Bostonisms

Well, sleep as of lately is improving, as far as Boston goes. He hasn't pulled another all-nighter since my last post, which is always appreciated. He usually seems to go in waves, so hopefully we are on a good-sleep wave right now and maybe we will eventually outgrow the entire shenanigan. Nevermind that Maia has taken this opportunity to start waking up at least twice a night again to eat. She started sleeping 13+ hours only waking up once around 12 weeks, which was fantastic. Oy.


Lately I keep telling myself I need to write down all the funny stuff Boston is saying. He cracks me up on a daily basis, there is never a dull (or peaceful, or relaxing) moment when he is around.

He was going potty the other day and since we have been at this for a while and he is doing pretty well, I don't usually praise him with as much gusto for a successful toilet trip. As he sat there he turned to me and said, "Mommy. Tell me good job!"  So I did. He then told me somewhat sternly "Nooooow say I'm so proud of you! Come on, Mommy. Say it."


We were driving in the car the other day and he started singing Child of God, unprompted. Since he won't usually sing on command, I turned my music down so I could hear him better. He sang out, "Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me....FLY LIKE BUZZ LIGHTYEAR!"

I asked Boston what he wanted for lunch the other day. "Lets go to Grandma's!" I asked why we should go to Grandma's and he replied, "Because. Grandma will give me candy for lunch."  Busted, Grandma.

He loves to climb into Maia's crib in the morning and talk and play with her while I get her dressed. He was in there the other morning and I left to go to the bathroom. The bathroom is right by her room and I could hear him the entire time talking to her. "Hello, little princess! Did you sleep good, pretty lady? Huuuuuh? Did you sleep good? You're so pretty!" He talks to her in a high pitched baby voice and it is a crack up. As I came back into the room I heard him say (in the same high voice) "Okay, Maia. I'm going to jump on your head now...." Luckily I got back before he smashed her noggin into the mattress. Poor girl has a rough life ahead.

Today for lunch he asked for "a sandwich with a cheese square cooked in a pan" - I translated it to a grilled cheese.

Not really a funny saying, but something to remember - Boston is obsessed with socks right now. He changes his socks 20 times a day, and loves finding new socks to try on. He steals Maia's sock leggings constantly and takes off his pants to wear them. Printed sock that go up to his knees are by far his favorite, as seen above. He also loves any of mine or Jason's socks because he can pull them up so high.

Another favorite of his lately is going to the gas station. He asks me several times a day if it is time to go to the gas station to get our drinks yet. There is a good to excellent chance this is 100% my fault.

Please take note that this post was written at 2:30 am...

Somebody....please help.

I'm going to lose my freaking mind, due to the fact that a certain 2 year old has recently decided sleeping is optional.

This kid used to be the BEST sleeper on the planet. I used to smile smugly to myself when I could lay him in his crib awake and he would lightly babble for a few minutes before drifting off to dreamland. I gave myself a little pat on the back when he transitioned seamlessly from crib to toddler bed with nearly no issues at all. I practically printed out my own blue-ribbon certificate when his bedtime routine consisted of taking him to bed, singing a few songs, telling him goodnight and leaving the room, with no worry of him getting out of bed...because he never did.

Holy mother of crap, none of that exists in my world anymore. He is terrible to get to sleep to begin with and it is becoming less and less often that he even sleeps through the night. He will wake up around 1 or 2 a.m. and stay awake until 4 or 5 a.m., regardless of what we do. He isn't waking up scared or upset (I don't think its night terrors), he wants to play, watch movies, you name it. I have tried every trick in the book and IF they work, its only once or twice and then they no workie no mo'.

Things we have tried:

--Locking his door and letting him cry it out*
--Going in his room, singing songs, reading stories, holding him, etc
--Going for a drive (a last resort that usually works.  Not tonight.)
--Very small doses of Melatonin
--Giving in and letting him watch a movie
--Letting him come in our bed (augh), which never works because he is always too hyper and wants to play

*His doctor suggested this method, because he (as am I) is a very strong believer in sleep training. We have sleep trained both our kids and both responded very well. The problem with letting him cry (scream) it out now is he is a much MUCH louder screamer now and will come and repeatedly kick his door, etc. If we let him keep it up for too long he will wake Maia up, and we also live in a condo and I feel terrible that our neighbors that share a wall with his bedroom probably hate us slash are ready to call DCFS on us for neglectful parenting.

Back when we were sleep training him as a baby, we would let him cry for 10 minute intervals, go in and soothe him, let him cry for 10 minutes, etc.  It was extremely effective and as I mentioned, he has been a stellar sleeper since. If I try to let him cry in intervals now and go in to calm him down every so often it only seems to aggravate him more.

