It's a Kate, Kate World: Second Edition

When you have a three-year-old, it is nearly guaranteed that whatever comes out of their mouth will make you swoon, sigh, swear or cringe. With Kate, sometimes I do all four. At the same time. Here is a little second edition of things my daughter has said recently that makes me realize, once again, it's a Kate, Kate world -- we are all just living in it.

Kate (shouting from somewhere in the house): MOM!

Me: Yes honey?

Kate: I love you!!

Me: Aww. I love you too sweetie. Where are you?

*silence*

Kate: Going potty.

*silence*

Me: Hm. I guess we all think about different things in there...

----

Me: Hey sweetie, you got an invitation to a classmate's birthday party! Is Benjamin nice, do you play with him?

Kate: Ew, no! Benjamin is a boy. WE don't like boys.

Me: Who, may I ask, is WE?

Kate: You know. Us. 

*head slap*

Me: So, all the girls in your class have decided you don't like boys?

Kate: Right.

Me: What about your brother? Don't you like him? HE is a boy.

Kate: I like Beckett. I like one boy.

Me: What about Daddy? Do you like him? HE is a boy.

Kate (sounding exasperated): I like Daddy. I like TWO boys.

Me: What about Pops? Do you like him? HE is a boy.

*silence*

Me: Kate?

Kate: *SIGH* WHAT?

Me: *SIGH* Nevermind

-----

Kate: Look! Look Mom, I did it! I wrote my name!

*showing me some scribbles on a piece of paper at the sign-in counter at the gym*

Me: Very nice Kate.

Kate: You know Mom, I don't know about about it, but I'm pretty sure I'm terrific at writing.

-----

As I pick Kate up from school:

Me: Here Kate, I brought you strawberries.

Kate: STRAWBERRIES?!?!?! MOM, you are the BEST MOM!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!

Me: Soooo. Strawberries every day after school?

Kate: Or you could bring chocolate milk. That would be pretty cool too Mom.

-----

Kate walks into the kitchen with a dinosaur stuffed up her shirt.

Kate: "Daddy, do you like boobies?"

*Ben studiously ignores her while looking in the fridge*

Kate: Daddy? Do you like my BIG BOOBIES??

*Ben still looking in fridge and refusing to make eye contact with the three-year-old who is making him EXTREMELY UNCOMFORTABLE*

Kate (parading around the kitchen): Daaaaaaaaaaddddddddyyyyyy.

Ben: KATE. Those are not boobies. That is a dinosaur. Take it out of your shirt.

Kate (pouting): When I grow up, I'm going to have boobies.

*awkward silence*

Kate: BIG boobies.

*Kate stomps out of kitchen. Ben rolls into the fetal position on the floor. I laugh so hard I nearly pee myself*

Best Friends

Beckett's Ball Themed Birthday

I'm currently blogging from a stationary bike at the gym. It's the closest thing to a couch I could find here, and of I pedal slowly enough, it's like I'm basically sitting still, so it will have to do.

You may be wondering why am I at the gym in the first place, if I have no interest in working out. And it's quite simple.

I am hiding from my children.

That's right. I have come to the gym simply to use their (highly qualified... Or at least passed a background check) childcare. Don't judge. I'm tired, and if the choice is TV or social interaction, at least I chose to force them to be social. So. Mother of the Year here.

The truth is, we just got back from a family reunion and my kids are coming off the high that comes with being the centers of attention from not one, not five, but forty-two freaking family members. Meaning, my kids are being total a-holes.

However, now that I've shuttled them off for an hour or so, I need to catch up on the happenings at the Edelspot. This blog started as a way to chronicle our family when I was pregnant with Kate, and her every milestone for the first two years have been captured. I love that when someone asks me a question about her development, I can simply search the blog for an answer. It's my next-gen baby book. But if I had to rely on the blog for B's development, I'd be limited to the fact that yes, he was born. He nursed for awhile, had shark teeth and was a big freaking boy.

Hope he doesn't have too many questions for me. Because I may have to tell him we lost his "baby book" in a tragic fire. Better excuse than, "Mommy didn't blog about you because your babyhood flew by as she tried to figure out how exactly a family of four worked, and you were lucky to have clean clothes bc there was so little time for anything besides you and your sister so LAY OFF!"

Ahem. Sorry.

Anyways, I feel the need to cover off on a few major milestones, because despite my belief I will never be able to forget the beautiful moments, they do slip away.

So, Beckett started crawling the week after he turned 8 months. He is now hell on wheels. Super fast and almost always chasing after his sister. They like to body slam one another. Which gives me palpitations each time and I remind Late 50 times a day to be gentle... But he always comes back for more (boys. Who understands them??)

Beck also says Dada. And knows its Ben. I have explained to Kate that Dada is simply easier to say than mama, but Ben tends to gloat about it anyways. It's true though that B just loves his daddy.

When we went to Ohio for the family reunion, everyone nicknamed Beck Mr. Happy. And it's so true, the kid is a joy.

