Play date and milestones

So our playdate with youngmummy and her little ones went great.  Baby brain is in full force and I forgot Cooper’s diaper bag. How you ask, do you forget your tot’s diaper bag? Well, I usually keep it in the car (one less thing to carry in/out with him in  my arms) but I had brought it in to re stock it and totally forgot to put it back. Yesterday, when we left I just thought, oh, it’s in the car and didn’t realise it wasn’t until we were half way there. And of course Cooper has to do his business while we’re there. Thankfully, Ella is the same size diaper as Cooper and youngmummy saved the day by giving me one.  Cooper and Ella got along great except when Ella drank from her cup.  Cooper’s going through a phase right now where everybody’s drink should be shared with him regardless if he has his own in his hand or not.  Cooper had a mini meltdown when he couldn’t get Ella’s and scared poor Ella with his tantrum when he got mad and threw his cup.  But they played together good and little baby Allie just sat and watched the “big kids” play and would smile everytime her sister came over to say hi to her which was so incredibly sweet and cute.  I think we definitly have to do it again but next time I won’t leave there without cleaning up. Poor youngmummy, I’m so sorry.

Oh, and she sent home with 2 bags full of maternity clothes. WOO HOO. I went through them all and am very excited at the fact that they fit (or will be fitting once the belly gets bigger).  I feel like I have a whole new wardrobe.

Then we were off to Nana and Poppi’s where Cooper took his first step all by himself. He was so proud as was I and I can’t believe it’s really happening. He’s on his way to walking and soon.  I was so excited for him and seeing how proud he was and the look on his face was so priceless. Of course it was for the sake of food. My mom was holding out a forkfull of mashed potato and he was standing, holding onto me, and off he went to get the food. It was awesome and reminded all the more that he’s growing up. He’s turning into such a little boy.  Next step is big boy room complete with big boy bed.  I still haven’t decided exaclty when  we’re going to do it.  I guess I should get the room finished first and then go from there.

Well, he’s now down for his nap and I think I’m going to go for one too. It’s a rainy blah day and this weekend is suppose to be in the 40’s. YUCK!!!!!!

Mornings

This morning has been a good morning so far. We laughed all through breakfast making silly faces at each other and imitating each other’s moves.  Now he’s sitting beside me in the office chair playing with a bunch of pens while I catch up on my blog reading.  Now he’s moved to my lap for an even better snuggle.

The last molar has finally popped through and our grizzliness is much improved.  Thank goodness!!!

In pregnancy news, I am now feeling this little one roll around on a daily basis. It’s very exciting and is making me very anxious to find out what the sex is.  Hubby is still saying girl and I’m still wavering. Most of the time I think it’s a boy but then sometimes I get a feeling that it’s a girl so we’ll see. August 23rd is when we find out.

Today we have a play date with the adorable and amazing youngmummy and her 2 cute little ones.  I’m interested to see Cooper around an older little girl. He LOVES older kids and is beside himself when they actually play with him so it should be a great time. I think there’s 5 months between them which does’t sound big but at this age is developementally.  And all though it’s suppose to rain all day, those are the best days for play dates since you’re stuck in the house with them anyway right?.

YEAH, for playdates.

Hot Topics

Okay, so there seems to be some hot topics being brought up in blog world today. Boso has a good one on whether to  record the birth of a baby and youngmummy has a good one on breastfeeding and how long should you do so.  So here’s mine:

When having your 2nd, 3rd or 4th (etc) child, should your other children be there to share in the experience of their sibling being born?  Why or why not?

Interesting Article

Hrmmm……   interesting article on how to deal with tantrums.  A different perspective for sure.

http://www.mothering.com/articles/growing_child/discipline/tantrums.html

Grizzly

Our morning has been a grizzly one.  I was going to post all the bad details but then decided not to. He’s napping now and this afternoon is going to be better. It has to be.

 So, on the “feeling off” subject, I’ve been clearing my thoughts about what to do and what to change.  I’m signing us up for another mom/toddler group for September and will be signing myself up for some sort of crafty class that I can do at night once or twice a week.  Hubby has been a great support and still fully backs the idea of finding somewhere for Cooper for maybe half a day once a week.  I was thinking of maybe joining a gym that has babysitting available. But then I think, I’m going to be nothing but growing and being preggers will really resstrict what I can do at a gym but maybe if I can find one with a swimming pool.  But then again, before you know it, it’ll be cold weather and snowy and I’ll just be bigger and I can see it being a total waste of money.  The night class sounds better.

