right up the alley of Alex and Zach. They also do a lot of eating and talking which makes James and I happy. The first night we arrived at the house to see this sign courtesy of the sweet Engel cousins. What a way to make a baby feel welcome (and his mamma).

We stayed with another set of Alex's cousins who had two darling twin girls who are 7 and a sweet boy basically the same age as Zach. The first morning we arrived I knew my big boy was a Wall through and through when the second he had woken up, Alex plopped him in the middle of those three (whom he had never met) and promptly left. Zach was happy as can be and didn't notice or need us for the next 24 hours. That is not the Mitchell way people.

Zach really attached himself to Hannah. She was so sweet to him and he just adored her. Luckily for her, her family left on Thanksgiving so she got a break - Zach however was detestated and still talks about why Megan and Hannah had to leave.

The Friday after Thanksgiving is always the Wall/Morris soccer game. It was breezy and chilly this year, which was a nice change from Houston for sure. James spent the game like this:

Being pushed all around by his Ollie so he would not cry.

Zach really wanted to go out onto the field with the adults and big kids and finally got to play during halftime with the other little kids who don't understand sharing the ball, what a goal is or why they can't use their hands. His Auntie Tami and Uncle Dave were very patient with him.

We only go every other year and every other year I stress out about it for a good month, dread it as it gets closer, then thoroughly enjoy myself once I am there. All the cousins are so warm and gracious with their time, shops (Hi Beth!!) and homes. Plus there are no fewer than 5 children around at all times to spread out all that Zach talking and busyiness. Please, they are Walls - they are nothing but busy. And they all love my babies. And as my mother says; anyone who loves my babies I love.

5 Months

2011-12-14T13:14:00.002-06:00

Last week James hit the 5 month mark - and the 16 lb mark. Skinny babies need not apply here.

I know how much he weighs not because we visited the doctor for a regularly scheduled check up, but for yet another cold. Apparently, me saying "Get OUT of his face, Zachary!" while his brother kissed, patted and sang to him did absolutely no good. But aside from a hacking cough, (followed by a sneeze and an "Oooo") you would not know he is sick. James is just the happiest baby on the block. He just beams when I catch his eye and has started to giggle. We play this little game while we bath Zach: He sits in the Bumbo and we look at Zach, then look at each other and smile - his followed by a mini giggle. It is nice to be someone's favorite I am not going to lie.

He also has noticed he has feet. He tries to reach them in the Bumbo, gets his chubby legs stuck and starts to cry. His has more hair now and it is pretty dark (contrary to how it looks in photos). I am thinking maybe he will have brown hair with auburn highlights. A girl can dream.

James is getting excited about Christmas (Shhh don't tell him he is getting clothes and some of Zach's hand me down toys) and starting school the first of January. He goes for some trial days next week, but who am I kidding; he will be fine, I need the trial run to remember how to get to work on time.

James at 4 months

James at 3 months

James at 2 months

James at 1 month

Like Zach

2011-12-01T09:00:00.001-06:00

On a recent Costco run I spotted some footed pajamas and luckily they had them in both my boys sizes. Zach had a pair of normal pajamas that had sports balls all over them and wanted to wear them until they started to cut of his circulation, so when I found some similar, though footed, I snatched them up. However, the print x2 is a bit much.

Zach loves to have James match him and James obviously does not care, he just likes to be close to Zach to do some solid staring at him.

Pinterest made me do it

2011-11-28T09:00:00.004-06:00

A few months back I saw Pinterest mentioned on a blog I read and because I am a total follower I rushed over to join. I was not really sure about it and was a bit of a slow starter. But once more of my friends joined and we are all linked together it. is. awesome. Basically it is a virtual pin board, so when you come across something on a website you want to remember to make/bake/wear/buy you just "pin it" to a board on your Pinterest page.

Once I started planning Zach's third birthday I really got the hang of it. I decided to use the theme "Little Man" so I needed samples of little man parties and all sorts of mustache themed suggestions. And I was not disappointed! I spotted an invite and party favor tags from Sarah at Create Studio and wanted to use them immediately. She mentioned in her post that she would share them and graciously did so. Did I mention that I do not know Sarah? That upon reading that she would share them I emailed her and she sent them right over like the awesome stranger she is? Because both of those are true. World wide web - what did I do without you? (Do NOT answer "talked to my husband"... because that is also true)

Here is the invite I designed ~~stole~~ based on her favor tags:

I am totally geeked out on planning all the things to go with the theme but also enjoy that I am hindered by the Children's Museum restriction on no hanging things on walls or ceilings. Let's face it, I need some boundaries.

Happy-ish Halloween

2011-11-22T10:27:00.002-06:00

Last Halloween post, I promise.

Pirate Zach loved trick or treating. Loved. It. But I did not love the meltdown before, followed by the timeout (because he literally could not hear a word I was saying with the lure of candy floating in his head) and the meltdown after because he wanted to go back out. Why do I forget that Halloween is terrible? That it is just too much? Too much excitement, too much build up, too many expectations (both parents and kids) and too much candy? It is exhausting.

But the fun part of the evening was when Zach and his friend Tyler were hitting the houses in our neighborhood. After the 2nd one they had it down. We, the ever doting parents, let them go up to the door by themselves. Yes, they are not even 3 years old, but we could not leave the cooler unmanned. To be fair, I was wearing the tired parrot and Jen was holding my beer. But the two little boys walking up to the doors was possibly one of the cutest things I have ever seen.

One tired parrot, up waaaay past his bedtime.

Zach and Alex sorting the loot.

Four Months

2011-11-16T09:00:00.000-06:00

James Mitchell is four months old and happy as can be! Well he is happy when I am holding him and his brother is not "patting" him. He weighs 14 lbs and is 25.5 inches long. That makes him in the 36% for weight and 74% for height. He caught wind of that 36% and has since been eating like I have been starving him. Every 3 hours.

James laughs and beams at us all the time but the main change from 3 to 4 months, is that he has found his hands and he loves to put them in his mouth. He also kicks and waves his arms around in his bouncer. Especially when he is getting tired. It is like he ramps up before he crashes. He is still not sleeping through the night, but I know that will come.

Actually, I secretly think I am never going to get a full night's sleep again. Two days ago James only got up at 11 then slept until 7...but his brother was up at 3 and 4. Such is the life of a mother to young children. This too shall pass (says my mom).

James at 3 months

James at 2 months

James at 1 month

Parading Pirate

2011-11-14T09:00:00.001-06:00

I went to Zach's Halloween parade again this year and he was an old pro at this whole parading gig. He walked with his friend Evelyn as Elmo, roared with Dragon Ben and danced away when I left. James stayed at home with his friend Maria so I could hang out with my big guy alone.

Failed Pumpkins

2011-11-09T09:00:00.001-06:00

I tried yet another crafty project with Zachary - making faces out of raisins on oatmeal raisin cookies. He is very into pumpkins right now so we called them pumpkins and he was excited. For about 3 pumpkins then he just wanted to eat the raisins. And similar to his bunnies, his look like Salvador Dali got a hold of the pumpkin face.

This one has eyes, a nose, a mouth and a neck.

Please note my "samples" at the bottom.

Zoo Boo times Two

2011-11-07T09:00:00.001-06:00

Just like last year we took Zach and now James, to the Houston Zoo for Zoo Boo. All the kids are dressed up and they get to pick a mini-pumpkin to decorate and trick or treat from tents around the park. This year we went the Friday before Halloween and it was packed. It was also the first cool day of the year so Zach the Pirate looked like Zach the Skeleton for much of the day (thank you Aunt Vickie!).

I made both the boys costumes which I like to do and I figure this will be the last year before they want to be superheros or football players. And let's be honest - I had a vision. A vision of Zach the Pirate and James the Parrot.

Zach mid "Arrrr"

The Houston Zoo has a new African exhibit with giraffes, ostrich and rhinos. You can also pay $5 and feed the giraffes. It was super cool even though Zach was a tad scared so Alex and Vince got to feed them. There is also a new large monkey exhibit. Each monkey had a blanket. No joke, the zoo keepers gave each monkey a blanket and they were all covered up in them. One even brought his over to the window, spread it out and sat on it. The gesture was entirely human. Fascinating.

Chubby

2011-11-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

Are you kidding me with those jowls? James is so chubby I cannot even tell you. I kiss those cheeks semi-constantly. He weighs almost 14 lbs and seems to be getting chubbier by the day and could eat all the other 3 month olds we see. Of note - he is just nursing except for one bottle before bedtime. So either my boobs are overfeeding him without telling me or we can be expecting a major lengthening out soon....fingers crossed.

Holiday Time!

2011-10-29T09:00:00.001-05:00

I was trying to take a picture of both boys in their Halloween shirts. Zach's has a ghost riding a skateboard, which he loves and James' says "My Auntie gives the best candy". Cute, cute, cute. However, the pictures are not....one tired baby and a talkative toddler do not good pictures make.

Zach decided to kiss James on the head, after smacking him on the head. Oh, brotherly love.

Too Soon

2011-10-27T20:57:00.000-05:00

A few weekend's back we traveled to Dallas for my niece's first birthday party. In between a potty-training toddler and a nursing infant it took us almost 6 hours. Each way. It was totally worth it though as the party was fun and Charlotte is just the most precious little girl ever! I won her over quickly by a)sounding just like her mom and b) taking her to see the balloons any time she wanted. I know how to win favorite Auntie status.

On Sunday we took family photos for my dad to put in the Denton Benefit League Tabloid. What do you mean you have never heard of that? I don't actually know what it is either, just that each year my dad buys ad space in it and it is THE paper insert that EVERYONE in Denton reads filled with photos of small business owners and their children/grandchildren. Ok well, I might have built that up a tad, but Lauren and I read it each year and see ~~judge~~ how our high school friends have changed. I am serious. My mother mails it to both of us.

I am currently trying to convince my dad to just use a picture of the kids or one of all of us because unfortunately I am giant after having James a few short months ago and I sort of blend in when it is 8 of us.

Tres Meses

2011-10-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

How is my baby 3 months old? I don't get it. Where has the time gone? Part of me feels like he has been here forever and part of me feels like he just arrived.

He is now 13 lbs and almost 24 inches long. He is a big boy. His eyes are holding blue and he hair is holding old man as well. We just adore him. He has started sleeping a bit more which has helped that adoration substantially.

It is like he arrived to fit perfectly into a space in my heart that I didn't know was there.

My Big Boy

2011-10-04T09:00:00.000-05:00

I feel the 2.5 year age is so good and so bad at the same time. I have been describing my time in the afternoons/evenings with both boys the same way. There are some truly sweet moments where I have to grab my big boy and hug him, or laugh at the things that are coming out of his mouth. Then there are the moments where I want to yell "Why do I have all these children??". And by "want to yell" I mean that I do. Well I don't yell, but I do say it under my breath. Or in my closet.

