Headless Chicken

I feel like I am running around like a chicken with my head cut off. For the past two days I have been so busy running errands and just doing stuff around the house and kid stuff and I am pooped.

Yesterday, I didn't sit down until 3:05 pm and that was to feed Joseph and then I left the house at 3:25 to pick Samuel up at mother's day out.

I did make an awesome dinner last night. I made a Chuck Roast. It was one of Barefoot Contessa's recipes called Company Pot Roast. It was delicious, but the recipe called for too much salt, so next time I won't use as much. It took about an hour or so for the preparation which took me about an hour and a half because I had to stop and take care of Joseph. I will make this again for sure.

Today we have been super busy as well. Last night Joseph slept for 6 and a half hours (this is the third time in two weeks). However, when he woke up at 3 am he was really restless until about 6:30. He had been really congested, but this morning he was coughing a lot. I got a little nervous because I was worried that his cold had moved from his head to his chest. I called the doctor and they wanted me to bring him in just to listen to his chest and check his ears. I was able to get Joseph to take a nap and I got Samuel to watch some cartoons in my bed and I jumped in the shower. After the shower we got all of our stuff together to go to the doctor. I gave myself enough time to run by Starbucks because I desperately needed a Chai Tea Latte.

So we got to the doctor and everything is fine with Joseph, he just has a little cold. I feel like I have been overreacting or super cautious with Joseph, but I don't want to take any chances. Since Samuel seems to get every cold possible, I want to make sure that he doesn't pass it along to Joseph. Anyway, after the doctor we headed to the park for a little over an hour. Samuel desperately needed some serious running and jumping time to wear himself out. Thank goodness we did that because when we got home Samuel ate a quick lunch and then he was off for a nap. I am really trying to get Joseph to start sleeping in his crib, so yesterday and today I am trying to get him to nap there. He has been up in his crib for about 45 minutes now and I have gone up twice to try to calm him down. I think he is finally asleep, but we will see how long that lasts.

Here are some cute pictures of the boys. I love taking pictures of them together:

Dave and Joseph:

Look at those big huge eyes. He is 7 weeks now:

Samuel really hates eating bread. But, I just discovered this morning that he loves Matzo, especially with peanut butter and honey. By the way, Happy Passover everyone!!!

Some more pictures of Samuel and Joseph this morning. Here they are trying out new dance moves (Megan, check out that shirt, that one is for you!):

This Samuel giving Joseph his big hugs. You can see Joseph's eyes about to bug out of his head because Samuel squeezes so hard. I have to keep an eye on Samuel.

One Video

Hopefully this video will come up. I got Joseph really smiling yesterday. He found his thumb on Friday for the first time, but he hasn't sucked on it since then. He also started laughing on Saturday morning. He really is starting to focus. He gets really excited when he sees Samuel coming up to him. It is really cute. I can't wait for them to really start interacting.

We bought a new running stroller on Friday. We bought the BOB Revolution. Dave said that it was awesome to push. We did a 5K race on Saturday morning. It was cold but a lot of fun. We did it with Jonathan and Laura and it was to benefit Colon Cancer research, the Undy Race. It was actually a really great race because there were lots of strollers and people brought their dogs. Some people had their dogs in undies and people ran in their underwear.

Joseph is taking his first really good nap in his crib this morning and I have to get him up in about 30 minutes to leave and take Samuel to school. I don't know if he will even last 30 minutes in his crib, but if he does it will be amazing. I had been planning to transition him from the cradle in our room to his crib at night about a week ago, but one night he woke me up because he was gagging and it sounded like he was choking and I totally freaked out. I called the pediatrician because I was worried about him choking to death in the middle of the night. They wanted me to bring him in, they wanted to check him out and make sure that there wasn't really anything wrong. They thought it was probably just acid reflux. Since we were going into the doctor I decided to also have them take a look at Samuel because he had been putting his finger in his ear and he wasn't sleeping great at night. There wasn't anything else wrong with him, but I thought it was strange that he kept putting his finger in his ear. I kept asking him if his ear hurt and he said no, but I figured I would get it checked out anyway. Turns out his ear was full of puss. I know that sounds gross, but I can't believe he had a terrible ear infection and didn't even really act sick.

