No Sleep for the Fuchs'

Lately my generally good sleeping children hate to sleep (and I hate them). Henry is really only bad when he is sick and stuffed up. Sadly that boy pours out more snot than Kristin does soda (Kristin only drinks about a 1/4 of a 12-oz. soda daily). Cole has been waking up at least a few times every night with a super annoying cry/cough/whine kind of sound. It is horrible. He will open his mouth real wide and cough and he will have the world's stinkiest breath. He will also say creepy shit as he is having one of these big boy night terrors. At times, I feel like I'm in a horror movie and all of a sudden Cole is going to go psycho and take me out.

I recently heard that the start of the NCAA tourney was the most popular time of year for men to schedule their vasectomy's (so they can stay home and watch all the games, dummy) and you have to schedule way in advance. Looks like I missed my window this year, but it's on the list for next year if I don't start getting some uninterrupted sleep.



Sick Henry sleeping with Mom

Not Much Happening

We are just waiting for Spring like everyone else. In the meantime some photos...

As we mentioned before, Cole often gets a treat for getting dressed in the morning.  He has typically been choosing a mini chocolate bar, which he eats on the toilet upstairs, since sitting options are limited and we don't want him eating chocolate all over his bedroom.  Although, typing this I just realized we do have a rocking chair in the hallway. I will have to talk to Kristin about her choices. Anyway, Cole was downstairs and managed to earn a mini chocolate bar. Upon receiving the bar, he immediately walked through the kitchen and into our tiny first floor bathroom to sit down and eat it. I want to simultaneously congratulate him on following rules and smack my forehead because it is obvious he thinks eating chocolate = sitting on a toilet. This is a habit that will need to be broken.

Below is our classic picture phone dump, phlog, nothing-to-write-about blog.

Looks nice, but Henry will stay in this position for about 1/2 a second before he decides to leap off the couch to run around and jump

Cole will sit still much longer

Unless TV is on, then they are rocks and you will gain neither of their attention

Popsicles

Bird watching with Great Grandma
They did both get haircuts last week so they no longer look homeless/neglected

If you look close you will see two tubes of scar cream. I recently bought a new one because we kept "losing" them. Henry likes playing with them and we figured when he wasn't being watched he probably threw them in the garbage. I finally discovered Henry's hiding place - a bag of books that hangs on Cole's closet door. I'm pretty glad too, these things are about $10 a pop.

One of Henry's first timeouts. He punched Cole right in the eye.

 

School friends. The one on the right in the blue actually pushes Cole sometimes. Not cool.

 

If you have not reached picture overload you can follow Kristin on Instagram at kestear.

School Pains

I have a new parenting gripe - school shit. Cole's nursery school seems to be very involved and the teachers do a lot of special things. For example, they will have color days where Cole will have to wear a certain color. Getting Cole dressed is hard enough. Getting him dressed in a specific color is much harder. Not to mention we have to run out and buy him some purple clothes he will never wear again. They also had a pajama day, so after all the hard work to start getting Cole out of his pajamas in the morning we have to somehow explain that it is okay for just ONE special day.

We also have to bring snacks for the school. This sucks for obvious reasons. We have to go out and buy ingredients for whatever is being made, and Kristin seems to be in a contest with no one to think up the most creative, yet also healthy, snack ever. I can't tell you how many emails I get of "snack ideas" until we finally settle on one. I will give her that coming up with a snack that is healthy enough for today's parents is difficult. Last time we made fruit and cheese kabobs, this time we went with a St. Pat's theme and made 2 types of green muffins and green grapes. Then, instead of watching TV or doing something enjoyable, I had to de-stem about one ton of grapes and weigh in on how green and cute our muffins were looking. Granted, Kristin does most of the work as I wander around the kitchen helpless, but nonetheless it is a pain and I would like to do other things with my time.

Bad picture, but notice the Camo pants and striped shirt - they obviously do not teach fashion at Cole's school

Not so much a gripe, but talking about school reminded me of all of Cole's school art projects. He has not been in school long, but the area we set up to hang his art projects is already full. I'm hoping that by posting a picture of all these items, we can just throw all this crap, I mean "art," away. In realty it is closer to food than art. His teacher often uses snack items at part of the projects. By the time these projects make it home, Henry and Cole have peeled off and eaten many of the glue residue coated snacks.

Henry ate the snack off this one in seconds

They both liked glue coated goldfish
 

Complaining aside, Cole really likes his school and we are very happy there as well. We signed Cole and Henry (!) up for 3 days a week next year. I guess we will have to expand our art wall area!

Potty Training - Part 2 (2-28-13) -- FAIL

The second day of potty training went much like the first - Cole constantly refusing to drink or sit on the potty. He had one accident, and initiated a bathroom trip on his own only once. Then before his bath he had another accident...and that night before bed he was fixated on telling us how much he "just doesn't like his underpants." The next morning he woke up and immediately declared he was wearing a diaper and that his "undies hurt him."  So I caved - staying home for 2 straight days constantly eagle eyeing Cole for any signs of pee is exhausting. I don't hate changing diapers and he is obviously not interested in it. I figure if I have to physically wrestle him to sit on the potty there is probably not a lot of opportunity for learning happening in that moment.  Maybe I'm just making excuses? Oh well, either way we are both happier with him in a diaper. I will try again soon - when Nick takes a day off to join me in potty training misery.





He initiated using the potty right after this picture and I thought it was going to be easy from there on out

Mean Boys and an Uncle Ben Weekend

Cole has been super mean to me this past week. I have no idea why. I come home from work, excited to see the boys and Cole will shut his door and start talking shit. The last barrage of smack talk went as follows:

     "No Daddy"

     "I don't like you"

     "Daddy's not my best friend"

     "I'm going to kick you"

     "I'm going to smack you in the nose"

I was further disappointed over the weekend when Cole refused to go to the Auto Show with me. I was looking forward to it. Maybe next year if Cole decides we can be friends again.

Henry wasn't an angel all weekend either. Cole abused me mentally and Henry physically. We were all hanging out in Cole's room when I decided to shut my eyes for a little bit of rest. Next thing I knew I was drilled in the temple with a small wooden toy truck of some sort. It hurt bad. My jaw is still sore. Then at the grandparent's house, Henry made a run for the stairs (going down). As I went after him I hit my knee on the door frame. Judging from the sound I'm lucky to only have a slight limp.

Luckily enough it was a busy weekend and I was able to get away from the bullying Friday night and had some assistance to keep the boys occupied throughout the weekend. The weekend was filled with family Stear time as Ben was visiting from Philly and Grammie DJ celebrated a birthday, so we clocked many hours with them. Friday night Aunt Jess and BF Dan watched the boys and we enjoyed a kid-free meal at Smyth at the Iron Horse. It wasn't that good but not having kids hanging on us and being able to eat food while it was still hot was good enough.



Sunday we all gathered once again for Uncle Ben's last day in town and Normal Grammie's bday.
We relaxed and brunched...brunched WAY too much.

Cole had fun cracking eggs and did a pretty good job



Playing in Cole's room. He called this his stage. He's in there somewhere.

He would then pop out and sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. He watched a Blue's Clues that morning where they did a musical. Must have made quite an impression on him.