But in general I am so in love with the original little Wall right now. Zach is still talking up a storm and I need to start taping him or at least writing down the things he says. Usually he delivers them in a very serious manner. Like when I laughed at something he said, he giggled and told me "I am funny, Mommy." Or when I catch him imitating me (without realizing he is doing it) by telling James, "Your big brother is riiiiiiight here, James." And then shhushing him like we do when James is fired up. The other day he told his Ollie that she could put the extra pretzels in the pantry "...if you like".

Most of the things he does/says I know without a doubt are only funny to Alex and me (well and maybe to his grandparents). So it is these moments when Alex and I are laughing at/with him that I feel like a family. These are the little things that you look back on and talk about when they will say "When I was little" and Alex and I will say "Remember when Zach/James...". These are the moments that make up their childhoods. And of course I try to get all weepy about it (hormones I tell you) and ruin the moment.

Batting those eyelashes

2011-09-28T09:00:00.002-05:00

James has the curliest, longest eyelashes of all of us. I have no clue where he gets them. But they always make me smile when they flutter on me. I have started swaddling him and letting him cry a bit for his naps (which made an enormous difference right away), but as I lay him down and swaddle him he always smiles and bats his eyelashes at me. NO matter how tired he is - he is committed to fighting sleep as long as possible and that move always works.

Oh and PS his eyes are still blue. I think they just might stick. So far his eyes are the only thing that makes him look different from his brother. Otherwise they are twins. Right down to the profile.

Sidekick

2011-09-26T09:00:00.002-05:00

One of the many quandaries related to having two children is the issue of strollers. Do I need a double and if so, what kind? I covet a double BOB jog stroller (I have been known to say that is the reason for me having another baby) but do I really NEED it, especially since we don't leave the house in the 100+ degree heat that has finally broken? Should I just get another umbrella stroller and attach it to my current on?

Enter the Orbit Sidekick. I am borrowing my sister's Orbit G2 stroller, which I "suggested" she purchase and I just knew with as fancy as it is, it had to have some sort of toddler attachment or way to make it a double stroller. Sure enough they make a "Sidekick" which is basically a skateboard attached to the wheel of the stroller, complete with handle for the child to hold onto. Just the coolness of this alone made me buy it. And the irony that James is in fact Zach's sidekick is not lost on me as well.

Zach loves it. He thinks he is so big riding his skateboard and he gets just as much attention as James when we go places. He was uncertain at first as you can see from the video of our test run, but has embraced it now. My sister questioned if I had in fact done this myself, which she would not put past me to some how rig a skateboard to her stroller. I reassured her that no, it is an actual product and totally removable too.

Hook 'Em

2011-09-23T09:00:00.000-05:00

Here are our two littlest Longhorns ready for the first UT game of the season. Well the one that we could actually watch. Thanks to Aunt Vickie for the matching jerseys!

James has the lower lip out which means the second after I took this he started to scream. I did have to get the boys arranged properly which took a while...he will soon get used to it, I am sure.

Line of Sight

2011-09-19T22:00:00.000-05:00

James is getting more and more interested in looking around the rooms he is in and staring hard at his surroundings. Some of his favorite staring points are the sun on his play mat, the curtains in our room and now; himself.

Guess who figured out there was a mirror up there? Though he looks slightly unsure about what he is viewing...

2 Months

2011-09-14T12:29:00.000-05:00

Keeping with the trend of doing things before his big brother, James has gone ahead and chubbed up faster too. Check out those thighs and double chin! I would like all that chub to help him sleep more at night....

He has started to smile but it is hard to catch. He is super smiley first thing in the morning, sometimes working in a little giggle. He really is a happy, fun baby. He is very alert the one hour out of 3 that he is awake. He likes to sit in his papasan bouncer (that doesn't bounce anymore) and watch Zach eat dinner or chat with me while I check email. But he really prefers for you to hold him and talk to him - who doesn't? He has started to move his mouth like he wants to talk and make little cooing sounds. He still has blue eyes and crazy long eyelashes. It looks like he is using Latisse.

We love him to pieces, I can't stop kissing and squeezing him. Even big brother Zachary who, when I told him to get off his brother as he was squishing him told me, "Mommy I am a blanket and James is cold." What can I say to that?

Obviously I said, "get off your brother", but metaphorically speaking it was sweet.

Favorites

2011-09-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

One of the fun things about James wearing all of Zach's hand-me-downs is that I get to see them again and I do have my favorites. There are also a fair amount of ones that I don't know why I did not give away the first time....sleep deprivation, I blame so much on you.

My favorite onesie in this 3-6 month size (because that is where my 2 month old is now), is this alligator one from the Wall's friends the Pelikans. I did wonder at the time why they didn't send one with a Pelican on it...but perhaps that would have been too obvious. Anyway, Zach picked it out this morning for James to wear and it looks just as good as it did two years ago.

Round 1

Round 2

Splash Day

2011-09-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

Back when I was giant and pregnant at the end of June, I was also out of my mind as I volunteered to be the parent helper at Zach's school's Splash Day. Splash Day is basically just a day where they wear their swim suits and run through slip n slides and blow up pools. I wanted to do it as I was already on leave and obviously don't get to do these things when I work.

But oh was it hot. Not as sweltering as now...but still plenty hot. And having James kicking in my belly and heating me up was not helping. But Zach was thrilled I was there - and truthfully I was too! I just had to go home and elevate and rest for the rest of the day. It was at 10:15 in the morning.

This is Zach's girlfriend Abby. Obviously he likes her as

she was the only girl in a two piece.

Since I am too lazy to have a towel with Zach's name on it,

he uses one from when I was little with my name on it.

Last picture of me before James was born.

I am just going to pretend I looked better in real life.

Feel free to do the same.

What did Norman do?

2011-08-31T09:00:00.000-05:00

When Zach is in trouble for hitting or screaming or whatnot, he goes to his "spot", which is basically time-out, we just started calling it his spot as he sits on a hot pink mat. And usually screams. I got the mat for our laundry room to match the hot pink stencils on the wall (I will give you a minute for that to sink in), but somehow it worked its way out of the laundry room and into the breakfast room.

Where Norman likes to sleep on it. When Zach sees him he always exclaims "Norman is on my spot! Did Norman hit you Mommy?" then to Norman "We will set the timer and come back to get you."

Poor Norman, just resting and Zach has him in time-out.

Small Adjustment

2011-08-29T16:09:00.000-05:00

While adjusting to having a new baby in the house is not, in any way a small adjustment, one thing is: being called Mommy. With Zach, people would say "There's your Mommy!" and I would look around for the true person who would come take care of him. Perhaps someone who was not drinking on the job. With James though, I took to it right away. Most likely because the person who calls me Mommy does so about 130 times a day. I have been worn down. "Yes, yes I AM your Mommy and I am RIGHT HERE."

Look alike

2011-08-22T09:00:00.000-05:00

So in addition to not making girls, Alex and I apparently make one kind of boy baby. They have very round (with a hit of the oval to come) shaped heads, big eyes that start off blue, tiny chins and chubby cheeks.

When James was born Alex (and my doctor) commented how much he and Zach looked alike as newborns. I, being the all knowing mother, completely disputed this fact as this was James! He is his own person, how could he be anything but? Then the drugs wore off and I saw what they see.

Mini-Walls. Both of them.

See if you can tell them apart:

Baby A Baby B

Perhaps a profile would be clearer?

Baby A

Baby B

Let's see a full body view:

Baby A

Baby B

If you guessed that Baby A was Zachary and Baby B was James then you are right! While they are not identical they really do bear a striking resemblance to each other that even I admit now. And since I thought Zach was the cutest thing in the world, that is lucky as I feel the same way about James.

What's in a name?

2011-08-20T10:32:00.000-05:00

Many people were surprised when James was born that he was named James. Why? Two reason really. 1. we could never agree on a boy name which is very unlike us, and 2. the boy name we came closest to agreeing on was not James Mitchell but Tate Joseph.

About two days before the birth Alex decided he was really not set on Tate. He tried to bring up some of his old standbys such as Terrance, Lionel and James Joseph. I said we should just wait until the baby was born, maybe it would be a girl and this all would have been pointless (I should have heard God laughing at that), but Alex was determined to go to the hospital with a name for both genders.

Finally around 7pm the night before he was born, I said I was pulling the uterus card - I had carried this baby for 10 months (very uncomfortably) and I will then be the sole source of sustenance for said baby for months and therefore was only accepting the following name options, listed in no particular order:
Tate Joseph Wall
James Mitchell Wall
Anderson Joseph Wall

I didn't care which one, I liked them all but NO OTHER NAMES WOULD BE CONSIDERED. He took about a 30 minute bike ride and came back with James Mitchell Wall. Alex picked up on what Lauren and I did not, with that name each boy would share a middle name with one parent. Alex and Zach share the middle name John, and James and I share the middle name Mitchell (which is my maiden name really but I was not about to contradict him since we finally had a name). And here he is.

I think he could look sort of like a Tate, but technically he looks like every other 6 week old so we could call him Manuel, Michael or Xavier. But he is our sweet baby James for now and always.

While you are awake

2011-08-06T17:44:00.001-05:00

My how time flies when you are not sleeping! Or sleeping in 1.5 or 2.5 hour spurts like my sweet James. I can't believe he is a month old now!

He weighs 9 lbs and is at least 22 inches long. Huge I tell you. The preemie diapers (up to 6 lbs) are like low rise undies on him. He is an eater for sure. And he loves nothing more than being held. Just today he was screaming in the car when Alex, he and Zach went to get a car wash. The second I picked him up he melted and fell asleep on me. In the driveway. In the 100+ heat. If you are holding him (and he is not hungry) he is completely happy.

Alex got his first real taste of having a newborn last night. Yes, this is our second child, but remember, Alex was not home in the evenings really at all with Zach. Anyway, last night I went out to dinner with some friends and he had the boys - with some help from Uncle Chris. When I arrived home around 10 he told me that he had eaten every hour and refused to be put down. I was shocked...oh wait, I was not the least bit surprised having walked another Wall baby around the floor about 2.5 years ago. However this one has way more of a need to be held than his older brother. I did get the cuddler I wanted...be careful what you wish for.

And that is the end of this post due to someone crying to be held. Again.

Love for now

2011-07-26T09:00:00.000-05:00

Here are the three stages of Zach's interest in James:
Stage One: I LOVE my brother, what is he doing? "Why is he doing that? Look at his tiny feet! These are his tiny ears Mommy!"

Stage Two: Can I squeeze his head? Can I poke his eyes? What if I pat him just a little too hard....people will just think I am being sooo sweet. Until they get a look at the mischief in my eyes.

Stage Three: And he is done. Something else has caught his eye and he is off. Luckily my sister was there to catch James as he rolled him off his lap.

Baby Brother

2011-07-20T09:00:00.000-05:00

I am trying really hard to not include Zach in every single post about James. I finding it very hard in real life and in my blog life. We want to compare James to Zach at every turn. Does he look like Zach? Does he eat like Zach? I don't remember Zach doing that? etc.

