Maniacal Days

Sunday, October 26, 2008

One Liners

I've been playing with Facebook lately. Why? Because time constraints, or maybe it's short attention span, makes it easier to sum up my feelings in a one-liner than a whole blog post.

"Jennifer Maniacal is sick of being in charge"

A whole blog post could be written on how: Allie is driving me crazy testing her boundaries on every.single.solitary.thing. that I ask of her, and it's draining and taking a toll on me.

But it's much easier to pass by the computer and write that one line and be done with it. Plus now that a bunch of people I know read this blog, I end up with phone calls from people like - OMG are you ok???? *ick*

Tuesday's one-liner: "Jenn Maniacal finally went back to the gym last night after years of slacking."

That's a nice one that is a title to a post about how good it felt to go to the gym again after so long. How I wasn't even sore the next day and can't wait to go back. But also has an underlying thought in it about how I wish I was able to make it part of my daily routine, as easy as I used to be able to, instead of barely being able to make it once a week. Especially now that I need it more than ever.

"Jenn Maniacal is cleaning"

ALL THE EFFING TIME, and yet still has a messy house. Which makes her not want to do it anymore.

Future one-liners:

Jenn Maniacal can't seem to find balance.

Jenn Maniacal is sick of hearing the word Daaaadyyyyyy every time Allie doesn't like what she says.

Jenn Maniacal makes pretty cute kids. =o)

Labels: you wanted to be a mom

Posted by Jenn :: 8:49 PM :: # 5 comments

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Monday, September 29, 2008

This is me NOT working

I always think it's funny when people say to me: Are you still not working?
I start by saying
"Yea" and then correct myself....
"Wait scratch that....I'm working three jobs. Just none of them are 9 - 5."

In the morning at 7am my neighbor walks her two kids (boy 6, and girl 4) to my house. I feed all 4 kids breakfast, breakup the "NO I had that FIRST" squabbles between the 4 year old and Allie, walk everyone to the bus stop for the 6 year old's 8:30 bus. Then hop in the car and drive the 4 year old to preschool by 9am.

Then job #2, I go back home and clean up the mess in my house that somehow 4 kids can make in 2 hours, then put Luke down for a nap, do some sort of project or game with Allie. Luke wakes up, everyone gets lunch, then both the kids play for a bit while I eat lunch. Then I try and play with them for a bit, clean or do laundry, and then Luke goes down for his second nap. While he is sleeping I set up Allie with something to do (or TV) and attempt to figure out dinner.

Once Mike gets home I show him what's for dinner and then I leave for job #3 (2 - 3 days a week) and go to my parents house to do wedding flowers till midnight. I get home around 12:30 - 12:45 and start all over again.

HA so yea....that's me NOT working!!!
Goin to the office was MUCH easier.

Although, that all being said, I still like being home with the kids.
It's just not a walk in the park.

Labels: A Day in the Life, you wanted to be a mom

Posted by Jenn :: 8:49 AM :: # 4 comments

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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Not a baby

My baby is officially not a baby. *sigh* How did such a thing happen? A whole year just flew by in the blink of an eye! Wow.

Luke turned one year old this week. He is now officially no longer an infant. He's crawling, finally. He's starting to talk, which still amazes me. He's like a little person. I, however, am in disbelief.

The frail little baby that I had to bring back to the hospital only a couple of days after bringing him home, to ensure he was gaining weight and getting stronger, is now crawling all over my house pointing at everything that catches his eye and saying: Book - ah?

He's not only NOT a baby, but he's huge! He's wearing 24 months, he's getting all these adorable curls all over his head, and he probably weighs the same as Allie, who is going to be three in a week.

We originally had some concerns about him not crawling, but he's a crawling maniac now. I was giving him till his first birthday to crawl, before starting PT, and about a week or two before his birthday he perfected it. He crawled just like he does everything else: He's in no rush, he's laid back, he's happy, he goes with the flow, he smiles through life.

