Hey, it's OK...June 29, 2010

This week so far: mom's night, photo shoots, sewing dresses, designing ads, visiting parks, and McDonald's $1 sundaes. Here's my shout out to these awesome ladies.

Hey, it's ok...

...to put socks on your kids' hands and just sit back and watch.

...to hate the corny punchlines on Cupcake Wars. Who wrote this narrators lines and thinks that they are good? This show won't last the season.

...to wonder who made up the name for canker sores. The name sounds as bad as they feel.

to quote your toddler. A LOT:

...to realize that you need to clean more often after the clouds of dust cause an ongoing staccato of sneezing, watering and itchy eyes, the removal of contacts, and my 2-yr-old persistently asking me, "Mommy? You sick? You OK?"

...to sleep with your 2-year-old at your parents' house and wake up at 6 am to your kid, happily saying, "Mommy! You sleep in my bed!"

...to drive in the car, see a small plane in the sky, and hear your kid insist that the plane is, "Daddy's plane! Daddy home!" Sorry, honey.

...to laugh when your toddler calls your husband's cereal "Daddy Ohs."

Wrapping up our "week"

So we're about to end the marathon month of being without Brett. Thank goodness. We've missed Brett a lot over the past few weeks, but we're going to have some good family time for the next week while he's on vacation. He's worked really hard this month, and his paycheck will show that.

This month of single-parenthood has been an experience. You really have to be creative when you take care of two kids by yourself. I have an 11-month-old who naps twice during the day, and a 2-year-old that has given up naps. So when one is tired, the other is chipper. When one has finished a nap and is super happy, the other is cranky pants. I've figured out that, if I need to go anywhere or run errands, we go right after lunch, when Claire has just finished her morning nap and Sophia can take a snooze in the car while driving. By the time we finish, Claire falls asleep on the way home, and I can slip her in to bed for nap #2. Yes, this is my day. Somewhat sad, but always important.

I've also realized over the course of this month that Brett and I need to go on a date. Skype is great while he's gone, but I can't really remember when we've had a long conversation that wasn't interrupted by kids or abruptly ended because we're exhausted and fall asleep in bed. Yup. I don't know how my parents did it. No cell phone, no email, no texting. Heck, my mom didn't even have a car. Makes me thankful for what I have and the things that I can do with my kids while Brett is at work.

Anyway, we survived the month. Brett comes home tomorrow. We will all do a dance of joy.

Here's what happened this week:

After a rainstorm and being cooped up in the house, I took the girls to a park in Carmel. I was going to go walk on the Monon Trail afterward, but, boy, was it hot and humid. We hit an ice cream stand in downtown Carmel, and Sophia and I pushed our strollers around on the Monon; Sophia with her teddy bear in her stroller, and me with Claire.




Oh, mom...

This past weekend was Mom's Night Out in Lafayette. It was great to get together with the ladies. I was part of the half of the group that IS NOT pregnant. Two are due in a few weeks and another due in October. You can guess what we talked about all night. The girls and I stayed at my parents for the night and went to a photo shoot on Saturday morning. I made the girls little matching dresses. They look so cute in them! They wore them for a photo shoot with Rhine Photography. Dan Rhine and his wife, Julie, took pictures of us and my sister's family. Julie and I grew up together, so it was nice to reconnect with her, meet her husband, and talk with Jackie, her older sister. I haven't seen them since undergrad at Purdue and our old PMO days. Can't wait to see the pictures that they took. I'll post the link when they put them up on their blog.



Yet another trip to the park today followed by corn dogs for dinner.

Hey, it's OK...June 22, 2010

This week so far: talking with NY friends, steaks, Father's Day, huge thunderstorms, parks, work, and sewing. Here's my shout out to these awesome ladies.

Hey, it's ok...

...to appreciate locks on bathroom doors because it's the only time when you can truly get your privacy.

...to be thankful for my Bissell Flip-Ease vacuum and mop combination. Honestly. No home should be without one, and if you don't have one, go here and get one. You'll thank me later.

