the smeiska family blog

I know, I know. Every.single.mom thinks their children are the cutest, most talented, sweetest, smartest, but in reality, mine are. Ok Ok, so I’m totally willing to give your children first runner up. Its kind of like first place, but not. At least the word “first” is in the title. I’m a little slap-sticky because I’m actually quite close to the edge of a precipice that overlooks insanity. And my is the view gorgeous. In all seriousness though, I’ve reached my breaking point. The laundry piles up so fast, the homework doesn’t do itself (bastard), and the dog is so entirely counterproductive (she eats garbage). Now don’t get me wrong, I’d appreciate her “recycling” effort if she actually ATE it all, but rather the trash is strewn throughout the house leaving me a fan-freakin-tastic coming home pressie. Again, Lola….you missed the memo. Please CONSUME the trash rather than scattering it. Today was my breaking point. How I was able to make it through nine months of sleepless nights while breastfeeding full time, working, and school is beyond me because I feel like I cannot take another day of this sheer fatigue. Rather than have this turn into a rant session though, I’d rather share some cute stories. Because my girls always make me feel better. Except when they are whacking each other on the head with duplos and also except when they poop in the tub and cause me waaaaay more work than originally anticipated. But most of the time they re-set my brain. They remind me why my life is amazing and they have taught me how to smile with my soul.

I suppose I ought to do some housekeeping of sorts before I bust out the photos and stories. You may (or may not, but hopefully you may have) seen the pictures of the dollhouse that Kori (my sister-in-law) has posted here. She wanted a place to document her process, and what better of a place than the girls’ “baby book”. So, if you have not yet checked out her progress, you can do so by clicking the linky that say “Dollhouse Project” at the top. Yes, yes you can.

When you have toddlers, the phrases that come out of your mouth are atypical of what you might be accustomed to saying, and you may find yourself in an embarrassing situation in which you forget that you are no longer in the company of your toddler(s). This word for me is “poop”. As in…”DID YOU POOP?!?” “I smell POOP!!!” “Which one of you has a POOP BUTT?!” “Lola, did you seriously just eat that piece of POOP?!?!?!?!?!??!” And yes, that last phrase was uttered tonight as Kurt witnessed Lola helping herself to the contents of Zoey’s diaper as he was mid-change. But I digress. I’ve gotten better at filtering my toddler-isms before they make their way out of my mouth, but there are times when it just doesn’t happen. And why, when these things happen, does it seem like everyone is quietly hanging on every word that you say? I have found myself uttering the words “why does it smell like poop in here?” on occasion at work. This sends me into a veritable panic attack where I run to the bathroom to smell-check my clothes and perform a poop-search on my outfit.

Other common phrases (and I think I’ve mentioned this one before, but since it is just as common now as ever, I’ll bring it up again) include “Did you just touch the cat’s/dog’s butt? you did, didn’t you?” “Why is that rubber duckie brown? OMG! That is NOT a duck.” “Where did you find that banana?” And so on and so forth. It goes without saying that my daughters, along with being ADORABLE, will also grow to have titanium-clad immune systems.

The girls have started helping out around the house. And boy is it about time they started pulling their weight! I’m only joking about that, but they have started taking an interest in helping with random chores. Kurt and I were folding the eleventy-billion loads of laundry the other night, and the girls were edgy and whiney, so I sent them on “missions”. They would take one or two (or in V’s case 1/2 a stack of prefolds) to Daddy to put away. They loved helping out, and I loved that the whining stopped. These are win-win situations in our house. In this case, it was win-win-win because I didn’t have to put those damn diapers away. The girls also get a kick out of helping me vacuum. They fight over their wooden butterfly push toy and pretend that they are sweeping or vacuuming alongside of me. It is tres cute.
Along with being fantastic cleaners, Zoey is also extremely nurturing. She, and Violet both, will change their baby’s diapers all.day.long (if given the proper supplies – infant prefold, dry wipe, etc). She also has proven that she is ready for babysitting this past weekend when she entertained Cousin Izzy by bouncing her in her chair for a bit.

