Category: Tales from the Crib

I Heart TJ’s

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Despite really really liking it, I don’t shop at Trader Joe’s that often (I know, I know, I know). It’s really out of sheer laziness. I like Safeway, it’s close and it has it all. But I don’t always love the prices there and TJ’s does have great stuff so I’m making a bigger effort to split the groceries up and maybe save a little cash in the process.

Yesterday afternoon after nap time, I persuaded Baylor into the car for a grocery run with the promise of a mini cart at TJ’s. She was intrigued by going somewhere new – this kid has a memory like an elephant. She knows where all her friends and relatives houses are, which street we turn for school and which street leads the way to our favorite restaurant. She also knows where we get our hair cut, where Safeway is and where the pet store is and points them out as we drive. It’s a little scary what she remembers sometimes (like how to get to the airport after not driving there for 6 months…). As we drove, I was relating where the store was in relation to where we get our hair cut. This satisfied her that it wasn’t “real real far” and so she turned her attention to the mini carts.

As we walked in the door, she spotted them. It was like nirvana. A real grocery cart in a real grocery store. She asked me for a wipe to get the handle (just in case there was any doubt about her being my kid) and we proceeded to the produce section. All the while getting smiles and nice comments from everyone she passed.

It was there that I learned that mini carts are not as awesome for the parent as they are for the kid. You know why? Because they are the perfect height to cut your achilles tendon. The third time I was flat tired by the little cart, I became terrified of it. I couldn’t let B out of my sight – it was less about her being kidnapped and more about self-preservation. Much much more. The carts come with a long pole attached to them (security? location? I have no idea) which I proceeded to use as a guide to keep her in my peripheral vision so that I could keep my ankles from being accosted. She was less than pleased about this, but was easily assuaged by a jar of enchilada sauce so all was well.

The kicker was the checker gave her about 2 dozen stickers at the check out. I was so proud when she sweetly pointed to one sticker in the bunch and asked if she could have that one, rather than assuming they were all for her. When the nice checker told her that they were all for her, there was a brief moment where I’m certain she thought about asking if she could move in. And really, who could blame her? The brilliant part is that now she’s asking me “do we need to go to the grocery store??”.

I couldn’t get her to open her eyes for the pic – any time spent taking her eyes off the stickers was a total waste, in her opinion.

Practice Makes Perfect

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Yesterday Baylor and I babysat baby Mason for a few hours while Ali got her hair did. I wanted to help out because A. nothing says fun like trying to calm a baby while someone is putting foil in your hair and B. I secretly wanted a little practice. I wanted to see what it would be like to have two of them and get a few things done.

After a bottle, change, car seat move and a packed diaper bag, we ventured out to pick up coffee at our favorite roastery and grab a few things at the grocery. Bold, yes. But none of it was essential so there was plenty of time to abort the mission. But thankfully, M was the perfect gentleman and sat happily in his car seat the entire time. B was a golden child. Like the kind you think your kid is going to be when you have a second child. She listened, she helped, she even climbed in the same door as Mason’s car seat, shimmyed into her seat and was 90% strapped in when I got to her side. I’m sure it was the novelty of having her cousin around, but I’m going to pretend that this will still happen (at least for a little while) when it’s her brother.

The one thing I didn’t think about was me. Well the belly anyway. Mason is about 7 weeks old and I look more like I ate a really big burrito and am allergic to sit ups more than pregnant so everyone (naturally) assumed he was mine. I don’t know why, but I was a little unwilling to accept the chubby momma role (since his actual mother is back into her pre pregnancy jeans. bitch.). Thankfully my assistant was happy to tell anyone that looked her way that this was her cousin Mason and that she was babysitting and that her brother was in mommy’s belly. So I’ve got that going for me. Which is nice.

All in all, it was a positive experience. Although I plan to really enjoy my current one munchkin schedule.

Mother’s Day Love

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We had such a nice Mother’s Day weekend! It kicked off with a celebration at Baylor’s school where her whole class sang and presented us with presents. They made plates (the melamine kind that they draw on and then cook), flowers in hand painted pots and a beautiful poem with her little hand print. It was stinking adorable. Any attendee would have been hard pressed not to smile at the level of cuteness going on.

My little gardener.

Guess who gets to eat off the plate the most? Thanks for the pictures Grandma!

We spent Saturday organizing the garage which is always a challenge, but makes me so happy not to trip over crap AND when I can get a roll of paper towels without unpacking an entire shelf.

