The little monster inside ...

has come out.  In both of them.  They hit.  They scream.  They bite.  They pluck.  They pinch.  They kick.  Need I say more? 

It's a jealousy thing right now I think.  They both want me and will push, shove, wedge themselves as close to me as they can get while attempting to get the other as far away from me as they can.  Let me paint you a picture:

4:56am(yes, you read that time right) cries come from back stage left, Charlie's room.

Movement from front stage center, couch, where I have been with Max for I am not sure how many HOURS.  I try to get up without waking him up.  NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. 

"It's okay, Max.  I'm just going to get Charlie.  I'll come right back here."

"Mommiiiieeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy."

"Max, it's okay."

"Pick me up," with outstretched arms, whining, stomping up and down on couch ... dog is up, now.  Cries continue.

"Ill take you in, but I have to pick up Charlie too."

"My mommy," he whines while clinging to me like a monkey.

[In Charlie's room ... ]

sobs ...

"Max, I have to put you down to pick Charlie up out of the crib."

"NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.  My mommiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, " now whailing.

crying continues from Charlie ...

Max down.  Screams ...

Pick up Charlie.  Max begins hitting Charlie, therefore me.

"Max, NO."

"Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh."

This is where I screamed for Michael, he stumbled from the bedroom in a sleepy haze, and our morning began.


I thought myself so lucky that I did not have a jealous little boy when the new baby came home.  The only tough times were nursing to keep Max occupied, but nothing to this calibre.  It confuses me that if they are not in the same room, they want to be with the other.  Yet for my attention it is outright war.  They are somewhat evenly matched in size, yet Max is more forceful and many more cries or screams come from Charlie than Max. 

When I knew I was to have two boys, I saw much tough and rough play in my future, but with each other, not towards each other.  Time outs on a daily basis are at record counts.  But I know they love each other.  I know I am doing what I should in the way of discipline.  However I have started to research local "nut-houses" as my husband so eloquently told the boys one morning that we will be there soon.

I dont know about you, but I need to find my "elf for the shelf." 

November 30th, 2012

Thankful

I am thankful for Max and Charlie.  I am thankful that they basically sleep through the night.  I am thankful Max is starting to go in the potty on a somewhat regular basis.  I am thankful I have a roof over my head and heat inside.  I am thankful to have the ability to give such necessary items to my family.

I am thankful for a husband who puts up with my moodiness and exasperation.  I am thankful he appreciates my somewhat irrational thoughts at times.  I am thankful he loves me and tells me I'm beautiful all the time.  I am thankful we can love each other even though he favors red and I definitely look better in blue.

I am thankful for Max's laugh, his slyness, his innocent little smile(and I use the innocent term loosely). I am thankful for his health, his willingness to sleep on the couch with me, not so much his new phrase "I can't ..."  I am thankful he has a safe place to go while I work.  I am thankful he loves Charlie even when he is being the jealous brother.

I am thankful for Charlie's smile even when he claps his hands like cymbals and my head is in between them.  I am thankful for his health, his dapper-ness, not so much his hand swatting.  I am thankful he loves Max.  I am thankful he has good care takers.

I am thankful for wine and candy.

Too many occasions come up each year and every day that remind us how bad things really aren't.  So I remain ever so thankful.

November 23rd, 2012

The Great Bedtime Story Pajama Drive

As a parent of two young toddlers and a friend to many mothers with many young children, WE ALL know how important a good night sleep is for those children, let alone the parents.  Imagine those many children who do not have warm pajamas in these cold months or an exciting bedtime story to send them off to dreamland.  That is why I am writing today of a wonderful charity drive that my son's school and I have chosen to support.

The Scholastic Book Company has begun a drive to supply pajamas and therefore story books for children in need.  My children's day care center, U-Gro Leaning Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania, is collecting new pajamas in all sizes until December 14th.  These will then be sent off and books will be added to our donation.  If you feel moved enough to participate, please message me and I will send you my information to donate a set of pajamas.  If you are in the area, let me know and I can come get them from you!

Follow the link below to learn more and please consider donating a pair of children's pajamas!

https://clubs2.scholastic.com/programs/pjdrive.shtml

Thank you and have a very Happy Holiday season.

November 18th, 2012

apartment living

I will just start this entry by voicing my overall ever expanding heartfelt RELIEF that we finally sold our townhouse.  It was along time coming ... just over 7 months to be exact.  Michael declares we are free, nothing to tie us down, when we find out special house we can bid without anything tying us down.  YIPPEE.

Michael has been awesome and I have not been.  Guilty feeling starts about right now.  I do have a valid excuse though.  Actually two.  Meet Max and Charlie.  Packing up a house while still trying to survive and live in it with two toddlers is not easy.  Let alone them having pink-eye, colds, croup, and fevers.

