My Boys Don't Look Alike at All

Name that Cloth Diaper (and Win!)

Okay who feels like playing a game?  Whomever can name all ten of these fluff butts (both brand and color/pattern) will be entered into a drawing to win something.  Probably a Kawaii cloth diaper.  Edited to add:  Definitely a Kawaii.  You can email me or Facebook message me with your answers.  I will then draw a random winner from the correct answers.  All these diapers can be found at Kelly's Closet (see link below.)  Oh and this contest will end at the end of June.  

Click here to visit Kelly's Closet

So who is ready to get naming?  Just remember don't comment here and give the answers away to everyone.

Edited to also add:  Even if you don't get them all right, I am going to give away one prize package to a random person who attempts it.  It will be a prize pack of five cloth diapering/ natural living samples. 

First cloth diaper

Splish, splash

First cloth diaper the second time around

So bright and happy 

What a face

Why do I have socks on my hands?

Mooooo

Camping in style

So smart in his fluff

Cutest Valentine ever

And Then There were Two (Or how going from one to two kids was so much easier)

I wondered my entire pregnancy with Officer Owl if going from one to two kids was an easier transition than going from no kids to one kid.  I googled it, asked my friends, stressed, pulled out my hair.  Well you get the picture.  And I always came up with the same thing.  It just depends on you and the kids.

I am here to say for me it was far easier to go from one to two.  I think a lot of it was I knew what to expect the second time around.  I mean no you can't know what your baby will be soothed by or hate, what their personality will be like, if they will sleep at night.  (I talk about sleep a lot.  I like sleep.  And yet, the only time I have to blog is at night when I should be sleeping.  It is a problem haha.)  But you already have a ton of soothing mechanisms up your sleeve.  You know that crying will not harm your child while you go pee or eat a sandwich.  You also know that while sleep deprivation sucks, you will make it through and one day sleep again.  Even if it takes 15 months to happen regularly.  ::glares at Destructo::

I credit Destructo with a lot of the ease with which I took to being a mom to two.  He is such a high spirited, high maintenance, high energy, honey badger of a boy.  I love him with every fiber of my being, but he is hard.  Hard to handle, loud, full of destructive energy.  It is hard getting out smarted by a three year old on the regular and being questioned on any and every thing you say.  But having him as my first child made me realize that I could probably handle anything the second baby threw my way.  I think going from one to two would have been much harder if I had a super easy, calm, low maintenance baby for a first child.  (Dayna you are screwed if you are reading this.  Sloth boy version 2.0 surely won't happen and you won't know what to do with yourself with a honey badger hahaha.  At least you also have Destructo preparing you in case it happens.)

Colic was hard.  The never ending screams made for a miserable household for six weeks.  But even during those rough days, motherhood was still easier the second time around.  I think because I knew that this two would pass.  That one day Owl would no longer be a newborn and it would be easier.  I knew that I would make it.  That life would be awesome again soon.

And it is.  Awesome I mean.  Okay that isn't true.  Life with the baby is pretty darn awesome right now.  There are hard days when he wakes numerous times each night and I am low on patience all next day and even lower on sleep.  But overall it is awesome.  A lot of nights we only have one wake up at night.  He is a fairly calm baby so far.  He eats, plays, starts fussing, and then goes to sleep.  He sleeps when we are out and about which Destructo never did from a young age.  He is a snuggler and a cuddler (which again independent Destructo never did.)  It is so nice to get a cuddler.  He has the biggest smile that just lights up his whole face.  He is a very happy baby.  Those smiles make it all worth it.  

So for all you moms who had your world rocked when had your first baby, just know it can be easier the second time around.  Having Owl around actually makes me feel like I am rocking motherhood a lot of days.  I am so glad to have him in my life.  It makes our family more balanced because Destructo true to his name makes me feel like I am failing miserably at motherhood more than once a day.  For example, he was refusing to get ready for nap because he hadn't eaten lunch yet.  You know the lunch he had refused to eat.  So I set a timer and gave him an extra ten minutes since I hate for him to go to bed hungry.  I also sternly told him he was not to let his butt leave the chair or else he would lose his ten minutes and go straight to bed.  

