Fighting Back

Yesterday I blogged about the 3s.

I'd say it was a slightly hormonal and emotional response to the frustrations of toddler rearing we've experienced lately.

Today, I decided to start fighting back.

My first tactic is to address the selective hearing (otherwise known as the I REFUSE TO LISTEN TO A WORD YOU SAY IF YOU ARE MY PARENTAL UNIT).

I'm totally using reverse psychology. 

If I want her to come with me upstairs, I say "YOU CAN'T FOLLOW ME!" to which she says "YES I CAN!" to which I say "DON'T YOU DARE!" as I'm marching up the stairs with her giggling right behind me.

Victory.

If I want to get her dressed, I say "OKAY I'M GOING TO GET DRESSED NOW!" and pretend to try and put her clothes on, to which she says "YOU CAN'T PUT ON THOSE CLOTHES, THOSE ARE MY CLOTHES!" to which I say "NOPE! THEY ARE MINE! THEY FIT ME!" to which she says "NO THEY DON'T" to which I say, "OH YEAH?? LET ME SEE IF THEY FIT YOU" and then totally get her dressed while she giggles.  Same scenario with getting her coat, shoes, or hat on.

Victory.  Victory.  Victory.

I don't know how long I'll be able to milk it for, but she is pretty entertained by it now, so that is my new favorite strategy.

My second tactic is to address the ridiculous potty training regression that I think is making me want to rip my hair out, or at least giving me some gray hair.  So we're going back to the positive reinforcement chart and upping the ante.  Suckers and little toys are no longer the big ticket items.  They're little tokens along the way to getting new dresses, books, and a princess movie.

I made it and explained it to her while she was in the bath tonight.  Surprise, surprise, she immediately said she has to go potty.  So we got her out of the bath, put her on the potty and HOLY COW was there a pee geyser that came out of her.  I haven't seen her pee that much in a month.

So...I'm hoping that is a good sign and that we just need to do some hardcore bribery.  I'm not above it at this point. 

That's all I got for now...we'll keep you updated on the progress.

In the meantime, if you have any other strategies for the above issues or any other toddler-related frustrations, feel free to send them our way.  We clearly need all the help we can get. :)

The 3s

Sooooo...here's a couple of thing we've learned about three-year-olds.

1) They can sense weakness and they POUNCE...not unlike predators in the wild.  They are just super cute predators that kill with boundless energy and selective hearing (like when you need them to be calm and listen the most).

For example:  Callie was home with Chris today (with some help from Anna this morning- thanks Anna!) and by the time I got home he was on the couch and Cal was frantically playing and I could tell the difference in energy level between the two was gargantuan. 

The following conversation occurred:

Callie: (in her loudest most whiny voice possible, handing Chris a play-doh container) OPEN IT! OPEN IT! OPEN IT!
Chris: (in an obviously exhausted and irritated voice) Chill out for once.  Calm down.  You need to ask nicely.
Callie: (looking between the two of us and sensing our irritation with her lack of manners) Please.
Chris: Okay.
Callie: (smiling slyly) Just kidding!  Sometimes I test you.

OMG our 3-year-old just admitted to testing us.  I have no idea where she has heard that or if she even knows what that actually means, but she is right.  Which leads me to point #2.

2) They test boundaries like nobody's business and it has taken all our energy and mental (and physical) capacities to keep up with her and remain consistent.  Hence why we have brought in reinforcements (aka grandparents and aunties) so much lately...neither of us have been up to "the test" that she so obviously loves putting us through.

3) Just when you think you'll never survive the 3s, you have a mommy/daughter date night that melts your heart and sparks some hope that your little predator can be a cute cuddly teddy bear. 

Until she pees (nonchalantly) in her pants for the 50th time and tries eating your chapstick for the 24th time and yells out "NOSE!" to get her nose wiped for the 66,533,225,678,854 time and you're ready for bed by 7:00 but toddler bedtime isn't for another hour and you wonder how in the world 60 minutes can feel so long when a 90 minute nap time can feel so short.

So I guess that whole last rant brings me to my final point.

4) Expect the unexpected (seriously this potty training regression is throwing us for a loop), treasure sweet and quiet moments ("I love you, Mommy. You're the best mommy."), celebrate small victories (it only took her 30 minutes to fall asleep tonight instead of an hour!) and make sure to have a healthy stock of Kleenex and chapstick on hand.

Weekend Wrap-Up: The Mother's Guilt Edition

Holy moly.

