The 10th??

Well, sheesh I missed it. Here it is October 20th and I missed the 10th. I have an excuse though. I was out of town for work from the 9th to the 14th.. LONG trip. I missed the babies like crazy but we got alot of good work done for our new product team. We have another trip in November, for some more training but it should be a good learning opportunity.

What's going on with the kids, you ask? Well.. Maddie has turned to biting. She has her new chair and wants to be by herself in that chair and 'read' her book. Well, her brother allows nothing of the sort, and constantly crawls over to her and tries to take the book. Mind you, he tries to take everything away from her and it just so happend that his elbow was close to her mouth ... the wail that came out of Zachary was heartwrenching. I knew something happened but didnt know what till i saw the 8 little teeth marks in his arm. What do i do about that? We told her NO Biting and No Teeth but she still tries and sometimes we dont catch her in the act. I've read its 'normal' for kids to bite but youza its not fun for mommy to deal with. Any suggestions??? I am open to anything.. she may get a bite back if she's not careful.. Zachary has two teeth.

As for Zman.. hes sleeping in his crib!.. Yay.. he has gone back and forth from the playpen to his crib for a while now.. always waking up and screaming until someone picks him up. But we have his blanket and his snuggly and his Pooh with him everywhere he sleeps now so hopefully we figured it out. Its kinda funny to take EVERYTHING in the crib from one place to another for him but it seems to keep him comforted having those things with him. He doesnt nap!! ugh.. Nana likes a nap once and a while and Maddie is good for at least 1 two hour nap sometimes 2 but Z is a 15-20 minute napper and thats it.. any suggestions there would be greatly appreaciated too.

The dog door is still a fascination for them.. the other night Max (the dog) wanted to come in but Maddie was sitting inside it. She's gonna go out one of these days.

A promise and video

Oh how I wish I had time to keep this Blog going. I want to take the time... but I just dont. I am going to be realististic here and make a promise to anyone who looks at this blog because they dont have a Facebook account. Sometimes I wish i didnt, but I do, and its easy and quick and then I can get back to the kids and school. Anyway the promise is.. I will post here on the 1st and the 15th of the month at least. I will put it in my iPhone and in my Outlook and Hotmail calendars and will make it happen.. please forgive. I will be better.

Ok now for the update.. Well miss M has been walking up a storm.. this kid is pretty good at it too.. she has not had any skinned anything and rarely falls down. she slows down and steps over things or turns to the side to go around things.. even little things like her lamb on the floor .. its quite funny actually as she shimmies around her brother with him grabbing at her. Her latest facination is the dog door. uh oh. She used to just lift up the inside flap (we have a two flapper) but the other night, as i was watching her she nearly climbed through it and dropped her milk outside. I hadnt realized she didnt have it any more until I took the garbage out the next morning and there it was on the patio. Little stinker. She has also proudly taught her baby brother how to splash in the toilet. Ugh. Let me back up a bit... both the babies LOVE the bath and pool and will splash and splash until the water is ice cold and they are shivering. M usually has a 'moment' when I take her out of the tub. So when they found the dog water they were VERY excited.. well the dog water is now taken up periodically during the day when the kids are loose and walking and crawling all over the house. But then... dun dun dun... they found the toilet. Eek... It was kinda funny but still gross (immediate bath btw). I was sitting in the office (which as you know if you've been around here a while, used to be my master closet) right by the master bathroom and I hear splashing.. hmmm did i leave the water running in the sink? OMG its the kids. So I get up and go in there and they are smiling and having a great time.. Lesson learned.. toilet seat DOWN. Fast forward 1 week. I am now in the habit of putting the seat down, and am in the office working.... splash splash... crap!! M the big sister had lifted the seat up and was holding it for her brother with her head. Argh.. i dont want those toilet locks because, lets face it, I have encountered them and when you gotta go its hard to concentrate on getting that thing open. So we have resorted to closing the bathroom doors.. that should keep them out.. until she is tall enough to open the door of course.
And for Z.. well in addition to his shenanigans with his sister, who he adores and laughs at all the time, is crawling on all fours now. He likes to stand up and is getting really good at it..falling over often but after a quick cry gets right back up. He fell last night and banged his lip..it got all red but he went right back to it after his 'moment'. He chases his sister around and usually ends up running into something. The poor boy.. he has a bruise on his forhead now.
ok.. heres a Video of Z-man my little angel boy.

