Family Updates

So I realize it has been awhile since I have documented the family's latest accomplishments/personality traits and habits. I am constantly amazed by my beautiful girls and how fast they are growing up. It is hard to believe that Kait is already 2 (and 2 months) Mack is 3 (and 6 months) Gregory will be here in 2 months, I will be 26 and Brian will be 30 this year!!! It just seems impossible, and yet, here we are!

Mack-

She is a dinosaur LOVING little girl. Her dinosaur obsession has been going on for almost a year now and if anything just seems to be picking up speed. She is able to fully draw a t-rex, a "broccolisaurus", and a stegosaurus. All of which actually look like dinosaurs. It is pretty incredible. She has started to use scissors and glue on a regular basis. She can count to about 20, can sing her ABC's and can name several letters, knows all her basic colors (her favorite color is green like dinos), "reads" (memorized) about 6 books. Her favorite letter is "B for bear" which was her first obsession before dinosaurs came into her life. She sings songs that she makes up all the time, but especially when she is in bed. She loves to play outside in the snow and wishes we could go out more often. She likes to play library and dinosaur museum. (Yes those are games to her). She is starting to understand how board games work, but doesn't always have the patience for them. She asks to do her workbook almost everyday. Mostly because it has stickers and the girl loves stickers. She is still NOT potty trained which is probably our biggest challenge with her. She has great manners and I absolutely love that when she says thank you to people she is always very specific about what she is thankful for. (Ex. When leaving a friends house she said, "thank you for letting me read your dinosaur books!") She has a hard time at meal times because she eats like a bird, but she is not a picky eater which is good for us. She has been known to fight over broccoli and frozen peas with Kait and loves to eat any frozen veggies I pull out of the freezer. She goes to Awanas every sunday which is a Sunday School program offered by the base. She is happy-go-lucky and smiling about 85% of the day but her determination and independence make for some hard-headed moments with her. She makes collections everyday and most of the time they are of COMPLETELY random household items. Tags from teddy bears, clothespins, pieces of paper, etc. Anything that she gets a hold of has the potential to become another treasure to add to her collections. It's funny because she has pretty much always made these collections and I used to think that it was just an age thing and that every kid did that. Turns out, it's a Mack thing. I'm sure I could go on and on for awhile, but this pretty much covers the gist of all things Mack.

Kait-

Kaitlyn is hilariously awesome. If she thinks that she is doing something naughty and you give her any kind of shocked/disapproving look, she cracks up and does it more. She loves to "steal noses" and then eats them. And laughs an evil little laugh. You think I would be making that up, but I am definitely not. She is OBSESSED with our new kitty, Dini. Even when the kitty swats at her and gives her scratches, she still goes back for more. She seems to be a bottomless pit when it comes to eating. We rarely have to tell her to eat more. She can count to ten and can count from 4-10 in spanish. She loves to watch Dora and is a little too intrigued by Swiper (the naughty fox). She can talk in relatively clear sentences now which is a relief to me because I was starting to worry that she wasn't using consonants when she talked. She loves music and sings to everything. She likes to play with legos, weebles, little people, and of course dinosaurs. In fact, she can name quite a few dinosaurs that most 2 year olds would not know. All because of her sister of course. She is very stubborn and is easily upset, but is becoming happier and happier everyday. She used to be a very grumpy baby, but has found that now that she can vocalize her wants/needs she doesn't have to be so upset all the time. She is pretty good at using the potty but we are still a ways from having her fully potty-trained. This is Kait in a nutshell.