As someone told me before I had James - you are going to have another little person, not another Zach. But how do you keep them separate, especially before James has his own personality that is shown? I am working on it...

But since we are speaking of Zach, I will continue. He is doing pretty well adjusting to his little brother. He runs to see him each morning and each day after school. We completely do NOT trust him in the slightest, but so far he has not shown any real aggression towards James. Speaking as someone who tried on multiple occasions to suffocate her sister - I am sure this is just the calm before the storm.

But for now he likes to be close to James and to have James participate in things with him. Such as when he decided to crawl underneath James' bed and "work" on his bassinet. James slept through the loud, loud drilling on the bottom of his bed. One of the reasons I like this bed (Thank you Mimi!) is that it is too tall for Zach to reach inside. Well, unless Zach gets his stool, which of course I did not think of until he did.

Working, working, drilling, hammering

Precious baby did not even stir. This will be his life for good and for bad.

He will not know a time when someone was not trying to "fix" his bed

or his pacifier or his blanket.

The newest Little Wall

2011-07-17T20:56:00.000-05:00

James Mitchell Wall joined our family at 6:59am on Thursday, July 7th. He was 7lbs 5 oz and 20 inches long. He is just the most precious baby and we are loving getting to know him. Here is what we know so far:
1. He poops a lot. And I mean a lot.
2. He looks just like his brother did at his age.
3. He has blue eyes that are not super dark so I am keeping my fingers crossed they stay blue.
4. He has excellent hearing and jumps at loud sounds. I am certain in our house he will get over this quickly.
5. He is perfect and adorable and completely kissable.

We have been home a week and so far so good! He is sleeping about as much as can be expected and eating like a champ. We feel so blessed and lucky to have him here safe and sound.

Happened?

2011-07-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

Zach walked into the kitchen, where I was making his breakfast, and said "I ready for school, Mommy!". And he looked like this:

No shirt, khaki shorts and that hair. What the world happened in his bed last night??? It took three swipes with a wet comb to get it down.

And I specifically heard his father negotiating with him that Zach did not have to wear a shirt to eat breakfast but going to school shirtless was not an option. Apparently Zach choose to not hear that last part.

Pop Pop Game

2011-06-30T09:00:00.001-05:00

On one of the blogs I read, linked to this game, which Zach calls the Pop Pop Game. The game is really for older kids, as they are supposed to draw cards or roll dice and then jump on the appropriate letter/number/shape. I made it work for a 2 year old by making cards with a picture of the shape in the color it was on the floor and the numbers 1-5. Using an old piece of bubble wrap I had laying around I glued the pieces to it, cut them out and let him go. He now plays the game on his own, which mainly means he jumps on the pieces saying "Square!", etc.

I think I will make him another set in a few months with more numbers and letters. He is pretty good with numbers but he only knows the letter Z. Which I take FULL credit for since I cut his bread pieces into the letter Z. And I need to know that I have taught him more than saying "Come on people!" in the car and "Are you serious?" to random people in the grocery store.

Cousins

2011-06-28T09:00:00.000-05:00

My sister and Baby Charlotte flew in to spend the weekend with us and it was a good test run of having 2 children. And by good I mean terrifying. Baby Charlotte is 7 and 1/2 months old and cute as a button! Zach was fascinated with her and kept rolling around like she does, trying to kiss her and sharing his toys then grabbing them from her.

It also turned out to be a good thing that Chuck wears a helmet as he binged her a few times with books on accident. She was not the least bit disturbed.

This picture is an excellent portrayal of what our weekend was like.
Everyone is talking and moving and there is a dog running sprints around us
the entire time.

Zoo - 2nd try

2011-06-23T09:00:00.000-05:00

At the end of our last zoo incident I promised Zach we would go back to the zoo ASAP to see the seals. And I called on my friend Beth and Zach's friend Sophie to join us. Who would NOT want to go to the zoo at 4pm in June? Luckily Beth is my type of gal, always looking for something to do with our kiddos in the afternoon, so she sweetly packed up Sophie and her baby sister Lily and off we went to the zoo.

Turns out there are not many (aka zero) animals out at 4pm in June. Strange I know. But the kids got to see the seals and elephants who don't care that it is 95 degrees out and we walked around and pretended we could see the other animals. Alex joined us around 5 and the three of them played tag (or something) and splashed in the fountain. Luckily this time he did not let Zach get in the fountain, which is very surprising I know.

About this time I was yelling for Zach to stop drinking the water,

I had a perfectly good cup of water RIGHT HERE!

It's for the baby

2011-06-21T09:00:00.000-05:00

Whenever Zach comes across anything too small for him or anything he perceives as a baby toy, he says "I give this to the baby." The other day I was stuffing his big head into a shirt that might have been a tad bit too small in the neck and Zach started yelling "Its for the baby! Its for the baby!" while stuck inside. I had to stop laughing long enough to force that head on through and tell him that after today, the shirt would be for the baby.

Honeybees say Buzzzz

2011-06-20T09:41:00.000-05:00

The first day of June is annual "move up" day at Zach's school, meaning he goes from being a Bluebonnet (18mos to 2 years) to a Honeybee (2-3 years). There was significantly less change with this move versus last year when he went from sleeping in a crib to sleeping on a mat and sat at a table to eat his lunch rather than in his own chair. He took to this his new room placement pretty well. He was a bear that entire week for me....but his teachers said he was delightful and very polite.

Last week he said to me in the car, "Mommy, Honeybees say buzz!". I asked if they did that when they walked around the school and he said only when they go outside. He does still call it "Miss Renee's class" but he does seem to know that is where he belongs.

Just for my fun, here are all the pics of Zach on his first day of school.

2011

2010

2009 - I die. Where is this sweet, chubby boy??

Countdown is On

2011-06-14T09:00:00.001-05:00

Today is my last days of work and we only have 3 more weeks until Baby Wall arrives!

Alex and I went to the doc on Monday for our final ultrasound and the baby looks huge. It is not, but considering the last time we saw him/her on the monitor his/her tiny body filled the screen. Now it just the head. Taking up the entire space. I am highly thankful I am having another C-section.

Per the measurements taken by the ultrasound tech, the baby is measuring a good week/two weeks ahead. I can confirm this by my excessive girth. With that info in hand, we decided to schedule the birth for July 7th. And by 'we' I mean Alex and I. Actually really just Alex. He had it all worked out - the 7th is far enough from the 4th to not have to share the holiday but I don't want to be in the hospital over the weekend if at all possible and the 7th is a Thursday so I will be home by Sunday.

When my doc came in to see us I told her that we had a date and were ready to schedule the surgery. Here is how the conversation went:
Me: "Hi Dr. Faro! So I need to go ahead and schedule my C-section and we have a date picked out."
Alex: "Kinsey! Isn't the doctor supposed to tell us when we will schedule the due date?"
Dr. Faro (as she leans around me to look at Alex): "Usually. But with your wife, no."
Back to me she says: "So tell me when you want to have this baby?"
I love her.

Baby Wall was not cooperating with a profile or 3D picture but we did get this super cute (though fuzzy) image of him/her grabbing its foot. Being the carrier, I do not appreciate this type of movement as this baby moves all.the.time and big movements, like the one below. Reassuring, yes. Comfortable, no.

My Papa

2011-06-09T09:00:00.001-05:00

A few weeks back my Papa was in town visiting his other multitude of grandchildren and great-grandchildren who live in Houston and my sweet Aunt Vickie brought him on by to see us. He was formerly known as Big Papa since my dad is Papa Wayne and Zach couldn't say it all. Now they are both just Papa. And everyone seems fine with that.

Zach is wearing the Easter shirt his Granny Marsh made for him and the bunny ears he made at school. The only way we could get him to smile and stop stone-facing the camera was to say "cheese pizza!" which you can totally tell he is at the end of saying in this photo.

A Glimpse into my Future

2011-06-07T09:00:00.001-05:00

Have you seen this child? Becuase he looks about 8 and I want to know what he has done with my 2 year old....

Of course I don't think that 8 year olds get great joy out of sitting in a big box breaking up the sytrofoam. With accompanying rules about how he is to only break the styrofoam (and thereby leak toxic chemicals) INSIDE the box. I might freak out if there are little bits of styrofoam around my house. The trucks, balls, sunglasses I can take for now - unrecyclable materials, absolutely not.

We are still new at this

2011-06-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

This past Sunday, Alex, Zach and I headed over to the train station at the zoo for Dinosaur Train day. We were all looking for something to do and when I mentioned I had spotted the event on my new go-to-Houston kids blog Alex almost shoved me into the bathroom to put in my contacts and get ready.

There were about 50,000 people there but we did not care. Zach got to dig for a mini-dino, which meant that he touched it with the tip of his finger, I scraped off the sand and Alex picked up the dino and shook out the sand before our precious would dain to touch it. Zach also got to get stamps on his hand and to color a dino fan. We were done with the Dinosaur Train day in 10 minutes. That is how we roll. We were not rushing him at all, that is just how fast our child is done with activities. And we refused to wait in the line for face painting.

Alex told Zach we would then walk to where we could get in the water. I looked eskance and we had this convo:
Me: "There is a wading pool here?"
Him: "Yes, on the steps of the reflecting pool"
Me: "Ummmmm I am pretty sure that is not for wading." (I am such a buzz-kill)
Him: "Sure it is, I did it last time. There were a bunch of people doing it."

So off we hiked to the steps of the reflecting pool. About halfway down we realized we are idiots and did not bring the stroller. It is back at the train station and Zach is on Alex's shoulders. How have we not learned in 2+ years of parenting?? We get to the steps and Alex and Zach get in and walk back and forth, stomping and splashing, throwing mini-dino and having a grand time. I walk over to offer juice and this convo happens:

Me: "You are really not supposed to be in here." (again, total buzz-kill)
Him: "Why? There are no signs."
Me - as I point to a sign: "That sign says no wading or swimming and I would like to note that there are only dads in here."
Him: "Would it help to point out that we were the first in here and no one was in until we got in?"
Me: "Negative. I will be sitting over here in the shade pretending not to know you when the park police arrive."

Then, of course, the inevitable happens. Zach falls down on the slippery rocks and is hysterical. And wet. So we start to make the loooooong walk back. A tired and hungry 2 year old, an 8 months pregnant woman and a man with a bad back. Just for reference, here is a map of our issue:

Alex carries him on his shoulders for a while but that is killing his back and technically, TECHNICALLY, Zachary can walk so we put him down. Again, total and complete hysterics. He cannot calm down. We try stopping and hugging, we try leaving him and running. Nothing is working. Finally when we make it back to the big pond I am at my wits end and leave my family to go get the stroller and come back. The second he is in the stroller he is fine. Stops crying, drinks his juice and just looks beat.

We decide to head to the car as it is noon and he needs to eat. What we forgot is that we told him he could see the seals. Again, we should totally know bettter. As we get to the car he says "Seals, Mommy? I see the seals?" I explain that all his crying took so long that we have to go home at eat lunch, we can't see the seals.

