I've created a monster, but I couldn't be prouder!

I don't think it will come as a surprise to anyone that I love to shop.  I love buying new clothes and love the look on my husbands face when I tell him I have nothing to wear when I just spent unspeakable amounts of money at Old Navy the week before.  As it turns out my disease is contagious and I now have a little mini shopaholic.  Since before Brisa could talk I would take her shopping with me and I would hold up clothes for her and whatever she would grab at I would get her.  Now that she can talk it has become even more fun.  Whenever I tell her we are going to the store she gets super excited and asks what we are going to buy, i thought it was out of curiosity, but this weekend I realized she is an addict.  Here are a few stories that bring a smile to my face, but worry poor Chad (I meant poor in a sympathetic way, but there is also a good chance it will apply financially as Brisa grows).

The kids needed new clothes because Carson is too big for size 3 months sleepers and too small for 6 months sleepers and we need the elusive 3-6 months size.  Brisa also needed some short sleeve shirts because while she still fits size 18mos clothes her shirts are too short and her belly button shows. So I was holding things up and she picked out 2 dresses that she liked and we were off to a good start.  Then we moved on to shirts.  She hated them, all of them.  Finally I told her that she needed clothes and put a plain pink shirt in the cart.  she yelled "NO!  I don't lika it!" and grabbed it out of the cart and threw it!  I was shocked.  Normally I wouldn't let her act like that, but it was so funny I giggled.  I put the shirt back on the shelf and decided it would be easier for everyone if I just let her walk around and pick out some things herself.  Eventually she found a shirt that didn't offend her and put it in the cart saying "I need to wear this to the pool" and as I was informed this morning she can ONLY wear it to the pool.  Fantastic.  I realize this story makes her sound like a brat, but I have always said I want her to be a free spirit.  She can be a little hard to handle sometimes, but she is slowly learning how to behave appropriately and shes only 2.5 (today!) so I think she is on the right track.  I have lots of opinions, so its only natural that she does too.

Later on in the shopping trip I decided I needed some shorts, I was trying them on and couldn't decide between two pairs.  I held them up to ask Chad which ones he preferred and he did his classic, "I don't know, I like them both" usually when he says that I buy them both to show him that not having an opinion has consequences, but before I could throw them in the cart Brisa pointed to the blue pair and said "that one Mom!" so that was that.  It was so precious!  And now I know that I should leave the boys at home and just bring my stylist with me when I go out.  Also I always ask her about my outfits before we go out and usually she says "So, so so cute!  I love it!" but every once in a while she will tell me that I should wear my "mom jeans" instead of yoga pants, and I appreciate her honest input!  Also just hearing her say "mom jeans" is worth the hassle of changing.  Haha.

This morning both kids got up at 5:30.  One of them accidentally wet the bed and had an emotional melt down, and the other just likes to prove he is in charge.  I think he has a napoleon complex, though I can't be sure.  I tried to close my eyes and pretend it wasn't happening, but my kids quickly reminded me that I was a mom and when they are up, I am forced to be up also.  So I tried my hardest to be cheerful, but I needed a boost so I turned to online shopping!  I was looking at hair bows for Brisa because she is in love with them lately, but her hair is so curly and thick that only a certain kind will stay in her hair, and they are near impossible to find. As I was searching a certain little princess peeked over my shoulder and saw a sparkly bow, she immediately decided she needed it.  I told her I was just looking and wasn't going to buy anything, but she saw more things she liked and added them to her list of demands.  Eventually she had picked out too many to remember and turned to me with her serious face, head tilted to the side and said "I need them all mama"  I smiled said okay and closed the tab because online shopping was becoming dangerous.  Unfortunately she has watched me online shop enough to know that you have to click on the cart to check out so she said "maybe later?" I told her I wasn't buying any bows and she accepted it, but keeps mentioning how cute the sparkly bow was, I think she is trying to wear me down, luckily I know for a fact it wont stay in her hair so I wont be tempted to give in.  I did however order stuff to make her hair bows, so I guess I am a pushover.  Oh well.

Also I feel I should add that I did not create this problem alone.  Chad will also buy her things when we go out just to see her smile.  After the clothes were all picked out her daddy also bought her a toy Pegasus and an elephant that goes over the bath faucet and shoots water out of its trunk.  I guess what I'm trying to say is its just as much his fault as it is mine, if not more so.