(I really need to start writing more of these stories down…I know I had a few more, but they are eluding me at this moment…I also don’t want this post to get too much huger.)

So maybe that is a good lead into last weekend. The “Alverno High” has ended and now I just leave school battered and exhausted. Sunday was our first Easter celebration and we headed to Cousin Kaya’s house for a good ol’ fashioned easter egg hunt. He taught the girls the ropes, taught V which candy is the best, and entertained the girls by letting them wear his crocs. Can I just say that seeing a baby marching around in adult shoes is just about one of the cutest things ever? The girls completely understood the concept of easter egg hunting and had a blast! This was until mom came along and fished jelly beans out of V’s mouth and she bit me. hard. Serves me right though…I should know better based on recent history in the nipple department. do.not.insert.anything.into.toddler’s.mouth.

And, by the way, yep. “Still” breastfeeding. Happily.

 

This past weekend was so incredibly exhausting.  I knew this semester would be trying (to say the least), but I go to work on Monday like the Walking Dead (does anyone else love this show?!  I canNOT wait until Netflix has season 2 released….).  I love my classes this semester though and that is reason enough to keep me going, but since Saturdays I am away from Kurt and the girls, we attempt to pack as much as humanly possible into Sundays to make up for lost time.  This Sunday was no exception.

 

Oh yeah…did you notice how supa cute the blog is now?!  Yuh huh.  Mommy likey.  Thanks to Jordan over at holding on to the little things my blog is now a place where I can come and share pictures (HUGELY!) and look at lovely FLOWERS!  Swoon.  It is just so perfect, don’t ya think? So back to our weekend…I mean Sunday.  We started the day off with breakfast and then hoofed it over to the park.  Can I just say that I just love so much that our neighborhood has a park within two blocks of us?  The girls looooooove the slides, but the swings?  Not so much.  Which is sad because last year they loved them.

 Zoey is visibly scared on swings this year and Violet would rather totter around the park carjacking other children’s vehicles.  Of course, it helps when you have a sidekick mastermind…

 

After the park came nap time, and after nap time came “holy crap we’re running late to meet Stephanie, Carter, Oz and Althea at the zoo!” time.  We spent a couple of hours wandering around before calling it a day.  A very tiring day.  That’s the greatest thing about the zoo though.  Or maybe that is the greatest thing about having a zoo pass.  Wandering around without feeling the insane rush to see EVERYTHING in an afternoon.  We never feel bad if we go for even a short time.  Violet loved watching the goats and both girls liked walkin’ around.  Zoey takes after me though, with extremely fair skin, and got very flushed even with a thick layer of sunscreen and water accessible at all times.  Any suggestions on what to do with fair skinned littles?  First mommy fail of the summer.  I should’ve brought sun hats for them.

This face cracks me up.  It’s her “holy crap i can’t believe what i’m seeing!  GOATS mommy!  GOATS DADDY!” face.

After the zoo, we beelined it for the City Market.  I dream of their Tuscan Bread salad.  Seriously.  My mouth is watering now.  So good.  And then we ended the night with a whirlpool bath (thanks Violet!) and cranky faces who were overly sleepy and had an awesomely awesome day.

That is really the first word that comes to mind when I think of my girls. Lovely. And here is why:

I love seeing them together (well I mean they’re really always together, so what I really mean is I love to watch them interact). They are doing so much these days that I feel the need to document more, but I don’t so then I just feel guilty about not writing it down. So here is what my littles are up to right now. 16 months and three weeks:

Violet:

She is honestly the sweetest child. She is loving, caring, kind. She worries about other people’s feelings and will offer (ok…she shoves) crackers in sister’s mouth if she is crying. She also does this with sippies, pacis, etc. Changing her babies’ “butts” is a favorite pastime, although there appears to be some areas for productivity increases in her process. The other night she was feeding her doll her cereal.