Yeah I went to change the baby's diaper.  I came back just as Mr. Destructo was walking in the door from work.  He asked what Destructo was doing.  I came out to see Destructo running around with his chair held onto his butt.  He did not disobey me at all.  I told him not to let the chair leave his butt.  He didn't.  He held it firm.  He is slick like that.  And outsmarts me regularly.  Yep he wins regularly.  But he always keeps me smiling. 

Ahh motherhood.  If you don't go insane from lack of sleep, you will surely go insane by the terrible two's and terrorist three's.  If you survive all that, you still have the teen years to push you right over the edge.  :)

So which transition did you find easier?  Zero to one or one to two?

Two Months Old for the Owlster

Weight--  We went for Ollie's two month appointment on Monday so a few days before two months and he weighed 11 lbs 11 oz.  He is the weight Destructo was at 4 months.  He is a chunk.  Just today I had to fight to get his 3 month shorts on him.  Of course, he has a huge fluff butt which doesn't help matters any.

Battle scars after his first shots

Height--  At his appointment, he was 22.6 inches.   I can't get over how big my baby is getting.  He is also just a bit taller than Destructo was but not by much.  It is so weird to look at him because he is still very newbornish but looks so much like Kai did at four or five months since he is such a big boy.

Medical Issues--  Ollie still has bad reflux.  We actually had to go up on his Zantac once already.  I tell you what though Zantac is a gift sent straight from the heavens.  Within 24 hours of starting the meds Owl was a whole new baby.  He is the happiest, easiest, most sweet and cuddly little baby ever.  He has a great personality which I never would have guessed during the hellish first six weeks.  He is full of smiles (although not as goofy smiley as Destructo was.)  

Just in the past few days, his poop started being green and having a small amount of blood in it.  I am eliminating obvious dairy from my diet since it is the most obvious culprit, but I am a bit skeptical because he has been fine all along with dairy.  I kind of think it was either legumes since I had had chili, refried beans, peas, etc in the two days before the blood or spinach/arugula since I had been eating big salads lately.  But dairy is the first thing to go and if it doesn't help, I will start an actual elimination diet.  Other than those two things, only a blocked tear duct plagues us.

Sleep--  On Mother's day he slept from 9ish until 5 AM and that was amazing.  I got 5 1/2 straight hours of sleep.  He continued to sleep pretty well at least six hour stretches or so for about a week and then regressed back to waking up every three hours which was awful.  Now the past few nights he has done better again going from about 9-4 in between eating.  Which is nice.  If I can even get one four hour stretch of sleep, I feel so much better.

Daytime sleep is hit or miss with him.  Some days he cat naps all day and other days he sleeps the majority of the day.  Usually if he cat naps for a day or two, then he will have a day or two of sleeping the majority of the day.  I actually kind of like both.  Well except for the fact that he has decided his really alert time of day needs to be whenever I put Destructo down for a nap.  It doesn't matter when that is of course.  He is awake.

Clothes Size--  He is in 0-3 and 3-6 depending on how the brand runs.  His 0-3 pants are all pretty much getting too tight with cloth diapers.  I am actually going to have to buy clothes for him most likely.  The way he is growing so fast, he will hit the clothes that both my nephew and Destructo wore in winter only.  It figures.  I have enough clothes to clothe triplets and yet need to get chunker some new clothes.  Ohh his name on here needs to be Officer Owl.  I call him my little Owl all the time after Kai was pronouncing his name Owl Lee.

Can you tell I like owls?

Diapers Size--  Size one in disposables although he will need a size two next time I buy them.  He is on the smallest setting on his one size cloth diapers although some of the smaller ones actually have one snap open on the waist setting.

Diet-- All boob milk all the time.  He does take a bottle well and I try to give him a bottle a week just so he doesn't forget/ start refusing bottles.  He is such a slow bottle drinker though that it is much easier to just nurse him.  And I hate pumping.  A lot.

Baby Gear I Love--  Fisher-Price Snugabunny Cradle 'N Swing   He didn't care for the swing much until half a week ago and suddenly it is awesome.  Which is helpful for the times he is fussy right at dinner time.  He even takes some naps in it.  Not sure why he suddenly likes it, but I hope it continues.

Aden and Anais swaddling blankets  I use these as a nursing cover and they are awesome for that.  They are lightweight so you don't sweat to death in the 90 degree weather and great for keeping sun off baby as well.
myBaby Soundspa Lullaby Sound Machine and Projector   White noise has helped him sleep much better.  I loved it with Destructo and I still love it just as much now.
  bouncy seat  Ollie plays in this all the time.  He has learned how to pull the thing that makes music on mine and it is funny since it startles him each time he does it.

