A Glimpse of the Past Week

 

Let's go.  Here are your shoes mom.

 

I've got a hat and a glove.  Now can we go?

 

Putting together a new set of storage boxes for Brian's plane project.

 

She's helping too and watching the big boys so intently.

 

Coloring and lounging.  It's so good to have a dad.

 

The wallpaper is all gone and Juan is setting up to put the skim coat on the walls in the living room.

 

Isabele in her paint clothes after a messy morning.  Here are the rib jigs for the Acrosport II.

 

Titus - the independent little helper.

Paint

I, in my infinite wisdom, decided to let the kids help me paint the hallway this morning.  

 

Isabele is hard at work painting the tape that I put on the trim "just in case" they missed the wall a little.  Good thing, huh?.

Titus was doing a very good job.  Not too long after this, Titus started giggling.  I turned around and found that Isabele had painted her face and had a taste of the paintbrush.  Sorry - no picture of this.  But here's what she looked like after a quick cleanup at this sink and then sloppy joes for lunch.

 

She decided on the hat, all on her own.

 

Here's the finished hallway from the dining room, looking into the bathroom.  The trim is going to be a cream color and will have to wait a couple days so I can tape off the walls and then have the kids asleep as they are not going to get to help paint trim.

 

The beginning of the next room to be painted.  I was taping the ceiling in the front entry and Titus decided to help a little.  He opened the paint can on his own, poured the paint into the tray and started in on the wall.  For a 3 year old - not bad.  A little help from me and no one will ever know that it was started by a 3 year old.

Comments from the Peanut Gallery

Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness, jawapeno.

Mommy, I need to go pee really bad.

"rig there" translation: right there? (said a million times a day).

In a most desperate voice: Mom I need my tennis shoes off! (Titus said this to me after running out of his room about midnight one night.  He had feety jammies on, no tennis shoes).

And it will get smashed down in the garbage truck.

It's okay sweety.

Mom don't worry about it.

I want you to wock me in the wocking chair in my room while I cry.

12:58AM

I don't know what her problem is tonight.  She slept great for 4 1/2 hrs and has fussed and slept and woken every few minutes for the last 1 1/2 hrs.  I finally gave up, brought her out to the kitchen where she drank a good bit of water and has now packed down 3 1/2 crackers and counting in about 5 minutes.  I thought her stomach hurt - like a stomach ache.  Maybe it was hunger pains.  Not that she has any reason to be hungry.  Oh how I wish she could tell me what her problems are.  Soon enough, I know, she will be able to tell me all kinds of things and I'll be wishing she could be quiet for a few minutes.

Wordless Wednesday

I think I'll take this idea from the blog of one of my friends.  Thanks for the idea Angie!!

 

 

And We All Sleep

Isabele's new pattern is to sleep all night - only waking and crying for me once.  She goes back to sleep within just a few minutes of me giving her a hug, patting her for a minute and telling her to go back to sleep.  She goes to bed between 7 and 8 PM and wakes up for the day about 5:50AM - a bit early for me, but so much better than waking up numerous times during the night.  She still takes one or two short naps during the day.  I'm not sure if they are short because she wakes up on her own, or if it's because she has a noisy 3 year old brother ...

It goes without saying that I feel 100 times better after a week of decent sleep.  For those of you who have experienced the draining lack of sleep and the return to somewhat normal sleep - you understand.  For those of you who have never experienced babies who will not sleep ... I hope you never do, but if you should, I understand your pain.

Titus' Biplane All Finished

 

Titus built this airplane with a little help from Brian.  He really enjoyed making it.

 

And the propeller spins.

 

The completion of yet another "power-dive".  Titus loves to make his airplanes power-dive and do loops. 

Isabele making Tortillas

 

Isabele was sitting in her high chair watching me make tortillas.  When I got to the last 2 (of 12), she decided she needed to help.  She patted the dough and helped with the rolling pin.  Here she's about to put the tortilla into the skillet.

Helping flip the tortilla over.  She's very aware that the pans are hot and doesn't want to get too close.  She certainly wants to be involved in everything.

Little Hands

Titus Spring of 2008.

 

Isabele January 2009.

Titus and Isabele January 2010.

Just a Few Naps

Titus sleeping in his car seat last summer after going to a meeting with me at work.  He got into my purse towards the end of the meeting and put on "mommy's lip".

 

I put Isabele in her crib to keep her safe for a few minutes while working on the house in the fall of 2009.  She cried for a while and then was quiet.  This is what I found when I went to investigate the quiet.

 Exhausted after 8 hours with the babysitter while both Brian and I were at work.  Adriane took this picture with her phone.

The results of a busy day with Nana and Grandpa at the end of January 2010.

Sleeping Better

Isabele is doing much better sleeping.  She's been waking up 1-3 times a night since Monday night.  I pat her for a few minutes then put her back in bed and she cries for a few minutes and goes back to sleep.  I'm probably only awake 10 minutes each time - soooo much better than before when it was anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hrs.  She's only nursing at bedtime now, which is a nice change for me.  She still begs during the day when she's tired, but I'm not giving it.  She is still taking a nap during the day and falls asleep when she's rocked.  Hopefully she'll continue to improve on being able to comfort and calm herself when she wakes up in the night and decrease the number of times she wakes me up.  :-)

Sleep.?!

For the first time ever, Isabele slept 7 hrs through the night.  She went to bed at 7 and woke up at 10PM.  It took her an hour of crying and me laying her down every 5-10 minutes to get back to sleep, but then she slept from 11P to 6A.  I've decided that I am not going to nurse Isabele except at bedtime and first thing in the morning (if I need it).
After getting up at 6AM today and only a 25 minute nap yesterday, Isabele only made it to 12:15PM.  She almost fell asleep on my lap after eating lunch and was out in only a couple minutes of me patting her.
Maybe she's getting it figured out.

