Top 10 'Treyisms' of February

1. (When approaching a stop light), Mommy, you must apply the breaks!

2. What number are you? Translation: how old are you?

3. What number is the couch?

4. (After losing his balance), My legs are too wobbly! I need to see the doctor.

5. (After me trying to explain that he should call me Mommy, not Heather). Well, then who is Headder?

6. (While walking around the house in my dress shoes), Look! Now I'm a girl like you. (Daddy doesn't like that one)

7. (While in the bathroom watching me fix my hair) T: I want some dat. Me: No this stuff is special for Mommy's hair. T: But I want curly hair too.... (He believes if I would just put my magic hair products on him, he'd have curly hair)

8. I wanna play Daddy's reputer. (Computer)

9. (After I came home from my overnight trip to Indy). Why you be gone so long Mommy?

10. T-R-E-Y is me!

My Little Stinker

The kids went to the sitter today as usual. When I went to pick them up, the sitter commented,"she sure does roll around a lot". I didn't think much of it at first because Kayelynn is a wiggler. She really gets around for a baby who hasn't rolled over yet. Then the sitter said "every time I turned around she had rolled off of the blanket". Something clicked in my head and I felt a little panicky. "You don't mean roll over, like she rolled over?!?". I asked a little too desperately. The sitter was giving me a blank stare and I just kept rambling. "I put her on the floor every night. She plays and squirms. She gets so close to rolling over but she just can't quite do it yet.". I watched the babysitter's blank stare turn in to worry and maybe a smidge of fear.

Then I knew for sure. It was true. Kayelynn had rolled over for the first time and I had missed it.

It was kind of hard to really believe. I had never missed one of Trey's milestones when he was a baby. I was working 3 nights a week then and he was with the sitter or grandma or nana all the time. Yet I had somehow always been there to cheer him on as he rolled, sat up, crawled and walked. It was almost like he would wait on me before doing something new. Could it be that this baby had really grown up a little while I was out buying fruit snacks and toilet paper?

The sitter felt bad about letting this new bit of information slip out. "I'd never have said anything to you if I'd thought she hadn't already been rolling", she was saying. I knew I had to suck it up and move on. My sitter was too sweet to let her get a guilty conscience over one little rolling over incident. "She just rolled and rolled all day. She seemed like such a pro I thought she'd been doing it awhile".

Okay that's not helping me.

I reassured the sitter that it was no big deal. I laughed it off and called Kayelynn a stinker. Then I rushed my little gal home. I spread her quilt out on the floor and placed her right in the middle of it. She's still there. Its been about twenty minutes or more. She's just lying there (not rolling!) smiling at me with a twinkle in her eyes that makes me think she really is a stinker!

My Little Princess

I just got back from a quick trip with my sister to Indy. Here is Kayelynn livin' it up in our hotel room.

When God Closes a Door....

...somewhere he opens a window. I am stealing that line from "The Sound of Music". If you read my post "Ring phone, ring", then you know I have been going just a little crazy waiting on Rex's private practice of fee for service medicine to take off.
I do not regret my decision to stay home with my kids. But as the months pass by, we watch our bank account get smaller and smaller. Don't get me wrong, I'm not ready to get in the welfare line. But it amazes me how quickly Rex's paycheck is spent. This is why our previous financial motto was "Credit bad, cash good". But we got away from that mind set during the residency years and now we are literally 'paying the consequences'.
I am getting off subject. (That seems to happen to me a lot). Where were we? Oh yes, God was opening a window...
In the past two weeks we have had 3 patient related phone calls and one real patient visit. This is us moving up in the world! But better yet...Rex has just gotten a contract with the county jail, providing all of their medical care. We are both excited about this opportunity. It is not exactly what we had pictured him doing with his practice. But we have learned that in life you don't question the gifts you are given. So we are going to take an unplanned path and see where it leads us.

Happy Birthday Rex !!!

We celebrated Rex's birthday last night at his mom's house. We feasted on fried chicken with all the fixin's and ice cream cake.
This was supposed to be a picture of Rex and the kids but Trey bolted at the last minute and Kayelynn looks dopey. At least its a decent picture of my husband.

Trey helps Daddy open presents.