Milestones--  He rolled over twice the day he turned seven weeks.  I didn't get to see it.  My mom was watching him for thirty minutes while I ran by my sister's house.  He hasn't done it since though so I think it might have been a fluke thing.  He slept through the night technically on Mother's Day.  He found his hands and constantly likes to suck on them now.  He got his first set of shots and I wanted to cry nearly as much as I did with Destructo.  He laughed out loud for the first time as well.  We also went to the zoo for the first time yesterday.

First zoo trip that he slept through

But the biggest not really milestone this month is just that the Zantac stopped his colicky crying.  I guess he just had reflux so badly he was in a lot of pain.  I feel so bad for him.  He seems to be feeling so much better now.  Thank God.

Likes/Dislikes--  He loves laying on his changing table (and no longer hates being naked.)  He loves his bouncy seat and play mat.  He likes carrying on conversations with people even though we don't know what he is saying.  He likes sleeping with his frog lovey (or any fleecy material) touching his face.  He still loves eating and taking medicine even Zantac which both Kai and my nephew hated.  He doesn't like having to wait to eat. He can't stand when Kai gets right up in his face or when Kai gets too loud.  Loud noises really freak him out.  

How he would prefer I let him sleep

Things I don't want to forget--  How he says a baby babble that sounds just like Hi so it almost seems like he can talk.  The way he smiles while he is nursing.  How he screams at Sam now when I hand him to Sam while he is laying in bed because he is so afraid we are going to try to force him to sleep when he doesn't want to.  The way his first sweet little laughs sounded.  How great it feels to cuddle him on my chest after nursing.  He has the softest little fuzzy head ever.  I love it.  He is a cuddler unlike big brother at that age.  How he loves to lay on his changing table and always talks and smiles.

I can say I definitely appreciate the second baby a lot more.  New motherhood was a huge shock to my system when Destructo was born.  I just wished it away.  I hated the sleep deprivation.  Don't get me wrong, I still hate the sleep deprivation this time around, but knowing he will grow so very fast makes it worth it.  I like our times just the two of us with him snuggled on my chest.  Already he is awake and alert far more and since I have two kids now I don't get nearly as much snuggle time with him as I had with Kai so I cherish it far more.  Heck even diaper changes take far longer since I sit there and converse in baby talk with him.  Motherhood was a thousand times easier going from one to two than zero to one for sure.

This post contains affiliate links which compensate Adventures with Captain Destructo with a % of the sale. Using these links doesn't cost you anything extra, but it helps support this blog and my family. Thanks!

Moraki my Moraki A Review and Giveaway

Oh Moraki.  How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways.  I was lucky enough to get a Moraki to review and they were nice enough to let me have plenty of time to do it so I could try it out on not only Destructo but also Screamer once he was born.  It has lived up to my expectations and then some.

I received an organic cotton/hemp all in one in kaleidoscope with candy snaps.  What that long color means is it is super bright and awesome.  

This diaper worked well for my Destructo's nap time diapers and even fared well over night for my heavy wetter (although I did stuff it with an extra hemp insert since he is such a heavy wetter.)  But what was awesome is that it also worked nearly from birth with Screamer as well.  So their claim to fit a child from 7-40+ pounds is quite accurate.  I think Screamer was 8.5 pounds the first time I used it on him and Destructo weighs somewhere around 31-32 pounds and I was able to get a good fit with both kids.  (Pretend you see a picture of Destructo in it.  He refused to model this morning.  I am going to try again later in the day to see if he cooperates.)  

This style of Moraki is an all in one which means no stuffing.  Which I have come to love now that I have a little one in diapers again.  So convenient.  It has four layers of organic cotton/hemp for lots of absorbency.  (There is also a stay dry option for those people that prefer that.)

There are four rows of rise snaps to let you get a good fit.  This diaper also has a hip/ wing snap.  I have realized that I do not like diapers without a hip snap because I always get wing droop and leaks so this diaper passes that test.  And look at the snaps on this one!  They are so bright and cheery and colorful and just awesome.  Can you tell I love this diaper?