I'm seriously at a loss here. I have no idea how a 2 year old can stay awake for up to 4 hours in the middle of the night.  I can barely do it. He has been up for 2 1/2 hours so far (woke up at 1:15, its now 2:45 but also daylight saving time) and he is showing few signs of slowing down.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Words of encouragement? 

Halloween 2011

Halloween this year with Boston was a blast. He loved Trick or Treating (except that he tried to walk into EVERYONE'S house), he loved seeing all the costumes (he became awkwardly obsessed with another little boy in a Buzz Lightyear costume and stood thisclose to him screaming "BUZZ! YOU CAN FLY BUZZ! BUZZ LIGHTYEAR TO THE RESCUE! YAY!") and yet he is still has a memory of a 2 year old. Meaning I gave him 2 pieces of candy that night and put the rest away and he has no idea.

I originally wanted to dress him as a Polynesian fire dancer, but decided that in order for it to work he would have to be barefoot and bare chested, and doing that in October that might fall under the Child Abuse category.

And so, he was a greaser. Everyone thought he was Fonzie, so we'll go with that.

And Maia was a duck. The fluffiest, puffiest, cutest duck you ever did see. Boston started calling her MaiaBird and it stuck. So cute.

I'm pretty sure she saw her reflection in the lens and thought, "WTF did you do to me?" Or maybe you can submit your own caption in the comments.  I laugh like a lunatic every time I look at this photo:

 She was great with the headpiece all Halloween night but didn't love it so much for photos. The outtakes from this session are one of my favorite things EVER. She is either scowling, cross-eyed or looks completely baffled in most of the photos. Some a combination of the 3, which is even better.

Once we took the head piece off, she was  much happier.

Potty Training

I'm starting to form a theory/idea. For anyone who hasn't started potty training their toddler, don't. I bet that if you just never broached the topic, the social pressure would eventually be enough for a kid to potty train himself. Granted he might be, like, 15 and severely ridiculed, but I'm starting to think thats not so bad compared to the loads of pee-smelling laundry I'm washing.

Potty training sucks.

Sigh. If I'm being perfectly honest, I really shouldn't complain. It only took Boston 2-3 days to "get it" and he rarely has accidents. He is in underwear anytime he is awake (he still has a pretty wet diaper most mornings so we are sticking with diapers at night for now) but we can comfortably go out grocery shopping, to the mall, etc and he will stay dry.  He is great about telling me when he needs to go unless he is playing with friends or at a park or whatever, then he needs to be reminded.

But it still sucks. I know accidents are inevitable you can't potty train without them, but MAN do I hate them. Its so frustrating to know that 95% of the time he is accident free, then randomly he will walk up to me and announce, "I PEED!" with wet pants. I have gotten into the (good) habit of always bringing him spare pants/underwear whenever we leave the house, and that has saved my soul more than once.  Add to the equation that Maia poops with the force of a hurricane and is regularly found with poop spilling out of her collar, and I find myself dealing with a lot of bodily fluids on a daily basis. (For real - the girl explodes at least one diaper every. single. day.)

I know this totally falls under Sucky Things We Signed Up For When We Decided To Breed. I know its only going to be a small blip in life and soon I won't even remember how obnoxious it was. I think I just need to start reminding myself of that every time I start the washer (AGAIN) filled with tiny little monster-truck undies.

Random thoughts

There really is no point to this post, other than to get out some random things bouncing around in my head lately.

--Throughout October I was really wanting to change my ringtone to "This is Halloween" because I just love it. Only, I kept forgetting and putting off downloading it. Imagine my surprise when the day after Halloween I discovered I had downloaded it last year and made it into a ringtone. I was bummed for about 3 seconds before deciding that whose business is it of anyone's if I have a spooky ringtone after the Eve of Hallows? It will likely stay set as my ringtone until Christmas, when it will change to something Grinch-related. I appreciate any calls that allow me to listen to it.

--Chick Fil A is such a freaking mommy hang out, and it drives me nuts. This is possibly the most hypocritical opinion that I own, being as that I go around noon to take my kid to play like every other mom in Utah County.  GAH its just so crowded, but I can't resist the excellent service, decent food and a play area that is completely enclosed so I can send B in there and ignore him decompress for a few minutes.

--Potty training sucks. Not much more to say about it.

