I'd say that's enough for one day...

What a morning!  So many things have happened; none good.  We started with Micah coming in at 6:22am.  I promptly picked him up and put him in his own bed.  Things were quiet for a few minutes so I went back to sleep.  About 6:44am I hear voices in Jacob's room.  Thinking he's just cooing I stay in bed for a few minutes just to wake up.  As I'm listening I start to realize those are Micah's voices in Jacob's room at 6:44am.  Mad, I get up, and sure enough he is in Jacob's room with the light on talking happily away to his little brother!  Pretty sure we covered this in baby 101.  Do not go in Jacob's room when he's sleeping!  So anyway still mad I bring the boys back to my room to do, whatever.  I notice Jacob pooping and I soon realize it's gone through his pj's.  Ok, so I bring him to his room, unzip him and it is COVERING his left leg!  What?  how did it get there?  As I slowly pull his leg out it is also on his foot.  What?!  So gross.  After a number of wipes and a soapy wet washcloth I think we're good.  By now it's only 7:20.  Sweet.

Time for breakfast.  After cutting off half of the black banana for Micah and cutting up a waffle.  I go to feed Jacob in his room.  When I come back out Micah has the fridge door wide open.  When I ask what he's doing he bursts into sobs on the floor.  (Whenever we come up to him as he's doing something naughty and he's startled this is what happens.)  Great so anyway after a little tussle with the fridge door I finally get him to sit and finish his breakfast.  He then has to go to his room for a timeout for, well, a lot of things. 

During his timeout I realize it's trash day so I put Jacob in his beautiful hand made cradle :) and tell Micah to go keep him company while I collect the trash and take it outside.  Usually there are no problems with this plan.  Today when I come inside Jacob is crying.  I hurry to my room to see what's wrong and J has his foot stuck in the cradle and Micah is holding his toy.  As I pull out his foot I ask Micah if he took J's toy.  He then tells me that he hit Jacob in the head with it.  Sure enough there is a little red patch on J's forehead.  "Just go back to your room," I tell Micah. 

So now it's 8:40am I just put J down for his nap (which he still hasn't fallen asleep for) and threw his poop filled pj's in the wash.  So gross they are washing by themselves.  Please God please let this day get better oh and maybe a nap for me??

Still not asleep

As I write this, both of my children are screaming.  Both because they don't want to take a nap.  It's really been one of those days.  Sometimes I wish I could drop my oldest off at his Nana's and just, well do anything else.  He is in the phase of his life where all he says is "no" and "why."  They why doesn't bother me much but man oh man the "no" sure does.  Even though I know it's developmental it still boggles my mind.  Even when I offer him something he likes he says "no."  He refuses to obey a big chunk of the time and no amount of discipline, jokes, bribes, etc work.  What's a girl to do?  I spend 24 hours a day with this person.  Even at night when he wakes up he wants me.  I don't want him.  I've already been up twice with Jacob.  That sounds terrible but I'm venting as gently as I can.  Even now he's looking over my shoulder whining and saying no to going back to bed.  Advice, help, prayers?  Anything.  I will take any and all advice I can get. 

People say well maybe he's just growing out of his nap, well maybe he is but he should still stay in his room.  I even said to him you can bring books in your bed but you have to stay in your bed.  He even said no to that.  He LOVES books.  I have no idea what consequence to give for this.  Spankings don't work, bribes don't work, taking away his toys doesn't work.  He probably came out 15 times.  Jacob had 4 shots today at his six month checkup.  He doesn't feel good.  But the only thing I can do is pick up Micah and put him in bed yet again.  When is it Jacob's turn?   When do I get to take care of him?  Why does he have to take a back seat just because he is immobile?  I would give anything to have family closer.  I have had this day many times in the last six months.  Pray for us.  Pray for me to have patience, to have wisdom, to understand the difference between the urgent and the important.  To know how to effectively discipline with love.  Man.  well Micah is quietly talking to himself in the living room.  And I think Jacob has fallen asleep.  Hope so.  Tune in next time...

What is going on?!

So Jacob and I started our afternoon by feeding him carrots for the first time.  He loved them, ate a whole bunch and got really messy.  It was adorable.  Then as I was chatting with him in his bouncy seat I heard him fill his diaper.  No big deal, I carried him to his room and undid his diaper.  It was crazy full.  I started pulling out wipes as fast as I could but I was soon completely overwhelmed.  First it was on his hands, then he grabbed his feet!  Then it was on my hands then somehow both of his legs were covered!  Then he tried to put his feet in his mouth!  "What is going on?"  I shouted!  I didn't know what to do.  I turned and saw that I was quickly running out of wipes.  Even the fresh diaper I was going to put on was soiled.  This has NEVER happened to me before.  Finally I got as much as I could then I carried his little brown body to the tub. 

New problem.  I do not give baby baths.  I am waaay to paranoid about him slipping under water.  Justin is the bath man.  Plus Justin had just informed me that Jacob is way to big for his baby tub.  So I put the bumbo in the water and placed him in it.  I soon realized that the area that needed to be washed was now in a chair.  LOL that would not work.  So I put a big towel in the tub, laid his head on that and with a small amount of water in the tub finally got us both clean.  Sheesh.

Breaking out of our comfort zone...Thanks Aunt Adrian :)

Both Micah and I dislike purposely making a mess.  He doesn't like getting his hands dirty, sticky, wet, you get the point.  I dislike messes simply because it is one more thing to pick up in my already scattered about house.  When I'm stressed or angry I clean, it distracts me and uses up my anger in a physical way so that I don't take it out on anyone.  Needless to say, we don't do a lot of crafts at our house because neither of us enjoy the mess.

