Mommy Parenting VS. Daddy Parenting

Troy and I are parents. But our first baby was our puppy Optimus. He is the BEST dog. So sweet. And gentle with Avery. I need to keep that in mind more often. He was our very first baby. And we love him dearly.

Sometimes we have conflicting views on proper dog parenting. Or general first aid. Here is a perfect example:

While Laura and I were out shopping at the outlets on saturday morning in San Diego, Troy and Optimus went hiking. They went about 3 miles and didn't go further because Optimus was pooped out. By the time that they hiked the 3 miles back and then got home, the poor baby puppy was limping. Troy checked out his paw and there was a huge blister on one of his pads :(

Troy sent me this picture. It's his solution to Optimus's blister problem. It's very high tech (sarcasm). Can you guess what it is? I knew immediately. There is no duct tape involved. Which is remarkable considering it is a frequent man-cure-all. I kid, I kid. Sort of.

This is my immediate response. How sassy is my hubby?? He's funny.

It's like he KNEW that his solution would not satisfy me. Can you hear the positivity in his exclamation marks? Like, "If I am excited enough with my exclamation points, she will ignore the fact that Avery's beautiful white sock could be about to catch a bucketful of pus and blood?"

P.S. No, I'm not pregnant. MOM! I just like to joke with Troy that if we have a boy, he will have to wear Avery's beautiful clothes so that they get tons of wear before I give them away. We have TONS of pink frilly socks that he could have picked for Optimus's foot, but apparently, even a boy DOG is not allowed to wear girl socks.

Kids Only

I didn't take a single picture with my camera. 5 DAYS AND NO CAMERA PICTURES! What's wrong with me? And there isn't a single picture of Laura and I together. NOT ONE!!

I went to San Diego last tuesday and came back on sunday.

TUESDAY: I left home around 9am and got to Laura's around 130pm. She was still at work, so I put Avery down for a nap and unloaded the car. Traveling and packing with kids...oy vey. I got settled and snagged Jameson from her nanny. And squeeeeeezed him. Look at this face:

Isn't he precious? Laura can home from work and then we pretty much hung out with the kids and chatted. We got dinner ready and gave both of the kids baths and put them to bed. And then we ate dinner and had a few drinks, cackling and chatting until midnight. Typical :)

WEDNESDAY: We got up and drank coffee and showered and Laura went to work. I was on kid duty.

I got both of the kids down for naps and decided to give Laura some help. Her hubby is gone for 3 months at a training in Virginia. No thank you. She is a better woman than me. I cleaned her bathroom, made her bed, did 3 loads of laundry, dusted, swept, and scrubbed down the kitchen. I got a meatloaf made and by then, Jameson was ready for some playtime. About 20 minutes later, Avery was up and we all played on the floor for about 20 more minutes. Laura came home and saved the day with her boobs. Jameson did not want to take a bottle. We ate some peanut butter and crackers for a snack and had dinner and gave the kids baths and put them to bed.

THURSDAY: We got up and watched Sesame Street and hung out. Then we went for a walk down to the boardwalk and saw the house from Top Gun:

We went back to the house and ate some more peanut butter.

Laura went to work for a couple hours and I went through her clothes and tried stuff on. She wanted me to decide what I wanted because it would make it easier for her to part with it if she knew things were getting a good home with me. When she got back, both of the kids were still asleep and we went through her stuff together and my loot was big :) The kids were STILL sleeping when we finished, so we woke them up. We like our adult time at night and 3 hours of sleeping was enough for them to make sure they would sleep at bed time.

We played some and Avery walked around with Jameson's stuffed animals and had us all kiss them. Over and over. Jameson included. It was more like Avery smashed the toys in his face and made the kiss noise for him. It was funny.

AREN'T THEY THE CUTEST?!?!?! I mean, I know we're biased. But still.

We had chicken stir fry with brown rice. Yum. We decided after 2 late nights, we were going to bed by 10.

FRIDAY: IKEA DAY! We got ready early this morning and were trying to be at IKEA when they opened at 10. We did alright. We got there around 1030. Avery LOVES sitting in shopping carts. Jameson sat in his carrier and slept almost the whole time we were there. We went through the showroom and then had lunch in their cafeteria. We all found something to eat. I love IKEA. They are so family friendly. There are nursing rooms and there is child care.

It's awesome. We did some damage. We got home about 230 and Avery went down for a nap. We had leftovers for dinner and went to bed at 11. After watching 4 episodes of Intervention on A&E on demand. That show is addicting!