--I might be swearing off Facebook until December. Its only November 2 and I am sick to death of hearing what everyone is thankful for*. Not that I think this isn't a good practice, or that you shouldn't take the time to think of things you are grateful for, but my feed is clogged with thankfulness and I'm really more of a "If you're thankful and you know good for you (clap clap)" kind of girl. Meaning, I would rather ponder on the blessings of my life with myself instead of shouting it from the rooftop for all of facebook to see.

--Don't you hate it when you forget to turn your Redbox? I mean, Bridesmaids made me laugh and all, but it wasn't really $16-and-I-don't-even-own-it good.

--Can we talk about the service at Chick Fil A again? Man. The employees are so helpful and nice. Having my drink refilled while I wait at my table, bringing me mints and any other item I might need while dining? I guess its no wonder its a madhouse. There is something to be said about getting better service at a fast-food restaurant than many higher-end restaurants.

Hmm. I think this turned into more of a therapy venting session. Thanks for listening.  I feel better now, don't you?










*I know a lot of you are doing this, and don't feel like you have to stop because of me and my grinchy opinions.  Be grateful for whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want.  Just don't be offended if I hide everyone from my feed until Dec 1. :)

Maia's Nursery

First off, I have to say that its possible I am a psychic mother who foretold her children's personalities simply in the design of their rooms

OR

The decor of the room of a tiny little infant who doesn't even sleep in it yet let alone care about the color palette has the power to shape and mold them into the humans they are to become

OR

a child's room has no impact on their personality whatsoever and I'm delusional and should stop trying to make things out of nothing.



One of those.


Regardless, if you will recall, Boston's room was (is) decorated in lime green, black and white with pops of orange. Prints are all polka dots and stripes. (I don't think I ever actually blogged his entire room. Shame. You can get an idea of it here.) (Or you can just be facebook friends with me, because I document things much better on there, apparently.)  Anyway, its a loud, fun, bright, crazy room and I seriously love every inch of it. Its just so him. (Loud. Fun. Crazy. If a room could be described  as exhausting maybe it's a little of that too.)

When I started designing Maia's room in my head, I wanted something much more calm, cool, and peaceful. (You see where I'm going with this, right?! PSYCHIC!)

I ended up going with a color palette of grey, pink and tangerine orange. I used owls in several areas of decorating as well.

Its funny...because as much as I LOVE Boston's room...I LOVE Maia's just as much. It is just as much her as his is him. I love the clean simplicity of it all, the bright whites and fun pinks, and cute little owls.

Bedding was made by me, using the Moda Sunkissed fabric line.
Owl pillow in bed as well as owls on shelf: Pier 1
Frames and knick knacks on shelf and dresser: IKEA, Hobby Lobby, Target
Rocking chair, curtain panels: IKEA
Tree murals painted by me
Name frames: IKEA shadowbox frames with scrapbook paper, letters of her name etched into glass
Prints above dresser: Trendography Prints, the empty frame will have a birth stats collage when I get around to making it
Pink Bench: Homegoods
Dresser: KSL Classifieds, sanded down and painted white

Maia - 4 months (and some change...)

Awwww.  Baby Maia. I'm going to try to document all the wonderful wonderfuls about this little lady in the 4 months since she joined our family.

Maia is sweet, smiley, calm, curious, bright eyed and overall the happiest little baby ever. I'm pretty sure Heavenly Father knew the personality Boston would pack, so he set aside this little darling as a reward for keeping all parties alive so far.

At her appointment this week, she weighed in at 13 lbs. She is in the 5th percentile for height and head size and 20th for weight. Just a little thing, and she is perfect that way!   She started smiling around 8 weeks and hasn't stopped since. She gives huge, gummy smiles to anyone who will look at her. Sometimes she gets so overwhelmed with the HAPPINESS and EMOTION of it all that her entire body starts to shake and her face looks like it might break from smiling.

She can roll from front to back and back to front, but still has a look of "WHAT THE CRAP JUST HAPPENED?!" every time she does it. She has started scooting around the floor while on her back, and today after her nap I found her in the opposite end of her crib, facing the opposite direction of how I put her down.

She still has barely any peach fuzz to speak of, but I am happy to report her super insane widows peak indent seems to be filling in. Until she decides to grow some hair we will be rockin' the headband look.

She is an amazing sleeper, sleeping around 13+ hours a night, waking up once to eat. She loves her naps and has taken to sleep training incredibly well.

Boston still does great with her. Really amazing...considering how wild he is in most aspects of his life, he is very sweet and gentle with her. He calls her his "little lady" and loves to talk to her in the morning when she wakes up. He always talks to her in a very high-pitched voice, "Good morning, widdle wady! Did you sweep well? huuuuuh? did you? You're so pretty!"  It melts my heart every time.