We made it through the weekend, though there were points that I didn't think that would be the case.  Between Chris' shoulder recovery, Callie's nose, and my general pregnancy exhaustion, we were quite the group.  Once again our families stepped up and stepped in and Callie had sleepovers Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at either the condo or G-ma and G-pa's house. 

When she has a cold, her normal sweet disposition is completely overtaken by some sort of monster creature.  I'm not kidding- because she spent so much time with family during the whole ordeal, we have witnesses to the terror.

And here's where my mother's guilt comes in. 
1) I know that she is completely miserable.  It was obvious by the amount of crap coming out of her nose and how red and chapped it was. 
2) I know that when I'm that miserable I am crabby too.
3) But I could seriously NOT handle her attitude with everything else that was going on. 
4) And therefore, I felt SUPER guilty because I'm her mother- the one who is supposed to be able to comfort her the most, and I just couldn't handle it.

Ugh.  But she got lots of TLC from other family members and I was able to concentrate on helping Chris recover and also rest myself.  So once again, THANK YOU Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie Cat, Boom and Bops.  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

We did manage to get our hands on a couple of pictures from the weekend.




Dancing to a Tangled song

Sleepy times at G-ma and G-pa's house

 Thankfully today things were better with both Chris and Callie.  Callie still has a faucet for a nose, but it doesn't seem to be as congested and uncomfortable and she was back to her sweet self...mostly.

Chris has been drug-free since last night and trying to keep it that way.  He's hoping to get back to work tomorrow but he can't do that if he's still on drugs, obviously.  We'll see how it goes... there is still a lot of recovery that needs to happen.  He's been able to take his arm out of the sling but it is still pretty painful if he tries to move it around.  It is still a big improvement from the past two days.

As for me, I'm just tired.  My nausea has lessened quite a bit, but the exhaustion is still pretty constant.  Hamsie is 15 weeks along today and I'm looking forward to (hopefully) starting to feel him/her in the next few weeks.

Favorite-Things-Phone-Dump Friday

Oh boy.  This has been a week. 

I'll start backwards, with today.  Chris had shoulder surgery this morning- finally!  After a year and a half after the accident, he is ready for his shoulder to (eventually) be pain-free.  The surgery went well and they were able to remove things that were causing the pain.  He had both a local anesthetic to block the nerves in his shoulder and general anesthesia during the surgery.  The nerve blocker has been slowly wearing off throughout the day and it does not appear to be a fun process.  He likens it to the feeling of when you fall asleep on your arm and it becomes a dead weight- times a hundred- and then major tingly feelings that are working his way up the arm as the blocker wears off.  He was able to take his first dose of strong pain meds a few hours ago that have seemed to help. 

This experience has once again reminded us of how blessed we are. 

We have families who step in without hesitation to provide us with love, support, and most importantly, help with our energetic toddler who currently has a TERRIBLE cold.  She spent the night at the condo last night and with my mom all day today.  She came home for a bit to see us and then Auntie Cat brought her to G-ma and G-pa's house to spend the night there.  Tomorrow we go back to the condo and my dad is taking care of both Chris and Callie so I can go to a musical (one of my faves- Bye Bye Birdie!) with my mom and sisters.

We have friends and other family sending prayers and bringing us food and many offers for whatever we need.

We're both blessed to have jobs that are flexible and understanding when it comes to needing time off.

Therefore we're lucky. Blessed. Thankful.

So that is my first favorite thing. 

On to the phone-dump.  All 2 of them.

Favorite Thing #2: These two trouble makers together.  This was taken during a 4-toddler play date at Choo Choo Bob's on Monday.  There were 4 moms, 4 toddlers, and 3 infants.  Then we all went to Panera.  It was quite an experience.

Favorite Thing #3: Callie gets Tuesdays with her daddy.  He sent this picture to me when they were at the new Dora and Diego exhibit at the Children's Museum.  She was dressed as a butterfly and running around singing.

The rest of the weekend will obviously be low-key while Chris recovers.  Thanks again for all your support and prayers.

37-Months-Old

We are officially one month into the 3s.  I'd say it has been a rather rough month in terms of me not feeling well at all and trying to balance motherhood, work and the desperate desire for regular naps.  But we've made it through so far and (I hope) it can only get better.  At least for a few months until I'm super huge and hot and uncomfortable. 

This evening we took our 37-month old to Babies R Us to look for a new VIDEO monitor (the one we have been using for 3+ years is not good- only audio and has to be plugged in all the time and gets really static-y...and Chris found her in our room after her nap today eating chapstick, so there's that).

