Holy Cow...they've changed so much!

Where have I been? Bright is a crawling machine & now stands up wherever he can get a grip. Sette Sette is reasoning & talking through everything, not to mention, remembering everything including the things I've promised days ago. I cannot believe that I let this much time pass in my blogging but I do hope I can get back into it. I skipped all of October & most of November. If I could remember anything from those 2 months I will definitely share it, but it was a blur.

So here goes. I know Bright has had Croup too much & I'm not a fan. He has also blown my hopes of easy teething. We've been working on his two front top teeth for weeks & weeks, maybe since I last wrote & he shows signs of only one of those teeth possibly making it through anytime soon. He's told me in the wee hours of the night, that is all he wants for Christmas. Me too!

Sette has grown in ways I had never expected. Last night while tucking her in, she responded to my "I love you" with an "I love you so much too". This isn't the first time, but it still gets me with her warmth & hugs that accompany those words. She is constantly surprising me with her knowledge of this or that & has far surpassed my hopes for her in her second year of life.

In the midst of all the good things, she is born with that same sin nature we all have. She has found in the last 2 weeks that Bright may not be so "sweet" anymore. Jealousy had reared it's ugly head in a few random hits or pushing him down or even stealing his toys. I knew it would come, but had hoped it wouldn't be now when all he wants to do is play with her. I think she thinks she will always be the only one who gets spanks for disobeying or has to do timeout for hitting or throwing fits. I'm pretty sure she sees him as the golden child & has decided she much rather he be reminded that she is, in fact, bigger than him & suffer the consequences. I'll keep talking to her & reminding her that she is my big girl & I love her so much, but that Bright is still really little and not a big girl yet like her...I'll worry about the girl/boy talk later! KIDDING...it was just funny to write.

I hope you enjoy these pics that show just how much they have changed & grown. It really is going TOO fast!

Enunciate!

I was making lunch today & had sat baby Bright on the floor of Sette's & his room to read a book. While I was slicing away at an apple I could hear Sette reading "Goodnight Moon". She must have been having trouble with baby Bright paying attention because I heard, "Bright - Ton" in a stern, yet rather perfect way. The 7-month-old must not have cared, because she kept calling him by name trying to inform him that she had a job to do while I was making lunch. The handful of times we've actually called him by his full name must have stuck with the little teacher's helper as she tried to reign in her lone student. It made me proud, as well as shocked at her recall.

On the same note, Sette loves to talk...what 2-year-old doesn't? But she has grown accustomed to enunciating quite a bit & I know she isn't hearing it from me. Her dad, on the other hand, has gotten picked on down here in the south for being such an articulate speaker. Regardless, it makes me beam with pride that my little love bucket can pick up on word uses & regurgitate them properly.

Finally, one more note. She is such a little pretender. I just love when I catch her pretending with Bright or playing with her toys creating voices & actions for each of them. Yesterday she made creatures out of Playdoh giving them names & speaking for them. Today she played with a set of toys she just got from her Aunt Abby. They were tiny Dora characters & Bright received tiny Blue's Clues characters. She had them all lined up & was feeding each carrots & other goodies. They of course followed her lead accordingly & she was quite pleased with herself. I want to encourage her so when I "catch her" I try to join in the play hoping her sensitive soul will never be embarrassed. Today we gathered her toys in a bucket & took them to nap with her. So she & the crew napped in mama's bed on mama's pillow (the only place I can get her to nap lately & not wake up baby Bright).

Crawling

Just to note, baby Bright crawled today in nursery....well, sort of. More than I've seen at home & I didn't have a camera handy. He was lifting hands & knees to move, just not in sync yet. By the time I got my phone out to use the crude video screen, he flipped over & was done trying. humpf! hopefully I'll get some new pics or video in the next couple days.

Praying for a playroom

We had a busy day last Saturday with friends selflessly helping us clean up our mess & get our house staged to put on the market. We still have to put it on...long story, but I cannot believe how much harder it has been to live without the things I thought I could. Now, most of the stuff we put into storage was no big deal, but the toys & the baby Bright depositors....ugh! Sette almost made me cry when she went into her room the next day looking for her car. I followed her only to find her standing where it used to be & not knowing what to do. I then quickly showed her a toy she still had. Since then we've had about 3 additional instances of "missing toys". The places to safely put baby Bright have disappeared too, but this has only made the time he spends in the pack-n-play much more frequent. He will never be able to sleep in that thing if necessary, all he has done is play, play, play in it for the past week.

I am actually glad I've had a week to realize what I will need to do to keep the house visitor friendly. It isn't terrible but I have a checklist....dog cage outside, dog goes with us in car, throw toys in bins, make sure beds are made, hide unfolded laundry (unless I've surprised myself), make sure the toilet is presentable (boys are dirty), sweep through if necessary, etc. In the whole process, I've also realized this would be a good list to do daily regardless....shocker, right?!

