Second days are much nicer then first days

Well, seems like SUPERMUM is back on the job. Today was the TOTAL opposite, by 11 am I was back shopping, I mean I walked there with two kids and we survived!!!! Didn't even have an attempted melt down (thank you HARIBO for those little kid size packages which are perfect to bribe toddlers... not that I would EVER do that:o) ) Cedric behaves according to the book (do babies poo as much according to the book????) and Ned's a happy two year old "Dr. Jekyll" so far (okay, when Ben put him down for his afternoon nap/rest he did scream quite a bit... but that was Ben's problem, not mine, harrharrharr)

Sooo, and now both boys are sleeping/resting, I just had a well deserved diet coke and wonderful TimTam (which is my personal chocolate allowance for the day), the laundry is in the machine as we speak, the kitchen is as good as tidy (all my doing) and I'm down-loading some free audio books, yay!!!! Ta, ta, SUPERMUM!!!!

Well, even if I'm far from being (or even wanting to be) a SUPERMUM, I am definitely a much HAPPIER mum than yesterday, so maybe I should rather call myself: HAPPYMUM :o))))

P.S. I also found out WHY the first day was so horrible: GRANDMA forgot to pray for us!!! (Lorraine, I'm just kidding, hahaha)

"Dr. Jekyll" toddler playing with his boys toys :o)))

Sum up first day: normal madness of mother of two

• It is 10 pm and both kids are still awake, this time #1 is peacefully talking in his bed and #2 is complaining and bright awake instead of peacefully sleeping
• 3 major tantrums of #1: the morning madness lasted full 2 hours, then there was another 1/2h of screaming just before our evening tidy up and another 20 min more in the middle of tidying up
• mashed up and soggy raisins spread all over #1's bed due to the fact that he had "hamstered" them in his mouth just before the evening tantrum started, and screaming and hamstering just don't work together
• 2 major super-pooing-sessions of #2, thankfully in the nappies and not all over me or other things..... you really wonder where all that poo is stored in such a little guy
• mum also decided to throw a tantrum and lay on the ground kicking, head-banging and screaming, unfortunately it did not have the desired effect (meaning that #1 would be shocked and silenced by such a disgraceful display of his behaviour) and rather backfired (it made him scream even more), but I must say, it felt rather relieving to let it out, but after less then a minute it lost it's attraction
• several melt downs of mum due to the screaming kid in his room
• as a result of that I noticed that I should use water-proof make-up next time (black mascara running down my face makes kiddo scream even more, I discovered)
• bad timing of husbands: he was off playing football for a good cause, I wished I was off playing footy for a good cause myself (on the side, I am VERY tempted to go off tomorrow and let husband handle the go-to-bed-procedure of our two lovely boys all by himself)
• on the good side, I did manage to make bread
• I did take a shower today
• I did brush my teeth
• AND I did stay within my chocolate allowance for today, although it was VERY tempting to eliminate every single piece of chocolate I could find in the flat... in fact every single piece of sweets in general, BUT I DID NOT (good girl!!!)

It's not even 11 am and I'm dissolved in a puddle of tears

Well, maybe I started off being a bit too ambitious, set the goals for the first morning without Ben being around just a bit too high. My goals were:

1. no chocolate for today
2. get dressed, teeth brushed and looking half way decent by 10am
3. make bread
4. run to the nearby shops and get some veggies and fruits

The day didn't start off too good. Baby decided last night to be a little bit more awake, so that meant I was also a little bit more awake, BUT I managed to be up and about for breakfast at 8am, Ben left for work at 8:40 and things still looked quite positive and bright, all the family, inclusive baby, was fed and happy. By 8:50am Ned had his teeth brushed and throned on his potty, while baby lay happily on the floor making cute baby noises. By 9am I started making the bread dough, had my teeth brushed and both kids were dressed. Then the day went wrong. I told Ned we'd go outside and that little comment must have triggered "Mr. Hyde". He wanted to go in the car right away and the melt down started. He spend some time in his room, and I tried to appease him a couple times without obstructing my principles , no success, so, more room time where he almost demolished his door. This melt down does not have any justification. It started of with the car, the first reconciliation attempt back fired and instead he wanted something to drink, but refused to say "please" for a while, when he finally said "please" he didn't really want to drink, but wanted his beloved Hermie, how was parked right next to his feet, and so on, la la ta ta. By 9:50am I actually was dressed and looking half way decent myself, baby was a little darling though the whole scene so far, when he decided to start one of his super-pooing-sessions and when I just had him clean and dressed again he had another one. But by 10am I was ready to start another attempt to walk to the shops. Ced was in the sling, Ned calmed down a bit and we got as far as out of the door of out flat when he started again, well, I capitulated, recognizing I was fighting a lost fight, stuck Ned in bed and by 10:10am I was laying in my own bed and dissolving in tears while Ned howled way in his bed, which he is still doing as I write. It breaks my heart to hear him but I can be stubborn too. I refuse to let a two year old rule me and as hard as it is he HAS to learn. I can forget about the shops now, we'll have to survive without fruits, I might be able to finish the bread before Ced wakes up and wants his milk, so in the end I did accomplish some of my goals but I am definitely not as content and happy and balanced as I hoped before. Gone are the thoughts: "I can do it" and hello to: "What did I/we do wrong?????" Ou well, I'm off to make bread to keep me busy, or else I'll cry until my eyes pop out.