I'm currently watching her in bed right now and it is HILARIOUS.  And kind of creepy because it is night-vision so her eyes have that weird green glow if they are open.  So far she has gotten up to walk towards the camera, only to turn around and get right back in bed, and has moved all her animals and blankies (there are MANY) from one side of her to the other.  We've always heard her rustling around up there but never knew what she was doing.  Now we do.  And it is very entertaining.

Anyway...Callie's job for Babie's R Us was to pick out Baby Hamie's very first toy.  She took that job VERY seriously.

Our conversation in the toy aisle went as follows:

Callie: Um...okay.  I'm looking for something like a pink pig with white ears.
Me: (quickly scanning to see if such a thing existed...nope) Well, I don't know if you're going to find a pink pig with white ears. 
Callie: Okay well then I'm looking for something that is really soft. (touching random items to determine if they are soft)
Me: That's a great idea.  How about you find something that is yellow and soft?
Callie: Okay!  How about this giraffe?
Me: Perfect.

So Baby Hamie now has an adorable giraffe toy from his/her big sister.

Weekend Wrap-Up

Get ready for the lamest weekend wrap-up in babygoose history.  Not because the events that everyone else did were lame, but because I was TOTALLY lame this weekend.  The last few days of the first trimester kicked my butt and I spent way too much time on the couch than I wanted to.  Probably way more than Chris and Callie wanted me to too... but I had zero energy and was just pretty much wasted space.  But hopefully, now that we're starting Trimester 2, I'll start feeling better.

Anyway, on Friday while I was out at Aida, Chris and Callie hung out with the Wicks clan and Dave got an adorable picture of Callie and Kylie.

Saturday
The majority of my day on Saturday was spent miserable on the couch exhausted and not eating.  But, thanks to G-ma, G-pa and Auntie Cat, Callie had a much more fun day.  She spent the late morning/nap time and afternoon over there, and then they all went (with Chris, Dan and Anna) to a bowling alley to celebrate G-ma's birthday.  I was SO SAD to miss all the fun, but couldn't stay vertical for more than a couple minutes at a time, so I stayed home.  Mary sent a couple pictures though, so I could see a little bit of the fun.

Toddler bowling shoes!

Watching the ball hit the pins

She LOVED it. When she got home she said "Mommy, when you feel better we need to go bowling.  Did you know you get your own bowling shoes when you go???"

Sunday
I was feeling a little bit better, so I was able to tackle the crazy amount of laundry that had piled up while Chris took Callie to Sunday school.  After that they met our friend Nik, his brother Jed, and his two little boys for breakfast.  I was told that no pictures were taken because "It was crazy." 

We spent the afternoon at home with a silly girl who is endlessly entertaining.  Especially when she makes faces.

As soon as I took this picture, she said she wanted to take a picture of the baby.  So she did. Sort of.

Baby Hamsie

Speaking of the baby, the proud older sister has come up with the nickname.  It has nothing to do with geese or Gs or anything else, but it is perfect.

Baby Hamsie is now 14 weeks along and is the size of a lemon.  And I'm really hoping Baby Hamsie will start calming my insides down a little bit so I can be more than a lump on the couch. :)

Favorite-Things-Phone-Dump Friday

I only have 40 minutes until it isn't Friday anymore...and I'm like a good 3 hours past my bedtime, but I'm here and finally getting up my Friday post.

Again, not too many pictures.  It was a busy week but we managed to fit in a few fun playdates and other things.

Favorite Thing #1- Showing her muscles to Calvin

Favorite Thing #2- Seeing what a good sister she'll be when hanging out with baby Avery

Favorite Thing #3- Auntie time and ice cream

Favorite Thing #4- Girls' Night Out- how have I never seen Aida before?  It was AMAZING.

Another favorite thing from this week that I didn't get a picture of, but want to share, is how much Callie rocked her 3-year-old doctor's check-up today.  She did a vision test, a hearing test, and got her blood pressure taken (all new experiences) and did an amazing job with those things and everything else.  The doctor even commented on how "focused" she is compared to other three year olds.  The doctor was also impressed by her ability to pull off a fairy skirt.  Which she wears pretty much everywhere, as you may have noticed in a couple of the above pictures.

We were so proud of our little big fairy princess girl.

And also, our fairy princess has officially named the baby Hamsie.

Have a great weekend!