So I will keep you posted on our housing progress, but to say the least, I am praying for a playroom.

Poop

Bright has been backed-up. At night he has just been crying & crying for days so Dave & I set out to un-stop the boy with a tiny suppository. The instant we put that suppository in, he started smiling. Then after several minutes, he unloaded & I mean completely let loose. After laughing through this experience, I have some fun tips for you all to keep in mind if you ever encounter a backed-up child.

Tip #1: Do not think this will be a SMALL mess that can be completed on an open diaper, on a towel, on your lap.

Tip #2: A closed diaper is not a bad idea & probably would have made this story null & void.

Tip #3: Following that tips #1 & #2 were not heeded, do not hold child over self in any way...no matter how much you think they need comforting.

Tip #4: Have a husband with a strong stomach aid in this process. Not one who leaves & exclaims he "can't handle this" & is sorry, but "just can't".

Tip #5: Have the bath drawn ahead of time & extra towels to lead to the bathroom. You may end up doing this whole process alone.

Kid Pics

Sette loves to take pictures & I mean using the camera, not posing for pictures. Shown above are some of her latest masterpieces.

I kiss booboos now!

This morning Sette surprised me by requesting to potty & not wanting to wear her diaper afterward. She has not worn a diaper all day & has had no accidents. I'm so wrapped up in baby Bright & other things (& we've been down this road before) that I haven't even thought to ask her, but she keeps telling me when she is going to go. She also doesn't want me in there while she goes (my independent girl), so I usually stand in the hallway...still able to see (& cheer when finished).

With all this diaperless activity, she has been running around with no padding to speak of. oh, & one more side note, I am a klutz...& have knocked my children over just by moving toward them before. So right after breakfast I walk past Sette to get to the highchair with Bright's food. Of course, there are toys on the floor. I end up knocking her down & she lands on a weeble (a hard plastic round person...he weebles, but just won't fall down). ANYWAY, she starts to cry & I ask her where she got hurt (mistake #1). She points to her bum & asks me to kiss it. So I proceed to kiss a cheek (mistake #2). Then she says, "no, not that one, the other one." Then I correct my mistake & ask if she feels better & she says..."Yes, all better." Oh, the healing powers of a mother's love...

The pics show her washing her hands in the tub.

I'm hoping this girl is potty training herself.

Bathtime babies

Daddy gets a little irritated with the fact that I try to recreate similar pictures of Bright to ones we have of Sette at his age/stage. Well, last night I finally got my toweled boy in a pic with daddy to compare with the toweled girl of so long ago! I will share more of these as I think of them :)

Bright, what a big boy you are!!!

I've really wanted to blog something about only Bright & I finally captured an event. He was happily allowing me to snap shots of him in an awesome, crazy outfit we had thrown on. Somehow he found his paci in his seat & put it in his mouth himself. Pretty good for my 5-mo old!

The FROG or TOAD...

Yesterday we tried to go swimming in the blow-up pool we recently purchased to survive the rest of the summer. I had timed it so that baby Bright would be napping while Sette & I went out with the monitor until baby Bright foiled my plans by cutting his nap short. I ran in grabbed him to hold him while we watched Sette. I had to fill the pool so the hose was on & Sette played happily with that. I decided to make her wear her swimmies even in this little pool just so she thinks she must anytime she is "swimmin'". Now because I had Bright & wasn't hanging out in the pool with her, she decided she didn't want to swim at all, but swing or slide instead. All that work for nothing! So the rest of our afternoon was filled with sliding, dangling from the chin-up bar, teetering Sette with my foot, playing in the sandbox & avoiding a TOAD. Not just any toad, the biggest toad I've seen since riding our trikes around in circles in the Dorman's old basement. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, we were little so those toads were huge!

The toad, at least I think it was a toad, made its appearance while Sette was sitting in the sandbox. It was circling her and I was standing about 3 feet away. So I kept letting out this little scream every time I saw this guy hop. Then Sette started copying me, but had no idea what I was screaming at. Dave has told me he really wants me to try not to give Sette my personal fears. Let her decide what she likes or dislikes on her own...I guess I am just really influential because she is pretty sure every flying bug is a bee & it will hurt her based off of a one-minute conversation I had with her a long time ago.

Anyway, I tried to just keep my mouth shut but once the nasty creature turned toward the sandbox & started hopping I was yelling for Sette to get out. She did as she usually does & didn't pay any attention to me. Then I let loose & tried to show her (scare her with) what was coming...A FROG (she has no idea what a toad is). She looked at it & said, "Hi, froggy!" Then I picked her up by an arm. Mind you, I have Bright on my hip at this point (he was previously rolling around on the blanket).


