Crisis in the Shower

Lately Kaiya has been into taking showers all by herself. It is the most wonderful thing. She hasn't mastered washing her own hair yet, but the shower does occupy her for 20 minutes or so. Last week she was in the shower and she started freaking out and yelling, "Stinky! Stinky!" So Tony and I go into the bathroom to find that she has pooped in the shower. She is completely disgusted by it. Tony gets his stern Daddy voice out and tells her that we only go stinky in a diaper or on the potty. She immediately gets her feelings hurt and begins sobbing. Tony quickly changes to the sweet Daddy voice and says, "It's okay, we know it was an accident, but next time you just need to call us and we can set you on the potty to go stinky." Crisis over.

Fast forward to tonight. Kaiya is in our shower and I'm in our bedroom putting clothes away. I hear her break into sobs as if she is hurt. I didn't hear any "thunks" so I wonder what's going on. I get in there and open the door and she is hovering in the corner and pointing to poop on the drain. I get her out and have her stand on the bathmat while I get toilet paper to get the poo out of the shower. I can tell she is bummed because she is really not done playing in the shower yet. So I give her a gentle lecture about going stinky on the potty and not in the shower and then let her get back in. About 2 minutes later she starts fussing again and I'm thinking -- no way -- not again. I go in, open the shower door and scan the shower floor for poo. Don't see any. But she is saying "Stinky. Stinky. Stinky." Over and over and pointing at the drain. I tell her no, there is no stinky in the shower. She insists and crouches down over the drain and points to a discolored ring around the drain.

I sigh and say... "No, that's called mildew."

She looks at me only half-believing what I've said. And honestly... like the child knows what mildew is anyway. So I find another spot of mildew away from the drain and point it out to her. "See -- it's not stinky. Its just means mama needs to clean the shower."

That seemed to satisfy her.

Letter to Graco

Dear Graco,

I love that you sent my order in a reasonable amount of time. However, I hate that you sent me a motor unit that does not work. Normally when you put batteries in something, it should power on. The motor you sent me did not. What a let down. I told Kaleb all day about how the motor would be arriving and he would get to swing all night long. You can't imagine his disappointment when I had to tell him you sent me a broken motor. He cried and spit up several times the rest of the day -- I'm sure it was because he was so upset about the swing.

The customer service rep was very helpful and will be sending me another motor free of charge. She said I don't even have to worry about sending the broken motor back. Thank goodness... because Lord knows I don't have time for that. I'm lucky to get a shower and 3 squares a day.

May I make a suggestion for this time around? Pack the motor a bit better. Put it in a box that is smaller or if you are going to pack it in a box 3 times its size, put some cushioning in it. Maybe then, it would work upon arrival.

You know what they say -- third times a charm! We can only hope...

Sincerely,
This Tired Mama

Here are the pictures I tried to upload yesterday. :) Kaiya could not be left out of the photo shoot I was having with Kaleb. She saw me taking pictures of him and kept saying, "Mama. Mama. Cheese. Mama. Cheese. MAMA!!!!" So here she is in all her glory. :)

I was watching Thursday's episode of Oprah that I recorded on our cable box and enjoyed an interview given by Daniel Day-Lewis. I'm not familiar at all with this actor because he rarely gives interviews and is very shielded from the public's eye (lucky for him). But he said something that really caught my attention. Maybe because I am in the "thick" of it with these kiddos. Oprah asked him about his role as a father and what has surprised him the most about fatherhood. Here was his response:

"I suppose the delight in bondage, because I daresay for a good part of my life I'd enjoyed traveling light," he says. "And there's nothing more wonderful to me [than] to realize that I was now shackled for the rest of my life…and what a wonderful shackle to have."

I couldn't agree more. There are times that I think of my carefree pre-kid life and how easy life seemed then. But really -- these two kids are the most wonderful things to be "shackled" with. :)

Pictures coming later... for some reason Blogger isn't uploading them right now.

Boot Camp

Well, it's that time again. I can hardly believe it. It seems like just yesterday that I was starting to work off my baby weight from Kaiya. Actually... that's right... it was just last year! For some strange reason with her I thought the weight would just drop off without me having to do anything. So I waited until I had to fit into a tight dress at my sister's wedding before I started working out. I'm smarter this time around -- I'm not waiting around for the pounds to fall off.

