finding a cure

there are a lot of things i love about my house.  one kinda strange thing i love is that it's "good at being dirty."  the people that built the house picked fixtures and finishes that look the same regardless of if they're clean or messy.  like the speckled granite in my kitchen is one example.  you could have dumped two cups of granola and scattered it across the counter tops and yet they would still look flawlessly clean.  you wouldn't know about all that granola unless you wiped everything down (or unless you got down at eye level and had the sun shining in to help you see everything) and i love that.  i keep my house as clean as i can, but it's easier on my ocd when i can't see every tiny spill (as was the case when i nannied for a family with jet black granite countertops.  you could even see the streaks left over from the cleaning wipes and it drove me nuts) so i can enjoy a "clean" kitchen all day even when i only have time to wipe everything down at night before i go to bed.

one thing that is very much the opposite?  my glass shower.  it can be clean without ever looking clean because of the hard water stains that build up on the shower door and walls.  i know, i know, if you use a squeegee after every time you shower, it won't have time to build up.  that's all fine except that my husband isn't in to that stuff.  it doesn't bother him so he doesn't have the motivation (or memory) to wipe the walls or spray that every day shower spray stuff.  so my shower looks like this...

and i hate it.  and don't think i haven't tried a slew of cleaning products, vinegar, searching a million and one blogs (and pinterest) online, and asking every friend i've ever met.  no success.  so it just keeps getting worse and this morning i was showering while baby girl was working on puzzles.  occasionally she would bring me a piece and ask for help.  i would always say something super nondescript like "oh, that goes next to the orange pieces" or "it's got a straight edge so it goes next to the other straight edge pieces" which always satisfied her just fine and she would give me an "oh!" and happily run to the coffee table to put it in its place.  the thing that bothered me though was that i realized the glass was getting so bad that i could barely see through it anymore.  this was dire.  i NEEDED to find a solution!

according to a lot of comments on the internet, mr clean magic erases work well for this... but i don't have any of those in the house.  i think one comment mentioned using something abrasive to scrub it off.  so i tried some of those steel wool soap pads i have under my kitchen sink for scrubbing my cookie sheets and jelly roll pans.  well...

i couldn't believe it worked!  i made sure to test a concentrated area because (like when i tried the vinegar) it's frustrating to clean your whole shower only to have it dry and look the same as when you started.  i wasn't going to waste my time doing the whole shower until i knew it actually worked.  well it really really works... i promise!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

are you amazed?  when you're scrubbing it, you can hear and feel the difference from it scraping away the hard water mineral deposits to just having clean and smooth glass.

 

i did a couple more circles just for fun and then just started at the top and was doing a huge chunk when i heard my baby crying in the other room and realized i was supposed to pick baby girl up from play school in two minutes.  sooo, i don't have any true after pictures for you... but eventually i'll have a clean shower!  this might be the best day of my life.

*i took a million pictures so you could see but it turns out it's really tricky to take pictures in my bathroom.  so many shadows and mirrors and reflections and whatever.  oh well, hopefully it's enough to show the difference.

Better by the day

I get a lot of people asking me how Brady's doing. I know I do a crappy job of doing anything more than occasionally mentioning him on the blog. But it's hard when he's constantly changing! So here's just he latest on Brady's happenings.

Brady's first two weeks- screaming during every single diaper change. Next couple weeks fine with diaper changes. Next few weeks- happy to just lay for five or so minutes after a diaper change. As of last Thursday, will actually be content just laying on the floor (without a binky even!) after a diaper change for even fifteen or maybe twenty minutes! And I can much more frequently put him down when I need to and he'll be happy to just hang out til I come get him again. It's like he just flipped a switch. But I guess it's actually been a progression of flipped switches. It's amazing and I'm loving it.

Brady almost never minds his medicine anymore. Maybe it's an acquired taste? He used to cry and spit most of it out. Now he just opens his mouth and gulps it right down. Occasionally he'll fuss a tiny bit but that's definitely not the norm now.

He's still hot and cold with his baths. But he's so tiny that they only take about sixty seconds anyways so it's not a big deal. Unless I'm bathing Abigail too, then I just bathe him in my bathroom sink. It's kinda like washing my hands except that its a baby.

For the last several weeks, Brady has been sleeping 100% in his carseat. And if we're at home then it just sits by my bed. I'm kinda over it. First, I have a pretty strict rule about no kid stuff in my bedroom (Brady has been granted an exception since he was born) and second, it's not sustainable. It's better for kids to sleep flat on their backs and I want Brady to learn to sleep in his crib. So yesterday afternoon I had him nap in his crib. He did great. Three hour nap with minimal help. Evening nap sucked. And then all of last night was mostly rough (multiple binky insertions before he would fall asleep) and he slept for as little as a 1.5 hour stretch and as much as a 3 hour stretch. Rough. I am not one of those people that can say I wake up early in he morning to exercise but now I can say I wake up during he night to exercise. I need credit for the fifty plus times I went up and down our stairs last night!