Photo via Moraki

Overall I am very happy with this diaper and this company.  They have some really cute prints and bright colors.  I plan to get more down the road when I am not paying off my tons of medical bills from giving birth.  I never had leaks with it and it isn't super bulky which is nice with my newbie.  

And one lucky winner has a chance to win a Moraki diaper.  The company nicely is going to give one away to a reader.  Just enter below.

Disclosure:  I was given a pair of the Moraki  cloth diaper for free to review and keep.  I was not paid to review them and all opinions are honest and my own.    See my full disclosure policy tab for more information.

Entry-Form

Ollie's Natural Birth Story

If my labor with Destructo was a marathon, by far my labor with Sgt. Screamer was a sprint.  Or in horse racing terms Destructo's was the Belmont and Ollie's was the Breeders Cup Sprint.  I am so glad that it was a much easier, quicker, overall way better labor the second time around.

Whole lot of crying went on

I woke up March 24th and wasn't having any labor signs what so ever.  This was strange since I had been having labor signs for weeks including timeable contractions.  I was pacing around the house talking to my labor and delivery nurse friend and whining that I didn't even feel pregnant anymore minus the huge belly and being able to feel the baby moving around.

While talking to her, I noticed I was having some period like cramping.  I told her once Destructo was done eating breakfast I would take him on a long walk just to see what happened.  She highly recommended that.  Sure is nice to have a L and D nurse friend to tell me what to do.  I was super irritable that day so I figured what better thing to do than get us both out of the house to keep from losing my cool with him.  I purposely cleaned my kitchen and folded all the laundry I had waiting just in case so at least my house would be clean if I went into labor.  I imagine this was last minute nesting lol.

We went walking around 10:15.  I had what I thought were a few contractions and was talking to my grandma on the phone telling her I might be having contractions but I couldn't really tell.  Then all of a sudden I felt like I was seriously going to pee my pants right then and there and so much pressure.  I remember thinking it was weird since I had went to the bathroom right before we left.  At that point we had only been gone 15 minutes and I really hadn't drank anything much that day.   I have a feeling this is when Screamer really dropped down since he hadn't up until that point.  

I kept walking and knew for sure I was having some contractions.  At this point, I got even more irritable because of all days this was the day Destructo wasn't listening to me and wanting to dawdle and I just wanted to get home to see if the contractions stopped (like they had been for weeks) and to pee.  Well in all honesty he doesn't listen a lot of days and was probably no worse than normal but it sure felt like he was walking at the negative speed of light.   I feel bad because I kept losing my temper since he was stopping and going sooo slow.  I called Mr. Destructo at this point to tell him I was having contractions but not to come home yet since I was sure they would stop once I got off my feet.

We finally got home around 11:15 and I laid on the couch and started timing contractions.  This was nearly impossible since Destructo wasn't cooperating and needed a snack and then lunch and the TV turned on and wanted me to play and on and on.  I called Mr. Destructo back and told him he probably needed to come home because I was having contractions every 8-10 minutes and they were uncomfortable enough that I wasn't really able to get Kai lunch and ready for nap since his night time diaper had leaked that morning and he had no sheets on his bed but not to rush.  I figured I would take a nap if nothing else once he was home.  I do like naps.

Within about 15 minutes, I called him again and told him I lied.  The contractions had gotten more painful and intense and I knew then it was real labor.  I just did not want to be alone with a toddler anymore because my patience was absolutely gone by that point.  I called my mom and dad and told them to head up our way.  They live an hour away so I wanted to give them plenty of time to get there.  I told mom even if we didn't head straight to the hospital at least they would be there when we needed to go.

Yeah after that the contractions really started speeding up.  I was having them about every five minutes if I was laying down and every 3 minutes if I was moving around and the only comfortable position was sitting on the toilet.  I could not lay down even though I wanted to rest since I was thinking I would need to save my strength for a long labor.  Looking back it is funny to see what an impact my first super long labor had on my thinking during my second labor.

The contractions were now coming every 3-4 minutes so I told Mr. Destructo we needed to leave.  I called my parents again to see how far out they were.  This is the point where I really started freaking out.  I was crying because I just wanted to get to the hospital.  I didn't mind the idea of a home birth, but obviously we weren't prepared and I didn't want to wait any longer because I knew the car ride in was going to be excruciating.  It is a 30 minute drive barring traffic.  I got very lucky with all three car rides I had to the hospital with both my labors in that they were all at off peak traffic times.  Rush hour takes the 30 minutes and turns it into 1-2 hours.  God was looking down on me with Ollie since right after I went through a wreck happened and stopped traffic creating a huge traffic jam.