Gregory-

I will have a better Gregory update after Wednesday. I was supposed to have an appointment last week but apparently pregnancy brain got the best of me and I missed it. As far as I can tell he is doing quite well. He is moving around A LOT and it is definitely not always comfortable. I have been having braxton hicks pretty regularly which are also NOT comfortable. So far this pregnancy has probably been the hardest physically, but compared to many women it is still pretty easy. I am currently 30 weeks along, which should mean 10 weeks left. This is when I will probably start to get nervous at every appointment though. When I was pregnant with both girls, they stopped growing between 34-36 weeks. No one knows why, and they obviously still came out healthy and with no medical problems, but it is still a nerve-wrecking thing when something is wrong and there isn't really anything you can do to fix it. I just know that I do not want to be induced again, but I guess I will just have to wait. And maybe this boy will be different and won't stop growing! That is the hope!

Brian-

Brian is ready to find out what his next assignment will be (as am I) so we can start planning. There are so many things that happen and things to think about once you know where you will be going. He is also looking into starting his Master's degree. He has been looking into different programs that offer on-line courses. He says he doesn't want to actually go to class so that he isn't missing family time, which the girls and I appreciate. It is one of those things that he has to get done in order to become a Major in the Air Force though, so eventually we will have even less time with him once he has started that.

ME!-

I actually don't know that I have a lot to say about just me. It's hard to talk about what *I'm* doing that isn't directly related to the rest of family. I guess that's what it is to be a mom and a wife. Pretty much all of the things I am routinely involved in (MOPS, playgroup/playdates) all revolve around the fact that I have these kiddos. Even just being pregnant means that I am not just me right now. Which might be why I really dislike pregnancy. I have a very clear sense of who I am and having someone else directly connected to me is slightly disconcerting. It throws me off. And I know most women love being pregnant and think it is just so amazing, but I just don't. Sorry. I don't. Besides all that though, I am ready for Minot summer, however we do seem to be having a crazy warm front lately and a lot of snow is melting, which I am loving! Being able to be outside makes all of our lives easier, so here's hoping for an early spring and early summer!

Breaking Point

So I've been meaning to write this blog for about a month and a half now because that is approximately how long ago it happened.

This is one of those ridiculous moments in parenting when you realize how SEVERELY outnumbered you are and that sometimes you have to go to extreme measures to win certain battles. Our battle had become nighttime. Not bedtime necessarily because my girls have always been pretty agreeable about going to bed. No, instead the battle would start hours after we had gotten them in bed and thought they were sound asleep. Then we would hear them. It would start off innocently enough. Some girly giggles. Some random thumps and bumps. Eventually these seemingly innocent noises would turn into sounds of something more serious. Sounds of naughtiness! And so it would become apparent that some parental intervention was necessary if we had any intention of getting a full nights sleep. Well, it turned out that our girls had discovered the fun of opening up dresser drawers and throwing clothes all over the room. This behavior went on EVERY night and EVERY nap for about two weeks. We tried all kinds of discipline tricks and punishments. Nothing was stopping these two. This all came to a breaking point one night when we hit an EXTREME wall.

We had managed to get them to go to sleep WITHOUT any dresser drawers being opened and emptied and we thought it to be a small miracle. We were wrong. Around 2:30 AM we started hearing those "innocent sounds of fun" however you know that anything making them that happy at 2:30 AM is anything but innocent. So grudgingly we both get up out of bed to see what is making them squeal with delight. First red flag that things are not going to end well is that we hear their door open before we have even made it out of our bedroom. As we open our door we see that they are heading for the stairs using the light FROM THEIR BEDROOM. When did Mack get tall enough to turn on her lights?!?! Not only that, but Kaitlyn is COMPLETELY NAKED! Immediately our patience is gone, and we start herding them back into their room to find what can only be called a true disaster zone. They have opened EVERY SINGLE DRAWER and emptied them throughout their room. Kait has stripped off her clothes and diaper (despite having access to many many clothes) and PEED on the carpet (and if you know how housing is about carpet cleanliness you can imagine how much my blood pressure spiked). We were horrified that our sweet little angles had become these demon children in one night! Somehow we managed to clean up their messes, at least as best we could at 2 in the morning, put Kaitlyn in the crib in the baby's room, and took away all of their stuffed animals which is the equivalent of torture in this house.

