My Life is starting to get back to the normal...

But please let me update you in one sweeping post again and then we can just move on like I never missed a beat? Yes? Okay.

I will also be using photos from my iphone as I do not know where my camera cord is and well, i haven't taken THAT many photos on it anyway. Moving on.

Kinsley is still very protective of her brother. Sometimes agressively loving, but i'll take that over disliking him!

Parker has a girlfriend, she's cute. He's huge... Milk does a body good! Speaking of milk, it's going well! I Still have a large over supply and have filled 5 trays in the basement for storage. I know it won't always be this amazing so that will help us get through the lean days and hey if it keeps up and i don't have to dip into the stash much then that will be that many more months I can stop early with breastfeeding!

AHHH WHY IS IT UPSIDE DOWN!?!?!?
Every day that is sunny we go outside for a walk after Kinsley gets home from daycare. This is mandatory because it keeps me sane. Without this i would be trapped inside with a fussy toddler and clingy baby until bedtime since the hubs has been getting home later than I approve of. Not. An. Option! So we walk and most the time we walk like this... aint he cute?

Why has life been draining? I mean I stay home all day right? I send my toddler to daycare, hello esay street! Yeah NOT. My infant has refulx and is clingy about it. He isn't fussy as much anymore but he must be held... all the time... by ME. If someone else holds him, he cries. If i put him down and he's not in a DEEP sleep, he cries. Don't get me wrong, the kid gets put down. I need to shower and pee jsut like the rest of y'all and while I can do a lot of things while holding a baby and even while breastfeeding, those are two things I won't cave on. Peeing is ME TIME! Also we're Potty training. I think I've clearly explained before how this sucks... A LOT! My child is fond of peeing in the potty then going and sitting on my couch and peeing agian. YEA! She also likes to scream for whatever it is she wants and she always makes sure she wants something you don't want her to have. Three Packs of fruit snacks for dinner? No sorry but fruit snacks are NOT a meal and aren't even REAL fruit. Enter toddler tantrum. There have been MANY nights where both children and screaming to high hell and the hubs walks in wondering what I've done to them... right what I'VE done to THEM...

SO to try to make sure that Kinsley knows I still love her even though I'm a crazy Momma sometimes I pick her up from daycare early to take her to get ice cream... I don't think she gets what a big deal it is (in my mind) but she enjoys it~

I Technicially started back to work last week. I was teleworking however, and well it wasn't quite like being BACK at work. I did take both kids to daycare each day and well I only teared up about 6 times over leaving Parker. And as a Thank You to Kinsley for watching her brother at daycare and to make sure she knows she is still a big deal to us I got her a new dress up dress~

She liked it until she peed on it. She loves dressing up now and I LOVE it!
Last week we also got our pipes replaced. Our townhouse was built in 1987? and the code for pipes then was different than it is now and since we're going to be refinishing out basement soon we knew that would be the first step. So done and done.

Parker was sick, again, this weekend. Saturday he woke with 102.2 fever. Took him to the pediatrician and it's just a cold but he's been super clingy and puniey. He'll go from this...

to this...

pretty quickly so it's been a struggle since i'm the only one that can take that lip away. Poor guy!

We also had a community yardsale in our circle this weekend.. Kinsley LOVED it because she got to play with all her friends all morning.

WHY all my photos are uploading sideways I DO NOT know but there you have it.
Working from home equals not being a good eater and not working out, which equals no weightloss.

I worked out Monday and Tuesday (this is last week people not this week). I did Insanity. Google it, it's hard. But after being so tired because my kids don't like sleeping and having to work full time again I decided it was in my dropping milks supplies best interest to take a break from everything and sleep... and eat. But now we're "Back in the Saddle again..." Yes i just referenced an extremely cheesy country song. Moving on.

I'm back at work WORK today (HA started this post on Monday, can't you tell... it's now coming to you on a wednesday, more on THAT later). YEA! Is it bad that I look at this as my ME time? Because I do. I know when i get home that I will be wiping noses, butts, and mouths and then there are the kids to take care of! So right now I'm acting like an adult and talking to adults and pumping my boobs dry.

