1st Motorcycle Ride

Let me preface this by saying that Jayden LOVES motorcycles! I can't say that it's a "new" fetish as he's always seemed to like anything that moves, but in the last 6 months or so he's become obsessed with motorcycles. If he sees any on the road, he gets so excited and calls them by color... "Look, Mama! Black motorcycle!! See it?". He's like a kid in a candy store. He knows each and every motorcycle at our apartment complex and if one is missing from its parking space, he'll ask me where it went. Any time we go to a toy store or Target, he'll ask if he can get a motorcycle. Luckily the little Matchbox ones suffice and it's great since they are inexpensive...and let me tell you that he's got quite the collection now. I think it's his mission to at least have one in every color available and then some.

So, when we went to visit my friend Rachel and her family for their oldest son's 3rd birthday party last weekend and he saw her husband, Brandon, come inside with his helmet and gloves on, he flipped! I think Brandon became his new best friend instantaneously. He was gracious enough to let Jayden walk around wearing his helmet and gloves (which I wish I would have gotten pictures of as it was hilarious!!)... and he even took us down to his motorcycle and let Jayden have a "ride" on it (no, he didn't actually drive anywhere on it). Jayden got to turn it on and give it some gas, he got to turn the lights on, and pretend to drive. To say that he was in heaven was an understatement. I don't think I've ever seen him so purely happy ever. He was like a kid at Christmas... but even better. Jaxson even got to sit on the motorcycle which he thought was pretty cool too.

Needless to say I think that Jayden is going to have motorcycles on the brain for a while... he already has mentioned that he wants a motorcycle birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. Haha!

Big Boy Beds

About two weeks ago we decided to do a bit of revamping in the boys' room. Jaxson has been refusing to sleep in the crib because he hates it--- he co-slept at an early age so it could be what he's used to. We tried the crib multiple times and he'd cry until he puked on himself. As a mom who practices AP & babywearing, I just couldn't stand to let that happen and the only reason I did so was the insistance of my husband. I guess I should have listened to my maternal instincts. We would then either sleep on a bed or on a couch and he'd be out like a light until morning. I even let him sleep on the couch next to me and he had no problem, but we really wanted to get both boys back in their own beds. So we decided to get rid of our crib because the one we have is currently a drop side, and with the new safety laws they will be voting on in December and making legal by mid-year next year, essentially all drop sides will be banned or will need to undergo serious modifications to pass the new standards. So since we knew we'd need a new crib anyway, we gave our old one to Nana Joan so she can set it up as a day bed in the playroom she has for the boys.

Around Jayden's 2nd birthday we acquired a bunk bed set from Nana Joan that was left behind by one of her neighbors and she thought it would be perfect for the boys so she gave it to us. We turned the bottom bunk into Jayden's bed and then stacked the top bunk on top of it. The top bunk had no mattress or anything, but we stacked it to save space as we had the crib in the same room at the time. Jayden's mattress was flimsy and old, so he needed a new one. A couple weekends ago we made a trip to IKEA to buy two new mattresses and got some wooden supports for the beds. Then we went to Target to buy a bedding set to match the one that Jayden already had and we de-bunked the beds and turned them into two singles for the boys. They now officially both have big boy beds and have a big boy room... and they LOVE it!! They both sleep in their own beds and sleep through the night. It's been wonderful.

Here are a couple pictures from their first night sleeping in their new beds...

Bathtime & the TV

As it has been mentioned frequently, my boys LOVE bath time. I mean, LOVE it. They get one every night after dinner. Their new obsession? Bubble bath. Lots and lots of bubbles. We went through my entire stash of adult bubble bath (that's been sitting in my cabinet for I don't even know how many years---shows how many baths I take, right?) within days. So, we naturally needed to buy more. Anyway, here are some pics from their first bubble bath up in Gig Harbor when they discovered just how fun they are. Jaxson loved putting the bubbles on his face--- he looked like Santa Claus at one point and had all of us busting up laughing.

