I am a big fat meanie...

It's a slippery slope and I have completely slipped out of control.

Here are a few pictures from this weekend at my sister Natalie's house.

Eating Cocoa Krispies...
Diet Coke (he found it, I didn't give it to him)
Fudge pop
Juice...
These are pretty much the only things I could get him to eat or drink over the weekend. He has a wicked sweet tooth and it has gotten out of control. He wont eat anything that isn't sweet, the closest thing to normal food he will eat is spaghetti with sauce that his Grandpa Russ makes, probably because it is sweet. (My cousin DeAnn thinks it's good enough to drink. We had a spaghetti dinner at my house and everyone ate on plates except her, she wanted a bowl and spoon.)
If I give him white milk he throws the cup on the floor. He refuses to touch, sniff or taste food if it doesn't look like candy. Once I bought yogurt with m&m's to sprinkle on top. He was so excited when I got it out of the fridge to feed it to him. But when I mixed the m&m's into the yogurt he got mad and refused to eat it.

I know this is my fault, but now Tony must pay the consequences...we are going radical in this house, NO MORE SUGAR...(for Tony anyway, and I must eat/drink it in secrecy)

I'll let you know how it goes, but I have a feeling I am going to have a very hungry and grumpy boy for a few days.

P.S. I gave him a Nutella (hazelnut spread with cocoa) sandwich today because he wont eat peanut butter, and he wouldn't eat it until I opened the sandwich and showed him it was chocolate. Then he opened the sandwich and ate the nutella and not the bread. What a stinker!!

Redneck Hottub

The other day Francie came over and was playing with Tony outside while I made zucchini bread. One thing led to another and before long they were on the porch playing in a bucket of water. Remember the Euro Spa tub I bought for bathing Bella? Well apparently it provides hours and hours of entertainment for a toddler in addition to being an excellent way to bathe a baby. He has a sandbox and a bucket on the front porch and between the two, he is happy as a clam out there. Today he played out there all morning, from the time he got up till his nap time, then we left and went swimming in a real pool for the afternoon. When we came home, he was back on the porch again playing. I wonder what people think when they drive by and see him in a bucket on the porch. Todd thinks we look like hillbillies, I say who cares, he's having a blast. I don't know how long it will last, but so far, I'm lovin it. This morning I was able to sit out there with Bella and drink my coffee and relax with no whining.
Someday I really would like to have a real pool at my house, but since I don't see that happening any time soon, I guess this will work for now.

I brought the old baby bathtub out too for double the fun. He likes to transfer the water from one tub to the other, then pick the bucket up and dump it on himself.He loves his cousin "KK" he sqeals in delight when he sees her. It's so cute.Every once in a while we go to a real pool so I can swim too. Bella and Tony both seem to really like the water. It helps that the water is 90 degrees.
And I have to add this picture just because it's so sweet. Tony is giving his little sis a kiss.To see more adorable pictures that Francie took on her camera that day go see her blog HERE

Sleeping arrangements

In our house babies sleep in the most unusual places. When Tony was a baby he slept in our room initially, then the hallway just outside of our room, then a little farther away into the bathroom. The fan in the bathroom did wonders for his sleep, so there he slept until he outgrew his bassinet and we were forced to put him in his room in his crib. I thought about moving the crib into the bathroom, but it would have been a bit of a squeeze so I didn't. I went online and bought a CD that played the sound of a bathroom ceiling fan for 1 hour straight, and I put it on repeat play all night. It took about 6 months before we were able to get rid of the fan CD.
Bella is a much better sleeper than Tony was, by 6 weeks she was sleeping through the night, I think Tony was 8 or 9 months before he was. I was afraid it wouldn't last, but so far so good. She usually goes to bed around 10pm and sleeps until 6 or 7am, then I feed her and she goes back to sleep til 9 or 10. I am so lucky she is such a good sleeper. She sleeps in the kitchen, on the counter in her bouncy seat, with the stove fan on. When she was first born I put the bouncy seat up on the counter so Tony couldn't get to her and hurt her accidentally, and it just sort of stayed there. It's close to the fan, so she sleeps really well there. We have tried putting her in the bathroom, but after sleeping in the kitchen for so long with the stove fan, the bathroom fan just doesn't do the trick, I guess it isn't loud enough.
Now that she is 3 months old, I feel like I need to put her in her crib to sleep before someone calls CPS on me. I have given her a couple naps and a few nights in her crib. She actually does pretty good, as long as I let her fall asleep in the kitchen and then carry her to the crib after she's really good asleep. The problem is, when one of them wakes up, the other one wakes up. Tony still wakes up from time to time due to loss of paci, tooth ache or some other unknown reason, and when he cries it wakes Bella up. When Bella wakes up at 6am to eat, it wakes up Tony, and with it being so close to morning, I risk him not going back to sleep.
So I have decided that they need their own rooms, at least for a little while until they are on the same sleep schedule. Problem is we don't have another bedroom, so I have decided to give up our office and turn it into a little girl room for Bella. I have a lot of stuff in the office, but I rarely use it as an office, it's more of a catch all room to temporarily stash stuff I don't know what to do with. So finding a new place to put all the stuff is going to be a real challenge for me.
But that is my plan over the next week, to clear out the office and make a room for Bella. If I get it done properly and in a timely manner, you can expect some before and after pictures soon. If you don't get them, please feel free to harass me about it, I may need the encouragement to get it done.

