Kid Talk

Remember that expression "kids say the darndest things".. there is so much truth in that I can barely handle it!  Ojo has taught us rather quickly that everything we say is up for grabs when it comes to repeating things.  We've coined quite a few "ojo-isms" these days.  The things that come out of his mouth just crack us up!  Aidan is getting there, too!  Toddlerhood is definitely tough because of the defiance and the tantrums, but it's also the most enjoyable part because you really start to see their personalities coming through.  Here are some examples of the many phrases that I hear repeated...

"Pain in the ass"... I know I touched on this last time, but it hung around for a good two week spurt where this was his favorite phrase and everyone in the house was called it.  Daddy put him in time out?  He'd grumble pain in the ass as he sulked over to the timeout chair.  Amelia was excessively crying?  he'd shake his head and call her a pain in the ass.  Aidan stole a toy from him?  Yep, you guessed it.. he'd shriek "pain in the ass, Aidannnn!".  Oops.

"WHAAATTT?!?!"  (spoken exactly the way I spelled it.....!).  This is the response you get whenever you ask him a question, give him a command, or even have a conversation with someone else in the house.  And, the attitude that comes with this word.. oh my, he kills me!

"Hey Mom, catch this"... said when he's about to throw just about any and every object at my (and often, Amelia, too) head.  Thankfully, his aim is terrible, and he hasn't developed much strength in that throwing arm.. but quite a few occasions he's nailed me with something.. like such as a full sippy cup (I know, I know, why does he still drink from a sippy... the messes!!! I mean, seriously.. I already spend 80% of my time cleaning up after them.. I can't imagine open cups, too!  I digress..).

 "NOOO!  Amelia eats boobies, not milk!!". He is very adamant on this, and will inform anyone and everyone of this fact. I will say though, one of his favorite things to do is rub Amelia's head while she's nursing.  I adore this picture because it shows how nonchalant he is about it.. he's watching Sesame Street, but has to make sure he's rubbing her head, too.  He has such a ginormous heart...!

And then there is Bill.  The ginormous horse on a spring that was gifted to the kids by their Aunt Ali for Christmas.  Who names a horse Bill?  Owen does. We spend a LOT of our day listening to Pandora radio, and Owen's favorite song is "I like to move it move it".. he requests this song every time he's riding Bill.. because he wants Bill to "move it move it".

"Get up and eat".  This one comes from me, without a doubt.  I feel like I am alwayssss pleading with this child to just eat.  He isn't picky with foods, and overall is a great eater.. he is just SLOW.  It's always a process.. We have to take breaks, have a few meltdowns, some tears, some groaning.. and then eventually he scarfs down everything on his plate.. so, naturally I say to him "get up and eat, Owen" all the time.  He has now begun saying this back to me.. or Aidan.  Two days ago he told me to "take one more bite, or go take a nap"... little does he know, I actually would prefer the nap!

Aidan likes to get in on the horse riding action, too.  He gets to ride Blake.  The original wooden horse that we had.  Again, Blake?  Seriously.. considering Jason and his Father are both big into horse racing, you'd think my child would be able to come up with more creative names!  Nope, we've got Bill and Blake.  Anyway, Aidan likes Blake.  The only issue with Blake is that it's not meant to be ridden by a beast like Aidan (and Owen!).  My kids rock with such force that they end up toppling over head first.. repeatedly.  It's kind of funny, but at the same time I'm paranoid one of them will land on their neck and get really hurt.  So, riding Blake requires supervision!  I think even funnier than watching them ride on Blake is watching Aidan trying to get up and down off of Bill.  It cracks me up seeing him try and pull all 27lbs up onto this horse.. and forget it if he happens to be wearing jeans.  No shot.  This is strictly a "soft pants" only activity!

 Both him and Aidan spend a lot of time yelling at the dog.  My dog.  Ugh.  I love him.. He was my baby for the longest time.  But, in his old age he's become cantankerous and disobedient.  Case and point, he used to never be allowed on this furniture set, but alas, rules no longer pertain to him and he's declared this couch as his! Old man Chunk is also not a huge fan of the kids, so, I admit, Jas and I are often asking/telling/yelling at Chunk to leave the room when us and the kids are in there.  Now, when he does come down, the boys also say "DOG! Get out!".  A few weeks ago, Owen is yelling at Chunk to leave, and like normal, Chunk is completely ignoring him.. Owen responds by shouting "I'm pissed!"... looks at me, looks back at Chunk, who still hasn't even lifted his head, and then throws his arms up in the air and yells "are you kidding me!!".  I about peed myself laughing.