Speaking of pacis, the girls no longer are “allowed” to use them outside of nigh-nigh, but that doesn’t stop mischievious Zoey from tracking them down and handing one off to Violet and running away. Violet will do the opposite though. She will take the paci out of Z’s mouth and hand it to me or Kurt.

Violet is a great eater. She will try just about anything. She loves veggies, fruit, yogurt, noodles, ESPECIALLY noodles, oatmeal…she is starting to master spoon usage also.

V has started to become more vocal. She now says a few more words to express what she wants.

Zoey:

Zoey has her own agenda, and if what you would like her to do doesn’t fit in with that…it doesn’t get done. She is definitely an explorer and loves nature. On this morning’s walk, she took three steps, squatted down to pick up a rock, took three steps, bent down to grab a twig, two steps “oh look there is some mud and I’m wearing white….I better go stomp in it!” She loves watching for squirrels in trees out of our front door.

She can now put on her coat by herself – and will put it on correctly about 50% of the time.  Hats are a work in progress…

 

Her pet name for Violet is “doe” and, if “doe” is still sleeping, Zoey will shout “dooooooooooe! doooooooooooooe!!!” until “doe” wakes up. On the flip side, if “doe” is crying and Zoey wants to sleep, she will yell “shhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!” and “doe” will quiet down. She also calls her paci, “doe”.

Girlfriend is a good talker. Her latest words are – apple, lola, blueberry…I’m sure there are more.

I’ve got to cut this short, Zoey is yelling “DOE!” in an attempt to awaken her peacefully sleeping sister.

 

And then my website crashed and I didn’t upload this post until now.  So, lucky you!  Here are a few more pics from a beautiful night last week.  Just me and the girls.  And lola.  Pulling my arm off.

 

The term “helicopter mom” is one that I struggle with. Since it has only really been a prevalent part of our vocabulary for the past 10 (or so) years, I can only speculate that it evolved as a direct result of the breakdown of the family unit and the guilt surrounding that. What I mean is that we use the term “helicopter mom” to describe someone who is too engaged, too close, too involved with their children…so what is wrong with that? Do you see where I am going with this? We have grown so distant from the rearing of our young – women fought long and hard for equal rights, but now we are in a situation where both parents (not in all cases, but many) must work to support our families and we don’t always have the option of staying home with our babies. Women are the glue of the family unit. Is this the only reason that the American family is no longer as tightly-knit as it was 60 years ago? Perhaps….perhaps not, but I strongly feel that it is a contributing factor. So to feel better about our guilt at not being able to be as involved, we call moms who are, “helicopters”. Heck yes I’m a helicopter mom. Heck yes I protect my daughters from falling and hurting themselves! Heck yes I walk next to them as they are toddling through the park! Heck yes! That doesn’t mean that I don’t teach them during these times. Oh they know all about gravity and physics. yuh huh. Am I way off base here?

And so, to lighten the mood, Let’s talk sewing! I’ve started making the girls some clothes…so far, I’ve *almost* completed one jacket for them (the other is cut out) and I have plans for an Olivia-themed quilt. and I may have also procured a few *ahem* dress and skirt patterns. Here is the fabric for the quilts laid out:

Last weekend…or was it two weekends ago? We headed to watch the Milwaukee Concert Band perform at the Domes….grandma was playing oboe, the train show was there, and we needed to get out of the house. These three things came together in one awesome afternoon of choo-choos and music. Zoey was completely charged up – taking way too long of strides and nearly falling time and again. She laughed the entire time she was almost falling, so that makes it ok. Here are some pics from the enjoyable day:

Violet found her first boyfriend…

I have a post lurking in my brain about what the girls are up to now. That being said, I also have a butt-ton of homework to do for class this weekend, so we’ll see if/when it happens.

I’ll leave you with a funny story. Maybe you won’t think it is so funny. Maybe you will think it is gross, but I’ve got news for you. Nothing grosses you out after having children.