Boot Camp here I come! I'm 2 for 2 this week so far -- my goal is getting in 3 a week. Starting with low expectations -- c'mon -- I'm lucky if I get a shower every other day! :)

Memo to Graco

TO: Graco
FROM: Me
CC: Craigslist
RE: Swing

Please, please please send the replacement motor unit quickly. While I love purchasing things second hand, I hate when they don't work. (Especially when the seller swears that it is practically brand new and that her daughter just didn't like it.) See, my precious son really liked the swing when I put him in it. His eyes got really big and he loved being pushed. I, however, do not like running into the room every 2 minutes to give the swing another push. And since he is not currently coordinating his nap times with Kaiya's naps, I desperately need something to occupy him with.

One more thing -- when the motor does arrive -- please let it work!





Note to my concerned readers: She's supposed to be sending me $20 back in the mail... And if it doesn't show I'd like to go put the smack down on her but she does live in the ghetto (according to Ruthie who picked up the swing) so I probably won't be doing that. No need getting shot over a baby swing.

Evolution of a SMILE

Two cuties cuddling!

Saturday Surprise

Tony got home from work on Saturday and asked me what my agenda was for the afternoon. Me -- congested, sleep deprived, coughing -- with an agenda? Nothing at all... Then again at lunch he says: "So you don't have anything planned for the day?" Um... nope. Nothing planned! Well, he says, I've got a surprise. Now, this is really exciting for me because one of my favorite things is when he secretly plans an activity that I don't know about and we go do it. Granted, it rarely happens, but every time it does I act VERY excited so that he knows just how much it means to me. He packed the diaper bag while I finished feeding Kaleb and then we were off. Tony was so cute with his mapquested directions taking us off to the surprise destination. The drive out was beautiful. The orange groves are gorgeous -- but they tempt me so bad. I want to pull over and pick a few -- they look so yummy hanging on the trees. I'll have to get a picture sometime. Anyway... 30 minutes later we were at Forever Florida, a ranch with animals and hiking trails, etc.

Kaiya had a great time and was much braver than I expected while feeding the critters. She let them eat right out of her hand. Here are the pictures!

Just a quick post. When I thought I was feeling better... I now have a cold! Many of you are wondering -- is it even possible to get a cold in Florida? I'm here to confirm. Yep... despite our lovely warm weather -- I have ended up with a cold. Which I have kindly passed along to Kaiya and possibly Kaleb. He sounded a little stuffy to me earlier this morning... hopefully it doesn't develop into anything. I'm trying to get naps in when I can. Just say a quick prayer for us -- I really would like to get back to feeling 100%.

And I'd like to think this cold doesn't have anything to do with the 1/2 pan of brownies I ate when I thought my boil was gone. Oh... but they tasted SO good. (When we get sick we eliminate all the sugar from our diets -- sickness feeds off of sugar, so we only help our colds and infections get worse when we eat sugary stuff.) I did not eat one drop of sugar while I had that boil -- and lacked a little in the area of self-control once I thought I was in the clear. Paying for it now...

Bad Week

This post has two purposes --

1)To summarize last week
2)To hopefully make you giggle a little when you hear the Chipmunk's version of Daniel Powter's song Bad Day. We played it for Kaiya and she thinks it is hilarious.

Without going into too much detail (because you really don't want me to...) :) my week was bad because I got a boil. Hopefully the first and last I ever get. One of the reasons a person can get them is from a weakened immune system. Which, based on the fact that I haven't had a full night's sleep in the past month, makes a lot of sense. So... after several homeopathic treatments, I am finally on the tail end of it (no pun intended). Ha ha... Anyway... This unfortunate infection was only compounded by the fact that Tony was out of town Thurs-Sunday. Thankfully he is back and we're doing better.

Enjoy the video...

A moment to breathe. I have two sleeping children -- I live for their naptimes now. The times when they are awake are great too -- don't get me wrong! It's just the only thing I can hear right now are the fan running and the sound of my fingers on the keyboard. Whoever coined the phrase silence is golden, must have been a mom of at least 2 children. :)

Here are some pictures from our week:

Sweet Kaiya. She is obsessed with shoes and particularly Aunt Ruthie's high heels. Here she is, just bee-bopping around the house with her baby (whom she has named (on her own) Ella -- possibly a shortened Cinderella because she is currently also obsessed with Cinderella). I constantly hear "click, clunk, click, clunk" all around the house as she goes about her pretending. It really is music to my ears -- want to gobble her up with kisses when I catching her looking so cute.