Shes Walking, he's crawling

Here is the latest.. I will post more this weekend.. i hope. I need to update on the goings on...Facebook can be very convenient and i have slacked off on the blog. I really want to keep this up for them. Anyway here is a quick video of punkin runkin walking.. she is getting so independent. She's been walking for a week or so now. Love love love these kids of mine.

Finally pics

Well we finally got family pictures taken only a month late. Z of course smiled almost every time he is such a ham. Maddie did great but towards the end there she had a little attitude so Nana brought out the big guns (her Lamb blankie). Things are going well with the two of them in the same room. One wakes up the other but usually they go back to sleep.

M is eating great she likes peas and strawberries, likes ham and meatballs. So far still no peaches but everything else is good. She stand up next to things and walks with the walker and when we hold her hands. The other day she was holding only 1 of my hands and just let go..... stood there a little bit then realized she was standing and sat down on her butt... lol it was kinda funny the way she looked up at me like 'why did you let me do that'. Z is eating a little rice cereal he is up to a scoop and a half and sucks it right off the spoon.. he also tried the sippy cup today.. I think he likes it. Not sitting up yet by himself but rolls back and forth. He's starting to like napping on his side. Anyhooo.. here are the pics. There are more on FB. *Hugs*

Grab a drink and snack.. this is long one.

Where have I been? I am sorry fellow bloggers I have been gone a while.. busy with two kids, full time work, filling out paperwork for Z's finalization and going to school. Its a wonder I have time for a shower some days... oh wait... well thats for another post lol.

M has had her 1 year birthday (May 7) and then we celebrated my 2nd Mothers day. I actually forgot that my first Mother's day was last year.. wierd huh. Mom had to remind me that it was my second.. I was telling her that it was really amazing that it was my first Mother's day and I had the pleasure of 2 little ones in my life.. she politely reminded me that..... um NO.. that was not correct. Last year Maddie was born on the Friday before Mothers day. Hmm.. thats right.. i totally forgot. Those first few days (who am i kidding--weeks, months) were kind of a blurr so its no wonder that I missed that I was part of the Momma posse now and, in my defense I had never been a Mother before so was always on the giving end of the honored day.

So what has been going on.. Well I am 7 months away from completing my bachelors degree.. Woo hoo.. I am 50/50 on whether I will keep it up and go on for my Masters (leaning towards going for it). Today--I want to get my masters in Adult Education/Training. I am really enjoying my new role at work and all of the new technologies for teaching that are out there. I love working from home (most days) but sometimes miss the people part of working. We are contemplating a move but not fully committed to that yet.

Z is growing leaps and bounds. His 4 month appt he weighed in at 15 lbs and somewhere around 26 inches. He LOVES to be held and likes tummy time for significantly longer than his sister. He has rolled over 2x but not consistently so I dont think I can count that as a milestone just yet. He doesnt really do the pacifier thing either (much to the thrill of my pediatrician) but loves his fingers.. I guess those are good enough.. no teeth but drools like nobody's business and goes through 2 or three bibs a day.

M is not growing leaps and bounds but she is 1 and moving around like a little speed demon. She crawls (very quickly when she hears Elmo on Sesame Street) and does the La-La-La-La when he is on. She stands up on stuff and likes it when we walk with her, nothing solo-yet. The helmet is OFF yay.. her head looks pretty good and now I have to do her hair..oh boy. We have gotten into the habit of moisturizing a couple of times a week since we got it off and are washing it once a week. So far I like the cocobutter conditioner the best.. just wet it down, glop it on, rub rub rub and it really keeps it soft for a couple of days. Maddie loves having her head rubbed.. i think it was because of the helmet when we took it off at night we would rub her head to loosen her curls that were smashed down. I want her used to fussing with her hair so I dont have to fight with her when she is 2.. although that will probably still happen. Anyway. We tried the two puffs in the front look.. no pics yet.. but it was really cute. She had her 1 year appt and weighed in at 17 lbs (yes 2 lbs lighter than her brother) and 28 inches (yes very close). The pediatrician is happy with her growth she is still on the chart but I saw she is close to going off. She is eating real food with her 4 teeth. Loves cottage cheese (who knew) ham, not too fond of chicken yet. Likes carrots, peas, mashed potatoes, squash, strawberries, not to sure about bananas, doesnt like peaches, likes the lil toddler meals. She had the carrot ravioli with peas and carrots the other night and ate the whole thing. Loves toast, and had some pizza crust the other night (a carb lover). We just introduced milk in the sippycup and she isnt so sure about it.. she isnt a juice drinker so is used to water in her cup but i think she likes it. Her birthday was awesome.. we had friends over some with kids some without. My friends John and Jared and their two littles A and T-R. Teresa came over with D and V along with her grandchildren H and R who had fun with the toys.. our living room is where all the toys so as you can guess its a little crazy. I cannot believe its been 1 year and now I am the lucky momma of 2!! Wow. Enjoy the Pics

