Getting on top of things

I've got to give it to the little guy - he is just amazing for being only 2. We have entered the infamous terrible twos, a time when children are trying to establish their independence, but still needing the security of mommy and daddy. Hormones are rampant as they go through growth spurts and learn huge amounts of new information daily. From a child's perspective, it's got to be pretty strange - sometimes mom and dad are all supportive of your latest discovery, for example when you point out a strange new bug you found and sometimes they just squash what you're trying to do, for example when you rub macaroni and cheese inside your shirt to see what it feels like on your chest.

I really wish that last part had been a hypothetical. Really I do.

But, in spite of the craziness of being two, coupled with the not inconsiderable stresses of a new little sister in the house, JJ is doing great. Do we have meltdowns? Of course. Does he refuse to eat anything that doesn't involve pasta some days? Yup. Do the words "no" and "self" figure prominently in his vocabulary? Absolutely. But, most importantly (to me at least), he has the ability to "get on top of it" if he needs to. No matter the meltdown, the tantrum, the pout...if I look him in the eye and say, "JJ, you need to get on top of this. Take a couple of deep breaths" he will do just that. And within minutes he'll be happy and back to doing something fun again. If it's a really bad one, I can hold him and say "It's ok, I've gotcha sweetie." and rock him and all will soon be right again. He worries about his sister when she cries and about his friends at daycare when they're upset. He loves his dog and his cats and tries very hard to help around the house. And he's so very very smart.

And best of all, when he wakes up in the morning, he throws his arms around me and whispers "I gotcha Mommy."

OMG - 8 hours!!

Thankyou Zozo!! She slept 8 hours last night! WHOOHOO!

Yesterday was...well, it started off with a night of Zoe getting up every hour and a half. Then JJ's pullup had a total fail during the night - TWICE. So, that's two bed changes (he's sleeping with us, so it's not just changing his sheets, it's changing ours). Then the dog throws up in her crate. Needless to say, getting ready for the day was less than pleasant.

Now this morning....well, JJ had another pull up fail, but it didn't happen until I was already up for the day, plus I got 7 hours of sleep last night (thankyou Zoe!), so it didn't seem quite so tragic. The dog threw up again, this time on the carpet in the living room and one of the cats also threw up, but in the den (just to make sure we have to clean ALL the carpets). Sigh.

But I can't be too upset - it's hard to be down when you've had enough sleep for a change!

More JJisms

"One tiny leetle piece of chewocolate?" - Um...how could I say no to that?

"Hey man! Poly" - as in, "hey man, I think you need a new coat of poly" a line from Cars by Ramone (voiced by Cheech Marin). Now, this is cute in and of itself, but what makes it is that JJ delivers this in his best gruff approximation of Cheech Marin (which is pretty darn good).

"T-Rex got me!" - He will alternately pretend that a T-Rex or an alligator is chasing him around the house. Amusingly, his sense of scale is such that, when prompted as to exactly where the T-Rex is, he points to the ground, usually under a chair.

"Zozo kwying - it's ok Zozo!" This second reassurance is usually delivered at the top of his lungs at a shout.

You can pet her!

So, Zozo started daycare with her big brother yesterday. Sigh. Back to work for mommy. I was hanging out with them waiting for Daddy to pick us up, and watching the other little kids who are totally obsessed with the new baby (She's so tiny! She's like a little doll! Oh she's so sweet!) One of the little girls sees her mommy come in the door and yells "Mommy! Come see JJ's little sister! You can pet her if you want to!"

I about fell out of my chair laughing!

Weight loss - down below pre-pregnancy weight

Ok, so there's an upside to the stomach flu. I'm now 4lbs under my pre pregnancy weight and still losing. Whoohoo!

Downside is that apparently I'm having a hard time eating enough to keep up with the tandem nursing. I've been getting dizzy and light headed - here I thought it was a cold (inner ear stuff), but it turns out it's just me being hungry. Never thought I'd have trouble eating enough!

House of plague

Ugh. February has been a month of sickness at our house. First Zoe comes down with RSV (basically bad case of the sniffles for her - nothing too serious), then JJ gets a cold, then John and I get a cold (bad enough we both need steroids and antibiotics) then JJ gets diarrhea and is home for several days and John's cold gets bad enough he has to sleep in the chair because his uvula is choking him. Then the next week JJ gets a stomach bug (starts throwing up in the middle of the night), gets over it in a day, then John and I get the same bug (bad enough we had to call a neighbor to help us out at 4am because I was in danger of throwing up on the baby while I fed her and John was totally incapacitated - Nancy is an ANGEL!!). We get over that and JJ and John both get really awful diarrhea the following week. Poor JJ has been home from school almost 3 weeks out of the 4 in February and the rest of us have been the walking dead. Zoe is the only one who's flown through it all without much fuss. Boy I hope that is behind us!