This picture was taken while I was making dinner. Kaiya is munching on frozen broccoli. Yep -- she likes to eat broccoli before it is cooked and still in its frozen state. We are so proud of her. Most kids would be asking for cookies or chips, etc. Our sweet, sugar deprived child asks for frozen broccoli. Most kids dip their food in ketchup... Kaiya asks for hummus or guacamole. We are so proud of her.

Our baby boy! Here's a picture taken of Kaleb last night. He's getting big much quicker than Kaiya did! Gotta love this slightly unattractive picture of Kaleb. :) Total deer in the headlights expression. This was after I had taken several pictures -- clearly the flash was getting to him. But once you get past the goofy look, notice the head of hair that he will eventually have. It's getting longer and staying beach blond.

After watching several debates the Hyser household has decided to give our backing to Mike Huckabee for the Republican nomination. Yes, I know... this is huge -- the weight of our support gives Chuck Norris a run for his money. While we know, like Oprah, our influence is enough for many people to vote for Huckabee no questions asked, we want you to be educated voters. So, over the next few posts we'll give you our favorite reasons to vote for Huckabee. That's assuming that most of our readers are Republicans. Our mistake. For any Democrat readers... just vote for whoever Huckabee can more easily beat. And right now... that's looking like Gov. Richardson. :)

Reason #1 to vote Huckabee: HEALTH CARE



We love this reason. Doesn't it just make sense. Tony's glad that people are catching onto this. Let's encourage people in our country to keep themselves healthy and well in the first place!

Baby Wipes

A friend of mine had this recipe posted on her blog for homemade baby wipes. With the rate that we are going through baby wipes these days, I thought I would check it out and see if this was the route we wanted to go. We've been using them for a week now and I'm pretty pleased with the results. Here's the recipe if anyone wants to give it a try:

1 roll paper towels
2 cups water
1-2 T baby soap
1 T baby oil

Cut roll of paper towels in half (resulting in two toilet paper sized rolls). Mix water, soap and oil. Soak one roll of paper towels in mixture for 10 minutes. (Dip "O" side down, rather than on the side. I dipped one side in the mixture for a few seconds and then turned it over and let it set the rest of the time on the other side.) Remove cardboard roll. The wipes will start from the center. Store wipes in plastic container of your choice. I am using a gallon sized ziploc bag.

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I bought Bounty Pick-a-Size paper towels. They are the perfect wipe size. My friend said that she uses one full roll of paper towels per month for her little boy. He's 4 months old... So there is definitely cost savings here. Other observations about the wipes: I like that I know what they are made of. We are using our Baby Arbonne Wash and Oil, so they are all-natural wipes. I had previously been using the Target Brand Sensitive Skin wipes, and I find that these homemade ones aren't quite as soft. Still, though, the savings are worth it and it took me like 10 minutes to make the wipes.

Finally... a child who looks like me

Kaiya is the spitting image of Tony. So it is about time that I have a child that resembles me a bit more. :) I dug out these baby pictures of me when I was 1-2 weeks old and then put one of Kaleb down below. I had a bit more chunk on me than he does, but we think he definitely looks like a Haun. And that means he could actually be over 6 ft tall! :) Wouldn't that be cool?

Here's some pictures from Christmas Eve. Kaiya and I rolled out sugar cookies for Santa. She loved putting the sprinkles on. And then, of course, eating them...

Here she is doing her fake-out. She thinks it is hilarious to pretend she is going to gobble something she isn't supposed to. She opens her mouth huge, leans down and makes munching sounds. Then she cracks up.

The Christmas Wreath -- So this was my first year at tackling this family tradition. Every year, my Grandma Haun would make a cinnamon roll Christmas wreath to be served on Christmas morning for breakfast. And it's a tradition my mom carried on as well. So I figured that I would start this year, that way I would have several practice years before my kids would remember. It didn't turn out too bad this year. I should have covered it in foil sooner than I did. It browned up on the outside edges before the middle was completely cooked. So I would change that and then add more sugary-cinnamony goo on the inside.

Kaiya's new baby doll needed to go in the vibrating bouncy seat as well. She was so proud of herself. She also had me nurse her doll this morning. That was hilarious. She brought her over, lifted my shirt and said "Eat." It's a definite improvement over things a week ago. She was not a big fan of me breastfeeding Kaleb. She would scream, "NO!" when she saw that I was getting ready to feed him. Our best moment was when she tried to detach him. OUCH!! So... I'm seeing this as a positive change. When she wanted me to feed her doll, I played along for a little while and then said -- "All done." She looked at me very seriously said, "More." and handed the doll back.

