Gender bender

A key to keeping toddler tantrums at bay is to provide for safe opportunities for your child to choose rather than be told.  A great example of this is when Ashton doesn't want to get dressed, which is an every day occurance, I ask him if he wants to wear the blue shirt or the green shirt.  Simple choices make him feel like he's getting away with murder.  

Well this has snowballed into him choosing Reagan's clothes too.  Which is fine... until he decided one day that he wanted to wear a dress like her...

To be honest with you, it didn't bother me at all (he has too much testosterone pumping through his little veins anyway), but Jimmy was absolutely repulsed by his little outfit.  Ashton was spinning around and having a ball, so who cares, right? 


Thanks to Barb Strottman he was able to squeeze into this 2T number! 

Two peas in a pod!

Blood, flood or fire.

When I was an RA in college, I was instructed to not disturb our Head Resident on her days off unless there was "blood, flood, or fire."  Since then, I have used these words as a guide for waking Jimmy when he's working the midnight shift. 

waaaaAaAaAAAAA! Reagan is on the floor after falling down in the basement (with a little assist from her brother).  I scoop her up and squeeze her tight to help calm her cries.  She quiets. I lift her from my shoulder and her face is soaked in blood along with my shoulder.  Oh crap!  Find the source!  I sprint to sleeping husband/former EMT and scream him awake.  He's terrified that someone has died and totally out of sorts because he's recovering from the night shift.  "It looks like the rectangular block severed the connective tissue between her upper lip and gum," I tell him.  Since the mouth bleeds like a stuck pig, we figure it can't be that bad.  We call the pediatrician and they tell us to make a judgment call.  Helpful.  We discuss going to the ER, but decide to wait it out.  The bleeding stops.  Phew!

Though it was a hectic morning, I tried to return the house to normal.  I saddled up the kids to go for our morning walk and visit to the playground.  We're going down slides (yes all of us!), pointing out the colors, and having a good time until Reagan stopped drinking her bottle.  Blood filled her smile and now I can't find her right front tooth.  Somebody made a bad judgment call...  I call still-sleeping-Jimmy and alert him that I'm going to the ER, whether he's coming or not.  My next sprint is a little more exhausting than my first -- picture me huffing and puffing with the double stroller up a hill in the 70 degree weather.  When I get to our house the truck is running and I see Jimmy dashing out of the house with the diaper bag.  (Yeah, I've got a catch, ladies.)

Reagan on the way to the ER.

We arrive to the ER and there's a wait out the wazoo. Reagan has stopped bleeding, so Jimmy's waiting in the holding tank with seriously injured people who are all wondering why the heck the laughing baby is waiting along with them.  Because of this, I call the pediatrician from the car to see if it is worth coming to their office, even though they can't suture her.  The receptionist tells me to come and she will usher us to the doctor immediately.  Ok, they redeemed themselves from earlier. As we wait briefly for the doctor, we feel moronic since Reagan's laughing, walking, and smiling like nothing happened.  The doctor examined Reagan looking for anything that we didn't catch related to her fall.  We were told Reagan was just fine and they typically don't do anything about minor mouth injuries anyway.     

The next day, Reagan was back to her happy little self with  nothing to show for her scuffle with the block.

Oh yeah, and her little tooth never disappeared it was likely masked by blood and/or my hysteria. Thank God for hair dye to cover all of my child-induced gray hair!

Weight loss accountability

To all of my followers, I've decided to come clean about my latest project.  Since I use this blog as a replacement for adult interaction during the day, this is gong to be my accountability partner for my weight loss goal.  I have been on a diet for the last two weeks and am hoping to be at my goal weight in 6-8 months.  So far I have lost about 10 lbs and feel like I'm not even trying that hard.  I am using a web-based tool through www.livestrong.com, which is a free and helps people get in shape in a healthy way. My favorite part of the website is the MyPlate feature, which helps you track your calories for the day.  They even have a smart phone app for those of you who aren't near a computer all day.  What makes this calorie tracker different is its pre-programmed foods that you can select with ease, so that you aren't plugging in each food's nutritional information.  Who has time for that, right?

For example, I ate Kellogg's Strawberry Special K cereal this morning.  A serving size is 1 cup and I had approximately 2 cups.  I went to the website, typed in "Kellogg" and all of their products were listed for me to select. I easily found the exact cereal, then plugged in "2" in the servings field. It automatically calculated my calories and nutritional breakdown, then added it to my daily intake while simultaneously calculating how many calories I have before reaching my daily limit. It then stores my frequently eaten foods to reduce future search time. 