Exhausted, we return to our sanctuary after a seemingly endless battle and then it all starts to hit me. We are about to have three of these. Three children that will run our lives unless we can find a way to control certain situations, like these. The main thought that kept scrolling through my head was, what if something like this happens when Brian isn't home??? How can I be expected to care for a newborn AND deal with two out of control pre-schoolers when my husband is gone as often as he is?! So after a brief meltdown, we came up with our solution. It had to be drastic since their actions were CLEARLY drastic.

We decided that the first thing to go would be their dresser. It needed to be moved out of their room because they obviously could not handle the temptation it presented every time they were left alone in their room. Next we decided that they didn't really need a lightbulb. If Mack thought she could turn the lights on in the middle of the night to play, we would just take that option away altogether. Third problem to handle was Kait's propensity towards nakedness. This we decided to tackle with button onesies, and safety pinned footy jammies. Once we had a clear plan I felt significantly better and was able to sleep. I was comforted that between the two of us, we could come up with creative ways to avoid problems like these without having to resort to extreme punishments directed at our children.

Something More Insightful...

I was pretty bad about updating my blog the second half of October, wasn't I? Not even sure why, but it definitely happened. Well, we had a visit from my brother and his family that was LOADS of fun. We were all sad to see them go. In fact Mack was asking for her Uncle Carlos for several days after they left. Kaitlyn ended up with a totally random double ear infection Halloween weekend, but was luckily she had taken enough doses of antibiotics that she was A-OK by Sunday. Trick-or-Treating on base was COLD but we had fun. We went with some friends and I think the girls had a good time. I am sure that I have a ton more to write about, but for now, this is all. When I have something more insightful to talk about I will be back.

SuperNanny Style Time Outs!

Yesterday I came to a startling realization. OK, maybe it was startling because it was something that had been nagging the back of my mind for months now, but it was a realization nonetheless.

I have done my poor little Kaitlyn a serious disservice by not disciplining her as stringently as I disciplined Mack at the same age. Mackenzie has gone through fazes of being in time-out multiple times a day in an attempt for her to learn the rules and understand how we expect her to behave not only in our home, but also in other places. With Kaitlyn though, I seem to have somehow messed that up for her and in being more lax with time-outs, have created a child who DOES NOT know how we expect her to behave and therefore is a little terror most of the time.

And not that she isn't a sweet girl, but she also has a little mischievous streak that comes out and often takes awhile to go away again. For example when she hits Mack or doesn't listen to me, I usually just correct her, tell her to apologize and then move on. With Mack in the same situation, she would have been sent to a time-out, and been expected to sit there (without getting up) for 2 minutes (or however old she is) and then would need to apologize for whatever behavior had gotten her sent there in the first place.

So in realizing all this, I have made a decision. Kaitlyn is about to start getting some tough love when it comes to discipline. I began last night with a true SuperNanny style time-out. Basically it took about 20 minutes before the kid actually sat in time-out for her whole 2 minutes without getting up. But you know what? It has ALREADY made a difference. The threat of a time out today was enough for her to correct her own behavior and follow my directions. We are about to have THREE children all under the age of 4 and if I can't get Kaitlyn to behave the way I need her to we are going to have some serious problems. I hope that I can stick to my plan, not get so upset about her not following the rules that it interferes with the plan, and get Brian on board! Wish me luck!

Yay Baby!

Well we had our first baby appointment today! I think it's crazy that here in Minot you can't get an appointment until you are at least 10 weeks. But oh well because we got to see a pretty good shot of the baby when we got the ultrasound done. I am 12 wks and 4 days and am due on April 22nd. Yay baby!

But not yay for the baby that just woke up from nap. Short entry today.

Caution: The following message contains POOP!

So the inevitable happened. One of the few disgusting things I had NOT had to deal with having two small children. But alas, Saturday night would prove that I could not handle the one truly horrendous thing would make me have to leave the room to prevent myself from throwing up all over the place. Kaitlyn POOPED IN THE TUB! I know, I know. Many of you have had to deal with this and some of you more than once, but I had been lucky up until this point and have never known the true horror of it til now.