I actually got in the car to wait as I barked orders to Mr. Destructo about things not to forget.  At one point, I decided to have Mr. Destructo go over and get one of our neighbors.  We don't really know them, but they seem nice enough and Destructo was napping so it wasn't like I was leaving him alone with a stranger.  I was that ready to go.  Luckily just as I was about to send Mr. Destructo over my parents got there and we were able to leave.  I was not very nice to any car that I deemed going too slow on the way there.  That truly was the worst car ride of my life.  I remember just rolling side to side in the front seat screaming with each contraction.

We got there and they checked me and I was 9 cm and had a bulging water sac.  I cried because I had been so worried I wouldn't have progressed very far.  It was always my plan to get to the hospital right near transition so that worked nicely.  Then I cried some more when I realized I was going to have a baby on a Monday again.  (My mom had three daughters all born on a Monday.  Both of my boys were born on Mondays.  How weird is that?)   They got me in a room and offered to break my water.  I declined for the moment.  I labored by shaking the bed rail with each contraction.  For some reason this helped.  At one point, both my mom and Mr. Destructo thought I should let them break my water since I was in so much pain and it would quicken delivery.  My mom said your water has to break before he can come out.  Always the bearer of useless knowledge, I informed her that no it didn't and it is called being born in the caul.  And I wonder where Destructo gets his argumentative nature from.  I think I was afraid of having to deliver without an epidural and wanted to postpone the inevitable as long as I could since while contractions sucked, I was fairly easily getting through them.

About 20 minutes later, they checked me again and my water broke.  There was once again meconium in the fluid.  Can one of my boys not have this?  This is when it got rough.  I started pushing and could not push right.  They wanted me to hold my own legs which is the opposite of what I did with Kai and I just could not get past the pain.  There was screaming and crying and cursing and I begged for drugs.  But of course it was too late.  At one point, I accidentally punched a nurse.  I don't remember this.  Whoops.  If we ever have another kid which we don't plan to, but if we do I want to make it a part of my birth plan that I labor with someone else holding my legs so I can have my hands free to grab onto the bed rail and bear down that way.  This is the only part of the labor I somewhat regret because I really lost control and it was so stressful and just awful.

Finally my midwife got through the fog of pain and scaredness when she yelled at me enough to get my attention and told me his heart rate was in the 40's.  He wasn't going to tolerate this much longer.  That was apparently what I needed to hear because after that it was like nothing else mattered but getting him out and in three pushes he was born at 4:17 pm one hour  and ten minutes after we got to the hospital.  That was probably the scariest few minutes of the entire labor though knowing his heart rate was so low and he was in distress.  I remember thinking my baby could die if I don't get it together.  Probably an exaggeration but it was motivated me to get him out..  

They laid him on my chest and he wasn't crying only grunting some.  I couldn't even touch him as they didn't want him to take deep breaths and breathe in anymore meconium fluid than he already had.  I cried again begging him to cry since I didn't realize they purposely wanted to suction him first.  There was lots of tears up in the room.  They whisked him away and he did finally start crying.  It felt like minutes but my husband says it was a minute or less until he was crying.  He had aspirated some of the meconium so they used a special machine to suction him.  I cried some more because I finally had my natural delivery and couldn't even hold my precious baby.  He was covered in meconium and I was too.  It was fitting though that he covered me in poop since his big brother did as well.

Getting suctioned over and over.  

They worked on him for a while and eventually it was decided to take him to the NICU since they were slightly concerned with his breathing.  My mom asked them to please let me hold him for a minute before they took him and they did.  I cried some more.  But was so thankful that she and my hubby asked for this because I didn't even know what he looked like at this point because he was on my chest so briefly.  I remember pulling his hat back for just a second and noticing he had hair.  Destructo was as close to bald as you can be without actually being bald.  Screamer had quite a bit of blonde hair.  I cried over this fact.  Then I cried some more as they wheeled him away.