...to remember what you always used to think of the mother who pushes a cart containing a child screaming at the top of his or her lungs...and feeling bad for the child. If my mom had screamed at me like that while she pushed me around and talked on her cell phone, I would do the same thing.

...to realize you need to clean more when your baby treats your kitchen floor like a buffet.

...to believe that a blown lightbulb in the laundry room in a good enough excuse not to do laundry.

...to consider 7 a.m. as "sleeping in."

...to think that there's absolutely nothing wrong with the mini water park in your brother and sister-in-law's backyard.

...to purposely avoid that woman in Walmart. We've all seen her. The one who walks around with her older mother, and every word she says to her sounds like she's enlightening her mom of her inherent elderly stupidity. What happened to respect for your elders?

...to look in your bag to find something to dry off the slide at the playground, see a huge, absorbent pile of diapers, consider sopping up the entire park with your daughter's size 5, reconsider the waste of 25 cents, and use your hand to wipe away all the water instead.

...to despise the rain. For the past two weeks, it has kept me up at night, flooded the parks, and canceled almost all of my outdoor plans. Thankfully, we still find things to do.

...to not get to go to the outdoor concert AGAIN tonight. This is the third week in a row that it's been canceled. I'm bitter. At least I didn't have the car all packed before finding out it was canceled, like I had last week. So, I got that goin' for me.

Father's Day and more fun

Yay for Father's Day! I'm more and more grateful for Brett now, since he's been gone a lot this month. He was home last Saturday for his one day off between his annual training and his normal work schedule. We had a nice day, which included a family trip to the farmer's market, cutting the grass, running through the sprinkler, and making dinner for our family and Brett's parents that came to visit that evening.

On Sunday, Brett left for work, and I took the girls to Lafayette for the day. I decided to get up freakishly early and go to 8 am church with the girls. (Yes, I did get up freakishly early, because I had to pack all the food that I was taking to Lafayette, and it takes 30 minutes to get to the church.) I woke up the kiddos at 7:15 and had them dressed and in the fully packed car by 7:30, Cheerios in the diaper bag, and juice cups in hand. The girls were ANGELS through mass. I didn't even hold Claire much. Between all the readings and going up for communion, she sat nicely by herself, eating Cheerios and feeding them to her little doll that we brought. I wish I could have taken a picture, but, you know, flipping out your phone in the middle of mass isn't the best thing. We spent the day at Aaron and Laurie's, where all the kids played in the mini water park that they set up outside. Sophia had a blast. Best of all, when I drove home (earlier than normal), both girls went straight to bed. Yes! Score!


Claire "feeds" her doll all the time. It's so sweet. Especially since the doll is only a little but smaller than her.


Pre-5 p.m. breakdown. Low blood sugar and lack of nap.


We made a quick stop at McDonald's before heading to Lafayett for Father's Day.




Today, I woke up to very happy girls. That's a nice thing to wake up to! At about 9:45 a.m., this is what the sky looked like outside our window:





When the rain wrapped up, we went to a park in Carmel. I like to search out new parks. Don't think we'll be coming back to this one, unless we're just in the area. It's not the best place, nor the worst. It was just covered in puddles from the storm.

A break from our boredom

After Claire's successful (and long) morning nap and four loads of laundry (with 3 more to go), I wanted to go somewhere with the girls and take advantage of the incredible weather. It was the first time in four days that it didn't rain. Let's celebrate! I told Sophia that we would go to the park, which she immediately became ecstatic about. I think I could have told her we were going to the hardware store, and she would have jumped up and down.

While folding the last load of the laundry, I got a call from our friend Sarah, who was headed to her neighborhood pool and asked us to come along. YAY! Thanks, Sarah, for saving us from normalcy. The girls weren't too thrilled with the pool though. I think they have a fear of being completely submerged in water. Odd, I know. Yet Sarah's 3-month-old loved it. Go figure. We ended up back at Sarah's house, where Sarah put her little girl down for a nap, Sophia ran through the sprinkler, and Claire dumped water from my water bottle all over herself. To each his own. No one ever said you had to cool off with water in a certain way. We all had a good time, and the girls were immediately asleep when we pulled out of Sarah's neighborhood. I had to take pictures of them, and I even caught a video of Sophia almost sawing logs. While they snoozed, I was able to make an actual homemade dinner and finish folding a bit of laundry.