So Sette wiggled away & went off to hang from the random bar at the end of the swing set while I watched this toad. I toad...I mean, told her she was not allowed to slide anymore because she would land on the "frog". She actually stayed away. I snapped shots as the toad jumped into the sandbox & proceeded to bury itself by doing 45 degree turns while digging with his back legs...YUCK!!! I documented this in case national geographic or any nature mag wants to pay me.

















Actually, I wanted to show dave so he could excavate it & take it for a long walk. It did stay buried all afternoon & when dave came home he found it based on my accurate & detailed photos...from the porch. Didn't I mention that? She was still playing & I was up on the porch so as to not die by toad.

Biking!

Yesterday was a full day for us. We went swimming in the late morning...YEAH!!! And then Sette got to ride her tricycles (she has 2!) in the afternoon. The red tricycle is taller & until yesterday she hasn't been able to touch the pedals so this was an exciting ride. She starts to roll & then I was positive she was going to bite it down the slope of our drive & hit the gi-normous log in the way. Notice I did nothing to stop her. I wanted to help her, but was torn between helping my child & videoing her ride...Crazy mama!!!


Following that ride, she switched to the blue trike (smaller, more control) & was a little tentative about the ride down the mountain this time. I just thought her arm movements were priceless.



Finally, we live on a wooded dead end street so Sette got to ride her bike out to see daddy when he got home from work.

M & M's

So we went to the NEW SUPERWALMART for the very first time tonight. I needed some groceries & DIAPERS!!! Sette was already in a bad mood, so I was sure this wasn't going to be fun! She sat in the stroller for the first 2 minutes & then wanted to push her brother. Fine, but if you have kids & have ever let them out of the cart, you know what's happening as she pushes & I hold her back. We are at odds the entire store visit. She doesn't seem to care as she shoves on.

We went in search of some swimmies...I have some, but would like a back-up pair for friends or if Sette's pop a leak. Just in case you forgot, which I have, I should have purchased any summer things I needed in February when they were in stock. All I came across was a SUPER expensive pool & pool accessories to keep that water clean. But darn those Super Walmarts, they have everything else a 2 year old could ever dream of...we're still into balls. So she sees this ball, a batman ball. Gotta' have it, not gonna' get it, but she's just gotta' have it. Normally this would be a scene, but I told her to put it back because we were going to get her some swimmies. She had no idea what swimmies were, but it must have sounded like a fantastic idea because she immediately put the ball back & resumed her pushing because we were gonna' get some "swimmies". I was off to lawn & garden just hoping they had some sad display of leftover pool toys, but nope, the school supplies were even getting low...I mean school should start in a couple weeks so... I'm pretty sure I could have found some Halloween stuff...it being July & all.

Okay to the point of this story. In the lawn & garden she saw a very cool play house & wanted that. I said, "no" & surprisingly the little Sette abated. I could not believe it as we walked to the checkout with my groceries, diapers & no swimmies. While in the line, she opened the door to one of those coke coolers & pulled out a diet coke. now, she knows I love diet, but I told her to put it back...& do you know what? she did. So at this point I am so proud of her for obeying like a champ with no swimmies to be found so I turn her around & said she could pick out any candy bar she wanted because she was such a good girl with no fits & she obeyed all through the store. I know, I know...the sugar, but I wanted her to know she had made my night. She picked out a bag of plain m&ms. fine choice! I would've picked out a twix, but she had no idea what she was picking.

When we got into the car, I gave her the little bag of m& m's & she started pulling each out & saying it's color. I was very congratulatory (& corrective) of her some times wrong, but often right answers. Then she blew me away. Holding it up for me to see, she said, "double-yous". I looked back to see, she was right. She was showing me that her m & m had written on it a "w". I was so proud, & then I said it can also be an "m" flipping it right side up. She flipped it back & told me again, "double-yous". So from now on, we will have "double-you & double-yous" please.

Blogging Baby

So this morning officially started at 7:48 AM. For some unknown reason, our 2 year old Sette Sette wakes at 7:48 everyday...mostly everyday. She and her brother baby Bright share a room. So I heard the door to their room slam, looked at the clock & it was, in fact, 7:48 AM. Baby Bright remained asleep which is extremely strange. He slept in until 8:30 this morning. Again, this is extremely strange.

So naptime is off & now as I type, he has fallen asleep on my lap. Lyssette however has been a grumpy gus all morning. She came in to get me up after the door slam & made sure I knew she was fussy. She pulled on my hand whining, "get up." Actually this was much nicer than usual. She has gotten used to hitting the pillow by my head saying, "mommy, get up." I'm a night owl. I much prefer to stay up & party, but not the rest of my brood. My husband & daughter think if the sun has just shone, they'll perish if they continue to rest. My only hope is to get to bed early so that when they do wake, I can function.

Not much else is happening today, except setting up this blog. Oh, & I need to go get groceries, but I'm not looking forward to it. I think I'll wait until the hubby gets home to stay with the kids.