Here is how my little Bell-Bell sleepsOnly when she is really sleeping she is swaddled up super tight like this...

And here are a few more pictures just because they're cute.

Bloody Murder

I know it's hard to believe, especially for those of you who know my son well, but Tony has got a temper and it is starting to show. Here is what happened today. My friend Jodi came over with her dog and I put the two kids in my new double stroller (which I don't use nearly enough) and we went for a walk. Tony loves the outdoors, I swear he'd live outside if I let him. Rain, shine, hot or cold he could care less, just let him be outside and he is happy. So he was perfectly content on the walk, but as soon as we got home he started fussing like he usually does. I made a joke to Jodi, how it was kind of funny the fit he throws when I make him come inside. Today however it was not funny at all. I sat down on the couch to nurse Bella and he was fussing a little, and then it progressed into full on screaming. With tears running down his beat red face, his fists were clenched and shaking, except for when he was pinching my legs, and he was screaming bloody murder. There was nothing I could say or do to make him stop, and he was making Bella upset too. She started crying, so now both kids were full on crying and my housekeeper just arrived. Great! She was a little shocked to say the least. She offered to leave and come back Thursday, I agreed that was probably a good idea. My original plan was to nurse Bella then drop her off at Grandma's and then take Tony swimming at my friends house. Since Anthony showed no signs of letting up with his little fit he was throwing I decided to pack them both up (kicking and screaming) and go to Grandma's to feed Bella. Before my housekeeper left she offered to help me out of the house. As soon as she said to Tony, "lets go outside", he quit crying and started smiling as if nothing was wrong.
I felt like I shouldn't let him go swimming after that production, but then decided that was punishing me too, and I really wanted to go. So we went, and he was a perfect angel the whole time, because we were outside of course.
He is only 18 months, so I have to wonder, are the terrible two's starting early, or is this just a small taste of what's to come?
Any suggestions for how to respond to this behavior?

There's No Place Like Home

My Grandma Annie finally made it home last evening. When Natalie and I arrived to the hospital in the morning they told us she would be going home. We offered to take her home around lunch time, which they said was the time she could leave, but she wanted to wait for Donnie (her son) to get off work and take her home. So we just helped her pack her stuff (she is kind of a pack rat, so in the 3 weeks she was there she had accumulated a lot of stuff, including all the postal packaging from all her mailed care packages). The whole time she was there she kept saying she couldn't wait to get home so she could sleep in her own bed that "bends in all the right places" as opposed to the hospital bed that "just doesn't bend right". Although I found it to be rather comfortable, and spend a lot of time in it, since Grandma was usually in her wheelchair.
Our last day with her was happy and sad, we were sad to be going home, but happy that she was. And knowing that we will be coming back in just 4 weeks made it easier to say good bye. We continued to ask her if she would come back with us to MI for a visit and she kept saying NO! We finally decided to let it go, and just let her stay in OK where she wants to be. I know she would have a good time if she came here for a visit, but we just can't convince her. I think she thinks we are going to trick her or something and not take her back.
The staff at the Rehab hospital all seemed genuinely happy for Annie to be going home, they all wished her well, as did the patients. Grandma Annie is such a kind person, everyone there seemed to like her and one man there asked her to pray for him. She said, "okay, what's your name?" I told that man that she would be eating cold lunches now thanks to him, she already prays for 2 minutes before each meal (we timed her) and now that she had to pray for him it'd be even longer, but that's a promise I am sure she will keep.
I am sure they are going to miss her there, as well as little Isabella. For the past 5 days we have spent everyday all day at the hospital from around 9am to 9pm, and surprisingly never got bored like I thought we would. Bella was doted on by patients, family and staff, and no one seemed to mind her when she cried. I think a baby makes everyone happy. Unless your on an airplane, but that's a whole nother story.
I called Grandma Annie this morning to make sure she made it home safe, she did, but not before making a stop at her favorite store... can you guess? Walmart of course.
She assured me that her bed was just as comfortable as she remembered it.
Speaking of happy to be home, I am happy to be home too and sleep in my own bed that bends in all the right places. I missed my husband and my little boy. Anthony got a sore throat and spiked a fever of 102.6 while I was gone, so now he is on ABX. Thankfully he loves medicine so it's not a battle to get him to take it. He is napping now, so I better get off the computer and get some stuff done, cause when he is awake we have some mommy/son play time to catch up on.