She fits so well into our family. Its so funny to see how opposite she is from Boston already, I can't wait to see if it changes as she gets older. We you so, SO much little lady!

Now that I've finished reliving the good, the bad and the very very ugly, I can finally get around to posting about other things, I have one more post of photos in So. Carolina coming up, and then we can all move on to the super exciting topic of My Daily Life. There I will thrill you with tales of timeouts, potty training and how I got so lucky as to have the World's Calmest, Most Chillaxed Baby on the planet. (And if you think I'm talking about Boston, you clearly need to read back a few posts...)

The One Where All The Bad Happened

So, right. Flying with kids and stuff. I have started to come to the realization that despite any and all planning; despite trying to foresee problems, tantrums and triggers; despite all of it - - -I am still the mother of a 2 year old. And a very spirited  two year old at that.  There are going to be times when the perfect storm of tiredness, overstimulation, and the Terrible Two's join forces to change my child from his usual funny, happy self to a demon in need of a serious exorcism.


You can probably tell by this point that the flight home from South Carolina did not go well.

To start the story, we had woken up that morning around 7 am. Not terribly early, but earlier than his usual routine. (I should also mention that while Boston averages 11-12 hours of sleep a night with a 2 hour nap, during the trip he whittled that down to 5-7 hours of sleep a night and no nap. awesome.) We got everything packed, loaded the cars and we were off. We spent a few hours shopping before leaving Myrtle Beach and making the drive to the Charleston airport.

The first flight Boston did fairly well.  He whined a little about wearing his seatbelt, but was distracted easily enough that nobody got hurt. We ended up waiting in the Chicago airport for a little over 2 hours due to a delayed flight, which gave him the chance to run around, expel some energy, and eat.

The flight into SLC started off fine. A little while after takeoff we could tell he was starting to get tired and fidgety, so we tucked his blanket around him, turned off the lights above us, and started a movie on the tablet. He was calming down and really starting to get sleepy. The flight attendant stopped by to get our drink orders, where we ordered Boston an apple juice.

A few minutes later she returned with our drinks. She handed me mine. She handed Jason his. She went to hand Boston his, but instead bumped the tray. A cupful of icy apple juice landed directly on Boston's head, sending ice cubes and apple juice all over him. She gasped and made a semi-lunge to catch the falling cup, wherein she spilled the rest of the conents on her tray (more apple juice, more ice, and soda) all over Jason, me, Boston, and the feet of the row behind us.

Ya'll. Do you know what happens to an almost-asleep 2 year old when doused with icy juice? Have you ever tried to baptize a cat in an ice bucket? Imagine, if you will, that 2 year old clawing his way up and out of his seat, wild eyed, half screaming, half crying, all in all losing his ever loving mind.  Not to mention everything within a 3 foot radius is also cold, wet and quickly becoming very sticky.

Jason and I jumped into action to try to bring some semblance of order back to our row before people started throwing holy water on the demonic being occupying seat 14F.  I pulled out Boston's spare clothing bag and started undressing him, while ice cubes are falling out of his diaper and apple juice is still dripping off his chin. He was still in a state of WTF JUST HAPPENED?! and did not appreciate my trying to get him out of wet clothes. Jason was literally holding his arms and legs down while I tried to force clothing onto them. He was screaming that he wanted his blankie - which I gave to him - then re-freaking when he realized it, too, was freezing cold and saturated.

I'm going to interject the story here to share one fatal error made on my part. I have gotten into the habit of using salesmen, clerks, waitresses, and FLIGHT ATTENDANTS as a sort of threat to keep Boston behaving appropriately in public. He is very much in the "leery of strangers" phase and I completely use this to my advantage. It is not rare for me to threaten, "You better sit down or that cashier is going to be very mad!" or "Oh no! Hurry and buckle your seatbelt or that lady (flight attendant) is going to take you away and you will be in trouble!" I had used this several times on all flights on this trip, so he probably didn't have the greatest opinion of the otherwise very nice flight attendants.

Back to the story. She felt awful for spilling on us and kept reappearing at the most inopportune times to apologize profusely and ask if there was anything she could do to help. At one point we had gotten Boston's crying down to a whiny whimper and were trying to talk him into sitting back down to watch his movie again. She came back with a beaming smile saying, "I know how I can help! I'll take him with me and we will walk around the plane and see all the cool things while you guys get situated!"  Putting her brilliant plan into action, she reached down and picked Boston up by the arms.

