Nap Time Nightmare

Marlo and Sabine haven't been taking their naps so easily as Hugo did.  As soon as I shut their bedroom door and walk a few steps away... They bound out of bed and begin to play!  It's awful.  Marlo hops into Sabine's bed and they talk and sing and show each other their babies.  Sound cute right?!  But they don't sleep!  Some days they sleep and then some days they don't.

As of late, if they don't sleep, the above is what I find, in various stages of destruction.  I pop in their room to settle them back down to sleep over, and over, and over, and over again.  Some afternoons I stand sentry outside their bedroom door for what feels like forever.  I hate it.  I want to be their Momma again, not their prison guard.  The level of mess made by the girls in the afternoons has worsened to such a degree that I just don't want to see what is behind their bedroom door.  It doesn't take long to make it right, but golly gee, every darn day?!  And it's not just toys.  They pull out all the spare blankets and sheets, pull all the board books off the shelves, dump the changing pad, pull out every last wipe from the box and hide them all over the room.  The other night as I tucked Sabine in for sleep, I discovered her sheet and comforter were soaking wet.  There was a lump under her comforter which I has assumed to be her blankie.  It was not.  The lump was a pile of diaper wipes.

Hugo was such a sleeping champ, I miss those predictable afternoons.  When I think on the situation at hand, I want to lock everything in the girls room away in their closet each afternoon.  But I really think the problem is how I'm handling the beginning of their nap time routine.  First of all, there isn't much to it.  With Hugo, I read two or three books to him while he sat on my lap with his blanket.  We rocked and sang a song or two and then I tucked him into his bed, backed out of the room and it was smooth sailing for hours.  I need a love seat in the girls room.  While I was nursing I had the glider in there.  As nursing came to an end I removed the glider due to the fact that I couldn't hold both girls on my lap and turn the pages of a book.  Also, the girls were beginning to use the glider as a piece of playground equipment.  Two have so many more ideas and a great deal more amount of bravery than one.  All I do at nap time for the two of them is to make sure their diapers are clean, hand each a shoosha and then I chuck them one, two buckle my shoe into each of their beds.  Who would like that routine?  Not me!  And obviously, not my girls.  To be continued I guess.

Huntin' In The Burbs

Cesar bagged a mad hungry, attic wrecker, nest maker of a squirrel today.  This marks his second squirrel shooting since moving into the house.  The furry rodent had been busily shreding and striping the bark off a cedar tree near our kitchen window.  Cesar was lookin' for more pesky squirrels about the yard to aim at, but they had their bulbous eyes on him and all hid in their tree holes.  I had to remind him that only a few short months ago, Ira the Squirrel had melted our hearts.

Toula wanted to eat the squirrel.  I felt bad for the momma squirrel.  Hugo was fascinated with the dead squirrel.  Thank heavens the girls and Evie the Cat were all sleeping in the house and had no idea what was happening outdoors.

Before long, Hugo wanted to shoot the air gun.  Papa let him.  Hugo hit his target and is now gun crazy.  Thankfully, thankfully, Hugo asked his Papa to buy him a cork gun. 

Armies of Chickens

Hugo didn't want to bathe with his sisters tonight.  This was a first.  The girls were more than happy with the extra room in the tub.  Toula watched and watched from the edge of the bath.  I'm not sure if she was curious what the girls were doing in there or if she was nervous for them or if she wanted to be in the tub at the very same time as the stinkers.  I just don't know.  The girls were funny as they poured water over each others heads and slathered bubbles upon themselves and then their partner in crime.  They each screamed with anger as I pulled them one by one from the water to dry them off with their bunny towels.  Then I bathed Toula, while the girls watched from the outside edge of the tub.