Teeth

Well finally P.R has a couple of teeth. She popped out the first one last month and the second one just seemed to 'appear' out of nowhere.. and now SHE GRINDS her two little teeth. Its just about enough to send me scurrying away with my hands over my ears. I have two sounds that absolutely send me into a frenzy.. one is grinding teeth.. and the other is scraping a fork (or some other utensil) accross a plate.. just the thought of it sends the hair on the back of my neck into full alert. I am sure she doesnt do it on purpose, the Pedi said that it looks like she's gonna get all of em in at once, so she is probably trying to set those little fellas free. but still.. Mommy cant handle the grinding.. Whew that was quite a rant but I feel sooo much better. She hasn't had any other issues with the teething other than alot of drool and chewing on everything so for that I am thankful. B.C is growing like a weed. We had his 2 month appt the other day and he is a whopper at 12.5 lbs. PR weighs just 3.5 lbs more but she has 5 inches on him. If she doesnt have a spurt he's gonna pass her up. He has kind of a wierd schedule he will eat about every 3 hrs during the day then at night seems to want a bottle every hour til about 9 then zonks for the night. Tummy time is going much better with him. He holds his head up really good but tends to fall asleep after about 5 minutes or so.. that must be exausting. I will post more pics soon!

Catchup and working from home

Well, its finally happend. I am done (well mostly) with traveling for work. I am working primarily from home and its a little wierd and wonderful at the same time. I have to somehow get into a routine. A couple of times I have spent the whole day in my PJs without even thinking about it. Oops.. I just got up with Baby Chicken and kept moving, started work at 8 and before I knew it, 6pm was here and it was time to STOP working. If any of you out there have some working from home tips I would love to hear them. We are having a 'virtual' team meeting this week so I am on calls all day. Eww. We had a session yesterday on time management and there were some really good tips on time wasters and stress..one of the biggest tips that I got was to 'schedule time for work' sounds silly but when you are on conference calls all day you dont really 'work' also de-clutter your office.. a cluttered office is a big stressor (so true) so during some of the more uninteresting calls I went through all the papers on my desk.. deee--cluttered..!! it was awesome, my shredder got quite the workout. I still have one little box of personal stuff to go through (it didnt seem right to do that while 'working' ) but I can see my desk. We do have a mandatory lunch break, thank goodness, so I do have some time during the day to take a break. Taking breaks is something that I dont seem to do much though.. I find myself eating lunch at 2, sitting at my desk.. I know I need to get better at that.

And now on to baby news!! Z (aka Baby Chicken) is growing like a weed. Much much faster than P.R. He is eating about every 2-3 hours 4 or sometimes 6 oz. We think he weighs about 11 pounds and is rapidly ougrowing the newborn things we have. Did I mention all the great stuff we got from T? OMG she gave us (and still does) at least 4 big bins of clothes, shoes, sleepers, socks really everything I needed for him. I am so blessed. She said she was just waiting for another boy to join our little Pants with Feet Possee.. did I ever mention the PWFPosse? Well we now have a Posse of 5 single mommies/ We all began our adoption journeys in Krygystan..All of us but our newest member adopted domestically our newest member K(CO) is bringing home her little one the end of the month Woo hoo!! Things have been passed all accross this country for these wonderful kiddos.. Its so wonderful to have these strong resiliant women in my life!! Oh and we are having a partial PWF 'meeting' here in AZ the end of the month.. we are al trucking up to the Grand Canyon for a day trip. and have plans for a spring training baseball game. I am so excited and will NOT be working the whole week.