A story about my Mother in Law

I have spent most of the weekend painting for my mother in law. I don't mind painting but I am glad to be done. Maybe later I will post some pictures of the room.
The room was a complete overhaul. It is going to be her new bedroom. The room used to be shared by Rex and his brother. Mom in Law says it hasn't been painted since they moved in it. ( Today is Rex's 34th birthday). I'm telling you, that room needed serious help!
I didn't mind to help. I enjoy doing things with the Mom in Law. She has never had much money and led a rough but somewhat sheltered life. So things like pretty new rooms are very exciting for her. And she is very appreciative. I am lucky to have a nice mother in law. She is quirky but nice.
Speaking of quirky....I want to share my favorite story about my mother in law with you. Some people have already heard this before (sorry for the repeat). But I think it is a blog worthy tale.
Back when Trey was a baby I worked 12 hour nights. Rex was in residency and had late nights and overnight call. Trey got tossed around between, babysitter, Grandma and Nana. On this particular day I was leaving Trey at Grandmas (aka mother in law). She was buzzing around the kitchen when I brought the baby in. I noticed that she had four 8 oz containers of breastmilk thawing in the sink. That seemed odd to me because I knew Trey would only take 4-6 oz before Rex came to pick him up.
Now, I am an avid breastfeeder. I take pride in the fact that neither of my children have ever had a drop of formula. ( I am not anti bottle. Please no hate mail). I just get a sense of satisfaction from providing the nutrition for my babies. You other breastfeeding mommies out there can relate to the fact that mommy milk is like pure liquid gold. I think every breast mom wants to guard each drop with her life. I am also convinced that the saying "don't cry over spilled milk" originally was referring to breastmilk. There is nothing worse than pumping a beautiful bottle of that sweet, white gold and then accidentally knocking it over or spilling some while poring it into a storage container. These spills really can bring a mommy to tears (especially new mommies who are still riding the emotional postpartum roller coaster). Part of the pumping mom's day is devoted to producing those
precious bottles. It gets to be a game, or a challenge really, to see how much you can pump off at one time.
I pumped as often as I could to build up a reserve of milk for Trey. I was lucky to produce plenty for him. Soon my stockpile out grew my own freezer. I brought the excess of milk over to mom in laws to keep in her deep freeze. She needed it to feed the baby and it would last longer in the deep freeze. I had hoarded about four walmart bags full of milk over at mom in laws.
I had big plans for that milk. It should have lasted long enough to mix cereal up with when Trey was ready for solids. And I was hoping the familiar milk would make his transition to the cup easier. So, seeing several containers of my milk thawing out was bugging me.
I finally asked, "why are there so many containers of milk in the fridge?" My voice actually sounded a little shaky. I was almost afraid to hear the answer. Maybe it was nothing. I tried to reassure myself. Maybe Rex called her and has to stay over at the hospital. My mother in law never looked up from what she was doing. She just casually answered, "Oh that....I've been giving some to the cats to eat". My heart really stopped beating for a few seconds. Maybe I hadn't heard her right. "I'm gonna need some more too. We're getting low." Okay, now my head was about to blow right off of my body.
I walked back to the freezer. How could she need more milk? What had happened to my four bags of stored gold? I opened the freezer and started digging through frozen veggies and packages of meat. One and a half bags! That is all that was left. One and a half bags! Call me crazy but tears welled up in my eyes. This couldn't be happening to me!
I went back to the baby. I couldn't even face my mother in law. I had never been this angry with her. In fact I'd never really been mad at her before. Now I was worried about screaming something at her that I would later regret. She walked in on me changing the baby. I didn't even look up at her. She wanted to know if I had any instructions for the baby. (Boy did I have instructions!). I took a deep breath, continued to stay focused on Trey, and then asked her not to ever feed the cats my milk again. She thought it was probably getting old and didn't want it to go to waste. (Or so she said). I again took a deep breath and explained that the milk would last at least 6 months in the deep freeze and I could not simply bring her more because I had a limited supply. I didn't really wait for a response. I left before I turned into a blubbering idiot and headed to work.
The second I got in my car I was dialing Rex's cell phone. "Do you know what your mother is doing!" I shouted. I didn't give him time to answer. "She's feeding my breastmilk to the cats!!!!" Stifled laughter came from the other end of the phone. "Its not funny" I whimpered. "I know", Rex answered but I could tell he was probably still fighting laughter. I think I went into a long tirade of "you need to tell your mother this" and "you need to tell her that" and "does she think I just have faucets I can turn on to get all the milk I want!"
Rex agreed he'd talk to his mom. I went to work and told the story to my OB friends who were as dismayed as I was. Telling and retelling the story helped me get over my anger. My anger melted into disbelief which has now dissolved into this crazy story.
And now you too know the story of how our farm cats became the strongest, healthiest cats in the county with coats so shiny you'd think they'd been professionally groomed!

