Random update

It’s snowing here. It’s freaking snowing! Yesterday it was sunny and almost 70 degrees out. Today, it’s freezing cold, windy, and SNOWING! This weather is going to kill me. It needs to decide what it’s going to do and STICK TO IT for more than a day or two at a time!

I blame the weather for both boys being sick. Eamon has an ear infection, Quinn STILL has his cold from Christmas. I hate having sick kids. I hate when they’re crying because they don’t feel well and can’t understand why. And Garry’s getting sick as well. He’s had a cough for the last few days and keeps saying that he’s cold, when it’s actually bordering on hot in the house. I’m sure I’m next, but really hoping that for once I won’t catch what everyone else has.

Latest news on the boys…

Eamon is 29 lbs now, getting to be a BIG boy. He learned the word squirrel yesterday, along with where squirrels live (in the big oak tree in the front yard). He’s starting to really use words to express himself, but with those words are coming some very strong opinions! The other night I was giving him his bath, and he yelled for Da-ee because Mommy wasn’t doing it right apparently. He is still obsessed with Happy Feet; he will stomp his feet (doing the dance) and yell feeeeee until you put the movie on for him, and then he’s content. We’re still dealing with the bottle obsession with him, but it’s slowly getting better; he’s coming to understand that Quinn has bottles because Quinn’s a baby, and Eamon’s a big boy, so he gets to drink out of big people cups... which means that he doesn’t want to drink out of bottles as much. He’s also starting to do things like put his own shoes on, or attempt to at least, and is becoming very opinionated about what outfits he wears and when. Last night, he informed Garry very seriously that he wears a sleeper to bed, not a t-shirt. It’s amazing to see how much he’s growing up and blossoming.

And Quinn – Quinn is my chunk. Quinn weighed in at a whopping 13 lbs 4 oz yesterday at the doctors, up 2 full lbs from his 2 month weight. He’s rapidly outgrowing his clothes and it’s a scramble to keep up with him. He’s determined to learn how to stand up before anything else, although he’s working on getting the rolling over skills down pat. We pulled out the Jumperoo for him on Sunday, and he was ecstatic! 45 minutes later he decided he was tired and wanted boob and then a nap. He loves it when the music and lights are playing, and gets quite upset when they stop and he can’t make them start again. He smiles, coos, laughs, and is almost always happy; it’s amazing to me how a baby can be so content and laid back! We’re starting to teethe a bit; lots of drool, lots of hand sucking/chewing, but luckily so far not a lot of crankiness. If he follows Eamon’s lead, he’ll be 6 months before we see a tooth! He’s starting to watch us when we eat, and looking a little interested in the idea of food, although he’s not quite ready yet to start trying anything.

I thought I might post a couple of pictures of the boys. These are from a month ago; I have more recent pictures on the camera that still need to be uploaded, which I’ll work on this week.

Eamon:


Quinn:


Brothers:

Anger, hate, and violence...

I’m sad.

I listened to NPR yesterday on my way to work, and they talked about Kenya. Specifically, about Naivasha. My childhood hometown. It’s bad there, worse than it’s been in years. It sounds like it’s a return to the days of Mau Mau, only the violence is between the Kikuyu and the Luo/Kalenjin/Luhya – everyone else, pretty much. People are being hacked to death with pangas, shot with bows and arrows, burned alive. My happy dusty little hometown is now a warzone. It’s sad, and it’s depressing, because it’s changed so much. During the ethnic violence nearly 20 years ago, Naivasha was where people ran TO for safety, not away from. Naivasha was stable then, or so it seemed to me, but I’m sure it was pretty safe, because I can only remember a couple of incidents of ethnic violence, and we still went into town as though there wasn’t too much to worry about. Today… well, today I’m sure we would have evacuated. I need to talk to Maggie and see if she’s heard any news, and I need to email Gio and check on him and his family, and see what his perspective is.

I can only pray that everyone that I knew there is alright. I can only pray for Rosemary and her children; for Maggie’s brothers and sisters and their families; for Nduta, George, Lily and the Major; for the friends we left behind when we moved to the United States.

I’m not a romantic blinded by idealism and fantasy. Kenya is, and always has been, a melting pot ready to blow with the right provocation. The Brits did a good job of creating the perfect conditions for a violent explosion in Kenya, just as they did elsewhere in Africa – as they did elsewhere in the world. They ignored tribal boundaries established over years; brushed aside traditions as primitive; took away the external manifestations of cultural identity. Anger is handed down from generation to generation, in oral tradition, in simple teachings, and when the right fuse is finally lit, the institutional anger is sparked and explodes. This, from what I can tell from the news reports, is what has finally happened in Kenya. The match that lit the fuse, the final straw, was yet another flawed election, the balance of power politically unchanged, leaving so many feeling disenfranchised. Those first few acts of violence, the first few killings, have been avenged, and revenged, and the cycle goes on and on, leaving a country in ruins. Even if the politicians get involved, it’s too little, too late; too much blood has been shed, too many words of hate said, too much for everyone to forgive, let alone forget.

