Whatever Works

Yesterday afternoon, Cody wasn't feeling well at all. Those lovely things we call allergies are going to be the death of me. I do feel bad for my son. I have no idea what he goes through because I have never had a problem with allergies. However, I did get the pleasure of listening to him whine all afternoon. I know it's not his fault but there was only so much I could take.

Our afternoon went a little like this:

First, he wanted chocolate milk...I poured him some in his cup. But wait, that wasn't the cup he wanted. (silly me, I should have read his mind). I got his Lightening McQueen cup out, double checked that was the one he wanted, then poured the milk in. He took one sip then decided he wanted juice. I tried to reason with him, telling him to finish his milk then I would be happy to get him some juice. And then it happened, he looked up at me with his puffy, red eyes...put his hands together at his chest and said, "please mommy, pwetty please".

I poured him his juice.

(in yet ANOTHER cup because I was not about to waste perfectly good milk that I was sure he would want in a matter of 10 minutes).

Three minutes later, I found him putting his juice cup in the fridge and pulling out his milk. (Like I didn't know THAT was going to happen).

After the drink issue was settled, he wanted to watch T.V. I put on his favorite channel, Noggin. But oh no, he didn't want to watch that today. So, I put on Sprout. Ah, that was better. But then I walked away so of course he decided Sprout wasn't good enough and now preferred Noggin.

He now had his milk, his blankey and Noggin to watch. I now thought I was set. Cody was settled, Cade was taking a nap so I got the bright idea to work on their scrapbooks.

Bad idea.

Once everything was pulled out, Cody decided he was hungry. I fixed him lunch and got him all situated then proceeded to do their scrapbooks. Cody then decided, after two bites, he didn't want dinosaur chicken nuggets anymore, he wanted a peanut butter sandwich. I politely told him, I didn't care that he was sick, he was going to eat the chicken nuggets he wanted to begin with. Now he wanted his Daddy. By this time, I wanted him to have his daddy, too.

Daddy wasn't home, he was watching football with his friends.

Once Cody saw the look on my face, he decided chicken nuggets were EXACTLY what he wanted and ate them all.

Good Boy.

After that, Cade woke up and demanded my attention so the whole scrapbook idea never panned out.

However, Cody decided not to test me again and the rest of the afternoon was a breeze. I did find him lying on our dog, Sammy while he was watching T.V.

I guess if he can't have his daddy, the dog will always work.

Second Best

This post is intended for you all to feel sorry for me because frankly, I'm feeling sorry for myself right now. So, I think it's right for all of you to experience my pain as well.

It's tiring taking care of the kids all day. I'm not saying I don't enjoy it, because I do. I love my kids with all my heart. I love watching them grow up, learn new things, do new things, etc. I don't even mind I can even tolerate when all four of them are begging for my attention at once.

For instance, this afternoon Cody needed "papa bears" (a.k.a. Teddy Grahams), Cade was screaming, Ty was trying to read me his homework, and McKinly was showing me her progress report. Even though I felt a little overwhelmed at this particular moment, I still did my very best to tend to every single one of them at the SAME EXACT TIME! I didn't even mind that my wonderful husband, who happened to be in the very next room as all this was going on, was on the phone with a friend talking about his damn fantasy football team.

It might sound like I'm a little perturbed with T.J. at the moment, but it truly isn't his fault. It's not that I'm annoyed with him...I'm jealous of him. That's right, I envy him right now.

The point to all my ranting is that at the end of the day the two children I gave birth to...you know the ones I carried around for nine months, gained all this unwanted weight for, and the ones I would give my life for...prefer their father over me.

Don't get me wrong, I really do love that they both worship their father. He's a wonderful dad and he loves his kids so much. He plays with them, entertains them, acts their age at times. Who wouldn't love him??

So why am I so bitter you ask!?!?

Well, let me just tell you! Today Cody and I were snuggling on the couch. Cade had just gone down for his nap and Cody wanted to sit with me a little before he had to take his nap. He was being extremely sweet and I looked at him and said...

"Cody, I sure love you!!" and his response was...

"I sure love my daddy!!!"

Oh, and don't think it ended there!

Me: "I know you love your daddy, but don't you love mommy too?"

Cody: "I do love my mommy, but I love my daddy more."

As I was holding back the tears, because I really did want to cry...Cody politely said,

"Mommy, Daddy my besss fwend."