After bathtime, and for a few moments before, we let the girls run around without their diapers on. We have wood floors throughout the house, with the exception of an area rug, so if they tinkle on the floor it’s really not a big deal (this will come into play later on in the story, so don’t forget). After both girls were stripped down, we got down to some serious bathtime shenanigans. Something about warm bathwater forces Violet to let loose poopmarines in the tubby, which causes mom and dad to enforce an emergency evacuation of the bath. Most times, we kinda sorta know it might be coming. Squatting, grunting, then plop plop….anyway, that isn’t really what this story is about. She pooped in the tub four nights in a row. Something of a record, really. So, I was sitting in their room with her and she was running around, sans diaper, when allofasudden, I was the victim of a drive-by-pooping. Girlfriend pooped and kept on going. A trail of bunny turds following her. True story. Could a sweet little face *really* do something like that?! yup.

Some people are terrified of change. Perhaps not the act of changing, but the unknown factors surrounding the changes. I must admit that I share this fear. Jumping blindly is not something I typically do, however I do find myself constantly wanting to do more, be more. Lately I’ve been struggling with defining my life. Defining my purpose when the question “who are you?” came up. I don’t have the foggiest idea who I am, but I do know who I want to be.

*I want to be strong. I want to teach my daughters that no one controls their destiny except them. I want them to be able to stand up for their beliefs even when faced with opposition. I want them to feel secure in their skin.

*I want to make a difference. This planet is heading for rough times if there is not a paradigm shift in our habits. I want to help. I want to drive that change. I’ve been toying with the idea of acquiring a Biology-type degree in addition to my business one. Science has always had my heart and I’d be a liar if I said that the business world holds a candle to it.

*I want to love myself. This should go without saying, but I think a lot of us struggle with really loving who we are. I want to be able to accept my shortcomings and weaknesses and focus on my strengths. I don’t want my daughters to feel the way about their bodies that I do about mine and I’ll need to work hard to keep my negative comments to a minimum about my flabby stomach, big feet, and awful skin. After all, it is what is on the inside that counts, amirite?

*I want to love recklessly…forever. I adore my husband. I am so intensely smitten with my daughters that I am anxious about being apart from them. This is today. Now. I want to feel this way for the rest of my years.

*I want to learn to be spontaneous and to say “yes” more than “no”. So often I find myself telling the girls “no”. Don’t do this, put that away…where is the harm? So what if they pull all the socks out of the drawer? They are learning action and reaction…cause and effect…and, let’s face it, they could be doing a whole lot worse. If I were to let them do this without consequence, we may be in trouble, BUT I insist that they help in the clean up of their messes. Violet, especially, loves putting toys away and will help out when asked.

Are those the only things that I want to accomplish? Nope. Not even close. But I know that by verbalizing (or bloggerizing?) them, I am just that one step closer to making these life changes.

So, enough about me….I’m boring. Let me tell you about my littles. They are not so little anymore, and are growing and developing and comprehending more with each sunrise. Zoey is such a ham. She loves the spotlight and shows off when in it. Chad and Katie came over for dinner a few weeks ago and it happened to be bath night. We typically let the girls run around without diapers on before and after tubbie-time because…well….because they think it is really fun to run around the house naked. And also because there is no harm in it (we have wood floors and a little tinkle on the hardwood never hurt anyone…unless you slip on said pee and fall on your doopah). But I digress as I usually do on here. Zoey was charged up. And I do mean charged up. Full max battery power!! Child was taking the longest strides I’ve ever seen, stiff-legged in true Zoey style I might add, across the living room, throwing herself into the couch with the silliest look on her face. She was mighty pleased to have an audience while she was naked. Zoeycakes is my joyful, gregarious baby.

Violet is so so affectionate and most definitely loves her momma. She will hug Zoey if she is upset and will offer her cracker, milk, stuffie, etc to try and make Zoey feel better. She is very caring and is even exhibiting selflessness this early on – which I find amazing.

Both of the girls use sign language as a means of communication. Zoey mimics much of what you are saying by watching your mouth as you say the words. Violet has recently started being more vocal. She has a few words in her vocabulary, but understands so much.

