Happy Birthday Mister Tuffy of Wrigleyville!

My first-born turns four today! I'm going to sound a little like a crazy lady but yes, I do feel as though I have two children. One a boy. One a girl. One with fur and one without. One with two legs. One with four. One who pees in her diaper and one who pees outside (or sometimes on the carpet - and those are the times when the mother/son relationship turn more into a mater/dog relationship). But let me introduce someone who hasn't officially made his blog debut – our adored family pet, the cutest ankle bitter around, Mister Tuffy of Wrigleyville, also known in short as Tuffy. Or Tuf. Or, as MVP would say, TuhTuh. Or Little Puppy Boy. Or You Dang Dog – you know, when those pee on the carpet incidents accidentally happen, but back on track...Happy 4th Birthday Tuffy!!!!



You make our house a happier place. You are such a good big brother to MVP. You give the best kisses (we just need to work on that doggy breath a bit.) And your daily greetings can be matched by noone. No matter how hard the day has been, when I walk in the door from work and see your wagging tail, life just gets a little better! And life gets even better when you curl up in my lap as the night winds down and snuggle until we usually both fall asleep. You are usually never one to complain – minus those times you tear through the garbage and dirty diapers in protest of being left home or the times you try to scratch through the door when we put you in your kennel. Again, enter master/dog relationship here. But overall you are a good Little Puppy Boy. Enjoy your special day! Eat a few extra treats and play a few extra rounds of tug of war with Monkey today. You deserve it!

A Sorta Serious Not Me Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I definitely did not let MVP in bed with me when she was restless one night in her room only to have her fall out and smack her head on the HARDwood floors. I would never do that because I've read all the warnings and heard all the advice that the safest place for a little one to sleep is in his/her crib alone.

And, on another night, I most definitely did not let her sleep next to rat poison. I mean, seriously, who would do that?

Although trying to make light of these two incidents for the most part I'm not. They both made me nearly sick and I do mean literally. After hearing MVP's small skull crash on the floor and seeing how she acted dazed and confused afterwards, I got all hot and sweaty and had to go sit next to the toilet because I thought I was going to throw up. I was sure she'd just encountered a brain injury. It was so hard to see her like that. It was so scary.

Although, not quite as scary surprisingly, seeing how we didn't realize what had happened until after the fact, the rat poison night had me worrying about all sorts of things. Had MVP eaten some of it? She seems perfectly fine, but will she drop dead at any minute? Will it have long term effects? Had it seeped into her system and will it cause cancer? Will she grow a third leg? Okay so that last one didn't really worry me but all sorts of thoughts started running threw my head. She had developed a strange rash on her face. So overall I don't think my worries were too over exaggerated.

Let me explain a little as to how this happened. My parents have a lake house that they visit on the weekends. Since they aren't there a lot they tend to get unwanted visitors such as mice and possibly other rodents like squirrels or small squinnies. For the mice, they set out traps and poison. It looked as though the mice were taking the bait as a lot of the poison had gone missing. Turns out, either Mr. Mouse or Sid the Squirrel is not dying from this poison but instead dragging it all around the house. We visit for a weekend and put Kenna to sleep in the crib. Everything looked normal. The normal blanket was laying on the crib mattress undisturbed. In the same room is the bed Coach and I sleep in at the lake. It too was nicely made and undisturbed. I crawl in it at about 11 pm and just as I lay down lots of little somethings hit my leg and cause me to jump. In the darkness of the room, I initially think that it's a bunch of dead Asian beetles as those too invade the house as unwanted visitors and upon arriving to the lake this time my mom was vacuuming up a whole bunch of them. But it wasn't. I didn't want to wake MVP who was sleeping on the other side of the room so I made my way to the other side of the bed and turned on the night light. Expecting to see those red bugs, I instead saw a pile of what looked like little blue pebbles. Not knowing exactly what it was, I decided I wasn't going to worry about cleaning out the bed but definitely wasn't going to sleep in it so headed out to spend the night on the couch and inform Coach that he'd have to do the same. We got a decent nights sleep on the couch and all was fine until the morning when we discovered that Sir Squinney had also hoarded a whole bunch of mouse poison into the crib, under the blanket that MVP had just spent the whole night sleeping on!!!! Panic set in!

I've been a worry wart from the start but I think becoming a parent has made my worry warts grow into disgustingly large, hairy ones. Although ultimately, everything is in God's hands and this does relieve a lot of my worry, from time to time the pressure of having a little life under your watch gets a bit overwhelming. But oh so worth it. And I'm learning to push aside the worry because in the end I find that I worry about the wrong stuff anyway. I mean, rat poison wasn't ever on my worry radar...but guess it should have been.

18 (or more like 19, because Mom is slow) month pictures

A little potty mouth (or poop head, your choice)

Thank goodness the potty seat is still fairly new and has yet to be pottied on! MVP struck this pose with the tush cushion and then proceeded to grab it by the handle and walk around the house like it was her purse. My germophobia kicked in and I had to interrupt the potty purse party. But do have to say, that she makes a toilet look pretty darn cute!

Cecelia, you're breaking my heart.....

Cecelia is here! For any of you Office lovers, you know what I’m talking about. For those not addicted to the politically, incorrect antics of Michael or the great love story that was Pam and Jim’s, let me fill you in. Pam finally agreed to go to hospital and The Office baby has been born! Her name is Cecelia Marie.

Although Coach and I missed several episodes of this series depicting the crazy workplace in Scranton due to other fav shows falling on Thursday night, we’ve recently caught back up with it. Just in time to witness the much-awaited birth.

However, watching it made me want to wait and wait for my next birthing experience.

Seeing the new parents, Jim and Pam, in their sleep-deprived state brought back many a memories of our first few weeks and months with MVP.

Jim and Pam, yet so overjoyed with the birth of their precious, one-of-a-kind baby daughter, were also so deranged that they didn’t even recognize their own above-mentioned “precious, one and only” baby girl. And instead loved on another little baby like it was their own.

Brought me back to a time when Coach and I left our precious bundle at home while we trotted off to church. Opps, we’ll blame that on several sleepless nights. Oh wait, can’t really do that. It was around the time MVP was 2 months and she’d started sleeping thru the night. Well, at least we left her home with a good baby sitter....Tuffy.

And then watching Pam struggle with breastfeeding, brought me back to the countless hours I spent hooked up to my beloved pump. And those times “the girls” felt more like boulders that could possibly crumple into tiny pebbles at the touch of a feather. The times spent milking in the car. Trying to hide from those that strolled by.

And how can we forget the days of being puked and pooped on?

Although, it seems as though these memories are ones that you’d rather forget, they are just plain priceless and so worth it!

That said, for now, I’m glad Jim and Pam are the ones at home with a newborn. Although one day we hope to give MVP a sibling, right now I’m enjoying a toddler who sleeps 10+ hours a night, can feed herself for the most part and keeps her poops under control (well, that last one is a bit debatable)….having a one more flashback to a fateful night shopping at Scheels…

Congrats to Jim and Pam and welcome to the world Cecelia…be good to your Mommy and Daddy – some days we need all the help we can get!

Our MVP as a newborn bundle......so precious.....and poopy
(can't forget about that!)