We are about 5 minutes from home and he says "I calm, Mommy. I ready to see the seals. I no cry anymore." I wanted. to. die. If it had just been me I would have turned that car around, parked illegally and ran my baby into the zoo to see the seals. It still breaks my heart thinking about it. But calmer heads (aka Alex) prevailed and we proceeded home.

But I did tell Zach that I would take him the next day after work. That is the best thing about working part time - if you screw up on Sunday you can make it up on Monday! And that morning he told me, "Mommy, I no cry at the zoo." And Mommy will not forget your stroller, my sweet boy.

Mothers Day

2011-05-31T09:00:00.001-05:00

My Mother's Day weekend was very nice and relaxing. Alex really came through for me this year via my gift and time spent. All I requested was a card and some "quality family time" on Saturday without really specifying what that meant. That usually means disaster in our house. But no, he got up with Zach (to go get my card and gift), I went to yoga and then met them up at the Mad Potter to paint pottery. Alex thought us "doing arts and crafts" together would be good "quality family time" for me. I loved it!

Sunday we went to Ouise's table (where we have been for the past 3 mother's days) with Liv, Vince, Dave and Tami. Oh and a weird concrete dog that the hostess put in a chair next to Zach. Apparently he really liked it when it was by the front door so she brought it to sit with us. It was super weird. But Zachary loved it.

Head Cracking

2011-05-28T09:00:00.002-05:00

Easter morning before our own hunt we went to our friend's Scott, Jen and Tyler's house so Tyler and Zach could hunt "together". The hunt was pretty standard: both boys going different directions, stepping on and over eggs, various fits about wanting to open the eggs THIS SECOND, etc. But at the end sweet Grandpa Bruce let the boys crack confetti eggs on his head. For a very long time. I obviously found it hi-larious and had to shriek like a hyena in response. Many, many apologies for that.

Teacher Gifts

2011-05-26T09:00:00.001-05:00

I can't believe the school year is almost over. It seems to have snuck up on me again this year. I guess becuase since he is in year round school I don't really think about having a hard "end". But starting in 2 weeks he moves up into his next room.

And that means that I needed teacher gifts for his current teachers. I found a link (that I had saved for a year) for a customized soap pump and loved it.

I knew I had to make these for his teachers and decided that my friend Sonia needed them as well. I found a way to transfer the PDF file to a word doc and added silhouettes that looked like our kiddos.

They turned out so perfectly!! Alex's initial response did not really convey the enthusiasm I needed...so he had to try about 3 more times to sound excited about soap. But once I told him they cost $2 each he got much, much more excited.

Older and Wiser

2011-05-24T09:00:00.003-05:00

Similar to last year, Zachary had a bunch of practice egg hunting to get him ready for the big day. I am pretty sure he was not convinced that the other 4 times he hunted eggs were any better than the finale.

Of course Easter morning did come with gifts of candy, a trip to Church (with "everyone AND Jesus", he kept saying) and a lawn mower that blows bubbles. I am not sure why he looks highly put-out in these pictures, it could have just been one of his off days. You know how mini-dictators are.

The Walls (plus Great-Grandma Rowena) were there for all the fun and thank heavens. I was highly uncomfortable so Liv ushered me off for a nap as soon as lunch was done. Then she and Rowena did all our laundry while Vince and Alex entertained Zach. I might have started crying when I woke up...it was glorious!

And then an angel

2011-05-19T09:00:00.000-05:00

Literally the day after I hit "publish" on this post my child decided he was no longer mini-Stalin but in fact an angel. He did not fight me on anything the entire afternoon. We went to the park, he played and ran and smiled. He came inside when I said so, laughed and chatted while he ate all his dinner and practically skipped to the bath. We held hands through dinner and he petted Norman and asked if Norman could play baseball with him. I was just so thankful for this turn of events, I might have held my breath all night.

It is highly possible though that he just wanted to make me look like an ass for my mean blog post.

Either way I don't care. I AM an ass for detailing his faults, but that is how I deal and don't explode. If didn't love him so much and try to be an excellent mom, I would not feel guilty that I cannot enjoy him when he is joining me in the bathroom to instruct me on what exactly I am to do. Oh and to invite the dog in as well.
But I digress...this sweet streak went on for 2 days and it was HEAVEN. I got to enjoy my child and his sweet words, songs and self. Here he is doing one of my favorite things. Even when he is mini-dictator he always takes his breathing medicine like a champ. And while singing the ABCs.

2 Months to Go

2011-05-17T09:00:00.008-05:00

Yet again there has been a lag in my blogging due to this pregnancy. Luckily, nothing serious at all, just seriously annoying. This baby seems big to me and is sitting on things like blood vessells and pelvises that make me highly uncomfortable. You know who else is sitting on things that make me uncomfortable? Zachary.

He is still not on board with the whole I really can't hold him thing. He throws a fit about it every other day at daycare (Hold you Mommy! Hold you!) but I am standing my ground. Well most of the time.

Anyway, I am 8 months pregnant now which means Baby Wall is about 4 lbs (allegedly. I swear they really can't tell) and 16 inches long. Apparently we are "headed into a growth spurt". Terrifying. I don't need any more growth. I have already grown to the weight I was when I stopped looking at the scale while pregnant with Zachary.

Baby Wall is also very, very active. Much more active than I remember his/her brother being. Baby likes to be busy at 5am and 11pm, but also all the random times. If you push down on the top of my belly the kicks start immediately. He/she does not appreciate people getting into his/her space. Zachary did this same thing which I love.

Nothing beats a slide

2011-05-15T17:22:00.002-05:00

While Alex and I took a quick vacation to Florida before baby #2 arrives, Zach stayed with the Walls and had some serious fun. He really wanted to go swimming in the big pool, but it was still a little bit cold so he settled for this mini-pool. I am surprised he has not requested the same with our slide.

You will like crafts

2011-04-26T09:00:00.002-05:00

Since it is Easter this week, I Googled all sorts of Easter crafts that Zach and I can make! Who is excited? ME! Last week we made some bunny flags for our Easter decorations. I read about here and that mom described the activity as mainly for the mom and just a little bit for the kid. Just my type of crafts.

So I drew triangles on paper and Zach and I set about painting them. That kid loves to paint. He really loves for YOU to paint a letter Z for Zachary as well.

Once they were dry I cut them out as well as the head and ears for the bunnies. I happened to have some batting laying around waiting to become bunny heads and ears. I had some googly eyes as well to make our bunnies come to life. Then Zach glued some in place on the flags. He only wanted to do about 3 then he was "all done" with this activity. I will let you guess which one he did...

I like to call his the Salvador Dali bunnies. I strung them together and they look pretty cute on our mantel. And it makes me smile when I look at it.

He asked me the day after we finished if we were going to make more bunnies. No sir, not until you are a wee bit older buddy.

But egg shaped sidewalk chalk and hand printed chicks? YES. I have already purchased the plaster of paris and tempura paint.

Picking Time

2011-04-21T15:18:00.001-05:00

No, this is not a post about how Zach has learned to pick his nose....though that is true and gross. This post is about how I ~~forced Alex into the car~~ suggested that we drive to Alvin to pick strawberries on a gorgeous Saturday. I may or may not have had a mini-pregnancy breakdown that morning about how Alex did not help me off the couch and instead made Zach do it (which was very funny at the time). I can neither confirm nor deny that might have contributed to Alex being willing to go anywhere so I would not cry again. Because I am a hormonal basket case.

Either way, we loaded up that morning and drove about 30 minutes into Alvin to Frobergs Farms. The farm sits on about 2 acres of strawberries fields and while they have other fruit and veggies available to purchase, most everyone was there for the strawberries. You buy a bucket for $1 and then fill up the bucket. We filled ours for $7 which was a little over 3 lbs. Zach (and Alex) had a good time finding just the right ones. There are signs about not picking the green ones but as Alex said, our bucket was filled with a span of not ripe, perfectly ripe and overly ripe thanks to the picking choices of a 2 year old.

We ate as many strawberries as we could then I made them into a crumble cake for Easter. Now every time Zach eats a strawberry he says "I picked it!". I just let him believe it.

Despite the highly skeptical look he is giving me,

I promise he stuck his head through all on his own.

Busy Little Boy

2011-04-12T09:00:00.001-05:00

What a busy weekend we had last weekend! And what zero pictures I took of it all. Luckily others captured my child while taking pics of their own. Saturday Zach and Alex met their friends Scott and Tyler at a "members only" event at the zoo at 8am. (Thanks to my parents we are members) Alex actually set the alarm to get up which NEVER happens on the weekends. We like that baby to sleep as long as possible.

They were gone for 2 hours. Apparently they hit McDonalds for pancakes first then the zoo. Tyler arrived with his red wagon which Zach quickly decided he wanted to ride in as well, leaving Scott to pull both boys while Alex pushed an empty stroller. Naturally. Mini-Scott and Mini-Alex pictured thanks to Scott.

After Zach ~~napped~~ played in his bed for an hour he and I went to Caroline Hull's first birthday party - complete with bounce house. That little boy was soooo sweaty. Besides the birthday girl he was the littlest person there. Luckily there were super sweet big girls in the bounce house so they didn't get too out of control with a little boy flopping about inside. Here he is "helping" the birthday girl play in her water table. He and her cousin were filling the tub with ice water. Sweet baby girl was just laughing and splashing.

Sunday we drove to Magnolia to visit my freshman year roommate Jessie and her family, which includes this rolly-polly delight, Olivia.

The entire way out there Zach said "I go Wivia's house". He was super sweet with her and she was very sweet to share her toys with him. I was so excited to see Olivia after stalking her on Facebook. It was surreal hang out with Jessie and to see our babies playing together. The last time we really hung out we were 19 and motherhood was the furthest thing from our minds!

He is still talking about Wivia, how he drove her car, how he took off his shoes, but not how he sneezed, twice, on her blocks. Still sorry about that Jessie...

A Madman

2011-04-07T10:22:00.000-05:00

I really feel like living with a 2 year old is like living under the oppressive regime of a dictator *. When they come into power everyone is so excited! Change is good! They are so happy and fun and when you hear them talk you feel like you could listen for hours. Then the tide turns....you have done something to anger the dictator and instead of acting rationally, he starts screaming, throws himself on the floor and all hell breaks loose. Plus he wanst to talk all the time. No matter if you are talking or if you don't want to hear him. Talking to your spouse could highly anger the dictator. But once you bow to his demands you are immediately back in his good graces, all seems to be forgotten and you just hold your breath and pray that you can keep him happy.

*Note: This blog post could be very offensive to anyone who has lived under the regime of a dictator. Or to my child once he can read. But as I have said before, he can talk to me when he is the parent of a two year old and if I am wrong... well, seriously people, I am not wrong.

