For the first time in nearly two years I have the house completely to myself.
Hubby and the boys are at his nephew's graduation/bon voyage to college party. They won't be home for a while.
I'm at a complete loss as to what to do with myself.
Of course I'm doing laundry. Duh!
I could read a book, knit, surf the web, troll Facebook...whatever I want but I have no idea what I want.
I'm restless and fidgety.
I want to write but without all the background noise to filter out I can't concentrate and my mind is racing. Thoughts come and go like lightning bugs in the dark and I can seem to zero in on any particular topic.
So much has gone on lately and time seems to speed up.
I blinked and the boys went from one to almost 21 months.
They are adorable and funny.
They repeat everything...and I mean EVERYTHING!!!
All of a sudden the words "crap" and "damn" have taken on greater meaning and my use of them has been curbed...considerably.
We are attempting the potting training part of child-rearing.
Right now it's more of a "thing" than actual training. We'll get there eventually but for now "pee pee" is just something that they like to say.
Until they are in the bathtub.
Then they like to pee in the cup that we use to rinse their hair. We have tried to have them pee on the potty before they get into the tub but they hold it until they get in the tub and then pee in the cup.
The Stuntman will repeatedly pee in the cup. He has enough control to grab the cup and hold it in the right place to make the attempt.
The other night after repeatedly attempting to no avail he looked up at me and declared, "empty."
Smart kid!
Bath time is a particular favorite of ours.
Hubby usually strips the kids while I go upstairs to run the bath. Once naked and given the "all clear" he opens the gate and lets them climb up.
The other night after undressing one and while undressing another, the first came over and peed on hubby's foot.
He yelled.
The culprit sprinted through the house buck naked giggling and screaming the entire time.
I laughed.
How can you not laugh?
Showing posts with label screaming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label screaming. Show all posts
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Counting Blessings...One-handed
Yes there is such a thing as being too patient!
The other night the Engineer tripped and face planted right into the door jamb. After I got him settled down hubby was playing with him when the Engineer fell again and hit the same spot which was again followed by screaming.
Hubby is so patient, too patient in fact. He held the Engineer, whose screams continued to escalate, and just sat there on the sofa with him waiting for the 15 month old to settle down...which did not happen.
If doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is really the definition of insanity, then hubby is truly nuts.
Since day one he has done virtually the same thing. While I believe that kids need to learn to soothe themselves, there are times when self-soothing is not an option and distraction is the better option.
I thought this was common sense...evidently it's rocket science.
When I tell him to move around, etc. he gets defensive like I'm picking on him. Noooo I'm here all day, I have to distract them fairly frequently and know what works because I'VE TRIED IT!!
Of course some days are better than others - which really goes without saying but, I've said it anyway.
Most days the boys are capable of playing by themselves. They will fight over toys, but usually find something else to play with once the toy has been removed. There are certain toys that we keep out of reach as they involved parental supervision and well...I don't always feel like supervising.
Since we began the liquid Zantac our nights have improved immensely. The kids sleep through the night almost all the time now...almost.
We've been battling colds lately. Large quantities of snot aside, it hasn't been bad during the day, but night time is another story all together.
At approximately 9 p.m. every evening, we settle the kids into their highchairs, dispense meds and brush their teeth. The Stuntman receives a dose of Zantac and liquid Rolaids and if needed the Engineer will receive a dose of ibuprofen. Most nights the Engineer gets jealous of the Stuntman's medicine and we have to give him a "taste" to settle him down.
Of course, he only wants this when he's not sick. When he is sick, giving him medicine is a terrible experience for all of us! It takes no less than two people to administer any drug. He fights, screams, cries and whips his head back and forth and no matter how you put it in his mouth, he spits it back out.
Honestly, I'd much rather give pills to a cat than liquid medicine to the Engineer. That being said, I do have more than 40 years experience with cats and only 15 months experience with the Engineer.
When the boys have colds they don't sleep well. Really, who does when they are sick? At least as adults we know what the problem is and how to deal with it. As babies they have no idea what is going on and can't be reasoned with. Crying makes their snot production go into overdrive and giving the Engineer a dose of anything in the middle of the night is not an option!
Recently, the Engineer AKA The Urinator peed so much that he soaked his diaper, his pajamas and his crib and woke us, as well as the neighborhood, up with his screaming. We got him changed and because I didn't want to change the sheets in his crib at 2am put him in the big bed with us.
