Look Ma, I'm Standing!

Look Ma, I'm Standing!
Originally uploaded by gingerkohles

I am so proud, yet at the same time I am hoping he will be more encouraged to sit and crawl.

But YAY for transitions! Does anyone else like his Elvis imitation?

Dude I Gotta Get Me One Of Those!

So I have been doing some thinking. I need to obtain my "own" blog. Where I post about all the same stuff, but I am not putting it on my "family" page. Ya know if that makes any sense. But also so that I can start making money for being a Stay-At-Home-Mom. I mean I could have ads and stuff on the blog which seems to be on ALL of the blogs that I read. I would need to have a cool catch phrase name. Any Suggestions? And if I actually had any writing skillz I would, but mostly perhaps, I could just post pics, or vlogs, or have my 2 year old daughter write them. Hummmm. Putting the college degree to good use. Except that I am incredibly lazy. So we will see. Food for thought.

It All Began With Two Harmless Letters In the Middle of the Alphabet

I never seem to write about the good times with Abby anymore. Today I am overwhelmed by child induced stress. I lost my patience somewhere on Route 7 between the "I WANT {insert any item here}" and "Waaah! Waaaaaah!!!" (So if you find it please return ASAP as it is a necessary evil to not lose my S#!& with my kids. Thanks in advance.)

So of course I want to pepper this blog with how angry I am at my kids and most especially myself. I don't get a break not even a two day weekend away from my job. And the impact that has had on my nerves is becoming earth shatteringly clear. I was not cut out to stay-at-home with small children (especially my own). I didn't have siblings so it is hard for me to relate to Abby's sudden interest in being the biggest hellion that there ever was. Don't get me wrong she has some pretty good manners 90% of the time. But as the months go on she has started to locate my "piss the frick out of mommy" buttons.

It all began with the most devious horrible word ever, just two little letters that when repeated enough times snaps on my "I want to throttle you with your own arms" button: "NO!" I especially dislike it when it is paired with "Mommy".

I am bone weary tired lately. Every morning I feel like I wake up and get no "me" time to prepare and arm myself for the battles of the day. And whenever I get to take some "me" time it never seems like enough. The lack of sufficient sleep is most definitely to blame. And I am to blame for that, but I am stuck in a catch 22. I want to have me time which is after the kids are asleep which is about 8:30ish and so I stay up until almost 11 or later. And then I am up from anywhere in the 3:45-6:45 hours to feed Morgan and then hopefully get to crawl back in to bed for a few more hours of much needed sleep.

Today goes down in the books as a day that should have never been. It started like most mornings that I have had since Morgan was born, but somewhere along the way I got bitch slapped by the letters "N and O".

How do you get a toddler to listen to you when you say "Come here Please." and then actually do it? I would really like to know, because today I had an EPIC FAIL when it came to getting Abby to do anything I asked or demanded of her. And our head butting tension trickled down to Morgan.

I finally won the battle of Nap Time with brute force (don't worry no duct tape was used nor did I sit on her, but both were very tempting) and a whole lot of will power. And she cried herself to sleep (sort of). But, I don't want it to be that way. And for the most part it isn't . . . this week however I seem to have hit the Freakin Mother Load of the Terrible Twos.

The Photo Album Conundrum

So everyone knows all about how your first child has tons of photos taken of them and the second fewer and so on, right? Ok, so not so much with us. It turns out that from January-May we don't take pictures. So there are huge chunks of time with nothing to commemorate. We have lots of pictures on our phones, but is that the same? would those pictures actually come out looking decent?

I only bring this up because the year Abby was born we gave everyone a Abilicious Calendar and then it was such a hit last year is was Abidoodle (a name I call my daughter, don't ask why as I can't remember its orgin). Well this year Morgan arrived and for the better part of the beginning of the year I was working and we didn't do a lot that really was photo-worthy. And well with Morgan, our second, we haven't taken all that many photos. There was a boom at the end of October with the borrowing of Uncle Brian's AWESOME (spare) Nikon. And I plan on continuing to use it with the kids until he claims it again.

But I need to put this calendar together soon (as it is the only gift our family is getting this year with our income downsized and printer to delivery to redelivery times) I want to get them together so that we can send them out by Christmas. Which means in the next 2-3 weeks to the printers. So this means minimal Morgan pictures this year and a pretty generic name for this years calendar.

P.S. UB: Am LOVING the camera will load more pics by mid next week!

Siblings and Their Rivalries

Abby has been in rare form these past two days. Sibling rivalry has reared it's ugly ferocious booger-picking head.

As Morgan gets more and more attention for "talking" and becoming more mobile Abby is getting more and more jealous. I try my best to put Morgan down, once he has been fed, in places were he can explore and I can devote some attention to Abby. But while he is getting fed I have to hold him and the bottle, which leaves one hand free if I can get in the right position. But generally for 20 min I can not give her undivided attention.

Where is the happy medium? I don't want to encourage the rivalry because I LOVE them BOTH equally. But I never had siblings and therefore never had to fight/compete for the attention. I know what she is feeling is normal, but my gravy she is driving me bonkers!

She is still a sweetheart and uses "thank you" and "please" has a few problems "listening" but overall is a normal toddler doing normal toddler things. Additionally, because it is getting colder out I have avoided my usual choice of the park as Morgan's system is not ready to be in the cold for an hour or more even when he is strapped to me. I chose to go to the library to get books (which Abby LOVES) but that doesn't get all her toddler energy out. Ideas anyone?

Also I want to do crafts with her — anyone have any good links to seasonal crafts that toddlers can take part in? I can only take so much finger painting and play doh.

This is What I Think About THAT!

As this is a family oriented blog (my family's in particular) I am putting a lot of warning to the younger readers at the beginning of this post. Additionally to anyone whom may read this and not know that I support the rights of all women & men to have inalienable rights freedoms no man or woman should have taken from them. Freedom of Religion, Speech, the right to bear arms, the right to Marry whomever you so choose and so forth!

I follow a blog: http://www.diaryofamodernmatriarch.com/ and her most recent posts have been about the Prop 8 outcome. She linked to http://swistle.blogspot.com/2008/11/middle-finger-warning.html who linked to http://www.eatingoutloud.com/prop-8.

I have never met these people in person but I have a lot of respect for their bravado and so I have included my photo here. I will not apologize for it's offensiveness and if you have a problem with it then I suggest that you no longer read this blog as that is your human right.

I don't generally have a definitive point of view on many things, but on this I am certain. It is not your place to tell me or anyone else that I am or am not able to marry whomever I choose.



On this issue I have a strong opinion as I know many gay people to whom I believe should have the same rights as everyone else. This is for my Aunt Ruth (d. ~1994), My Uncle Jim (d. ~1992), and all my other friends and family members that no longer have a voice in this matter!

With All My Love! Ginger

The Day Before. . .

By late tomorrow night the USA's voters will have decided who they want to take over in January 2009. But what will happen in those 2 months between now and then? And then will the winner actually live up to all of their promises? Will they be able to actually get to do what they wanted or will the "cleanup" from the current President take upwards of 4 years to recover from before than can get to the nitty gritty? All these questions and more will be answered. . . eventually.