Too good to pass up!

Like I said in my last post, the month of March flew by, but there were still a few gems I wanted to share in my blog, so this post is kinda jumping backwards (not necessarily in sequence, either), as most are from March, with the exception of the Easter pictures.

 Do you see this?  This is how you allow two boys to happily play pirates in the tubby without having to worry about disaster.  Disaster meaning Aidan pooping in the tub, Owen screaming like he's been shot, and me frazzled and irritated that I'll have to scrub the tub with bleach for the 57th time this year (and it's only March!).  For convenience, I always bath the boys together.. actually, we do all 3 on the same night.. it's just easier.. bing bang boom.  Because of Aidan's inability to not crap in the tub, we usually give him a shower bath, which entails him sitting in the tub and me washing him with the shower head before the tub has even filled.  And then when he's done, Owen gets to get in and can play.  Except how awful is that!  Aidan wants to play, too, and every single night there are tears because he doesn't want to get out.. he wants to play ABCs or pirates or just splash around and make a mess like Owen.. but, every single time I concede and let him stay in.. he poops.  So, I popped a diaper on him, lined the floor with towels, and made peace with the fact that my bathroom would be a soaked mess and just let them play.  It worked fantastically, as they both had a blast.. there was no poop in the tub (ha, but he did poop in the diaper!! what is it with the tub that makes this kid poop?!).. and everyone was happy.  I will admit to having to save him a few times as he almost went over the side head first.. a small price to pay for the happiness that comes along with pink bath water and foam pirate toys.

 

Re-purposing diaper boxes has become my new secret mission in life.  Mostly because it pains me to think about how much money we spend on diapers.  Our latest recycling mission was breaking them down and painting on the under side.  Works SO much better than construction paper (er, more like printer paper) that we've tried in the past.  After the first few minutes of painting (mostly unassisted - aside from me just making sure they didn't eat it), Owen starts saying "Look Mom, I made an airplane".. I was fully prepared to pretend like I saw it and praise him, never expecting he actually did make something that really did look like an airplane, but to my surprise he had!  He must have some if his Aunt Mimi in him, because he certainly doesn't get that creative artistic side from me.  I have zero art skills.  I'm the "paint a sun in the corner of the paper" kinda gal.  Jason isn't very artistic either... at least not that I know of..  I've never seen him draw anything? 

 Moodle is doing so well sitting up.  She very much enjoys the freedom, too.  She's becoming even more of a delight these days.. genuinely happy and content.  Her hair is still a ridiculous hot mess.  We've had to resort to using poufs of some sort to keep it out of her eyes.  It's so funny, when she does have a fussy period, Owen will say "Mom, Miss Amelia is fussy.. she wants boobie" or  "Miss Amelia is cranky, she needs a nappy" or perhaps my favorite of all "what's your problem, girl!".  Cracks me up.  I don't know why I find it so funny hearing him say these things as these are all things I say to her word for word.. it's just hearing it come out of his mouth that makes me laugh.  Sometimes he repeats things and instead of sounding like he's 2.5 he sounds like he's an adult.  Aidan usually comes over and tries to share his juice cup or snack with her whenever she's crying.  Which, is surprising.. because of all things, Aidan is very possessive over his food and drink!  It's like stealing honey from a bear!  Sometimes, I really honestly think he might try and bite my hand if I were to take his food!

 Owen also has this crazy obsession with the carbon monoxide detector.  It's plugged into an outlet in the hallway at the top of the stairs outside of their doors.  It has a "tester" button on it, that when you press it the alarm will beep 3 times in a row.  It's a high pitched beep, similar to the smoke detector.  For some reason, Ojo is terrified of this alarm.  Aidan has figured out that Ojo hates it and has made it his goal in life to try and press the button every. single. time. we come up the steps.  They now try and race each other to the top of the stairs, and then Owen, my normally very sweet and gentle kid, will full force football tackle Aidan to the ground to prevent him from pressing the button as he shrieks "DON'T BEEP IT!".  If tacking fails, he's not above hair pulling, shoving, eye guaging, etc.  It is a fierce battle they have.  The more aggressive Owen gets trying to prevent Aidan from doing it the more intense Aidan gets in his desire to do just that.  I wouldn't care as much, except the fact that it's like 3 feet from the top of the stairs makes me constantly yelling at them to NOT wrestle right there!  Ahh, sibling love at its finest!

