Guilty Pleasures

Mommy is addicted to Bravo. (Isn't Bethenny's Jason the nicest guy?! And I also like internet connectivity. My internet has been jacked up for the last 11 days!)

Carson enjoys a McDonald's chocolate shake now and then, particularly on the way home from school.


Brady likes to eat.


And Nate loves Mike and Ikes, Hershey bars and Icees. (And since Carson loves whatever his dad loves, Carson loves the above, too. :)

Hallelujah!

Brady's turned the corner, and by that, I mean he doesn't scream 90% of his waking hours. Whoo-hoo...life with two kids isn't that bad after all. ;)

Brady - 1 Month Stats

22 1/2 inches - 90%
10 lbs 8 oz - 75%
37.6 inch head circumference - 50%

Let's compare composite photos (I haven't use the words "composite photo" since I was in college getting sorority pictures!):

CARSON (one month and a day after gracing us with his presence)


BRADY (one month and a day after gracing us with his presence)

Tyrant

Brady is one.


He doesn't like any of the following:
bouncy seat
pacifier
swing
tummy time
play mat
diaper changes
riding in the car
napping during the day
hanging out

There are no options other than what I've listed above, Kid.

(This is how Carson deals with Brady in the car.)

"Bwady's cwyin', Momma."

Either I have the smartest toddler on the planet, or my infant cries so much during the day that if his big brother utters the words, "Brady's crying, Momma.", there is a strong possibility BRADY IS CRYING and Carson has accurately described the situation at hand.

WTF?! I thought it was supposed to be easier the second time around? And what's going on below?

Identity Crisis

Carson has a ton of toys in his playroom, though he chose to play with these:

Appropriate???

While feeding Brady, I looked over my shoulder to check on Carson...this is what I saw:



Who needs Mega Bloks when you can build a tower out of a table and a chair?!

poop and a(PEE)ase

I had both boys at home with me today, so when Nate called to ask me how it was going, I replied, "Eat, poop, play and appease -- that's all there is to it."

Give me a break.

We had two weddings to go to last Saturday: an afternoon wedding in Fulton and an evening ceremony in St. Louis. (My parents were gracious enough to watch the boys.) As we rolled out of Fulton on our way to the evening wedding in St. Louis, a quick stop at Break Time for caffeine was a necessity. (There is something about a fountain pop that immediately makes me feel better. It cured my college hang-overs and lifted my spirits on Saturday. For you Westminster-ites reading this, you know the gas station I'm referring to! :)

After two Blue Moons, dinner and dessert at wedding #2, we were ready to go home. I enjoyed the break but missed my boys' chaos.

COLIC

Damn it. Brady has colic. In all honesty, he sleeps from 10p to 2a and wakes for a bottle. He then goes back to sleep and wakes again at 5:30a for a bottle, so I shouldn't complain, right? Wrong. The colic is in full effect from 6a to 9:30p. The only thing that seems to remotely soothe Brady is being in my arms. This would be somewhat endearing if I didn't have a very active and needy toddler at home with me as well. (When does a momma find time to pee?! Seriously.)

Doctor's Orders

Well, after 2 weeks of Tommee Tippee bottles and a ravines kid every 1.5 hours, it occurred to us that Brady wasn't getting enough food. We decided to switch back to the pain-in-the-ass-because-each-bottle-has-five-pieces Dr. Brown's bottles since they worked so well with Carson. I tried to take the simpler route this time around (The Tommee Tippee bottle only had three pieces!), but am now back to what the doctor ordered.

Breaking the Law

I know it's illegal to drink and drive, but do you think they would make an exception for a woman traveling with a screaming toddler and a manic infant?

I loaded Brady in the car yesterday so that we could pick Carson up from school. (This was my first attempt out with both of them.) Brady is...let's say...less than impressed with his car seat and drive-time. Needless to say, he screamed the entire drive to day care. Midway there, I looked in the review mirror and saw Brady projectile vomit. Lovely. On the return trip home, Brady really freaked out and started screaming like I was ripping his arms off. Carson's initial reaction was, "No no cry, Brady." Cute! Carson then started to cry (which he NEVER does) as he tried to pull himself out of his car seat. WTF?!

Nate called me as I rolled in to the garage and asked me what was up. I erupted in laughter and said, "This is nuts!"

Who's who?

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! My friend Cassie said it best, "You've cloned Carson!"

Brady....leaving the hospital.


Carson...leaving the hospital.

Milk. It does a body good.

Umm, not this body! If I were breast-feeding, I'd be ecstatic that my milk was in, but since I'm not, I'm less than thrilled. Ouchy!!!

Not the best lead-in to Father's Day pics, but oh, well.

Brady Michael Ross

He's here! Brady joined us on June 17, 2010 at 11:13 AM. He weighed 8 pounds 7 ounces and is 21 inches long. Besides being a spitter, he's a peach. (It's so much easier the second time around!)

Reality sets in.