Unfortunately, the Stuntman doesn't sleep through the Engineer's screaming and he woke up as well. There was nothing wrong with him but he was now wide awake.
We only have a queen size bed, fitting the four of us in it is not really an option so I took the Stuntman down to the family room and snuggled on the sofa in desperation of recovering some much needed sleep.
Since the Stuntman's faulty dismount from the sofa, and subsequent stitches in the back of his head, we keep the coffee table pushed up against the front of the sofa so they can climb up and down without injury. I left the coffee table in place, grabbed a bottle of milk from the fridge and settled down on the sofa on my back with the Stuntman on my chest.
After a while, he wiggled himself between the back of the sofa and me leaving me on my side with my knees bent, which he didn't like. Eventually, he rolled over onto his stomach taking up the bulk of the sofa cushion and began kicking me to move my legs so that he could stretch out. I had no choice but to roll over onto the coffee table and try to sleep!
Needless to say it was a really bad night and when I finally did wake up my left arm was asleep and completely paralyzed.
Despite having the bed, hubby didn't really have a much better time. The Engineer does this thing with his legs when he is on his stomach where he "digs" with his feet which propels him forward. Hubby was awakened by whimpering to find the Engineer had traversed the head of the bed and propelled himself down in the chasm between the bed and the nightstand - head first!
Nights like this I try to count my blessings and think of the time with either boy as bonus snuggle time.
However, it's really hard to count blessings when the fingers of one hand are paralyzed from sleeping on the coffee table which may be very sturdy but not the least bit snugly.
The other night the Engineer tripped and face planted right into the door jamb. After I got him settled down hubby was playing with him when the Engineer fell again and hit the same spot which was again followed by screaming.
Hubby is so patient, too patient in fact. He held the Engineer, whose screams continued to escalate, and just sat there on the sofa with him waiting for the 15 month old to settle down...which did not happen.
If doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is really the definition of insanity, then hubby is truly nuts.
Since day one he has done virtually the same thing. While I believe that kids need to learn to soothe themselves, there are times when self-soothing is not an option and distraction is the better option.
I thought this was common sense...evidently it's rocket science.
When I tell him to move around, etc. he gets defensive like I'm picking on him. Noooo I'm here all day, I have to distract them fairly frequently and know what works because I'VE TRIED IT!!
Of course some days are better than others - which really goes without saying but, I've said it anyway.
Most days the boys are capable of playing by themselves. They will fight over toys, but usually find something else to play with once the toy has been removed. There are certain toys that we keep out of reach as they involved parental supervision and well...I don't always feel like supervising.
Since we began the liquid Zantac our nights have improved immensely. The kids sleep through the night almost all the time now...almost.
We've been battling colds lately. Large quantities of snot aside, it hasn't been bad during the day, but night time is another story all together.
At approximately 9 p.m. every evening, we settle the kids into their highchairs, dispense meds and brush their teeth. The Stuntman receives a dose of Zantac and liquid Rolaids and if needed the Engineer will receive a dose of ibuprofen. Most nights the Engineer gets jealous of the Stuntman's medicine and we have to give him a "taste" to settle him down.
Of course, he only wants this when he's not sick. When he is sick, giving him medicine is a terrible experience for all of us! It takes no less than two people to administer any drug. He fights, screams, cries and whips his head back and forth and no matter how you put it in his mouth, he spits it back out.
Honestly, I'd much rather give pills to a cat than liquid medicine to the Engineer. That being said, I do have more than 40 years experience with cats and only 15 months experience with the Engineer.
When the boys have colds they don't sleep well. Really, who does when they are sick? At least as adults we know what the problem is and how to deal with it. As babies they have no idea what is going on and can't be reasoned with. Crying makes their snot production go into overdrive and giving the Engineer a dose of anything in the middle of the night is not an option!
Recently, the Engineer AKA The Urinator peed so much that he soaked his diaper, his pajamas and his crib and woke us, as well as the neighborhood, up with his screaming. We got him changed and because I didn't want to change the sheets in his crib at 2am put him in the big bed with us.
Unfortunately, the Stuntman doesn't sleep through the Engineer's screaming and he woke up as well. There was nothing wrong with him but he was now wide awake.
We only have a queen size bed, fitting the four of us in it is not really an option so I took the Stuntman down to the family room and snuggled on the sofa in desperation of recovering some much needed sleep.