Once the girls were tucked into bed, I called Hugo into the bathroom for a trim.  His hair was cut at the sink.  I let him play with the iPad for a bit to help him keep still for me.  It worked for a wee bit of time.  Eventually I had to bribe him with stories of chicken wings popping out of his hair and tales of armies of chickens on the move about his scalp.  I suppose it sounds very silly, but it works for Hugo.  He'll still sit very quiet for me so that I may rid him of these armies of chickens and he wiggles to try to see them in the mirror as I pretend to point them out.  I've been telling him these stories for a long, long time now.  I love that he trusts me so.  Means I have to push myself to be a better mom for him with all this trust.

Another first for Hugo tonight was a shower.  He has always hated them and refused for the last few years to even try one.  Tonight was different.  Hugo jumped in the shower before the water was warm.  I warned him it wasn't ready, but he said it was wonderful.  A second later he jumped from the spray saying it really was too cold!  Mean momma me pushed him back into the cold water and we laughed and laughed as I got wet too.  Soon the water was warm and Hugo loved it.  Said he never would bathe again, only shower.  Well la-di-dah!  Imagine your parents might have some good ideas!  I shampooed his head and stayed to help rinse the soap out of his hair, Hugo piped up with, "Privacy please!"  Privacy?  This word coming from my flasher of a son was laughable.  It's like, with a new hair cut and his first lone shower my babe imagined himself all grown up.

Pops

Hugo loves pops.  Suckers, lollipops, pops.  We here in this house call them pops.  I bought a big bag of the Dum Dum kind to help make up Hugo's class Valentine's, we have a lot left over.  Every day after school, Hugo asks for a pop.  Every night during dinner, Hugo will ask if he finishes all the food on his plate, will he get a pop?  He is also quick to survey his sisters plates and decide who has, or has not, earned a pop.  The girls have learned that pops are treats and they now say the word treat.  The girls will also pull you by the hand into the kitchen and point to where I keep the pops above the fridge and say, "I want treat."

President's Day Visit

 

My girlfriend Rachel came up from Louisiana for a nice long visit over Presidents Day weekend.  Our friendship spans backward eight years, to a time when we worked our tails off to help ready Bloomingdale's to open it's cosmetic doors in Soho.  She was a newly wed, while I secretly, desperately wanted to become a mother.  I've talked about all this before in an earlier post about Ms Rachel.  Anyhoo, we had the joy of being pregnant together, sharing belly tips, shopping trips and food cravings!  Rachel also visited Hugo and I in the hospital shortly after he was born and witnessed my awkward first attempts at nursing my new beautiful son.  Soon after this meeting, both our lives changed a great deal.  Besides the fact that we both became mother's, I left the City for the quiet of our house upstate, while Rachel and her small family moved to Dallas, Texas.  Our friendship has continued to blossom and grow despite the long distance, but our children had never met till this long weekend holiday.  It was nice to hear them chatter back and forth and I'd like to say that I enjoyed seeing their play, but I barely saw them at all!  We hardly ever saw the two of them at all unless there was food on the table.  At first I worried that Hugo had locked her in his room, but no, Miss Leah happily played with her new friend Hugo.  Even Marlo and Sabine quickly learned her name and followed after her. 

Ladder Back Chairs

I had a mountain of laundry to wash and fold yesterday.  While I folded clothes and made nice stacks on our bed, a voice whispered in my ear to quick check craigslist on my phone for dining chairs.  I found them!  I found them!  I fell in love with two groups of chairs which I thought would go well together and would be a great match for our soon to be new dining table.  I sent a text to Cesar about finding some chairs I liked to warm him to the idea of discussing chair options once home by my side.  It worked!  Cesar like them too!  I made a call to hold the group of four ladder back chairs for Cesar to pick up today.  Lucky for me, Cesar had only a location scout in Jersey for his commercial next week so he had time to play delivery man for me.  The poor guy drove all day long.  Down to Jersey, out to Long Island for the four chairs and over to Westchester for the two end chairs and finally home.  I was very excited to see him pull up the drive!  I ran out to the truck to help carry them inside.  My smile reached from ear to ear.  A few need new rush on the seats, but with littles in the house, I think the chairs will do as they are for a long while.