Baby QOTD

The baby quotes have started...not only with our toddler, but with my students.

Yesterday- while teaching a small group of 5th graders.
Student: I feel like every day your belly is getting bigger.
Me: That's because it is!
Student: (incredulously) So by the end it will be THIS BIG?? (holding arms out in a gigantic circle in front of her)

Tonight- while getting Callie's jammies on her.
Callie: (touching my belly) What do you think the baby is doing in there?
Me: Probably kicking around a little.
Callie: I think she's going like this! (skips around while punching the sky)

Weekend Wrap-Up

This weekend went by WAY too fast.  Probably because we had a blast!

Saturday
Before brunch for Grandma's birthday, Cal and I checked out the new Southdale play area while Chris did some work.

I was mortified, however, when I took off her shoes and realized she was wearing 0-6 month socks. 

I have no idea how that happened or where they came from or why they weren't put away like 2.5 years ago.  But they somehow ended up on her feet and I was just hoping other parents wouldn't notice and judge me.  Though I kept telling myself that no one is going to look at the bottom of a random kid's feet, I still had the anxiety.  Regardless, we survived and Callie had fun.

Saturday night we headed to the Koch's house for dinner.  We hadn't been there for months, and this time Callie was big enough to just go off and play with Christine without us having to supervise her.  It. was. Awesome.  I went and peeked at them after a bit, and found this adorable scene:

and then promptly heard, "GO AWAY MOM!"

So I went.  Somewhat gladly.

Later, they continued their adorable little duo and played with homemade play-doh.

Thanks to the Koch's (and especially to Christine!) for a fun night!

Sunday
We had the typical morning of Sunday School, Bruegger's lunch and nap time.  After nap time we headed to an indoor water park with the Helds.  I, of course, was only able to get a picture of the backs of the toddlers as they were running by.

They were having way too much fun to stop for a picture.  I got to hang out with Miss Mabel for a bit but she wasn't too keen on me taking her picture either.

So we all hung out in the pool instead and I didn't get any more pictures the rest of the night.

Lil G (trying a new nickname out to see if I like it...thoughts?) is now 13 weeks along, three inches long and weighs about an ounce.  They say he/she is as big as a medium shrimp.  One more week til 2nd trimester!  Can't wait!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

G-ma has a special birthday today and we got to help celebrate at brunch!

Happy happy birthday Grandma!  We love you!

Favorite-Things-Phone-Dump Friday

Happy Weekend!  Hooray!

I wasn't good about getting pictures this week, but the few I got were pretty great.  At least I think so.

Favorite Thing #1- Mind BLOWN by The Lion King! (She had only ever seen a couple of Youtube clips but we let her watch the first half hour or so of the movie and she LOVED it.)

Favorite Thing #2- Kissing the baby

Favorite Thing #3- Kona wanted to cuddle the baby too

On a slightly more frustrating note, ever since we told Callie about the baby, she has totally regressed with potty training (accidents...A LOT) and has also started talking like a baby more often.  She must understand how big of a change it will be and is processing it in the only way she can.  I guess that hopefully she can get it out of her system before the baby actually comes...but who knows.

Speaking of babies, my college room mate and dear friend Melissa (out in New York) had a little baby girl yesterday- Adelyn Mae joins big brother Teddy.  Congrats Melissa and Bobby!

Relief

Wow.  It felt really good to share our baby news.  Thanks to everybody for the warm wishes and congrats... we were overwhelmed by all the love on the blog and facebook!

It is a relief to be almost through the first trimester.

The day after we found out we were pregnant with Callie was the day I started this blog, so I was blogging the whole pregnancy.  Every teeny tiny detail.  I've gone back and read some of that stuff... it was fairly ridiculous at times. Like this one. Really?  A blog post about macaroni and cheese?  If you were reading back then, I apologize and thank you for sticking around.  :)

Anyway, not talking publicly about this one until now has been beyond weird and ignited a whole new level of "mother's guilt."   But I'm going to try and not worry about it.

So now I will share a little about this pregnancy so far.