Well, I’m off to start the next level of toddler proofing this house. 

Great weekend

Friday night we went to the movies. We saw X-men. Great movie and great to get out sans the boy.  Saturday morning he was up at 5:00 screaming. I went and cuddled him for a bit and put him back in his crib but he was not havingit. He calmed down after a few minutes but I don’t think he went back to sleep. At 6:30 hubby rolls over and offers to get up with him and do the whole breakfast thing!?!  I thankfully accepte that offer and asked no questions as to why the offer. I don’t need any answers when it comes to an offer like that. So he gave him his breakfast-which why is that kids eat different for their dads?  Cooper’s a good eater but he finished everything hubby gave him. Including all his orange juice right down to the last drop. He then took him out and got us both breakfast from Timmies. I didn’t get out of bed until 8:30!  8:30!!!!! And when I did, I had coffee and a bagel that I didn’t have to make. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome.  By 9:30 Cooper was practically begging to be put down for a nap, complete with rubbing of the eyes, yawning and whining/crying since he had been up so early.  I put him down and he ahd a 3 hour nap. 3 hours!  It was great. I got a whole bunch of stuff done since I had all this energy from sleeping in and got in a 40 minute nap. it was great. Then it was off to hubby’s aunts for a bbq which is always great.  I came home, vegged on the couch and eventually moved to my bed and had a great nights sleep.  Didn’t even wake up for a bathroom trip.

This morning, hubby is golfing and Cooper is being really whiney but we’re going to have a good day despite his grouchiness because I said so. ;o).

Hope you’re having a good weekend.

Baring it all

So me dear hubby had to endure a mini meltdown last night. Hormonal? Yes, but I have felt this way off and on for a while now. Even before I got preggers this time.  This post will probably seem all over the place but bare with me, I’m tired and it’s nap time.

Being a stay at home mom is great and I am so fortunate I am able to.  I wouldn’t change it for the world. But. Yes, there’s a but and yes, I feel guilty for there being a but. But, it’s hard sometimes. Isolating and even lonely and all though I’d give my life for Cooper, he’s not much in the way of conversation if you know what I mean. I feel like somewhere between the daily (mundane) chores of the house, the never ending laundry,  taking care of everyone else’s needs 24/7 and still trying to balance mine in there, I’ve lost myself. Not to mention, the never ending battle of how to get children’s theme song’s out of my head.  Somedays I feel like I have nothing more to talk about with hubby/ friends or family but Cooper and what new thing he’s learned that day.  Somedays hubby comes home and says “did you hear….(insert catastrophic event).?” and my answer is no, I didn’t because I didn’t get to watch/read the news that day because I was so absorbed in children’s books, toys and toddler banter. But where do you begin and how do you go about getting yourself back and still be the greatest mom/wife/friend you want to be? 

I imagine this is a common feeling among stay at home moms but for some reason there’s this barrier of unmentionables in the playground or play centre.  It’s so hard to make new mom friends which I guess is another thing I’m having a hard time with because I thought it would be so much easier. You have that common thing that only other moms can understand.  But why the silence? Why the- “oh, I’m so happy to be at home and just love every second my life. It’s so great and my child is a little angel!” CRAP.  I’m not saying my life is miserable by any means but come on, everyone has bad days/times. 

Hubby’s solution is that I find a home daycare that will be okay with taking Cooper 1or 2 half day a week.  Then I could do whatever I wanted. Me time. Volunteer somewhere, get errands done that are trickier and trickier with a toddler etc.  I like that he supports me in how I’m feeling and suggested that but that brings on a whole new set of feelings of guilt. I’m a stay at home of one kid and looking for someone to take him for a few hours a week?  I think that really is coming from my negative side though and that really there is nothing wrong with that.  I’m trying to be creative in my thinking about ways to try and get me back.  Maybe taking a class in something that I want to learn about. Or volunteer somewhere that would me give me a sense of responsibilty and dependability apart from meeting the needs of a toddler. Try somehow to make other mom friends that would be interested in maybe getting together once a week or something like that where we could sit and vent/chat about the issues us mothers face.   