Sweet 16

Today marks the 16th anniversary of me and Rex's first date. He brought me flowers today, 5 yellow roses for each year we dated and now 11 pink roses for each year of marriage. It is a tradition we have. Even though it is not really a surprise, I get this happy feeling deep inside every year when the roses show up and for a minute I feel like the girl I was when this tradition began.
The flowers don't always come on the same day each year and the bouquet is never arranged the same way. But the flowers always come. I like the symbolism there. My husband is not the same as he was 16 years ago. I am definitely not the same. But we are still always there for each other. It is comforting.
Today has been a day of reflecting and reminiscing for me. And we were lucky enough to get to "go out" together for supper while Grandma watched Trey. We talked about when we first noticed each other, our first date, our first kiss.....
I enjoy thinking back on these things and Rex is nice enough to humor me and play along in the "do you remember" game.
It is hard to believe that we have been together for 16 years. That is actually half of my life! Things are much different now than they were then but I still feel the same on the inside about him. He can make my heart flip flop a little when he looks at me a certain way. I still find myself day dreaming about kissing him. Then when I do kiss him I still get all warm and fuzzy inside.
Rex and I have been through wonderful things together and some really horrible things. But I am ready for another 16 years and then another and then another.
My hope is that when I am old and wrinkled, Rex will brush my white hair (that will no doubt still be frizzy) away from my face and he'll give me that look that makes my heart flip and flop (but not stop). Then he'll give me a kiss and I'll get all warm and fuzzy on the inside. And because he loves me so, we'll snuggle up together and he'll play along with the "do you remember" game.

This is my sister Ashley who works in advertising. I just want to slap her in a cute little business suit and show her off. "Look world!!!! She is smart and adorable!!!!!"

I'll always take care of you........

These are the words I whispered in her ear when she was a baby.

This post is for my sister, Ashley. She has been after me to include her in my blog. And she is one of my Followers....and Followers need to get certain perks....So here you go Ash this is all about you!

She was born when I was 9. I was thrilled to have a baby sister. I would have been okay with a brother but I do remember wanting another sister. At that age I was baby crazy as most girls are. Ashley was like having a really cool doll around the house. I felt very motherly towards her and wanted to teach her everything I knew.

I cried the day she was born. It is the first time I recall crying because I was happy.

I was being an emotional preteen one night and got sent away from the supper table. Ashley was still a pretty little baby, probably 2 months or less. She was swaddled up, lying alone on the couch. She was fussy and I knelt down to whisper to her. I told her I would always love her, I would always be there for her and always support her. She would never have to feel alone. I remember her looking at me, blinking a lot as babies do. I was crying a little, mostly because I was feeling misunderstood and I wanted a big sister to say those things to me. I kissed her forehead and knew that I must try to live up to my promises. I must try to give her what I did not have. Now, as a mommy I recognize this as being one of my first maternal thoughts.

I remember a lot about Ashley. Being 9 is old enough to remember things. She had a bald head for a long time. It paid off though. Now she has a gorgeous head of hair that I would kill for. Mom dressed her in dresses a lot and she wore those classic white baby shoes with bells on them. She had a funny little laugh when she was just learning to walk. She'd wrinkle up her nose and make a funny snuffing noise then grin really big. She still has a cute laugh, not snuffy but cute. Whenever I see her wrinkle up her nose I think of that adorable baby's laugh.

