The alphabet song…
And attempting Old MacDonald—I guess we need to work on it. 🙂
Privileges lost
Owen just lost all privileges of playing out of my sight.
He was upstairs and I assumed he was playing nicely. Ha.
Well, at first I heard some loud noises, but it sounded like his golf balls rolling around in the tub so I figured he was just playing in the tub which was fine. Then it got quiet and I got a little worried…but Katie was sleeping on me so I let him be and kept my fingers crossed.
Then he came down the stairs and I see he had taken off his pants and underwear—which worried me because that’s what he’s been doing when he has to poop. So I put Katie down (which wakes her up, of course) and go over to him…and notice poop hanging from his butt.
Ugh.
So I make him stand there until I can go grab a wipe to take care of that so it doesn’t end up in the carpet. Then we head up to the bathroom and OH MY.
Where to start? I couldn’t take it all in at once.
- There was a pair of underwear in the toilet.
- His underwear and pants were in a pile next to the toilet.
- The tub was full of toys.
- The hand towel was in the sink.
- The mirror had water drops splashed on it.
- The shelf above the sink was covered in water and toothpaste.
- The countertop was covered in water and toothpaste.
- There was poop smeared on the counter.
- The toilet seat was covered in poop smears.
- His shirt was drenched.
- There was toothpaste on the countertop.
- I lifted the towel from the sink to discover two toothbrushes—completely covered in a combination of toothpaste and liquid soap.
- I noticed his kiddie flossers in the sink and on the counter—which meant he got up into the second shelf of the medicine cabinet (where I put things to keep them out of his reach).
UGH.
Needless to say he got a time out…and he lost TV privileges for the day.
Overall I know it could have been worse, but I was still livid. This is the kind of stuff I just do NOT have the patience for…and what I worried about long before having kids. And I have to say that if Owen was acting like this earlier (at a younger age, like the Terrible Twos that we missed) I would have seriously debated having a second.
Miss Katie says hello
Or maybe just coos and smiles a little. 🙂
Katie has lost her status.
Katie has temporarily lost her status as a good baby who sleeps through the night. 😐
After weeks of sleeping through until at least 7—but more likely 7:30 or 8—she has been up at 5 or 5:30 three mornings in a row.
Overall I know I should still be thrilled (since Owen at this age was still up a few times a night) but it’s SO hard to get up that early after you’ve been “sleeping in” for awhile.
Hopefully it’s just a brief phase.
She loves the basket!
A pooped pup
We took Maggie with us to our friends’ house for the afternoon…so she played hard for hours with Venus (a big lab). This is right after we got home…and she was zonked the rest of the night. 🙂
I still call it home.
I saw this shirt at Down With Detroit and couldn’t resist.
Bug eyes!
Or, fun with Katie’s bottle tops.
The last payment!
I just made the last payment on our only credit card that was carrying a balance—so we are officially done with credit card debt!! And amazingly…done mostly since I’ve stopped working (which of course makes me wonder just what the hell we were doing with my salary the whole time I was working)!
Of course, we still have the mortgage and two cars and Tom’s student loans…but the original debt is gone!
In an ironic side note, the amount we made at our garage sale was just about the exact last payment ($539 vs. $534). I guess it was meant to be.
Owen playing games
Owen is a riot when he’s playing his Xbox Lego Indiana Jones game. Tom showed him some basics, but otherwise he learns how to do stuff on his own (trial and error, but still impressive). But what’s funny is listening to him while he plays—if he can’t figure something out, it’s a constant stream of “Dad? Dad? Dad? Dad? I need your help.”
Today we’ve also heard:
I did it! I got the spider!
Watch out, bad guys!
Hey, stop!
Uh oh.
Wow! Did you see that?
Remember? Mom? Remember?
I found coins! Cool!
It’s a gold coin and a blue coin. Amazing!
Look! Orange guys. Go and get them!
Mom, dad…something is happening.
Most of the time Tom and I just look at each other and crack up.
Now THAT’S a garage sale!
So we finally had our garage sale today—we’ve been wanting to have one ever since we moved back to Jacksonville but just never got around to it. If you remember, our last garage sale was a complete dud and we pretty much vowed to never have another. But we just had SO much good stuff to sell that we decided to take the chance.
And we’re glad we did.
