Wordless Wednesdays - A short photo essay

A Kamryn Funny

So Kamryn noticed a few hairs in her brush last night after I brushed out her hair and asked me where they came from. I explained that when I brush her hair sometimes a few get pulled out and caught in the brush but that it was all right because they would grow back.

I then took advantage of the situation to reinforce a "rule" about combing her curly haired American Girl doll's hair. I explained that the pulled out hairs were the reason we don't comb Ella's hair because, as she was just a doll, the hairs wouldn't grow back and she would end up bald.

Kamryn nodded sagely and then commented that maybe Daniel shouldn't brush his hair either.

So I haven't abandonned you...

The Minister of National Defence said something he shouldn't have and it's meant 14 hour days for me. During my "spare time" we've been redecorating Sam's room -- we're almost done.

Took the day off on Wednesday and wrote this to commemorate how wonderful it felt. lol

So I took the day off yesterday because we had no childcare available and I had one leave day to burn before the end of the fiscal year. It was sooooooo great. I felt so productive.

My schedule:

8:30 drop Kamryn at elementary school
8:45 drop Sam at preschool

Zip home because I had forgotten my cell phone. Take the opportunity to package up Sam’s crib tent that I had sold on E-bay. Off to the post office. Mail said package.

Stop to buy Diabetic candies for sick Aunt.

Off to the fabric store to find fabric for Sam’s new bedroom curtains. Buy fabric – Cars! Cars! And more Cars! Lol.

To the hospital to visit sick Aunt.

11:30 pick up Sam from pre-school.

Grocery shop. Home for lunch.

1:00 Sam down for a nap.

Finish touching up the paint in his bedroom (he was napping in Kamryn’s room). Remove the tape from all the trim.

Make curtains (lined!). I don’t sew so this was a biggie for me – took me most of the rest of the day. They came out really nice if I say so myself. :)

2:50 wake sleeping Sam and zip to pick up Kamryn at school.

Home. Kids run around like silly buggers destroying the house while I finish the curtains.

Start supper and discover we have no onions so the Shepherd’s pie I was going to make is out. Defrost Sweet Potato Soup leftovers instead and make fresh biscuits as a side.

Pause to paint “accessories” for Kamryn’s room (little shelf with hooks for clothes etc. and brackets to hang a quilt on her wall).

Load kids in the car and zip to Sear’s catalogue pick-up to pick-up some linens and accessories I had ordered for Sam’s new room.

Home; feed kids and Daniel. Kids in bed, stories, finish curtains.

Time to put my feet up and watch my PVR’ed Lost.

I felt like a mini-Martha Stewart and was thinking how productive I could be as a SAHM. Then I remember what I was like as a SAHM. It’s so much easier to procrastinate when you know you have more than one-day (at least in my case). Lol I never got half as much accomplished.

Back soon - I promise. :)

Dismantling the Nursery

I didn’t think it would be so hard. I didn’t think it would be so soon (lol it's been 2 kids and 5 years I guess that's not all that soon).

I remember how much fun it was to put together. To plan and dream and imagine when all had seem so hopeless and pointless for sooooo very long.

The wallpaper design was taken right out of a picture from a book at the wallpaper store. It's a completely odd and kind of unbabylike design and that's why I liked it. I had never bought wallpaper before and was clueless about how much things cost. I was so excited to be decorating a nursery finally that I just ordered everything so it would look JUST like the picture and I don’t think I hid the shock very well when the clerk asked me for $700 to pay for it. At that point I felt I was a little too far in to back out. Lol It did look just wonderful to me though.



We started decorating in the midst of being considered for a baby that in the end was not to be ours. Still we knew we would eventually be parents.

I remember going in there and sitting in the glider rocker and imagining rocking a baby months before there was even an inkling that there really would be a baby. It was sunny and warm and gave me a happy feeling in my heart.

I remember the lone outfit that I had bought for future-baby hanging so lonely in the closet because I had this cockamamie idea that I would jinx myself by buying any more clothes.

I remember sitting there with Kamryn after her baptism feeding her as mayhem ruled in the rest of the house.

I remember sitting there and singing to her as an infant.

I remember how Sam used to fall asleep so easily in my arms after we first brought him home, sitting and rocking in that rocker. Such an active, strong and angry little guy, so easily calmed in that rocker.

I remember how mad I was at 16-month-old Kamryn (I think that’s how old she was) when she ripped that wallpaper border off the wall. She was so proud of herself and well its not as if I could punish her for it. Now it’s going to be me ripping off all that paper.

I still love the room.

Daniel comments that the seams now show on the wallpaper, and how the glue is yellowing the edges of the paper. He’s not as nostalgic as I and only sees what is no longer perfect. I don’t see those imperfections. I still think it is a gloriously beautiful room. It brings me peace. But, it’s not my room. This weekend we will start the transition from “baby dinos” to “dum-da-da-dum… Superman”.