I was never graceful. Not then, not now, not even in my dreams. I remember carrying Ashley around outside and tripping over my own feet. I fell while holding her. It was one of those times where I felt like I was in slow motion. I knew I was falling and I knew I couldn't let the baby hit the sidewalk. I managed to hold Ash out in front of me, kind of like a football player who is straining to make a touch down. And it was a touchdown. She landed in the grass, still in my arms. I scraped up my knees and arms and maybe hurt my face a little but the baby was okay. That was all I could think of: the baby was ok. I got yelled at for falling down with the baby (Mom-I know you are going to deny it, but you yelled. But I get it, I just dropped your baby. Now I drop my own babies. But I'm getting off subject)

Now she is grown, a young woman. She is smart and well liked. She is a great aunt. My kids love her to pieces. She has a real adult job, making money. She did wonderful in college, winning awards and such. I'm so proud of Ashley. Proud like a parent. But the older she gets the closer I feel like we grow as friends. I am thankful for that. I will always be "the old one" but I am so glad we can sit and laugh together. (Or text for an hour)

So that is my sappy, sweet dedication to my sister. You'll hear more about her as time goes by but this is her moment in the bloglight.

One step forward two flushes back......

I have been trying to get Trey to go potty by himself. He seems to think that things won't function unless I am right there. I haven't got overly strict on the going potty alone thing yet because I am still thrilled that he has graduated to the "big boy underpants" (his words, not mine).
So, I was nursing the baby and Trey decided he needed to go to the bathroom. And without even whining he went alone. I was very impressed and praised him like crazy when he came back to the living room. Later that day he was playing and got that deer in headlights look (I've learned this look means he needs to get to the nearest toilet-FAST!) He ran as fast as his toddler legs would take him to the bathroom. I was impressed again. Twice in one day....nice.
Then Trey came running back in to the living room saying,"Mommy, come see the toilet paper!!!" Now I was scared. The toilet paper?? What has he done to the toilet paper?? I didn't have to wait long to find out. In route to the bathroom Trey continued to tell me about it. (In a very excited voice). "I peed on it! I peed on it!"
And yes, he had.........

But not before he had unrolled the entire roll of paper into the toilet. There was so much toilet paper in the bowl that it was actually coming out of the water at me!
Trey didn't understand my dismay and found it odd that I was trying to fish all of the paper out of the toilet. I did get him to promise never to do that again.
The toddler mind...........(I just can't seem to finish that thought!)

Wall O' Boogers

I think I've mentioned before that Trey is really in to Thomas. So, when I found these wall appliques, I had an idea on how to solve a problem we were having.
For whatever reason, Trey had started picking his nose while he was in bed. Worse than that he would then discard said boogers on the wall next to his bed. Totally gross, I know. There they would be each morning, all dried up like concrete. ( I'm thinking that boogers stick better than superglue).
Day after day I would scrape and wipe and disinfect. I lectured. I bribed. I spanked. Still, boogers greeted me every morning. Finally, knowing I had the Thomas wall art stashed, I promised Trey a very special surprise if he could keep his wall clean. I didn't think it would work but it did! Day after day the wall stayed clean and Trey would inquire about his special surprise.
After a week I decided it was time for the surprise. Trey was thrilled. We put the trains up together. The whole time we were decorating his wall I kept reinforcing that if he put boogers on the wall, his trains would go away. I wondered if that concept was going to soak in.
I found out a few days later when my sister was over that Trey understood perfectly. I overheard him explaining the whole booger saga to her. He also informed her not to put boogers on his wall or his trains would go away.
The toddler mind....

They grow up so quickly

I know that is very cliche but it is so true. It was only last week that Trey was Kayelynn's size. Wasn't it? How can he be 3? How is Kayelynn 4 months old? I could swear it was yesterday that I was holding her in my arms for the first time. I say all of this because I know that all of you readers out there will not find all of my pictures as special as I do. You will not find all of my posts about Trey and Kayelynn as thrilling as I do. But I just know that I will turn around tomorrow and find that they have grown up and lost all of the innocence that makes their little eyes shine today. This makes me feel desperate to capture all of the little triumphs of today that will too soon be my memories of yesterday.
So have patience with me. I won't always go on and on about my wonderful, beautiful, genius children. (OK, I probably will). But, I will write about other things too. In fact, if anyone has suggestions on other topics for me to write on, please leave a comment. I love to get comments and I love to see my follower list grow. (I'm up to 4!!! WooHoo !!!)
So happy reading and thanks for tuning in!

We have definitely mastered the grabbing and tasting.

