oh my i do so love you

Yes claire i do love you. In spite of the last two days. truly I do. It's called unconditional love. Really. I hope one day you will demonstrate it to me when I pick you at school in my snowman pajama pants, soccer tshirt and fuzzy bunny slippers. Or when I try to act cool around your friends and you just want the floor to open up and swallow you. I know. But yes, it's going to happen..be ready.

So here's a rundown of yesterday's events.

1. Preparing to go to the firestation tour, I did just as my mommy taught me and went upstairs to pee before leaving. You all do it too don't you? I bet you do..at least since you've had kids. Just can't tote it like a camel anymore. So while I'm upstairs for all of 45 seconds I hear a door click. I think to myself..surely not! I hurry downstairs to and look out the front door. Lo and behold Claire is on the front porch on her little ride-along. But hey she put Lauren's bike helmet on first..that counts for something right? Lord give me strength.

2. So later she moseys into the kitchen while I'm in the living room with Lauren and Maggie. I follow her in and find her opening the cabinet under the sink. You know the one you keep your spic n span or whatever you clean with in?? Yeah. So now I'm either going to have to put child locks on it or move it all higher. It was never an issue with Lauren. 2 reasons..1. she actually listened when I said no..and 2. it was a lot easier to keep up with 1 kid compared to two and a puppy. Live and learn right?

On to today.

For the last few weeks I've noticed that the river rocks in my ficus tree pot have been disappearing. However there has been no telltale dirt or any true evidence..just looks like more soil is showing. I assumed Claire had been shifting them around or something. I put them there years ago to keep the cats (then kittens) from thinking it was a litterbox with scenery. All had been well til recently. So when I walked by today I looked and in the little spout thing (it's the kind you fill the bottom with water and it waters itself..simply because it's the only way i can keep a plant alive..watering once every 2 weeks or so) there was a rock sticking out. So I stick my finger in there and find the motherload of rocks. It was teeming with them. So while I'm digging them out and scratching my hand up I'm glaring at Claire who simply pretends that I don't exist at the moment and she has no idea how they got in there!

How this child thinks up the things she does I'll never know. They are certainly different kids with totally different thought processes. Lauren is the typical older child. Reserved, cautious in spite of being funny and outgoing. Claire is the typical second child, never says no to adventure..especially when it involves climbing. She is always into something and looking to figure things out..ie doors opening, rock jamming. Yet they are both hilarious and absolutely awesome together. They love one another, welcoming each others differences even embracing them. I'm scared to think of the future with the two of them working together. Milt and I will never be able to keep up at this rate. Lord help us through the teen years!!

(I'm not even going to mention the bathtub incident of last night...but I will say I got at least 20 new gray hairs from it!)

NO!

So I used to think I said No a lot. Really. I did. I mean I have an 18 month old and a 3.5 year old..it was a legitimate thought. But then Maggie came along. I've said no in the last 6 days more than I've said it in the last year. No lie. Not that I've counted or anything..but I know it's close. Maggie NO. Maggie NO. NO Maggie. Then I find myself trying to reason with her. Serious Maggie...I meant NO. Really..why can't you just listen?? Ok now logic tells me she's 8 weeks old and really is just learning the word no and that if she doesn't listen she'll get consequences...mostly the object taken from her mouth. Cause that's almost always what she is doing..munching on toys. But good grief...it's hard to remember this when she's chewing Micheal of the Little People family and Claire is shrieking terrified. I think she's thinking, "If she'll eat Micheal it might be ME next!!" And sadly trying to reason with Claire is close to reasoning with Maggie.

Oh and now the ones who told me it'll get better with the sleep each night, (Which by the way it hasn't been great) have changed their tune. Now it's "Oh once you get past the first year it's not bad at all." Great..51 weeks and counting..woohoo.

an update of sorts

Well we've taken on a cute little mischievious puppy named Maggie. Last you had all heard we were home and she is wonderful. I think that was the first day..had to be. She has been a spawn of Satan since then. Hell on paws would make a great nickname. The first night I got about 4 hours of sleep..and OH i whined. How I whined. Everyone assured me it would get better. Every night will be a little better..it'll be great in no time! TRUST.ME they said. Saturday night..i think it was saturday night...can't remember days anymore...she let me sleep oh 2 hours I guess. Yeah..now I haven't been in a math class for awhile..but I'm pretty sure 2 hours is less than 4. Right? Ok..just so I'm not totally insane yet. So anyway yeah no sleep + new puppy + 2 small kids = ludicrous. So by Sunday morning I am trying to literally force my eyes open. Not only did she whine all night the two nights..but she barked, bellered, boohoo'ed and did all but literally say COME ON YA'LL COME GET ME OUT OF HERE!! Such a treat.

So things start to look up. She decides having a crate isn't that horrible and she starts to actually sleep some. She would still fuss some but then settle in. House training is going ok at this point..she's even been going to the door and whining to get out occasionally. I thought wow this dog's great! She's responding to her name and was even fetching some already after 3 days of being at our house! What a genius! Then along came today.

I was up at 6:30, showered, came down to hang out with her. Since she had decided it was morning play time. So all is well. I hang with her. We had a meeting for momsclub today so I tried to get things rolling. She went out and pooped early this morning and then I had her pee right before we left. With this in mind I knew I had about 2-3 hours before I'd have to get back. I knew she was tired because she hadn't slept yet this morning. Life was good!

We get home..and something is wrong. I look around..things are in place..but I detect something. An odor. A foul disgusting odor. Like poop. I look in the crate and Maggie the wonder pup is jumping for joy and is beyond gleeful at our presence! But yeah that odor..it was coming from the crate. She had pooped in her crate. Oh goody. So I pull her out refusing to put her down til we get outside. She looks at me like what? I had to go you know? So ok we go back in after she pees for about the 10th time today. (Her bladder must seriously be the size of an almond, tops) I take her in and use baby wipes (always handy and so many uses!!) to clean her still nasty poopy paws.

Then I proceed to clean the crate. While trying to take out the divider...I have to keep the kids and the dog out of the way. They all insisted in being right in my face the entire time. Makes for a stressful time I assure you. The girls were hungry, it was lunch time. I, of course, was hardly thinking about lunch..I was thinking "My God this stinks." So after cleaning it all up and running the dog bed cover through the wash things were looking up. Then I ran upstairs to read Lauren a story before her nap. Maggie was sleeping on the floor so I figured, "Well it'll take less than 10 minutes she'll be fine" I come down and of course there's a puddle of pee on the floor and a whiny puppy trying to figure out where the heck I went. It's just like a little kid..they KNOW when you try to sneak out the door. How is that??!!? Any other time you could drop a bomb off in the room and they don't flinch..but the one time she's out of the crate and sleeping she hears everything.

So seriously she's cute and she's quite comical at times. She can fetch already and she knows her name too! The girls LOVE her so I guess that's all that really matters, right? To see some pics of her and the kids go here.