So in May 2009 we decided we needed a bigger house and it was time to reconsider our living arrangements. We considered adding on to our current house because I love the location and the real estate market was/is bad. We looked into loans and having plans drafted but it became too much and the banks are just not giving money for new construction. We also found that even if we doubled the size of the house it would still be only 2600 sq.ft. Not that isn’t a lot, but with a baby in the making we just thought it was better to find a bigger house.
The first thing was to find an agent to list the house for a price we were happy with and then let the cleaning up begin. We had a list of small items to take care of to make the house in the best possible condition to sell as well as deep cleaning. I think that (keeping the house clean) was the hardest part about putting the house on the market besides the fact that we may actually sell the house and have to move. With two kids, keeping beds made and toys put away on a daily basis become quite a challenge. My new routine included waking up and making beds, washing counter tops and putting toys, laundry and stuff away hourly just in case someone wanted to see the house. And most days no one came, but I wanted to be prepared so it was a constant fight.
After 6 months we sold the house and after looking all up and down the southern coast we found another. We originally thought we would not be able to stay in Point Loma because it was just too expensive so we began looking for houses in Carlsbad and to the south. We spent many days driving up the 5 looking in Carmel Valley, Del Mar, Solana Beach, Pacific Beach and everything in between. Even Scripps Ranch and Poway became in our looking area. It was very stressful because there were a lot of great houses but no place felt like home like Point Loma. Luckily our agent continued to look in Point Loma for us and we bought a house that actually never come on the market. Unfortunately we could not make dates work so we ended up having the rent a house between moves…which means 12 weeks pregnant one move and then 37 weeks pregnant another move! Can’t say things are dull for this pregnancy. Should we talk about the fact that we are also going to do a little remodeling, painting and redoing floors and hopefully everything gets done before the baby arrives…
So once again this year Jake had little interest in participating in his Christmas show, but the kids are very cute anyway. Jake is in the front on the left side. Enjoy the two videos…
So I have been not writing for a while now. My life kind of went crazy and we moved, had the flu and being pregnant, well I guess the internet took a back seat.
I have great news to share. I had my ultrasound for baby #3 today. 19 weeks and I am happy to say that the baby is a boy! Three boys…wow…I just don’t know what to say except for the fact that I am glad we bought a bigger house with a yard and lots of rooms to play in. I am glad that he is healthy and he is going to love being a part of this crazy family! I guess after all Barret got his golf foursome. Now on to finding the perfect name…oh man…
So about 6 months ago I ‘pulled the goalie’ as a good friend of mine would say. Barret and I began talking about having a third baby about a year ago and he was not ready until Druw’s 2nd Birthday. I agreed and we have been trying for 6 months. As the months came and went I was beginning to get a little discouraged because with the first two babies it was a no brainer. It kind of went like this:
“You want to have a baby?”
“Yes”
Then about 5 weeks later I took a test and it was positive. Then the second baby … “Want to start trying for a second?” “Ok” and then 6 weeks later pregnant again. I thought it would go the same with the third, but apparently not. It is fine at this point because after 6 months…a positive test! It is amazing the kind of rush you get from a positive test. This is only like the fifth test I have taken in the last 6 months, but after I took the test, Barret said he wanted to go and see it. He walked into the bathroom and then a minute later came back smiling this funny smile. What does that mean I wondered. I was too scared to look. Barret got Druw, picked him up and asked how many lines do you see? “TWO.” I hesitated for a minute because you never know with Druw and numbers, but then I could see it for myself. I was so excited!
So far I feel good, very tired but good. With the other two I think I was sick from the second I got pregnant, but we will see, hopefully it will go easier this time!
So a couple of weeks ago Barret comes to me and tells me he has to go to Utah for a few days. Then he informs me that he wants to drive and wants us all to go along with him. At first I was thinking 11 and a half hours in the car was not going to be to fun with a four year old and a two year old, but low and behold here we are. We planned the trip so that the drive would be divided into two days. We left on Monday and drove to St George, UT. It is about 90 miles past Las Vegas. The drive was actually pretty interesting. We left California entered Nevada, then the red mountains in Arizona and finally St. George, UT. The town was pretty small , but very beautiful. Our hotel sat kind of on top of this mountain and had a view of the mountains on the other side of the freeway. We found a “Fiesta Fun Center” for the kids. It had miniature golf, arcade games, tunnels and jumpy houses. It was basically heaven for the kids for the two hours we spent there. Jake even ot a hole in one at golf!