Look at that concentration!!!! She's obviously very smart. : )

Don't these eyes seem to be saying, "don't drop me on my head mom". (See Confessions)

So close to rolling over.....

Confessions

When Trey was a baby I burned his tongue a couple of times while feeding him. My husband likes to tease me and make it sound like I burned the poor kid at every meal. Not true! I can think of about 3 times that it happened. That is 3 times in his 3 year life. That's an average of 1 tongue burn a year. I burn my own tongue more than that in a years' time! However, Trey has this weird thing about not eating his food until it has cooled to room temperature. I choose to believe that it is in no way related to having his tongue burned ( by accident!) as a baby.
Now, there was this one other incident...I had been ironing in the living room. A storm warning was issued. I ran upstairs to see how bad it looked. Trey was old enough that he had just gotten the rolling thing down pat. Over the 3 minutes that I was upstairs, Trey rolled across the length of our living room, grabbed the cord to my iron and pulled it onto the floor. I heard him crying and rushed downstairs to find a burnt spot on my carpet and my poor baby with tiny blisters on his fingers from touching the iron. Trey was fine after about 5 minutes. I cried for hours.
So, it seems there was this thing with Trey and getting burned as a baby. Now don't call CPS or anything. I love my children to pieces and everything I am describing was an accident that I feel horribly guilty about to this very day.....I think Kayelynn is developing her "thing"..............
I've dropped her on her head......twice! I can't believe it! I am a nurse for heaven's sake! I've worked with newborns for 10 years and I've never dropped one. Never ever, and they can be pretty slippery! I've had my daughter for 4 months and already dropped her twice. How is that possible?!? Well let me tell ya..........
The first time was the Sunday before Christmas. It was a hectic morning (as Sundays always are) trying to get the kids dressed up and me too. I had propped Kayelynn up on my bed and tucked the quilt around her. I had my back to her putting on some jewelry when my mommy brain told me I better check the baby to make sure she wasn't...........hanging upside down from the bed, slipping slowly out of the quilt towards the floor!!!!!!! I reached for her just as the quilt gave way and she plunged the remaining 6 inches onto the floor. We both started crying immediately and I rushed her to my doctor husband to be checked out. (My nurse powers are completely useless when my babies are in a crisis. If someone else's kid stops breathing, not a problem. I can fix that. If my kid scrapes a knee, I melt into uselessness .). Anyway, Kayelynn was fine. We had a merry christmas. Fast forward
to today.
I had been nursing Kayelynn and she fell asleep on my lap. Trey was running around the living room all crazy like and I was begging him to be quiet so he wouldn't wake the baby. He was not listening very well and as he ran by me I leaned out to grab his arm, intending to make him see how serious I was about not waking the baby. I underestimated how far I'd have to lean to grab Trey and Kayelynn slid right off my lap. It felt like slow motion to me, trying to grab for the baby. I managed to almost get ahold of her leg. Almost didn't get it and there was my baby lying face down on the floor....again. She cried for a little bit but I couldn't find a scratch on her. I measured the distance from the rocking chair to the floor and added a few more inches to account for my lap. (Yes, I really did.). She probably fell about 16 inches. That's not enough to do any damage, right?!? No,
she is fine. She was moving all of her appendages and laughing at her brothers antics shortly after "the incident". I still feel terrible though. One day when someone says to her, "you were dropped on your head as a baby, weren't you?" What is she supposed to say? Oh Kayelynn....Mommy is sorry. I hope falling on your head really doesn't become "your thing".

I am such a mommy

I've been running errands all day while my kids are with the sitter. I've been in my zone knocking out errands left and right. I've had the sun roof open and the radio up loud. It was only a moment ago, hours after dropping the kids off, I realized I was singing along with the radio.....singing with Alvin and the Chipmunks. That has to be a sign of mommyhood.