I've been neglecting this blog. Everyday I have posts written in my head, but they never make it here. For some reason, by the time I get on the computer my brain is so fried that I can't write anything. I'm lucky if I can check email and facebook. LOL I've mostly felt bad about this because I have neglected keeping tract of Luke's first year on this blog...or at all, actually. With Allie, I wrote every day, every first was documented. Every feeling contemplated.

Here's the reason, or excuse, however you want to take it. With Allie, I wasn't there. Everyday I was at work, missing everything, and most of all missing her. So the only way that I could keep connected to her, is by using my lunch break to write about what was going on with her that day. It kept me feeling connected. With Luke, I'm here! I'm witnessing every day of him growing and changing, so the NEED to document it isn't there.

It's sad kinda, sad that it's not documented anyway, but happy! So here's the documentation: Luke is a year old! He's smiley. He's laid back. He finally started crawling about two weeks before his first birthday, and will probably be walking in a month or two. Besides "ma ma" and "da da" he says "book(ah)", "more", "no", and "boo". He's trying to say Allie (aahhh EE), Thank You (annn ooh), Elmo (BA MO), Bus (baaah...??), and Luke (ook)! He's a mama's boy, and is very attached to me. The only person that he will willingly go to regularly is Mike. He'll go to other people, but as soon as he sees me, he's lunging out of thier arms for me.

which...I may kick myself for saying this one day...but for now...I kinda enjoy. *smile*

Labels: A Day in the Life, Luke the Linebacker

Posted by Jenn :: 9:17 PM :: # 3 comments

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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Things...

Things I know.

Allie is adorable. Everyone we meet tells me the same thing. She's gorgeous. She's got beautiful eyes, hair, skin, etc. All I keep doing is looking at her and thinking....oh man.....all the boys are gonna think the same thing. I need to get Mike some Valium starting now.

Luke is huge! Also everywhere I go people are shocked by Luke's age and how chunky he is. At last weigh in he was 26 pounds. He's 9 months and he wears size 18 months. Allie is 2.5 yrs and is 29 pounds and can also wear 18 months in some things.

My arm and back are broken from carrying that chunker around. I swear I think I might need surgery on my right arm....and I'm not even kidding.

Thinks I don't know.

When Luke is going to crawl! Or walk! Or SOMETHING that makes him mobile so I don't have to lug his ass around all the time!!! Cause seriously!!!! OUCH!

How much longer I'm going to be able to stand potty training before I crack and just let her wear diapers (oh wait excuse me - PULL UPS - I get in trouble when I call them diapers. But ummm yea.....SAME DAMN THING!!) **UPDATE** I've cracked while waiting for this post to come out of my drafts....new post to follow.

WHY I ever bought that first bag of Pull Ups. CURSE THAT DAY!!! If your reading this and you have a child under the age of potty training age...DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT ever buy Pull Ups!! They create a dependency for your toddler. They still can go potty in them but they still think that they are big! It's pretty much a horrible idea and it fucks up your potty training royally!

Things I wish I didn't do.

Wait to potty train Allie. She was ready at 20 months and I just let it slide. I was really pregnant at the time and didn't realize that I let the perfect age for training just slip through my fingertips. The older they are the more attitude you get and they more it becomes a power struggle. 2.5 yrs is mentally probably the worst age to train them to do anything. Cause if YOU want them to do it. They "don't wanna!!!!!"

Things I heard but didn't really know.

That boys are rougher than girls. I've heard this, but I'm not really sure that I grasped it completely. Luke is 9 months old and ALREADY he's rough! He pulls mine and Allie's hair all the time. Like ALL DAY. And not like he's playing with your hair and accidentally pulls it. NO. This child pulls your hair ON PURPOSE! He reaches for it...gets a nice big handful and practically lurches his whole body to pull it as hard as he can. Then when he gets the *OWW* reaction....he giggles. Then does it again. If I say NO! He also giggles. Considering he pulls Allie's hair like 10 or more times a day, she is really good with him. She turns around and says NO!! and then kisses him. Then cries to me. I'm waiting for her to whack him one. And I'm not sure I can yell at her that much for doing it either.