It was a good day!

Hey, it's OK...June 15, 2010

We're halfway through the long week without Brett. He's working his tail off in DC right now. He's not only doing his annual training for about 8 hours a day, but his company is also tacking on a flight or two afterward. What a guy.

This week so far: birthday parties, rain, work, baking, rain, laundry, blowing bubbles, singing songs, and rain. It's time for this post. Here's my shout out to these awesome ladies.

Hey, it's ok...

...to get teary-eyed over missing an air show. (My husband and I are such geeks.)

...to have a love/hate relationship with a fabric store, especially during a sale.

...to walk around JoAnn's and sound like you're on safari while your toddler plays an animal-matching game on your iPhone.

...to appease a Jekyll and Hyde, hungry baby with crackers before dinner...and totally lose count of how many you've fed her.

...to tip, like, 5% to the waitress who didn't take two seconds to answer your question about the menu, while your eyes silently pleaded, "Get me a saltine for my starving kid."

...to forget how many times you shouted, "Why is your sister crying?!"

...to throw in the towel and never make dip again because every time you make it, plans get canceled.

...to put your potted plants out in the torrential rain simply because you don't want to walk around the house to get the hose and possibly see the snake that lives near it.

...to laugh hysterically when my toddler, who was in the bathroom with me, stops, thinks really hard, and says oh-so-matter-of-factly, "Mommy, you have a crazy, crazy bum." Thanks, honey. It's not what it used to be. That's what having two kids does to you!

...to think that the girl with the pigtails on the "today's birthday" segment on Sprout has ridiculously long arms. She MUST have been a volleyball player before converting over to plaid shirts and talking to a stuffed chicken.

...to stay up late for the 11 o'clock news just to see if the weather picture that you uploaded earlier in the evening will make the cut.

Rain, rain, GO AWAY!!!!

Our plans were canceled yet again due to rain. On Tuesdays, we've been packing up a picnic dinner/snack and going to Fishers to meet my aunt and cousins for an outdoor concert. Sophia absolutely LOVES going to this concert. She talks about it all week and so looks forward to playing with my cousin's daughter. I had us all packed up after dinner, ready to get in the car. Toys, food, diapers, drinks, bubbles, everything packed away, when I decided to look at the website one more time to see if everything was going according to schedule. No such luck. I started unpacking everything and tried explaining to a sobbing Sophia why we couldn't go to the park and dance to the band. She just didn't get it. So I had an upset toddler, a cranky and teething baby (Claire is getting yet another tooth), and a huge bowl of oh-so-yummy bean dip that I now have to eat all by myself. I decided to drag everyone outside for the hour or so that we had before the rain came.

Sophia played with the giant bubble wand that I had bought her especially for the concert tonight. That totally made her day, and she forgot about not going to the park. Claire is in love with the bike now. The girl can't even walk yet, but she loves to sit on the bike. So funny. We got to run around outside for about an hour, which helped everyone's moods. I did notice that we have a branch down in our front tree from the wind and storm that went through last night. Got to take care of that.





It started to sprinkle a bit, so we headed inside. Sophia pretty much had a breakdown. Sheesh. We got out the rocking chairs, which Sophia stubbed her toe on. Yet another breakdown, and we HAD to take a picture of her "broken foot." Oh drama.









And this is what the sky looked like outside. It's a good thing I went out to take this picture because I forgot to close the garage door. That would have been a wet mess. I submitted the picture to the Indy news channel, so we might see it tonight on the news! Here's hoping.

So Claire has collapsed, after a day of very short naps, Motrin, and a new tooth. Poor thing. I made Sophia lay down for a nap today to prep her for the long night. The long night didn't happen, so I'm in for it. She won't go to bed until at least 11 now. Oh well. It's supposed to rain hard until then, and she's developed a fear for thunder and lightning. She'd be up and in my lap anyway.

Future golfer

Watch the wiggle. And the follow through.