Savor the Moment

Mondays are sitter days for the kids. It is a chance for them to socialize with other kids their age and for me to run errands or do things around the house. Our sitter is wonderful, very loving. Trey has gone to her house since he was 3 months old. He has fun there and gets very excited about going. So it was strange that he started to call out for me in a worried voice as I started to leave. I almost went ahead and slipped out the door to avoid a crying fit. But my mommy brain wouldn't let me and Trey was fast. He had already run to the door and grabbed my hand.
"What's the matter Trey?" I asked.
"Oh Mommy! I forgot to give you a hug and a kiss!" he said.
I leaned over and he gave me a big squeeze and planted a kiss on my cheek. Then he was off with his friends. I know I was smiling as I left. I must savor this moment, I thought to myself. I know how fast time goes by. Before I know it Trey will be too old to want to show me that type of affection in front of his friends. If only he could know how much my heart loves him. But I don't think he can know this until he has his own child. So for now I must savor my moments as they come to me. Thank you God for my son.

Sunflowers

"We're sunflowers mom!"----that's what Trey said when I asked what he was doing to his sister.

bloopers

God bless photographers who take pictures of children. I decided I would make a valentines card with pictures of the kids to send to some friends and family. Little did I know what a challenge it would be. I bet I took 50 pictures. If one kid was looking at the camera the other was not. If one kid looked adorable the other had his/her eyes closed. I thought the concept was easy enough; sit both kids on couch; take an adorable picture; end of story. Not so. Trey was all over the couch: up, down, sideways. Kayelynn pretty well stayed put but trying to keep Trey in frame with her was difficult. So for your viewing pleasure.....may I present..... Valentines Day out-takes. (these are the ones that I didn't delete!)

Career Change

I took Kayelynn to get her 4 month shots this morning. She did well. We were really in and out very quickly and I didn't feel ready to go home when we were done. Despite being so cold out, its a very pretty day.
So I procrastinated. We drove around the backstreets of Petersburg, then to McDonald's drive thru, then around Hornady Park with a brief stop to watch the geese and ducks slip and slide on Lake Ashley. I felt a little sad as I turned the car towards home.
It had been an enjoyable trip. Kayelynn was napping in her carseat. Trey was telling me about all the things he could see while he munched on his chicken nuggets. The sun was warming me thru my window and I was admiring the frozen, white landscape all around me. That's when it occurred to me.....I should be a truck driver!
Sure, laugh...But just think of it! Me in my big rig, the kids with me strapped in their carseats, the open road ahead of me...I thought it sounded great. I like to see new places and the kids enjoy a car ride. Why not make a little money at the same time?
As I thought more about it, I found some flaws to my plan. I really don't know how to drive a big truck. They probably don't handle as well as my Equinox. And the threat, "Don't make me turn this thing around!" was taking on a whole new meaning.
So I came up with a back up plan. Trey and I could bake lots and lots of muffins. (See prior entry). Then we could load them up in my mommy-mobile and sell them to bakeries and other eateries. (Jasper girls: this led me to think of the Stat Diner)
Then Trey started to whine that he needed to go potty. Kayelynn was starting to fuss because it was almost time to nurse again. I also noticed that gas prices had gone up again. Maybe I'll just stick with the mommy gig I've got going. Its not half bad. : )

Do you know the Muffin Man?

Lately Trey has been obsessed with baking muffins. I don't know what started it; he just started begging to make muffins. So, like a good mommy, I agreed we could do this. He really likes to line the muffin pan with papers. But he likes to pour and stir too. He tries to crack the eggs but that doesn't always work well. He will watch them bake and listen for the oven to beep. When they are done, I put them on a cooling rack and Trey will pull up a chair to "watch them cool" !

Accomplished

I used to get a sense of accomplishment from delivering a patient during my 12 hour shift. Or from making staffing work out when there were too little nurses and too many patients. I felt like I had really accomplished something after managing a severe preeclamptic or delivering the occassional baby without a doctor.
Today I felt that same sort of feeling. I had spent almost two hours in Walmart doing a major shopping run with both kids. We got everything we needed without a problem. Other shoppers stopped occassionally to compliment how cute or well behaved my kids were. (Oh, if they only knew!) Then I managed to push two carts full of kids and groceries through the icy parking lot to the car. It was the best Walmart run I've done with the kids so far. Everything went as planned.
As I peeked at the kids in my rear view mirror I felt accomplished and it felt good!

Tiggered

This is what happens when you leave a baby and a 3 year old together for a couple minutes.

Staying warm

Kayelynn has stayed warm and dry this week. No playing in the snow for her. But she doesn't mind. She's happy to sit around looking pretty!