He went to the NICU and my hubby and I were talking.  He jokingly said that we should name the baby Frank.  We met in my freshman year of college in an English comp class.  We read "Angela's Ashes" and both fell in love with the name Malachi who was a character in that book.  Frank McCourt was the author.  We laughed about that and he went to the NICU to be with the baby while my mom stayed with me.  I was bleeding more than they would like so I had to lay flat.  This was torture since I just wanted to hurry up and recover and go be with my baby.

Off to the NICU he went

While laying there willing myself to quit bleeding, I got bored and started googling "Angela's Ashes" on my phone. Oliver was the brother to Malachi in that book.  I texted Mr. Destructo and told him that the baby was Oliver. I had never been more certain of anything.  When he sent me a picture, I was even more sure.   I didn't think he would ever go along with it since it was a name I had suggested before and he didn't much care for.  But I guess when your wife just delivered an almost eight pound baby naturally and had second degree tearing, you don't argue too much.  Plus he never liked the other name we had picked out all that much.  

 Side note:  The plan had been to name the baby Zachariah and call him Zach.  It was unique, Biblical, but had a common nickname.  The entire pregnancy we had called the baby Zach.  We had also tossed around Solomon and Elijah.

Finally four hours after going to the NICU, they brought my baby back to me.  He had already been given a paci because he was quite hungry while in the NICU.  I was worried that would affect breast feeding negatively but nope.  He latched on as soon as I got him in my arms and we haven't looked back.  I had a bit of trouble getting him onto my left side as I did with Kai, but nothing major.  He has gained weight like crazy and I have had none of the issues I did with Destructo.  I truly feel like breastfeeding is very natural and easy this time around unlike last time.

First picture as a family of four

So there you have it.  My birth story in a very condensed version.  I finally got my natural, unmedicated delivery.  The labor from start to finish was only six hours.  I thought I would feel like some huge accomplishment had been gained from having a natural birth, but honestly I feel like Destructo's hard marathon labor was more of an accomplishment than Screamer's.  (I really probably should come up with a new name since starting him on reflux meds he is a super happy baby haha.)  Either way I am glad to get to experience two very different births.  I am also glad to get my natural birth and know I can do it.  But I am also glad for my epidural birth because it showed me how truly strong I was.  Oh and I got two very adorably cute boys out of the labors.  I am one lucky mama.

Source

Whoever would have thought that this man (Frank McCourt) would have such a profound influence on my future kids names? 

Happy 3rd Birthday to Captain Destructo!

How is it that my little man is already three.  His first three years of life have flown by in the blink of an eye!  It seems like just yesterday we were welcoming him into the world after a long 74 hours of labor.  He taught me how to be a mommy, has given me much more patience than I had before having him, and never fails to leave me laughing.  

I look forward to so many things in this his third year of life.  I look forward to him starting t ball in the fall.  He loves baseball and can't wait to play.  I look forward to watching him learn to ride a pedal bike now that he has perfected the balance bike.  But mostly I just look forward to daily life with him.  He is so funny even when he is being a Destructo that it makes life interesting.

So happy birthday my sweet Captain Destructo and many more.

Colic Equals Hell

The title says it all.  Colic is a living hell.  It is the main reason that the blog has went silent.  And for some reason every time I type that the song "When the lights go out in the city...." plays in my head and I don't know why.  Random I know.  I am pretty random since having a newborn all over again.  But I am here to tell you almost six weeks in and I am starting to feel more human like again.

The first six weeks were very hard with Destructo and while I will say with Sgt. Screamer it has been far easier, it was still very hard.  I think it was easier in that I knew what to expect.  I knew that letting him cry while I was doing vital things such as cooking, peeing, tending to my other child wasn't going to kill him or force him to need psychological help later on in life.  Oh no.  He will seek that for other things.  Like his mothers obsession with hats or dressing him in owls.  I mean he is my little owl lee after all.

This post keeps getting more random.  But as with everything in parenting, you have to trust your mommy instinct.  We took Ollie to the doctor at 2 weeks for his check up and I inquired about reflux.  Destructo had it and had to be on Zantac for six months.  The pedi felt that in Ollie's case it was from over eating.  I agreed at that point since I had overactive let down and a bit of an over supply.  But I am so glad I made the decision to take him back in at five weeks.  He has been such a happy baby since a day after starting him on meds.  Even during his peak colic hours of 6-10 the most he has been is fussy.  Here's to hoping this continues.