My daughter has had a few break throughs!
1. She started doing AMAZING with her potty training this weekend. We only had poopoo accidents!!! Well one peepee friday night but that was it!

2. I've found that if i really talk more to her and ask her about her feelings or why she doesn't want to do something that things go smoother. Example... "Kinsley would you like to go potty now at home or when we get to school" stops the meltdown of not wanting to peepee at that moment because she feels like she's incontrol. And she will actually hold it until we get to school if that's what she chose to do!

3. Passifier. GONE! Thanks to a lovely lady named Becky that thought of us and our struggles, but THAT all deserves it own post! You'll love me for it (and her since she sent it to me!)

Well now you're caught up... i'll give you another post that will catch you up even more... because I'm always behind now~

Sorry, He's HERE!

Parker Thomas was born on 2/17/12 at 6:13pm
He was 8 lbs and 11oz, 21" long!

I was induced and the birth was amazingly great (2 1/2 pushes!!)... more on that later, i'm now going to bombard you with pictures.

What a day What a day...

Kinsley had a Valentine's Day party yesterday at school and I got to attend! I love these events and having a job that allows me to help and attend!

Here's my little Cupcake in the hat she made for the occasion!

She was VERY excited about the fruit snacks another parent brought.

These are all of her little friends that we get to hear her tell stories about every night at dinner. I love how good they all are, so tiny sitting so nicely around the table eating. OMG! And then they'll throw their plates away too, by themselves! These little people are growing up too fast!

She's very social with her friends and often acts like she has to keep order at the table! lol

What really floored me was when I arrived they were all sitting on the reading rug and each one was on their name... and the teacher didn't put them there, they know where their name is! Kinsley actually recognizes her name on papers and things. If they get up the teacher says go sit on your name and THEY DO! Where is my little baby? So glad on Friday I'll have another one coming since this one is obviously so big and grown up! I just love her and the person she's turning into!

Happy Valentine's Day!

This smile is courtesy of the waffles she is consuming! YEA!

I felt like a rockstar Mom this morning! I felt better than I have in DAYS. I got K presentable... got MYSELF presentable (even washed and dried my hair!), made her little treats to take for breakfast for her friends

Sent her to school with her Valentines and pink Rice Krispy Treats! Put dinner in the crock pot, and got us to her daycare only 10 mins late! HOLLA!

If this baby came today it would be partially sad because i would miss her little party and our playdate tonight BUT i would be okay with it because I would know SHE is at school enjoying her party and I did everything a Momma could do to help her have a good time at it!

Nice to feel like my old self again!

My little Picasso

Last night i was in the kitchen when I heard a sound that I knew was trouble. See I knew Kinsley was coloring on her easel and then I heard something that put into mind she was not coloring where she was supposed to. So i went around the corner to look and she RAN. I asked her where she was coloring and she remained mute... so i looked hard and here's what I found.

It's very faint but that's orange crayon! And it goes ALL across my wall! I had to try not to laugh. I did think though about the fact that OBVIOUSLY she knows better (hello she ran for the hills) but I never had the "no coloring on the walls" conversation with her. So i told her that was a bad job and we don't color on Mommy's walls and that she had to help me clean it.

So she helped. While she was helping I told her if she does it again then she will go in timeout.

Later that evening as Chris and I were putting K to bed she informed her Daddy that "I colored Mommy walls!" and then quickly followed it up with "no more, timeout!"... so she gets it.

Here's what gets me. The excuses people make for toddlers. I get they are little and will get into mischief, but not punishing them because they are "only two" and "most likely thought..." seems silly to me.
1. They will NEVER know if you don't teach them it's wrong
2. SHE RAN AWAY as soon as she saw me... she KNEW it was not okay AND she told her Daddy later where she's allowed to color! SHE SOOO GETS IT!

I put K in timeout the other night at my bother-in-laws house and Chris thought I embarrassed her and my mother-in-law hated all two minutes of it. This kind of irked me.
See she hit my brother-in-law in the face, blantenly. She knows hitting is NOT okay and she knows if she hits then she goes in timeout. Hubs thought i should just have her say sorry and move on... but here's why I didn't.