While I worked at school all week, Michael packed, moved, phone-called, schlepped, you name it ... he did it.  I did some but only what the little ones allowed me to do on the weekend when they could not be taken to a daycare center.  This is where Grammy comes in!  My mum came all the way from South Carolina for a weekend, yes a weekend, to help me move "stuff" while watching the boys and allowing Michael to work his very long hours as he always does.  Mimi and Papa moved an entire basement with my ever-loving husband.  My thankfulness is unending to our parents.

Now I am going to bitch a little.

HOUSE WITH BASEMENT to apartment with garage that is used as basement ... not easy.  I can say that all of our possessions are within the wall boundaries of said apartment, just not so spread out.  We have a dining room table, sleeper sofa, fridge, past six years of taxes, beautiful pictures, bulk diapers and paper towels, suitcases, Christmas decor, etc. in the garage.  Charlie's room is our new office.  Max has half our living room in his room.  We have ALL our clothes in one closet.  It's all condensed.  I don't like condensed soup, I don't like condensed space.

Kitchen is not child-proofed.  FML.

Moving has put me on permanent PMS status.  I am EXASPERATED with everything dealing with this move, specifically because I knew I was going into an apartment.  I'll get over it.  The joy of selling has taken over that.  Now we are just dealing with adjusting toddlers.

Taking a dog out at 5am with a clingy child down a flight of stairs SUCKS.

The loud radios at 11:23pm on a Saturday night rock ... let me tell you.  Can you sense my sarcasm?

I want a home in a house, not an apartment.  I want my own mailbox and back yard.  I want a master bedroom that is a master bedroom.  I want my boys to have their rooms and room to play.  I want a kitchen table.  I want a house to host friends.  I want to know we will be settled where we want to live and raise our boys.  Right now I am settling for Apartment F in a row of many.

November 12th, 2012

So fortunate ...

So, not much happened here.

Don't get me wrong ... two days inside and I'm going crazy but things could have been so so so so much worse.

What do you do when you're stuck inside with a three year old and a one year old while your hubby fights the good fight at work(because hotels never close, even with an impending HURRICANE because those people from New Jersey seek refuge here in the sweetest place on Earth) and you have 10 days and counting until you close on your house to move into an apartment ...

well you do this ...

Hello, my name is Natasha.  And I am a Thomas the Tank Engine train track designer EXTRAORDINAIRE.

"Mummy, mummy, MUMMMM-Y, I want to build a wall," says Max.
Great wall.

This is where stickers go.

Mark this day ... Max took a nap at home.  Mummy took a nap at home.

Charlie got hives.  Awesome.  

Play-doh.

Mummy's play-doh fun.  Max chose the blueberries on the waffles and the strawberries on the French toast.  Charlie made the sausage links (doo-doo looking items).

DADDY'S HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Blocks.

You look at lots of pictures of Stone Harbor/Avalon NJ and cry.

Honestly, we are so lucky.  First of all, Michael got home before the harsh rains and wind started.  It got noisy out there.  Our power only flickered off and on once during the day.  WE sat on the edge of our seats for quite some time not just for the wind and rain but how scary close some of the trees got to our house.  Sad to say, all Michael and I thought of was outside damage and our house settlement in 10 days.  

We had some night visitors and their names were Max and Charlie.  Max has been in our bed the past two nights.  I got kicked in the face once and in the stomach once.  We survived.

The devastation is sickening.  People have lost everything.  People are stuck, literally stuck in Manhattan.  That would do me in ... NO WAY OUT.  How do you all do it?  My heart goes out to those who have lost anything, especially my good friends Sylvia and Ryan and their sons Aaron and Adam in New Jersey.  I immediately thought of you all.  Take care and know we are all thinking of you.

And now we pick ourselves up and move on.  This will be much easier for us than so so many others.

October 30th, 2012

Hurricane Sandy ...

and it begins.  I will hopefully be able to get good pictures for as long as I have juice in the cameras.  I am expecting RAIN, WIND, CRYING BABIES, CABIN FEVER, SAVE THE MILK, FLYING DEBRIS, did I mention we close on our house in a week and a half ...

Good times.

2 days ago at Wegman's

2 minutes ago - the pond out back.

October 29th, 2012

cough cough give give

I know what you're all thinking ...

No, I am not doing that.

But I am coughing, a lot, and it was given to me.  My throat is on fire.  Literally fire.  I am the Norwegian Ridgeback from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  It burns.  It doesn't help that my chest is heaving, my throat is likely covered in green s*^& and, I will most likely will be diagnosed with something if "this" does not go away by Monday.

Max has had quite a cough for a while ... he gets croup.  Think baby seal barking.  But now I have it, or what he gave me while hacking up all over me while he sleeps on me at night because he won't sleep through the night and MUST climb all over me I soothed him to sleep after he was woken by coughing.      I don't have pink eye, but I feel as though my ears are going to fall off, my head might self-implode, and my body hurts.

Please, feel free to diagnose me.

I have Mucinex DM, ibuprofen, and a bed and I plan on using them all.

October 20th, 2012