I'm sure you can deduce by now why the backstory of the Evil Flight Attendants was necessary.  That child lost his shit so fast she probably thought she electrocuted him with merely her touch. He was in full on meltdown mode. Screaming, crying, clawing, kicking, you name it. Jason and I sat there with him shrieking and flailing between us, mouths agape, staring at each other in horror. His freak out of course woke up Maia, who was dead asleep through most the debacle. She started screaming to match him, and life as we know it ended.

Long story long, he eventually did stop trying to kill everyone around him and fell into a fitful, whimpery sleep. He woke up several times throughout the remainder of the flight (it was probably around 10 pm when The Evil started, we landed around 12?) crying and we would have to calm him back down.

People that I told the story to in the days following asked how long the actual tantrum lasted and honestly - I have no idea. It was so horrible, so loud, so cold and wet and  embarrassing that I literally had zero concept of the time that elapsed. I know he sat (ha. flopped. flailed? exploded?) there screaming bloody murder for what felt like FOREVER after she tried to pick him up.

You know when you have a really bad experience, and you talk about it and moan over it and swear that it was so awful you will NEVER forget how terrible it all was....and then a few months later you somehow convince yourself that it really wasn't *that* bad and you could probably do it all again if you had to, and maybe you're even somehow grateful for the experience because it made you a better/stronger person?

Nope. Not this time.

Flying with Babies, Part II

AHHHHH, we're home. Back to routine, back to sleeping normal, back to bone dry, breathable air. The vacation was awesome, we all had a great time. The weather was perfect, the ocean was beautiful and I really think Charleston might be one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

I'll recap the vacation in the next few posts, but figured I better share how the actual traveling part went while the details--both the good and the very, very bad--are fresh in my mind.


1. Snacks.

The Innobaby snack containers were (and are!) in a word, awesome. I used them for church this last Sunday, and I anticipate us using them a lot in the future. The fact that I bought these so long ago and never bothered to use them until now really bums me out--they seriously rock. The cups hold the perfect portion size, plus it gives Boston options for a snack. The cold snacks stayed nice and cool in the bottle cooler with ice pack. Star rating: 5

2. Toys.
Obviously, Boston needed things to occupy him on the plane. Packing his backpack with his stuff worked really well, mostly because it kept all his crap centralized and out of my bag.
I don't really think the wrapped toys were a big deal to him. Rather, I don't think wrapping the toys made a difference. He was really excited to have new stuff to play with, so that part was definitely good for keeping his attention, but the actual wrapping paper part I probably won't do again until he is a little older. I think he is still a little young to grasp the concept of gifts, so the wrapping paper really only added extra garbage I had to throw away.
The ABC cards were fine too--nothing spectacular, but they kept his attention for a bit. He liked looking at the different pictures and naming things he knew, but I wouldn't say they were groundbreaking. I'm not too worried about his lack of enthusiasm for them. I plan on pulling them out pretty frequently to help him start learning letters, so they're more of a long-term activity to me.
The tablet was a life saver. He played lots of games and watched plenty of movies. It also ended up being our saving grace to be able to turn on a movie when he was having trouble settling down and going to sleep in a new place.
Star ratings--
Wrapped toys: 3 1/2
ABC Book: 3
Tablet: 5

3. Carseats.
Checking the carseats worked well, something I would definitely do again. Lugging Boston's huge seat through the airport and on and off the plane would have been hell. Maia is still small enough that holding her the entire flight is no big deal. We double bagged both seats in heavy-duty garbage bags to keep them from getting too dirty, but Southwest ended up having huge bags available as well. I've read horror stories of carseats coming back broken and filthy, but ours were fine. The bags were a little torn up (as expected) but thats what they were there for. Star Rating: 4 1/2

4. Mei Tai/sleepy wrap.
Surprisingly I didn't use the wrap as much in the airport as I anticipated. I knew I couldn't keep her tied to me through security and as we boarded the plane, but I planned on wearing her the rest of the time. Once we got through security and had to repack bags, put our shoes back on, etc I didn't see a point of tying Maia back on me for a 5-minute walk to our gate. I just held her as we walked, which worked fine. Same thing when we got off the plane. I will admit probably the biggest reason I ended up not using it as much was because we had so many people with us. Between Jason, my dad and my siblings, I had plenty of help in carrying bags and babies. I imagine if I were to ever travel with both kids alone I would utilize the wraps much much more. (I did use the wrap plenty during the actual vacation. Anytime we went shopping, sightseeing, etc she was tied to me.)
Star Rating: 2

5. CARES system
Overall, I think this was a pretty cool thing. It was easy to use, quick to take on and off at the beginning/end of the flights, and one of the pilots actually made a comment about how great he thinks they are. I also I think the design of it helped Boston feel more like he was in a carseat.
My original thought was that it would help prevent him from taking his seatbelt off. It did for almost the entire flight out there--he figured out how to unbuckle it close to the end of the flight. The flight home was kind of a different story. He remembered how to take it off, so if we didn't keep him occupied he would try to escape. Keeping a blanket over his lap also helped keep it 'out of sight, out of mind.'
Star Rating: 4, because it cost me less than $15 to try out. I'm not sold on it enough yet to pay full price, but it was worth renting.