The air show was a bust

We tried this year. We really tried. Last year, Brett had to work, so we made a special effort this year to plan everything ahead of time to accommodate. All that, and we STILL didn't get to go to the Indianapolis Air Show. Total bummer.

We packed up girls last Saturday, took a look outside at the low clouds, and thought, "These clouds will burn off in by the time the air show starts." No worries. We drove the hour down to Mount Comfort. We pulled up to the airport to see all the cars going in to the parking area turning right back around. After talking with the nice old man directing traffic, we learned that the canceled the air show, not because of weather, but because the fields where they were planning to park patrons' cars were too muddy. COME ON. This was the 14th year for the Indianapolis Air Show. You'd think that they would have a backup plan for parking by now. Nice thing was that we could use our Saturday tickets for Sunday. Bad thing was that Brett had to go back to work on Sunday. So we missed the entire show, and we're out over $30.

So we pretty much aimlessly drove around the east side of Indy, trying to think of something to do. After packing everything up, it would feel like total defeat to just go home. We ended up at the Castleton mall, and the girls got a chance to run around at the playground area. Since they had been stuck in the car for almost two hours, this was definitely needed. We decided to go out to lunch, since we had originally planned on buying lunch at the air show. While walking to the restaurant, we passed Macy's, and saw that they were closed due to a power outage. I felt a total bad karma thing right there.

Houlihan's was restaurant of choice. They've totally changed their menu, which is a total bummer. Seriously? I paid $9 for two tacos and about 12 green beans? It was supposed to come with chips and salsa too, or so you told me, totally distracted waitress. And where are my kid's carrots and ranch that the menu also said was supposed to accompany her $5 mac and cheese? Yeah...so I don't think we'll be going there any time soon. And from now on, we are requesting a booth. Sophia is just safer in a booth than a chair. I was feeding Claire when, out of the corner of my eye, I see Brett leap (yes, I said LEAP) out of his chair to pick up a stunned Sophia, who had completely tipped her chair backward and was laying on the floor with that I'm-staring-at-the-ceiling-and-about-to-scream look on her face. The waitress walked by and asked if we needed ice. No, dear. Go back to your texting. By the time you bring it to us, it would be luke-warm water. Bad karma. Bad, bad karma. We just went home.

The afternoon proved to be better. I guess we were just supposed to be home that day.





Brett left for work on Sunday. He's gone until Friday for his annual training. We won't see him much this month. Between training and one wack-o schedule, he'll be home a whopping three days between now and the end of the month. The girls and I kicked off the long week with a trip to Lafayette for Agatha's birthday party. We had a great time. Sophia ran around the backyard all afternoon. Claire staying close to me or my parents. I think she felt safer there, since there were kids running around everywhere, in pools and running down slip-and-slides. Good times. We all had our fun outdoors and came inside for dinner just in time for the thunderstorm. Couldn't have planned it better.

Hey, it's OK...June 8, 2010

MOMMY, GET OFF YOUR COMPUTER!

I have been reading Jenny's blog a lot lately. Jenny's awesome. Her kids are about the same age as ours, and we totally live parallel lives. She works at home as a graphic designer too. Anyway, she's starting doing a weekly blog post called "Hey, it's ok Tuesday," which is basically a post about how you deal with things that happen during the week. She got the idea from this site and this other site. I am inspired and think I will take on this method of posting to "deal" with the last day of my week before Brett gets home. I can do just fine when he's gone for work, but by the time the last day of my week of flying solo with the girls, I just get frustrated with life. So, here goes nothing.

Hey, it's ok...

...to get a lower back massage by letting your kids climb on you while you lay on the floor after dinner.

...to get excited about your daily ration of Diet Coke.

...to be freaked out about getting the hose out to water the plants because you saw a garter snake there two weeks ago.

...to do a cartwheel in your driveway when you finally get a check from a client and know that your bank account will soon show that you CAN eat from somewhere other than the dollar menu.

...to fix a box of mac and cheese for dinner and mix in carrot baby food as your baby's dinner vegetables.

...to want to hug the tellers at Regions Bank for giving your two-year-old a lollipop and finally getting her to stop screaming in the car.