That potty training is hard.

Things I worry about.

Is Luke delayed? He can sit up. He can pick up little things with his fingers. Transfer them from one hand to another. He babbles up a storm. He's finally rolling over regularly at 9 months. He doesn't even want to crawl really. He doesn't eat any finger foods. I hate to compare him and Allie but she's all I know.....and she was crawling, rolling, walking with help, and eating like a champ by herself already!

Money, now that I'm not working. And stress on Mike for being the sole breadwinner.

Everyone in the family's health. It's so weird how this happens to you all of a sudden, but for one reason or another I worry about everyone in this house's health.

If we are going to make it to start preschool in October. 2 reasons: We need to be able to afford it, and Allie actually needs to be totally potty trained by October 1st.

Labels: A Day in the Life, you wanted to be a mom

Posted by Jenn :: 9:55 PM :: # 10 comments

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Tuesday, April 29, 2008

A lover, a fighter, and a drama queen

Ahhh two year olds, they wear soo many hats. This morning at 7:30am Althea, whose been sleeping next to me since 5:30 am, rolls over barely awake and kisses me three times. She whispers "I love you mommy". Then she turns to lay about 4,000 kisses on her brother. She's so sweet. She gives nothing but love to her brother and will regularly come over and kiss me a hundred times and tell me how much she loves me, just for the hell of it.

About 5 minutes later she yells at me: Get me a cup!!!

I read somewhere that when toddlers demand stuff that it sounds like they should be saying Woman! at the end of their sentences. Get me a cup, Woman!!! I forgot where I read that....but it's dead on. At this point I'm barely awake so I ask "the queen" to give me a minute. Instead she just repeats: Cup, cup, cup, cup, cup, cup, cup, cup, cup, cup...etc.

Normally I would go through the "Allie? Is that how your supposed to ask?" and she would roll her eyes at me and condescendingly say: "Mommy? Can I have a cup please?" and then when I'm on my way to get it she would throw in a "Go get it!!". But it's too early for that. So after 100 "cup"s I finally say "OK! Enough!!" and go and get it, along with a bottle for the little guy.

I get back with the goods and the sweet Allie smiles and says: "Thank you Mommy." She takes a sip and puts in on the end table. I start feeding the baby the bottle and a couple of minutes later she starts again: Cup, cup, cup, cup, cup, cup, cup, cup, cup...
I'm awake enough this time to give her the speech: "Althea, the cup is right there. If you want some, get it."

She then puts her saddest face on (which btw, she sits and practices in the mirror every day. I kid you not.) and says to me: "I'm sick, mommy. I can't. See..." and gives me the fakest cough you have ever heard. "Can you please get it for me mommy?" And then adds the sad lip for good measure. I can't help but to laugh on the inside. Where does she get this stuff from? On the outside, I look her straight in the face and tell her, no.

When it's time to get out of bed and start our day, I ask her what she wants for breakfast. She doesn't know and is going back and forth. I say to her: "How about cereal?". She lets out the loudest GASP you ever heard, like it's her birthday and her face lights up with a huge smile. "CEREAL?? OHHHH NANK YOU MOMMY. NANK YOU NANK YOU NANK YOU!!!!" (That's "Thank You" for those of you who don't speak Allie) And then she give me a big hug.

It's not even 8am, and the award goes too.....