We're having a baby...holy shit, I have to physically give birth, pop out a human-being, bring a child in to this world, PUSH, squeeze a watermelon through the equivalent of something the size of a golf ball. We're headed in to the hospital tonight instead of tomorrow morning. Carson's little brother or sister will be here soon!

Sprinkler-action

With a little coercing, Carson eventually loved running through the sprinkler, and so did his daddy!

4, 3, 2, 1......

My last Sunday sunset as a mommy of 1...

...4 days to go!

Tweet, Tweet

Nesting, no?

The deal has been inked!

Baby Ross is being evicted June 17th! With zero natural progression and a gracious doctor, I have been scheduled for induction next Thursday. Whoo-hoo, which means Nate will be ringing in his second Father's Day with the arrival of his second rug rat. Yikes!


(Our final date night before Newbie arrives.)

(My not-so-little man has no clue what he's in for!)

Whale-of-a-good time!

Nothing says "summer fun" like a $14.99 blow-up whale pool from Toys"R"Us.

Rat

At least he didn't rat me out!

I'm tired of...

...rolling out of bed each morning.
...being completely exhausted by a flight of stairs.
...getting heartburn from licorice!
...not being able to actively play with Carson.
...sleeping on my left side.
...drinking half-caf.
...eating Activia.
...peeing my pants slightly when I laugh, cough or sneeze.

Get out, Baby! You've baked long enough!


5.18.10 - 32 days to go!

5.08.10 - 42 days to go!

Ice Cream

Pregnancy-cravings aside, I LOVE soft serve vanilla cones. Boring? Perhaps. (Carson doesn't seem to think so!)

Four Letter Words

Thanks to my sailor-mouth, Carson has enhanced his vocabulary with the infamous four-letter word beginning with an "S" and ending with a "T" - fabulous. He said it four or five times last week at day care and has continued to use it this weekend. Case in point, we were all playing on the couch when Carson slid down Nate's legs on to the floor. As he slowly tumbled to the floor, Carson said, "Whoooooooooow." Once he finally landed he said, "Shit!" I would be lying if I didn't tell you that Nate and I erupted in laughter, had to get up, leave the room, and snicker together.

The last few weeks....

1.) We kicked Carson out of the nursery and moved him in to his new big-boy room. He actually loves it! He's done great sleeping in his new full bed, which is a "squishy paradise," filled with the softest sheets and blanket I could find, and of course, all the loveys Mom will allow him to take in to bed with him each night.

2.) My parents visited a few weeks ago. Paw-Paw and Baa-baa (My mom's new name: She always sings "Baa-Baa Black Sheep" to him, so when Carson now sees a picture of her, he spits out, "Baa-baa!" :) spent quality time with their grandson while vegging out with us. We ate lots of good food, had great conversation and enjoyed some family-time, without leaving our house once. What a great weekend!


3.) Carson has strep! I picked him up early from school on Friday because he had a temp. As I brought him in to the house, he puked all over the place. He continued on a downward spiral yesterday....rash, coughing, drooling, not sleeping, not drinking, high fever....need I say more. We took him to the doc last night to find out he has a terrible case of strep. Poor thing! He managed to play all of 10 minutes yesterday in between cry-fits and "I don't feel good!" outbursts.

What didn't he do?

Nate was in Detroit this weekend, so Carson and I spent Saturday and Sunday sans Daddy. After a very long Saturday morning at home, I decided to take Carson to El Agave, our local chips and salsa dive. Here's how it went down:

Carson started off dipping his chips in to the bowl of queso. This turned in to him dipping his fingers in the queso, which morphed in to him putting his hands in the queso. I improvised and shoved a napkin in his shirt to try to avoid the mess. To show me how much he loved his "bib," he threw his chips and the queso on the floor. My tacos hadn't even arrived yet! Once they did, I asked for a Styrofoam cup of lemonade for my little monster. This occupied him long enough for me to eat 1 3/4 tacos. As I attempted to eat the last bit of my meal, Carson threw his Styrofoam cup on the floor, which broke and spilled lemonade everywhere. Great. As I was trying to clean him up before rushing out of El Agave (Mind you, we had only been there for 15 minutes!), he started up a wave-fest with an older couple sitting across the room. As I was pulling him out of his high-chair, he burped so loud the entire restaurant erupted in laughter.

Parenthood is wonderful.

Giddy on up!

Carson's "quickstep" is slowly improving. (Yes, I am flipping back and forth between the NCAA championship game and Dancing with the Stars.)

The Hunt

"Grammie, Paw-Paw...EGGS!" (I had to wake my parents up on Easter Sunday for "eggs." For some reason they thought I meant breakfast. Guys, you are out of practice!)

It was too cold to do our morning Easter Egg Hunt outside, so Nate and I improvised and hid goodies in the dining room. Carson could have cared less where he was; he was all about the eggs. Who says you need green grass and an Easter outfit for a good hunt?!

Chariot

We've been meaning to get Carson a wagon for quite a while. He likes it so much that I now feel guilty we waited so long!