SATURDAY: We did the morning thing. Coffee and showers. Then we hit up the outlet mall. Gap, Banana Republic, and Crate and Barrel were where we got most of our haul from. Avery tested out Laura's BOB stroller. She liked it. We are going to try and snag one at the REI garage sale this month. She said hi to everyone in the stores and pretty much was adorable. Laura put Jameson in the carrier and he slept the whole time. And so I tried on all her clothes. Which was hilarious. We were standing in the middle of the store and she's holding an armful of stuff like, "ok this one. Pull the sleeves up, pull the waist down. Hm, try on the next size up/down." I was her mannequin since Jameson was asleep. And then the kids decided they had enough. Avery was screaming and had peed through her cloth diaper. Disaster :( So we went back home and it was nap time. And then we ate some peanut butter and apples. And then Laura ran up to the commissary for a few things and I experienced Jameson's first meltdown. OOOOOO he can scream. Like rattle your spine and make your eyeballs pop. LOUD LOUD LOUD. But then he fell asleep. And he's SO precious when he sleeps.

The kids woke up and we headed to Chick-fil-a for dinner. Yum. There isn't one in Las Vegas. Here's Avery enjoying her dinner. See that nugget in her hand? She shoved the whole thing in her mouth and WOULD NOT give it to me. Clenched her teeth. I watched her closely and she chewed and swallowed it without an issue. I was impressed. She's got her dad's big mouth :) I sent Troy pictures of our whole Chick-Fil-A experience to torture him. He LOVES it. There is not a single one in Las Vegas. Troy has been going through withdrawal. The closest one to Alamogordo was an hour away in Las Cruces. We drove there 2x for Chick-Fil-A to get it. And Troy would buy 3 days worth and then eat it for lunch for 3 days. Seriously. He loves it.

Here's Laura and the baby boy. Aren't they sweet?

We had a girls night after we did baths and put the kids to bed. We watched Project Runway and brushed each others hair and had a pillow fight. Just kidding. Except about Project Runway. And we went to bed at midnight. Again. We just can't learn!

SUNDAY: Morning routine, packed the car, and we left :(

Summary: We played, we talked, we shopped. And ate a lot of peanut butter. JIF. Generic doesn't cut it. Or crunchy. Or Peter Pan. It's gotta be JIF. We are in agreement on this.

My New House is Busted

This is for your listening pleasure while reading this. You can substitute in "my new house is busted" for the lyrics.



I went San Diego last week to visit my cousin, Laura, and her son, my new cousin Jameson. If anyone is educated on family trees, I have a question for you. My mom and Laura's mom (Kim) are 1st cousins. That makes Laura my mom's 2nd cousin and Kim my 2nd cousin. I think that makes Laura and me 3rd cousins. And Avery is Laura's 4th cousin and Jameson is my 4th cousin?? Does that make Avery and Jameson 5th cousins?? I need help, clearly. I could google it, but I'm a little lazy.

We had a lovely time for 5 days together. And then I drove home 4.5 hours. The drive was great. No issues. And then, I came home to this in my house. It looks like a straight up Dexter killing room:



Oh woops. Just kidding. I LOVE that show. Here it is. I walked in from the garage and saw this. The whole door frame is ripped off. And the room is taped off like Dexter is about to do some slashing in there.

It normally looks like this:

The inside looks like this...all the drywall on the back wall is missing. BUT WAIT! Let me pan up for you too...

THE WHOLE CEILING IS GONE!!!

Troy came home from a hike with Optimus on saturday and the ceiling was soaked and dripping into the bathtub. PANIC! He called me all, "What do I do?"

He called the emergency warranty number for our builder and they sent a plumber out within an hour. Talk about service! They ripped out the ceiling. AND the walls. The bathroom wall that was wet shares the garage wall so if you sat on the toilet, you could wave to our across the street neighbor all WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD!!

And they put TWO holes in the outside of the house right where Avery's bathtub is on the second floor:

When Troy texted me the pictures of the house on saturday while I was still in San Diego, I almost had a stroke. I could only think bad things.

"Oh my God. Our builder sucks. We just closed on our house 2 months ago and we are already having issues? What else could be wrong? What if the whole inside of the wall is moldy now?? Avery's room is on that side of the house. Is she going to be sick all the time? How much is this going to cost? Thank God I won't be back until tomorrow. Thank God I didn't find the problem. I would have gone into full meltdown mode. I'm glad we are here. We don't have to deal with the noise and dust and people all over. What if something else is wrong? Are you going to be able to tell where they patched the holes on the side of the house? What if bugs are crawling into my house where they are putting holes? Or a bird is making a nest inside the house? AHHHHH!!!"

The culprit was found right there.

The blue rubber tubing is the cold water to Avery's bathtub. Apparently the ring that holds the rubber tube on the metal pipe wasn't tight enough. Giving Avery baths was increasing the pressure in the tube and it got loose and started dripping. All down the inside of the house. After the culprit was found, the plumber came with a thermal imaging kind of thing that detects water. Thats why all the walls and ceiling and door frame are off and being replaced. They were wet.

The building superintendent came to check things out and told Troy that we won't be responsible for paying for damages (PRAISE THE LORD) since it is a construction error. We were lucky.

They should be done putting all the drywall in tomorrow. YAY for speedy work. Love it. Dexter's killing room will be gone tomorrow.