This last set is from a couple weeks ago... and this scene has become somewhat of a new daily occurrence in our house. We have a small TV in the kitchen for the boys to watch some movies on and they LOVE it. I don't know what Jaxson was watching here (I think it might have been Space Jam) but he's just engrossed in it. They especially love the Veggie Tales sing along songs... I'm pretty sure Jayden almost has the opening song memorized. I find it comical to see him swaying side to side singing, "....tomatoes....squash smile... potatoes...produce aisle!". LOL

Just need to vent...

I've found myself just plain stressed and frustrated over the last couple of days about a number of things, but especially one central theme moreso than the others. Here are my woes as of late, starting with the more minor ones...

First, just minor things around our house keep going wrong. I cannot blame nesting for my anal behavior because I'm only 16 weeks, but my relatively Type A, neat freak attitube I cannot say the same for. First off, it just seems like our apartment is falling apart. The carpets are trashed because our apartments are just shitty so they use the cheapest carpet available, the walls are dirty because they used cheap paint that you can't even wipe with a wet rag without the paint coming off, the drywall and wood around the corners of the wall are cracking and falling off... we just had that fixed in addition to having them fix the shitty caulking job in the bathroom which caused water damage to the floorboards which then caused us to have a recurring silverfish infestation that we had pest control fix last week (don't even get me started on that fiasco and the unprofessional douchebag who tried to lock my MIL and one year old baby outside of the apartment without any warning...). Now our fridge is leaking, parts are breaking...and they won't give us a new fridge because it's a pain in the ass for them. Nevermind the fact we've lived with it for 3 years... Oh, and just when we thought we were done with pests? Ha, we're not. Now we have fleas. Our cat is indoors so we've never had a problem until now. They are eating my cat alive (who now has scabs all up his back), they are biting Jayden, and are now trying to hop on Jaxson which is making him scratch. So, this weekend we get to flea bomb our house and shampoo our carpet with Borax. Yay. Let me just say I will be so happy come February so I move out of this POS, ghetto apartment.

Second, I'm frustrated that I keep needing to take time off from work to cover for random crap. My boss is gracious enough, but it stresses me out because I always feel like I'm putting my job at risk. He says, "eh, life happens" but I often wonder if that's something he says to my face, but thinks otherwise. I could be overanalyzing, but it just makes me feel horrible.

Then yesterday, I went to Taco Bell to get free dinner. Last time I went there they screwed up my order royally and I complained so they said the next one was on the house. So, I went inside the store with Jayden and it took them 25 MINUTES to get my order!!! I thought with fast food there was an element of fast to it... heck, I've had faster service at Red Robin! Anyway, I'm standing at the front counter waiting to place my order and no one is there...mind you there are about 5 people standing in the kitchen area who can see me just waiting there. Not one person acknowledged me. I stood there for 5 minutes before someone came out...and the place was dead. There were maybe 2-3 other people eating in the restaurant and a couple in the drive thru. No lines inside. One employee is texting on his phone in the kitchen and the others were slowly making some food for the people in the drive thru. I explained my situation and that the manager told me my next meal was on the house and I gave them the voucher so she wrote my order down on a slip and gave it to the people in the kitchen.

Here's what I ordered:
2 regular Chicken burrito meal deals for the boys (comes with a drink & chips)
2 Chicken burritos with Lava Sauce (for Aaron)
and a #6-- 2 Chalupa meal (comes with 2 Chalupas, a crunchy taco, and a drink)

First she only handed me two drink cups when I was supposed to have 3. Then when they handed me the bag of food, here's what I ended up getting:
1 Chicken burrito meal deal
3 Chicken burritos with Lava Sauce
3 Chalupas-- no crunchy taco

So, she had to remake a crunchy taco and give me another bag of chips & another regular chicken burrito. And that was AFTER I'd waited 25 minutes...so I had to wait longer.