I’m sad.

Time Flies

It's Thursday already. Thank God. It's been an insane week already. God save me from my holy terror of a toddler.

Details later.

TGIF!

It's Friday! Thank God! I'm so ready for the weekend that it's not even funny. And the best part of this weekend is - it's a 3 day weekend! Although not for Garry; he has to work tomorrow doing an orientation. Sucks.

Scooter is really having a difficult time with sleep these days. He's not napping well at daycare, not sleeping well at night, waking up screaming and hysterical. Again, I think it's related to my return to full-time work, and I'm concerned because he's not getting any better with the adjustment. It's been close to 3 weeks since I went back to work, and we're still battling the anxiety and sleep issues, and still seeing aggression directed at me on occasion. Hopefully it will improve soon.

Speaking of work, I think I going to approach my boss next week sometime about possibly going part-time. I think it would be best for my family, and if I can work something out to be part-time here, while I'm not thrilled with the idea, it's less adjustment for the entire family at this point if I just stay here. Plus, the money is good ;-) I'm also going to post my resume on Careerbuilder, just to see what might come out of that. Who knows? I might get lucky with the perfect job.

And school... I need to get my butt in gear and get application materials for all three schools here in town. I need to get transcripts and all that jazz taken care of, so I can finally finish this stupid degree that I've got so much time invested in. Hopefully it won't take me too long, especially if I can manage to pull off full-time school. I'm desperate to finally be done and be able to say yep, I've got a degree! Of course, then I'll probably just jump into grad school.

I'm having baby fever again already. I told Garry and he looked at me like I was completely insane. I'm not sure that I'm not insane; when I'm being rational about the idea, I KNOW there's no way I can handle 3 under 3, let alone afford it. But it's hard to be rational sometimes, when I talk to friends who are pregnant and start missing being pregnant. I can admit it - I absolutely LOVE being pregnant. I complain about it when I am, but I do love it. I love my body when I'm pregnant, I love feeling movement, love just knowing that there's a little person growing inside me. I know, I'm nuts.

Only Tuesday?

It's only Tuesday. I'm dying for Friday and the weekend. I'm not sure why this week is dragging by so incredibly slowly, but it is. I'm watching the clock at work, and staring at the calendar hoping that magically the day will change and it will be Friday at 4 with only an hour left to work.

I learned a valuable lesson today. When breastfeeding, do not, ever, under any circumstances, leave the house for work when wearing a white sweater without putting breast pads into your bra. Especially not when your baby is going through a growth spurt and is not around to nurse for hours on end. Because if you forget this, you will find yourself suddenly looking like you belong in a wet t-shirt contest and your entire office will know that you're wearing a pink bra with white polka dots. Yep, not fun. I thank God that I had a sweater in the car that I could throw on over my shirt, because when this happened I still had 2 hours left at work.

Drama, drama, and more drama in the mommy world in Wichita. A local site I belong to is in the middle of a battle over whether to require members to start paying dues to support the website. One camp believes that it's only fair to pay dues, and the other side isn't sure it's really worth paying for. Personally, I'm of the opinion that if there were more activities that I could actually participate in (i.e. this wasn't basically a SAHM group with little room for anyone who actually has to work outside the home during the day), then I might be more inclined to pay dues. As it stands, I'm not entirely sure that it's really worth it to me. There's something just a little frustrating about having to pay for the privilege of watching other people have playgroups for their kids, with NO activities planned around the schedule of a mother who actually works. So, we'll see what happens and whether I decide to stay a member of the group. I'm not sure yet.

20 minutes and the work day is over. Of course, tomorrow is going to be sheer hell - high of 32, sustained winds of 20-40 mph, wind chill at or below 0, blowing snow to the point of blizzard. Yay. How the hell am I going to get the boys from the house the van and then the van to daycare without turning all of us into popsicles? I'm dreading tomorrow morning.

I did it again!

Oops, I managed to forget to update the blog yet again. I really need to put a sticky note up somewhere to remind me to update more often. I’ve had so many people ask me about news and more pictures of the boys, so I suppose I should at least post the latest news and then do the pictures tonight when I’ve had a chance to sort through the many hundreds that we’ve taken in the last couple of months. It’s amazing how fast time goes.

I’m back at work again. I started back on Wednesday, and it’s been a struggle for me. I cried the entire way to work on Wednesday after dropping the boys off, and while I haven’t done that again, it’s been incredibly difficult for me to drop them off in the morning knowing that I won’t see them for almost 10 hours. It would probably be different if I had a job I enjoyed more; I might actually be happier about going back to work. But as it stands right now, I hate it and I’m miserable away from my boys all day. We’re working on finding a solution that works for our family and our budget. Hopefully it won’t take too long to figure out.

