Hair Do's and Don'ts

A little sigh of relief escaped my lips when I found out that my second (and last) child was going to be a little man.  Why you might ask?  The reason is hair.  I do not know how to style hair.  So Dean - do not try to pull off a "long hair don't care" hippy mentality in this household.  You will not get away with it.

Hair has always been a challenge.  My hair tends to be a tad unruly at times.  I have a lot of hair, and I basically just learned how to handle all of this hair at the age of 30.  I will disclose that I went through some hairstyles that can only be described as rough.  One time I cut my hair short...like bowl cut short.  Several times I had perms.   There was a period of time in which I had bleach blond hair that resulted in my already course hair turning into a dry tumble weed.    One time a lady who only spoke broken english said she would "make my face look shorter" and ended up cutting tiny baby bangs for me...without my permission.   Photos you ask?  NO.

Well enough about me and my hair woes.  Let's turn the focus to Kaci.  And of course Kaci's hair:

First off , I never should have cut Kaci's hair to her chin.  Oh yeah and cutting bangs was another mistake.  Two for two!

I don't know how to braid.  I don't have the time or patience to blow dry it with a round brush.  I don't waste my efforts with headbands that will just go missing before she even gets to school each morning.  What I aim for each day is just to tame it.  We have three options: a pony tail; pig tails or run a brush through it and leave it alone.   And no matter which style we go with, by 4:00 p.m  things look a bit rough.  

Until it grows out, are wigs a viable option for us?

Blond bombshell

Ginger

Brilliant brunette

Nah...I think a little extra conditioner and a lot of extra patience will get us through.

One more thing...BIG BROTHER 16 starts on Wednesday.  Oh the excitement!

Enjoy the weekend!

 

Kenny Powers Is My Idol

Watched the series finale of Eastbound and Down last night...thus the random blog post title.  And RANDOM is the theme of this wet Tuesday.  Here we go...

• I think the quality of my blog posts are quickly going down hill.  I can't seem to come up with anything to write about.

• How cute is this?  (This took me like 19 minutes to figure out how to get this to play by the way)

• And here is the local camel.  Every town has one of these right?  I think his name is Curly:

• I have a minor obsession with chicken pad thai that is quickly developing into a major obsession.  
• Kaci woke up one morning last week with this thought: "So on my birthday I am going to wake up and watch Fargo with you".  Ummm no you are not going to watch Fargo until you are like 22 years old.  Sorry doll. 
• Want to see how Kaci transports Dean around the house?  

• Seattle trip at the end of the month!  Hopefully that generates a post worthy of your time.  
• Blogger is stupid and keeps giving me an error message as I try to publish this post.  I am going to break something...my keyboard, my hand, my lucky pen (never)...

33, 2 and 4!

Saturday was my 33rd birthday!  Sleeping late, champagne brunch and a late dinner An early morning (5:45 a.m.) wake-up call from Dean, followed by some errands and laundry is what my day consisted of.  But it was sunny, Kevin grilled up some good food, and the day ended with Bonnie and Big Ang.  All's well that ends well!

What else did we celebrate?  Or at least we should have...Deep Thoughts' 2 year birthday!  I can't believe I actually stuck with something so long.  I admit...the summer months get me and I have some pretty lengthy gaps between posts.  I think I have shown some improvement in 2014 though.  Here is a link to my very first post:

Look how little Kaci was back in the day!!

And the 4 is for little Dean!  4 months old!  Crazy.  15 1/2 pounds now days.  He is a charmer!

Fortin Around

Well happy Monday everyone.  I have come to realize that Mondays really aren't so bad as long as I use Sunday to get myself organized instead day drinking!  Kidding...or am I?

So what did we do this past weekend?  Well thanks for asking.

FRIDAY  After enjoying lunch with beer at McMenamins, we headed out to explore Fort Vancouver and Pearson Air Museum.

The crew

Dean lunching in the sun

 Helpful cousins

 Her legs were tired...as usual

 Jail

Afterwards we headed home and Kevin decided to fall some trees on our property.  Let's just say it didn't go so well and leave it at that...

Saturday I worked and Kevin stayed home with the kids.  When I got home, Kaci had packed to go camping.  She was really very thorough - a backpack filled with all of her jewelry; some body wash; shampoo; a tambourine and two of Dean's binkys.  We aren't going camping until August, but Kevin said it kept her occupied for 45 minutes.  Nicely done!

We finished off the day at Jake and Sarabeth's house warming party.  Once there I realized I should have gifted them towels instead of beer:

The original color of this towel was blue I believe.  Hard to remember as Jake got it when he was like 9...he will be 29 this year.

And a shot of Rupert.  Looks like he is adjusting quite nicely to his new home.

Sunday Grocery shopping; food prep; the movie Frozen (for the 12th time) and cleaning.

Peace.

I Just Don't Fit In

Today I woke up pondering what to post about for the week.  As the clock turned to 11:00 a.m. and I still had nothing interesting to write about, I turned to Google to do a search.  The problem is...I just couldn't find a blog type that fit me.  

Ideas for the MOMMY blogger:

•  Share the details of your dream nursery
• My dream nursery?  I don't have a dream nursery.  All I want is a room that will allow my little son to sleep for a very long time.  Still on the hunt for that one...
• Got pets?  Pet pics and stories are great
• I hate pet hair, pet pee, pet poop and pets inevitably die.  So no, I don't have any pets.
• What is in my diaper bag
• Diapers...duh

Ideas for the LIFESTYLE blogger:

• Write a post dedicated to your blogging BFF
• Neither one of my BFFs write.  In fact, I believe that this may be the only blog on their reading lists.  
• Let your dog guest post
• If I ever get a dog and i do allow him to guest post, please punch me in the face.
• Interview your spouse to find out how they really feel about your blog
• Kevin: "Cool blog.  You should put a picture of my boat on it."