Performance Day

UPDATE:
Grandma is not allowed to go on a pass, they say it could interfere with insurance reimbursement. I guess they could say if she is well enough to go out on a pass, why does she need to be in the hospital. So we figured we wouldn't worry about it, it's so close to her going home anyway. Our cousin Francie is going to bring dinner to us instead.

Grandma passed all of her therapy sessions, she was given an overall grade of 89 when she had a practice test on 6/4. When she was admitted to rehab she had a score of 48. They set a goal of 81 for her before discharge, so getting an 89 was performance beyond their expectations. Way to go Grandma! I'm not for sure what her score was today, but they said she did great on everything, so probably even higher than 89 today. If I find out what it was I will let you know.

We got all the thank you cards done, that was a job. We went to the cafeteria and got ice cream and then went outside to sit in the courtyard and eat it. It is really humid and overcast today, like it's going to rain or something. Bella is taking a nap now and Natalie is packing up Grandma's stuff so it wont be so much work tomorrow.

Everyone here knows us by now, they even know Bella's name. Whenever they see her they talk to her like they know her. It's pretty cute. Even though she cries a lot they all seem to like her. When we eat in the lunch room I take the dog (bouncey seat) and put her in it, so everyone gets to listen to the song B I N G O during lunch. So far no one has complained, but they are probably glad that we will be leaving tomorrow.

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Today is Grandma Annie's performance day since the plan is for her to go home tomorrow. They gave her a sticker so everyone knows. She has to be graded in every area, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech therapy. She is given a grade on each with a 7 being the best. So far this morning she has had her occupational therapy session where she had to shower and dress herself independently and she got a grade of 6.9 out of 7. So far so good. Only 2 more to go. She was given a grade when she came in too, so I am going to try and find out what they were so we can see how much progress she has made.

Natalie and I are thinking of getting a cake for her to share with all the other patients in rehab to celebrate her progress.

Today we are going to try and help her write her thank you cards for everyone who sent her flowers and gifts and cards, and then we have been invited over to her niece Francie's house for dinner tonight. We are trying to see if Grandma is willing to go out on a pass for it, otherwise we will eat here in her room.

More adventures in OKC

Last night Natalie convinced Grandma Annie to let her comb her hair, which then led to washing and cutting her hair. How we talked her into it, I don't know, she hasn't cut her hair in over 5 years, so this was quit amazing that she allowed such a thing. I think when it was all over with the she was actually quite happy, but she'd never admit it. She kept saying, "I'll never be the same." You can see they had to shave half of her head for the surgery. Natalie and I thought a little scarf tied around her head would hide the scar and be rather stylish. This morning we stopped to buy one at Wal-mart after dropping Rachael off at the airport. When we got to the hospital to try it out, it didn't look quite like we thought it would. Grandma says she doesn't want it and we should take it back, which we agreed, but not before taking a few good pictures.

Rachael gave Bella a faux mohawk style of her own. Her hair is always sticking up anyway, so she decided to play up the attribute. I bought her some little hair clips and they look so cute don't you think?I decided instead of trying to give Bella a sponge bath at the hotel I would just do it at the hospital since we had all day to think of things to entertain us. We also thought Annie would get a kick out of it, which she did. We rolled her into the bathroom in her wheelchair to supervise. Bella didn't cry at all, she really seemed to like it. Almost as much as her bucket baths in the kitchen sink she gets at home.

Oh and this is just half the stuff we have to haul into the hospital everyday, along with the baby in the car seat, and the bouncy seat. Yes mom we put it all on the hospital floor. There is no place else for it, so don't be mad.

Sorry for the sloppiness of the post with really no story, just a little of this and that, but that's all I have time for. All the free time I anticipated I would have is just not there. Between Bella and Grandma Annie, I don't have much free time at all.