Just a couple recent pictures of Kaleb.
I was tied up feeding Kaleb this morning and could hear Kaiya playing in my bathroom. She does this often, pulling things out of the drawers, playing in my closet, etc. This morning, however, she was playing very quietly. Not a good sign. I hollared at her saying -- you better not be getting into anything you aren't supposed to. She yells, "No!" Her favorite word lately and then I hear frantic scrambling, cupboards and drawers closing. Yeah right... So I walk in there and she has hidden everything, except for the obvious evidence on her face. She tried to put on my makeup. Only no one told the kid that eye shadow is for the eyes, not the lips. We had a good laugh (after I told her No!) and then of course had to get a picture. Which is an obvious form of positive reinforcement for the bad behavior, but you know... I had to do it anyway. I need something to blog about! :)

Thank you Aunt Bekah & Uncle Brent

Dear Uncle Brent & Aunt Bekah,

I really really really LOVE the Christmas presents you sent me. I couldn't contain my smiles when I opened them. You pick out perfect presents. Do you want my birthday list now?

Love,

Kaiya

Grandma Time

These first pictures are of visits with grandmas over the past week. Tony's mom was here when Kaleb was born and then my mom came on Saturday and left last night. Their help was invaluable and Kaiya loved the attention.

Tony's Mom

My mom

So... Kaleb's umbilical cord fell off on Friday. So early and strange!! I found it inside his shirt. So since it came off we decided it would be a good time for his first bath. We still just did a sponge bath... and he really didn't mind it. Kaiya's first bath was quite an ordeal... I remember her screaming the whole time. Kaleb just laid there like it was no big deal.

After the bath it was time for Kaleb's first chiropractic adjustment! Got a couple pics of it. He seemed to enjoy this too! :) Kaiya's been asking Tony to adjust her lately. She'll come up to him and touch her neck saying, "Neck. Neck." It is so cute.

This post has been done in parts today... It's almost 7 pm and both kids are asleep. We had our first outing w/ the three of us (K, K & Mama) to Wal-Mart and we all survived. Got home around 4:30 and put Kaiya down right away (learned my lesson on Friday). I had intended to only let her sleep an hour, but the silence is just too golden right now. :) She's still sleeping and dinner is in the oven. Thought I would grab a minute to myself before she wakes up starving. She probably won't go to sleep tonight, but it's worth it. :)

Tomorrow is scary circumcision day. Oh the wonderful world of boys. I'm a bit nervous for him. Tony is off, so we're all going at 8 a.m. It's really a good day to do it since Tony will be home for most of the day. Anyway... hopefully he won't be in too much pain throughout the next few days. Shoot -- I hardly know how to change his diaper as it is... let alone w/ a big ouchie down there...) ha ha...

Well, I hear squeaking from Kaiya's room. So I'm off!

Life with two...

I think it would be an understatement to say our lives have changed by adding another child. :) Things are drastically different! Friday was my first day on my own with both kids. Tony went back to work and Ruthie wasn't home until the afternoon. The morning went fairly well. Kaiya was pretty good and I was able to put her down for the morning nap just as Kaleb was waking up and wanting fed. So we survived that. Ruthie came in the afternoon and took Kaiya shopping for the afternoon. I slept nearly all afternoon.... it was great. They got back around 5:00 p.m. and I debated whether Kaiya should go down for a quick nap. I ended up not putting her down -- HUGE mistake. Ruthie and Brad left and I started dinner. It was our anniversary and so Tony requested breakfast for dinner (bless his heart -- just about the easiest thing to make). I started dinner and Kaiya started major naughtiness. :) She seriously whined or cried for 2 hours straight. I gave her a snack, I let her play in the kitchen sink, I let her crack all the eggs for dinner. And throughout all of it she whined, moaned, groaned, screamed, and cried. Thankfully Kaleb was at least sleeping. :) When I couldn't take anymore I called my parents crying, told them I needed them to talk to Kaiya so I could have a moment to compose myself in the bathroom, put them on speaker phone and handed the phone to Kaiya. I locked my self in the bathroom, sobbed some more and then pulled it together and finished dinner up. I'd like to think we could attribute this to a change in hormones. :) AHHH! Tony got home an hour later and wrestled and tickled Kaiya. She continued the whining for him and I was secretly glad -- it wasn't just me she was being difficult for. We both breathed a sigh of relief when she was in bed for the night. Tony said... Don't worry -- your mom will be here tomorrow. I smiled and got into a hot bath.

