(not just a) MommyBlog (dot com)

“The boys” and I decided to come visit my parents for a few days… funny because they only live 45 minutes away!   But we never get to spend much time with them.. it seems that all our visits are for a single afternoon, or for dinner, whereas we see Casey’s parents for entire weeks at a time.   So here we are.   And browsing on their computer, I found some funny photos of us from Christmas day:

Casey, Cooper, Dudley and I fell sound asleep on the couch after several plates of food and as many glasses of wine…   This amid Kenny and his cousins running wild with Kenny’s new remote control car just feet away from where we are sleeping!   The fact that I am actually asleep with Casey’s foot so close to my nose is the real miracle…

In my mom’s determination to get only the grandkids in the picture, she made me squat behind the dining room chair and hold Cooper aloft, giving him the very image of a boy in flight…

Ah, the wonders of digital photography…

Ok, so it’s no secret around here that since Cooper George made his first appearance this blog has become a chore shuffled far down on the To Do list.   Seriously.   Laundry, dishes, housework, not to mention walking the dog, playing with Kenny (without a baby on my lap) and stringing together an at least slightly coherent sentence to Casey tend to take precedence.   Then there was the move to Atlanta.   The move back.   Trips to California and Florida. Thanksgiving cooking.   Christmas decorating, shopping, partying and entertaining.   I’ve been lucky to write a few times a month, much less the near-daily posts of this blog’s first two years.   What is a girl to do??

Fortunately, inspiration comes in unlikely packages.   Though I have begged off the most recent slew of requests to review products and websites, when I got a note to review Katherine Center’s next book, pre-publication, I jumped on it.   I reviewed her first book on this website last spring and absolutely loved it.   When her newest work arrived in the mail, I let it sit unopened on my dining room table for well over a week for the simple reason that I knew that once I picked it up, I would want to read it all the way through without stopping.   Last night  I braved a peak inside the cover and BOOM.   Here I sit 24 hours later a richer woman.

I will write a real review for the book over the weekend, but suffice to say for now: it gave me the kick in the rear I needed to get back up and going on this blog.   The book is all about a mother drowning in motherhood and her decision to do something to get (at least a piece of) her old self back.   Ah.   Sing to me, fair authoress.

When Casey first set up this site for me, it was to be more than just a hobby-slash-place to post pictures for the grandparents.   It was to be a creative outlet and a piece of me that was all my own.   And thus, I resolve that it shall be, once again.   Not a post-laundry-dishes-dusting-child-rearing afterthought.   But something that is all my own.

Not only that, but I’ve re-hired the cartoonist who drew the picture on the banner to update our family portrait in all it’s cartoonish and circus-worthy glory.   So stay tuned for that.

And now, in light of all that is just said, I feel it necessary to write at least one  item about my Mommy life….

Kenny picks his nose all. the. time.   It’s become a needle under my skin.   Veritable water-torture.   The sight.   The sound.   The slimy, squishy boogers that get wound around his fingers and up under his fingernails.   GROSS.   I’ve actually caught myself wanting to tape his nostrils shut, or at the very least putting his hand in a cast just to stop the madness.   Nothing works.   Threats, time-outs, hand slaps, begging, bribing… nothing.   So.   How do you get a three-year-old to stop picking his nose???

Some Christmas shots…

Cooper loves his new seat!

I love this one… Casey, Cooper and I have just woken up from a post-feast-couch-nap and Kenny has just finished an hour of totally un-supervised playtime with his cousins over at my parent’s house…. the mischief is as evident on his face and the sleepiness is on ours…

Merry Christmas.   Mommy is going to bed!

MommyBlog will be back posting next week!

Today Kenny asked me if I would write a letter to Santa for him.   “You write whatever I say, ok Mama?”

It’s funny… Casey and I really haven’t told him anything about Santa, but I suppose with the Christmas specials he’s seen (Rudolf, Frosty, etc) and the Christmas storybooks we’ve read, he’s picked up a pretty hearty and excited admiration for the big guy with a belly like a bowl full of jelly.   He’s asked me how Santa’s going to get into our house (we have no chimney), if he’s going to remember to stop by with presents by the time the Advent calendar say’s it’s time (I think he’d feel more secure if Santa would just leave the presents under the tree already, like the one’s from Gramma that are already sitting there), and who exactly is giving him what (as in, “Are I going to get my presents from you or Santa?”).

So here was Kenny’s letter, as dictated to me: “Dear Santa, Please bring me a marker book.   And I want a flag for my playground.   And please  bring my little brother a toy.   And something for Mommy.   We already got Dadda something.   Thank you, Kenny and Mommy and Dadda and Cooper.”