Yes, it was a bit of legwork to get ready for it—and I pretty much ran the whole day by myself as Tom was in taking care of the kids—but it went really well. I didn’t get TOO terribly aggravated with people making deals (because we wanted the stuff GONE!) but I did draw the line a few times—of which these two cases were the most memorable:
- One guy at about 7:15 (we officially opened at 7 but of course had people shopping in the dark at 6:45) pointed to all the stuff he wanted and it totaled $45 and asked if I’d make him a deal. I said sure, $40. He says “How about $30?” Uh, sorry, NO. Not at 7:15am on popular items (like a pack-n-play and space heaters) and certainly not that big of a deal.
- An obviously English-understanding but Spanish-speaking only woman (her young daughter was translating between us most of the time) who drove up in an [Escalade or Excursion or something] and was talking on an iPhone thought that $2 was too much for a two-piece baby outfit—which I had already discounted from $4 (I had all baby clothes marked at $2 per piece). She made a big stink about how that was just TOO. MUCH. MONEY. Really? SERIOUSLY?
But otherwise I was giving out good deals.
It was pretty busy all day but no matter how much stuff people bought, it never looked like the stuff was dwindling! NEVER! (Unfortunately, that just goes to show you just how much stuff we had. And sadly, the garage is still FULL of boxes we have to sort through and reorganize.)
When it was over, I was eager to count our stash and see how well we did. I was excited to see that we made $539—until I looked back at the total for our last garage sale (that I complained was a complete dud) and saw that the difference was only $239. But, it just felt like it went SO much better—and, if you go back and read the old garage sale post, you will see that I said another $200 would have made it better. One shopper even commented that it was a really nice sale! Yay, us! (And I have to give a huge thank you to our friends who loaned us tables and signs!)
So, in the end, we made about $300 for about 18-20 hours of work (prep, sale, clean up) which just sooooo doesn’t seem worth it. I mean, it’s better than working that long for nothing…but had we sold another $200 worth I’d be more amenable to having another garage sale sometime during my lifetime.
So I guess we did okay. Not awesome, but okay.
And everyone who drove by? They actually stopped…even if they didn’t buy anything! 🙂
Like mother, like daughter.
This was one of MY shirts back in the day…homemade by my mom! She held onto it for almost 40 years on the off chance I’d have a girl so she could wear it! Also, be warned, this is the first of many hand-me-down outfits to come… And mom? Now you have to search all the old slides and photos to find a picture of ME in the shirt!
I love the belly button showing! Her first belly shirt! 🙂
Dresser climbing, anyone?
While I was outside running the garage sale and Tom was busy inside with Katie…Owen tried climbing up on his dresser and knocked it over!! Thankfully he wasn’t hurt (there’s not much room for it to fall since its super close to the bed) but still. OMGWTFBBQ!!?!? He’s NEVER tried anything like that—ever—so it was a BIG surprise. Ugh. And of course it had a partially-filled humidifier on it…so everything was drenched. 😐
We missed the terrible twos but apparently are getting the terrible threes instead.
You’re not happy!
Well apparently Owen is pooping in the potty but refuses to admit it, even when we’re both looking at it. It’s not full poops, but rather the big squished pieces that basically fall out from between his cheeks…but they’re in the toilet so I’m happy! But I am flummoxed as to why he won’t admit it. He actually vehemently denies it (telling me “You’re not happy!” even though I tell him I’m very happy)…until I say we can go pick a toy. 😐
Owen’s running commentary
I go in to get him out of bed, and all I say is “Good morning” and he’s off and running:
Bucky fell in the water. Captain America fell in the water.
Charlie’s bumping! She’s bumping me! Look at her butt—that’s poop.
I need my B! You’re on my B!
I neeeed yourrrr help. I need to find all the coins…and gold treasure…and gold heads. I need to play my game.
The sun isn’t out yet. Is it raining?
The big green monster was way up high. (I say “The Incredible Hulk?”) NO! The big green monster!
Where’s daddy? Daddy’s at work.
What’s that noise? Do you hear that? It’s a plane.
My foot hurts. Look at my foot.
Turn the lights on.
Can I watch TV, mom?
I love listening to him…
No questions! No answers!
So Owen and I were sitting on the couch, just hanging out. We weren’t having a conversation about anything specific (at least in MY mind) when suddenly Owen—in his somewhat angry/tantrum-y voice—but not actually sounding like a real tantrum—says:
NO…QUESTIONS!!! NO…ANSWERS! NOOOOOOOO QUESTIONS! NOOOOOOOO ANSWERS!
Complete with the arms waving and scowling (think back to the refusing to go poop video).