...to get excited by a new episode of The Backyardigans.

Washing hair

Go Indians!

Brett and I took the girls to an Indianapolis Indians game before his vacation ended. It was actually Brett's birthday gift. I gave him generic tickets since the real ones we not on sale last January for his birthday, so he got to chose when he wanted to go. We ended up sitting in the lawn in the outfield, which was the ideal place to be with two kiddos that would NOT have sat still in the stands. The game was great, and the Indians won. I'd like to go to another one someday, sans children, so I could actually pay attention to the game. And we hit the schedule just right and caught a fireworks display after the game.

Good, old-fashioned park time

Got to love some good, old-fashioned park time. The natives were getting restless this evening, so Brett and I took them to a park that we had yet to visit. Sophia discovered a big red slide, where she could not only slide down "By myself!" but she could also count the eleven steps all the way up the ladder. You could hear her clear across the park, "...nine, ten, EEE-LEVEN!" Claire was content enough to sit in a swing the entire time. Quite a difference between 11 months and 2 and a half. Good times.

Flashback to the present

Sophia and Claire zonked out. Both around 7 months.


I think she's grown up a bit. Sophia still likes the little car. It was one great garage-sale find!


Claire likes it too!


Which bare bum is which?

Catching up

It's been a while since we've posted, and so much has happened!

Summer pretty much showed up like a slap in the face. All of a sudden I went from putting the girls in fleece pjs and jackets to shorts, tank tops, and sunscreen. So much for spring, huh? I'm glad all the cold weather is behind us because summer is going to be SO much fun with these kiddos.

Claire is growing and growing. She's just the sweetest thing. I love this age. 10 months is my favorite by far. She's learning so much everyday. At 9 months, her teeth came in with a vengeance. She has her top and bottom front teeth, and now she's working on the next two on the top. I unpacked all of Sophia's old 18-24 month summer clothes, and Claire easily fits in to everything. YAY! No need to shop this summer. Just this week, Claire has finally decided that she can sleep through the night. It has been heaven. She sleeps like a rock from 8 pm - 6 am, and sometimes we can get her to go back to sleep with a little rocking. After going without a full night of steady sleep for over a year, the mere idea of going to bed and not having to wake up for at least 7 hours is just awesome. It's amazing what weaning can do. We can tell that she's starting to say some words, mainly mama and dada, which I'm not sure if she connects with Brett and me, but it's still worth it. She points at things and says something that sounds like, "What's that?" She will clink glasses with you and say, "Cheers!" I swore she said hot dog the other day. No signs of walking quite yet, but she's a pro at crawling and pulling herself up on things.

Sophia is about as 2 and a half as you can get. She's getting very independent, and like all 2-year-olds, is pushing boundaries to see how far is too far. Even though she can be a pain now and then, she's still fun. Her vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds. She hugged Claire the other day and announced, "My best friend, Claire!" So fun. I love taking Sophia and Claire to the storytimes at the library, where Sophia totally rocks out with all the other kiddos. The latest big thing happening with Sophia is her teeth. Ugh. Early this spring, she fell down my parents stairs and chipped her molar. Yes, I said her MOLAR. We added her to our dental insurance in Feb and took her to the dentist to get it checked. In the process, the dentist said she had CAVITIES and referred us to a pediatric dentist. Apparently, Sophia has unusually deep fissures in her teeth, which are breeding zones for cavity-forming bacteria. It was inevitable that she'd have problems, but I still feel bad! We did find an AWESOME pediatric dentist though. Sophia's cleaning was amazing, she had one cavity filled (with the help of some laughing gas), and had a crown put on her chipped molar (again with laughing gas). The dentist said she did better than most of her 12-year-olds, so that's good news. This dentist was amazing. So amazing that Sophia never wanted to leave her office. The doctor covered Sophia in stickers from head to toe on one appointment. And for her next two, the dentist road her pink bike around the office and delivered stuffed animals to her in the bike's basket. After being treated like that, I wouldn't want to leave either! So, Sophia has healthy teeth now. The next big thing to tackle is potty training, and she's not really interested in that. We'll see how that goes this summer.