I have to start this post by saying that I am typing while lying on my stomach. It is the most wonderful feeling in the world! :) It really is one of the things I disliked the most about being pregnant. Couldn't relax in that position...

Anyway... Kaiya is in bed asleep. Kaleb is in bed asleep. Ahhhh... Peace & quiet. We should probably be asleep too, but Tony's watching a movie and I thought I would play on the computer for a little while.

We went to the pediatrician yesterday. He hated it. :) Nothing too exciting to report... everything checked out okay. After that appointment we headed over to the Birth Place for my 72-hr visit.

This is Jennie Joseph, the founder of the Birth Place and the midwife who was on call when we delivered. She is English, so I got to listen to a wonderful soothing accent while giving birth. She exudes compassion and love -- it was really a blessing to deliver with her.
Kaiya's first time holding Kaleb. She was a trooper -- I could see her arm getting tired and wanting to drop instead of holding his head up. But she did great -- although he was quite miserable.

Took this picture this morning. Kaleb and I were snuggling in bed and Kaiya couldn't miss out. She wanted to hold Kaleb lying down. Very cute...

The Birth

I kind of jumped from posting about "going to have him" to the pictures of him being here. So here is how Saturday unfolded. We finally got out the door and on our way to the birth center around 3:45 p.m. We arrived and got settled in our room. Jennie came in and examined me and found that I was 5 cm and she stretched me to 6 cm. She gave me some homeopathic pills to take every 15 minutes and instructed me to walk for an hour or so. We decided to drive to a mall a few minutes away (who does this a week away from Christmas on a Saturday night?). But we did... ate some good dinner and walked the mall. By the time we returned to the center I was having contractions every 5 minutes. She examined me again -- I was still 6 cm, but she stretched me to 7 cm. We went outside and walked some more. From 6-8 p.m. my contractions stayed between 4-5 minutes apart. There was another couple giving birth at the center too and Jennie was the only midwife. So we told her that we would just wait until the other couple delivered before we had my water broken. We knew the other couple had been there longer and they were getting close to her being able to push so thought it would be best to have them go first. :)

While we were waiting for Jennie, I had a few contractions that led me to think I might break my water naturally. So I decided to wait another hour to see what happened. At midnight I gave her the okay to break my water. A few minutes after my water broke, the contractions bumped up to 2 minutes apart and very strong. The tub of water could not fill up quick enough. I kept glancing over from my bed to see if it was ready for me to get in it. Once I got in the water it was immediately relaxing. The water was very warm and my first contraction in the water felt amazingly less intense than when I was on the bed. I remember looking at Tony and Ruthie and saying, "I think this one is going to be a cake walk compared to Kaiya." I had a few more contractions and then felt like it was time to push. I pushed for 15 minutes and he was born at 1:01 a.m. I was shocked when I realized that he was practically out. When I had Kaiya I pushed for an hour and a half. So during the time I pushed with Kaleb I was thinking that it was only the beginning. I hadn't even bothered to look and see how much progress I was making because I thought I still had a long way to go. When I did finally look and saw the top half of the head out, I remember asking -- is that the head? Tony and Jennie were like -- Yeah - you are so close. I'm thinking -- Well, why didn't you tell me sooner! And I mustered up one more big push and he was out.

He came out really quiet. No screaming or crying. He was also really really clean because of the water. He had his hair (or lack of) washed, but that was it. He didn't need the full bath. The other thing I enjoyed about this experience was that there wasn't anyone immediately ready to whisk him away for weighing or measuring, etc. We did not cut the cord right away, but I was able to just snuggle him until the cord emptied. Everything was more relaxed and moved at a slower pace.

I also loved being able to go home so quickly. It was nice to be in our own space and not having nurses come in every hour to check my blood pressure or ask me how many wet/dirty diapers we have had, how long did I feed him, taking our temperatures, etc. And I think with Kaiya it has been better that we have been home. She really hardly missed us because we were home first thing in the morning.

So... that's the scoop. I'd do it again -- definitely in the water -- and definitely at a birth center. Who knows... maybe we'll have the next one at home. :)