So this is just a one hour snipit of my life with mini-Stalin:
4:45 Pick up Zach from school. He is thrilled to see me! Runs towards me and hops on into the car. We chat about his day, he has pulled hair (again). We talk about it, we sing, the world is golden.
5:00 We hit the pet store to get food for Norman. He is darling, wanting to look at the birds and fish, sits super nicely in the cart and beams at the people around him. Doesn't really want to leave, but agrees that Norman is hungry and we need to take him his food.
5:25 Someone has parked too close to me so I have to put him in the car from the other side and have him climb into his seat. This is initially met with glee and joy, laughing and chatting with me as I load up the dog food.
5:26 The joy is gone and he is furious that I am serious about him having to sit in his seat. I squeeze between the idiot car next to me (with my 6 months preggers belly) telling him to either get in the seat or I will put him in the seat, because I am my mother. Finally he gets in and we are off
5:30 I have to break the news that we don't have time to go to the park. We have to get home so he can eat by 6 and save us another meltdown. Cries of "Park, I go park! No home, Mommy, no home!" happen all the way home until I appease him with some applesauce. But he is still not fully happy with me.
5:45 We get home and he is happy once again, to play "tennis" with my tennis racket and tennis ball by hitting it along the ground.
5:46 Breaks down into hysterics that I cannot do the same with the plastic bowling pin he has given me for my racket since I also need to sit down.
5:50 Calms down enough when I get the tennis ball out from under the couch for him with his "help"
5:55 Throws down both the racket and ball saying "I ready" in response to my "Are you ready for dinner now?" question but immediately starts crying when he sees that his spaghetti is made with penne pasta not angel hair.

I will not bore you will the next hour when he didn't want to take a bath, then did not want to get OUT of the bath; he didn't want to put on his diaper, didn't like the pajamas I picked but was then very pleased to read on the "big bed".

The only saving grace in our lives under this regime is the sweetness of putting him to bed. He and I rock and whisper to each other about our day. What we liked, what we are going to work on for tomorrow (usually hair pulling and napping). His little head is resting on my shoulder and he just gazes at me with those big, big eyes and I forget that I wanted to run away screaming.

Then when I put him in bed we discuss what he is having for breakfast the next morning. It is always "I have waffles, milk, water AND juice. AND JUICE MOMMY!"

He never has juice. But every night I tell him that he will. Maybe this is why the dictator cuts me no slack...

Pudding

2011-03-31T09:00:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we met Ben and his awesome mom Laura at our new favorite park behind River Oaks Elementary and Laura brought snacks for the kids and for us (thereby making her awesome). She offered Zach some pudding and I realized I had never given him pudding before. I think they eat it at school since I spotted a case of it the other day, but I have not shared any of my coveted chocolate pudding with him. I eat a ton in my pregnancy state.

Laura was telling me that pudding is the perfect thing to make with a 2 year old. All that is required is to open the package, pour in milk, stir and wait 5 minutes for delicious pudding. So the other day we tried it and she was totally right! He could do everything required and loooooved "helping Mommy".

What he did not love? The actual pudding. And I have to say I prefer the pre-packaged myself. I feel that does not say good things for my desire for artificial taste... Zachary would just prefer cheese and/or cheez-its, naturally.

But we will make it again, perhaps trying different flavors. Pistacho or strawberry could be delicious, no? It was the first thing that he has really enjoyed making and that I enjoyed making with him. Plus none of it ended up on the floor. Usually at the end of "helping Mommy" Mommy is very stressed by the flour/sugar/cheese all over the floor that someone wants to "help" sweep up too.

Luckily it was just leaves

2011-03-29T09:00:00.000-05:00

This time. We were sitting outside (well I was sitting, Zach was running around) and I was trying to get some pictures of him in the natural light. And this is what happened:

Clutching leaves, refusing to smile

Smiling now but headed for me...

And tossing all the leaves on my head.

I am saying Noooo Zachary the entire time. I was totally disregarded.

I mean look at this face, so sweet, so innocent....until you notice that arm is cocked all the way back and he is staring you down. While he is not the best shot I still would recommend moving unless you want some dirty leaves on your person.

Nothing but Love

2011-03-28T09:00:00.002-05:00

I would just like to submit the below email into evidence of Zachs;s grandparents unfaltering love for him. A few weekends back the Walls kept Zach to help me restore some sanity and it turned into the 2^nd time that Zach got sick at their house. The first time it was a stomach virus. “It’s a mess!” Zach told his Ollie when she came to get him in the morning. Yes, yes it was.

Here is the email from Liv:

Last night, he was up at 11:30, 2 AM and 6 AM and then slept until 8:45. He was fine all day- played at the playground, etc., never was hot- no temp. He did pull on one ear but I cannot remember which one and it was only periodically. Today, he went down for a nap about 1 PM and was still singing and talking at 2:20. Soon after he fell asleep.

It was great to have him!

Does any of that sound great to you? Having a toddler come stay for 2 nights then get up at 11:30, 2 and 6? What is not included is that Vince went to Wal-Mart two of those times getting humidifiers. The first one did not work, which Zach so sweetly pointed out from his crib. “It not working Grandpa Ince. Fix it.” Nothing like my baby to help state the obvious.

Here is a video of Zach not being sick but being very, very bossy.

Don't turn your back

2011-03-24T09:00:00.000-05:00

I was cooking or cleaning or something while Zach was eating his cereal and turned around to see him using the spoon rest as an actual spoon. It was fully submerged in his cereal and he was eating off of it. I guess it technically IS a spoon.

St. Paddy's Playdate

2011-03-22T09:00:00.001-05:00

Last week my friend Beth hosted our weekly play date and suggested we make it St. Patrick's day themed. Everyone showed up with some green on, Beth made green shamrock cookies, another mom brought lollipops and I made paper favors sewed closed with Cheez-Its inside. Ummmm one of these things is not like the other....

I got out of control. Again. When I saw these on one of my fav blogs, Prudent Baby, I thought - who would make those? So time consuming, so unnecessary. That is, until I got Beth's email and I decided I could totally do this between work and the playdate. I had to manipulate the image from PB (which I did at work), add the names of the kiddos plus make some blank ones and then printed and sewed them at home with "help" from Zachary. I had to literally fight him for the Cheez-Its.

We loaded them into a huge leprechaun hat that my sweet Aunt Vickie sent Zach (don't worry I sewed up the back to make it fit the 2 year olds) The kids were a little bit small for the bags, we moms had to open them for them, but they were super cute. And the toddlers running around with the hats on were especially funny. Beth popped it on her 2 month old and we found it hy-sterical. Needless to say, we most likely need to get out more.

There is SOME good

2011-03-17T20:52:00.000-05:00

Looking back over my ~~rants~~ posts as of late I can see the frustration that is life with a 2 year old. I feel I should also mention the good because there is really a whole lot of good. And funny. Though I do have to say, when my sister and I were little and we would call for my dad (in a very non-annoying high pitched squeal of Daddy! Daddy!) he would more often than not reply "He ran away screaming". I thought, oh ha ha, my Daddy is sooooo funny. Little did I know until having a toddler of my own how realistic that threat feels.

But that is not the point of this post - on to the positive! Here are some things that Zach is also doing this second that make me grab those cheeks and kiss them.

1. He runs to me when I get him from daycare. He still smiles with joy upon seeing me and runs (very mall-walker like) full speed toward me. This really is my favorite because no matter what type of day I have had or the type of evening we will have together, he is still my baby for just those few minutes.

2. He does not want Alex and I talking to each other in the car. On the way out to the Walls this past weekend I was having a conversation with my husband, and from the backseat comes the yell, "No Mommy! No talking to Daddy! Talk to me!". Both Alex and I could not stop laughing. And he was serious. Anytime I directed any comments to Alex, Zach would yell again "No talking to Daddy! Talk to me!". Those full sentences. Not just the word "No", but full "No talking to Daddy!"

3. He can usually be calmed down by singing, usually. He knows the motions for Wheels on the Bus, sways to Row, Row, Row your Boat, sing/yells Jesus Loves Me and 5 Little Ducks and now sings Mary had a Little Lamb. Though it took me a while to figure out what the last one was. 'Mary' does not sound, coming out of Zach's mouth, like it should...more like Aaaarrryyy. Puzzling.

4. Randomly he will say "MY Mommy". Seriously he just says it whenever he pleases. Sometimes we are talking, sometimes we are driving, sometimes he just says it then continues on with whatever else he was talking about. And it is loud and much emphasis is placed on the "my".

5. But he cries for his daddy when he is mad at me. "I want my Daddy (sobbing)" "Daddy hold me" I always tell him I would prefer his father be there too. Trust me, 2 adults to 1 toddler is a much better ratio.

6. He gets me stuff. I LOVE this. He will throw things away, hand me items to put into the fridge, sort his laundry, carry my cups to the sink. Love, love it. Granted, it takes about 3 times as long, but he gets so proud to help. "I need help my Mommy" is a common refrain at our house. Yesterday he picked up my empty Jello container and spoon and said "I put in the sink". I think they both might have been thrown away, but guess which lazy preggers lady has plenty of spoons and doesn't care? That's right; this one.

7. He now says "I wuve you". Melts my heart and makes me want to run away screaming just a little bit less. Just a little bit.

Don't gross me out

2011-03-14T09:00:00.000-05:00

Oh my baby boy, when did you get so gross? As Zach is growing in front of my eyes into a real live boy I am starting to realize I was totally right in 1^st grade - boys really are gross. While this turn of events does not diminish my love for Zachary, it does diminish my desire to eat with him.

Zach now switches between eating so fast he bites his fingers (no joke) to wanting to be done eating so he scrapes his half eaten food out of his mouth. Re-pulsive. How I am supposed to be OK with either of these situations??? When I told Alex about the finger biting incident he fell over laughing and said he had done the exact same thing and apparently Grandpa Vince once drew blood trying to eat a hamburger. You can imagine my blank stare in return. That is not helpful news to me.

As for the gross spitting out the food, unacceptable. I mean seriously, how am I supposed to stomach my pancakes when half eaten eggs are falling out of a mouth next to me. My stomach is already a wee bit sensitive and this is NOT helping matters.

Then there is the issue of the mouth noise making. Zach has started blowing air out of his closed mouth which means spitting and a gross sort of fart noise. Again, unacceptable. As with the spitting out the food I just say no calmly and move on with my life. At this stage (so the books tell me) to draw attention to the bad behaviors just give him cause to do it more. You know what else causes him to do it more? His father doing the mouth noise right back at him. And laughing. Repeatedly.

Apparently I have two toddlers and they are both grossing me out right now.

I felt like a good mother

2011-03-07T09:00:00.000-06:00

Well for a minute at least. Zach and I went to Smashburger for dinner the other night and on the wall are huge 'Z's. He pointed to them and said "That's a Z! Z for Zachary!" and I felt complete as a mother.

Each time I have to color I draw a 'Z' and say "Z is for Zachary" and ask him to tell me what the letter is. Every single time he has stared at me and said "Color Mommy". Deflated.

