Should've known then.....

Nattie's first Halloween was spent as an adorable little devil.

It was a joke!

She's slightly bigger in size and a whole lot more devilish! Last night she locked me out of the house, on purpose, because she was mad at me.

I wish I had something witty to say about the experience but I'm still dumbfounded!

Joke's on us??

Sharing some insanity

5:00am - alarm goes off
5:00.01am - out of bed, stumble over dog downstairs.
5:01am - let dog out, turn up AC, fill water glass, pack backpack w/ lunch, Pat's milk on table, Nattie's snack & drink on table.
5:05 - dog in, stumble back upstairs.
5:06 - Patrick gets dose of Prednisone and eats
5:20 - wishing Patrick would eat faster for 1 extra minute in the shower
5:25 - Patrick back to bed, hop in shower, constant pep talk (out loud) about "everything being okay, you can do this, and you must get out of the shower NOW!"
5:35 - floss, moisturize, brush, make-up, hair, clothes
5:49 - make bed
5:50 - wake Patrick up, get him dressed.
6:00 - wake Nattie up, listen to her whine about how "ITS TOO BRIGHT!", plead with her to go pee!
6:10 - harass Nattie to get dressed, herd her into bathroom.
6:15 - argue w/ Nattie about the snarls in her hair, whether or not she's done a good job on her teeth and why her wiggly butt has just fallen off her step stool for the 3rd time.
6:20 - wipe faces, and herd family (incl underfoot dog) back downstairs.
6:22 - Patrick gets Prevacid
6:23 - Patrick vomits up breakfast, Prednisone and Prevacid and is left in muck because its too damn late to fix it.
6:24 - shoes on, sunblock on, Patrick in carseat.
6:26 - check to do list ONE MORE TIME!
6:27 - coffee in to-go mug (thank freakin' god!), load car, buckle squirming, complaining 3yo.
6:30 - on the road.
6:50 - debate with Nattie over parking options at daycare.
6:55 - drop Patrick off, try to remember everything.
7:05 - drop Nattie off. Hugs, kisses, squeezes, loves you's.
7:10 - park car
7:15 - speed walk until sweaty and out of breath to work.
7:20 - late again. peace and quiet. more coffee.

Maybe I'll share some evening insanity tomorrow ;)

Crap....ooops, I mean croup

1 week of daycare and Patrick has croup. Super. *note heavy sarcasm*

Sunday afternoon he started to look bad. His nose was stuffy, his eyes were red & puffy and watering. He did not look much better on Monday so I sent him to daycare armed with saline and an extra change of clothes since he always barfs after saline. In all fairness the stuff does taste like, well, saline. Brought him home Monday - he looked beat tired and pretty awful....put Bunky to bed early and figured it was just his 2nd icky cold. Nope. Nope. Nope. I woke up around midnight thinking a seal with laryngitis had moved into Patrick's bedroom. So, he got more saline, some food and a humidifier and slept okay the rest of the night. I never went back to sleep because I was terrified of the wheezing and barking and his incredibly hoarse little mewls. Not terrified enough, however, to keep him home on Tuesday. Nope, this Momma spent all the available time on mat leave and now has to go to work. Soooo.... we went to the pedi and confirmed the dx and got him some steroids to go with his prevacid and back to school he went.

Last night went much better except he's hitting his 3m growth spurt and wanted to eat every 2 hours. He's definitely feeling less croupy which is a very good thing.

And I've decided to initiate a new award... Its called a MOY and you have to say it in a sarcastic tone. MOY stands for Mother of the Year...and we would call it the WMOY for Worst Mother of the Year but the acronym isn't as good. I'm accepting my 2nd MOY award today. Pats self on back. *note more sarcasm*

Nattie or Patrick :)

Check out the link to these 2 Photo's. Its just so cute how much the 2 of them look alike at approximately 3 months :)

FIRSTS!

Lets start w/ Patrick!

- Last night Patrick took his first bath in the baby tub without the infant hammock. He loved it. He was splashing with his feet. Which leads me to his second FIRST.

- Last night Patrick laughed for the first time. It was terrific. Absolutely hilarious. He was chuckling away in the bathtub and just having a grand old time. Natalie & I couldn't stop laughing right along with him. So much fun! I'm bringing the video camera for his next bath and will cross my fingers.

And me....

- Yesterday was my first day back to work. All in all things went well. I used my check lists for the morning and got us all out the door, to the daycare and dropped off pretty smoothly. I walked in the door of work at exactly 7:15 and was only minimally sweaty from sprinting the 5 blocks :) I made it thru the day and was absolutely brain dead by the time I got home. Today is a new day and it looks like if we do jet out of the house at 6:25 it is possible for me to be at work on time without the final sprint.

One last non-first item. Thanks to Natalie for being such an amazing kid the last 2 mornings. I absolutely couldn't have done it without her!

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

The title is in anticipation of my day tomorrow which I suspect will feel like a non-stop rollercoaster. I have 4 bags in the car, packed and ready to go. 1 for Nattie, 1 for Patrick, 1 for me and of course the milking machine. I will also need to remember the food in the fridge as well as well as the kids :) Perhaps someone will get me a sherpa as a back to work gift??

Its been a nice weekend for the most part. Will update later since Patrick is crying and Natalie is yelling for me and I can't focus.

The Morning is Mine!

I have dropped off Lovey & Bunky and packed a bag w/ snacks, drinks and a magazine. I'm off to the pool w/ my iPod.

Bliss....

Patrick's first day!

I dropped Patrick off at daycare this morning. I did manage not to cry until I was safely in my car alone. I hate crying.

I've gotten my first update that he took his bottle like a champ...all snuggled in with Jenelle...and I will pick him up in 2 hours to complete his first day.

Its good that I did this. It took a long time to get him situated this morning and I won't have that time next week when I have to be at work on time.

I think this would be easier if I wasn't such a control freak. If there was any belief in my mind that anyone could do this as well as I do life would be such a smooth ride :)

Conversation with Nattie - 7/9

Yesterday we saw an ambulance and Nattie & I were discussing how they were bringing a sick person to the hospital. Then the following statement came out...

"Mommy, they probably are really hot but the Motrin didn't work but they also have a broken elbow but their blood came out and they bit their tongue. But after they rode in the ambulance they didn't feel better so they had to go to the hospital but then they could be fixed. See that tree, I bet they fell out of that tree and broke their elbow but they also bit their tongue and got blood. You can't swallow the blood, that would be gross. Kind of like if you bit a monster and got a tiny piece of the monster in your mouth."

I've added punctuation to make it easier to read but it was really more of a run on sentence. Blows my mind where this stuff comes from!

Poor Neglected Blog

I'm not even going to try to catch this all up. its beyond me at this point so here's the latest!

Patrick - doing better with bottles and finally transitioned to his crib. He's doing great and smiling a lot and definitely smitten with his big sis!

Nattie - 3. definitely 3. She is so 3. Can it really be another 10 months until she turns 4?

Me - I feel like I've finally got this thing worked into a decent routine. Patrick goes to bed at 7 with Nattie and is taking longer naps. I'm getting things done around the house. Know what that means? its time to go back to work :)

Jame - midway thru another round of classes already! did I mention he got 2 more A's in his last round?

Family & holiday. We had a nice trip to the zoo for the 4th of July. :)

Pictures from our vacation to Cape May will be posted soon!