New Home

Chad and I finally got around to making a video of our house yesterday!  We tried to upload it last night, but it was late and I decided to sleep instead.  So without further ado...

My not so little man.

My favorite little guy turned 6 months old today.  I wanted to capture every moment of the day like I did with Brisa's 6 month birthday, but that just didn't happen, so instead I am just going to detail what we did today and write about all the fun stuff that Carson is doing at 6 months so that I can look back on this in a couple years and remember how cute he was.

Our Day: I woke up to a reminder on my phone telling me that Carson was 6 months old.  I put a timer to remind me how old he was every month so that I would never miss one, because having two kids has somehow made me forget things.  Not any of the 20+ rap songs I have memorized, that would be too great of a loss.  Just what day of the week it is and if I changed the kids diapers when they got dressed this morning, you know, the silly stuff.  Back to my point I was excited to start the day!  That excitement soon faded when I realized Carson was all stuffy and was going to be a grump all day.  I decided to press on anyway and started out strong with the documenting, but then gave up when I decided I didn't want to remember any of those particular moments.  At one point Brisa and Carson were screaming in unison for a full hour.  I know, I was staring at the clock waiting for Chad to get home.  Kind of a let down of a day, but that's life.

Carson:
-Carson is the CUTEST baby.  He is always full of smiles and loves to scream for joy when you talk to him.
-He is super ticklish!! Sometimes when I am nursing him I absentmindedly caress his face and he bursts into giggles.  I'm not even sure how its possible to be so ticklish, but somehow he does it.
-Carson follows his sister around everywhere.  He always has to be right next to her and if she happens to sit or lay on the ground he immediately climbs on top of her.  Her nap time is the fussiest time of the day because he gets so bored!  I wish he could just nap when she naps, but for some reason they only nap in unison when Chad is home, I think he drugs them.
-Carson is an expert crawler and pulls himself up on anything he can, unfortunately he doesn't know how to get back down after he does that so he just cries until I come let him down safely or he falls over and cries.
-Carson isn't a big snuggler which breaks my heart a little.  I think Brisa being so snugly and always sitting on me hogging my lap and snuggles has made him not even want to try.
-Carson loves food and gets extra talkative when he sees someone eating, and if you make the mistake of eating on the ground he will attack you.
-Carson loves to pull hair and has pulled chunks of mine and Brisa's out on multiple painful occasions.
-Carson is also a pincher, I always have bruises from him.  Now that I think about it I'm glad he doesn't let me snuggle him.
-Carson still eats every 1.5 to 2 hours, all the time, 24/7, I'm one tired mama and he's lucky he's cute. -Carson puts everything in his mouth.  I know most babies do, but Brisa didn't really so I find it weird and kinda gross.
-Carson loves when people sing to him.  Even if you are just singing normal words he smiles and kicks his feet and gets very excited.  And If Brisa is the one singing to him he loves that even more.

All in all he is the best and I wouldn't trade him for the world.

The monthly picture.

Just being adorable in his walker.

Chewing on a key chain he found.

Crashing the selfie Brisa and I were taking.

Now trying to steal the phone.

Now distracted by the carpet.

Has Anyone Seen My Marbles? I'm Looking at You Curly!

I recently had an experience that has changed my life forever.  I used to be the kind of mom that would just go for it.  Keep the kids up late so we can spend time with our friends?  Sure. Skip nap time to go to the beach?  No problem!  Fly to Utah with the kids by myself?  What could possibly go wrong?  Well this is my story..