Brett has been busy at work lately, taking on a lot of training for the newly-hired first officers at Colgan. He loved being able to teach new pilots but says it can really get exhausting when you do it week upon week. He's enjoying some vacation time right now, which he totally deserves. (I say this as he's cleaning our bathroom.) We've actually accomplished a lot over his vacation. We remulched the yard and pruned and planted flowers. It really looks nice. Much better than it did last year when all we were concerned about was a new baby. We have more plans before he goes back to work on Sunday. I think we're going to try to make it to an Indians game this week. I'd like to take an outing to Trader's Point Creamery. The girls would love that. We're just trying to take it a day at a time and soak up all the time with Brett that we can. He works out of Albany, NY next month instead of Dulles, which will be nice for him. He'll get to see some of his old flying buddies. He also has a full week of training this month. His paycheck will be great, but he'll be gone a lot more than normal. I'll have to think of a lot of things to do with the girls to keep them busy. We may be taking a lot of trips to Lafayette! I'll need some adults to talk with before I go bonkers. And starting in September, Brett will change his base to Houston. They are making a lot of changes in his company, mainly pilots are transferring over to other planes, so there are open slots in Houston. He hears that the operations in Houston is much better, so we'll see how Continental treats him.

I've been keeping busy with work, which is the main reason why I've been behind with the blogging lately. I got a HUGE job from a display company back in NY. I did some animations and graphics for a Houston shareholder's meeting for GE. GE people. That's my biggest client EVER. It was an awesome gig, but boy, did it take a long time. I was up working until 3 am several nights in a row just to meet deadlines. The work paid off though because I bought myself a NEW LAPTOP!!!! It's beautiful. And last week, I just got the new Adobe CS5 Suite. Mom can buy it through Purdue at the student price. It's so good to have connections. I've been itching to get the software on my new computer but just haven't had the time yet. So, I'm still working on the old laptop for now. We also found a great deal on a laptop for Brett, so now we are both clicking away on super-fast computers. It's nice to have an upgrade after working on our laptops for the past 6 years. I've been crafting and sewing as much as possible between projects and kids. I have lots of friends and family expecting babies in the next few weeks, so I'll be busy with baby gifts.

In a nutshell, that's what's been happening. Here's the latest pictures and videos from the past few months. Enjoy!


Sophia's tent. She loves to take her library books in there and read them with a flashlight.




DANCE CLAIRE!


Claire claps, with a little prompting from Sophia.


Reading library books with Aunt Kay and Daley.






Not sure what we did this day, but the girls were just exhausted.


New jogging stroller! I'm no jogger, but I've always wanted one of these just to make our walks easier. It's AMAZING. I got it from someone on Craigslist. It's almost brand new! What a steal!





Singing in the rain.


Claire is showing Sophia her crib, and Sophia is rediscovering her old bed.




The happens a lot when Brett comes home from work. He must be really comfy.


SO BIG!


Doesn't every parent have a picture of their kid sobbing? Well, I do. Look at that face!
"Mommy, how DARE you leave me in my crib for a nap!"



Sophia has been the artist lately. These are her faces. Pretty darn good for her age. They have eyes and noses and mouths. Lately, she's been adding ears and hair too.


Ah. I made Claire a blanket a few weeks ago in the effort to make her something that would calm her down and help her sleep through the night. Didn't work, but she still loved the blanket.




Ooo! Teeth and a skinny neck!


Drawing again. Give this kid paper and a pencil, and she'll be happy for at least 30 minutes. Wonder where she gets that?


Sophia feeding Claire grapes.


Steak and Shake with Grandma and Grandpa Suppinger.






First summer movie of the season! We went to Dillon Park and watched "Cars" on a big, blow-up movie screen. It was a late night, but it was so much fun. We almost finished a big bag of kettle corn that we picked up at the Carmel Farmers' market that morning.



Nothing better than a good Daddy-jump when he gets home from work.



Picking the first strawberries of the summer!



IT'S HOT! The first pool dip of the summer!


Claire wasn't too keen on the pool, so she just watched an got splashed.


Popsicles all around.


CHEERS!


Claire says, "Dada!"