Well, yesterday Micah and I had breakthrough.  My sister-in-law Adrian had bought Micah fingerpaints for his birthday, way back in March.  Since I don't like messes we hadn't used them yet.  But we pulled them out yesterday, covered the table in newspaper and went at it.  Micah was hesitant at first.  Even asking me to wipe his hands the second we put them in the paint.  I encouraged him to let them stay dirty and use his fingers as a pencil.  By the end of our adventure there was paint all over the newspaper, we had painted some pinecones and a "pretty picture."  Micah got over his dirty hands phobia for a few moments and I was able to clean it up with minimal effort.  Here is a photo of Micah showing off his dirty hands.

Trying to be cool.

So a bunch of my newish friends have blogs.  They are creative, clever, funny and crafty.  I am none of these things.  But yesterday I decided I wanted to try baking more things with Micah.  So here was what we made yesterday.

Even though they aren't pretty they were yummy and super easy.  Just slices of bread rolled flat and baked in muffin tins.  We put in tavern and shredded cheese.  Perfect for my non-crafty self.  Oh and Micah made "peanut butter cookies."

An Ephiphany: A mother realizes the cause of her impatience.

I think the hardest part about being a mom is not the lack of sleep but the impossibility of day dreaming or planning quietly in my own mind.  Just coming to the computer to write this I know it will be a short post because my son is awake and is always speaking to me.  Don't get me wrong, I love that he has a good grasp of the english language but sometimes, selfishly and foolishly, I just want to think in quiet.

I've just come to realize this cause of my unhappiness after naptime.  I've always been one to wander with my thoughts, to mentally replay parts of my day or rethink about what I just read in a good book.  I think this is what causes me to lose patience with Micah so quickly.  I feel as though a conversation is being interrupted.  Clearly he has no idea that his mother lives so much in her own mind.  To him he is breaking the silence, learning to communicate and start conversations.  Sorry my child.  Now that I know this is an issue I will realize the pettiness and try to save my thoughts for after 7pm.

Fast food

All right so this is why the blog is called Goodwin thoughts.  I never have anything interesting to say about my own life but I like to share my opinions sometimes, the title gives me that right :)  So today I saw something on facebook about how Taco Bell is in a fight with a lawfirm about the reality of the meat they use.  aka whether or not it's beef, etc etc.  Taco Bell says it is, this law firm says it isn't.  Anyway the point of my upcoming rant is why do we care?  Sure knowing there is real beef in our $0.99 lunch is vitally important to our desire to eat more than one but really?


Recently I watched the movie, Super Size Me about the guy who only eats McDonalds for 30 days.  He also brings up how people sue fast food chains all the time because they claim these restaurants made them fat, or have high cholesterol.  So now because of this all our junk food places are giving us healthy options.  I'm not really getting anywhere here sorry.  I'm annoyed at the people who sue McDonalds.  Are you really that ridiculous that you don't know that a double cheeseburger with fries and a pop everyday for lunch isn't good for you?  Or what about those that drink a gallon of soda a day.  A GALLON!  That's the size of a jug of milk people.  Come on.  How can you blame McDonalds or any fast food place for your poor eating habits.  These restaurants are for a little splurge on calories, they are not part of a nutritious diet, nor have they ever claimed to be (well til now)  Don't you remember going to a fast food place just for fun on a vacation or just for some ice cream.  This wasn't a place our parents took us to daily, weekly or even monthly.

So I'm just frustrated with stupid people I guess who blame everyone else for their own problems.  Let me know of some other dumb examples like suing McD's again for burning yourself on hot coffee.  Oh they didn't tell you it was hot?  My bad I just assumed all Americans know that plain old coffee is hot.  Did they expect ice cubes to come pouring out?  Ha taw.  So this is my rant for the day, feel free to share some funny stories about dumb people if you want.  No names please, let's make this anonymous.

What's going on here.

I am so glad that Christmas is over.  I loved seeing my family and watching Micah enjoy his gifts but we did so much driving to and from Des Moines, I didn't think I could handle one more hour long drive with Micah saying, more truck, more bus, more cow, cookie, rick (music), etc etc.  That boy does not stop!  I love him dearly but sometimes my ears get tired :)

So now it's January, we're having a mini blizzard outside and life has definitely slowed down.  It's wonderful.  The biggest news is that we have been having fish problems.  Our beta that we'd had for over a year finally died and so we purchased two fantail gold fish.  Well, a few weeks later they were dead.  Micah and I really enjoyed them so we bought two more this week, within a few hours, they also were dead.  So sad, Micah keeps saying, "More Bobs."  That's what we had named them; both sets.  I consulted an engineer who happens to also be a fish expert and we are trying his advice.  Cross your fingers; poor baby Micah loved his little Bobs.

Justin is back to working every business day of the week.  In December he took off at least one day a week, it was wonderful.  Now that he's been with Fisher for five years he got a few more vacation days this year so I told him to save them til after the baby is born.  He can stay home for a few days while I catch up on sleep.  Planning ahead :)

As for me, we found out we are having a little boy in May.  Too be honest I was pretty upset that day, I had my heart set on a little girl.  God has been good and giving me little reasons why a boy is a good thing.  For example, we have a little river in our back yard.  Micah will have so much fun with a brother in the creek every summer.  More fun than he could have with a little girl right?  I'm not nearly as excited to decorate the new nursery though now.  I do like blue rooms though so maybe it can still be cool.  Right now that room has yellow dandelions on wallpaper, and two twin beds with gold headboards... 

So that's what's going on here.  I hope the rest of you are enjoying the slower pace of January.