Sam, who will be 3 in a couple of months, will love it. I’ll miss the pale purple wallpaper that DH argues is not at all masculine and is probably damaging our son psychologically for life lol. Who cares what I think? If I’m all that nostalgic I guess we have some wallpaper border left over, I can put it up in my own bedroom. Lol

Yup, the baby has left the building.

Our weekend and Build-A-Bear

Kamryn is spoiled silly. I love it. We had a blast while her brother and father where away on their little mini-vacation. We ate out twice – once at Wendy’s and once a Perkins (kind of like Denny’s) – nothing but the best for the T. women. Lol She came to work with me twice and charmed everyone. On Friday I foolishly braved a bad snow storm so that we could take in the movie “Happy Feet.” Saturday she joined me in hosting a good portion of our family in and 85th birthday celebration for my Aunt. She had a blast playing with her cousins – young and old – and she didn’t hit the sheets until almost midnight. Sunday I took her to build-a-bear to build my (oops I mean her) dream bear. Lol I planned to have her pick the $15 basic bear and then get one simple outfit. Ha! How could I, I mean she, resist. I broke down within seconds of entering she she picked one of the most expensive bears – a snow leopard – I tried to hold firm by telling her if she picked this bear (indicating a simpler/cheaper) bear that she could dress is up afterwards. Who was I kidding?

So she got her snow leopard and then we immediately began trying on hoards and hoards and hoards of clothes. Sammie ended up leaving bedecked in black jeans, a red t-shirt and a red and black hoodie. He almost got a leather jacket too but my 4 year old informed me he didn’t need one. She did feel he needed shoes but I held firm on that one – strong aren’t I? She also felt I should buy him a Halloween costume and I declined. Lol

Okay it was a RIDICULOUSLY expensive venture. Sammie ended up costing us almost $70. Oh but it’s been worth it. He has gone everywhere with her. Every night she undresses him and puts him in one of her old newborn sleepers which fits him perfectly btw. Every morning she gets him ready to go to school with her. On Monday morning she appeared at my bedside, dressed and ready for school. When she then informed me that she had already dressed Sammie and he was ready for school to I cracked up. On Tuesday Sammie didn’t get to go to school because she had left his hoodie at school. Since his hoodie cost almost as much as a hoodie for her would I informed her that until everything came home nothing would go back to school. Kamryn needs incentive since she seems to equate school with giving all her things away. His hoodie came home and since then he’s been her faithful companion. It’s very cute to watch and I’m enjoying her enjoying it so much. I great experience for the two of us.

Well it's time to pack up the crib

I guess I owed a blog entry – technically – yesterday. But with Wordless Wednesday (which I posted on Tuesday lol) and all … I never really got around to it. So I’m writing one now. I had my right retina repair done today so I’m seeing a bit wacky right now since one pupil is the size of a saucer and the other quite normal. Still, since I’m here at work not working I might as well blog (which looks to the casual observer that I am indeed hard at work.)

Poor little Sam this week.

Just this week — after mulling it over for quite a while — I made the decision that Sam should get a new bedroom set for his birthday in May and we should move him to a bed. Now Sam is quite happy in his crib. He sleeps well in it. He still fits in it. He’s contained. I know where he is. He’s safe and I had no intention on moving him until the summer.

The problem really isn’t Sam but rather Kamryn. Right now the rule in our house is that she isn’t allowed to leave her room and attack us – oops I mean come into our room to get us until 7:00 am. She is quite good at sticking to that rule and only occasionally needs reminding. But then again there is NOTHING for her to do at that hour of the morning anyways. If she gets up early, she gets dressed and plays quietly in her room until the appointed hour. I like this arrangement. I’m worried that with Sam free – it will be a free-for-all. These kids truly love each other and have a blast together. I’m positive they will both get up to mischief together and I will never sleep again.

Anyway I firmly stated quite a while ago that we would leave Sam in a crib until his 18th birthday. I relented a bit when the weight limits on the crib were pointed out to me. I also thought that potty training may be a factor but boys are harder to train and just because Kamryn night trained without even blinking I didn’t expect Sam to do the same. Ummm… ya. One of my projects this weekend will be to box up all the extra diaper paraphernalia and get it out of Sam’s room. I should probably combine that with setting up his new bed. Sam virtually potty trained himself a few months ago now. We told him where the bathroom was and put him in underwear. It wasn’t much more involved than that – although we had a protracted struggle (if you can call a few weeks a struggle) over the “where to poop” thing. We were having a problem with him overflowing his pull-up so we decided to start waking him when we go up to bed and making him use the toilet then. We did that one night and he didn’t wet the bed after that. A few weeks ago he asked if he could wear underwear to bed and I couldn’t think if a reason why not (except that I have 50 or so pull-ups that I don’t need) so I said yes and ta-da he’s night trained. We still do the 11 o’clock potty-run but it’s been almost two months since we started waking him and he hasn’t wet the bed even once when asleep that is. The continued presence of diaper stuff in his room is simply evidence of my incredulity that it was this easy (and my highly honed skills of procrastination). That brings us to the bed dilemma.