Finally we enjoyed Sunday brunch with Grandma and Grandpa where they showered us with gifts – me, Bay and the baby too! My favorite part though is the card. PW said that Bay screamed “WE HAVE TO GET THE ONE WITH THE PUPPY FOR MOMMY!!!” so loud that people two aisle over were laughing. It cracks me up – exactly what an almost 3 year old would pick out. The gnome stickers are the perfect touch!

Even It Up

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It’s official. Come October the girl to guy score at our house will be all evened up – or advantage boys if you count Mr. Bear – it’s confirmed that #2 is a mister. Stubborn in his unwillingness to uncurl or roll over, yet obvious that he was a he. I’m excited to get the room plans rolling and update my Pinterest board with boy / girl room ideas and scratch all the girl / girl stuff. While putting Baylor down today, I had another epiphany of layout, decor, etc. Get ready for a fun weekend of measuring and listening to me spout off ideas PW!

Things One Should Never Say to a Pregnant Lady (and my responses)

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“OH! Don’t you LOVE being pregnant??”

~While the end result is worth it, no, pregnancy is not top on my list of awesome things to do. Weeks of feeling like everything, including my hairstyle, is going to make me throw up – no wine – uncomfortable belly – yeah, it’s a real thrill ride.

“Get lots of sleep while you can!”

~First of all, shut up. Second, I’m what you call a belly sleeper and do you know what you can’t do when you’re pregnant? That’s right, sleep on your stomach. I spend all night thinking about how I could totally be asleep if I could just get a few minutes on my anterior.

“You look so tiny? Are you sure the baby is ok?” This is an actual question someone asked me with Baylor

~What in the world would make you feel that that was an appropriate question to ask?? Your head looks a little deformed, is everything ok with your brain?

“You don’t really look pregnant, you just look like you have a belly.”

~This is a quote from my mother. When I responded with “is that some kind of complement?? Gee, you don’t look pregnant, just fat!!” she fell apart laughing realizing how horrible it sounded and then admitted, yes, that was what she meant. Thank goodness I share her sick sense of humor.

Big Helper

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Yesterday morning, Baylor emerged from her bathroom declaring that she had brushed her teeth all by herself. We all got very excited and I made a mental note to rebrush them later…

While passing by her room, I noticed a very strong smell of strawberry…upon further inspection I found that apparently in the “toothpaste on the toothbrush” portion of the morning, she had squirted about a third of the bottle of toothpaste into the sink. And now it was hard and not easily washed off. Crap. I made another mental note to deal with it later.

In the evening, PW and I were making dinner and chatting about schedules when it dawned on me I hadn’t seen or heard the munchkin in a while. My “what are you doing??” yell was answered with “ANYTHING!!” which is translated to I’m not doing anything which is always a lie. Two minutes later she came running into the kitchen announcing that she had cleaned all the toothpaste out of the sink! Awesome, I thought…and then I really thought about her cleaning skills and got a little worried. I asked her to show me her good work…which is where I discovered that apparently in two year old world, cleaning the toothpaste out of the sink means using goldfish crackers to do so.

This time I made a mental note to tell PW that this was a daddy clean up job.

 

Aunt Beth

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I’ve been a step-aunt for several years now, but last Thursday I became a full fledged aunt when Mr. Mason finally made his entrance into the world! At 7lbs, 19 inches and just a smattering of hair, he really is cute!

And thankfully his mother was able to talk his father out of naming him Vercingetorix. Not kidding. That was on the table. Gary finally relented and said that it would be up to Ali to explain to him some day why his name isn’t as cool as it could have been. Ali was happy to take on that responsibility knowing that Mason would probably endlessly thank her for talking him out of it.

Easter Fun

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We had a great Easter filled with fun and family. Smarty pants B, upon discovering the bunny balloon she had been eyeing for weeks at the grocery announced “the Easter Bunny shop at Safeway too!!”.

A little baffled by the chick that makes cheeping sounds when you hold it

After mass we headed to my mom’s house for brunch. It was amazing as always and included lots of running on the golf course.

Zoe and B sharing some bubbles – well, in theory anyway

Big kids, little kids and the big kids at heart playing catch

After a little spillage in her dress, she changed into one of Noni’s shirts (which she spilled on) and then enjoyed her gardening themed Easter gift from her buddy Joyce.