Vacation Pictures - Fenwick Island Part 3

And finally the 3rd post for our vacation pictures... From July!
Here is Part 1 and Part 2 in case you missed it.
I realized when writing up this post that I take so many pictures of my daughter and not enough of my son. Why? Because she stays in one place for more than 2 seconds!

The only way to get to the beach ... by water! 

Love this girl! 

Siblings playing together in the sand

Our kids love the beach 

Best day ever... 

Love Tyler's little hat

This might be one of my favorite pictures ever of Julianna! 

Julianna loves the sand

Water fight 

I forget the name of this ride but I think Julianna went on 3 times! She's under the "Ruby" seat. 

Look at the happiness on these kid's faces! 

Tyler is THE man! 

About the Hello Kitty band-its and other 3 year old things

Yeah I said BAND-ITS.
That's the way Julianna says Band-aids. I love it. (Well, sort of!)
The child is obsessed with Band-Aids. Not just any old band-aids; she is obsessed with Hello Kitty "Band-Its". She will be sitting watching a TV show and will look at us to make sure we are looking at her, and out of nowhere, say "Ouch my finger hurts. I need a band-it! Owwww".

Then she will do her best academy award nomination acting to show me how much her imaginary boo-boo hurts. She will whine & say OUCH over and over until we say OK you can go get a band aid. And then she hops up and sprints to the bathroom cabinet. She must then pick her own Hello Kitty band-aid out (we are not allowed to pick on out for her or a meltdown will ensue!). She takes it apart and puts it on whatever finger she determines is the 'injured' finger at that moment in time. At first we questioned each injury - but now we just know it's band-it time.
You know that saying, "Choose your battles". Well that applies 100% here. It's just not worth the 20 minute meltdown and crying if we say 'no' to a band-it. Sometimes she walks around with 5 band-its on. Fingers, knees, elbow, leg, toes... pretty much anywhere a band-it will stick! I know I can't be alone, can I? Other 3 year olds go through this stage right? There are bigger & better things to worry about in the scheme of life, so this is not something I let bother me too much. I should probably own stock in Hello Kitty band-aids. Really.

See the band-it?

Julianna has so many other quirky little cute & adorable things she does. She is so particular as to what things need to be done a certain way and if it's not to her approval, she melts down. When she eats something (snack or small meal sometimes) in the living room, she NEEDS her "Sticker Tray" to eat off of. That's her tray with the random stickers she has covered it with. No sticker tray = Meltdown. If a specific pair of {Hello Kitty} underwear or socks are not clean, guess what that equals... yup, a Meltdown. No chicken nuggets in the house when she wants them NOW? Yup another meltdown. If we mistakenly pick out her fork for her at dinnertime and don't give her time to pick her OWN fork; that's a meltdown. Apparently it must be a specific fork for that night! No ordinary fork will do, especially one that mom or dad pick out.

Bubble container empty? Meltdown.
Not allowed to play with play-dough 2 minutes before dinner? Full blown Meltdown.
The PJ's she wants to wear that night for bedtime in the laundry? Meltdown deluxe squared.

What is it with 3 year olds? And I thought 2 year olds were difficult. No one warned me about 3 years! What the heck?? And the added drama of throwing herself on the floor as part of the meltdown, actually makes me laugh sometimes so much that I need to turn my head so she can't see me laughing while her world is ending over the wrong color sippy cup. Meltdowns. Meltdowns. Meltdowns. It's par for the course with a 3 year old. Her 4th birthday can't come soon enough. I heard a rumor this crap evens out then.

I thought I was really alone and no one else's child could possibly behave this way. Well, I was wrong again. I am still learning new lessons in this every day {ever changing} schooling of being a mom. Sheesh!

I went to Julianna's school to help out with her Christmas party back in December and had an HUGE "Ah-Ha" moment. All the other kids in her preschool class behaved JUST LIKE HER. It was mass-chaos. All the kids were wild, whining and crazy just like her. None of the kids were listening to the teacher and in their own little worlds, just like her. It hit me that I am not alone. All the moms of these kids go through the same daily battles that I do.

I chalk this all up to being a preschooler. Three years old is a tough age. Four can't come soon enough, however I'm sure age four brings a whole new set of challenges that no one warns you about! You can never be sure from day to day (minute to minute) how a preschooler will behave. One thing I am pretty sure about... We will be buying enough Hello Kitty Band-its during Julianna's childhood to cover an entire New York City block.

Waiting for Spring...