I have NO idea what it was about and NO idea where it came from. It doesn’t sound like anything from any of his shows… But it just killed me and I was laughing and laughing. And at first he was not happy with me laughing and gave me a big scowl…and then he was laughing, too. 🙂
Owen, his dolly, and Katie.
I was in the kitchen when Owen came in, grabbed my hand, and said “Mama! Mama! C’mere—I have a special for you!” And I saw this:
Moments later, he grabbed her bottle and his dolly’s bottle: “Mama! Look! Two milks!”
What a kid!
Owen’s bag
Owen is now old/big enough to carry his own bag to the car. He always comments how heavy it is (for him, not generally speaking) and today this is how he figured out to carry it!
Oops!
I didn’t quite mean for this to happen…but it was indeed cute.
I felt a little bad—even though I’m sure she wasn’t UNcomfortable—so I moved her.
She slept almost an hour, then woke up like this—TA DA!
Stab and dunk!
I taught him a new way to eat his pancakes this morning—which would hopefully be less messy—and because he really needs to start eating more with utensils.
Things Owen said today.
Me: Is Katie crying?
Owen: Yes, let’s go check on her!
I started feeding Katie.
Owen: Mama, you feed Katie so well.
I told him he couldn’t play with my phone.
Owen: I am not happy right now.
Katie is 3 months old!
Update your bookmarks!
If you bookmarked the blog since it’s been revamped, you might have a link that includes a bunch of numbers and a strange userid (the address I needed to use until all the background stuff was taken care of). It will still get you to the same spot, but if you want to change it, it actually appears as www.hudson2001.com now!
She’s so beautiful!
Me: Owen, it’s almost time for bed.
Owen: No, I have to play with my baby.
I open the plastic container for him.
Owen: WOW!!! —As he carries her away— She’s so beautiful!
Boats
This morning, these were boats.
Grapes tomorrow!
Me: Owen, please eat your grapes.
Owen: No, I’m playing. I’ll eat them tomorrow.
(I’m just thrilled he eats them at all—it’s a new food he started eating on vacation.)
Bribery: it works!
Owen was playing a new video game that he constantly needed Tom’s help with. So, Tom told him if he would hold Katie, he would help with the game. I’ll take it. 🙂
You won’t see this very often…
She looks normal and cute, right? So what’s not normal?? If you guessed the bow, you’re right. 🙂 It was a gift—and it is cute—so I took a few pictures. But it’s definitely not a normal thing for us…since I’m just NOT a girly girl when it comes to things like that.
OH. MY. GAWD.
You know how I have said how huge Owen’s poops have been up until now? That they put US to shame? And how he hasn’t really pooped in over a week now?
Well he just pooped.
And it was honestly THE biggest poop I’ve EVER seen. Anywhere, anytime, anyone. Without having actually measured it, I’d say it was at least 10-12″ long. NO LIE. He was with Tom again (so I didn’t get to see the whole process) but he didn’t seem any worse for the wear—no crying or anything—by the time I got down there (Tom yelled for me to come check it out).
After we got all excited and Owen said “You happy? Mama happy now?” (YES!), I asked, “Don’t you feel better now?” And he said “MY HURT IS GONE!!”
Poor kid. 🙁
I guess we continue with the daily Miralax in hopes it works better now that he’s apparently cleaned out…and we don’t go another seven days without a poop.
Diapers, anyone?
Costco. Wow. 🙂
I had 11 boxes of diapers to return and of course didn’t even think about the receipts because they’ve been bought piecemeal over the past six months and returns are so easy—they just look it up on your card and you’re done.
Except this time it was a PITA because some were bought online and some were in-store. And they each had to be looked up separately and returned separately. And it was just a hot mess of confusion (two different sizes, to boot). But all FOUR people who were working on it were completely awesome—and were apologizing to me for it taking so long (it took about 30 minutes). (And yes, I apologized for being a pain. Had I thought about it, I would have printed my order emails.) We were all laughing and joking and I told them I would likely be spending the whole amount momentarily…and they said that’s what they hoped! I even saw the manager during checkout and she joked “Hey, it’s you again!” And she joked that I only had one bottle of wine!
I LOVE COSTCO.
Oh, and we spent MORE than we returned. And we returned $400 of diapers. 😮
Oh yeah—Why did I have so many extra boxes? Because every time they were on sale I bought a couple boxes. And I really didn’t expect Owen to be potty trained for a while yet. I also had a couple boxes of size 1-2 for Katie but she’s almost out of those… And I had forgotten we like the Pampers with the pee-line on them so we’ve been using those instead.