We decided to pick up a pizza on the way back and the kids were ready for bed. They actually did a great job in the car so the thought of jumping back in the car the next day wasn’t too terrible…by the way who ever decided to put TV in the car is my favorite person in the whole world right now.
Day 2 we were off to Park City. The kids slept for the first part of the ride so the last part went fast for them. We stayed in the neatest little hotel that literally sat into the mountain. We are now staying at the Marriott MountainSide. It is a one room villa so we have lots of room to move around. There is also a kitchen and full refrigerator, stove and oven so I can do a little cooking here in the room. (Just what you want to do on vacation right? Well this is not vacation…remember…work….I am going to need a vacation when we get home!) Having a kitchen is so great because with the kids it is really easier to feed them there in a home setting than having to eat out for every meal. We basically had breakfast and lunch in the room and then went out for dinner.
Attached to the hotel they have ski lifts for the winter, but during the summer they offer some different activities. We decided to do the Alpine Slide with the kids, which they really loved. You have to take the ski lift up the hill and then you take a sled with breaks down the hill.
It was really fun, but I must say I was pretty nervous because last time I was on a sled I ended up with a broken hand!
Day 3 and 4 and 5 we ended spending the days at the park. This was a business trip for Barret so the kids and I were on our own so finding a near by park was the best for us, lonely for me, but fun for them. We also found an inflatable world. It was a whole bunch of inflatable jumpy houses and slides, definitely tired out the kids. We stayed busy during the days so the trip really went by fast. One day we went to a park in Salt Lake City too.
Jake and Barret also road on the Alpine Coaster, while Druw and I went on the rockets and carousel.
Then it was time to move on once again.
Off the Las Vegas for the last night. We did some swimming and it ended up raining, but luckily it was warm so we were able to spend a little time at the pool.
All in all it was a great trip. The boys did awesome in the car for all 1730 miles!!!
So if you only have girls you will never have this problem. Druw comes out of bed a little while ago because he claims that he is not tired. I said OK and he lays down next to me. Then he is uncomfortable and says his pull up is bothering him. I do a little adjustment and he seems fine. A little while later he is looking out the window and puts his hands down his pants. I continue to just look at him wondering what in the world he is doing. Next thing I know his PJs are soaked. He had pulled his junk up so that it was stuck between his pull up and the waist band of his pants and apparently peed! New jammies, new diaper…back to bed! No girl in the whole could accomplish that!
So today was my big day in court. About a month ago I had to go to Vista for the second time to plead not guilty to my speeding ticket. I left home about 6:30 am to make it to the court as it opened. At 8:15 they called us into the court room and we waited for the judge. I had to walk up to a microphone and state that I was pleading not guilty. He then asked me if I wanted my trial within 45 days or after. I said before and he said OK and off I went. Just standing up in front of the judge, I was so nervous. All of this talk about a trial and seeing the police officer who pulled me over was just way to much and this wasn’t even the trial.
So today I took my third drive to Vista to fight my ticket and for the past month or so I have been worried about this upcoming trial. I have had many sleepless nights worrying about what I would say, what the police officer would say and if it was even possible to have the ticket dismissed. I decided that my main defence was going to be that I was driving the speed of commute traffic and I felt that the ticket was issued because the police officer thought I was disrespecting him and not slowing down. It is just surprising because I know that I wasn’t going faster then the traffic. I honestly don’t know how fast I was driving because I was following a motorcycle and paying more attention to him than the odometer.
My dad decided to go with me to court. It was great having his support there and he drove me so it was nice to be able to relax on the drive to Vista. We got there very early so we had lunch. In Subway there were two police officers having lunch and even their presence there had me scared. We arrived at the court at about 12:45, 30 minutes before the trial was to begin. Everywhere on the paperwork it says don’t be late so I was glad we were early. 1:15 came and went and at about 1:45 they finally called us into the court room. Why do police officers feel there are more important then us. I wasn’t allowed to be late, but they were running 30 minutes late and no one seemed to care. There were 12 people scheduled for court at 1:15. As we entered the room we saw on one side of the court room sat the police officers and we were to sit on the other side. By this point I was so nervous I thought I might pass out. The clerk in the front of the room began to take roll. She would call the name of one of the people who got a ticket and then the police officers name that went along with the ticket. When she called the name of the police officer that pulled me over, he did not answer. I had this enormous feeling of relief he wasn’t there. When the clerk then said please stand and the judge came in I started to think that maybe I would still have to talk…oh man. After the judge came in the court room he explained all our rights and went on for about 5 minutes on how to act in court and appropriate ways to address everyone. I was still freaking out and then…he started down the list of anyone whose police officer wasn’t there and said there was insignificant evidence and the cases were dismissed! I won! I won! I won! Now on to the rest of my life…no more tickets please!
