Boogers, boogers, everywhere...

So, Zac's had a boogery nose for about two months now, or so it seems.  Maybe even longer.  Every morning, he wakes up with both nostrils full of hardened, dark green boogers.  And, every evening, when I pick him up from preschool, he's got two nostrils full again.  Why?  He seems perfectly fine otherwise, so I've just stopped worrying about it.  It's pretty unsightly though...

Now, Griffin has a major cold.  Slight fever, runny nose, a little bit of coughing, and an occasional sneeze thrown in for good measure.  Yuck.

Griffin's 1st Tooth!

Mommy-Guilt

Here's Zac on his 1st day of preschool this year. He's all business... carrying his banana-nut muffin, and rolling his backpack full of important stuff.

Three out of the four days of preschool drop-off this week have included one or more of the following statements from Zac:

"I don't WANT to go to school!"

"Mommy?  Zachary doesn't want to go to school today."

And of course, the dreaded...

"WAAAAAAAHHHH!  MAAAAA-MEEEEEEE!  WAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
(This last one's accompanied by lots of tears, feet-stomping, and severe angst.)

All of the above lead to lots of Mommy-guilt.  Now, it's not like I drop Zac off at school, go home, and eat bon-bons.  I work full-time.  Could I quit my job and stay home?  Um... sure... but we'd have to move into a less-expensive house, drive a less-expensive car, and live a much less-expensive lifestyle.  Could we do it?  Sure.  Lots of people get by on a lot less.  Do Martin and I want to?  Not really.  And, lastly, do I want to stay home with the boys full-time?  Not on your life.  Don't get me wrong, I love them dearly.  But, I'm not cut out to be a stay-at-home mom.  I'm not one of those people who think that SAHM's have it easy.  I know how hard it is to stay home with the kids full-time, and I feel fortunate that I don't.  Does that make me feel guilty?  Sure.

So, for now, I'll have to learn to deal with the emotional toll of Zac's meltdowns at drop-off time.  But that doesn't mean that I won't feel guilty... every time.

That About Sums It Up

Since Zac's been having a little trouble at preschool drop-off in the mornings, I've been trying to have little chats with him to try to determine if there's something happening at school that's bothering him.  So, this morning, on the way to preschool, we had this little exchange at a stop light:

Me: "Hey Zac.  Did you have fun at preschool yesterday?"

Zac: "Yeah."

Me: "What did you do?"

Zac: "I play with Teacher Autumn, then Mommy pick me up."

Well, that about sums it up!

The Car's in the Garbage

My fabulous hubby spent all day Sunday cleaning out the garage.  I took pictures of a bunch of stuff that we've been "storing" in the there, and posted it all on craigslist.  As of today, we've made $435!  Yay!

As an added bonus, we're finally able to park the car in the garage again.  Double yay!

When Zac saw the car in the garage, he yelled out, "Mommy!  The car's in the garbage!"

That kid... SO funny.

Manners

Zac has been saying "Please," "Thank you," and "You're Welcome" for months now, maybe even a year.  It's something that Martin and I both take a lot of pride in.  He's so polite!  Lately, Zac's taken his manners to a new level.  In addition to thanking you, he now lets you know exactly what he's thanking you for.  For example, when I give him his sippy cup of milk... "Thank you, Mommy... for getting me my milk!"  This morning, his manners reached stratospheric heights.  After I'd put in his eye-drops (for pink-eye), he yelled out, "Thank you, Mommy... for fixing my eyes!"

Those boys sure are loud.

Zac has pink-eye.  We think.  I kept him home from preschool today... which meant that our poor nanny would be stuck with both kids.  One of them sick... and highly contagious.  Given the highly contagious part, I decided to take Griffin to work with me for the morning.  When I brought him home at lunch time, Zac came running out to greet me in only his diaper.  We're teaching him to wash his hands frequently.  You know... H1N1 flu and all.  Trouble is, everytime he washes his hands, he manages to completely soak his clothes.  Thus, the nakedness.  Anyhow, when I brought Griffin inside, I set him down in his carseat on the floor of the kitchen.  Zac ran over with his guitar, and proceeded to serenade Griffin at the top of his lungs... which is pretty darn loud.  Griffin reacted by screeching back at Zac.  Or maybe it was screeching in unison.  Any way you look at it, those boys sure are loud.

Zac seranading Griffin.

Failure... :(

I've decided that I'm a failure at blogging. My last post was in January! That's NINE months ago! Yes, I'm busy, but not as busy as my high school classmate, Sarah, who has identical triplet girls. She has a fabulous blog... http://thegreatumbrellaheist.blogspot.com/ which she updates DAILY... complete with pictures!