Just like most of the Northeast; we are waiting... and waiting... and waiting... for Spring.
I've been limiting my photography this Winter due to the simple fact, I really don't love shooting indoors. I like warm, nature, and outdoor location shots! There is only so much I can do in our tiny little house all winter for photos of the kids over and over. Since it was so cold this past Sunday, and we spent yet another weekend indoors, I decided to get my camera out and spend a couple hours letting the kids play and taking some shots of them.
Here's what we've been up to while Spring is taking it's sweet old time to arrive.

Tyler has mastered standing and loves looking out of the top of his crib at the world! 

Waiting for teeth ... at 10 months! My gummy boy! 

Pondering the world. 

Squinchy face... he loves making this face. 

Tyler loves to be near his big sister any time he can! 

She loves to ham in up for the camera (on her terms). I didn't even have to bribe her. 

Julianna and her cheesy toothy smile. She is precious and so happy. 

Another toothy smile. I love this girls presence - she can light up a room! 

They play well together (most times) and Julianna shares with Tyler now. I love seeing them interact. 

Snack time & a quick Mickey Mouse cartoon. 

Back to running around like a maniac and entertaining her brother. 

She was running & diving on the sofa while he stood there laughing hysterical at her! 

And finally, we are waiting for spring so we can get this in the water... 

Soon ... soon! 

10 things about Julianna

1.
Julianna loves her (almost 10 month old) little brother so very much!
She kisses his little fuzzy head and hugs him. She plays with him and gives him toys when he's upset or crying. She loves watching him eat his food and tells him he's a good boy. She gets so excited when he crawls or does things for the first time. Julianna also loves picking out his PJs at night & jumping up and down while making funny faces to make him laugh like only she can do (there is some kind of secret laughter code between them!). She holds his hand in the car and stares at him like only a big sister can do. She gets upset if Tyler has to go somewhere with Mommy or Daddy without her - she wants him to be with her all of the time! Julianna has even given her beloved precious baby giraffe to Tyler to play with. I am in love with watching their relationship blossom and grow daily. It's something that you can't truly understand until you witness your two children bonding with each other. Tyler looks up to Julianna with such admiration and love, like nothing I've ever seen before.

2.
The pencil story. Ah yes the pencil story. I was debating whether or not to tell this but, hey what the hell right?! So, Julianna picked up pretty fast (as most kids do) that her 'private parts' are not the same as Tyler and Daddy. One day not too long ago, she announced loudly, "Daddy has a pencil". A what? Huh? And I thought for a few seconds...Ooooooh. OK yes he has a penis honey. (kill me now!) Then she said in the same breath, "Mommy, Tyler has a pencil and he poops out of it". Um. OK?? What do you say to this kid?!

3.
Julianna is 3 years old and will turn 4 in May. Before you have kids, everyone warns you over & over about the terrible twos. Ha! We got through two years old and thought "Wow, that wasn't so bad after all". (all you moms with older kids, you can laugh now). Then came age three. Oh. My. God. No one warns you about three! Three has been beyond challenging. That's for another post. Julianna is primetime whiny, crying, obnoxious meltdown age. And I do mean prime time. All the time. Any time. About anything. Meltdowns (with a squealing high pitch that only a dog can hear & gasping breathes) over a crayon tip missing from a crayon, her balloon popping, not finding matching ponytail holders, hello-kitty barrette missing, too much milk in her cheerios, not enough milk in her cheerios, band aid falling off (after being on her imaginary boo-boo for 4 days), imaginary black speck in her rice, or pizza that is NOT from our favorite pizza place! And... melting down over the wrong flavor yogurt, wrong color spoon, no clean hello-kitty underpants, no clean hello-kitty socks, and the list goes on and on. Balloon popping... Oh wait, I already mentioned that- but it deserves an honorable mention due to the absolute enormity of the meltdown that one creates. Holy Moses head for the hills if that balloon pops!

4.
Julianna got a tea set from my mother (nana) for Christmas. This girl loves having tea parties with her animals. Giraffes are usually the main guests at the party, but cow, horsey, doggie, snake, hello kitty, or pony are often invited too. Julianna knows to stay in her bedroom that she shares with Tyler until Brian or myself come into their room in the morning. We have always told her if she gets up early to read a book or play quietly. And she does. Several times we have walked into her room in the morning and she has her tea party all set up, drinking tea with 4 of the above named guests. So so so cute! The animals will all have a cup that their little snouts are dipped into. So adorable!

5.
A few weeks ago, I was sick with a sinus infection and playing play dough with Julianna - and out of the blue she said to me, "Mommy I love you, I hope you feel better soon" - And she kept getting up to get me grapes in hopes it would make me feel better. I love this little kid - it makes all the whining and meltdowns (see #3) totally worth it!