Kate rode her first roller coaster last week at Cedar Point. She amazes me with her lack of fear. She has handled our move beautifully. She matches into any day care/classroom like she owns the place. She walks up to kids older than her and tells them her name and asks theirs. My little three-year old has more self-assurance and social graces than half the adults I meet. My heart is full of that little, defiant, strong, awesome kiddo.

Oh, and Beck can (and will) eat anything you put in front of him. He truly seems to eat more than Kate. I keep telling her that he will be bigger than her soon, but her pickiness seems to override her fear of Beckett. The force against eating anything healthy is strong in that one.

I suppose those are the major updates. I should probably quit using this bike as my own personal lounge chair and collect the kiddos. Oh, wait, I think Ellen is going to come on TV soon. Maybe just another half hour...

Whining and weaning

I'm weaning Beckett.

I've nursed him nearly two months longer than I nursed Kate, partially because when Kate was six months old we went on a vacation without her and my milk started to dry up, leading to a pretty easy and natural weaning. But the other reason I have continued to nurse Beckett is more emotional. Ben and I are (sort of) in agreement (sometimes) that B will be our last. Which means this is the last time I will nurse, using my breasts for a higher purpose (MY BREASTS ARE AMAZING! THEY GIVE LIFE! THEY FEED ANOTHER HUMAN!) rather than just weekend funbags for the hubs (who is all, YOUR BREASTS ARE AMAZING! CAN I TOUCH THEM AGAIN??)

But when Beckett sprouted his sixth (SIXTH!!?! WTF??) tooth, I decided it was time to cut the cord. Because each nursing session was like breastfeeding a baby bear. Or a cuddly tiger. OR FUCKING JAWS.

So I started last week giving him only bottles after lunch. He was pretty not okay with the whole situation, but I learned that if I just propped him up on a pillow, handed him a bottle and hid out of sight, little dude would drink. Because while boob was his preference, he seemed to figure that starving would suck more than drinking out of a bottle. Once we got that figured out, I felt ready to make the switch. So two days ago, after his early morning feeding I made the decision that we were done. That was my last feeding. And that day was great. And I patted myself on the back for a successful weaning.

And it has been. For Beckett anyways. Besides an occasional nudge at the old ta-tas, he seems to be okay with it.

I, on the other hand, am a full-on, hot mess.

I realized my hormones were getting all wonky about a day later when I started tearing up in the grocery store for no reason. Since then, I've been on a wild ride of happy, sad, angry and back to happy every 10-30 minutes. Ben is staying out of my way, which is a good sign I'm being a complete basket case. And if that wasn't enough, my boobs feel like they have been replaced by two bowling balls and my nipples have been hard for a full 48 hours.

FORTY-EIGHT HOURS.

So wish me luck. Because I swear on everything holy, I feel like if my body produces ONE MORE OUNCE OF MILK my breasts will literally explode.

And that would suck.

Brother B is Eight Months

Oh, hey there.

I'm Beckett. I turned 8 months old on April 13,  and I'm kind of a big deal.

What? You don't believe me?

Well then check me out. I don't exactly crawl yet. But from sitting I can lunge and wiggle and reach just about anything I want, then push myself back to my favorite position (sitting). Who wants to crawl around and play on their stomach when you can just grab a toy and sit back up to play with it?!

And I suck my fingers. Like a boss.

Because pacifiers and thumbs are for babies.

And everywhere I go, people stop my parents to tell them I have great hair. And, I'm all, "I KNOW!" 

 I make this face a lot because I already have five chompers and more are on the way, so I am constantly grinding my teeth. It feels great to me, but makes my parents cringe because it sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard.

Basically, I'm a super happy kiddo. I'm loveable and squeezeable. I sleep 12-13 hours a night. I play well by myself, love to make noises, babble, throw toys and play with my big sister. I'm all boy and all joy. 

Seriously. I'm a big deal.

Still alive (sort of)

Hi there. Hey. Remember me?

Yeah. We are alive over here. And I know I've begun just about every post this way, but I haven't blogged in awhile because we are, like, uh, TOTALLY BUSY AND IMPORTANT.

Scratch that. The important part anyway. We are just busy, and I'm, LE TIRED because I haven't adjusted to having two children needing me EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY WAKING HOUR FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING HOLY I JUST NEED TEN MINUTES TO MYSELF PLEEEEEEASEEEEEEEEE.

Ahem.

Sorry. Anyways, you may be asking, "Well, Liz, what (besides having two extremely busy children demanding your every waking hour) have you been doing these last few months?"

And I would tell you that we:

Listed, and sold, our old home (sniff)
Celebrated Kate's third (THIRD!!!!) birthday in grand style
Went on a family ski trip
Visited family for Easter
Continued to unpack boxes in our new house because we STILL have boxes to go through (sigh)

So, yep. That is about it. I write this just so I can actually start some in-depth posts again without a completely confusing everyone, so get ready for some really juicy Edelspotting in the next few hours (or days, or weeks. Whatever, because I haven't been able to finish a conversation since Beckett was born, let alone write an entire post uninterrupted and I don't want to make any promises here).

So anyways, here we go again!