Labels: A Day in the Life, Althea Raye

Posted by Jenn :: 10:55 AM :: # 6 comments

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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Blog Worthy

I've had soo many blog worthy things happen recently, and somehow they don't end up on the blog. For example:

Luke turned 6 months...oh yea, and then 7 months. *cringe*

He still doesn't want to roll over. He still hates tummy time with a passion. He is however sitting up, mostly anyway. And he's starting to hold his bottle, which is nice. He is constantly babbling and mostly just says Da da. Ahhh da da! Damn kids always say da da first! At his 6 month appointment he was 22 pounds. I'm in a ridiculous amount of pain, by the way. My arm is killing me, my sciatic nerve going down my leg is throbbing, my back hurts, and it's sorry to say it's all about carrying this kid around all day. He's killing me!!! Like seriously, I think I need to go to the doctor for my arm it hurts so bad. lol But he's a great baby and still very good. He's consistently sleeping through the night and now has two 2 hour naps a day and starting to have a schedule. But he's still pretty ok about keeping his schedule on the fly which is nice!

Coming up in the next week (I promise!!)

How I'm now the Avon Lady! Ding Dong! Avon Calling!!
How I got yelled at by a Mattress Marshal for taking the tag off my mattress.
Why I'm eating every word I ever said about people who's children weren't potty trained by 3 years old. And how those words taste like shit. haha
My life as a SAHM.

Labels: Luke the Linebacker, you wanted to be a mom

Posted by Jenn :: 8:53 AM :: # 3 comments

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Friday, March 07, 2008

Dear Luke

I know I know.....I would post something about your sister like every day on this blog, and do a monthly update and your 5 months old and you have one post. Well let me start off by saying that it's not because your the second and your sister is the favorite, which is probably what your thinking. It's because you STILL don't sleep through the night and mommy is tired! Your sister started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks. So really it's your fault not mine. =oP

PLUS!

I'm home with you and not working so technically I'm spending more time with you and less time with the computer talking about you (or with your baby book *cringe* oops) and isn't that better?

"Let me x-plain, no there's too much, let me sum up."

(Sorry my mind works in movie quotes, it's genetic...you'll do it too one day. Your sister already started.)

ANYWAY....

Month 1

Your adorable! Your eyes were brown the second you were born, you look like you have a tan (like your mommy) even though your skin has never seen sun. You look so little and frail, and your real easy when it comes to eating. My milk wasn't in, and you didn't care that much...you just slept and were fine. So much so that they told me I had to wake you up to feed you (which was totally against every grain of my being....WAKE a sleeping child? WHAT?) I had to bring you to the doctors 3 days after leaving the hospital to ensure you were gaining weight since you lost so much while we were there. You gained a whole pound in 3 days, which was insane. From that time on till you were 3 months you gained a pound a week.

Month 2

Your eyes are BLACK just like mine, but you look like your daddy. Your getting to be a much better eater (hence the pound a week) and breastfeeding is going well. Your a happy baby. You have a cranky period before bed, but besides that your so easy going. Good thing too, since your sister is a two year old. She loves you SOOO much. Too much if that's possible. She pretty much mauls you on a regular basis. She kisses you like a million times a day. This month wasn't great for you in that you got a cold that didn't want to leave. Allie got it from daycare and you guys passed it back and forth for at least 3 - 4 weeks straight. I blamed the cold on why you didn't want to sleep at night, but it probably had nothing to do with it. You were sleeping in the cradle in our room but didn't really like it. Most of the time you slept in bed with us cause you wanted to eat every 5 seconds....I mean 2 hours...and I was tired.

Month 3

Your really starting to fill out and get some MAJOR cheeks, let alone the rolls on your legs MY GOODNESS. It takes me an hour (at least 15 minutes or so) just to wash in between all the creases. Your finally starting to get over your cold and be happier. Your still not sleeping through the night (or even close). You intend on keeping up at the every three hour pace to ensure that those rolls on your thighs don't go anywhere anytime soon. I moved you to your crib and your sleeping better. Better meaning you may give me a 4 hour stretch occasionally. But hey it's better than every 2 hours, right? Your very vocal, babbling all the time. All I keep thinking is: Great, he's gonna be loud just like his sister, father and the rest of my family. LOL Oh well, I guess you can't escape it. It's part of being Italian, which BTW unlike your sister, no one can mistake you for anything but! LOL Your pop pop calls you Lukka like your a gangster! Speaking of nick-names your sister is the one that started people calling you Lukkie (wuukie as she says it) not me, or your father. Hopefully you grow out of that one.