So Samuel had a ear infection and they said Joseph probably just has acid reflux and he will be fine. Well, it turns out that night Joseph started to get a really stuffed up nose and is just full of snot. He has had lots of snot since last week and has been breathing with difficulty at night and I just haven't felt comfortable putting him in his crib. Hopefully by the end of this week he will clear up and I can move him into his crib. He is actually sleeping pretty well and I don't hear his noises at night, so it doesn't bother me that he is in our room.

Have a great Monday!

Pictures

I finally got some pictures of Joseph smiling this morning.

Here are also some pictures of Samuel finger painting, not only the paper but himself:

I will post some videos later.

In a Funk

I don't know what the deal is but I am in a funk and I am not in the mood to do anything. Joseph has been sleeping much better at night. Sometime sleeping for 5 hours at a time. His normal bedtime routine wears me out though. He is eating non-stop from about 6 or 6:30 to 9pm. I am not kidding you, if I stop feeding him he starts screaming. Then he passes out around 9 and sleeps until 1:30 or 2, I feed him again for about 15 minutes and then he sleeps again until 4:30 or 5, then I feed him again and he sleeps until 7:30 or 8. His sleeping is getting better at night only. He isn't really napping at all during the day. I am trying desperately to get him on a schedule and it is working kind of. The problem is when he goes to sleep during the day, he only stays asleep for about 10 to 15 minutes. Every once in a while he will get in an hour or two nap, but that hasn't happened very often.

I am just worn out. Completely worn out because I have to constantly deal with him or Samuel during the day with no break at all.

Joseph is waking up right now and I got in only a few minutes of downtime. Samuel is also waking up.

Samuel is truly in his terrible 2's. He is testing all of the limits and my patience. The funny thing is when he knows he does something wrong I tell him he needs to go into time out and he just walks right over to his "time-out spot". Or if I tell him he is misbehaving and I ask him if he needs to be put in time out, he just walks right over and sits down, then starts crying.

Okay, I have to go. Both boys are up and starting to cry.

Recovering

I guess I needed about a full week to recover from all the sickness in our house. I have been exhausted all week and super busy. I don't really feel like I have had a minute to myself. Actually, I just remembered that one time last week both Samuel and Joseph took an afternoon nap that lasted about 2 and a half hours. It was absolutely wonderful, but I was so busy trying to catch up on things I haven't gotten done around the house that the two hours just flew by. I am still looking around the house thinking about how much stuff I need to do.

Dave left on Thursday for a golf outing weekend and my mom came on Wednesday night. I can't imagine being here with the kids by myself. We are both so exhausted and it is the two of us. I don't know what I would do without my mom. It has been nice to just hang out the two of us as well. We don't get much just mother-daughter time. The only problem is that by the time Samuel goes to sleep at 8pm and Joseph anywhere between 8 and 9 and I am exhausted, so we don't get much downtime together.

Overall the weekend has flown by and we haven't really tackled much on my to do list, but oh well. It is just nice to be able to hang out and try to relax.

Tonight I am going to go out with one of my friends for dinner (at 8:30pm), hopefully we can get Samuel down and I can get in some good feedings for Joseph, so he can last until I get home. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I can have a nice dinner and evening out.

Joseph is going to be 6 weeks tomorrow. I can't believe how quickly the time has flown. Maybe my days are running together because of lack of sleep and the fact that I normally function in a cloud for the beginning and middle of the day. I can sometimes barely form a coherent sentence. Life has definitely changed with two kids.

Here are some pictures from the last week or so:

Samuel always wants to lay right on Joseph. Poor Joseph, I guess he better get used to his big brother.

Samuel discovered these shorts in his closet and lately he refusing to take them off. He actually slept in this exact outfit last week because we couldn't get him to take off the shorts.

A couple of really cute pictures of Joseph:

What a weekend

We had one hell of a weekend. When I said on my last post that Dave had the bug 5 times worse then me, I changed my mind, he had it 100 times worse. He was super sick. His lasted about 48 hours or so. My sickness was terrible for about 6 hours and then I just felt like I had the flu for another 24 hours or so. My body ached and I couldn't eat barely anything. We were quite a mess this weekend, plus the weather was so terrible that I couldn't even take Samuel outside to burn off all his crazy energy.