6. Extra Clothes
You guys, if there is anything to take away from this post......this. is. it. Packing a change of clothes ended up being the best decision I made the entire trip. We used Maia's spare outfit the day after we got there when she had a blow-out of such proportions, it was squeezing through er armpits and oozing into her hair. I'm going to save the story of Boston's outfit change for its own post, as it is something that will likely require a few more therapy sessions before I can write freely about it. Packing the extra clothing was so simple and took up only a little space, and I will never travel without doing it. If you don't end up needing it, no sweat. If you do, you will thank the heavens above you have it.
Star Rating: 10,000

7. Clothing style
I don't know if this actually needs a recap, as it is mostly my own warped rantings. Is it a coincidence that Boston was dressed very well for the plane ride out and his good behavior quite exceeded my expectations.....yet when I just let him wear whatever on the flight home we were all enveloped into the Seventh Circle of Hell? Maybe. Maybe not. The story for the flight home is where his change of clothing comes in, so once I work through all my Feelings and stop getting the shakes just thinking about it I will share with you.

And there is the recap. I have been trying to think if I could come up with a list of things I wish I had done, or would do differently, but I can honestly say that 90% of the traveling went as well as I could have hoped. I fully acknowledge that we were lucky to have so much family with us as it made things infinitely easier. Anyone who has traveled alone with small children has a special place in heaven set aside for them. And it comes with all the Diet Coke you can drink, and a free babysitter.

Flying with Babies, Part I

In 5 hours I will wake my babies up, pack them, 4 suitcases, 2 car seats, 1 stroller, myself and the husband in the car, drive to the airport, and make the 7 hour trip to South Carolina for a week of sun and beach. (Whose idea was it anyway to book a 6 am flight anyway? Mine? Oh. I guess when I booked it I was thinking, "getting up at 6 am isn't so bad..." well, duh.)

Now, for those of you who don't know Boston in the flesh, let me paint you a picture. Imagine a squirrel. In a room of shiny objects and mirrors. Who just drank 3 shots of espresso. He talks really well, and is possibly smarter than you. Oh, you have a new little baby squirrel you have to keep alive, too. (Who, to be fair, is actually a quite calm, laid back little thing, something you really think you have earned after the first described squirrel)

Now imagine you are to confine them both to a seat for 7 hours, keep them happy, fed, hydrated, and well-behaved. This, my friends, has been on my mind for the last 3 months.

I have put hours and hours of thought, preparation and planning into this 7 hour time frame. I have made lists, scoured the internets, and have possibly driven myself slightly nutty trying to prepare for every possible scenario. (ha.)

(ha ha.)

(ha ha ha.)

And so now, dear reader, I share with you my plans for tomorrow. My idea is to blog the plans I have made and the things I intend to do while travelling. When we get back I'll update you all on what worked, what didn't, and what was such a major flop of failure that I was left sobbing in Terminal 2, Concourse B.

1. Snacks. Boston is definitely a snack-motivated child. (Possibly common of 2 year olds.) While I know and embrace the fact the he can be bribed into good behavior, I also recognize that it isn't very prudent of me to think that "HERE! HAVE A SUCKER! Now, fruit snacks! Aren't you HAPPY? No no no, don't be loud or obnoxious on the plane, here have CANDY! MORE!" and then expect him to sit quietly and, well, behave is a little irrational. And so:

I have made good attempt to make his snacking options somewhat healthy, filling, and least likely to induce a sugar high. I also didn't want my diaper bag to be full of ziplock baggies of stuff that would just end up crushed into powder, smushed into goo, and all smeared over everything. I bought these Innobaby stackable snack containers months ago from Baby Steals and had yet to use them, so I thought this would be the perfect time! They hold around 1/3 cup of product, you can stack as many or few as you need, and have interchangeable lids. I have one of "dry" snacks --raisins, goldfish, pretzels, cereal and mini marshmallows. I also made one of cold snacks - cheese cubes, olives, and grapes. The cold container fits perfectly into a bottle thermos with a small ice pack.