Today's first two naps were good. 9 to 11:35 (in crib) and then 12:20 to 3:25 (buckled in carseat at the playground and then finished just in the kitchen. The other afternoon nap in the crib sucked and the nap tonight while I took both kids to young women's basically didn't happen. He was awake and fussy the whole time. Abigail was a delight though so thank goodness I didn't have two crying kids! He just had such a fussy night and it made me grateful again that it's not the norm like to used to be!

Anyways, hopefully tonight goes okay so I'm not too tired, but either way, I'm getting the hang of juggling two kids in the daytime. Even if I'm still trying to figure out this nighttime baby thing! I mean, I did three loads of laundry and cleaned my kitchen from top to bottom and took both kids to Walmart yesterday and survived just fine! And most of my days go really smoothly now! I rarely have moments with both kids screaming and an overwhelming desire to curl up in the fetal position and give up on life. I mean, just kidding, that never ever happened to me not even once.

So just wish Brady and me good luck tonight!

Ps- this afternoon while I was feeding him he kept making eye contact and cooing at me and smiling! So even though I know he's done this a few times before, this time was the first that I felt we were really connecting. I'm going to mark today, the day he turned seven weeks, as the memorable day for this important milestone. So exciting! He melts my heart. I can't wait to get to know him as he grows up more and more!

Matching

They sure grow up fast.

It works

When Brady's sleeping we do play dough. When he's eating, we do books in bed. It's a pretty sweet system.

My third child

I love milk almost as much as my first and second born. Can't you tell it's like a child to me?!

Bath time

Multi tasking bath time. Baby girl loves it.

disobedient

like most two and a half year olds, my child frequently has trouble listening and following through with my requests.  like this afternoon when i said "i'm going to put this laundry away.  go find a book to take upstairs and we can read it before nap."  less than a minute later i heard the music from the thomas cd we just got from the library this morning and came out to find this...

i'm not gonna lie... much of my difficulty in parenting comes from trying not to smile when i know i need to put forth my most "i'm disappointed in your actions and i disapprove of this choice you're making right now" face.

i couldn't resist.  i let her keep dancing.  and i have no idea why that second video is so weird.

a morning too good to be true

i woke up this morning at 8 15 to the sound of my stirring newborn.  i popped a binky in his mouth and he drifted off again.  and then i turned on baby girl's video monitor.  already awake a playing loudly in her crib.  who even knows when she woke up.  i texted my honey a bit and then told him i was going to hurry and jump in the shower and hope i didn't have two screaming kids by the time i got out.  brady started crying part way through but i put that binky back in his mouth and brought his carseat next to the shower so if it happened again i wouldn't have to get water all over the floor again.  and i had baby's monitor set up so i could see it through the glass.  basically i felt like i was showering with the company of a crowd of people.  and by the end, brady was awake (but content!) and baby girl was crying in her crib.  i shouted up to her that i'd get her in a minute and then hurried and got semi dressed and took brady up with me.  i gave both of them a bath and got them dressed (check it out... i'm super mom!) and came downstairs.  got brady his medicine and swaddled and brought him (buckled in his carseat) to the kitchen.  i literally had my arm extended to give him a binky when his eyelids closed and he fell asleep before my very eyes!

she picked out her entire outfit.  head to toe.

i made breakfast while baby girl 100% on her own, got out her new thomas puzzle and put it together completely on her own.  like i didn't even know she was working on it til she was most of the way through and since i had eggs cooking, i didn't get to go over and look at it until she proudly exclaimed that she was done.  how cute is that "i did it!" you get from a toddler?!  i love it.  so i texted her picture and the story to my christopher.  even more than doing the puzzle, i'm impressed that she got the box from under the sofa and started putting it together on her own.  i think it's adorable when she plays independently like that.

when i first saw she was doing the puzzle

i told her "look at the phone and say DADDY!!!"  that always gets a good picture.