My mom always says to enjoy the time they want to be with their dad, it's a welcomed break. She also says that when they're sick, they'll always want their mommy.

not in this case.

Cody hasn't been feeling well the past few days, allergies again, and who does he go to...yep, daddy! When T.J.'s at work and Cody isn't feeling well, he asks, "when's my daddy coming homet?" (for some odd reason, he puts a "t" at the end of anything that ends with an "n" and the word "home").

There you have it! Like I said, it's great he loves his daddy, but come on, this is just SICK!!

Oh and to top it all off, yesterday Cade was sitting on the couch with T.J., looked up at him and said, "da da da da da da da"...Gross, I know!

I guess now I know how T.J. feels when McKinly favors me more. Who could blame her...I'm one cool step-mom!! (Hey, I have to build my self esteem up some how).

T.J. loves it! He reminds me everyday how they're "daddy's boys".

Cade just loungin', watching Baby Einstein

Not a good picture of Cody, but the only one I have with his new haircut.

Someone's 7 Months Today!

Happy 7 Month Birthday, Cade!!

I really can't believe he is 7 months old already. Time has flown by way too fast. He really is a terrific baby. He's happy the majority of the time. You can just look at him and he'll start cracking up! He is so fun to be around. (except for at this very moment because he's teething and he's very grumpy)

When I was pregnant with him, I was a little afraid I wouldn't feel the same way about him as I did Cody because I had already gone through all this before, it wasn't new anymore. Cade proved that little theory wrong. Not a day goes by that I don't look at both my boys and have to remind myself they're really mine!

That also might have to do with the fact they really don't look a thing like me. Especially Cody who is a spitting image of his father and doesn't have a single gene from me. Cade looks a little more like my side of the family, but the older he gets, the more he looks like Cody. Which means he will eventually look just like his dad as well and I will have to convince people they truly are mine. Trust me, I was there...I KNOW they are mine!!!

Anyway, Happy 7 months, Cade.

You're growing up too fast Cody

OK, you know you're in trouble when your two year old starts talking like his 9 year old sister. I was cleaning straightening up the house this afternoon and I noticed Cody just playing nicely in his room. So, I ran and got the camera to take a picture of my sweet little boy playing quietly with his toys. As I told him to look at me so I could snap a picture, he looked up and said, "oh mommy, are you serwious??"

Notice the look on his face, he's not a baby anymore!

YIPPPEEEEEE!

Cade only woke up ONE time last night. You got it...only ONE time. And you know what, I didn't even know he woke up that ONE time because T.J. is the one who got up with him. I wouldn't even have known Cade woke up that ONE time if it weren't for the fact he was lying in bed with us when I woke up this morning. When I asked T.J. about it, he said Cade just got cold and he brought him in bed with us and Cade instantly fell back to sleep!

You all know what this means don't you?? I got to sleep ALL NIGHT LONG!!! I didn't even know what to do with myself this morning. I actually had energy!!! I don't want to jinx anything by posting our little miracle but I had to share...I was just too excited!

Oh, and to top it off...he slept until 8:45!! You read that right...he slept for almost 11 straight hours. Some of you might be thinking...what's the big deal, he still woke up once but let me just remind you, I had not had any sleep for the past two weeks. He would wake up screaming every couple hours and just wanted to chew on his bottle. Anything to relieve the teething pain!

I think he was even proud of himself!!

Sleep wherever you want, Cade!

We have had a rough couple nights, more like couple weeks. Cade is teething and not sleeping well at all. Which translates to me not being a very fun person to be around at times. I think last night was by far the worst. Cade woke up every two hours crying and nothing would help except to just let him cry himself back to sleep. Normally, that would be fine except as long as he's crying, I'm still awake.

I understand teething is not fun for him either, and I guess I can't complain too much because during the day, he's a pretty happy baby. However, starting around 11:00 p.m., the teething problems begin.

He was more clingy than usual today which made it hard to get anything done. So, wherever and whenever Cade fell asleep, we just left him and made sure nothing, or no one, bothered him!!

His morning nap

His afternoon nap

Hey, in desperate times, we take what we can get!

on a side note, we were next to him the whole time he was sleeping on the couch and he could breathe perfectly fine...in case you were wondering!

Attack of the Little Brother

It all started off nice and sweet...

Cody was reading a book to Cade.

Cody didn't want Cade touching the book.

Cade showed Cody how he felt about that!


Don't mess with little brothers!