But that night, that magical night, he recognized the first letter of his name! And it is not like you come across a 'Z' in everyday life, but there were two painted bright red up on the wall and he knew they were for him.

Of course the evening ended in a meltdown thereby stripping me of all good maternal feelings just as quickly as they came. Oh parenting, why are you such a fickle beast?

Have you heard I have a 2 year old?

2011-03-04T09:56:00.000-06:00

Because I do. He turned 2 and turned into a holy terror. Overnight. One bright Monday morning a few weeks back, Zachary decided the best way to get what he wanted would be to scream/cry at his top pitch wail. Awesome. This coincided with a week that Alex had to work in the evening so it was just me dealing with a screaming, crying 2 year old. And let's not forget that I am not at my top mothering speed either, what with being tired and pregnant myself.

It lasted for 3 days. There was a bunch of screaming, crying, feet stomping and hands flailing (from me) until I got my act together. I talked about the horror that was my life with no fewer than 7 people. In 2 days. Some of these people did not have children - you should feel especially sorry for them. But his behavior just monopolized my life as it monopolized our time together after work. Anything he did not get that he wanted (which is most things) would lead a to huge meltdown.

Here are some of my favorite and non-favorite quotes from outsiders:

"So this has been going for 3 days...I don't think this is really defined as a behavioral issue necessary of excessive talking/reading. I think he is going to snap out of it."

"Have you tried going into the closet again?"

"You can do this. He only weighs 28 lbs. You are his mother and are better than this." (wait - that was my pep talk to myself)

"Ohhh just wait, it only gets worse!"

Ummm the last one is especially NOT HELPFUL. Please no one else look at me, tilt you head and say in a highly patronizing tone, "Just wait! The terrible twos are only starting!". Unacceptable. Unless you have something HELPFUL to say like "it is just a short phase, he will be out of it soon" or "have a drink on me!" - I don't want to hear it.

Anyway, the tantrums have NOT ended. What started out as a pleasant night last night (again with Alex in CA for work and me hormonal and preggers) ended up with basically the below happening: All. Night. Long.

Might I also add that we went to eat hamburgers for dinner where he was an ANGEL. He sat in his self selected booster chair, said "thank you" to the men that brought our food (no joke, I almost fell over) and ate like a lovely little boy. But the second we walked in the door of the house, nothing became right for Zachary. He did not want to go into the bath; he did not want to get out; he wanted to kick me while I was putting on his pjs; he wanted to read in the big bed NOT the chair; and on and on and on. I can neither confirm nor deny that I yelled "Mommy said NO!" and closed his door hard-ish. Not my finest parenting moment, if in fact that did happen.

I don't know how I have not seen that video until now as it made me simultaneously laugh out loud in my cube and feel better that my child is not the only one throwing himself on the floor in hysterics. At least those people have carpet.

The Mouth REALLY Never Stops

2011-03-02T09:00:00.004-06:00

Here is a sort-of-quick video clip of Zach and I "coloring". I was trying to get him to say all his words so I can record them for posterity. I know I am going to forget what that tiny voice sounds like and that makes me sad. Of course yesterday in the car this sentence came out of my mouth, "I don't know what is wrong with your shoes Zachary, will you please just stop talking about it???"

Oh and I drew the stick figure drawings, which is the highly unfortunate side effect of coloring. He really wants ME to color and him to commentate on it. No thank you, that is how the rest of my life runs right now ("Mommy going potty", "I help my Mommy", "Mommy drinking milk", "Mommy shoot", "Hold you Mommy")

PS Yes, he is saying that is a picture of his baby sister. We don't know what we are having, baby-wise, but Zach is certain it is a baby sister. He looks thru my belly button and says "What is she doing?". I think it is because his only friend with a baby anything has a baby sister and he doesn't really understand the difference. We will find out come July if he is right!

The Red One

2011-02-28T09:00:00.000-06:00

My mom came down last week to spend time with her grandson and help me out as Alex was on a "holiday" skiing with his friends. That phrase was repeated by Zach all. weekend. long. "My Daddy is on a holiday." "My Daddy is skiing with his friends". Yes Zachary, I am well aware of both those facts. That is why your Granny Marsh is here, to save me from going insane this weekend. Which she did and then some. I don't remember the last time I was so well rested going into the week!!

My mom sent ahead of her 3 chairs for Zachary that are just like the ones we rented for his birthday party, which he loved. They are light enough so that he can move them around and just his right size. He was devastated when the rented ones left. It has been on my list to get him a nice set of chairs and a table that match our furniture, but due to my aforementioned condition it had fallen to the back of my list.

Luckily here arrive in the mail, 3 chairs perfect for Zach and his friends. Of course he only wants to sit in the red one. He says that his cousin Baby Charlotte can sit in the blue one. But not the red one.

Right now he loves to sit in the chairs and watch Barney after dinner. He pulls the foot stool over and uses that for his snack. We are so classy I can barely stand it. Whenever he would go "silent" when my mom was here we would find him sitting in his chair, usually with a snack and some apple juice.

Cowboys and Horses

2011-02-25T15:50:00.000-06:00

Today is Go Texan day here in Houston and I was determined to see the trail riders like we did last year. I told Zach last night that tomorrow we would see cowboys and horses. He seemed marginally excited, he does still really like horses but was more interested in drinking milk and watching Barney. Well this morning, guess who popped up talking (very loudly) about cowboys and horses. 'Horses' is crystal clear...'cowboys' on the other hand took me a while to figure out. But all morning was cowboys and horses, cowboys and horses.

So imagine my anxiety when at 8:30 we went looking for the trail riders only to find no trail riders. Well, crap. Zach and I drove up and down the street for 30 minutes, me trying to remain calm and wondering how I am going to get myself out of this, stopping at Shipley's got some donuts, stopped at Starbucks, got Mommy a coffee and finally ended up at the park that faces the street they should come down. I decided to give the riders until 9:15 to show up then. I was still going to work after all. Luckily I met a very nice mom at the park (who, turns out was in one of my Junior League placements) and she said they came through at 9:30 last year.

And sure enough, 9:45 on the dot they were walking past us. We stood with my new friend and a bunch of SAHM moms with their kiddos and waved at the horses and cowboys. I think Zach liked it. He did a lot of waving and saying of "Good morning!"

Watching the port-a-potties bring up the rear

Here we go again

2011-02-18T09:00:00.002-06:00

As you, my 4 loyal blog readers have undoubtedly noticed, I have been very behind in my posting, since December it has been pitiful. I would like to say it was the holidays and phew they just took it out of me (which they did) or that it was Zach who has become a hell-on-wheels toddler (which he has) but it really was neither of those things keeping me from the biting wit you have come to know and love (and heavy sarcasm).

Turns out that come July 11^th Zach is going to be a big brother. Yep, we are expecting a new Little Wall and are very excited! This little Wall really took it out of me the first trimester. It was all I could do to take moderately competent care of Zachary long enough to get him to bed so I could go lay down. For the remainder of the evening. Rising only to eat cereal or yogurt and to let in/out the dog. And maybe talk to my husband. But that was asking A LOT.

So that is my excuse. I would like to say that I am not one for excuses but that would be a total and complete lie. I LOVE excuses and am taking this one as far as it will get me. As a matter of fact I think I have been sitting in this position for too long and need to go elevate my feet and have some more cereal.

Here are the stats:

19 Weeks (almost 5 months)
We are not finding out (again) what we are having
It will be a scheduled C-section as that is what I had last time, on or around July 11^th
Zach does not really understand that there is a baby in my belly but keeps saying he has a baby sister as that is what his friend Sophie has so he thinks he will have one too.
He also tries to peer through my belly button to see the baby.
And since his belly is about as big as mine right now he sometimes points to it and says "baby?".

I was blinded by love

2011-02-16T10:43:00.000-06:00

I am just going to start by saying that every mother thinks their baby is the cutest in the whole wide world. Most might be more rational than to enter them in contests...but they still all secretly believe that they have the most precious baby ever.

So I obviously compare my baby to other babies. Since he is almost 2 I have forgotten what he looked like as a baby and went back to check and make sure he was still the cutest thing ever.

Summary - yes I still pick him any day but turns out he was f.a.t. fat. Who knew? I remember him being chubby, but looking back he is giant. The rolls, the cheeks, the belly. HUGE.

Ummm seriously, how did I not see the hugeness that was my child? And he was not even eating solid food for a lot of that time. Alex and I just laugh to see these pictures now. Especially since this is what our formerly chubby baby looks like now:

Necessary Precaution

2011-01-26T14:23:00.000-06:00

As I think I have mentioned Zach loves to "shoot". All. The. Time. I had put away his baby hoop in his closet but he spotted it once when his father was in charge. I was initially annoyed as I try to keep a rotation of the plastic ~~junk~~ toys that keep him happy so that they are not ALL in my living room. But the mini hoop has actually kept him busy when he can't go outside and shoot at his big hoop. Which he wants to do every day.

He is not satisfied with throwing the ball up towards the hoop (to be fair it goes up about 2 inches) he wants you to hold him so he can shoot. My patience with that is highly limited so I came up with the idea of letting him climb on his stool and shoot from up there. The downside is that he is a 2 year old, climbing, carrying 1-2 balls with concrete under him. I actually thought none of it (my under-parenting is highly documented) but my friend KK mentioned something about her son wanting to climb too and she thought he would fall off. That was literally the first time it occurred to me that he could fall off. Onto the concrete. Bad, bad parenting.

My solution? He now has to wear his bike helmet while shooting. No, I am still not standing out there, the helmet is parenting for me. I am glancing at him from the kitchen window while I make dinner.

Oddly enough he loves it. So much that he wears it while collecting leaves, running around the driveway and being chased by his dad. Safety first my friends, safety first.

Note the death stool in the background

2 years

2011-01-24T14:12:00.002-06:00

My baby is two. My BABY is two. Now that he is technically 2 years and one month I am handling it much better. While I did not get as emotional as last year, there were some tears shed about how big and little he is all at the same time. I decided to create a Top 8 list for my new 2 year old. My 8 favorite things about him right this second.

1. His talking. While I do love/hate all the talking that happens, his language just astounds me. Right now he is huge on talking about playing basketball. Requests to "shoot! shoot" and "I play basketball. Mommy play basketball. Norman shoot!" are constant in the house right now. The best part of my day is when he greets me with a "Hi Mommy" at school, the part I don't really enjoy are the "Mommy play me!" requests. They way he says "please" has changed from "peas" to "prEEse" and "cheese" is so enunciated you think he is teaching someone else how to say it.

2. His singing. I swear it is the sweetest thing in my world right now. He still sings Jesus loves me but has added Row, Row, Row Your Boat - during which it is required for you to rock back and forth. Don't try to stand still and sing, that is highly unacceptable behavior. He sings Wheels on the Bus and when he did the "shh, shh, shh" for the babies I almost fell out of my chair. He nailed the cadence perfectly.