I also made a Malotov for dessert.  Thinking of you Momsha!

Farm Table

I am soooooo excited!  We have finally made a decision together on a piece of furniture for our new rooms.  We've been at war with one another, Cesar and I, over leather or fabric and which wall or fireplace the television should hang, lighting fixtures, rugs, to skirt a loveseat or not...  War I tell ya, and it hasn't been pretty!   But the sun is now shining and everything is rosy and golden due to the fact that Cesar and I both love, love, love our soon to be dining room table + bench seat!  We have been wanting to visit Cesar's parents in Rhode Island and discovering this craftsman's website, and the close proximity to my in-law's home, sealed the date on our trip.  Now we need only to keep the peace between us while searching for dining chairs and heaps and heaps of patience while we wait out the eight long weeks until delivery.  The delivery time is so long because Mr Ellison makes the table to the inch of your given measurements.  Can not wait.  Hopefully it will arrive in time to celebrate Hugo's birthday.  What a nice way for our family to break the table in.

Toula Berry

 

Marlo and Toula are still besties.  At bedtime each night, Toula follows the kids and I upstairs.  She waits at my feet as I change the girls and ready them for teeth brushing.  She follows all of us into the bathroom and then back again into the girls room.  Thank heavens she is pretty much over the toy chewing phase.  She'll flop on the floor next to us I read books to the girls and half sleep with one eye on me as I tuck and kiss each daughter good night.  By the time I turn on the sleep sheep and lower the lights she isn't sure if she wants to listen to my voice and leave her comfy spot to exit the room.  She'll give me the look that says, "Really, really?"  Marlo will blow Toula goodnight kisses.  Sabine snuggles her blanket tighter.  We walk to Hugo's room where Cesar or I will lift Toula up onto his bed.  He snuggles her wrinkle skin and kisses her puppy mug as we begin to read our stories.  By the end of the book, Miss Toula is out like a light and heavy as a 50 pound boulder.  So different from our past Chihuahuas!  Hugo mentioned over breakfast this morning that he can't wait to be in heaven so he can see Rodrigo again... We love our pooches.  Each night as I lift Toula off the bed while preparing to leave Hugo's room, he begs for her to stay.  I promise him that soon, soon she'll be grown enough for us to trust her puppy potty skills. 

Varmints

My daughters have a new nickname - Varmints.  I've been trying to empty out closets and organize and in the process Marlo and Sabine have been running circles around me.  This is what I discovered on the kitchen counter as I came down to prepare a snack for them today.  I guess they beat me to snack time.  Varmints!

Hugo & Marlo

Hugo seems to prefer his sister Sabine over Marlo most of the time.  I think he likes Sabine's gentleness and quiet ways.  He has always preferred her in one way or the other over her twin Marlo.  Yet when he wants to play, to be silly, Hugo hangs with his sister Marlo.  I don't think he is aware of this.

I bathe my three kids all at once.  Bing, bang, bong and the work is done.  They all hop in the warm bath water, splash in the bubbles, play with some toys and then I begin to scrub them up.  Marlo is usually my first victim.  Then Sabine, followed by Hugo.  Once all three have been scrubbed I usually take leave for their rooms to ready their night clothes, tidy the beds, play with Toula and wander back into the bathroom to check my email, play a game or two of solitaire on my phone all before announcing my very cruel intentions of ending bath time.  Sabine used to always jump up to exit the tub first, now I have to drag her out.  I must note here that once she realizes my intentions and begins to voice her refusal, Hugo votes her out.  As I dry the screaming Sabine and carry her into the nursery, Hugo and Marlo turn the bath into their pretend pool and Marlo copies every little detail of Hugo's play.  She is going to be a fish this summer.  I look forward to the day when Hugo realizes that he likes to hang with his sister Sabine for one reason and his sister Marlo for another.