February in a nutshell

February was strange this year. First, we thought it was going to be nice and winter was on its way out.....then it surprised us by giving us a couple days of ice and then about three snow days...followed by 55 degree weather...crazy weather.

Nobody cleans the roads...you're on your own here

This month, we stayed inside a lot. If it really nice I took Dom and Ethan out to get some Vitamin D. But the first week of February, Ethan got sick with RSV, so we stayed inside.



I'm glad he learns something in Sunbeams

 

Exhausted from being outside...when we did make it outside

the play gym is exhausting

The second week, Dom got the virus and we stayed inside, again...ugh. By the way, it takes a full two weeks for the symptoms to be gone. Dom had a terrible cough for exactly two weeks. Ethan was lucky, he had a little cough and recovered rather quickly. Dom was unfortunate and was miserable. So, we took this opportunity to potty train. He basically decided it was time, and has not turned back since...he has only had a small accident when we went to the playground...he was so excited he didn't want to leave. But his little undies are training pants, so it absorbed all of it....no embarrassing moments for him.

cool underwear, dude!

Spencer worked three extra shifts but it seemed he only got 3 days off.  I barely saw the guy...are we still married? The kids started sleeping better at night. Dom must be going thru a growth spurt because all he does is eat...rare for him. I figured it was a great opportunity to shove vitamins and juices and veggies down his throat...some of it worked, some of it didn't. Everyone talks about the horrible twos....what's so horrible about them? Dominic had awesome two's....but then the threes hit. I thought he was being whiny because of Ethan (and he may be)...but I read that the phase of being 3 is worse than 2..they push for independence and try to push to see how much they can get away with...that's Dom right now. He's used to be so good. All I hear now is "I want to do this" "fix it fix it!!!" "mamma...mama...mama...mama.." AARRGHH...some days...its really tiring and most days I get a headache by dinnertime from having people yell in my face all day- the apartment is too small for this. How do people have 5 of these??? I am already dreading Ethan's 3s. I AM DONE. It's exhausting...everything I do is wrong...everything is a bad thing. It makes me feel worthless and a terrible mother.  Every morning, we start with a tantrum- about ANYTHING- can't find his lego man, wrong color underwear, can't find a plastic egg...I mean..anything! Ethan is the only one waking up smiling these days. I mean...it gets better right??? somebody please tell me it gets better!!! It's like being in  an bad relationship- they drive you crazy, but you can't stop loving them for the life of you....and you can't leave them either. For now, I make him skip naps (he hasn't taken a nap in like 6 months but every now and then he'll fall over) so we can go to bet at 8pm and I can be left alone. It's the only way I can say that I have survived...and I still have 10 months to go....ugh. AND THEN....he goes and does something cute...like sing the lego song and I love him all over again ( I still think they should have won the Oscar for best song):

We finally received a call from both speech therapy and preschool. Dom has already a place saved for PM preschool starting august, and he will start therapy here in the next few weeks. Hopefully his attitude will change if  he sees other people that are not me.  He's super sweet to Ethan though....he just takes it out on me. I'm actually so excited for him. He keeps saying he doesn't wan to go to school, but I think he'll change his mind, once he makes friends. It's a little Lutheran preschool, but a lot of LDS kids go there...so I know he'll get comfortable once he recognizes some kids.

                                               Ethan is starting to really talk these days

 

I have done nothing this month, of what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a bit more active, but with the weather and kids...who has time for that??? I was lucky to get 6 hours of sleep...interrupted. I only did 6 workouts the entire month...geez...are my pants ever going to fit right? Maybe next month will be better.

He's regressing...he likes this car seat better than his own

Spencer and I did take a Valentine's day lunch since he would be working the actual holiday. It was nice to get away and not have little people yelling in my face during eating time. Spencer loved the restaurant because they serve you a little piece of chicken wrapped in bacon dipped in some nice sauce that we can't figure out, so we keep going back. But other than that, we don't belong there. While exiting, we noticed that we were way too many Mercedes, lexus, BMWs, and range rovers...ugh. I've never felt so poor haha. I did decorate the apartment for Valentine's day, but not as much as I wanted, but it's okay, no one will really remember. I meant to go after holiday shopping, but the weather was dreadful and the kids were sick, so I guess I couldn't find good deals this time around.  I can't wait to decorate for Easter though.

Valentine morning....waiting for me.

Spencer and I made an offer on a house that we just fell in love with, but it looks like we won't close on time...surprise surprise. The seller is actually the son of the owner who died (we don't think she died in the house though) and the title has some issues. So really, it's because of him we're not closing...we've been ready to close for a while now. But since he's making us wait...we've asked for some repairs to be done...which might have been a blessing in disguise. Not only is the house updated...it will actually be fully repaired...that's super nice. But we'll see if we can close by end of March. Until then, I won't post pics...because I don't want to jinx it...haha.

Eating fancy lunch

Ethan had to go to the doctor AGAIN because he had an allergic reaction...we're not sure what. He turned bright red and had this infernal itching that would not go away .He looked like he had gotten in a fight with a cat...especially around his head (and face). Since we were already there,  the doctor said he had eczema...(sarcastically) SURPRISE!....so yet again, we have to go thru the routine of buying expensive over the counter and prescription medication. BUT on a good note, Dom didn't have eczema this winter ( it only seems to appear in cold, dry weather). I figured out that I put some $2 suave lotion on his body right after bath time...his skin recovered rather quickly. This did not happen to Ethan...so, I think Dom finally outgrew it. It's actually quite common for little boys to outgrow it (testosterone helps). For now, Ethan has to have a steroid cream and CeraVe cream. For those not familiar with it, let's hope you never are...it's like $17 for a bottle. I couldn't find a coupon for it fast enough. We will have to go back in a month and see if the eczema is better, if not gone. For now, Ethan has stop scratching, and sleeps a lot better (I also ended up putting socks in his hands). And that is February in a nutshell....sorta