3. His growing independence. I know, I know. I will hate this shortly, but right now watching him playing with his trains or puzzles or reading books on his own makes me smile. He puts on his "working face" which is Alex to the core - tongue sticking out of his mouth and everything - and plays for about 20 minutes on his own. Heaven.

4. His chubby cheeks. The part of my baby that is still a baby are his cheeks and belly. When he lays next to me to read books in the big bed (aka our bed), I love to stare at his precious profile; those round cheeks and double chin. I can't help but kissing him. Which annoys him. And I don't care.

5. His smile. As my mom says Zach smiles with his entire face. His big brown eyes shrink to about 1/3 of their size when he smiles and laughs. Which he does often. Now when he laughs I can see all his teeth (and I give thanks that he has them now, I was really questioning that for a while) and it makes his cheeks even chubbier. See #4.

6. His friendships. Given how social Alex and I are I am so glad that Zach is very similar. He really has some friends and not just because we force them to be together. You can tell when he sees his close buddies Ben, Abby, Sophie and Miles that he loves being with them. He then talks about them for days afterwards.

7. His dad. I am just going to give a special shout out to Alex because I usually don't. I like to poke fun of Alex for not being able to keep up with Jesus, encouraging excessive ball playing with Zach and whatever else he does that makes me laugh. But he is a wonderful dad and Zachary just adores him. (Plus he is OK with me writing whatever I want on this blog and has only given me grief once about the picture of Zach in bunny ears I posted on Facebook. And we KNOW I have done worse). Anyway, when Zach is mad at me he will cry, "My Daddy, my Daddy" and when that man walks in the door Zach runs full speed ahead shrieking with joy to see him. I can't tell you the joy it brings ME that Alex scoops him up and away they go, away from me, Alex still in his work clothes. That is the 2nd best part of my day.

8. His happiness. I am guessing this too will change, but I feel so blessed that my baby is generally very happy go lucky. That is not like me. Not. At. All. You know who that is like? Please reference #7 above. The only caveat to that rule is when Zach is hungry. Oh girl, watch yourself he becomes a bear. But keep him fed on his diet of Oldfish and milk and he is smiling, talking and giggling about.

Chugga Chugga

2011-01-21T10:44:00.000-06:00

I finally put Zachary's train table together and wow, is it a huge hit. I would like to state that it no longer looks anything like the below pictures as the main thing that happens on the table is him "working" rather than driving. Working means taking apart and putting back together all the tracks. I routinely hear loud banging coming from the table - but I don't care as the table also keeps him occupied for a little bit. I did try to drive a train down one small connected section of the track yesterday and though he allowed it, he preferred I help him "fix" the tracks that are strewn across the table. I see this as just one step in his play with the table (as he will have it for a good long while). Eventually he will figure out that it is fun to drive the trains around and use the crane to load things in and out.

His buddy Ben (aka his mom) gave away conductor hats at Ben's train theme party and Zach does like to wear it to fix his trains. He can't quite figure out the whistle that she sent as well but his face just lights up whenever someone else blows it for him.

Wall to Walls

2011-01-18T21:07:00.001-06:00

Phew! The holidays are over, can you believe it? Most of you are probably saying, "Ummm Kinsey the holidays ended weeks ago", but not for me. The holidays are not officially over until the 17th - Liv's birthday. After that we can finally put away our party hats and get back to the drudgery of work.

This is the first year that we did not travel for Christmas and while I missed my family and our traditions, it was nice to be in our home for Christmas Eve. The Walls kept Zach on his birthday night and brought him back for church on the Eve.

Church was a disaster to put it mildly. Apparently the Catholic churches near us do not have a kids service (like any self-respecting Episcopalian church), but instead the kids choir sing carols for 30 minutes followed by A HOUR long mass. I'm sorry, what? My baby loves church, loves it, but he cannot sit there for an hour and a half. The church was also packed, I have never been to a church that was that crowded. Zach and I spent most of the time out in front with the Jesus statue - and every other 2 year old in the place. I finally realized that I had the car keys with me so I hustled that boy home and got dinner going.

Christmas morning was sweet and fun. Santa had put out Zach's gifts on a chair in the living room, complete with his train table, still in the box. Santa decided to go see a movie on Christmas Eve instead of putting together the table. Zach threw himself on it screaming "Open! Open!". He also really liked the play kitchen pots and pans I got him to help me in the kitchen. He kept saying "Help you Mommy, help you Mommy". (Tracy you might notice that some of the gifts Santa gave Zach were technically from Wyatt....thank you for that!) I didn't get the first part but here is a bit of Christmas morning.

Then we went out to the Walls for what my mom deemed years ago the "Wall to Wall free for all". And it was. I did get to take a nap while Zach napped, then it was dinner with their friends and more present opening. I am pretty sure that Zach is going to think he gets presents every day as he has opened them every day since his birthday.

Everyone was so generous to him (and all of us). He loves his basketball hoop, all his trains, his handyman stuff - he keeps hammering on the walls saying "I working!"- and his new ride-on front end loader. I have put most of the toys up in his room to bring down throughout the year. That is the trouble with having your birthday and Christmas right next to each other, you get everything all at once. So I will rotate down his toys throughout the year so they are new to him all over again!

Can You Dig It?

2010-12-27T21:26:00.003-06:00

Zach's party was a huge success!! It has taken me this long to write about it as I had to go through the 224 pictures and videos my dad took of the party. Yes, 224. I was not kidding about how much his grandparents love this kid. My dad also got some cute shots of Zach's friends too that I need to email to them.

Anyway, the party! It was just what I had wanted and envisioned, not without pain, "discussions" between Alex and I and sheer exhaustion. Let me walk you through my vision:

First stop - the hard hats with all the children's names on them and their goodie bags hung underneath.

Then inside to put the gifts under the tree and who wants a drink? Beer, wine (my dad found deep in the pantry), iced tea and lemonade for the adults (do you see the yellow and brown theme continued there??) and juice boxes and mini-waters for the kiddos.

On to the main event, the sandbox in the flower box. This is where the kids spent most of their time, digging and digging in the sand. The weather held out and it was cool but not too cold to be outside.

Miles especially liked the sandpit.

The pizza finally arrived (turns out I should have paid a wee bit more attention to getting the food there than the decorations) and the kids ate and we sang to Zach. I have to give a huge thanks to my friends Jackie, Neha and Laura who were taking care of my child while I was running about. Or talking. Whatever, I was doing something that required these fabulous moms to step in for me.

They were two fun busy hours and I know for next year NOT to wear faux Uggs to stand up for 3 hours during a party. Noted aching feet.

I think everyone had fun, there was sand, pizza and icing everywhere which should be good indicators of a good time had by all. I know that Zach had fun. He seemed a bit in a daze that all of his friends were here! In his house! At the same time! And he too was covered in sand, pizza and icing.

Grandparents

2010-12-21T13:20:00.000-06:00

Both my parents came to visit the past two weekends, in tandem, to help get us ready for Zach's 2nd birthday party. And all I can say is thank the good sweet Lord, I have no clue how I would have pulled off that party without them. My mom came in first to help me finish the table runner and goodie bags and watch Zach while Alex and I went to his holiday party. Then my dad came in this weekend to help us with the actual party. He got to be privy to a few "discussions" between Alex and I getting ready for the party such as: Alex "Do you want my opinion or do you just want me to move the chair where you want it??" Me looking dumbfounded, "I just want you to move the chair, how was I not clear?" Luckily my parents have been married for 35 years so these types of "discussions" are nothing new to my dad.

Un-selfishly the best part about both weekends was that Zach got to spend time with his Granny Marsh and Papa Wayne. He just adores them both and the feeling is mutual. He even got to see his Aunt Vickie, whom he is still talking about. Selfishly the best part is watching him interact with them and seeing the wonderment on his face when his Granny Marsh can sooth him so well and he and his Papa Wayne make "music" with his new Saxoflutes (thanks KK....). He was amazed that his Papa Wayne could make all those sounds!

These are some pictures my dad took the last time Zach was visiting them in Denton. He is such a good photographer and I think really captured Zach as the little guy he is right now. Even if he is wearing his nightshirts in all of these pictures.

Sing a-little-along

2010-12-17T09:00:00.001-06:00

This week Zach's school had its Christmas party and Christmas Sing A-Long for the kids and parents. I think the older kids might do a pageant, but I can't be sure. For Zach's age they ask the parents to come and sing Christmas songs with the kids. I clarify "songs" not "carols" as I had never heard any of the songs they sung, except for This Little Light of Mine. Since his school does Mother's Day out as well as every day daycare on either Tuesday/Thursday or Monday/Wednesday/Friday we have 2 days that we ~~have~~ get to go.

Alex went on Tuesday and I went on Wednesday. I asked Alex how it was and he said he was glad he went as all the other parents were there, but that the kids only sang about every 5 words and our child at one point walked to the center of the circle and stuck his hands down his pants. I immediately glared at Alex and asked where, I wonder, does he get that from? Alex pretended to not hear me.

He also said that he was concerned about Ben's dad as he was pretty sure he is Jewish and they talked A LOT about Jesus being the son of God. I said that I am certain Ben's parents knew that some Jesus talk was a risk enrolling there kid in a Christian daycare. Alex remains skeptical.

I went today and was glad I was there. It is a giant mess no doubt. All the 2 year olds are walking around singing whatever song they want, clapping and alternately throwing themselves at their parents or other kids. Zach's favorite part was throwing the scarves in the air during This Little Light of Mine. He insisted on only singing Jesus Loves Me, which was not on the list of songs to be sung.

The PTA president kept sending these notes about not worrying about taking pictures but instead to use this time to "celebrate the joy of Christ's birth with your child". Ummm lady I have a blog to maintain. But since I am still pretty chicken (her not parking in the roundabout emails still haunt me) I just took my Blackberry in so the pictures are terrible. Thanks a lot Lisa. Next year I will not be so considerate.

Zach and his girlfriend Abby

Thinking about singing. Supposed to be singing Jingle Bells and shaking a bell.

Still not singing. Instead he is obsessed

with the tag on the side of his shirt.

What you don't see is me shaking my bell and

singing like a fool behind him.

Fast Friends

2010-12-13T10:56:00.000-06:00

A few weeks back Alex and I offered to watch Zach's BFF Ben for the evening so his folks could have a night out. They had sweetly picked up our troublemaker from school one night when Alex had to work late and I was in Dallas with baby Chuck.

Ben is just the sweetest little boy ever. I love to call him his full name "Benjamin" in a sing-song voice and he just smiles and smiles. Well, not for the camera obviously. He was so happy to play and run around the backyard. Look who is NOT happy? Yes, the boy on the left who has to share the sandbox he hates. It made me so happy for Ben to get in the box and play with the sand, getting himself covered in it. Not the owner of said box, Zach remained perched on the edge supervising and continually falling backwards out of the box.