6.
Julianna is growing into her own little person - every day I see her personality shine through and it just makes me smile with a proud-mama smile! She is so smart, funny & goofy. She laughs and tells jokes. She knows what she wants (sometimes a little too much), and knows what she doesn't want. She has such a fabulous personality and I love seeing her grow inside & out each and every day. I love seeing her with my husband. The bond they have is just amazing. It's so true what is said about daddy/daughter relationships.

7.
Back to the previously mentioned band aids (see #3). One night, Brian and I came home from our date night out and went into Julianna's room to kiss her goodnight (as we always do every night), and noticed she had a band-aid on her chin. Huh? All we could do is laugh. To know this kid, is to know she has 3-4 bandaids on her body any given day at one time. Mostly for imaginary boo-boos. She will be sitting on the sofa and out of nowhere say "Ouuuch! My elbow hurts. I need a Hello Kitty Bandaid". I could only imagine the extraordinary excuse she used on poor Jill (our babysitter) to get her to put a bandaid on her chin that night!

8.
The other night, I was reading Julianna a short story in her HighFive magazine (like Highlights for kids under 5 - it's awesome!), and I explained to her what twins are and how we have a set of twins in our family. I then asked her if she could name the twins in our family? So she quickly responds "Oh - me and Pepper. We're twins". Pepper is our dog. Clearly she missed the point. I was trying to get her to name her 13 year old twin cousins. Funny stuff though.

9.
File this one under kids say the darnedest things. The toilet made some gurgling noises the other day after she flushed it. She then proceeded to yell out,  "What's wrong with the freakin toilet?". Brian and I were cracking up! Could be worse, she could have said the other F word! I have to know that day is coming. Soon.

10.
Julianna wanted to meet Tyler's 'heart doactor' when we went to the Congenital Heart Awareness Event at the Hospital a few weeks ago. I later found out that Tyler's cardiologist was so touched by Julianna wanting to meet her. That is her way of learning about (and coping with) Tyler's condition even though she probably doesn't understand a lotbout it yet. She probably thought, "Who is the doctor they are always going to see?". Now she knows who his doctor is. I was also showing Julianna the halter monitor that was attached to Tyler's chest for 24 hours after his doctor' appointment a couple weeks ago. Julianna was genuinely interested in it and not scared at all. She doesn't ask about his scar at all either, even though she sees it daily. I think she just knows it's part of "him" and that's it. I believe she understands Tyler is different than her because she knows he goes to the doctor quite often and she talks about his heart doctor, but she is too young to understand the reality of it of course. I think it's pretty amazing how accepting she is of the special attention he gets and is OK with it (except when melting down - see #3).


Here are some pictures of a typical indoor day, which is every day lately due to the snowpocalyptic winter we have been having here in New Jersey.

Julianna loves cutting paper with her new scissors that Nana gave her!
Make note of random band-aid. 

Indoor fun

This was taken in December right around Christmas.... Pre-Ice Age. 

Fall Photos - Part 2 - Raking of the Leaves!

We had a couple weeks of beautiful sunny fall weather in October. The colors on the trees were great, and my daughter just loved playing in the fallen leaves... she couldn't get enough of it! Look how much fun she is having here! 

In case you missed part 1 of my fall photos - Go HERE to see them. 

Internal conflicts

No one tells you when you become a parent how many internal conflicts you are going to have daily, weekly, all the time! No one tells you that you are constantly going to wonder if you are making the right choices or saying the right things to guide your kids in the best direction. It's bad enough that before you have kids, you have to make so many decisions that affect your future good & bad. When you have children, you have to make decisions that will affect their future. That is a super scary thought for me. I don't want to be responsible for messing their lives up. I never know if I am making the right choices for my children... like what foods to feed them, what school to send them, daycare, routines, family time, time outs, tv time, organic or not organic, how to raise them both to respect themselves and others, how to make sure they have values & morals... and the list goes on and on. I see older mis-behaved kids or kids that have gone down a bad path in life - and I can't help but secretly pray that my kids will not turn out to be like that ... but how can I really prevent it? I don't know. All I can do is try my best. Maybe those 'bad' kid's parents thought they did their best too.