The other night, we laid them both in their beds, said nigh-nigh and came out to the living room. Zoey was particularly tired this night, but Violet wasn’t having it. She wanted to play (and by play, I mean pass toys back and forth, swap pacis, pull dirty laundry into their beds, plan an escape, share secrets about how awesome mom is (what?!)). So Violet got upset because Zoey was ignoring her and she was voicing her disdain quite loudly. Suddenly Zoey yells (and I do mean YELLS) “NIGH-NIGH!!!” and Violet stopped crying immediately.

Enough words. Here. Enjoy!

Yeah. They are 15 months old…and so amazingly amazing. My teeny little girls are now becoming such BIG little girls. And yes, they will always be “little” to me.

I’ve been a smidge bad at documenting milestones, so I’ll try to catch you guys up.

Zoey is becoming a pro at walking. A wobbly, unsure tightrope walker turned stiff-legged zombie walker turned confident toddler in a mere couple of weeks. She now says “moo” when asked what a cow says, “buck” when you ask her what a chicken says, and child mimics everything you say. She also knows that when she coughs, she gets attention. So she coughs. A lot. She knows what she likes to eat – lots of blueberries, yogurt and cheese. If her food is warm, she blows on it to cool it off. She has four of her molars coming in strong. She laughs from her toes when sister and her wrestle and loves her dollies something fierce. She is my Zoeycakes.

Violet is about *yay* far from running, but will hold your hand when asked. She is extremely loving and gives kisses to you, a mirror, the cat, the dog, her stuffed toys…you name it, she smooches it. She has two of her molars erupting and is very obviously not enjoying this part of growing up. She is a great eater and can maneuver a spoon (complete with food) into her mouth. Girlfriend can stack blocks three high, but finds it more enjoyable to knock them down. She loves books and will now sit still to read one with you. She is my Violetface.

Winter is typically hard on me, but I’ve been dreading the gray skies and bitter cold more than usual. The summer is great, we head to the zoo if we get stir crazy, but our winters don’t allow us to go for prolonged periods outside with the girls very often (although, Hello global warming…this winter has been crazy warm). Rather than let depression seep its way into our lives with the frosty weather, we purchased a yearly membership to both our city’s children’s museum and Discovery World. They’ve already paid for themselves and it’s a great way to get out of the house. So here’s my mini rant about the children’s museum. Sure. It’s called a “children’s” museum, but this doesn’t mean that you let your children run rampant through the exhibits…stealing toys, hitting, knocking babies over. Isn’t the purpose of these types of places to evoke a familial experience? Teach your children…learn with your children. Don’t stand gossiping to your mommy friends while your son acts possessive and hits my daughter and doesn’t share the golf balls with her. Ok. I’m over it.

Also. I could HEAR their immune systems getting stronger with each toy they shoved in their mouths. The “ick bags”? Yup…we filled the one in the grocery store UP. Thank you, Zoey.

But hey…guess what else? It’s totally your lucky day! We haven’t taken any portrait style pictures of the littles in quite a while, so enjoy!

oh hi there, lola!

I thought I would’ve had more time last week to talk about what we did the previous weekend, but I was too busy making bento boxes. Like this one. Isn’t it cute?

And I’ve also been really busy being lazy. And doing housework, laundry, and playing on facebook. Not really in that order either. Hey, I’m just being honest.

Last weekend was great. Saturday, Kurt and I met a friend at the mall and did our usual weekend routine of mall-walking. We tend to get a little stir-crazy just hanging out around the house for two days straight. Plus there is an Alterra at the mall, and that is usually the deciding factor. “Hey Kurt, you want some coffee?” “Yup” “Let’s go to the mall.” “ok”. Sensible reasoning, right?