P.S. so far I resisted to let chocolate comfort me, but it sounds tempting

Both boys are in bed. Cedric is sleeping, Ned is still singing and reading and talking (BUT he can do with his nap time what he wants to do, as long as he doesn't scream his head of and stays in his bed/room, I'm fine with it!!). Slowly my days take on a bit of a structure... and I am VERY thankful for it. Although I am NOT the most organized person in the world, I hate living in total anarchy and chaos ( a little bit of chaos seems to be a natural thing with me though, hmpf). But here I am sitting in the kitchen, it is as good as tidy and clean (thank you, wonderful husband), the kiddos are in bed and quiet or sleeping, the paper war for registering Ced is almost done (so he is almost a German citizen and the Aussie application will also be done soon, so then he'll be a true blue Aussie as well) and now I am sitting at the kitchen table and am almost a bit bored, shocking. I guess there is more cleaning to be done or laundry to be washed or things tidied up, but well, I do enjoy sitting here and basically doing nothing... okay, writing my blog, but putting thoughts into words somehow helps untangle the messy mess in my brain and is rather relaxing :o))) I could also go and do my toe nails. It WON'T almost kill me no more, yay,.... but I think I'm too lazy to be bothered :o))) I should also start thinking about dinner, but hang, I'll find something in the freezer :o)))). I really should read my bible, it has been quite a bit neglected lately, but the bible is in the bed room, and in the bed room our little tiger is sleeping.... so I think I'll continue a little while longer just to sit here peacefully and enjoying the quietness of a lazy afternoon, before it get loud and noisy again at the Wyatts.

P.S. I really, REALLY, REEEAAAAALLLLLLLY dislike those nasty little fruit flies A LOT!!!!!! (Just a random comment)

"How did we do it with Ned???"

is a question we ask ourselves a lot lately in one form or another. How was it with Ned; somehow the human memory seems to forget "everyday-normal-life-things" really quickly. I often hear Ben say: "Surely Ned didn't do that!!!", just for me to inform him that "Yes, Ned did do that as well". Just the other day Ben had the great honour and privilege to change Ced's nappy, when all of a sudden this little 53cm tall guy started a pooing marathon. The unhappy dad looked helplessly at me and of course the question came: "Ned didn't use to do that, did he??", "Yes, he did that as well" was my usual reply. Well, poor husband was already on the second or third new nappy when all of a sudden our super- pooer wound up to the grand final and did a one meter poo shoot. "Did you see THAT???? SURELY Ned didn't do THAT!!!!" Well, I could not reply with my usual answer because I was struggling to breath due to a laughing fit which lasted for well over 1/4h. But well, Ned did NOT do these kind of shooting poo stunts, but thinking back on poor husbands face still gives me fits of giggles, it was too precious!!!!

I guess it is only natural to compare, especially because we seem to be "similar-looking-offspring-producers" (just like our friends Dirk and Hilde C. :o) ) and honestly, so often Cedric looks so much like Ned, but there are also biiig differences (at least in our eyes:o) ).

• Ned had very clear dark brown eyes, with Ced we are not so sure yet, it isn't the typical baby eyes blue, but also not as clearly brown.
• When Ned popped out one of my first observations was that the little guy had HUGE feet and real little "digger hands" (and his hands are still huuuuge) and his voice was rather deep (for a baby). Well, Ced doesn't have "digger hands" nor bigfoot feet, but he's Mr. Longfinger and Mr. Longtoes. I hope he has musical inclination because those long fingers might be rather useful with playing the guitar or the piano :o). But one of the first thoughts I had about Ced was "Oi, his voice is VERY high". Honestly, I had to get used this high cat-like screaming, which can be rather cute, IF it isn't a distress or "I want food, NOW!!!" cry.
• Ned also really liked his dummy, Ced rather sees me as his personal giant dummy and doesn't like the plastic thing very much; unfortunately I don't like being abused as dummy.