On Saturday, my parents who were in town for a wedding came over and took Samuel out of the house for a couple of hours. We didn't really want them hanging around our house with the virus still lurking. Then on Sunday, Dave was able to take Samuel on a few errands for about 3 hours. It was so nice to have a little break. I feel like I have been hit by a Mack Truck. Samuel and Joseph have been super needy and with Dave being out of commission on Friday and Saturday, I am just wiped out.

I am feeling overwhelmed at the moment. I have so much stuff to do around the house, bills to pay and thank you notes to write and I can't seem to get anything done. Our house feels so gross to me too because we have been stuck inside and it just seems messy and dirty.

My goal in the next few hours is to clean all the bathrooms, clean up messes, workout, shower, bathe Joseph, write all my thank you cards, send out a few emails and get it all done before I have to pick Samuel up at 3:30. Joseph isn't really with this plan today. He won't stop crying and wants to be held continuously. He only stops crying when I feed him or hold him.

Time to go, he is screaming again.

We are all sick

I got sick last night around 11 and just started feeling a little bit better about 30 minutes ago. Dave has it really badly. It is amazing that I can be home with Samuel all day throwing up and throwing up all over me and Dave spent about 2 hours with him and has this thing at least 5 times worse then me.

I just put Samuel down for a nap and I am going to head upstairs myself. I need a break. It sucks being sick when the rest of the house is too because even though I feel like complete shit, I am taking care of everyone. A Mom's life.

I hope no one else get this virus (So sorry for the families of Nicki, Sylvia and Paula who already had this sucker). It is truly terrible.

I am just keeping my fingers crossed that Joseph doesn't get it.

Better Day

It truly makes me feel like I have entered motherhood when I hear stories from you all. It makes me feel better. I actually feel like I conquered something having gotten through that horrible day. Samuel threw up one more time around 4:30 yesterday and hasn't even acted sick at all today. He just ate some turkey and cheese for lunch and he ate a banana yesterday and that was it. I think he is taking it slow. It is pretty depressing how many colds Samuel seems to be getting. It seems like if something is going around he gets it. I guess the breastfeeding didn't help him much. I did mention to the doctor at his appointment on Tuesday that I feel like he is sick all the time. So he told me to keep track of how often he is sick and what the symptoms are. I am going to start that now. I know I can go back to right before Joseph was born since Samuel got croup right after he was born.

We have had a great day though. Samuel only wanted to wear his "Dada undies" today. He did great. He told me every time he needed to pee (4 times) and this is the wonderful part, he told me he had to poop and he did it in the potty. He was excited and so was I. When he was sitting on the potty he said to me "Try Poop" and then he did. It is crazy how excited I get about pooping and peeing in the potty. I think we are actively going to try to potty train now. He seems really interested and if we can do half a day everyday in big boy undies I think we are on our way.

It is so beautiful outside. Samuel and I played soccer for about 30 minutes in the backyard. I love this weather and I am so happy that daylight savings is coming on Saturday night. Light for longer!!!!

Most Difficult Parent Day

I have never experienced a more difficult day as a parent. This would have been a hard day even if I only had Samuel, but having Joseph pushed me over the edge. So here is my day in a nutshell:

Dave left for work around 7 am. Samuel started to stir in his bed, so I knew he would be getting up soon.

Joseph hadn't really eaten much throughout the night (he slept a lot, so I am not complaining about the lack of eating), but my boobs were huge so I decided I would pump while everyone was still sleeping.

As I was pumping (only about 5 minutes in) Samuel started to wake up and was super cranky. Normally this means that he goes back to bed for a little bit because he isn't really a morning person. As I was finishing pumping Samuel coughed a few times and then I heard a huge hacking sound, then he started to call for me. I ran downstairs to put the milk on the counter so I wouldn't forget about it, then I ran back upstairs to Samuel's room. At this point, Joseph is started to wake up and is crying in our room, but I figured I would just get him about I dealt with Samuel.

As I entered Samuel's room I was bombarded by the foulest smell. It wasn't poopy smell it was a hundred times worse. Entering his room was like hitting a wall of just vulgarness. Anyway, I turned on the light and Samuel had thrown up everywhere in his bed. It was all over his pillow, all the blankets, his sheets, his clothes, his entire body. I realized at that moment that I do not handle throw up well at all. I wanted to hurl all over everything myself.

