Terrible Twos Meeting Terrific Twos

Well, let's just say Izzy's terrible twos peaked last week, paired with Bobby's upset stomach and my lack of sleep, which made for a long week. Izzy is a climber, more boy than girl I swear. She is into everything and oh so curious about anything and everything. She is especially curious if you tell her not to touch something, then she wants to touch it even more. One minute I am at my wits end, thinking to myself, "Can I make it to naptime? or Can I make it until Pat gets home?" and then she'll go and do something adorable with her brother. She is the sweetest big sister ever! Thank goodness she is never naughty or mean to him. She just wants to hug, kiss, and hold him all the time. When she is at her worst, I keep reminding myself that this is a phase and this too shall pass.

I am dreading going back to work for many reasons, the biggest being leaving the kids again. However,  I am not going to lie, the thought of making sure I get showered every morning and wear an outfit other than yoga pants and a tank top frightens me. :) Izzy is a product of Pat and I, which means, poor girl is a Type A as well. We all crave and do well with a routine and schedule. Mr. Sweet Bobby will also be a type A too, but just hasn't realized it yet and often puts a damper on making any real plans this summer. Izzy and I are used to going, going, going, until naptime, we love having a schedule, and things to do each day. Don't get me wrong, we still go places and do things, but it often takes longer, which is hard for a little two year old to be patient and have to wait for me to feed her brother when I have been promising since she woke up that we would go to the Splash Pad, etc. While I am dreading work again (even though I love my job), I know that once we get into our new schedule and routine, everything will fall into place and we will be one big happy Type A family again. As sick as it is, the thought of going back to work makes my stomach turn, but then when I think of the organizing and planning I have to do to get it all set up the way I want before school starts, I get excited. I LOVE organizing and planning, as well as being crazy busy. I have always done better under stress and with a million things to do. I think a part of my Type A personality is going a little crazy constantly trying to keep the house "clean" with a two year old and not being able to finish a task I start because I have two kids, one that requires me to actually sit down and feed them for at least a half hour at a time, all while entertaining and keeping an eye on the two year old who is into everything. While it kills me to leave my kids and send them off to daycare, I think of how neat it is that I get to be with 21 other people's kids during the day and I get to be the one reassuring their parents that I will take good care of them while they are crying saying goodbye on the first day of school. They can trust that I will take good care of their babies because it is killing me to leave mine as well, but I am leaving them to help teach their children. I hope the transition goes well for all of us and that the first month and a half goes fast before my first break in October.

One of her "better" days! Instead of napping, she climbed onto the corner of her bed and decided to raid her hair drawer. She poured out every hair binder onto her bed and was wearing four headbands when I came in and proudly announced, "I pretty mommy!"

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Her lovely mess..

 

Then, she'll ask, "I hold brother?" and does these cute little puppy dog eyes and it makes it all okay again.

 

Sibling fun....

Oh these two....

She was so excited that I let her feed Bobby a bottle, she took her job very serious!

So focused.....

She wanted to watch a show while she fed him, but would get upset if I took the bottle away or tried to help her hold it right. "I do it!"

We met Anna and Evan at the Splash Pad on Friday, Izzy decided to be a goofball.

We brought dinner to the park yesterday and had a picnic.

Bobby loved checking everything out.

We lost the juicebox straw...

See...our little climber!

Morning sibling snuggles.

Izzy went to get her swimming suit for the pool and came down with this on...

Our Crazy Life

Our blog is perfectly title, "The Christensen's Chaos", and it couldn't be more fitting. Our life is chaos all day long, as if it weren't crazy enough, we added another to our mix, Mr. Bobby. Bobby has been the perfect addition, so easy going and Mr. Go with the Flow (total second child!), until this week. I started to panic, I thought his personality and laid back demeanor was too good to be true. It started Sunday night and continued until late Wednesday afternoon, he started to act like a colicky baby. I panicked! He wasn't eating well, he would arch his back and scream, he was struggling to go to the bathroom, and was just plain fussy. Thankfully he'd sleep, but not without a lot of persuading. His smiles were rare, which is when I knew something was up. It seems Mr. Bobby was constipated and had an upset stomach as a result. We were trying to give him different bottles to prepare him for daycare, which made him mad and even more fussy, then he'd take in more air with the bottles, which worsened his stomach issues. I shouldn't speak too soon, but today seems to be a better day...I hope! He is back to smiling and eating and being laid back. Tonight will be the true test when we try another bottle. The back to school countdown has started and it makes me so sad and also makes me start to panic about this little bugger going to daycare with the big kids. I don't even have him on a schedule, he couldn't be ready for daycare!? The heart strings have already started to be pulled, but I am trying to ignore reality and pretend summer has just begun, after all with our weather, it feels like it just has begun.