Aidan.. pretty much everything in Aidan's life right now focuses on Elmo.  I think by the time he's 2 we may have permanently banned that word from our house.  EVERYTHING revolves around Elmo.  You can't walk past a TV without him crying for Elmo.  I can't dress him in the morning, because OMG if it's not Elmo on his shirt, he freaks out (and, can I just say finding Elmo clothing has been a huge pain in the ass -- guess I know where Owen gets that phrase...!).  A few weeks ago I had just put him in his fleecey footy pajamas and was folding laundry.. this fleece Elmo hoodie that he has was in said basket of wash.. as he sees it, he now starts hysterically crying for me to put Elmo on overtop of his jammies.  Sure, easy enough.  Except this Elmo hoodie is size 18mo.  He wears 2T.  Trying to put this thing on over his already thick fleecy PJs.. it was like fitting the kid in spandex.  That was what prompted me to really begin searching for more Elmo apparel.. when I realized how strong this child's addiction is!

 Both my kids have "bear guys" that they sleep with.  And, both of them are the most random choices of things to grow attached to.  Owen's was this little toy that came attached to one of his newborn sleepers as an infant.  Aidan's was actually given to us as a gift to Owen along with a Winnie the Pooh sign, but somehow it got put in Aidan's crib when he was a baby and became his lovie.  The thing is absolutely disgusting.  I can't for the life of me figure out what this kid does with it, but it ALWAYS feels as if someone dropped it in the toilet.  It smells horrific, even though I wash it on a bimonthly basis.  He just chews on it, and sucks on it, and spits on it, etc.  Seriously.  You could easily mistaken this as one of Chunk's babies.  It's always crusty and rancid smelling (when it's dry) or sopping wet whenever he's had it.  But he LOVES this thing.  He cracks me up, he'll bend down and bite it's belly, lift his head and shake it in his mouth just like Chunk does with his toys.  He is a strange little child :)

Aside from his obsessions with Elmo and his bear, Aidan is a majorrrrrrr button pusher.  He doesn't like to listen.  Ever.  He throws tantrums that are pretty horrific.  Way worse than I remember Owen doing.  And, he's relentless.  Stubborn.  Thick headed.  You name it, basically.  He knows how to just drive you absolutely insane at times.  Jason and I were talking about this earlier.. he pushes and pushes and pushes.. and gets you to the point where you're ready to just screammmmmm... and then, all of a sudden.. he just stops and says "Hi Mom"... through the tears, and the fighting and the kicking and the screaming.. he'll just look you dead in the eye, face flush from getting so out of breath from throwing such a massive tantrum, tears still streaking his cheeks, and he'll smile.. "Hi Dad".. "Hi Mom"... he would do the exact same thing to me when I was home with him.. but, hearing Jason explain this same happening to me earlier just made me laugh.. he plays us both!  Because, like Jason said, instantly after he says "Hi...", we both would feel bad about being on edge with him, and then we apologize and forget what it was we were about to reprimand him for!  He's smart... he knows already how to manipulate us!

 And then we come to Moodle.  It's so cute how Owen calls her Miss Amelia, but Aidan calls her Moodle.  Daddy calls her Missy Woo.  We each have our own nicknames for her.  I tend to call her a combination of all the above, and more.  Baby girl is another one.. and Owen will repeat that as well.  Sometimes he'll say to Aidan "come here baby girl".. he gives me this puzzled look when I start laughing.. clearly understanding the distinguishing between girl/boy doesn't apply to him yet.

Amelia is a trooper.  She allows me to dress her up (on occasion) and put these bows and tutus and sparkly shoes on just to take pictures.  For the most part, she tolerates it well.  Minus smiling.  She saves all those for when she has my FULL attention.. never when there's a camera or phone involved.  Her favorite smile is when she squishes up her whole face, squints her eyes, smiles big and sticks out her tongue. It is the cutest expression, and I just about melt every time she does it.  I'm determined to try and catch it on camera on day.. kind of like how I've been trying to catch Aidan's "country stomp" (his method of dancing involves standing up and repeatedly stomping on foot on the ground while flapping his arms)... adorable little quirks that they have, but impossible to catch on video.