Sheesh I have rattled on for a while now.. I guess getting up at 6am with B.C. is a good thing.. Here are the latest pics of the two most precious gifts a girl can get.

Tub time with Punkin Runkin

Well I think P.R. is over the bathtub hump.. we are transitioning her to the big tub but when I tried it the last couple of times she was a little overwhelmed and just sat there scared. Then Nana (brilliant Nana) had the idea of putting the blow up tub on the counter where we had been bathing her. Voila' that worked! Heres a video.. she made and incredible wet mess but had a great time with her toys .. must be the perspective of being able to see everything.. eventually we will try the tub again but for now she's enjoying it!

New Addition

Funny how things work out.. There is a new addition to our family. P.R. welcomed a new brother on January 19th..!!! I am so thrilled (and very tired)! Z (no nickname yet) was born at a hospital near me and I got the call on the 20th, he was in my arms on the 21st and home we went. It all happened so fast! Nana and I were discussing when the next addition to our family would be and God decided .. .umm right NOW. Everyone has been so wonderful. T is loaning us a bassinet until we can get another crib.. oy.. we went shopping and traded in the Caddie (the big stroller) for the Escalade (the DOUBLE stroller) last weekend and its big but it works great. P.R. has upgraded to her new carseat. Remember when we were in TX getting M and I took the car seat class? We got a free carseat then and its been just waiting for M to be ready to get into it. It seems as if it was almost someone's plan that I would get a last minute placement and need to have two carseats.. hmm things have a funny way of working out huh. Anyway, if you havent already skipped over all this to check out the pics here he is. Three weeks old today!

Merry Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas everyone. Dinner went off last night without a hitch and we all had a great time. T came over with D & V they were a suprise addition which was so great. I think next time I will shoot for 145 degrees instead of 150 degrees, I knew about the 'continued cooking' after you remove it but like my prime rib a little more rare. It was super good though. So I will catch up on some pictures. As promised the cranial band pics. I think her head is already getting rounder.. .. wishful thinking? I dont know. We have an appointment Tuesday for a checkup and measurements so we will see. It feels a little rounder. We went shopping today and got a bunch of stuff for next year. I dont know if Christmas with the V's II will occur in 2011 or in 2012 but we will be ready. This year we had little stockings for silverware holders, next year, (or whenever) real napkins --smokin deal on those, and a red berry theme with new table cloths and a runner.. I might have to have a Christmas in July party or something. lol. Maddie enjoyed her first Christmas and was the life of the party!!

A couple of things

Well, first up, the Christmas dinner planning is coming along nicely. I have delegated some of the items but sill have alot to do. The menu so far is: Prime rib, Red Potatoes with Rosemary, Sweet potato casserole, Apple Salad, Corn, broccoli cheese casserole, lettuce salad, rolls, fruit pizzas, cream cheese with raspberry chipotle sauce, crackers and pineapple salsa dip, caramel chocolate cheesecake, strawberry rubarb pie, lemon supreme pie and wine. Whew! lots of food. Should be fun though, I am excited to share the holidays with friends againg this year.

The other thing? Punkin runkin is now the new owner of a Hanger Orthotic cranial band. At 4 months the peditrician didnt like the flat spot and told us to work on tummy time.. we did the best we could but she just wouldn't stay on her tummy so at 6 months we went to see the orthotics people. We saw two and decided to go with Hanger, the people there were so nice and they were able to scan her head instead of using plaster to cast it. I will post some pics soon.

1st Christmas

Christmas has come up so fast!.. I know I should know by now that its December 25th but still, with everything new that has happened this year I am just suprised it came so fast and I am so unprepared. In January it was "What am I going to do", February "Will she pick me" March "She picked me!" April, "I wonder if its a boy or girl" and then "Its a girl" May "OMG she's here" June "She's really here" July "Man its Hot here (LOL)" August "She's 3 months old" September "Its still HOT" October "what will we be for Halloween" November "Finalization Woo hoo, I have so much to be thankful for" and December.. Christmas? when did that get here?

