Livin' on Love Under The Hot Desert Sun: January 2013

Woo Wee it has been a long time since I have had time to sit down and write an entry. It has been a crazy month with moving, trying to unpack with a very curious 2 year old, a hungry newborn and all the visitors we have had, and not to mention the holidays. I will try and sum up what has been going on and try not to leave out the good stuff.

My title to this blog was my week. Willow had this crazy pooping issue going on. As Tim so elequintly put it, she had mud butt. Some days it would just ooze out of her diaper. Yes, I know you wanted to know that. Many times I just threw her in the tub to wash her off. It would frustrate me when she would not go to the bathroom to get changed she would fight me on it. There was no way I could spank her because it might make the poop explode out the diaper. Thank goodness after 3 days of the BRAT diet it cleared up. It is a good thing Willow loves rice since that is mainly what she ate.

The spit up was Charlee's contribution. I don't know why but she was spitting up everything she ate. She seems to be really gassy and burps a lot though it has gotten better. I have been pumping and then feeding her since she seems to be an ineffective eater on the breast. So I think the bottle was getting her more air in her tummy. When I tried her back on the milk tap she didn't spit up nearly as much; she has been gaining weight and doing great. We have had many nights she sleeps all the way through. She sleeps a lot still during the day. I have had to break her from being held all the time. My visitors didn't like the crying and picked her up against my wishes. So now we have to hear her cry even harder because we won't pick her up. All in all she is a good baby.

So when we got all moved in I didn't think I was ever going to get anything unpacked. Willow was always into something and just being her curious self. It was a slow process but I can say it is done. I can't say that everything is organized though.

My advice to anyone is don't have a baby, move 2 weeks after, and then try to unpack with a toddler around. There were times I seriously lost it. Willow acted out and didn't listen. She is getting better at it though. We have started her at a preschool 2 times a week. I know it will be good for her to interact with other children and maybe work a little on her behavior. I know the break will be nice for me too. We tried her on potty training before Charlee got here but it didn't fly at all. Then after we moved we tried again and that was horrible. I thought it would be successful once when she saw the potty chair unpacked and asked to go potty 3 different times on her own. Well that is all it was. It was and seems to be on her own time. The child care lady said she will work with her on it once she settles and gets used to her new surroundings. She did surprise me yesterday and went potty on her own will in the potty but that has been the only time. Another thing we really need to work on is getting her to stay in her bed once we put her down for bed or even nap. She will repeatedly get up and come out to the living room. I refuse to lay with her every time til she falls asleep. Once in awhile is okay. The other day i just got fed up with her getting up for nap that I locked her door. When I went in to check on her this is what I found. She had put on a dress and jacket over her clothes. Put on some shoes and then passed out right at the door. It looks like a murder scene. I wonder where she thought she was going?

While we had some visitors we got 4 rooms painted. I don't think that would have ever gotten done if Chris and Carol, our friends from Colorado were not here. Carol did most of the painting since someone had to look after the toddler and keep the baby fed. Tim even got his garage floor painted. There is still some things that need to be done around here though. Tim's garage is a pit, but that is his room to organize until I can't take it anymore. We are getting window coverings for the family room and master bedroom right away since the sun shines in those rooms. I didn't want to wait too long to get those done since the sun tends to fade things around here.

The yard is a whole new area to tackle. It is just this big open flat piece of dirt. It is not bad if it is not windy or raining. When we had the windows open for awhile it would just get everything dusty. Then it rained for like 3 days and that was not fun with 2 dogs. We would have to go out to the rocked front yard so they wouldn't get muddy. Tim decided to get 6 ton of rock to lay down in the back but that did not go far at all. Right now is the time people around here start planting their garden. The hardware stores are selling the vegetable plants and all. There is no way we are going to get anything in right now. We have to build some raised beds due to the bad rocky soil here. At least I know we have the space for it in our yard though.

Next weekend we are having visitors again, Tim's brother Brian and his girlfriend, whom we have yet to met. Then at the end of February Tim's mom will be back. We are going to have to lay down the law with her, no way is anyone getting fruit snacks and juice. It has been hard breaking Willow of the bad foods for her teeth.