Then he colored the other side and covered it with stickers, and then asked me how exactly we were going to get to the North Pole to give it to him.   I tried explaining that the USPS would take care of that one, but he wasn’t buying it.  

You gotta love that a three-year-old has no problem believing in a guy who flies through the air in a sled pulled by reindeer, but can’t fathom that an envelope and a stamp will take your letter anywhere you want it to go…

Actually, it’s gotten  a little better around here.   Cooper’s ear infection has diminished, though he’s caught another cold (presumably from another friend who neglected to tell me that her kids were sick before they kissed my precious baby’s face…).  

I’ve started doing something I never saw happening, though:   I’m a champion cheerleader of breastfeeding, and I’ve started giving Cooper a bottle of formula for his last feeding of the day.   I never had a problem with nursing Kenny, but for some reason, I’ve had a rough time keeping up with Cooper.   It’s not like he’s wasting away… he’s nearly 18 pounds and only 5 and a half months!   But by bedtime, there’s just nothing left for me to give.   He’d started  fussing, biting, and then finally giving up and sleeping.   But for the past seven days, I’ve tried a little formula and Viola! he has been sleeping like he used to.   He’s slept through a night a few times, and a few woken up very briefly, but for the most part, things are looking up.   I have no intention of weaning him just yet, but what a relief to know that he’ll take formula and that he does well with it!

So now what to do with all this “free time?”   (ha!   ha ha … ok, that’s a little silly)   Showering would be a great start.   Laundry.   Um, Christmas shopping??   Oh, and I’ve had this blog for two and a half years now, and for the first time I’ve nearly completely neglected it.   Do I hear a New Year’s Resolution popping up?

I really do love writing, and reading and the whole blogging hobby, but I have to admit that it seems a silly indulgence when so much else has fallen under the horse in my little world.   Man, two kids is so much different than one!

Here are some nutshell updates of my boys:

Kenny – RASCAL.   Ah, but sweeter than sweet 90% of the time, so he certainly makes amends for the violent couch jumping, Dudley riding and constant re-hanging of the Christmas tree ornaments.   On Saturday, we had a little party over here, and just as everyone was leaving, he fell out of his chair and hit the side of his face on  the table.   We thought he broke his tooth, and our angel dentist came in at 9 at night to take a look.   Turns out that the force of the impact forced his gum over his tooth and that’s why it looked like half of it was gone.   Yuk.   Now he’s got a big bruised knot on the side of his face – he looks like a three-year-old Rocky Balboa.

Cooper – Rolling over, constantly jabbering (“Dadadadadadada, bada daby do dadadadad dadybada!”), learning to suck his thumb and spending his free time in the “hopper popper” seat where he’s happy until all the bouncing makes him poop!   That kid knows how to make a splash in the world.   He’s also loosing his hair – except for the long patch on top which I had to trim last week because it was always in his eyes…. it’s a nice comb-over look, and has definite mohawk-potential, if I ever decided to torture him with hair gel.

Dudley – So needing a walk.   Or a run.   Or someone to pet him for more than 30 seconds.   But he keeps going down to the water and rolling in dead fish and seaweed, so petting him requires a full sanitation routine.

(I don’t know why Dudley felt compelled to charge the camera, but isn’t this a funny shot?)

And me?   hm.   I think I’m not as pretty as I used to be.   Maybe it’s the bags under the eyes?   The slowly wrinkling skin?   The lack of exercise or lack of sleep?   I caught my reflection in the mirror the other day and said, “Wow.   I’ve finally started looking like a harried Mommy.”   Somebody send me to the spa.   Actually, forget the spa.   Somebody watch my kids and clean my house so I can get some sleep.   I really think I’d pay someone a thousand dollars if I could go spend the night alone and sleep for 12 hours.   Ah…

It’s ridiculous how long it’s been since I’ve updated this blog.   Truly, I have become a prisoner of war to Cooper and his two-week-long battle with a vicious cold and ear infection.   The little bugger has. not. slept.   He’s had several nights of two and three hour crying jags, and up so many times inbetween I’ve been lucky to log three hours of straight sleep in any one night.   He was such a good sleeper from the get-go, we never even went through this when he was brand new.   It’s killing me.   I’ve been crashing into bed as soon as he goes down for the night, trying to sneak as much sleep as possible.   All making Mommy a very dull girl.

And there has been so much to write about.   So many tidbits throughout the days that I think – ha!   I’ve got to blog about this.   Then the zombie hours kick in and sitting down in front of the computer seems about as appetizing as eating hair.

Someday soon I hope to be back on the wagon – sleeping normally and invigorated at the opportunity of a life outside trying to get a seventeen pound wiggler to sleep through the night.   Someday.

Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to bed I go…