We are having friends (who feel like family) here at the house this year. Punkin Runkin's first Christmas wow. The tree is up and we are working on decorating the house. The baby swing replaced the armchair that was in the living room and now we dont know where to put it because now there is a Christmas tree there.. And we will accomodate for a group of 12 in our little house. I am not worried though, we got 15 in my little 2 bedroom duplex a few years ago.

I wish all of you a joyous holiday season, whatever your flavor, and new year filled with hope and joy unending. Who knows when I will have time to write again.. One of my new years resolutions is to keep this up for P.R. so she can see what led me to her and what happend after.

*Hugs*

Online Scrapping

Well I am trying my hand at online scrapbooking. When Maddie was born I wanted to scrapbook our journey and milestones. So I bought the cutest book and some scrapbooking supplies at the store and sat down to get started..well, it didnt work out so well for me. What I like about it..using creativity to place and truly make them personal. What I dont like about it.. I kept changing my mind on how I wanted the pages to look. Of course I wanted them to be great right away and as I started working with the cut out papers, and embellishments I had trouble making the adjustments.... I couldnt commit to anything! arrgh .. so of course I took a break and started exploring the digital version of scrapbooking. I got some great suggestions and finally made my first TWO pages. I used cropmom.com and its free to play around and create and save to the layout to you website account. I like that they have some templates already created that you can just add pictures to. I created a couple then when I went back to my account I tweaked them and made some new ones. To 'get them' buy 'credits' for $1.99 each. Each page is 1 credit. You download the page in a .jpg that you can send to an online photo printing service. I am using Costco since I am a member and I can go pick them up. I am definitely an 'immediate gratification' type person so I didnt want to wait for the pages to be mailed to me, so having the option to pick them up is great. So .. here they are. Let me know what you think. If you have had experience doing online scrapping let me know how it went.

its FINAL

We are back from San Antonio, which is my new favorite city btw. Why is San Antonio my new favorite city you ask? Well because for one, my daughter was born there, and two on Friday November 12th at 1:30pm Madelyn Grace Michelle Vermeer was decreed, irrevocably my daughter! We had finalization and of course she had a couple of things to say lol. When the Judge asked if she agreed she smiled and started talking, it was so funny. He said 'Well I guess she agrees'.

It was a bit surreal, whole court thing. I guess I was expecting a private session with the Judge, but thats not how it works in Bexar County Texas. We were in the courtroom with a bunch of people and he went through the docket fairly quickly. So in front of an audience (which Mads absolutely loves) we were called up and the attorney asked me a few questions and then he said he read the paperwork and wholeheartedly approves and signed the paper. We got a picture with the Judge, he was a bit shorter than me in my 3 inch heels so I squatted a little. lol

And now we are over the moon happy and enjoying this little miracle every day.

Holy Moly I have been gone long

Wow. Its been a few months since I posted last and things have been moving along nicely with M. She is rolling and eating cereal hates peaches but loves everything else. So Far. I learned something while M, Nana and I were on vacation visiting family in N.H. the beginning of October. Did you know that when you start babies on food you are supposed to do the vegetables first? I didn't. Not for any critical health reason, like veggies are less likely to trigger allergies or they are easier to digest or anything like that. But for a reason that totally makes 100% sense. If the baby starts out with fruit they get a taste for sweet and then wont eat the veggies (which are a little tart btw). Hmmm, of course noone TOLD me this but when I mention it everyone already KNOWS. Ah the joys of being oblivious to the obvious. M also has a bit of a flat spot, this girl will not stay on her tummy for anything, she rolls over almost immediately. It takes her longer when we have the towel under her but she still gets over. She is pushing up but, that pesky flatspot isnt going away fast enough for me.
On another note I just got done with the worst class so far with school. Mind you there have been some doozy weeks in there since I started in January but this entire 6 weeks was pure--icky. It was Business Statistics and frankly I don't see how some of this stuff is relevant to every day business. I found some things of value but for the path I am on the majority of it was just brain scramble on toast. I am soooo glad its over. Now .... on to Macroeconomics- doesnt that sound like fun. *sigh*

Pictures are in!!

So we had pictures taken last weekend and we got them today. I scanned some and they are uploaded. It was HOT in the room and I was crawling all over keeping her looking at the camera.. she is having some camera shyness issue lately. She got all excited when whe was half naked.. go figure. Those are the ones with the smiles. She is doing awesome.