Our days are filled with highs and lows, ups and downs, tears, tantrums and giggles.  It's never boring, whether we're playing diaper box trains, with me pushing them all around the hardwoods or curling up together on the couch eating pretzel goldfish and watching TV.  And the more they're able to communicate (mainly Owen, but Aidan's saying more and more these days, too!) the more comical my days with them are.  Owen must ask me 1000 times a day "What you doin`, Mom".. I had started responding with "I'm having a party, Ojo" because it was irritating me beyond belief (almost as irritating as listening to Halloween music STILL in March).. so now, when I ask him what he's doing he tells me he's having a party.. but he's nice enough to ask if I'd like to come to his party.. it's a fun party, Mom.. you wanna come, Mom?  Come to my party, Mom!  Or how about last week when it was raining when he had this lightbulb moment and yelled to me to tell me that water is coming from the sky!!  That's right, kiddo :)  Or how he farted the other day, and was laughing hysterically because he farted on his pants.. Another favorite is every morning when we wake up he will say to me "Guess who's coming over today??!"  and when I say who, he'll name someone.. usually Mommom.. or "the guys".. or "my friends" he'll say..  He also likes to put people on the spot.. so, watch out.. if you get a phone call from Owen he's probably going to ask you if you're going to come over and play with him.. and if you tell him no, he'll likely make you feel like an awful person for making him cry (my Mom can attest to this.. he's done it to her many of times.. and for the record "no" because you have to go to work isn't an acceptable reason to him!).

 Ha.  Easter.  So, with Aidan and his barfing issues in the car, pre-Easter photos didn't really happen.  We actually woke him up from a nap, stripped him down to a onesie and loaded him in the car in that, justtttt in case he yacked all over himself before we arrived at Jason's Aunt's house.  For that reason, there was no early afternoon Easter pictures.  SO, what you see is what you get.  This was post Easter dinner.  3 tired kids.  All pretty crabby.  Ready for bed.  And, wanting absolutely nothing to do with smiling.  At least they matched!  I was able to get this one sweet picture of Ojo loving on Moodle.  This boy has such a big heart!  Overally, Easter itself was a success, despite no smiling shot to capture it  We made it there and home (thank you drammamine) puke free.. though, we were pretty close... my hopes that the tubes helped cure Aidan's motion sickness have pretty much diminished.  We've seen no improvement.  Tis life.  The kids had a blast at Jason's Aunt's house and they were really, really well behaved.  There weren't any major meltdowns or crying fits...!  Their Aunt Nicole and Mommom & Poppop had gotten them bubble toys and water guns so they had a ton of fun playing outside. 

I'm kind of a terrible Mom in the sense that I didn't take pictures of them "opening" their Easter baskets.. or finding the eggs I, er.. the Easter bunny, hid.  But I guess that's to be expected considering I didn't take them to see the Easter bunny, either.  I've harped on this before (I'm sure), but it's just SO hard to justify taking Aidan out in the car for a drive that I know is going to make him sick unless I medicate him for something they aren't even going to enjoy anyway.  Actually, if I'm being totally honest, we miss a lot of things they would absolutely enjoy, too.  On top of Aidan actually getting physically sick, it has also become a MAJOR source of anxiety for me, too.  I don't really understand why, either.  I tell myself over and over.. there's nothing you can do about it.. if he pukes, oh well.. we clean it up and move forward.. but even still, I get ridiculously anxious the entire drive.. I'm not one to have "anxiety" issues normally, but this is definitely something I don't handle well!  I think it's the combination of feeling guilty that I'm forcing Aidan into the car knowing he won't feel well, plus then the frustration of dealing with the mess and the cleanup.. uninstalling car seats, taking car seats apart to wash them.. re-installing car seats.. the smell of puke that lingers in the car.. ugh, it's just horrific.  I PRAY he outgrows this, soon.  Or, at least starts to understand the concept of knowing when it's coming, so we can teach him to puke in a bucket or something!! Even then, though, I'll still have the guilt.  I know how awful I feel when I get car sick.. I can't imagine dealing with that feeling every single drive :(  When I'm pregnant my motion sickness worsens.. I remember many drives to and from work where I'd have to pull over on the Blue Route to get out of my car until the nausea passed.  Aidan's too little to ask us to do that.. instead he's stuck back there feeling so sick to the point that he pukes.  Ugh.. I hate it for him.  So, for the most part.. we stay isolated at home.  Anyway, I digressed, a lot.  My point was, while I suck for not taking any pictures of essentially anything Easter related, at least I have proof that the Easter bunny did in fact come and bring them baskets!  And, we did end up dying eggs!  Something I swore I wasn't going to do because it's an utter waste of time.. but, we invited my parents over and the kids died eggs with Mommom and Popple.. Ha.. wish I had the picture of Aidan's egg victim.. the one he smashed in his hand by squeezing it until it burst.  Or, the 15 eggs that Owen died that were cracked in 49 different places.  Meh, they enjoyed it.. and, as my Mom keeps saying.. it's all about tradition :-P