Sick Kiddies...

Well, life has been full of fun around the Maye house lately. On Friday morning, my mother in law calls me to advise me that Blake has thrown up! LOVELY! Just what I need, yet another virus passing around my house! All weekend long, both kids are fine and acting normal. Despite possibly a tad hungry...see my thought was...if they just eat stuff thats light then maybe I'll avoid Blake throwing up again and Maddie starting. So they lived on popsicles, applesauce and gatorade and seven up. Nearly every store in town, well the ones I went to, were completely out of PediaLyte. (I guess its going around, huh?) Atleast Saturday was a primarily "liquid" diet. Blake, I had reason to, Maddie...well, it sounds mean now but at the time it seemed perfectly rational. :p Anyway...now its Tuesday! I've been up since three in the morning because both of my kids have started throwing up again! Ahhh, the joys of motherhood. My poor daughter, after throwing up in her bed, yelled for me. When I went in her room, she was sitting in a corner of her bed pointing at the mess and said "Mommy, I need a paper towel!" Bless her poor little sick heart! So I yelled for Mike to come get her so I can clean the room. That was done twice and then again for Blake. Why me!? I guess it happens with all families with small children...them rascals just catch every dang thing! Looks like we won't be going to Nashville for Thanksgiving...I feel AWFUL and a little disappointed but i just can't put two kids on the road in a car for five hours and not worry the entire thing about whats going to "come up". Also, my parents probably don't need this virus infecting their house either...its probably best for everyone I guess. Just a little sad. We'll make it out there another weekend hopefully. Well, night-night for now...we'll see what tonight holds!

"Crick-or-Treat"

Here are a few pics of the kids Trick orTreating...or what Maddie calls "Crick or Treat". Blake calls..."Tree Tree". I know I'm a little past Halloween but I just got the pics off my camera.

The little girl in the front is my neice, Jazmyne...notice Maddie with her head in the bag not watching where she's going...that was how she spent her night when she wasn't at the door getting candy.

An attempt at Potty Training...

Ok...I'm determined, I tell myself! It's definitely time...Maddie turned 2 in July...we can do this! For most of you who probably don't know...my lovely child, Madison, will NOT sit on the potty. Not even come close...she won't sit on it with clothes on much less without her "diapie". I have tried umpteen million times to get this child to sit on the potty...it just wouldn't happen...she'd scream, cry and kick until I stopped holding her down on it...abuse...some may say! :) That was with a "diapie" on, mind you! Ok so at work the other day, I'm sitting at my desk and wonder..."How will I EVER get Maddie to sit on the potty?", "Will she be 14 before using the stupid thing?" ... I devise a plan. Ever since Trick-or-Treating, she has become obsessed with candy. So my genius idea is to buy "special" candy and every time she sits on the potty..just sits on it, she gets to pick out a piece of candy. IF and I mean IF, she does something on it she gets two pieces of candy and gets to pick out a small toy or a sticker I haven't decided yet which to use. I pick her up from the sitter, Michelle's, house and start talking about it on the way home. I tell her she can have candy if she sits on the potty...she immediately yells..."YAA!" (My daughter may have never lived in Louisiana but definitely has it in her blood.) Now, in the recent past, if you asked Maddie if she wanted to go pee on the potty, she'd say "No, I wanna pee in my diapie!" If I ever managed to get her diaper off to sit on the potty, she'd tell me, "Mommy, get my diapie, I need to pee!" I'm beginning to think its just impossible...she doesn't even remotely get it! The candy idea...A SUCCESS! She's thrilled by it! I bought the special flushable wipes and all that jazz. She now wants to sit on the potty ALL the time! HOWEVER, we now live in the bathroom and she still doesn't do anything on it. She holds it until she gets her diaper back on! Atleast I know she can hold it, right? Well its only been three days since the "candy" idea. She's taken to it well, I must say. She takes her diaper off herself and sits on the potty. However she just continually wants to use a wipe and "wipe her butt"! We'll get there eventually I guess...maybe when she's 14!! I'm hopeful!

PS...Blake's vocabulary has just blown up these past couple weeks. He repeats everything! Much more than little Ms. Maddie. Ironically, after bringing her to a specialist to check her hearing cause she wasn't talking at 18 months...now, like her mother, she doesn't shut up!! We laughed about Blake probably never talking because the poor kid can't get a word in EVER! Now he says everything, except "Mama" of course. If you ask him to say "MAMA", he follows by a very boisterous "DADDY"! That's ok...I suppose! Now yesterday, Maddie was sitting on the potty, Blake bends over and gets right in her face and says "You Potty?" Too cute...

Reality...

As most of you probably already know, I have two children ages 1 and 2!! Yikes! No, they are good kids, just your typical one and two year olds really. When I found out 3 months after having Maddie that I was pregnant with Blake, I was anything but thrilled. But it has turned out to be the best joy in the world! Some may say its just like having twins...in reality, I have come to the conclusion that it's A LOT different than having twins. Both come with different and unique challenges but are anything but the same. See my kids are 11 months apart, which without being really, unbelievably silly, is almost the closest two kids can get without being adopted. :) With twins, they go through milestones at the same time and they do everything together. My kids...not so much! They think they are the same age but at one and two are still a lot different. One instance that comes to mind is a time at the store when Blake was first born and Maddie was only 12 months MAYBE 13 months. She wasn't walking yet...Well it was my first adventure to the grocery store with both of them by myself. I braved it, knowing I had to eventually anyway. Again, two kids...one a newborn and the other one not yet walking. Well about a half hour into grocery shopping, I smelled what seemed to be my baby boy Blake. I head to the restroom and don't think anything of it. I'll change Blake and keep Maddie in the cart. NOT...first off ,you can't take the cart into the bathroom. Ok...I'll just take Maddie out...Maddie can't walk! I think, "How do people do this??" I can't take Maddie out of the cart and sit her down on the bathroom floor so I can change Blake's diaper, I can't take the cart in. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO CHANGE THIS SCREAMING KIDS DIAPER!? Well, the only quick solution I can come up with is to leave the cart where it sits and bring the kids to the car and change Bub's diaper out there where I can sit Maddie safely in the car. Success! Now on to finish grocery shopping. Atleast it's not snowing yet! :) A little over a year later I have successfully figured out more than one trick when it comes to challenging obstacles with my kiddos! Everyday is a new adventure...my life is anything but normal and boring!! Like I've said...my kids are excellent kids. They get on my nerves and scream more than I'd like...using me to scream more than I'd like...but the love I have for them surpasses everything! I still go to the grocery by myself with the two of them just like I'm supposed to, although I always leave one when i can! Or both... and trips to the grocery are still anything but easy with them pushing each other out of the carts now or stealing food off the shelves. But it's an easier adventure over a year later. I've always told my Mom that my life could easily be turned into a sitcom...since I can't do that, I've turned to blogging! :)