It Was Epic, Man!

On Friday I witnessed K's first full blown, actual tantrum. And man, it was EPIC! We're talking screaming, kicking, stomping, crying, more screaming. Thankfully it wasn't geared at me or anything but wow, was she FRUSTRATED! We had made towers the day before out of these very cool animal blocks and she was trying to make another tower and it just kept falling. Every time it fell, she would get more and more frustrated and finally she just couldn't take it anymore. Finally I had to carry her to the car to go pick up A from work and I decided to put on Raisins by The Barenaked Ladies because I remember my Sis-in-Law using that song to soothe The Princess when she has meltdowns. And you know what?  IT WORKED!!! We ended up listening to it maybe a dozen times in a row but it was the ONLY thing that would stop her from crying. The second it ended, if I didn't get to the repeat button fast enough, she'd start crying again. I couldn't believe it but there is something magical about that song. I love my SIL! =D

People always say "terrible twos" but I've heard that three is much worse. I believe I read it's due to their desire to be more independent but not always capable of doing what they are trying to do. Anyone who's been through the threes or going through them now have an opinion on that?

Thankfully yesterday when A was letting me sleep in, they decided to use Legos to make towers instead of blocks and that had much better results. Phew!  Here's a picture of the "stage" that she built with Daddy.

And then some balloon twirling had to be done

before it was time for destruction (with some help from Talking Jessie)

Our Room

It's amazing how fast time can get away from you. I've been meaning to post these pictures for a little while now and pretty much every night I'm just too tired. I'm not exactly too tired to turn on my computer and surf other people's sites but just too tired to come up with something clever to say on my own blog. I gotta tell you, I definitely have a new found respect for anyone who either has two kids already or has one or more and is pregnant again because I have to say, I swear I don't remember being this tired last time but then again, I'm not sure K was quite as active (or heavy) as she is now. It's funny because our friends came over a few nights back and brought their adorable 2 month old and ever since then, K wants me to lay her down and feed her like the baby's daddy was doing. And yesterday I had to cover her with a blanket like the baby's mommy was doing when she was nursing. It's pretty funny but it's definitely a small taste of what's to come, I'm sure.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. I figured I had better post these pictures before we up and move again and this room will just be a nice memory.

From right to left, that's the door to come in (and in the hall you can see just a tiny section of the K Wall of Fame.)  To the left of door is our TV and above that is a photo project I did involving street sign letters to spell out our last name (which, for this blog, has been scrambled to protect our identity against the 13 of you who already know our last name ;) Lol). Above that is a quote I had made from vinyl. It says "I love you. Always have, always will." It's something A and I have been saying to each other for years (in a Scottish accent, no less). I love the way it came out. The only bummer is it's not a re-usable decal so when I take it down, I'll have to order a new one to replace it in our next house. To the left of the TV are two of A's guitars. There's a fun story about the small one hanging but I'll save that for another time. To the left of the guitars is my dresser and half of our Stephanie Pui-Mun Law artwork. I LOVE her stuff. She is my favorite fantasy artist and I was lucky enough to meet her and have her sign several of my pieces at GenCon several years ago. I'm also super excited that my brother has been delving into more fantasy art as well and for my birthday (or maybe it was for Christmas) he gave me this amazing pencil drawing of tree ents playing guitars. It's awesome!

So continuing around the room, you see our window with tons of pictures on two small tables. I just put these out a few days ago because they had been stored away since we moved and while he have a million pictures of K around the house, there weren't any of us from our wedding or honeymoon so it's nice to have these out again. Plus, K likes to pick them up and look at them. To the left of that is A's dresser with the remaining three pieces of Stephanie Pui-Mun Law art. On top of the dresser are two very special pieces of art from some dear friends of ours. The pink print is actually typographical art of my all time favorite movie, The Princess Bride, and the gorgeous hand painted paper roses are from my beautiful and talented bestie. Can you believe these two talented artists are also married? They are SO creative. To the left of those is A's nightstand, our bed (obviously) and our family of bears. They all have a story behind them (of course) and each one is very special to me and A. The artwork above the bed is also something that's very special to me because not only do I absolutely love the pieces, but they were gifts from my amazing Grandma. I miss her everyday but I'm so happy because there are quite a few things around our house that were gifts from her so I "see" her on a daily basis.

There isn't a ton of excitement on the last main wall. The door on the right is the bathroom and the door on the left is our closet. The only reason I included this picture is because I love my shells shadow box (even though you can't really see it too much in this picture. Maybe the blown up version is better...) and because of the collage of pictures of Baby K. Like I said, we have SO many pictures of her but I never tire of seeing them. I love that kiddo. The only hard part now will be finding room for an equal number of pictures of the new baby. By then we'll have moved again so I'll have all new wall space to fill. Woot ;)

Random thoughts

1. I love listening to K just talk and talk and tell these super long elaborate stories where she is using an amazing amount of imagination. It's SO cool!

2. I love that she is so much more able to play by herself at this age. Not that I don't love playing with her but sometimes it's really cool just to listen to her telling her toys all about the things she is doing and inviting over "robot kitties" (we still don't know where that one came from) or saying things like "I realize xyz..." because it's hilarious to hear her say "I realize". She also loves to talk to the Veggies from Veggie Tales and show them her cuckoo clock because as she tells them, "it's so awesome".

3. It is SO incredible to me how much you change being a parent. For example (and be forewarned, this is not for the weak of stomach) this morning K took her diaper off by herself, like she does most mornings and after naps. Being fairly early, it was still dark in her room and I didn't have my glasses on yet. I notice something weird looking on the floor next to her bed and I go to pick it up and of course, it's poop. Totally gross. However, I just laughed and cleaned it up and the rest of the day we were saying 'Eewww, poopie' and laughing. Man, I tell ya, a few years ago that would have been just about the grossest thing to ever happen to me but when it's your own kid and you have to clean it yourself (especially when your Mom lives 300 miles away) you just do it and don't even really think twice (except for the 4 times I washed my hands ;)

4. Things with pregnancy number 3 are going smoothly so far. It's still very hard for me to be too excited. I think my fears are still too prevalent and at the surface. It could also be a bit of "not first baby" syndrome. I don't know. Maybe Mom's who have multiple kids can chime in here... There is a part of me that is nervous / sad to think of K as not being my only child. We have such a special relationship with her and I don't want that to change. I know that it will and I'm sure it will be for the better (she LOVES being helpful at this age so that's a huge plus) but she also loves the fact that she is still our Baby and I don't want her to lose that. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy to being having a second, I mean, I'm a second born and tons of super cool people I know are not first borns (like my amazing husband) but there is a part of me that just wants to hug her tighter, kiss her more, hold onto every moment a bit tighter... I'm sure it's only going to get to worse the closer we get to Jan.

Fun in the sun

Two days ago I had the idea to set up a pool outside with K's slide so she could have some fun in the sun. There were only two things stopping me: one, we didn't have a pool, and two, there are no outdoor water spouts for a hose. However, having had a portable dishwasher, I knew there were sink attachments that I could screw a hose to so I just had find one. Two trips to Lowes later and we were set. A quick trip to Target and we had a pool. Woot! And since we were filling it from the sink, the water was a perfect bath temperature.