Sunday was great. We explored our city by heading over to Discovery World. Who can say “no” to a yearly membership for 40 dollars? Thank you to my employer for the awesome discount. Also, thank you to the lady at the desk who let me have the discount without my badge or other proof that I worked where I said I did. The girls really enjoyed it. Really. I was surprised that they had as much fun as they did because most of the exhibits are geared towards bigger kids. The aquarium was a big hit, but the biggest hit, with Zoey at least, was the “touch tank”. Stings rays were pulling themselves out of the water to get “pet” by her. This momma wasn’t sure how she felt about touching sting rays after the whole “steve irwin gets killed by a ray”, but I think those might’ve been manta rays, which makes no sense. Why call the docile one a “sting ray” and the mean australian-killing one a “manta”. These are the quandaries I ponder as I drift off to sleep. Actually that is a lie. I typically think of much more superficial happenings in my life.

Violet loved running through the museum. She is almost running. Let’s call it speed walking. Her favorite part was in the Les Paul music area. There is a music-making pedastal which creates sounds dependent on the blocks you place on its surface. It occupied girlfriend for almost 30 minutes. That is a looooong time in toddler time.

This weekend was mostly a blur. School has started for me, so goodbye life, hello reading, and papers, and hysteria. I do think, however, that I am going to really enjoy this semester. Each week before class starts, I tend to get extremely anxious about attending and whether or not I can do it, etc etc. But I always find that I wouldn’t want to go to a different school. I love it at Alverno. I love the diversity, both in demographics and thoughts, opinions, morals, personal philosophies. I’ve met some of the smartest women I’ve ever encountered there. I am painting a pretty good picture of the college, huh? All the positives aside, this school is focused on a lot (A WHOLE FRIGGIN LOT) on group work. I am not a fan. Don’t get me wrong, I play well with others. When the others play well back. Group work with non-participating members is the.worst.thing.ever. I foresee a semester of great groups though. And with that, I need to read some of the 500+ pages that I need to finish in two weeks. No, this is not an exaggeration, friends. *twitch*

This week I’ve undertook making Bento-style breakfasts and lunches for the girls to take with them to Miss Nancy’s and Grandma’s. Here are Wednesday’s meals:

Part of me still struggles with not sending them with breastmilk and, perhaps, I’m feebly attempting to overcompensate for my own feelings of letting down (pun? or no pun?) my girls. Either way, I’ve really enjoyed Bento-ing it Up each night after they are in bed and before I collapse from the sheer exhaustion of being as awesome as I am. That last part was sarcasm, and here’s why:

I had just put the finishing touches on their bentos and headed off to wash my face when “the egg incident” occurred. Today will forever be the day known as “the egg incident day”…at least in my mind. Probably Kurt’s too. And maybe the dogguum who did not help whatsoever in cleaning up “the egg incident”. So anyway, back to “the egg incident”. (Also, it would help if you said “the egg incident” in a deep, menacing voice in your head. It’ll help with the story). So I was washing my face, thinking about how much fun making Bentos (not mentos. Bentos) is, and how, when they are older, they are going to loooooooooove love love them. And how, also, I am awesome. Well. I am not awesome. I am failsauce. Just as I had lathered up, there was an explosion from the kitchen-ish area. I had taken my contacts out, so I could not assess the damage, but the smell…OHHHHH the smell. I immediately thought Kurt had set off some firecrackers or that the dog had intercepted some dynamite, but alas. It was neither. Sadly. Because, let me tell you, I would’ve rather it been either of those scenarios.

The scene in the kitchen was comical. The microwave door had blown open and there were pieces of eggs ev.ery.where. everywhere. Did I forget to mention that before I had taken out my contacts and washed my face that I placed an egg into a glass bowl of water into the microwave and set the microwave to cook on high for 15 minutes? Clearly that was too long. By roughly 5 minutes and 25 seconds. The egg exploded with such a force that the microwave door flew open and egg particles, shell, and brownish radiated burnt egg water sprayed my kitchen. But the mess was dwarfed by the smell. Oh the smell. Now do you see why it is officially known as “the egg incident”? So now, friends, let this be a lesson to you. Eggs do not require more than 9 minutes and 35 seconds in the microwave. This is a lesson I will not soon forget.