Jake swimming in Palm Desert. After about 4 months of lessons, once a week, he is finally getting his confidence and jumping in the pool and actually swimming…like crazy!
So if I ever wrote a handbook for ‘Soon-to-be-Parents’ there would have to be a least one whole chapter dedicated to Poo. I never knew that becoming a parent meant that the first five years of life would revolve entirely around poo. I mean from the first days of life…the black tar that is so sticky you need like ten wipes just to get it off to now pooping in the potty, well most of the time in the potty…
I remember when Jake was about three months old we went to the Padres game with a bunch of friends. I was carrying Jake in the baby Bjorn and he had one of the biggest blow outs ever. I think being in the bjorn just made it even more a mess. I could feel, not to mention smell that it was bad, but it wasn’t until I actually got him out of the bjorn in the bathroom and saw that it was a disaster. Jake’s clothes and the Bjorn were filled up. Jake ended up wrapped in paper towels because his clothes were so full of poo and had to be washed out at the time. I had no idea I needed more clothes so paper towels did the trick. Later we went to a bar and everyone was just talking about the yellow mustard poo that had been everywhere…YUCK!
That was only the first of many blow outs. We used to put Jake in the Excersaucer when he hadn’t pooped in a few days and that would always do the trick, except that it usually made the mess worse because he would go poo and then continue to jump and it would just start crawling up his back. One time there was so much that it actually filled up his back and could be seen coming out the top of his onesie near his neck…YUCK!
So I would like to say that the worst poo stories happened with Jake and we learned a lot, but I can’t leave out the fact that Druw has been known to poop in the bath tub. I usually give the boys a bath together and Jake being a little older was just sitting in the tub and says, “Mom, I think Druw went poopoo in the bathtub.” When I looked down I could see ‘poo snakes’ in the tub…YUCK!
So potty training Jake was one of the most difficult hurtles we have had so far. With potty training, the parent has really no control at all. Jake went pee in the potty very easily and I thought, “Wow, this is great, it is going to be so easy to potty train…” famous last words. Jake refused to poop in the potty…It went on month after month. He would hold out and wait until I would put a diaper on him for bed and then poo. After a 9 month struggle with pooping in the potty, I decided to take control back. I told Jake that on New Years Eve would be the last time I would put on a diaper he could poop in. All the way up until the last diaper he was on board, but then…he wanted another diaper. I refused so for two weeks I put him to bed with no diaper(and yes changed sheets everyday because he pees in his sleep) and he did poop once in his sleep, but after two weeks the poo started going in the potty and we have had no real accidents since then! Oh wait there was that one time he pooped in this sleep and it wasn’t until I took off his sleeper jammies that I noticed a log in the foot of the sleepers….YUCK!
Even though Jake is now potty trained he still wears a pull-up at night.
I think my favorite poo story comes from Barret. Now that Jake is potty trained I think he has decided that we need to visit every foreign potty out there. I always ask if he need to go before we leave the house, but we never do. When we get to where ever we are going he has to go at that moment. ( Not to mention all the gas stations we have visited on our way somewhere.) Anyway going poo requires we take off every stitch of clothing including shoes and socks. I also have to leave as soon as he is on the potty and hold the door so that my hand can be seen, but I am not allowed in the stall. This whole process takes about 10 minutes and 5 out of 10 times there is no poo. So recently we were at the Padres game and it was Barret’s turn to take Jake to the Potty so of course as the clothes were coming off in the stall Jake managed to flings his underpants off and they sailed three stall down. The men in the restroom were very nice and just passed them back down, underneath the stalls. I almost died laughing, thinking about these men in the restroom passing these little underpants back to its owner. Things like that just don’t happen to adults?!
BTW Druw pooped in the potty for the first time yesterday and then the toilets got clogged and it cost us $300 to have the line flushed?!
My name is Leah and I am a mother of two boys, Jake who is 4 and Druw is 2. I have lived in San Diego for over 15 years. I was a teacher in the San Diego City Schools for 5 years before taking on my job as a full time mother.