Chad and I decided that the best course of action for our move to Utah from California would be for him to drive a moving truck out while I flew with the kids.  I mean nothing could possibly be worse than driving to squirmy kids 12 hours in a car to Utah.  Well I found something that comes pretty darn close.  It all started at the Santa Barbara airport, it was raining, which I now know was an omen of how the day would unfold.  Brisa was asleep for the drive and was woken up when the car stopped at the airport.  When Brisa wakes up from a nap she like to be snuggled for about 30 minutes, something that is impossible to do while holding a baby, a backpack and two car seats.  So there was a lot of tears and a lot of "Mommy, I need to hold you!" while I printed my boarding passes.  But eventually I was able to check the car seats and head to security with my littles.  We got to go up an escalator and to Brisa that was just about the most exciting part of the day.  She was so excited that she didn't realize at first that we had kissed Nana goodbye and we were going on the airplane without her.  She noticed the second we got to security that Nana was gone and she was beside herself with grief, in other words she was screaming and trying to run away.  So there I was with my two kids trying to get my ID out of my wallet without losing my two year old that can run right under those little ropes without even having to duck.  Finally I got it all taken care of and got ready to put our stuff through the scanner thingy.  I told her that she would have to take off her Frozen backpack so we could put it through the machine and she stomped her foot and screamed her classic "No, I don't!"  I sized up the TSA agent, she was bigger than me, then decided that yes she did have to take off her backpack.  As  I was wrestling the backpack I could feel eyes on me, I looked around to see an older man watching this whole scene unfolding, presumably thanking his lucky stars he wasn't me.  I smiled and continued smiling while basically dislocating Brisa's arm to get her backpack off of her.  I was pushing Brisa through the metal detector and I was almost in the clear until the TSA woman reminded me I was still wearing my shoes, how did she know I was planning on smuggling 4oz of liquid on board in the sole of my shoe?  It was at this point that a second TSA agent took pity on me and lured Brisa through the detector with stickers.  It worked like a charm, he's an angel and Brisa is happy with her Jr. TSA agent sticky badge for 3 minutes.  

We got to our gate without a hitch, then Brisa realized she was still holding her trash that she peeled off from the back of her sticker.  Now under normal circumstances she would throw it on the ground and refuses to throw it away and she would have time out and then still refuse and I would bribe her and she would still refuse then I would tell her she would't be able to watch Curious George after nap and she would reluctantly throw it away and I would breathe a sigh of relief that I didn't have to follow through on that threat because it is more of a punishment for me than it is for her.  But of course since I had just sat down and started nursing Carson she urgently had to find a trash can.  So I scanned the area and there was one pretty close, so I thought I would just point to it and she could do it herself, but upon further inspection the trash can had the separate bags for plastic, paper, and trash (really California?), so I would have to go with her to ensure she found the right place to dispose of her tiny piece of paper that could NOT  be shoved in the backpack.  So I grabbed Carson and left our things on the chair and walked 5 feet to the trash can. 

We successfully threw away our trash and were on our way back to our seat, when Brisa decided it was time for a run.  She sprinted of giggling and I took off after her.  Its not unusual for Brisa to take off, I just usually send Chad after her or tell her if she doesn't stay by me we have to go home and then she comes back and mopes by me.  This time I couldn't use either of my tried and true tactics and she knew she had me beat.  I finally cornered her in a gift shop and thought I had won, then she went boneless.  A sit in!  Brilliant!  I couldn't pick her up because I was already had one squirmy baby in my arms, and I couldn't wait it out because I had left all of my things unattended and that voice over the intercom kept instilling a distrust of all unattended baggage in my fellow travelers so I was left with no choice but to slide her along the shiny tile floor all the way back to our seat.  She was screaming and begging me to let her go, and I was comforted knowing that if anyone ever tried to kidnap this particular toddler they would give up because even I was wishing I could stop and walk away.  

We finally got on the plane and Brisa walked right to her seat and put her seat belt on and waited looking out the window.  No, really she did! then she got fidgety, then she realized the button with a picture of a person on it made a dinging sound when she pushed it, yay!  Then we were told to get our seat belts on a started taxiing to the runway then we stopped.  Someone was screaming and jumping up and down on their seat preventing the plane from taking off.  Yep, it was my daughter.  The flight attendant rushed over to tell me that she had to be buckled before we could take off.  I told him I was aware of the rule and I was trying and he walked away, I tried everything, but was unable to wrangle her with just one arm and she was doing her ear piercing scream and everyone was watching, it was great.  The flight attendant reappeared and asked if there was anything he could do to help, and I handed him my baby without uttering a word.  I got Brisa in her seat and clipped her in and she giggled, I lost a little more of my sanity) and grabbed Carson back and we took off.  when we got in the air the pilot announced that we were a little behind schedule (I get it, I'm a bad mom, move on sir) but he was sure we could make up the time.  The flight went great, Brisa was happy the whole time, it was fantastic until she had to put her seat belt on to land.  Luckily the lady sitting next to me offered to hold Carson for the landing so that I could hold Brisa.  She must have been on a tight schedule.  Luckily everyone around me was SO nice, everyone told me that I didn't have to apologize, and kids act up sometimes and I shouldn't worry about it.  I really hope I will have the opportunity to be as kind as all the people on that flight someday.  