Because he is in the crib he can’t take himself to the bathroom. What it means for us is no longer languishing in bed pretending not to hear him when he calls to be let out in the morning. Hop to it my boy needs to pee! We know that and work hard not to stress him too much over it. Yesterday morning though his calls (a little earlier than usual so not expected) were muted by the TV (serves as our alarm clock), a still closed door and the garbage truck's arrival and we didn't get to him in time. :( Poor little guy was VERY upset. I can only imagine how he felt. His little sobbing voice about how he had to go to the bathroom right away. He tried so hard and we failed him.

Daniel went bed shopping today.

Yikes -- Sam in a bed, perhaps we need to invest in more house insurance.

Wordless Wednesdays

Another Blog that I read does this. I really like it. So not to ruin it with lots of explanations ...

Difficulty Adjusting

I took Kamryn to soccer practice for the first time this session. Daniel normally takes her but as he was away Maman was on. So it's a bunch of three- and four-year olds doing what three- and four-year old do best -- their own thing. Sometimes they did what the coach was asking them to do. Sometimes they twirled around on the floor or wandered about aimlessly or dissolved into tears for various inane reasons. So there is this one Mom there with her EXTREMELY clingy daughter trying to keep her engaged. The little girl was likely 4 -- she was about the same size and skill level as Kamryn. She wasn't doing at all well. Mom stops to explain that she is having a tough time adjusting to all the changes in her life. uh---hunh. What changes would those be? Mom goes on to explain that with the pregnancy and all. uh-hunh. What pregnancy -- it is only then I notice she has a little (we're talking small here!) belly. I'm guessing she was about 4 months. 5 if she carries small. I'm not the only one who didn't notice (and Mom was wearing a tight little track suit so not hard to see her every contour). One of the other mothers asks if she has told the little girl or not. Mom says "well I can hardly keep it secret" and point to her belly. Uh hunh.

Problems adjusting eh? One day we put Kamryn on a plane and told her we were going to meet her little brother. She was two and a half. Her parents had been walking about like crazed zombies for at least 3 weeks. We took her on 2 planes. We took her to a house that wasn't hers where she had to live for a week. We introduced her to a family VERY different from her own who mostly ignored her no matter how desperately she tried to please them. We spent a lot of time with this family trying to get them to accept us -- they didn't and things were pretty tense the whole time. We introduced her to a little brother who liked nothing else than mouthing ALL her toys wasn't terribly into sharing (what 1 year old is) and who cried A LOT. Then we took her away again after she got to know and like this little boy. We waited for another 2 weeks and told her he would come again. The day he was supposed to come again we took her to preschool for the first time ever she cried when we left and didn't want to stay. Then he didn't come because he was sick and couldn't fly. We dealt with crying drop-offs at preschool until a few days later when he finally did come. Then she had to share her parents and her universe for the first time ever. She had to take the back seat while we worked hard on attachment with her new brother (who was far from an easy child in a far from easy situation). I remember one unprovoked meltdown that was obviously from the sheer stress of everything. I took her outside and we sat on the steps and had some mommy-and-me time and that seemed to help. We dealt with a bit of challenging behavior but nothing all that mentionable. She was two-and-a-half.

Now my impressions are a little coloured. Coloured by having spent five days on my own with my four-year old. It's damn easy to take care of a four-year old "only" child. Infants are a challenge I think no matter how many kids you have. Kamryn was an extremely easy kid and even then it was exhausting. It's the constant state of vigilance you must maintain. Four-year-olds -- it's glorious. They keep themselves relatively entertained with only the odd tweak here and again to keep play moving in a positive direction. No diapers to deal with. No need to keep a little stopwatch in your head to remind them that maybe they should visit the bathroom. They can dress themselves, feed themselves. Mostly, without a partner in crime my particular four-year-old was stunningly well behaved. She wasn't clowning or performing for anyone or competing for my attention in any way. Add her brother into the mix and parenting because a little more challenging. Okay a lot more challenging. Daniel reports that while on their little vacation Sam has also been quite angelic (and he's far from a calm kid normally). He notes that Sam has had almost no time-outs where at home he is on the verge of being declared a habitual offender and sentenced to permanent jail time. Anyway, this is all to say that I was in a "my four-year-old is so easy; parenting is so easy, what's your problem" mood. So I probably wasn't being completely fair.

But, I looked at pregnant Mom and her clingy daughter and a raised my eyebrows a bit, sighed quietly and shook my head. I can't imagine the problems she's going to have when there is an actual person instead of a bump in her kid's life. I also can't imagine how neurotic her children are going to be.

Good grief.