My Kind of Party

2010-12-05T19:53:00.000-06:00

I am high into the planning for Zach's second birthday party. Last year the theme was A Year of Firsts. This year it is Construction. In early November, my friend Beth asked if I had even started planning his party. I was shocked at that accusation and said "Of course! I have a PowerPoint deck with links to all the ideas and items I need!" It just would have been totally weird to start doing stuff back in September when I created it. Not weird that I created it...just weird to start THAT early.

I am currently working on:

- The Happy Birthday Zach sign

- Goodie bags

- Construction tape table runner

- Construction signage for the event

I am BEYOND excited. This is what I live for. Crafts! For a reason! I fear my work is suffering as I google "construction truck images" and scour blogs for other ideas.

Here is Zach trying on the personalized hard hats. I am not pleased with the name tag - put that on my list.

As an aside, this is not his shirt. He was sent home in it because

he did not have a jacket and they "thought" it was his.

Duly noted teachers; I am a bad mother.

I went out that day and got him 3 jackets just to be safe.

I had to bribe him with watching Barney to put the hat on.

Geeaus Loves Me

2010-12-02T14:01:00.000-06:00

For Zach's baptism his great-grandmother Rowena gave him the book Jesus Loves Me which sings the song as you turn the pages. Though if you are Alex, somehow the music is too fast for you. Don't ask, I have no trouble keeping up. Anyway, Zach has liked the book for a while, mainly because of the singing. The book made it into the car with him and is a perfect distraction for our car trips around town.

Cut to us driving every day by St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church on our way to and from school. Each day I hold my breath to pray (maybe to St. Vincent) that he does not say "Fair over? Fair over?" in recognition of the fair we attended behind the church. We were there approximately 20 minutes until he melted down and we had to leave. In August.

Yesterday he noticed the statue in front of the church and I hear "GEEAUS! GEEAUS!" coming from the backseat. I personally had never really looked closely at the statue, but yes it is Jesus and now in addition to "fair over" he says "GEEAUS CHURCH" and of course, "Geeaus fair?"

Good Luck with That

2010-11-24T09:00:00.001-06:00

Zachary has begun refusing to have his picture taken. This usually happens when I am trying to take a video or a picture in the car. I hear "No cheese, Mommy! No cheese!" like I am trying to force him to eat vegetables. Now he just hides behind something. I can wait you out, buddy, just try me.

Horses, horses, horses

2010-11-22T09:00:00.001-06:00

A few weekends back we took Zach to a Polo match at the Houston Polo Club. We had no idea what we were getting into and figured it would either be cool or pretentious. Lucky for us there were numerous people who were trying their hardest to be pretentious, but they were sitting in plastic chairs drinking champagne out of plastic cups. I just scoffed my nose and walked right by with my baby in his "GoNuts" shirt on.

We ended up parking right next to the stables so we got out of the car and came face to face with about 20 horses. Zach was scared and thrilled all at once. When the match started we witnessed one of the few times in recent history that Zach stood totally still to watch the horses run up and down the field. As you can imagine "horses, horses, horses" was said in rapid fire, broken up only by "ball, ball, ball." He will still mention the horses every now and again with a big smile on his face. We might have to go back. Not many other places to see 100+ beautiful horses in the city of Houston.

"Yes, Zachary we are going over there towards the horses. Can you please just cheese for me?"

About to go stomp the divots.

Not that we knew what we were doing at the time,

we were just excited to be on the field. Classy.

Right before he got so excited about the horses

running towards him on the field he scratched my neck off.

Still very, very focused on the horses, horses, horses

Happy Birthday

2010-11-19T09:00:00.001-06:00

Last week Zach came home singing Happy Birthday. I don't really think it was Katia's birthday, but he is certain it was. When he sings it to Trinity he now says "Happy Birthday, Trick-or-Treat". He will also just wish you a Happy Birthday at random times too. Since I LOVE to celebrate my birthday anyway this is working out very well for me when he turns to me and says "Happy Birthday Mommy!". I just melt.

Drop the ball

2010-11-17T09:00:00.000-06:00

Zach and I have been doing Gymboree (remember that plus Music class wore me out) for a while now and we are having a problem. This is all he wants to do.

See the hoop? See the buckets 'o balls? Putting all those balls into that hoop is what Zach wants to do in Gymboree class. I literally have to carry him kicking and squealing away to go climb on the various contraptions they build for the kids. You know, contraptions that allegedly build motor movement, coordination, sense of adventure and other wonderful things that are the reason I rush from work to scoop him up and race to the Galleria. But, no, all Zach wants to do is put the balls into the hoop. WHICH HE COULD DO AT HOME.

Except that I finally got him to climb into this tube, but it was filled with balls so I really don't think that counts.

Squeeze

2010-11-15T09:00:00.003-06:00

When Zach is "helping me" on his stool in the kitchen he likes to squeeze things. I can't be sure if he learned this form watching me or from school. It always takes me a while to figure out what he is doing as it usually involves him clutching something un-squeezable to his chest and saying "eeeez".

Today I was making a banana-lime jam (of course I was - I can hear you) and Zach was helping me squeeze the limes. He then decided to try to eat one. His stunned face made me laugh. Nothing new with kiddos eating limes and lemons and making funny faces, but this is MY kid eating a lime and making a funny face.

Sort of a Reader

2010-11-12T09:00:00.000-06:00

Though we have read to Zach for a while now, it has only been the past 6 months or so that he really likes to read with us and look at books on his own. I still remember the first time I saw him sitting with his board books and turning the pages. I love to read so it thrilled me to no end.

However, for a book to really hold his attention it needs to DO something - have pop out pages, make noise or have texture. He is starting to like to read books with things that he knows, like Goodnight Moon since he spotted the giant full moon last week and has been talking about it ever since.

This is his Thomas the Train book that makes all sorts of sounds. I don't know that this is technically reading since he just focuses on the noises, but whatever, a book is a book.

My Sweet Boy

2010-11-10T09:00:00.001-06:00

Here is a little video really showing who Zach is right now. Trying to say everything and just the sweetest thing ever. Of course I stopped the video before he splashed me and himself in the eyes and started to cry.

Zoo Boo

2010-11-08T09:00:00.000-06:00

After the Halloween parade at school, Alex, Vince and I took Zach to the Zoo for what they call Zoo Boo which is just the Zoo with extra Halloween decorations. This year they opened it up on Friday morning specifically for stay at home moms and their "young children". Needless to say, Alex and Vince were some of the few fathers there. We walked around the zoo; saw the baby elephant, the bear and the seals. They had a little pumpkin patch full of tiny pumpkins that the kids could decorate. We opted out of decorating and just posed for pictures and took our unpainted pumpkin home to sit on the porch.

Vince & Zach looking at the sleeping bear

In front of the tigers

Baby Elephant

2010-11-05T09:00:00.004-05:00

A few weeks back Vince took Zach to the zoo to see the new baby elephant and Zach has been talking about that baby elephant ever since. It took us a while to figure out what he was saying...it sounds like "baby llfffnnnt" but he says it so much that it is getting clearer.

This Friday we went back to see the baby elephant, who is darling by the way. Zach has really stepped up the baby llfffnnt calls now; he talks about the baby llfffnnt every morning and says night night to the baby llfffnnt at night. I have to reassure him that yes, the baby elephant is night, night with his mommy. And if we get anywhere close to the zoo he starts shouting "Baby Llfffnnt! Baby Llffnnnt". I am trying to get him to branch out a bit to lions, zebras or giraffes, but he just loves that baby llfffnnnt.

Halloween Parade and Parade and Parade

2010-10-31T21:29:00.003-05:00

Each year at Zach's school there are two Halloween parades; one on Thursday for the Tuesday-Thursday kids and one on Friday for the Mon-Wed-Fri kids. My baby is an every day kid so he gets to parade his sweet little heart out. Last year we did not go to either as watching Zach be pushed around in the Bye-Bye Buggy was not really worth missing work. But this year he is oh so mobile and fitting perfectly in his Lederhosen.

For the past two weeks his class has been practicing parading by doing a spider parade with spiders on Popsicle sticks. Apparently there has been talk of shaking their spiders. Zachary thought this meant a full body shake, which we figured out about halfway through the parade. The kids before you see Zach are all in his class, they are: his best friend Ben the giraffe, the twins as bumble bees, Tony (aka the bitter) as a skeleton, Ella as something with a big hat, his girlfriend Abby as a pink cowgirl and then Zach. Bringing up the rear are Olivia as a super cute strawberry and Katia as something green. You can tell I only really cared about Zach.

Zach had a full cheering section made up of his Grandpa Vince, Godmother Alison and her boyfriend (and cameraman) Chris. Alex arrived just as we finished the parade. Of course.

Luckily my neigborhood mom's group had a Halloween fair at the park where there was yet another parade. Alex was there this time and got to parade with Zach.

Heading to the park with Ollie

Parading with Daddy

Family portrait courtesy of goldfish (and Ollie)

Not all organic and flax seed

2010-10-29T09:00:00.000-05:00

While yes, I am that crazy mother that packs Flax Seed crackers for a snack and makes her child eat buckwheat pancakes mixed with banana puree, sweet potato puree and blueberrys, here is evidence that even I cave to pizza on a Saturday night. This was the second night of Zach and I's weekend together when his father left us for a wedding in New Mexico. Pizza on the couch was easy and fun. The downside? He can now say 'pizza' which is just awesome, as he likes to scream it when I try to serve him rice balls or bean burgers. Luckily I have tricked him into thinking that quesadillas (with sweet potato puree and tofu) are pizza. I am sure this is all going to paid back to me someday.

All I ask for is one drawer

2010-10-27T09:00:00.000-05:00

As any mother knows, privacy is just not happening with kids. I won't go into details but let's just say th large purple top to an under the bed storage box accompanied me to the bathroom yesterday. I have accepted this lack of priacy and space to myself. I am not a girl that really needed a whole lot of privacy anyway. Living in a sorority house and growing up with one bathroom for my sister and mom (Daddy had his own) took care of that.

All I ask for is one drawer. Just one - my makeup/hair/whatever-I-want-drawer in the bathroom. Even with all the entertaining Zach does in our bathroom (and there is a lot) I have NEVER let him in that drawer. It is my stuff. That baby is everywhere else! My closet - OK, whatever come on in and try on my undies and bracelets. The kitchen - sure, let me get you that stool so you can get your dirty hands in our dinner. And we don't need to mention the bathroom again.

So flash forward to me returning home from welcoming my baby niece into the world and what do I see? A headband that I do not remember leaving on the bedroom floor, my face wipes moved to a higher cabinet and my hairbrushes in the grip of a crazed munchkin.

It is safe to say that Alex got a "talking to" that rivaled the our-baby-needs-to-be-fed discussion. I am not messing around about that drawer.

Ready to Go

2010-10-24T22:40:00.000-05:00

I don't know where Zach thinks he is going, but I am glad he has on a hat. You know he is not wearing sunscreen as I, being the neglectful mother, believe that once it is October I don't need to coat my son from head to two in sunscreen. Good luck to you big boy.