 Since the night before the night before Christmas, Amelia's sleep has been drastically improved.  She's now sleeping roughly 7:30-7:30a with the occasional overnight wake up, but for the most part, solid sleep has once again become our norm!

Let's talk nursing.  We are FINALLY at that sweet spot.  The spot where it's enjoyable, it's easy, convenient and I truly do understand what everyone means when they talk about that "bond" that you get.  Now that I'm back to work, I only really get to nurse her once or twice a day on those days.  I make the decision to leave for work later that way I can feed her before I go.  It's a bittersweet call.  Mornings are our favorite feedings.  She is always so happy and content.. she just stares up at me, popping on and off to smile and coo and "talk" to me.  It usually takes her 30+ minutes to eat because she's so chatty and happy.  It really does make it SO difficult to leave her.  Lots of mornings I leave later than I'd intended simply because I find it so hard to pull myself away from her smiles.  Her new thing is she plays with my hair while she's eating.  She's usually pretty gentle, but every once in a while she catches me off guard and grabs an entire fistful and nearly rips it out of my head.  I'm really happy that we were able to persevere and make nursing work out.  My initial goal was 6mo, but now that we're only a few weeks away from that, I am hopeful we'll be able to reach a year!

Overall, this past month has been a busy one.  I'm so ready for winter to be over.  The kids are tired of being couped up in the house, I'm tired of the cold weather, dear LORD we are tired of paying the energy bills associated with the cold... we're just over it.  It's a lot harder to entertain everyone and burn off some energy when we're stuck inside.  Some days it's worth it to spend 20 minutes locating hats, gloves, coats, shoes and socks and bundling them up for a 5 minute walk out to the mailbox and back.  Just something to break up the monotony of the day.  We tried to then go play out on the deck for a bit, since we were already bundled, but within minutes hands were frozen, noses were running, and tears were freezing to their cheeks. I had to bribe them with hot chocolate and marshmallows to convince them to come back over to the warm side.

 We did get lucky!  Last weekend we had my family over to celebrate my birthday by having a home made pizza making day at our house.  We really lucked out temperature wise because it turned out to be a gorgeous day!  Temperatures reached nearly 60 degrees.  It was so nice for all the kids to get to go play outside.  My boys have been gifted 2 jeeps over the years, but neither have really mastered how to drive them yet.  Thank goodness for big cousins!  We had to get creative and roped the two jeeps together so the bigger one that Liam was driving could pull Owen's (since he hasn't mastered the concept of pressing the peddle and steering).  The kids all had a fantastic time!  It so awesome having nephews just a few years older than my boys.. they really are like best little buds.  I hope that they maintain this friendship forever and ever.

I suppose it's not much of a shock that the week following our beautiful outdoor weather my kids end up sick (my nephew, too!).  The boys both spiked fevers yesterday morning.  By the end of the day all 3 had fevers.  This resulted in extra cuddle time and special permission to watch Elmo and Buzz whenever requested in the comfort of Momma's bed.  I'd love to say that these kids were feeling better today, but with the exception of Amelia, that's not true.  Amelia's fever was low grade -- likely teething.. the boys fevers are 102-103+.  Ya know, the kind where they touch you with their little baby hands and it feels like someone is laying hot coals on my skin.  Whatever it is must be viral since it hit them both at the same time.  If we're not better by Monday, to the peds we'll go.

We also had Aidan's second opinion ENT appointment today.  We've scheduled the surgery for putting tubes in his ears for March 20th.  However, we have to get in to see Neurology before then so he can have an MRI and CT scan done to rule out any neurological conditions that could be factoring into his motion sickness/balance issues.  Apparently it's not a "normal" thing for a kid so young to have such severe motion sickness.  Mostly, I think, seeing neurology is just for precaution.  The ENT doc, who was GREAT by the way, is pretty confident his issues are stemming from the large amount of fluid built up in there, but she said that anesthesia likely wouldn't sign off on the procedure without him first having been seen by neurology.  So, that's where we're at.  It all makes more sense, though.. she talked about how having fluid in his ears like this all the time could give him an "all the time belly ache", which would then explain why the kid is always asking for food... perhaps he's just trying to settle his belly ache, when really the issue is coming from his ears.  I'm really hopeful this will fix all his issues!  If not, at least we caught this now before it resulted in long term damage to his speech and/or hearing.  March is shaping up to be a pretty busy month, but hopefully I'll find time to check in again, soon!