since she was still playing puzzles (sesame street now), i went ahead to eat my breakfast and it only took a minute before baby girl climbed in her highchair to join me.  and then she ate her whole breakfast without stalling or making a mess or really doing anything that i wouldn't do while eating breakfast.  she was so perfectly behaved.  and my favorite part was that she kept saying stuff about how excited she was to go to story time at the library.  maybe it really clicked this time when i told her the list of things we needed to do before we could go to the library and she was intent on getting them done!  she finished eating while i got dressed and did hair and makeup.  then she got out and went potty while i got her two sets of clothes (one to wear since she'd picked out her initial outfit, and one as backup since she was going out in underwear for the first time) and then i threw on my boots, took my bag of dvds and books to return and my purse to the car, got baby girl dressed and buckled in her seat, and then just carried brady's carseat to the car.  it's incredible the amount of work that goes into just getting out the door.  and then we got a great parking spot and only got to story time five minutes late!  it was fabulous.

watching baby girl listen to stories and do the songs/dances is one of my very very favorite activities right now.  i melts my heart.  times a million.  story time today was about transportation and she got train stamps on her hands.  to match her thomas shirt and undies... how perfect!  we played puzzles (and i got to be the proud parent when a mom asked the little girl sitting next to abigail about a puzzle piece and after a minute of the girl not responding, abigail points to it and says "it's red!  it goes right there!" and then showed the girl where it went.  i'm sure that's obnoxious when you're trying to question/teach/test your child but she doesn't know social norms and she was helping to answer the question.  we went to pick up a bunch of thomas stuff i put on hold online and baby girl was sooo excited.  i love being able to do stuff like that for her.  we played a magnet game (they have them set up in the window seats) and baby girl impressed me yet again by knowing all of her shapes.  i won't lie, i was shocked.  especially when she picked one up and said "this is a diamond!  this is a diamond too!  they're the same!"  ummm who taught you to be able to identify a diamond?!  because i know i didn't.

shapes matching game with dinosaurs

twice while we were at the library, i took her to the bathroom.  not because i thought she needed to go (she went right before we left and she's fine to hold it for two hours so i knew we would be back home in time), but because i wanted to give her exposure to public restrooms.  so i took her to the bathroom and let her sit on the potty while i read her one of her new books.  and then i gave her part of a kitkat for trying.  and then we did the same thing again before we left.  i totally thought she would be scared and try to fight me on it but she was awesome.

so then i called bed bath and beyond and talked to someone and then headed into the store.  i found  a little thomas potty seat online but apparently it's not sold in stores and luckily (because it's not at walmart or target) they said i could come in and order it at the store using a coupon and they would waive the shipping fee and mail it directly to my home.  sweet!  so we did that and once again, baby girl was great.  who's kid is this?!  where did you come from?!

i used to not care about this stuff until i had kids that needed to get in and out of the car. brady rides on the this side . i decided ahead of time that i wouldn't even feel guilty if i nicked their car with my door while trying to fit his carseat in.  which barely cleared.  not sure what i would have done if it didn't fit.  maybe try the door on the other side?!  quickly becoming a pet peeve.

so then we were home by 1:05 and baby girl was still dry!  two hours and twenty minutes!  woohoo!  she went potty while i got brady from the car and i thought to myself, "this may be our best day yet!  i can totally do this two kid thing!  and yeay for brady not stirring or fussing that entire nap in the carseat!  life is perfect!"

but then things slowly unraveled and by 2:30, i was just grateful i hadn't given abigail away to goodwill.  so the purpose of this post is to preserve my morning forever and hopefully forget whatever happened between 1:30 and 2:30!  hopefully our night is filled with dance parties and playing trains and maybe making rice krispie treats together!  it's hard to stay upset for long when she's just so dang cute and lovable.  thank goodness for that.

go ahead and ask her why she's sad.  she'll tell you it's because "abigail's not listening." now if only that had clicked to her while it was happening...

two points for the ipad.  thank you for teaching baby girl her shapes.

i also wrote "it's hard not to get frustrated when she makes bad choices and chooses not to listen.  i bet that's what heavenly father feels like 24/7."  that's been my goal since my bad parenting morning last tuesday... to try to parent more like heavenly father.  and my new mantra is "if it takes yelling at my child to get us ______ (out of the house, to this playdate on time, etc.) then it's not worth it.  so my challenge for the past week and a half has been to not lose my temper or at least not let it affect my actions towards baby girl.  i've got a long way to go but i'm doing much better than i have been.

so that's been the day so far.  brady has been awesome and the fussing has been minimal... although i can't blame him for the crying that happened when i was neglecting him to deal with baby girl.  and nap time has been healing for the soul... as usual.  so now i'm just back to loving my life with two kids.

and on a mostly unrelated note, would someone please please please help me figure out the easiest way to get my iphone videos compatible with picasa?!  after way too much time and effort, i finally got them onto my computer but now i can't edit them... so they're all flipped to the side and i can't edit the length.  and my extensive google search hasn't helped yet.