Oh, and while I was waiting, a patron who had been in the drive thru came inside to complain that they forgot a bunch of his order too--- which was what scored me the free meal to begin with because they forgot half my order the last time I came in. Seriously, what kind of people do they have working there that they can't even remember a simple order? They were screwing up left and right!! Ugh. If my family didn't like Taco Bell so much or if there was one closer to me, I'd just have left. I was royally irritated.

In addition I hadn't been feeling good all day thanks to the pregnancy. I'd been nauseous, had heartburn, and a headache all day long. Well, then apparently the Taco Bell didn't help matters because I ended up puking my guts out all night long... and this is where I really started to get irritated.

Aaron must be missing a compassionate bone... or several. Because when I said how I'd been puking his only comment to me was, "Well at least now you know how other pregnant women feel...". Yeah, because that's just what your wife wants to hear when she's barfing. After that, I crawled up on the couch trying to rest in between puking and he kept asking me questions when I just wanted to be left alone. "Can I do this? "Can I do that?" "Where is the remote?". My response? "I feel like crap right now and I really don't care." So what does he say, "I'm sorry you feel like crap, but do you need to be so mean to me?".

So I'm mean because I told him I don't care? Oh, and then today I asked him if we could hire a doula for this birth. We are on a budget so I'm specifically looking for a student doula because a lot of them have to do 3 free births towards their certification so I'd be getting my doula and it wouldn't impact our budget. When he asked why I wanted a doula I was honest with him. I told him that I didn't feel like I had gotten the level of support I really needed during my pregnancy, labor, and delivery with the boys. Some dads/husbands are really hands-on and involved in every aspect-- they are excited, eager to learn, etc. Mine is not... at all. He slept through the majority of both my labors while I labored with my mom (who is not natural birth minded), he didn't study the Hypnobabies material with Jaxson that he said he would read for weeks (I finally got discouraged and put it away after it sat on our table, untouched for over a month), and he even (according to my mom) was playing video games with his brother in our living room as we were trying to get ready to leave for the hospital when Jaxson was born. When I wrote him that e-mail about why I wanted a doula, and I told him I wasn't trying to be mean to him but I did want to be honest about how I felt, his only comment to me was this: "Well, that e-mail was the equivalent of beating my self-esteem with a bat". Really? I just told you how you've made me feel for the duration of my pregnancies and the only thing you can say is centered around you?? No, "Well, I'm sorry that I've made you feel that way. It wasn't my intention."??

This is one thing that really bugs me about my husband. I say something honestly and I do it in a way so he will hopefully not take it personally, but he always turns on the defensive and makes it into something about him. He's so concerned with himself and his feelings that he doesn't consider the feelings of those around him. I tell him I feel like crap--- he yells at me for "being mean" to him with some half-ass, sympathetic "apology". He asks me why I'd like a doula, I tell him it's because I've felt really unsupported by him when I really needed him--- and he's most concerned about his self-esteem?? I'm not asking that all attention be on me... but I know if the roles were reversed, I'd feel bad that I'd made him feel that way and I'd apologize. Or if he was sick, I'd ask him if there was anything I could do to help him. Maybe it's a difference in personalities? I don't know, but I don't think he's aware of truly how self-centered a lot of his comments are.

I love my husband and I know he means well, and for a lot of guys this is a similar, recurring theme. It's hard for them to connect and understand pregnancy like us women do because they don't experience it the way we do on a daily basis. It's hard for them to connect to something they cannot see or feel. I get that, really I do. But that doesn't mean that I don't wish that he was more understanding or compassionate or involved. There are a lot of moments where I really do feel like I'm going through this all alone. And it doesn't help when I hear things from people that he's said things like, "Oh, I'm just along for the ride...". Really? What are you riding? Because I feel like I'm on a nonstop roller coaster. I didn't just jump on top of myself and get pregnant. I'm not in this by myself and nor do I want to be. This isn't something that you just skate through while your wife takes the brunt of it. It's supposed to be a shared experience, and I wish he would share it with me.