*We found out on November 10th...and shared with our families the following week.
*I started feeling nauseous at about 6 weeks...and have been feeling that way ever since.  I wake up in the morning okay, but feel progressively worse throughout the day.  The last week or so I've been puking at night.  Fun times. 
*Due to the nausea, I have to CONSTANTLY eat.  I'm not kidding.  All the time. 
*Because of my constant eating and the fact that it is my 2nd pregnancy, I started wearing maternity pants and bella bands at around 7 weeks.  Ridiculous.
*The week before Christmas break, I wore puffy vests and huge sweaters to work to try and hide my little bump.  I also walked down the hallways holding folders or books in front of my stomach... kind of like how pregnant celebrities walk around with gigantic purses in front of their stomachs to try and fool the press.
*I have been SO tired and gotten into kind of a nasty sleep pattern.  I am so exhausted by the end of the day that I'm usually asleep on the couch at 8:30.  But then I am WIDE AWAKE in the mornings anywhere from 4:30-5:30am.  Which is why I then fall asleep on the couch again that night.  I gotta figure out how to break the cycle.
*Um...can I just say that taking care of a toddler during the first trimester of pregnancy is possibly one of the hardest things ever??  And I even had loads of help.  But for real...when you can't nap whenever you want to AND have to chase around a little person who seems to have endless energy, the exhaustion seems to grow ten-fold.  HOLY MOLY.

But...despite all the uncomfortable/miserable/exhausting stuff the past 8 weeks, I'm SO SO excited and thankful.  And Chris is SO SO excited and thankful.  And Callie is...well...we hope she is excited.  She's too busy being a princess, singing Disney songs and bossing us around to pay attention to anything else.

Our Little Secret

Since we were on vacation over New Years, I didn't do a yearly wrap-up like I did in 2010 and 2011.

But I will say this- 2012 was a pretty great year.  Thank you to all of the faithful babygoose readers who have taken the time to read and support us this year.

I must confess to you that we've been keeping a secret the past couple of months, and it has been tough to carry on here as usual without letting you all in on it.

Now we can!  But I'd rather you hear it from our three-year-old.  Sort of.

Our Secret from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

She clearly has some processing to do. :)

After explaining we're having a baby, she'll be a big sister, and the baby is growing in Mommy's tummy, her most pressing question was "Where is the baby in Daddy's tummy?"

I'm 12 weeks along and our due date (as of now) is July 21st.  Here's the teeny tiny little one as of a few weeks ago.

So while 2012 has been awesome, I'm excited for all that 2013 will bring.

And our first order of business (after me hoping to stop feeling nauseous and puking soon) is to come up with a nickname for this little one.  Something goose related perhaps?  Or maybe another kind of bird?  We have no idea, but if you come up with something great, pass it on to us.

Puerto Rico!!!

How do I sum up our great trip?

We (Chris, Callie, me, Boom, Bops, Auntie Yoda, Auntie Mari and Josh) left for Puerto Rico a week ago today early in the morning.  Travel was easy and our toddler was a champ.  And she continued to be a champ the entire week.

We spent the week hanging out in our rental house that had it's own pool and was a short walk to the beach.  We went on a snorkeling/monkey watching boat tour.  We explored a fort in Old San Juan.  We drove through the rainforest.  Some of our group went deep sea fishing (and some of them got totally seasick!).  Some of our group went golfing.  Most of us took naps in the hammock. We splashed in the pool and boogey boarded in the ocean.  We had an iguana visit our backyard multiple times.  We ate out a few times but mostly enjoyed relaxing and cooking at the house. 

We absolutely reveled in our family time together in the sunshine.

But enough of me talking, I'll let the pictures tell the story of our trip.

12/29- On the plane and ready for sunshine!

12/30- Ready for a boat ride to Monkey Island!

12/30- We chose to kayak instead of snorkel

12/30- A monkey parade!

12/30- Hanging in the ocean with Boom





12/30- Enjoying the pool

12/31- Cannon balls at the fort

12/31- Boom and her girls in San Juan

12/31- Getting a lift from Bops

12/31- Searching for star fruit

12/31- We found some! (The are REALLY tart)

Our Iguana Friend from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

1/1- New Year's breakfast from Boom

1/1- Hanging with Auntie Mari

1/1- Relaxing in the pool

1/1- Beach time with the aunties

1/1- Our iguana friend is back

1/1- El Yunque rainforest with our new friend Rico

1/1- The whole gang in the rainforest

1/1- A cow on our way out of the rainforest

1/2- Ready for a deep sea adventure

1/2- Pretty girl in PR

1/2- Dinner at "home"





1/3- I'm going to miss that hammock

1/3- Enjoying our last day in the sunshine

Thanks to my parents for the wonderful trip, and to them and my sisters and Josh for being so fantastic and helpful with our little toddler so Chris and I could get some relaxation in too.  As I hope you could tell from the pictures, it was a fantastic week!