Since the Stuntman's faulty dismount from the sofa, and subsequent stitches in the back of his head, we keep the coffee table pushed up against the front of the sofa so they can climb up and down without injury. I left the coffee table in place, grabbed a bottle of milk from the fridge and settled down on the sofa on my back with the Stuntman on my chest.
After a while, he wiggled himself between the back of the sofa and me leaving me on my side with my knees bent, which he didn't like. Eventually, he rolled over onto his stomach taking up the bulk of the sofa cushion and began kicking me to move my legs so that he could stretch out. I had no choice but to roll over onto the coffee table and try to sleep!
Needless to say it was a really bad night and when I finally did wake up my left arm was asleep and completely paralyzed.
Despite having the bed, hubby didn't really have a much better time. The Engineer does this thing with his legs when he is on his stomach where he "digs" with his feet which propels him forward. Hubby was awakened by whimpering to find the Engineer had traversed the head of the bed and propelled himself down in the chasm between the bed and the nightstand - head first!
Nights like this I try to count my blessings and think of the time with either boy as bonus snuggle time.
However, it's really hard to count blessings when the fingers of one hand are paralyzed from sleeping on the coffee table which may be very sturdy but not the least bit snugly.
Sunday, December 22, 2013
HELLO!!!
I've discovered that there is a very distinctive succession of events that lead to tears.
It usually goes like this: Thump, "Whoa!" and then screaming.
This doesn't happen just anytime, it happens when my hubby is with the boys. They love to play with daddy and daddy loves to play with them. The problem is that they get so wound up they lose the ability to control their movements and he doesn't always know when to stop.
The perfect example of this happened yesterday while I was well...shall we say, indisposed?
The master bath is located directly above the family room and the sound carries right through the floor! I could hear the boys - all three of them - giggling away then heard Thump, "Whoa!" and then screaming, followed by, "Oh my God!"
Oy Vey! OMG means blood!
Unless it's his own, hubby doesn't handle the sight of blood well. Anyone else's, especially one of the kids, and all bets are off. Composure goes out the window and panic sets in.
He began to scream for me and I foolishly tried to yell a response.
I then heard him wrestling with the gate at the bottom of the stairs while I desperately tried to finish my "business."
He yanked the bathroom door open just as I pulled my pants up and stood there, with a bleeding stuntman in his arms, looking shocked to see me by the toilet. Not sure what he thought I was doing but, "I have to go to the bathroom," usually means one of two things.
I grabbed the first aid box (not kit, we've learned that the small kits just don't cut it for us) out from under the sink and got to work.
Stuntman had bitten his tongue.
Saliva made it look like he was going to bleed to death, but as far as actual blood goes there wasn't much and it stopped bleeding very quickly.
Hubby announced that he had to go back downstairs because, in his state of panic, he'd left the Engineer on the sofa!
Seriously?!
His panicked states are pretty much the same regardless of the circumstances. His ability to think or act rationally just goes right out the window!
The other day while changing the Stuntman's diaper, the stuntman decided to poop. I had the Kitchen Aid whirling away and didn't hear him screaming for me. Suddenly there was loud banging followed by louder, "HELLO!!!"
I sprinted up the stairs to find hubby with a screaming stuntman on the table, legs up in the air as daddy desperately cleaned up the poop. The Engineer was on the floor screaming because daddy's screaming had frightened him.
Ummmm.....Yeah... really?! You were screaming because of poop?!
OMG!
Despite his panic and gagging, there really wasn't much I could do. So I picked up the hysterical Engineer and tried to calm him while trying desperately not to yell at my hubby and upset the babies even more.
Most of the time he's a really laid back guy. Evidently, poop and blood are his kryptonite.
He's one of the handiest hubbies on the world. Need recessed lighting installed? How about hardwood floors? Sheetrock? He's the guy. He really can do anything except walk through a room without hitting a toy.
He. Never. Looks. Down.
We are 13 months into this parenting thing. He has tripped over countless toys. He has fallen down, stubbed his toes, and made things squeak in the dark and yet he has not adjusted his walk.
It's weird. I noticed early on that, while in the house, I had developed a gate that allows me to move forward, without scuffing my feet, by barely lifting my foot off the floor. This way if I do contact something I don't step on it or trip over it, I push it out of the way. Sort of along the same lines as the old trains with the cow catcher on the front.