And lastly... I feel like he just doesn't listen. I asked him if he could buy some groceries for the next couple days until we get paid so that there's stuff for lunches and dinners for the kids... so he buys lunchmeat, a loaf of bread, some fruit, and a thing of eggs. No butter, no cheese, no "meals". Ugh. And I've also asked him to help me get the kids ready in the morning because he only gets himself ready for work and then leaves...and leaves me to get Jayden ready while I get ready and try to deal with Jaxson until Nana Joan shows up. I end up running late getting out the door which means I don't get Jayden to daycare by 8:00 which then means that they don't serve him breakfast, so I have to stop at McDonald's to get him breakfast, which then makes me late to work. Rinse and repeat....like 2-3 times a week. I get so stressed and overwhelmed and me talking to him apparently does nothing.

Ugh, there are just some days I just want to slam my head into a wall, and the last 24 hours have been just that. :(

Summer Fun

So I usually do a "Wordless Week" and, to be honest, I've just been so busy this month that I'm not going to get around to it. I do have pictures to share, but they just can't go without description... so it will be like a week in pictures, just not exactly wordless.

This first set is from an earlier trip in late July to visit Nana Joan and other family while we were up in Gig Harbor. We stayed there for the weekend and the weather was just beautiful!! Nana Joan set up the sprinkler in the yard which both boys ran away from (which is ironic as they love water), ate berries, and enjoyed the sunshine. Then we finished up with an impromptu early birthday dinner for me at Judi and Larry's before heading home. Jayden and Jaxson LOVED riding the little bike things (what do you even call those things anyway??) in the driveway.

I'll post more picture updates throughout the week as my work level allows. Enjoy!!

Still here, just busy!!

I'm still here, but it's been a crazy week to say the least. There's a lot going on in the Andresen household as of late.

I worked from home last week and the connection from my work computer to my home computer is ridiculously slow, so I really didn't find an opportunity to blog from home while I was working and now that I'm physically back in the office, it's a bit crazy since I'm playing catch up.

Then on Saturday night around 10 or 10:30 we stopped in Edmonds/Shoreline area to get gas because we didn't have quite enough to get home. We powered down the car to pump gas and then when I went to turn it back on it wouldn't start. The lights and radio still worked so I thought we had enough power to be jump-started... that didn't work. Then someone tried to check our starter, but still nothing. Ah, nothing like being stranded at a random gas station 10 miles from home late at night with your two very tired, screaming young children while you are pregnant. Luckily, we were able to park our car overnight and have it towed the next morning to a shop and my mom was gracious enough to lend me the use of her car until last night. I just picked the car up today and it's running fantastic!! After all that, it was determined it was the battery but it was originally going to cost us close to $300 for the repairs because our car requires a "special" battery. I was able to negotiate the price of the work done, so it didn't cost us as much as we thought. Now we get to just turn around and trade it in for a minivan in about 2 months, so yay for us.

In addition to the new expense of a car, we are currently looking into the possibility of buying a home within the next 6 months. We need a bigger place as it is with having another child and with some of the rent prices in the area it might not make sense to continue renting. Aaron and I together make a good amount of money that could easily support a mortgage payment if we are smart about our options. There are a lot of great deals out there with low interest rates and programs/options for first time home buyers, etc. Plus, from what I've heard they have extended the $8000 home buyers credit for now, so it would be a good time to take advantage of the buyers' market. I have a feeling that if we buy now, we could end up getting a better deal in the long run versus waiting 3 more years to pay off what debt we have before getting into a house. If we did buy and got the $8000 credit, on top of the credits we would get from our income and having our kids, etc, we could easily pay off BOTH of our credit cards and my remaining student loan, as well as any miscellaneous medical bills we might have. That would only leave us with a small car payment, a mortgage, daycare (which might be next to nothing if Aaron's mom would watch the kids for us---or at least the 2 younger ones), and our cell phones.

We didn't really think that this was an option for us, but after talking to quite a few people who are in similar situations as us, it's possible to find something within our price range and still afford to live. Money might be tight but it would be doable. So, I will be calling around to some lenders to see what we would even qualify for before we jump into a home search.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!