On top of these I have a small bag of other snackable items - fruit leather, applesauce (have you seen these? We loooove them), peanut butter-on wheat crackers, etc. He also has a sandwich packed in his backpack.

2. Toys. One suggestion I kept finding was to buy a few small, dollar store toys, wrap them up and let him play with them as a new and exciting thing.

Done and done. Small dinosaurs, a motorcycle, stickers, etc. Plus a new Mickey Mouse coloring book and crayons. All of these items are in his own backpack, along with diapers and wipes, a sippie, and a few other essentials. The plan is that he will carry his own backpack, but we'll see how long that lasts.

Last week a friend of mine was hosting a craft night where everyone could just bring whatever they wanted to work on and have a kid-free night of crafting. I didn't have any current projects so I decided to make Boston an ABC book for the plane. Despite a few setbacks and cosmetic flaws, I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.

We also bought a Viewsonic G-Tab a few months back. Boston already loves it, and frequently asks to play his games. Its also loaded with several movies. (This will also come in handy for the drives we will make between Myrtle Beach and Charleston)

3. Carseats. We have decided to check both car seats, to reduce the amount of items we have to carry to and from the gate. I went back and forth on this for a while, but hopefully this works out. Boston's car seat is very bulky and heavy, and carrying Maia in her is heavy enough, plus it makes it very difficult to carry anything else in that arm. (plus we didn't but her a ticket)

4. Mei Tai wrap. Since Maia is a lap-rider and we won't have her car seat, I'm planning on wearing her pretty often. Definitely through the airport to our gate, again after landing to get luggage, and probably fairly often during the vacation itself. She loves being in any sort of sling or wrap, and it gives me both hands to deal with other things. I can also carry Boston on my hip while wearing her if I absolutely have to. (Short distances.) Another reason for this is we didn't want to lug our Sit 'n Stand stroller around, so we are only taking a small umbrella stroller for Boston to use occasionally.

5. CARES system. Since Boston won't be in a carseat on the plane, my main concerned was him getting out of the airplane seatbelt. I don't anticipate it taking long for him to figure it out, and once he does keeping him sitting will be the biggest challenge. Enter this:

It's a CARES seatbelt system, specifically for planes. It hooks around the back of his seat, then clips across his chest, much like his car seat straps. I'm really hoping the familiar look will help him understand that just as we don't unbuckle in the car, we don't do it on a plane. They are crazy 'spensive, and unless you fly often I don't know if the cost is justifiable. We rented ours from a seller on Ebay for 12.99.

6. Extra clothes. I'm really hoping I don't have to use this one, but I have packed in the diaper bag an extra full set of clothing for each kid. Blowouts, major spills, etc - we're prepared!

7. Clothing style. This might make you all judge me a little (a lot), but both kids are being dressed in nice, coordinating, planned and ironed outfits. If you know me at all, you know that few things drive me more crazy that children who look unkempt. I take a lot (possibly too much?) pride in how my kids look. Not only do I think it reflects on me as a mother, I honestly believe that people are more forgiving of slightly obnoxious 2 year old behavior when said 2 year old is clean, matched, and looks put together. A snotty-faced, bed-headed, dirty play-clothed child having a tantrum is a lot harder for me to accept. This might be a last-ditch effort that despite my planning, he likely will have a small meltdown or two and hopefully people will be a little more understanding of that. (Read: He might be acting naughty, but damn he is cute....and that makes it a little better) Again, you might call me crazy, but I never said I wasn't.

Whew! On top of all these, I have my diaper bag packed with the essentials. I'm really hoping the plane ride goes smooth, and we all emerge on the East Coast with limbs and sanity intact.

Now I'm going to go catch a few (very few) zzzz's, as my 5 hours is now 3 1/2 hours, and if I thought this trip might be hard to begin with, just imagine it with a sleep-deprived, less-than-fully-functioning mama. Oy.

...and 3 becomes 4...

Maia was born May 26, 2011. She arrived at 3:00 pm, weighing 5 lbs 14 oz, 17 inches long. The story:

I had been having pretty regular contractions for a few weeks and was very eager for my 36 week check up, where I would find out if I was progressing at all. Turns out I was dilated to a 3 and 85% effaced....wahoo! My doctor knew that Boston had been born early and after checking me and discussing my contractions, made the prediction that she would be born before my 37 week appointment. This was great news to me as A) We had family coming into town that weekend and it would be awesome if she could arrive while they were here, B) Jason's work schedule was such that it would allow him several days home with us without actually having to use vacation time and C) I was 36 weeks pregnant and reeeeaaady to be done.