My Smiley, happy boy!

So this happened...Izzy pulled up her dress and put her baby under her dress. She came up to me proud as can be and said, "I feeding baby, mom!" OH goodness!

Nicole came over to play....she bought Izzy an awesome coloring book and they colored together. Thanks Nicole!

 

Goofball cleaning her ears

 

 Katie and Lainey came over to visit. It was so fun to see these two together again. They seemed to remember each other, which was weird since Izzy was a year and Lainey was only six months.

 She is most definitely in her TERRIBLE twos and usually tests her naughtiness out on me! I told her we couldn't use the water colors until after nap, well she sure showed me. Katie and I were both there watching and somehow she managed to get paint in her mouth without us noticing. Thank God for non-toxic paints! The worst part...she was so proud when I took out my camera. I am SOOOOO very scared for her teenage years.

 

"I touch bunny, mom?"

 My cheesy pizza maker. Seriously, how long does the terrible smile phase last?

She took her job very seriously, but would "sneak" bites and then try to put them back on the pizza after. 

 Focused.

Again yesterday, as I was feeding Bobby on the couch. Izzy sat next to me with her baby. She didn't say a word, but picked up my nursing cover, put it over her head, lifted up her shirt, and put her baby underneath. She kept patting her baby's head. This girl...

Someone found her favorite glitter boots in storage in the basement. You can't rationalize with this age, so I finally had to hide them from her after telling her a million times it was too hot to wear them and she would have to wait for winter.

 Just taking baby for a little spin.

Tommy Reunion

We had a wonderful weekend with friends!  Our college friends all came into town and it was so fun to see everyone and watch our kids interact. We went to the Twins game on Friday and Pat smoked some awesome ribs (so I am told) for everyone Saturday and we hung out on the deck. Izzy had so much fun playing with Jack, Evan, and Anna! Mommy and Daddy had so much fun seeing all of our friends and catching up. I think we will be having withdraws this week from everyone. Izzy went to bed early last night and slept in, so she clearly had a great weekend! Back to reality today :(, we are heading into school quick to drop off my postcards for my students, but I am sure I won't be able to leave without grabbing a few things to bring home to work on. Grrrr

Bobby is getting so big! Anna is 5 months old and he is already catching up!

Teamwork!

Jumping fun

Taking turns

Watching and listening to songs on YouTube

Bath time fun

Bedtime stories by Liz

The babies being patient during bedtime stories for their older siblings

The babies were both a little fussy so Izzy decided to rub their heads while listening to the stories

Liz and I finally got to the game to meet up with everyone. This isn't everyone.

The gang!

Izzy loved baby Anna

Bobby discovered the mobile above his swing!

Auntie Jess brought dilly bars, Izzy ate the WHOLE thing!

Lots of love!

Tommies class of 2030

Jumping fun!

Hanging out

Goodbye hugs!

Bobby's getting strong and more alert everyday!

Bath time fun and early to bed after a fun filled weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baby

Well my baby seems huge now, we will find out how huge in a few weeks at his doctor apt. He is becoming more alert and smiley. Every time Izzy walks into a room  and is talking, Bobby gets a huge grin on his face. It is so adorable! This makes Izzy want to hug him and hold him even more. If he cries, she'll put his nuk in and tell me, "Bobby's crabby mommy" or "Bobby's hungry!" These two are going to be a dangerous duo I can already tell. :)

Yesterday, we took a walk to the park. Izzy wanted to bring her baby with so I let her  push her in her stroller. It was nice to let her walk, but goodness she is one curious two year old. The two block walk took forever. She would stop every two to three feet and point to something and ask me, "mommy, what is that? What's that mommy?" Nine times out of ten it would be green grass. You forget how curious two year olds are and how much they really want to learn from you. 

Chillin with me tag blanket

Taking baby for a walk to the park

Baby needed a turn too...

"I swing with baby!"

Miss engineer always into something and figuring out how it works.

Silly bedtime stories and fun with daddy while mom ran to help with interviews at work.