Month 4

You are now officially huge! Every time I go anywhere that's all I hear. "OMG! How old is that baby? LOOK at those cheeks! How much does he weigh?? What ARE you feeding him?" Now I know how my mother felt when she had me cause apparently I was the same way when I was a baby. In case your wondering NO your still not sleeping through the night. But your getting closer and I'm getting more used to it. I started forcing you to stay awake till like 10pm so that you'll give me more consecutive hours of sleep. Cause no matter how tired I am, I still can't go to sleep before 10pm. Your father started taking the last feeding before bed giving you a formula bottle to attempt to get me to sleep earlier and to bulk you up before bed. It works, but your cranky from 8 - 10 cause your tired and hungry and just all around cranky. I will say that even though you do wake up at night that you eat and go right back out so it's not THAT bad. I can almost do it in my sleep. This month your father and I went on vacation (paid for by work, which was nice, because your dad busts his ass at work and got rewarded for it....Go figure!) It was the first time we left you or your sister for that matter for more than a day. Your grandmother (my mom) came and stayed at the house and took care of your both for 4 days! We had a great time, but missed both of you a lot. Grandma was TIRED when we got home. Both you and your sister gave her a run for her money, and that woman has at LEAST twice as much energy as I do. Considering you were mostly breastfed at the time you took 4 days of strictly bottles (mostly with formula) like a champ! Your an easy goin kid. I can just lay you on the floor or put you in the swing and you'll just hang and be cool. HOWEVER, if it's time to eat and we don't have that bottle/boob at the ready you get PISSED. That's the only time you really cry is when you don't get your food when you want it.....you don't fool around there.

Month 5

Aaaand we're current. Your about 3/4 way through your 5th month. Sometimes you sleep through the night....but usually that means you wake up at around 5am to eat and then you'll go back to sleep till 7am. Which still kinda feels like I'm waking up in the middle of the night, cause yea it's still dark out at 5am.......and your sister doesn't wake up till like 7 - 7:30. But we're getting closer. Your father and I decided to stop forcing you to stay up till 10 cause you would just make our lives hell from 8:30 - 10 cause you wanted to be sleeping. The ideal situation these days is that you go to bed around 8:30 and then sleep till like 11 or 12, and then eat again (while I'm still up) and then sleep till 7am! It happened once. But I'm still holding on for it. Actually the ideal situation is that you wake up at 11 or 12 and DADDY feeds you and then my turn comes again around 7am! But either way. I brought you to the doctor the other day and you weighed in at 20 lbs! Your new official nick name is Chunk. Or Chunky Monkey. Or goo-ga-ly-bear which is what I call you a lot. It's another movie reference.....like I said, one day you'll do it too. Your now eating solid food like a champ and getting a little more formula during the day. Still breastfeeding about 70% of the time though I'd say. You have no teeth yet, but the second THAT happens.....our feeding relationship is OVAH! You are such a Smiley Man (another nick name) and you smile at everything. Especially your sister. Now at bedtime I (or daddy) put you and her in her new big girl bed and you both just hang out in there and giggle away at nothing. It's adorable. Your not quiet sitting up yet, but you want to real bad. I'd say by next month you'll have it. Your also still not in love with Tummy time, but I'm working on it. Even still your head is still perfectly shaped. At the beginning of this month we decided that I wasn't going to go back to work so I can stay home with you and Allie. I even joined a mom's group and started planning some play dates for both of you. I really can't wait till it's spring and we can go and hang out and go to the park something I didn't get to do with Allie. We're gonna have a lot of fun.

Labels: Luke the Linebacker

Posted by Jenn :: 1:42 PM :: # 11 comments

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