So I striped Samuel down and took all the sheets and blankets and threw it all in the washing machine. Then I started the bath, grabbed Joseph out of our room, put Samuel in the bath, washed Samuel off completely and then fed Joseph while Samuel was playing in the bathtub. I got everyone dressed and we headed downstairs for breakfast.

I thought for sure that it was just a fluke that Samuel puked this morning, because he has never done that before (when he had croup cough he threw up all over Dave, but that was because Dave was playing really hard with him and he started coughing and just upchucked all over Dave).

So, I made Samuel breakfast and he was eating fine, he ate about half of his food and then told me he was done. After I cleaned off his plate he said, "Mooooooooooom!" and then he threw up all over the table. As I was cleaning it off he threw up again all over the towel and everything.

All of this happened before 8 am this morning.

I called the doctor and the nurse said that there is a virus going around and kids and just throwing up non-stop for about 4 hours and then it starts to slow down. She said I just need to try to give him liquids and make him comfortable because it wasn't going to stop. Great! Also she said this was highly contagious and that I needed to keep Joseph away from him. That is so much easier said then done. I had to go back and forth between the two of them all morning. I feel like I am a surgeon about to go into surgery because I have been washing my hands, arms and chest after I go from Samuel to Joseph.

Anyway from 8 to about 11, Samuel threw up about 3 more times. We went through all the blankets on the couch, about 6 or 7 shirts and three pairs of pants. He threw up all over the floor in the living room, on the couch and one couch cushion. I am now on my third load of laundry.

Around 11:30 Dave came home to drop off some Pedialite (not exactly sure how you spell it) and some food for me, which I inhaled in about 2 seconds. Samuel gulped down some pedialite and ate about one and half pieces of toast and was fine with no throwing up from 11 to about 12:15.

(By the way, I haven't mentioned that Joseph has been screaming all morning long and I have been wearing him in my Ergo carrier to try to keep him quiet. I was either trying to feed him or carrying him in my carrier).

Then the best part of my whole day came around 12:15. Joseph had been sleeping for about 45 minutes and Samuel was doing great. We were reading a book and relaxing. Then all of the sudden Samuel looks at me and his eyes get really red and glassy and we run to the bathroom. I put him over the toilet and he just spits. I rubbed his back and asked him if he was feeling okay and he said yes. I asked him if he wanted to go take a nap and he said yes. He started crying like he wasn't feeling well, so I picked him up and we headed upstairs for me to rock him. As we were heading up the second flight of stairs, Samuel unleashed the most disgusting, smelliest (and I could go on with adjectives) throw up all over me, all of him, all over the stairs, all over the walls, all over the hallway. When I say it was all over I mean ALL OVER. Everything was covered. Other then wanting to die myself, I got us all undressed, threw towels all over everything, wiped down the walls and then I started the shower for us to jump in. At the same time Joseph started screaming. Poor second baby, I had to just let him cry while we jumped in the shower.

Again, once we were all clean I ran downstairs turned on cartoons for Samuel, fed Joseph and relaxed for a little bit. Now it is 2 pm, Samuel is finally sleeping and Joseph is still screaming.

I am going to now relax on the couch with Joseph and watch some soap operas. I think I deserve that.

It is a beautiful day outside today. I hope that people are enjoying it. I would love to be outside myself.

Hopefully this evening will be better. Keep your fingers crossed.

My little Actor and Check Up

We went to the doctor this morning for Samuel's 2 year check up. He is a very big boy. Here are the stats:

Height: 36.25 in (91%)

Weight: 35 lbs (>97%)

Technically his BMI indicates that he overweight because he is in the 91%, but the doctor doesn't think he is. He is actually really really skinny right now. I feel like he is growing everyday.

I am pretty tired today. I didn't sleep so great last night. My boobs are killing me. Joseph is a great eater, but he really only eats on one boob at a time and refuses to continue eating on the other one. So one night of him refusing to eat off of my right boob caused another clogged milk duct and I am in terrible pain. I spent part of the night with a heating pad on my boob and trying to make him eat off of that boob, then I had to pump my left boob. It was a really long night. Then both Samuel and Joseph woke up at 7:15. So I had to hurry and brush my teeth and get dressed before I ran to get the boys ready for the day. Then we were out of the house by 9 to go to the doctor. Joseph has been screaming all morning long. Right now he is actually quiet, which is such a nice break.