We have a play-mat that we keep upstairs for the boys. We use the mat more as a home-base for the upstairs toys because we can move it from room to room as needed. At night we usually put it in the hallway out of the line of traffic so we don't trip over it in the dark.
Hubby decided the other night that he would leave it on the floor in the bedroom, precisely placed so as to not trip over it if he had to get one of the kids.
It didn't work.
He tripped.
And tripped.
And tripped.
The mat has these tube things that arch up and connect diagonally at the corners. Once in, it's like trying to get out of a crab trap.
The toys rattled, the one set to come on with motion began to play music and he even stepped on the praying Angel, "Now I lay me down..."
"Shit!"
Snark.
"Shut up," he said with a laugh.
It usually goes like this: Thump, "Whoa!" and then screaming.
This doesn't happen just anytime, it happens when my hubby is with the boys. They love to play with daddy and daddy loves to play with them. The problem is that they get so wound up they lose the ability to control their movements and he doesn't always know when to stop.
The perfect example of this happened yesterday while I was well...shall we say, indisposed?
The master bath is located directly above the family room and the sound carries right through the floor! I could hear the boys - all three of them - giggling away then heard Thump, "Whoa!" and then screaming, followed by, "Oh my God!"
Oy Vey! OMG means blood!
Unless it's his own, hubby doesn't handle the sight of blood well. Anyone else's, especially one of the kids, and all bets are off. Composure goes out the window and panic sets in.
He began to scream for me and I foolishly tried to yell a response.
I then heard him wrestling with the gate at the bottom of the stairs while I desperately tried to finish my "business."
He yanked the bathroom door open just as I pulled my pants up and stood there, with a bleeding stuntman in his arms, looking shocked to see me by the toilet. Not sure what he thought I was doing but, "I have to go to the bathroom," usually means one of two things.
I grabbed the first aid box (not kit, we've learned that the small kits just don't cut it for us) out from under the sink and got to work.
Stuntman had bitten his tongue.
Saliva made it look like he was going to bleed to death, but as far as actual blood goes there wasn't much and it stopped bleeding very quickly.
Hubby announced that he had to go back downstairs because, in his state of panic, he'd left the Engineer on the sofa!
Seriously?!
His panicked states are pretty much the same regardless of the circumstances. His ability to think or act rationally just goes right out the window!
The other day while changing the Stuntman's diaper, the stuntman decided to poop. I had the Kitchen Aid whirling away and didn't hear him screaming for me. Suddenly there was loud banging followed by louder, "HELLO!!!"
I sprinted up the stairs to find hubby with a screaming stuntman on the table, legs up in the air as daddy desperately cleaned up the poop. The Engineer was on the floor screaming because daddy's screaming had frightened him.
Ummmm.....Yeah... really?! You were screaming because of poop?!
OMG!
Despite his panic and gagging, there really wasn't much I could do. So I picked up the hysterical Engineer and tried to calm him while trying desperately not to yell at my hubby and upset the babies even more.
Most of the time he's a really laid back guy. Evidently, poop and blood are his kryptonite.
He's one of the handiest hubbies on the world. Need recessed lighting installed? How about hardwood floors? Sheetrock? He's the guy. He really can do anything except walk through a room without hitting a toy.
He. Never. Looks. Down.
We are 13 months into this parenting thing. He has tripped over countless toys. He has fallen down, stubbed his toes, and made things squeak in the dark and yet he has not adjusted his walk.
It's weird. I noticed early on that, while in the house, I had developed a gate that allows me to move forward, without scuffing my feet, by barely lifting my foot off the floor. This way if I do contact something I don't step on it or trip over it, I push it out of the way. Sort of along the same lines as the old trains with the cow catcher on the front.
We have a play-mat that we keep upstairs for the boys. We use the mat more as a home-base for the upstairs toys because we can move it from room to room as needed. At night we usually put it in the hallway out of the line of traffic so we don't trip over it in the dark.
Hubby decided the other night that he would leave it on the floor in the bedroom, precisely placed so as to not trip over it if he had to get one of the kids.
It didn't work.
He tripped.
And tripped.
And tripped.
The mat has these tube things that arch up and connect diagonally at the corners. Once in, it's like trying to get out of a crab trap.
The toys rattled, the one set to come on with motion began to play music and he even stepped on the praying Angel, "Now I lay me down..."
"Shit!"
Snark.
"Shut up," he said with a laugh.
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