We joked that Friday would be the ideal day for her to arrive. My friends, if her birth is any indication of her future obedience, raising her shall be a dream. My contractions really started to pick up early Friday morning (around 1 am). I couldn't sleep through them, so I went to watch TV and time them. (Side note: I passed the time catching up on "16 and Pregnant" episodes. Funny.) They were pretty consistently 1 minute long and 4 minutes apart. At this point with Boston, we packed up the bags and headed to the hospital. Determined to not spend ALL DAY in the hospital again, I decided to wait it out until I was for sure this was it and until the contractions got more painful.

I was supposed to work that morning at 8. By 6 am the contractions were still 4 minutes apart, but were hardly painful at all. I showered and got dressed, still pretty sure this was "it" but also feeling very stubborn about the fact that I wanted to wait until I was far enough along that I wouldn't be stuck bored all day in a hospital bed. Off to work I went!

When I got to work I told my coworkers that I was most likely in labor and I wasn't sure how long I would stay. I'm fairly certain they all thought I was insane. By this time the contractions were 3-4 minutes apart, around 90 seconds long and getting more painful. I definitely had to stop what I was doing to breathe through them, but I still didn't think they were too bad. Maybe a 4- 5 on a pain scale?

Fast forward 2 hours, about 10 am. By this time the pain had picked up. I was on a 911 call when one hit, and had to ask my friend to take over the call....I was asking the caller questions but couldn't even think about what their answers meant. I left work about 10:30, picked up Ashley on my way home, and decided to get my stuff together and head to the hospital.

By the time we got to the hospital it was around 11:30. My contractions were 2 minutes apart, and although they hurt some, I still don't think it was worse than a 5. (I had my epidural pretty early with Boston, so I never experienced the toe-curling, scream-like-you-mean it contractions and I was--curious?-- to see how bad it would get.) We got to labor and delivery and after telling the nurse "I think I'm in labor?", she took one look at me, gave a slight eye roll and asked me to wait in the waiting area because they didn't have a triage room available just yet. She very clearly did not think I was.

Jokes on her! When they finally got around to putting me in a triage room, I was dilated to a 7 and fully effaced! The nurse got a little flustered and asked if I was dying and if I wanted my epidural now. I told her I could wait until I got admitted into a regular room. I don't mean to brag or make light of contractions....but I really was surprised at how easily I was handling them. I kind of even thought, "this is it?? I can do this!" Looking back I sort of kinda almost think I could have done the entire labor natural, but I didn't. And I definitely don't regret the nap and comfort the epidural gave me, so there you go.


I got settled, epidural'd, and kicked back to relax. Jason, Sam and my mom were there, and Jason's family got into town from St. George soon after.


I napped.
Sam kept warm.


This is my nurse, Cheri. She was the most amazing nurse ever...I want to keep her forever so she can be there with any future children I may birth. She was funny, laid back, intelligent, and gets most of the credit for me having an easy, relaxed, calm birth experience. She let me take the lead on how and when I wanted things done, offered opinions when asked, joked and laughed with my family, and really just set the tone foe the entire day.
By 2:45 I was dilated to a 10! Cherie told me I could start pushing whenever I felt like it. (Did I mention I love her?) I told her I didn't push long with Boston so she called my doctor in and we were off!


After 10 minutes of pushing, Maia was born healthy, happy and covered in goo. Jason cut the cord, congrats were said, and my doctor was gone! Maia was checked over and found to be in great shape, given back to me. (Fun side note: Both Boston and Maia were born on the exact day of gestational age, 36 weeks and 4 days.)




I cuddled with her for a bit, then Jason went with her to the nursery to get cleaned up while I got ready to move into my room. Cherie was waiting with a frosty cold Diet Coke. (By this point you should not need any more proof that she is the best nurse EVER)

Boston came by later that day and met his new baby sister.


He decided to keep her.
And thats that! I really can't describe how fast, calm and...dare I say...easy this entire labor was? I wouldn't change a thing about it. In comparison, Boston's birth seemed much more chaotic. There were tons of medical personnel in the room--technically if the baby is born prior to 37 weeks, the respiratory team and other high-risk people are supposed to be there. Cherie may or may not have 'forgotten' to call them since I was very close to 37 weeks. Having only my family, 2 nurses and my doctor there was so much more personal and intimate. (Lets also not forget the moron nurse I had with Boston, who also contributed to the feeling of chaos) This time, I felt in control and prepared. Everything fell into place, and the whole room was just a feeling of relaxation.

We are so happy to be a family of 4, Maia has fit seamlessly in from the first second and Boston is a very proud brother who loves to tell people about his Baby Maia.