Now that Samuel is in bed I am going to check my email, finish doing laundry and hopefully shower before he is up again. Dave and I were planning to go to our first workout class in a long time. It is a PUMP class and I have really been looking forward to going, but my boob hurts so badly, there is no way I am putting on a sports bra and lifting weights. Hopefully I will feel better by Thursday, so we can do that class. If we are both feeling okay, I think we are going to try a Spinning class on Saturday morning.

Okay, so Samuel is definitely a little actor. Yesterday he got into his medicine cabinet and found band-aids. He gave them to me and I told him that he didn't have a boo-boo so he didn't need one. I put them back in the cabinet and walked away. Then Samuel started limping down the hallway and saying "Ma-Ma ouch owie". He was pointing to his leg and limping around. Then he said "band band" (because he shortens everything). So I got him out a band-aid and he lifted up his pants and showed me where he thought he hurt his leg. I asked him where he wanted me to put his band-aid and he pointed to shin. When I tried to put the band-aid on, he started yelling "Ouch Ouch", like he actually hurt himself. When I put the band-aid on he gave a huge sigh of relief like it was so much better now. He is crazy. I do have to say that his acting helped him with his shot today because he LOVED getting the band-aid from the nurse.

Samuel has been doing some other funny things lately. I realized that I smell a lot of things. Like I smell food, especially new foods and if it smells yummy I will eat it, if it doesn't I won't eat it. I also smell the milk a lot. I have this thing about milk, if it smells at all weird or sour I will pour out the entire carton and if it gets anywhere near the date on the carton I get freaked out and just throw it out. So the other day I poured Samuel a cup of milk, in a real cup because he is doing so well drinking out of a big cup now. Anyway, I gave him the cup of milk and he picked it up and sniffed and then looked at me and shook his head, made a face and said "Poop". Then he pushed it away and wouldn't drink it. It was pretty funny. But, now he is smelling lots of things, like his Play-doh this morning and then he said "Poop", pushed it away and wouldn't play with it. It is so funny how your kids pick up your crazy and weird habits.

Now I really need to get some laundry done while I have time.

Tomorrow Parents as Teachers is coming for Samuel's 2 year assessment. Hopefully he will do okay.

Party and First Month

We had a pretty busy week and weekend. Oma was in town all week, spending time with the boys and helping me out. It was nice because I was able to bake cupcakes and clean the house for Samuel's birthday party. I can't believe he is two years old. We had such a great time with all of our family and friends. Samuel got some wonderful gifts and has been enjoying them all. I realized today when I downloaded my pictures that I barely had any pictures from his party. I also barely took any pictures when all the grandparents were here. I just didn't pick my camera up very much. I have to be better at that so I can get some good pictures of the grandparents with Joseph like I had of them with Samuel.

Anyway, here are a few pictures that were taken with my camera:

Samuel LOVES playing with Vance and was so excited he came to celebrate with him. Samuel had to show off his cool new Easel.

Samuel was really into blowing out his candles this year. We had to sing happy birthday a total of 3 times over a 3 day period, just so he could blow out more candles. Here is he super excited:

Then I had to teach him to lick the frosting off the candles. Can't waste the yummy frosting:

Here he is this morning in his cool new Michigan jersey:

Now for the finale... here is Joseph's 1 month picture. He has gotten so cute. His eyes are so huge.

Birthday boy

I can't believe that my little boy is 2 years old today. The two years have really flown by. Samuel is one of the sweetest lovable boys. I could still eat him up everyday. He makes me laugh everyday and has started to develop such a great personality. Even though the first 6 months of Samuel's life were pretty much unbearable and I thought I would never get a good night sleep again, but I really have enjoyed every minute with him. I love seeing him everyday and seeing him change and grow.

Here are some pictures of him last night. I kept telling him to turn around and give me a big smile and these are the pictures I got.

I am off to start baking for the birthday party tomorrow!

Hopefully this video will work. Samuel was playing with his Play-Doh. My parents are the ones that taught him what to do when he sneezes.

Joseph is three weeks old now. I can't believe how fast these past few weeks have gone.

Sorry, I am not in the mood to write today. I am feeling really tired and because of that I am cranky. I will try to post something tomorrow when I am hopefully more rested.