Ideas for the WINE/BOOZE ENTHUSIAST blogger:

• A brief history of your state's wine production
• Who knows?  Who cares?
• Food pairings
• Hot dogs, goldfish crackers, nothing...really anything goes.  Maybe a better topic would be what DOES  NOT go well with booze.  Come to think of it, the only thing that is not made better with booze is the flu.
• The justification for wines priced above $500/bottle
• HAHAHAHAHAHAHA - yeah right!

So you can see my dilemma.  Going forward I will compile a list of possible post ideas for my blog.  As for the type, let's just call it CYNICAL MOMMY WITH NO LIFE WHO LIKES WINE/BOOZE.  

Happy Weekend - oh and here is a picture or two:

Kaci go get a hair brush please

Smiles

Back At It

Well we made it through my first week back to work.  The hardest part is now behind us.  We now know how our mornings will work, Dean has settled into his routine at the babysitters, Kaci is back to her full time pre-school grind, and Kevin has settled into his Mr. Mom role from 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.  So how has it been going you ask?

The challenges:

• Dean wakes up early...as in 5:00 a.m. most mornings.  He wakes up starving...so I feed him.  My rule is if it's before 6:00 a.m., he has to go back to bed...so back in his bed he goes.  He usually goes right back to sleep, but by now it is 5:20 a.m. and my alarm is set to go off at 5:30 a.m. so that I can shower before Kevin.  So I am up...for the day...a half hour before I wanted to.  
• Kaci is rather fragile in the mornings.  I have to make sure I give her plenty of time to relax a bit on the couch before we head out the door.  Try to rush her and you are guaranteed an emotional breakdown.  
• Traffic still sucks.
• I lost my mentor at work.  He didn't die or anything so don't shed a tear...He moved on to bigger things.

On the bright side:

• Mornings are not chaotic at all with Dean's ridiculously early start time.  I leave the house feeling calm and organized.  In fact, I even cleaned my bathroom Friday morning before work.  Now that has never happened in this house before.
• I must burn more calories waking up so early...right?
• I love my job...always have.  It feels really good to be back at it.  I am very excited to get home to see my little gremlins though.
• Being at work again brings back my appreciation for the weekends.
• The radio in my car can again be cranked loud during my drives.

Dean has hit the 3 month mark and is just a prince.  Handsome as ever...want to see?

And Kaci is a wild girl who is just as adorable as ever.  She can now snap...she wanted to make sure I added that tidbit to the blog.  Here is my gal relaxing with a beauty mask...the grimace is due to her worry that the peppermint was burning her skin:

Adios for now!

Boot Camp

Nope, not a bad ass athletic conditioning boot camp to get me bikini ready by Memorial Day.  No need for that, it's going to rain anyways.  Instead, this boot camp focused on sleep training.  Specifically, nap training for my handsome son.  You see, Dean did not like to nap unless he was sleeping on me.  I got pretty relax and just kind of went with it.  Hey, there are worse things than having to sit on the couch and cuddle with him every couple of hours.  But it was time to face reality.  Dean needed to learn to nap on a schedule, in his crib, alone.  Shit.

As I sit here and reflect on the past few weeks, my initial thought is that I can't believe I waited so long to do this.  Doing so left me scrambling to get it done before I have to go back to work, which only escalated my stress.  Second, I am thankful that I only have 8 followers of my blog.  I am sure that none of you guys will feel the need to post any comments about how barbaric and inhumane my training tactics are...right?  Good, glad we got that settled.  Shall we move on to the nitty gritty of my boot camp?

HOW: The progressive-waiting approach -  At the first sign of sleepiness I would swaddle Dean up tight, pop in his binky and put him in his crib.  If he started crying I would go in, pop the binky back in, and calm him down by rubbing his forehead.  From then on I would gradually increase the amount of time before I would go in to calm him down.  The goal being for Dean to learn how to put himself to sleep.  For an example, here is what Day 1 looked like:

First check - immediately

Second check - 3 minutes

Third check - 5 minutes

Subsequent checks - 10 minute increments until either he fell asleep or the designated nap period was over.

CHALLENGES:

The crying - Duh...listening to your child cry sucks.  

Self doubt - After he cries through an entire designated nap period, you really start to doubt that what you are doing is beneficial.  "It will never work!"  "He is going to hate me!"  "All this screaming must be causing permanent damage to his vocal cords!"  Oh and any google search you do on the topic will turn up haters that will confirm all of your negative thoughts.  

3 year olds - Kaci can't do anything quietly.  

Sacrifices -  Consistency is key, which means staying home is what needs to happen.  So no, you can't go have a beer with your brother at his new house on moving day.  Nap time!  No heading out to the mall when the urge for new jeans hits.  Nap time!  Oh you usually drop your kid off at preschool at 9:00 a.m.?  Not if that is during nap time.  Nope, she goes in late.

So where are we now?  I can now comfortably say that Dean no longer cries through the designated napping period.  In fact, most times he goes down pretty dang easy.  I have also come to realize that he is a 45 minute napper.  Almost to the minute.  I will take it though, as these naps result in a much happier little man.  We will continue to work on things, but I do feel like the hardest part of the sleep training process is over.  Thank God.   

Well, better wrap this up.  Time to enjoy my last evening of maternity leave.  Tomorrow I head back to the grind.  Bring it on Monday...bring it on.