Another great feature is its fitness tracking, which is just as easy.  I mopped yesterday for about 40 minutes, and broke a sweat, so I was curious to see if I could get any fitness credit.  I logged on, typed in "mop," and up popped "mopping" with a calorie burn of about 303/hr.  I put in the number of minutes I mopped and got a 202 calorie credit towards my daily intake goal.

Basically, it's great.

I'll continue to update my weight loss over the next couple of months, which will help keep me on track!  Thanks for always being my sounding board.

Cousin Emily's entree to parenting two kids

My favorite cousin, Emily from Cincinnati, came to visit us this week.  Emily and I have always been close and even have the same laugh. Emily is a special education teacher in Ohio, so she was on spring break.  WOO HOO!  Spring break in Chesapeake Beach!  Having her here made me super excited for the 3rd Annual Buffington Reunion in Atlanta this August. 

I tried to talk up Emily's visit to Ashton, so that he would see how cool she is to be arround.  Truly, Emily is hilarious and has a witty comment about everything.  An added bonus because of her professional background, she has all of the tools to manage active kids.  However, it was a rough couple of days because Ashton wasn't his self, which made the visit stressful.   I think Emily might have diagnosed the problem best: Ashton is jealous of anyone who diverts my attention away from him.  Now that she said it, I can see how his behavior changes when there is competition in the room.  It also explains why he hasn't liked my mom in the past, because she and I are very close and talk nonstop during our visits.  Though this revalation helped explain things, it didn't make it any less annoying when he acted out every five minutes.  Towards the end of the visit, I tried to communicate with Ashton giving him full attention when I was able, so he didn't feel as left out.  This seemed to help a little... then we went to JumpBunch class. 

Oh my gosh, I don't even know where to start.  I signed Ashton up for a class that teaches sports fundamentals, since he is obsessed with sports.  Unfortunately, the taking turns and pause for instruction is almost too much for him to handle.  I spent 75% of my time running after him and trying to get him focused.  Mothers looked at me in disgust when he ran away from the class or didn't follow the exact instructions.  I can't understand the judgmental looks and wanted to punch each one of them in the face.  A few of them had the audacity to comment: "I don't know how you do it." "Is he always this, uh, energetic?" "It's a good thing you're ten years younger than me because I don't have the energy anymore."  Screw all of them.  Ashton is a really good kid, I swear; being the youngest in the class doesn't help, plus he is just learning how to stand in line and wait.  He's one of the most athletic ones, so isn't like he can't hang.  It's these parents' attitudes and facial expressions that give kids who are unique low self-esteem, which in turn teaches their peers to outright reject them from their perfectly coiffed cliques.  I pray that I don't turn into one of them and use this experience to support other parents in similar situations.  Maybe one day I'll find the courage to speak out to these jerks and fight for my little guy.   

Swings are awesome! 

Go Reagan, Go!  Reagan starts to enjoy the swing.

High ten from Emily!

"Chug, Chug, Chug..."  Emily turned the swing into a roller coaster.  Ashton was in heaven!

Wind blown Emily as my super pseudo parent!

Yay Mommy!  Let's get a picture of the Cathcart Triple Threat outside of JumpBunch. 

Spring has sprung and we're having fun!

I have mentioned before that Reagan loves to put clothes on.  Doesn't matter what it is, be it a dish towel, necklace, or anything else laying around.  She loves it, and we love it too.

Keshia visits for a really fun St. Patty's Day celebration with JUST Mommy and Dada-- Thanks Kim!  Beforehand, Keshia plays dress up with Reagan. ... and yes, Aunt Keshia thought that Ashton's underwear would do just fine!

Underwear is fun!

Reagan put on all of the leis we got from baby Hannah's 1st birthday.  Too funny!

Now that the weather has somewhat improved, we're going on walks each day.  The kids love it and I really do too.  Here's a few pics from one of our sunny days, albeit on the cold side. 

Freeze!!  Ashton loves to run ahead of the stroller and then say "Look mommy!  FREEZE!!"

Something that I adore about Ashton is his outgoing personality.  He loves, loves, loves to visit the "big guys" on the basketball court.  He begs for the ball, and usually the boys indulge him.  I love watching because he is polite and idolizes all of them.  He really, really wants to be about 10, so he can join in on their games. 

Chesapeake Beach is in bloom!

SLIDE!  No surprise that our daredevil loves slides.  I caught him this time going down the slide the right way.  Typically, he prefers a running belly flop. 

I've received a few critiques of this blog because there are rarely pictures of me.  It is really hard to snap shots of me, but since it was such a sunny day, I captured this one.  Reagan was cold, so wasn't interested in smiling.  (ignore snot!)