1. She will kick or hit me and then say sorry right away in hopes of not being put in timeout... but you can't teach her that it's okay to hit as long as you say sorry right away. Regardless if you're sorry there are consequences. So now my child RARELY hits.

2. If I don't carry out our disciplining in public she will learn that when we aren't home she can walk all over my rules because i won't do anything. She's not at an age where I can punish her later, it has to be in the moment so she associates it with the bad behavior.

So as funny as I think many of her toddler moments are now, they won't be funny when she's 4 or 10 and not listening to me. They won't be funny when I have the child that can't be controlled and therefore we're never invited to play dates because of that. In my opinion your kid needs to know from the beginning that you have rules that must be followed, if you try to all of a sudden spring these new rules on them when they are 4, they won't understand. "Before you just told me no, NOW i get in actual trouble???"

There will never be any surprises with my child as far as acceptable behavior and I'm okay with that. Because you know what else, she knows how to have fun and be silly AND that she's loved despite my rules. We make messes together, and we clean up together. We play together and we take care of each other.

I tell my daughter "I love you" WAY more then I tell her "No" (most days, lol). She will grow up and make mistakes and she will know that I will always be there at the end of it to give her a hug and tell her I love HER just not that behavior.

It's amazing what little things do!

I was in Target the other day, one of my many weekly visits, and was waiting for a prescription so I was checking out the kids stuff and stumbled across these two little coats, one was Elmo and one was Minnie Mouse. The Elmo might have been favored had she seen them BUT she does love Minnie Mouse and Pink and this coat wasn't as terrible for public wearing.

I texted Chris and asked him if she would want it and he responded with a Yes so home it came.

I think she likes it! She had to put it on right away! It's Minnie Mouse, Pink, has pockets, AND a "hat". Winner all around!

I love that face!

Despite what you might be thinking, K does get to have fun!

Last Tuesday, despite being in terrible pain Kinsley and I attended a play date at BounceU. It was family night and for $18 she got to play from 5-8 (we left at 7) and we both got pizza and drinks! AND she got to see her friends and burn energy! SCORE!

To say she had fun was an understatement. AND I was worried. She didn't have a good day at school, didn't take a nap... It really could have gone either way, but she was good AND had fun!

This slide below was AWESOME! I had to go down with her a few times in the beginning, mostly because i had to help her to the top... do you SEE the size of this thing?

But she got the hang of it pretty quickly when these two PITA kids weren't crawling OVER her and almost knocking her down while their parents did nothing.

As you can see there was A LOT to do and we did it all. Yep she, Parker, and I. Oh and her friends... but yep i was in on it... wanted to cry in pain but totally worth it for her smile!

These are the PITA boys

This is my little girl wrestling with me!

FRIENDS (minus one who got in on another pic)! The girl in the front is 3 months older than K, the blond is 3 months younger than K. And they all play and argue like sisters! BFFs in the making?

So all in all a perfect night that ended with a "good job listening" lollipop! So see, I'm no all doom and gloom, K does get to smile and see the outside world occasionally!

Okay i REALLY want to have this baby and...

See if people's predictions are true. Kinsley is a "big helper". She likes to do anything you do. Cooking, cleaning, you name it! She also LOVES to take care of her baby dolls like we take care of her, including changing "BIG POOPS".

Lately she's been visiting Chris's Grandma a lot at the nursing home, whether we go or she goes alone with Debbie (her grandma). She taken to pushing her baby dolls around in their stroller on the floor and saying hi to everyone. I'm kinda shocked she's not scared, since most of the adults on that floor are drooling and not very coherent (Alzheimer's). But she LOVES it... but what does she love even more? Getting to feed Grandma Ruth

I mean beyond cute right? She was actually pretty good at it too!
So here's the debate... whenever my son decides to FINALLY leave my body, will K be a big helper or a jealous toddler, or a little of both? I can't wait to find out!