It started out as an innocent bath. Girls playing and splashing and swimming. The usual. And then things turned ugly. I went to the hall closet (still within eye-shot) to get the girls towels out and upon my return I saw it. A disgusting grey turd (I never use that word, but it seems appropriate) floating right next to Kait. I didn't know it at the time, but as I was realizing that this thing floating in the tub is her poop, she is still squatting down in the water pushing out more poop! As soon as it all starts to click what is happening, I begin to freak out! Totally! I grab Mack out of the tub, not caring that she is soaking wet, crying and asking "to be warm", start screaming at Brian that there is poop in the tub, and finally get Kait up and out as Brian is coming up the stairs. LAUGHING! He's laughing! That jerk! Only he's not a jerk. He's a saint. Because after I get both girls out of the tub and take another look in the tub (BAD IDEA) I realize that the lack of morning sickness I've had throughout this pregnancy is about to begin in that minute if I didn't escape that room. I grab a towel, wrap Mack up, tell Brian I CANNOT deal with this and leave him in the room with the floater and the culprit. However, as I am leaving the room Kaitlyn seems to have also realized how disgusting it was that she pooped in the tub and starts gagging. Then to make my mommy guilt worse for abandoning her in her time of need she begins to throw-up. But fortunately for me, I put my mommy guilt in check, decide that I can at least take care of Mack and therefore still perform my motherly duties and take her to my bathroom to finish her bath. I'm not sure how Brian deals with the situation in the other bathroom but after about 5 minutes he and Kait join us in my bathroom so we can finish Kait's bath. After things calmed down, and we got the girls bathed, dressed, brushed, and in front of the tv, I attacked the bathroom with A LOT of bleach, making sure all their toys got a good soak before rinsing them all off. So needless to say, there is rarely a dull moment when dealing with small children. And I also know that if this happens again and Brian is not home, that floater will stay behind closed doors until he is.

Spacious White Home

So since my last post we have completely moved out of one house to a new one on our street! We have gone from a very small yellow duplex to a single-standing spacious white home! I am super excited about this transition and have been pleasantly surprised at how well the girls have been adjusting. Something that I probably wasn't as worried about as I needed to be. I told Brian the other day that as proud as I am that they have done so well with the move, I naively thought no less of them. I forget that change is a dramatic thing for most people, especially little tiny people whose worlds are so small anyway. I embrace most changes and find them exciting and fun. I suppose that is why I married a man in the air force. A life full of constant change. But again, to little people, it is a big deal!

But despite this, they have done an amazing job and we also put Kait straight into a big girl bed once we moved in. Now keep in mind, Mack was JUST moved into a twin bed the week before her 3rd birthday (Aug 7), so moving Kait so early is a big deal. But she seems to be handling it well and is still taking afternoon naps without too much fuss so that proves to us that she is old enough to handle it. Kaitlyn seems to handle things like this better than Mack did. We had tried to move Mack to a big-girl bed when she was 2 1/2 and she was NOT ready for it so we had to put her back in her crib. It broke her heart, but there was no way she was going to sleep in that bed without keeping herself and Kait up. And my little Kait is still regularly *trying* to use the potty. She has gone pee pee a couple times, but more than anything she just likes to strip off her clothes, sit on the potty and use toilet paper. But again, this is more than Mack does even at this point. After we get completely unpacked and settled into this house that will be my next task. Getting Mack potty-trained. Ideally my goal is to have Kait and Mack potty-trained by the time New-New Baby (Kait was New Baby) is born. But I am not going to stress myself out about it either. If I end up with three kids in diapers, then I will have three kids in diapers. Not a huge deal in my world. If I'm already changing one, then I can change the rest too. I will post pictures of our old and new houses and you can see why I am so excited for this house!