So, let's catch-up shall we? It's September now. Zac is a 2 -3/4 year-old big brother to Griffin, who is now 3 months old. The time is flying by so quickly! I feel like I'm missing the boys' lives, yet I'm here every day.

Here's Zac at the park. His favorite activity is digging in the sand. He owns at least a half a dozen plastic shovels, of all sizes and colors. Yet every time we see a shovel in the store, that's what he wants... "Mommy, Zachary needs this shovel!"


And, here's Griffin, laughing with Grandpa.

Thanks to Grandpa for taking these pics! We never seem to find the time to take enough pictures these days. Grandpa spent much of his twelve days here snapping pics. So much so, that Zac tried to break his camera.

It's a boy!

We had our 20-week ultrasound yesterday, and confirmed that we are indeed expecting a little brother for Zac! More importantly, baby boy appears to be perfectly healthy.

A lot of people have assumed throughout my pregnancy that I was hoping for a girl. I guess they think that because I'm female I should want a little girl? Or maybe they think that since I already have a boy, I'd like to have a girl this time? I don't know. I have thought about both options a lot, and I've decided that I'd have been just as happy either way. There are pros and cons to both. It'll certainly be more fun for Zac to have a little brother to play with throughout his childhood... provided that they actually get along once in a while, and share a few similar interests. It's definitely easier (and cheaper) for us to have another boy... other than diapers, I don't think I have to buy a single thing! On the other hand, having a girl would have been fun too, but I'm not a girly-girl myself, so I'm not really going to miss all things pink and frilly. Some say that girls are easier to handle when they're little... I say sure, right up until the teen years hit. Of course, there's no guarantee that our sons won't suffer from all that teen angst and drama, but I do think that girls are far worse. Having lived through the teen years with a stepson... and seeing all of the drama that the girls in his life brought upon themselves, (and how many of them are/have been pregnant) I'm glad we're sticking with just boys.

Damn Pregnancy Hormones

Or, as my husband would say, "Whores moaning?! I don't hear any..."

Ok, very funny Martin. I've always prided myself in being relatively unaffected by hormones. Meaning, I don't really get PMS, and I haven't experienced the erratic mood swings that some women suffer through during pregnancy. But today, I was driving along, listening to country music in my car, and started tearing-up! In my defense, the song on the radio was "You're Gonna Miss This" by Trace Adkins. It really IS a very touching song. If you're not a country music fan, the lyrics generally speak to how quicky life goes by...

“You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days
Hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this”

Ever since Zac was born, I've felt like his life is flying by so fast that I'm missing it all. I can't believe he's already two years old! It makes me sad that he's not really a baby anymore. Every time I think about it, I feel a little panicked and out of control... like I want to be able to slow it all down, but can't. It's really a terrible feeling. I'm sure every parent feels the same way, right? Anyhow, I hope that when Zac looks back and relfects on his life, he'll know how very much we loved him. See? Now I'm tearing up again... damn pregnancy hormones.

Overweight?!

Eating a cupcake at Sofia's 2nd Birthday Party.

I took Zac in to the pediatrician for his two-year old check-up today. He's now 35 inches tall and weighs 35 pounds... which makes him officially OVERWEIGHT! Obese, to be exact. What?! How can this be? He's always been a "densely-packed" kid... meaning that people who try to pick him up always comment that he's heavier than they expected. So anyhow, the doctor said she's not at all concerned, because he doesn't look fat... but we should start giving him 2% milk, instead of the whole milk he's been getting, and eventually transition down to 1% milk. I guess this is just one more thing that Zac gets from me. I was super-chubby as a baby, and placed on a strict diet at nine months old.

Anyhow, Zac also got two shots (which barely fazed him), and a clean bill of health otherwise.

Big Boy Bed!

Zac got his first big boy bed on Sunday. It's shaped like a giant red, race car. He absolutely LOVES it! He went with us to pick it up on Saturday, and then watched us disassemble his crib, and assemble his new bed on Sunday morning. As soon as it was all put together, he immediately laid down in it, and pretended to be sleeping. Sunday afternoon, he took his usual 3-hour nap in his new bed. He got up once after he'd been down for about five minutes, and wandered into the hallway. I took him back to his room, and read him a quick story, told him to stay in his bed, and he did! He got up once at the 2-hour mark... we heard him open his bedroom door, but upon not seeing anyone in the hallway, he closed the door, and apparently, climbed back into bed! Last night, he slept for twelve hours straight, without so much as a single peep! Yay! Let's hope he continues to be such a great sleeper...

Blog? Check!

A couple of years ago, I decided that since everyone else seemed to have a blog, I should have one too. I was all excited about it... for about a week. Well, I'm all excited about it again, so here we go... take two at this whole blogging thing. I don't know about you (all you millions of readers out there), but I'm going to keep my expectations low for now.