And then we were in San Francisco. we had about an hour so I let Brisa wander around and get some wiggles out.  Carson was starting to fuss so I was trying to get him his pacifier while he squirmed around in the ergo carrier and finally got it in his mouth and looked up to see Brisa sprinting off into a restricted area.  Perfect, there goes that last pesky thread of sanity.  I couldn't follow her under the rope because I'm not 2 and so I was standing there begging her to come back.  Then I saw a tiny little security guard walking towards her.  She informed me that it was a restricted area (no kidding) and that Brisa wasn't allowed back there because the wasn't authorized.  I told her I realize that and called Brisa over to me, it didn't work. There was a giant window and a plane taking off and big bouncy chairs, she's only human.  Then the security guard turned to Brisa and told her to go back to her mom, Brisa laughed in her face.  The lady told me a 2nd time that Brisa wasn't authorized to be back there and that there were stairs and it wasn't safe.  I said I know, but she's two and I don't control her every move.  Finally she moved the rope and said "Go get your child." I pictured myself pushing her down the "unsafe" stairs.  I may not have been able to take that TSA agent, but this chick I could drop kick.  I walked away and then we got on our plane and that flight went off without a hitch and one lady even called me a "rock star"  The couple sitting behind me just happened to have been on my first flight too.  Some people just have bad luck, that's life I guess.  Anyway he heard the rock star comment and chuckled, pipe down you, I'm a rock star.  Then we got off the plane, reunited with Chad, he cried, we drove home, laughing the whole way about our little monster.  

I learned 2 things from all of this:

1)  I need Chad a whole heck of a lot more than he needs me.

2) Leaving the house alone with my two kids should be avoided at all costs.

Felix "Pillar" Bunn

No that's not the name of any future baby Bunn it is what we named our pet caterpillar. On Sunday May 1st My mom found a fuzzy black caterpillar clinging to the wall of the house.  Brisa had already gone to bed so Chad and I decided to domesticate him so that Brisa could see him when she woke up.  We built him a warm and loving home filled with all of his favorite leaves and even some twigs to climb on.  Well on Wednesday May 4th he passed away.  We think that a little someone may have been a little too hands on while looking at him.  There looked to have been some sort of avalanche and Felix was killed in its wake.  Since this was the first death of a pet that we have experience we decided that a simple burial and graveside service was in order.  Now as most of you know I am a stay at home mom and have very little going on in my life on a day to day basis (besides the keeping alive of my two littles) so I may have gone a wee bit overboard with the funeral arrangements.  I ended up writing two song parodies and printed a program with a full obituary.  And looking back my only regret is that I left the eulogy up to Chad who said he would "wing it"  (rude considering poor Pillar left this life before he was able to get his wings.)  Looking back I realize that I should have just tossed the lil guy out after Brisa went to bed because dragging the whole extended family out to the backyard just just called more attention to the fact that he was gone and caused more crying than was necessary, but hey you live and learn right?!

Pillar in his early days.

Front of the program.

First Draft before I fixed the typo.

One of the song parodies.   

Brisa burying Pillar.  Yes we wore dresses

Pillars final resting spot.

His Grave marker.

Bad mom alert.

Now I know I'm not actually a "bad mom" because I think that I am actually doing a pretty good job with my two kiddos.  But I did however have a bad mom moment, or hours, basically a day.  Lets start at the beginning.

Chad and I went out of town for the weekend which of course meant the kids had to sleep with us because they didn't have their familiar beds to sleep in.  So as you can probably imagine no one slept well, especially Carson, and since I was assigned Carson because Chad refuses to lactate I didn't sleep well either.  I'm sure Chad didn't sleep much better, but if he wants sympathy he can get his own blog, this one's about me.  All of this was a round about way of saying I am tired.  I was hopeful that being home in his own crib would make Carson snap right back into sleeping through the night, I was so wrong.  So basically this is all just a really long way of saying I was the MOST tired person in the house and most likely the world.  Now to the point.