I love My Gym!

So we used to go to Little Gym (for those of you unfamilar with these places they are like fun places where kids can play and burn energy relatively safely and they are indoors. They also teach them stuff but that's not why we REALLY go there is it?). We went to Little Gym because it had a good class time for us (i can only take K on Saturdays) and we had two of our neighbors going to there. BUT, I didn't really like it. Kinsley thought it was cool but I don't think she was REALLY excited about it ever. Eventually summer came and babies were born and we all stopped going to Little Gym.

K needed something though and I looked into Dance classes, but the places around us were not be responsive. Then i looked into My Gym, I used to work at one in college and knew K would love their program A LOT more. BUT, the saturday class was full. But, low and behold, right before Christmas, I got the call that she could now attend!!

TOTAL HIT! They still have a great program, awesome teachers and so much to do. Every week Kinsley can't wait to go and "swing, play in balls, slide, and DANCE" (all her words!). They change the set up every week and have new songs and activities and it all just flows better!

Every week they have a time where the kids get to swing and there's always special swings during this time. This week... the ZIP LINE!

I would say she's pretty much LOVING it!

And here she is in the "big" swing of the week, the bed swing.

ONLY time a boy is allow in her bed!

My Gym was a great choice for us. No it's not as close as other places but it's SO worth it for that smile!

My butt hurts, and a Christmas preview~

So my ass hurts... badly. I don't know if it's from Parker or my sadistic co-worker that convinced me to climb stairs with her yesterday.

My co-worker, who is 3 weeks farther along then me and has always been a runner (like a real, NEEDS to run runner) and has been working out her entire pregnancy while I slept, convinced me to workout with her at lunch. Just to do "something" so i would get into something of a groove before he was born and then keep it up afterwards. yea... see where this is going?

So I brought in my gear and headed down the gym with her. Well mistake number one, it's the new year so EVERYONE is heading down to the gym... the small gym. So all the machines were taken. My "take a nice gentle stroll on the elliptical" was taken. She being the hard ass that she is said she didn't get all changed for nothing (while i was thinking just changing was a workout in itself) and said we should walk some stairs. Somehow I agreed to this... can't be shown up ya know...

So we started up. It's 9 flights. ten if you count from the basement, which we only did that flight once. NINE flights. Um, I do paper, rock, scissors with hubs to NOT take the dogs outside at night so then i won't have to walk up just two flights. So we did it. Went down and she looked ready to do it again. I said to hell with it and joined her, rallying myself that I could do it once more. We got back to the bottom, I was sort of in one piece and she informed me she had ONE MORE left in her. I finally sucked up my pride and told her that last time WAS my one more time. But I didn't have my card to get back into the gym to change and I didn't want to sit in the stairway to be asked a million times if I was okay so I told her to go at HER pace and I would just meet her on her way down.

Ladies and gentleman I made it to the 7th floor! It hurt, it still hurts. But I made it! I will NOT make it again, unless by elevator.

So my ass hurts and I'm not sure if it was the stairs, Parker, or a combo of both of them.

ANYWAY....

Here's some Christmas pics to get you through until my family sends me theirs.

Pre-Santa... getting pumped up with Chick f la straws!

She looks unhappy here but she actually did NOT cry... I'll show proof with the official one soon.

Post Santa reward cookie! Piece of cake (or cookie) in her opinion.

Yeah she's all "See I'm a pro"... when in fact she was TERRIFIED!

Helping Momma get the presents to hand out, since bending is not my forte anymore.

I have a weird smile on my face, ignore that please.

K was really excited about some Elmo something or another... can you tell she likes Elmo by the PJ's?

Christmas, round two with Grandma...

It was great, but i can't wait to show the pictures of her in her Jeep that Santa brought! Also when is it appropriate to get rid of the Elf on the shelf TV special. Even though Chippy is drinking away his life with the booze and K thinks he's back at the North Pole we are still subjected to daily Elf on the Shelf TV watchings. Sometimes more if it's a weekend day. I know all the words.... Chris is starting to quote it... it's out of control.