A real update

Well, here’s the update on life at our house. Maya and Chloe are both going through stages, my Mom decided… Chloe is regressing and even admits she wants to be a baby, she says “I Maya” and this morning she wanted to wear the outfit I picked out for Maya instead of hers. So her shirt is too small and her pants are too short today. Oh well.. such is life. Maya is becoming very needy - she now points at things and moves her hands in a grabbing motion, as if to say “I want it!! Gimme, gimme!” And if you don't give her what she wants, she will throw a fit. So, she’s a very needy & cranky 11 month old right now, though she is happy as long as she gets her way! Chloe is back to throwing tantrums - wild ones which include laying on the floor and banging her head on the floor, like she did all the time about a year go. These tantrums are the worst. So she is spending lots of time in ‘time out’ which equals sitting on her bed until she calms down, and then she is allowed to come out. She is also crying constantly for her ‘num num’ (pacifier). She is only allowed to have her pacifier at naptime & bedtime but lately she whines for it ALL day long... some days are worse than others. And sometimes we are going so insane with 2 whiny children, that we give in and let her have it. Yeah, I know, not good.

Maya is also going through a weird stage where she doesn’t want to eat. Well, let me clarify, it seems all she wants to eat is ‘people food.’ However, there isn’t much food you can feed a child with only 2 teeth! So she lives on bread, goldfish crackers, graham crackers, any type of crackers she can mash up with her gums - and things like that. We have to jump through a zillion hoops to get her to eat baby food. She will usually eat a banana - pureed in the food processor with baby cereal added - without a big problem for breakfast. But the rest of the day it is a real struggle to get her to eat. She used to eat multiple jars of baby food over the course of 1day, and now it’s a miracle if we get her to eat ONE jar total! I am worried about her, but she’s not losing weight and she’s still drinking lots of formula, so she’s getting her nutrients/vitamins.. But I’m so confused why she’s suddenly not eating. My Mom did some research and said this is a symptom of teething and it’s just a phase she’s going through… but it all started when she was sick with a cold a few weeks ago and ever since then, her appetite has been ridiculous. We take her to the Dr. in about 2 weeks, so I’m going to hold out until then to question what’s up with her I guess. Until then, the struggle to get her to eat continues! If we can distract her enough, by letting her play with things that aren’t toys, especially things she has never seen before, we can usually sneak lots of spoonfuls of food in her mouth. But eventually she catches on and starts shaking her head back & forth as if she’s saying “No” and gets mad. Ohhh Maya!

On a different note, Maya is doing awesome with walking.. In fact, she practically runs now! Her and Chloe have fun chasing each other around the house - or in circles around the chair, which is funny, and it’s fun to hear Chloe squeal in excitement as if her little sister is going to get her! They’re going to have so much fun playing together as they continue to get bigger, and I can only imagine what playing outside in the Spring-time will be like! Please Spring, come quickly! We are sooo tired of being cooped up indoors with 2 energetic little ones!!

In other news, our kitchen renovation is coming along - slowly but surely. It’s hard because Chris is so over-worked that when he finally slows down on the weekends, he can barely move off the couch; he just wants to sleep. So nothing gets done lately during his down time. He tends to work on the kitchen more during the week, in the evenings, than on the weekends. We are getting down to the wire, though, so he needs to pick up steam or it’s not gonna’ be done in time for Maya’s b-day party. Last night Chris & I randomly met up at Home Depot - both on our way home from work - and we looked at tile, for a possible countertop and tile for the backsplash… and we ended up in the kitchen/countertop dept. and saw they were having a 10% off sale on countertops and though Chris has sworn up & down we wouldn’t have another laminate countertop - guess what we bought? Good 'ole laminate! He wanted to do granite tiles and install it himself - anything but laminate - but that’s what we ended up with. We don’t have to pay to have it installed since Chris can do that, so it wasn’t that expensive. I just hope he isn’t mad every time he looks at the counter - since he really wanted to do something himself that was creative. He said he’s just run out of time so that’s why we ended up with this kind of countertop. I am perfectly fine with it - no big deal to me. And I really like the pattern/color I chose - it’s gonna’ look good with our white cupboards and the wood on the ceiling and floor. It will tie it all in! :) And he’s still going to tile the backsplash and he found some really awesome slate tiles - each tile varies in color & texture - and it will totally tie in the color in the countertop, which is gonna’ look great! But I worry about him tiling SO much of our kitchen - he’s never done it before! And in my mind, I think it’ll be pretty time consuming. But those are really the last 2 huge projects and then the kitchen will be just about finished! We really want to buy some neat new things to decorate the walls with in the dining room addition - but we haven’t had time to look anywhere for anything. We should really go to Michael’s or something, and we’re trying to find someone to watch the girls so we can do some shopping just the 2 of us and not be in a rush. And besides that, with Chloe & Maya being such a handful lately, we really want to get out of the house together for a break! We’ll see…

Well I’ve written a ton, so I better get back to work now..