This morning Brisa was extra cranky and clingy and whiny and all around unpleasant.  At one point She was refusing to lay down and let me change her diaper and I was too tired to chase her so I started pulling out all my foolproof tricks.  I held out my empty fist and told her I had dirt and she wouldn't come. So I pulled out the big guns and told her that she couldn't watch Daniel Tiger unless she laid down, this is foolproof, it has never ever not worked.  Unfortunately she was too upset to comply so I had to follow through and it was like a punishment for us both.  So the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon I had to keep telling her she couldn't watch Daniel Tiger, or Curious George, or Elmo.  She doesn't usually ask to watch that much TV, but I guess knowing that she couldn't made her want to watch it even more.  Also during this time she was glued to my lap.  everywhere I went, there she was.  She was literally climbing all over me all day, I thought I was suffocating.  Eventually I was so done being screamed at by my toddler that I started tuning her out, luckily my dad is one of the best grandpas ever and he took her and calmed her down and not 5 minutes later he said that she was warm and that I should take her temperature.  102.5.  Yep that's right folks, I punished a sick 2 year old that was just trying to get some snuggles.

So I felt VERY guilty. To make it up to her I was extra nice and loving and I let her have unlimited play time on my phone.  As I was getting her medicine ready I was rubbing her head telling her that she was going to feel better really soon.  She looked at me, made a sad face and said "I can't, I can't feel better!  I don't want to."  So basically she loves all the attention being sick gets her and she may never feel better again.

 

This was right after I took her temperature.  She was acting like she was suddenly on her death bed.  She was not like this all day, I would have noticed something was up.  I love how dramatic she is.  It kills me.  P.S. after I took this she immediately asked to see it and insisted I take another, but that one was blurry.  I have a little diva on my hands.

The little mommy.

Brisa is so in love with her baby brother.  We have been extremely blessed because she has never once been jealous or mean to Carson.  It is nice in the sense that I don't have to worry about her hitting the baby, but scary in the sense that I have to constantly watch her to make sure that she doesn't love him too violently.  For example she likes to hold his face to make sure he is looking at her, and sometimes the only way she can reach his face is by climbing on top of him, scary.  Because she loves him so much she likes to be the one to take care of him.  So I have a couple lil stories that illustrate this point:

1)  Brisa thinks that every time he makes a peep it is her job to try and fix the problem.  She has come to realize that Carson eats a lot, and so that is always her first thought.  So on to the story  Carson was fussing because she had just woken up by yelling "baby awake?" in his face at her loudest volume.  She tried to put his pacifier in his mouth, but he wouldn't take it.  I was laying on the bed next to them and Brisa reached over, patted me on the chest, tilted her head to the side and in her most sincere voice asked him "baby hungry?"  She is very interested in nursing.  For the first week or so she would just ask me what I was doing over and over, but now she gets it completely and I have caught her trying to feed her toys on more than one occasion.  

2)  Brisa was holding Carson on the couch and he was starting to get upset.  I tried to give him his pacifier, but he kept spitting it out.  After a few tries, Brisa took it from my hand and in her best mom voice said "He does not want it"  It made me laugh so hard because it is the exact same phrase I say to her every time she tries to give him his pacifier in his sleep.  

3)  My aunt Cindy was holding Carson on the couch and he wasn't wrapped up in a blanket because it was pretty warm in the house.  Brisa ran to my room to get him a blanket and brought it out and handed it to her and asked her to put it on the baby.  It was so cute, and I couldn't believe she was that observant and worried about Carson's well-being.  

4) This morning was a pretty hard morning because Carson was fussy and Brisa was trying to love him and hold him and I was starting to get pretty overwhelmed.  I was about to lose it when Brisa walked over and said "Mommy, his seat"  nothing I was doing was working so I thought he was just going to cry no matter what so I laid him in his bouncer and sat back down on the couch.  Brisa walked right up to him and put his pacifier in his mouth while she bounced the seat and shushed him.  Carson immediately started to calm down and smile at his sister and I was so amazed by Brisa's patience and willingness to help her brother when mommy couldn't.  I am so incredibly blessed to have the little helper I do and I don't know how any mama out there could do it without a Brisa.

Now here are some pictures of the kids being kids. 

She was just talking to him making him smile so I tried to get a picture of them smiling at each other, but as as I snapped the picture she was overcome by his cuteness and gave him a kiss right on the lips.  I was so happy I got it on camera because it was so sweet!

Brisa was just loving on her brother at Chad's Aunts house during the Christmas party.

This was Brisa trying to steal my camera because she wanted to take pictures of her baby. 

Here is Brisa taking over the parenting for me :)