Lately I have had some major internal conflicts about how to handle my daughter's behavior. She is 3 and 1/2 years old ... and she whines A LOT. She whines and cries to try and get her way almost every time. She whines when she gets up in the morning, afternoon and evening too. She throws demands out there and tests us constantly. She yells she doesn't want me, she ONLY wants Daddy. Daddy daddy daddy. Daddy can do no wrong in her eyes. I know some of this is a daddy-daughter thing, but she goes way beyond that. It hurts my feelings and makes me so sad when she doesn't want me near her. I am truly starting to think I did something wrong to make her behave this way. I try to not give in to her demands and crying (to get what she wants) because I know it will only make her think she can do it again and again to get her way. I can't help but blame myself for her behavior some days like I caused it or did something wrong. Maybe I put too much pressure on myself to try and keep her 'perfect'. 

Some of Julianna's behavior totally stems from her jealousy of Tyler like when she tells Daddy to 'put Tyler down now' and hold her. When Tyler gets attention over her, she hates it. She does love Tyler because I see how she interacts with him daily, and I know she would never do anything to him.... however she is clearly jealous of the attention he gets and the time it takes away from her time with us. How long does this last for? I thought by the time Tyler was 5 months old, it would have subsided, but I guess not. Julianna doesn't act out as bad as she did when he was first born, but she does still have a lot of issues with him being here. I guess you could say she has her own internal conflict. No matter how much time we spend with her, it's still not the way it was before. Life has changed for her with the birth of Tyler, and she just has to get used to it. Heck - I am still getting used to 2 kids! 

Recently, we spent the day in the city with our friends and their 5 - yes five - kids. I was beyond amazed at how well behaved their kids were - and how easily they went with the day. Julianna was OK but not great. She whined & stomped her feet to get her way several times. She had a couple small tantrums and had an attitude when we tried to get her to do a few things she did not want to do. She refused to give up the stroller for Tyler when we tried to move him into it from the front-pack...which brought on another tantrum. So annoying in the middle of the new York City Subway platform with 500 people around you. I was so embarrassed and felt like I was "THAT" mom with "THAT" kid that everyone can't wait to be away from. I was talking to Brian on the way home and actually started to think maybe I (we) did something wrong. With that said, Tyler did great. He was in his carrying pack with me or Brian wearing him all day. He loved it. We had a very nice day all in all... will post about that another time. 

Brian and I had another (OMG!!) incident about a month ago where both kids were melting down at the same time (like REALLY REALLY SUPER REALLY bad) in a restaurant, and we had to get our dinners to-go and leave fast. We were there with our friends and I have never ever been forced to leave a restaurant because of my kids - It was my choice but no way was I staying there. We have been bringing Julianna out to eat since she was 3 weeks old. Same with Tyler. We did it so we could still have a life and go out with them - and we tried like heck to not be THOSE parents with THOSE kids. You know the ones. Oh wait, that is us! Ha! Then to top it off, some older woman said something to me to the effect of 'they moved their table because of my kids misbehaving'. I was in 'block-out' mode at that point because of Tyler & Julianna screaming. I felt like everyone was GLARING at us and cursing us under their breathe. 

I was beyond mortified. I couldn't pack up my stuff and grab our kid gear and dinners fast enough. I did not even hear the old lady comment until my friend who was there told me later what she said. (p.s. my pregnant friend went and told off the older lady after we left - Kudos to her!). Mind you we were in a super-kid-friendly place too. Even the owner came up to us outside and told us he felt so bad for us and asked if there was anything he could do. 

We will go back there... it's one of our favorite places to eat ever. But I have to tell you, I am a little traumatized and it might take a while to work up the nerve to go back. I am still traumatized. 

All I wanted to do was leave. I was so so embarrassed for my kid's behavior. I know Tyler can't help it, but Julianna was super-exceptionally terrible. I am talking top-o-the-lungs screeching & screaming - the blood curdling kind where she clinches her fists, turns red, screams & shakes! Kill me now. I know some of this is normal but maybe it's not. Nothing feels normal when she pulls that stuff. I'm just so conflicted because this is so difficult and I really do not know how to handle it sometimes other than praying for the earth to open up a hole and swallow me up. I have such patience with Julianna some days, and other days, I want to run away screaming (sometimes I do scream & yell too). Internal Conflict. Some days I think I have it all under control.. and other days I feel like my entire life is unraveling because I feel like I have no control over anything. 

With all this said... There are tender moments that I have with Julianna that wipes the slate clean for me. She will hold my hand unprovoked or tell me she loves me or snuggle with me... It makes it all worth it. I will end it with the fact that I love my husband and my children more than life itself, however sometimes I need an outlet to vent about bad days we experience & feelings I have. I am only human right?! 

We went apple picking a few weeks ago ... 

These are the times that make the "bad restaurant" day even out.

The girl loves her apples 

 This is how we roll.... in the apple orchard 

Tyler likes the hayride.

Hmmm ..... Which one 

It takes time & patience to pick the perfect apple.