I just keep repeating to myself this too shall pass and remembering that the first six weeks were the hardest with Destructo.  Okay check back later for the actual colic post I was intending to right until I got all random.  I am going to give my suggestions for helping you deal with colic.   Oh and keep watching I have a Morkai give away that will be going live in the next few days.  

Three Year Olds are Tiny Terrorists

So Destructo isn't quite three yet. And on a side note, how in the world is my baby almost three years old?   But he is close enough to act like a full blown three year old.  Everyone warned me that the terrible three's are much worse than the terrible two's and I believe them.  My mom confirmed I was far worse at three than two.  I think this is partly due to the fact that a two year old is still babyish in a lot of ways and therefore less likely to make you irate since you can blame it on them still being a baby.

Destructo basically is of the mind set that he wants to do what he wants and he wants to do nothing that we want.  For example he misbehaves and gets sent to time out.  Two year old Destructo would scream and cry and flail and kick.  I can ignore that easy enough.  This is how time out for not quite three year old Destructo goes:

Me or Mr Destructo:  "1,2,3 go to the corner" (our time out spot.)  Destructo ignores us until we hit three and then runs screaming that he was going to do whatever we asked him to do or stop whatever we asked him not to do.  We send him to the corner anyways.

Destructo's response varies but here are my top three favorites recently:

"I will break the roof down with my ax.  Uh oh I can't go to the corner.  I broke the corner.  No corner anymore.  The corner is broken.  I broke it with my ax and a dump truck picked it up and took it away to the dump site and then a roller ran over it and the corner is broken.  See the crack in it.  It is melting."

"I threw the corner away and fed it to the whale and he didn't spit it out on the beach.  Uh oh no more corner.  I fed it to a rhino.  The elephant stepped on it.  I fed it to a dinosaur and he ate it all up nom nom nom."  This one goes on forever and typically involves every animal he has ever seen at a zoo.  Oh and did I mention he is screaming all this while simultaneously crying.  And Sgt. Screamer is usually screaming too due to his colic.  Yeah lots of screaming.  LOTS OF IT.

A final (and perhaps the most infuriating response) is to go screaming to the corner and having to immediately go potty.  The one time I didn't let him go he peed in his pants (and I felt bad but I think it was willful so I only felt a little bad.)  So we changed the rules and he can go potty but time out starts over.  So one day, he decided he would outsmart us and continue to say he had to go potty.  After a good ten minutes, we had had enough since it was very evident he had no pee left in his little bladder.  I told him no he was going to take his time out.  He informed me he would pee his pants.  I said go ahead and his evil plan was foiled for two reasons.  One he didn't have to go potty and two even if he did he just happened to be in a pull up for nap.  I won. 

That is just time out.  When he doesn't want to listen/do what we ask/ whatever he breaks into song.  ABCDEFGHI I don't have to listen to you or I don't want to do whatever or you aren't the boss JKLMNOP

He can do this with any song.  Hi ho the deerio I hate the corner.  I admire his creativity.

We were going to my parents cabin this weekend.  He loved being at their cabin two weekends ago.  He was screaming at the top of his lungs mommma mommma during naptime yesterday.  I told him he needed to lay down and take a nap so we could go to the cabin when he woke up.  This convo then happened.  

Destructo:  I don't want to go to the cabin (and yes he is screaming the entire time.)

Me:  Okay you can stay here.

Destructo:  You can't leave me here alone.

M:  I wouldn't be.  Daddy isn't going this time so you can stay here with him.

D:  I don't WANT to go to the cabin.

M:  (calm as can be) OK you can stay here.

D:  FINE.  I MADE A DECISION.  I WILL GO TO THE CABIN, BUT I WON'T LIKE IT.

 I consider that a win in my book.

And I found this the other day:

Yes my lovely readers I found him in the dryer

But after nearly three years of parenting, I just tell myself that this two will pass.  Just like the first six weeks of his life where I was exhausted, he fussed a lot, and refused to nurse.  Or from 9 months to a year where he started throwing temper tantrums, was highly frustrated trying to learn to walk, and was teething.  Or 18 months to 2 when he was refusing to eat anything, throwing epic head banging into walls hurting himself tantrums, and occasionally biting.  This too will pass in the blink of an eye.  And in the mean time, I will drink wine and pray for my sanity and to learn how to properly discipline him and not raise a psychopath.

Proverbs 22:6

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it