We went to Hannah Jones' pool party, who is the daughter of my friends from college, Courtney and Tarn Jones.  They threw the perfect party for a 1-year-old, and kept in low key and kid-focused. How refreshing!!!  Truly, I had a blast.  They used an indoor pool and only had four kids present, including our two.  What made that great is the chaos was at a minimum, so the four kids were able to have the attention of their parents and swim in the pool for an endless amount of time.  Reagan and Ashton were in HEAVEN.  Reagan was kicking her legs the entire time with a perma-smile.  Ashton was also in hog heaven.  He was jumping in and out of the water, yelling "SWIM!!," playing with floating toys, and of course telling me, "Mommy, let go!!"  He doesn't know how to swim, so I couldn't let go, but we are definitely taking swim lessons soon because he is a natural.  In summary, it was a perfect day and I thank Courtney and Tarn for including us. 

Sweet Hannah is pooped from all the fun.  I didn't get great pictures, since I was primarily playing a fence between Ashton and the pool. 

Miss Sassy Pants in her two piece bathing suit. 

Ashton after swimming was all smiles.

As a last update for this blog, Reagan is really walking around the house.  She's walking about 60% of the time, and you know the toddle stage is just so cute.  Additionally, we've been really fortunate to have amazing hand-me-down clothes from mothers with great taste.  Which means she's now able to wear dresses since they're an annoyance when crawling. 

Looking pretty in blue!

A gender thing..

I was in WalMart today with the kids.  I was alone and unarmed with fruit snacks, which are our latest go-to when managing a toddler crisis.  It was a quick trip to get just a few things, and the kids were as happy as could be.  Great moods all around and even I was having fun.

So there we were zipping along having a conversation about colors and random other things: "what's this?" "FISH!! STAR!!"  Life was good.  As we entered the card aisle, a particularly boring place for the non-readers in the crowd, Ashton asked with a big smile, "Mommy, shoulders?  Please?!"  "Sure, whatever keeps him happy," I thought.  So I loaded him on my shoulders and started to push the cart with one hand and held his feet in an arm bar across my chest.

This woman hollers down the aisle, "You sure that's a good idea?  He's going to fall."   Quick pause-- I'm typically not opinionated with strangers.  Ordinarily, I would have smiled, taken her advice and felt like a total moron.  However, this woman ruined my mood from what was otherwise a perfect outing.  My blood started to boil.

First of all, what qualifies this woman to give me parenting advice?
Do you really think I would do something to harm my son?
Finally, what most pissed me off: if I were a man, you would think that I was Superdad, and inevitably call me cute.

I replied curtly to the hag, I mean, middle-aged woman, "Ma'am, this isn't my first rodeo.  I got it." And with that I was off, steaming with anger.  I was most upset because Jimmy has done this move 1,000 times before.  When we're out shopping it is not uncommon for me to take the lead grabbing things off our list as he pushes the cart with Ashton on his shoulders.  People are constantly coming up saying how adorable it is.  Which it is adorable, but why is it different when I do it?  I can't see the difference.  Is there an assumption that I need some manly strength to carry 34 lbs on my shoulders?  Is it because I'm short?  Little does this woman know that I carry 50 lbs of baby around my house on a daily basis.

It is the worst to get unsolicited and very public advice.  I was embarrassed, not because I should have been, but because this lady made me feel like I was being reckless with one of my most prized possessions.

Have you ever had unwelcome parenting advice from a total stranger?  What did you do?

Sicky McSickerson and a day with Charolotte

When Ashton gets sick, there is always a horrible respiratory issue.  Here he is getting his usual breathing treatment.

Grammy and Papa visited, so it was necessary to break out the "Perfectly spoiled by Grandma" onsie.  She may be spoiled, but we think she deserves it!

Charlotte, a friend from the American Legion, and her daughter, Karen, watched the kids when I had a doctor's appointment this week.  It was so helpful to go alone - truly a rarity - and be able to concentrate on the doctor without the incessant "What's that?"  It was also nice to get a short break from the daily craziness.  We were lucky that Charlotte watches her grandchildren during the day, which meant we made new friends.  I was so proud of the kids as there was no separation anxiety and they were acclimated to the new environment in seconds.  I am sure they were glad to have a break from their crazy Mom just as I was happy to leave them!

Reagan squared!  Charlotte's granddaughter, Reagan, and our Sweet Baby Rea pose for a picture.

New toys?!  No time for a picture, Mom!

Makenna squeezes Reagan and "Big Reagan" peeps in from above.  Makenna clearly wants a sibling!

"Big Reagan," "Little Reagan," and Makenna are all smiles.