Airplanes and Hats

Titus and Brian are working on building this airplane when Isabele takes naps.  Today they got to glue some more.  Now the plane has a propeller, the top wing and the beginning of landing gear.  I think next nap time when Brian's home they are going to paint a bit more.

 

This is the hat that I just finished for Isabele.  This makes hat number 3 in about a week.  I'm satisfied with this one even though I did make a few mistakes.  I like the pattern and will certainly make another one.  Still not sure if I'm going to rip out the ribbed border and do it again or not.  We'll see what I think in a couple days.

 

Here's a closer view of the front basket weave cable.  The back looks just the same.  I'm made this an inch shorter than the pattern calls for and it fits Isabele just fine.  Titus has tried it on, of course and it fits him great too!  The pattern has sized for adults too ... tempting ...

 

And the side view with a twist or 2 stitch cable in the center of each ear-flap.  The pattern calls for a 2 inch pom-pom on the top - not sure if I'm going to add that or not. ... Opinions?

Isabele's New Rocker

 

I found this rocker at "Home Sweet Home" for $15.00!!

It isn't super stable - but I think she will figure it out.

Sanding

 

Titus

Isabele hard at work, complete with jewelry.

Both kids working in the middle of all their toys.

Snow

When we got up this morning we couldn't even tell there was a driveway outside, even though Brian shoveled yesterday and the driveway was just wet. So, out we went, all bundled up. Titus wore his snowsuit and Isabele in her snowpants and boots. Today was the first time that Isabele actually walked in her boots!! It was so nice. She toddled around the driveway and crawled some too. Even played in a pile of snow for a few minutes! Next winter will be so much fun with both of them able to move themselves about in the snow! We got everything shoveled in about 30 minutes and then came in for cinnamon raisin french toast (thanks to $.99 bread at Sherman and Lin's) and hot chocolate.
Brian's putting the new batteries in the truck and then we are off to the YMCA for play group.

I tried a pacifier again with Isabele, hoping she'd sleep better - she's not interested in it at all. Oh well. She did go back to sleep every time she woke up last night and I got 2 sets of 3 hrs of sleep at a time. Not wonderful, but I can make it through a day with that and the sprinkling of other sleep I get in a night.

Matches and Staplers and Vacuum Cleaner Plugs

What a day. To start Isabele decided to be up from 3:30-5:30 and then get up for the day at 6:30. Makes for a very tired mom. But she took a 2 hr nap from 10-12, so I got the ironing done, the laundry well on it's way and some knitting done. Titus decided to wear his pajamas "all day wong". They are inside out as he took them off to use the toilet this morning and didn't want me to fix the PJ's.

Titus, who has been able to light matches on his own for months now, got the little box of matches and the cookie sheet out and was doing his matches upstairs while I switched the laundry in the basement. I came upstairs and Titus told me that the fire got in his mouth. Since there was no crying involved, I think he meant the smoke got in his mouth. So, I showed him, once again a better way to blow out matches. (He breathes in with the match right in front of his mouth, often "blowing" out the match with his inhalation).

A bit later, I found Titus with the staplers, stapling paper. I don't think too much harm can come from that activity. He'll stop pushing before he staples his fingers, I think. If not ...

Then Mr. Titus decided he needed to vacuum up a mess he made in the kitchen. After getting the correct vacuum out for him, I went to the living room to vacuum the rug. Titus has been plugging the vacuum in for months. As I turned on the vacuum I heard Titus scream. A "something is wrong" scream. Brian was home and closer so he picked him up and I went on with the living room. I got done with that and found the boys on the floor in the kitchen with a screwdriver and the plug to the vacuum. Ends up the plug shorted and blew the breaker. They got it fixed and no one was hurt. Titus didn't want to plug the vacuum in after it was fixed. Instead, he told Brian, "Do not turn it on until I go way over there."

Seeing as it is only 2PM, I wonder what the rest of this snowy day will bring.

Titus' new hat

I made this one for Titus off of a pattern I purchased on line. It turned out great!

pretties pictures

Showing me her new pretty.

Reaching for the camera. You can see the blurry bracelet.

Hard to see, but she is wearing the leg warmers that I finished knitting today.
I love the expression here. The hat was her idea.

Titus is sitting on the floor eating pepperonis and watching the birds at the feeder with Havoc.

Isabele's Pretties

I've been putting embroidery floss friendship bracelets on Isabele for months and months now, in hopes that I can train her to leave real pretties on.
That said, I ordered her her first sterling silver bracelet the other day and it arrived in the mail today. She was sleeping so I stuck it on her with her other bracelets still on. I wonder when she will discover it. I don't think she can get it off.
I also finished a pair of leg warmers for her out of leftover sock yarn. They are cute and she leaves them on!!

A Glimpse of Today

Titus is working on an airplane kit that he got for his 3rd birthday while Isabele takes a nap.

He's doing a good job and being understanding that he can only work on it when Isabele is asleep and Brian is home.

Isabele has taken to "reading" magazines when she gets her poopy diapers changed. Here we caught the act on film. (I'm sure she will not like this picture in about 12 years.)

Titus has had a very busy last few days - his 3rd birthday party, Nana and Grandpa have been here for a couple days and he's had a couple nights where he had some really bad dreams. All of that, combined with an amazing will to not fall asleep during Isabele's afternoon nap led to these last 2 pictures. He asked me to put in the movie Cars and after about 20 minutes I went to check on him, wondering what trouble he had gotten into - and this is what I found. So much for an early bedtime tonight.


(Yes, there is a chair on the couch - it keeps the dog off - which is necessary since she gets too hot and sweaty when she sleeps on the couch and then gets yeast infections in her armpits - stinky and gross. So, the chair gets put on the couch).