My return to work has also been hard on the boys. Scooter is having sleep issues – refusing to nap at daycare, waking up and crying hysterically for hours in the middle of the night – and will burst into tears at the simple thought that I might be going somewhere without him. He’s so much more clingy in the last couple of days. I’m hoping that he’ll start doing better once he’s into a routine, but it breaks my heart when he’s crying for me when I leave him at daycare, even though I know that the minute I’m gone he’s happy as a clam and that he’s in the best hands possible. Quin outwardly seems fine, although he’s definitely happier when I’m home and nursing him! He’s my little boobie monster when I’m home. He’s also decided that the only place he’s willing to sleep is right in between Garry and I or in his swing.

Scooter had a ton of fun Christmas morning, ripping open presents. It took him about 15 minutes to figure out there were presents under the tree, but once he noticed – there was no stopping him! We had paper flying around the room. We took him driving around to look at Christmas lights and he was totally in awe of some of the houses we saw. And we tried visiting Santa – all was well until saw the person dressed up like Rudolph; he promptly screamed and climbed my leg. We managed to get a picture of Santa; I’ll scan it into the computer and post it soon. He’s also talking more and more, not just increasing his vocabulary but actually saying phrases and sentences. His enunciation could use a little work, but if you listen to him, you can actually understand him. It’s a nice change from the point and shriek routine we’ve had for a while. He’s also decided that he’s too big to sit in his high chair, and will only sit in a “big person” chair, not even a booster seat. It’s kind of cute, but irritating when he’s up and down a million times during dinner and you have to remind him that he needs to come eat his food before it gets cold.

Quin is growing so fast it almost breaks my heart. He’s somewhere around 12 lbs now, double his birth weight, and such a happy, easygoing little guy. He’s determined to follow his big brother’s example and learn how to scoot and sit early, and already is starting to watch our every move at the dinner table. He smiles, coos, and is generally just so content! I’ve christened him the Owl because when he “talks” it sounds like a baby owl hooting. His head control is surprisingly good for a 10.5 week old, and we’re probably going to start using the Bumbo chair before too much longer so he can join us at the dinner table.

Garry’s well, and as supportive of me as ever. He’s told me that I can quit immediately if that’s what I need to do, even though it will put us in a pretty tight place financially. He picks the boys up from daycare and gets dinner started, and has been getting up and keeping me company when Quin wakes up in the middle of night to nurse. He’s a wonderful father, wonderful husband, and I’m blessed to have him (something I remind myself of when I’m crabby and feeling overwhelmed and not happy with anyone!).

This got to be a little longer than I was expecting it to be, so I suppose I should wrap it up. I’ll post pictures tonight or tomorrow sometime, just as soon as I make my way through all of them to pick the best of the bunch!

Random pictures

For my parents:

Thankful

Garry and I were talking yesterday, on our way home with the boys from yet another grocery trip (we've only made about 6 in the last week getting ready for Thanksgiving, because we invariably forget something we need at each trip) about what we're thankful for this year. I thought I would write out my list of things that I'm thankful for.

I'm thankful for my wonderful husband, who even though he can be grouchy and sometimes really, really irritating, is still the most amazing husband and father I could have ever asked for.

I'm thankful for my two beautiful boys. Scooter, for all that he can drive me insane most of the time, is my little man, sometimes so grown-up, sometimes wanting nothing more than to cuddle with his mommy. And Quin, who is exactly one month old today, is a snuggle bug, and so laid back that sometimes I wonder how I got so lucky as to have such a relaxed little guy.

I'm thankful for Doc, who gets in the way constantly, refuses to learn how to close the back door after he bangs through it, and shreds newspaper in the backyard, but is so gentle with both of the boys and mostly behaves himself in the house.

I'm thankful for my parents, who have been nothing but supportive my entire life, and my sisters, with whom I've shared so many experiences, and though we fight sometimes, we can always make up over tea.

And I'm thankful that I get to spend Thanksgiving with those I love the most.

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

Thanksgiving is tomorrow!

And that means my parents will be here, weather and airlines permitting! I'm so excited - I haven't seen my mom since Easter and my dad since Christmas. They're going to be stunned at how much Scooter has grown and changed. The last time my dad saw him, he was still crawling and cruising everywhere; he hadn't gotten to the walking stage yet, let alone running, climbing, and all the things he's doing now. And my mother - she saw Scooter walking, somewhat wobbly still. So it will be a huge surprise for them to see him now.

Garry's brother Rocky is also coming in town for the holiday. He and a friend rented a car and are driving up from Austin today. They should be here tonight sometime; they'll both spend the night, then Josh (the friend) is heading up to visit family and Rocky will stay here with us for a few days. We're going to have a houseful!

A couple of pictures for now...

Apparently my dog thinks he is also a baby:


Quin sleeping peacefully:


Scooter being helpful:


More to come later - Scooter is yelling for Mommy's attention!

Picture overload!

Well, we finally went through the last month of pictures that we've taken, and decided to share a few. Most are of Scooter, but we finally managed to get a couple good ones of Quin.

I hope my mom doesn't show this to my first girlfriend!


I think I'm a duck:


Mischief:


Sleeping baby:


I love my brother!




More pictures to come of Quin in the next few days. We just realized that we are sorely behind in taking pictures of Quin, especially when compared to Scooter.