Unfortunately, I'm not a very good milk cow again and by the third day Ced had lost already more then 10% of his birth weight and we had to start him on formula, and drinking out of a bottle is just SOOO much easier then having to work for ones milk on the boobs; but as a dummy he likes it, great!!! And now that he's on the bottle he drinks like a camel and is back to his birth weight. It was the same with Ned and I wonder if he'll also grow as quickly as Ned. But it makes me a bit sad, that I'm not able to "feed" my own kids. If I had lived 200 years ago they might have died or not thrived at all because I would not be able to feed them myself. Or if WW III broke out, we'd have bad chances too. So, I am very grateful that I live nowadays in a country, where it is no problem to get good formula and I am grateful, that they invented formula. God designed mother's milk, so it is the best there is for babies and I would have LOVED to be able to breast feed, but it seems like I just don't have a calling to be a milk cow. I cried a bit but accepted the fact and now we move on and I try to see the advantages of feeding with a bottle.

Generally Ced is a very content little guy, burps and farts like a real man, so he doesn't have any problems with wind and he's also no "spitter" like Ned. Right now he's "sitting" in one of our bean bags, watching me type on the computer and (hopefully) will doze off soon. Nights aren't so bad either. He does say hello once or twice but besides that he does what we all are supposed to do at night: sleep (although I do have to admit, that he prefers sleeping next to us in our bed than in his bed).

Ned was with Oma and Opa for the weekend, which was nice and gave us some time to relax a bit, although, honestly, I did miss having him around (with tantrums and all). Today we walked to down town Mosbach and we tried out our "kiddy board" for the stroller. My dad had to make an alteration to our stroller in order for this kiddy board to fit on and after all that work, Ned does not like standing on it. Great!!! How in the world am I to manage walks with both kids??? Ned likes walking to a certain extend, but then he'd like to sit for a time or be carried. And with Ced occupying the stroller there is nowhere to sit for Ned and I am NOT carrying this 14kg bundle of energy (I almost wet my pants as it is without carrying an extra 14kg.... oh the joys of delivery). But we'll see, there are many occasions when I wonder how it'll be without Ben being around, but- like I said to my mum on the phone today- others did it before me and survived and so will I :o)))

So to finish off I need to share a little Ned story again. The other day we put him down for the night and normally, once he is in bed, he's a happy chappy, talking and singing away for a while before dropping off. Well, that particular night he kept on whining and whinging after we left him alone so I went in again after a while. Then he told me: "water". I told him: "You have your usual water bottle with you." But he kept on saying water, water. Until he picked up his bottle to take a suck to show me his problem: I could hear the funny sound the bottle makes when the "leak proof valve" isn't properly clicked in. I solved the problem and my son dismissed me with a cute "night, night" and a kiss :o)))).

Ned meets Ced :o)

I wanted to post a little video here, but somehow it isn't possible to do that, hmpf.... Well, Ned has met Ced and he fell in love with baby. It really is tooooooooooOOOOO cute. The question is, how long will it last???? Ou well, I am grateful that he agrees to baby for now and isn't jealous or anything. So far we are doing good as a family of four, but there are really major adjustments to make, but that was expected :o))) We will be coping, but it needs time to get used to.

I just uploaded some pics to our web album (the link should be somewhere on this page) so you can check out our new little fellow!! I must say, our boyS (gaaaash, will I ever get used to that????) will not be able to deny that they are brothers, they look sooooooo similar, too funny.

That's Cedric just a couple minutes old....



....and that is Ned, truly brothers, eh????

I had more challenging things to do,

... then to watch the WORLD CUP 2010 grand final. And I should be in bed now, but am totally hyped up with adrenalin and endorphins, so instead I'm sitting here, drinking a nightly cold chocolate milk and update my blog.... I wonder if insanity runs my family somehow :o))))

Around the time when Spain became football world champion our baby decided to make an appearance. Funny, we were always joking about having a baby on the final and now it really happened, crazy....

Well, Cedric Jamie Wyatt was born on the 11th of July 2010 at 2257h (that's three minutes to 11pm), 3800g and 53cm, and whoever said that second births are easier then first ones is a liar. BUT the baby is here, I DID survive (although I yelled and screamed like a Turkish farm wife and almost strangled poor hubby) and we are actually home already. I am fit and fresh and a tiny bit hyped up AND should be sleeping now, but can't. Maybe I DID will out that baby after all, I am so very happy that he arrived on the weekend and that Ned was taken care off. He actually spends the night at Oma and Opas and will come back tomorrow morning

Well, night night, I'll try again now (now that the sun is starting to rise, hmmm)