are you smarter than a 4 year old?!

when fin first started eating food as a baby, i thought he was going to be a great eater. he flat out refused baby cereal - but can you blame him, that stuff is gross. but he took to all the other foods we offered him like a champ. as a new mom, i decided it was best to make all my own baby food. so he was eating "exotic" things like avocado and mango and cottage cheese. he never turned his nose up at anything. once he moved onto table foods at around 9 or 10 months of age, he continued to be a great eater. i would make one dinner for the three of us and he would gladly eat the cut up bits of whatever we were having for dinner. then he turned 1, and it was like a switch was turned off in his little body. he started to refuse all manner of foods.

then it happened... i made the ultimate mom mistake and began my days as a short order cook. this has been carrying on for quite some time. i have tried a gagillion tricks to try and get him to just taste new things. i mean really, have you ever known a kid who doesnt like mashed potatoes? he wont even try them. he doesnt know what he is missing out on. we have tried telling him "eat this is will make you insert lie descriptive word here". i mean, we all know that couscous salad makes you silly, right?! we have tried offering rewards for trying new things. we have tried the old, "just one bite and if you dont like it you can spit it out" tactic. lately we ad been successfully using the reverse psychology method of saying," i bet you can't take two bites of that". however, yesterday i was outsmarted by my 4 year old who responded, "you are right mommy, i can't take two bites of that". doh!!

so if you have a better method, chime in and add a comment, i am getting desperate here! and worse, the "switch age" is rapidly approaching to max and keegan and there is no way i am preparing 4 separate dinners each night!

bad to the bone...

max is all over the place these days! and then the camera battery died - sorry keeg, we have to wait a bit to capture your new tricks.

bracing myself

my body knows it, my brain is telling me to get ready, my heart is aching, tears sit just below the surface. i can feel it coming. the word "anniversary" doesnt quite seem like the appropriate word. even thesaurus.com makes nearly all its synonyms sound like a fond memory of a joyful and jubilant event. even the advertising that comes up when you search on that word is keyed in on the good, encouraging its readers to buy something from Tiffany & Co.

i am nearing "that day" where everything turned upside down one year ago. friends who have walked this path before me tell me that the anticipation is worse than actually living it. i am counting on that.

today is blog day for mother's act

sometime during that first week when max and keegan where in the nicu i went to visit my ob because my legs were swollen beyond belief. i actually felt like i was walking around on two tree trunks. thanks pitocin! anyway, i had been holding up pretty well considering all that had happened over the past few weeks. in actuality, i was hiding it all pretty well. partly because noone had said to me, "how are you doing nicole?" (face to face anyway) until that morning. so my ob popped her head out of an appt and checked my legs, reminded me about my friend pitocin, asked about the boys, and then casually said, "yes, but how are you doing?". to which i responded by dissolving into a heaping mass of tears. "umm, nicole step into my office," she said. she sweetly reminded me that i didnt have to be everything to everyone and certainly couldnt be that everything if i wasnt taking care of myself first. we talked for awhile and she handed me a prescription that got me through those rough days and helped me to find a much happier self still months later. filling that script was the best thing i did for myself and my family. postpartum depression is more common then you think. if you think you need help, just ask for it. dont wait til your 6 week check up, pick up the phone and talk to your dr. if you arent ready to do that, pick up your phone and call your partner or a trusted friend and start by asking them for help. and if you are the lucky ones to not have been affected by PPD, remember your girlfriends, sisters, etc. reaching out for help can sometimes be tough and you never know when asking a simple question can mean the world of difference to someone.

holy shit

umm, max just let go of the gate and took a step and a half!!!!!!!!!! totally on purpose, i was watching the wheels spin in his head. not even 11 months yet - this cant be happening!!!!!!!!

taking a break for this commercial announcement

ok have you heard of pandora? if not, you have to check it out. it allows you to create your own commercial free radio station. basically, you type in an artist or song that you like and pandora and the music genome project creates and saves a radio station for you that starts playing immediately commercial free. it rocks! thanks to my very best gal pal and college roommate who introduced me to this. just like in college, you are still influencing my music listening - love ya cris!

hangover

this morning i woke up with a hangover - and honestly, while i felt like death warmed over, the first thought on my mind was i really cant remember the last time i woke up feeling this way. then the cooing on the baby monitor quickly escalated to a raucous roar and i couldnt help but groan about getting out of bed. so i shuffled out of bed and started the routine, clean diaper, new outfit, into the highchair, check...clean diaper, new outfit, into the highchair, check... make breakfast for three hungry boys, check...smile to myself about the sweetness of these boys as well as the night i had last night, check, check! plan trip to drivethru for the requisite bacon, egg and cheese biscuit and tub of sweet iced tea required to function in this hungover state, check!

my best friend from high school recently moved back to the area and last night we had girls night out. the martinis at lemongrass went down a little too smoothly - boy were they good! but the conversation was even better. it has been so nice to just pick up where we left off 17 (ack!!) years ago like we havent missed a beat. of course we have kept in touch all along, and visited when we could (hard when she is in a new state every couple of years) - but there is nothing like sharing laughs over a drink with a great gal pal. and this time we didnt even need fake IDs!