For all the moms that read this, how do you balance it all? 

How naps save the day

After the grizzly morning we had, the nap made it all better.  He woke up smiling and laughing which I was so relieved to hear coming through the monitor.  We had a great time at lunch singing our ABC’s which entails me singing “ABCD…” and then Cooper copies “cd…”, then I finish the song and he waits so patiently for the end when he can yell “yeeeaaaah” and clap wildly. I have to try and get it on video one of these days cause it’s just too cute.

Also new in  his world are:  he “woofs” when we see a dog, says balloon (pronounced ba-oon), loves getting into the cereal box now that he’s found it, lifts his shirt and points at his belly button if you ask where it is and is cruising at a really fast pace.  This age, as frustrating as it can be, is also so much fun. To see something you’ve been repeating over and over again click and them do it on their own is amazing. With Cooper, it’s been trying to teach him how to turn around and get off of things when he climbs up (like on the couch or bed) becuase he was just going off them head first.  We’ve been doing this for about 2 weeks now and the other day he did all by himself without me even saying the words “turn around”.  He’s taken a bit of an interest in the stairs but he doesn’t like climbing them. He wants to walk up them like adults do.  This might be the first thing he tries to tackle once he starts walking on his own.

He’s also getting very cuddly which I am enjoying.  He’ll be sitting with his blanket and then come across the room, put his blanket in my lap and lay there with his arms around me. Totally melts my heart right there on the spot and regardless of what I am doing, I never let those moments pass.  It’ll be all too soon that he’ll be saying “eww, mom, stop hugging me”.

So, even though the morning was really grizzly the afternoon completly made up for it so today was an all right day after all.  Now I’m going to curl up in my bed with my book and hopefully finish it.

Night all.

One of those days

Cooper woke up tired. I think we did too much yesterday and his mood this morning is showing it.  He’s started this scream-yell-cry when he doesn’t get his own way and it’s so not nice on the ears. He’s done it about 4 times all ready this morning and he’s only been up for an hour.  Looks like it’s going to be one of those days.

This when I need to be reminded that there are women doing this with 6 kids under the age of 6 or some “bad” story like that.  In perspective I know having 1 in a bad mood isn’t as bad as having 2 or 3 all in a bad mood, but perspective isn’t making my morning any easier.

Any sanity saving tips out there?

Busy bees

Today was a crazy day.  The morning started off at the hospital to get an ultra sound and blood work.  The ultrasound was great! Got to see baby and boy is this one a mover.  We also have a great scan pic but I don’t have a scanner so I can post it .  Cooper was good the whole time. We had nana come with us to help with Cooper while I was on the bed or get stuck with needles. The wait to get my bllod drawn was hideous. I hate needles and had to get about 7 viles of blood taken. At least it was all done in one shot. Now I have another one at 16 weeks and this IPS test is done. It tests for down syndrome and spina bifida.  I’m not worried about it but since spina bifida is in our family I’d like to know sooner than later.

Then we came home just in time for nap.  Cooper had a great nap and when he woke up we were off again but this time to a play date. I joined a local moms group a few months back but nothing has really been happening. Today a few moms were meeting at a play centre and thought Cooper might enjoy it so we went.  He had a blast for the most part. There was a 4 year old boy that played with him for a while and that just completely made his day.  Cooper loves older kids. Whenever he’s around them, he watches them just fascinated by them so the fact that this little boy was actually playing with him had him squeeling in delight. It was really cute to see.

Then we stopped by dad’s work since we were just down the street.  I love how everytime Cooper sees him, he points, smiles and yells Dad. I don’t get that sort of a grand introduction when he sees me but mom’s always get the short end of the stick don’t they?

Then off to my parents to show them the ultra sound pic and for Cooper to have dinner. We made it home just in time for bath time but he was so wound up from such an eventful day, it took him over an hour to settle himself to sleep.  That and hubby went up to check on him and got caught by him so he had to snuggle him for a few minutes and then he was allowed to leave the room.  Too cute!!!!

Now I’m extrememly tired and am fighting a bit of a headache.  Sorry this post is so blah but the head ache is taking away from my miniscule ability to write.  I’ll write more tomorrow.