In addition to the screaming, which I’m quite sure I’ll never get used to, Brooklyn has also decided that she wants to become a mountain climber. And of course, to become a mountain climber, one must practice whenever possible.  Why not start young?  The other day I was walking by the bathroom and here is what I saw…..

I almost freaked out and grabbed her, but then I thought I should get my camera instead.  She’s not even walking yet, but is able to go up and down stairs in the blink of an eye, climb into the bathtub, and now – scale the toilets.  Of course, the entire purpose of climbing this particular toilet was to take all of Wyatt’s things off the countertop and throw them onto the ground. Because this is what she does.

I guess I shouldn’t say she’s “not walking yet” because she is walking, just now on her own.  As long as she is holding one finger or corner of a table she moves along just great.  She can walk while pushing a musical cart faster than anyone I’ve seen to date. As long as the cart doesn’t get stuck on a rug or a doorway (this brings about screaming episodes=ice pick into temples) she is happy as a clam.  A couple of times now she has forgotten about her fear of the unknown (walking alone) and has let go of the table corner or chair, and just stood there. As soon as she realizes what has happened, PLOP! Onto the butt.

At 13 months she has mastered just 3 words. Daddy, puppy and baby.  And she repeats them continuously all day long.  Why can’t they say Mommy a little earlier?  It might make the screaming more tolerable. Maybe.  I go in to her room in the morning to get her up for daycare, she smiles that big toothy grin at me and says Daddy!  Then I say, No – I’m Mommy!  She smiles even bigger and calls me Daddy again.  I’m starting to feel like she might be doing it just to mess with me.

***Side note – did you notice the rings in the picture? Apparently I did NOT learn my lesson….

So of course I go in and I am nervous, so my blood pressure is on the high side of normal, which it never is – except for those first few appointments at the baby doctor. My anxiety kicks in and all the thoughts of what could be wrong start playing through my head, which is silly, I know – but you tell my anxiety to go away. I’ve been trying for years. Then she asks proceeds to tell me that it is a 50-50 chance that at 10 weeks we will hear the heartbeat. I know this, and I tell her that with the last baby, Brooklyn, we heard it right away, but with Wyatt, we could not find it at this appointment. I proceeded to cry and my wonderful doctor, who is now retired, took one look at me and sent me to ultrasound to find the baby. As I’m telling my new(er) doctor this story, I can see in her eyes what she is thinking. Oh Lord, we have a crier. So she searches and searches for the heartbeat, and all we can hear is my lunch digesting. The whole time, she is reassuring me, I’m really not worried about this, I think I’ve heard it a few times, but I can’t get it in strong enough. I’m really not worried, everything appears as it should. Of course her constant assurance is now making me paranoid. Hello anxiety – go away! So after a good 10 minutes with no luck she asks if I would like to have an ultrasound or wait and come back in two weeks. Being the people pleaser that I am I say, You’re the doctor! What do you think? She smartly responds, No, you are the patient and if you are not comfortable waiting for two weeks, I will order the ultrasound for you. I want to reach up and hug her.

So I go down to the ultrasound department, they get me right in and start the process. At first all we see is a bunch of goobily gook, black and white nonsense (good thing I never became an ultrasound technician or a radiologist), then I see it. A little blob inside a small bubble. As she zooms in closer, I notice that it is not moving much. I swear I remember from Wyatt’s 10 week ultrasound that he was moving and kicking all over the place. PANIC starts to set in. The tech zooms in a little closer, it now looks no more like a baby, but a bigger blob on the screen. A very still blob. I can feel the tears start prickling in my eyes when she announces There it is! See that little movement? That’s the heartbeat. Sure enough, I could see it too. Right in the middle of the blob. The blob, I could now see had two little arms. They seemed to wave at me, like Hi mom! Scared ya didn’t I? I was napping! You haven’t had your caffeine for the day yet! The tech then measured the heartbeat – 168 beats per minute. Exactly what Wyatt was at this same ultrasound. The tears that were, one second ago, sad tears, start running down my face and instantly they have changed to happy tears. I am once again, for the third time in my life, reminded how strange it is to love someone so much that you have never even met.

Up to this point, Brooklyn….

• STILL prefers I hold her bottle, she can do it, she just refuses most of the time.

• Has yet to take her first step. She walks all over, as long as one little finger is touching a piece of furniture.

• Now that she is mobile, she follows me EVERYWHERE. No chance of  even going to the bathroom alone at this point.

• Throws mini-diva temper tantrums. I need to catch this on video. They are a little annoying, but mostly they just make me laugh.

• Has FIVE teeth poking through.

• Has had four haircuts in her lifetime already

• Her only word is “pretty”, so far.

• Has mastered pushing the small rocking chair over to the couch, climbing over the chair and up onto the couch and back again.

• Climbs stairs at the speed of light.

• Learned how to sneakily feed the dogs her dinner (sometimes)

• Screams. A lot. And it hurts my ears.

• Loves to dance and boogie to music. Especially the fridge DJ.

• Cries when you tell her no.  Let me rephrase that – FAKE cries when you tell her no.

• Loves her big big brother, but is learning to fight back.  I think she’ll be able to take him in another 6 months or so. You should see her left hook.

LOVE MY GIRL!!!

Another reason I haven’t told some people is that I really don’t FEEL pregnant this time around. I know I said that with Brooklyn too, but this time, I mean it.  My only real symptom is some extreme exhaustion, but as I pointed out to someone the other day, I’ve been exhausted for 4 years now, what’s the diff?

So here are some of my fears with this pregnancy

1. Brooklyn and this child will only be about 19 months apart. REALLY? AM I CRAZY?

2. How will I fit 3 car seats in the back of my Trailblazer?

3. Will I be forced to buy a minivan? NO. Let’s not even go there. That is against my religion or something.

4. $1500 a month for child care.  When I told the daycare director that I was pregnant again so they would hold a spot for the baby, I told her, I will only have the three of them here for 9 months, because Wyatt will start Kindergarten the following fall. So you may only take my entire paycheck for 9 months, OK?

5. Will I ever get to sleep through the night again? Between Wyatt getting up for potty breaks and Brooklyn requesting a 5 am bottle still, I’m not sure how I’m going to fit feeding a newborn into this picture. And keep my sanity at the same time.

Chris asked Wyatt the other day if he would like another brother or sister….

WYATT: I want lots of kids (accented by big arm circles)

CHRIS: Really? That’s good!

WYATT: (looking at Brooklyn) But I want BIG KIDS!  No more babies!

Hmmmmm……

This picture, I believe is from the actual night  “the story about the ring” took place.

ANYWAY, I was bathing the kids so I took off my rings (engagement and wedding band) and put them on the bathroom counter. WAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY back behind the sink where they wouldn’t get knocked off by accident.  I’m just telling ya- WAAAAAAYYYYYYY back there.  So it’s been a little while and Brooklyn looks like she’s getting a  chilly so I get her out of the tub and dry her off and take her back to her room to get PJs on. From Brooke’s room, I hear Mom! I have to go POTTY! So I leave Brooklyn in her room to go help the boy get out of the tub.  Once out of the tub and dried off he announces that it’s poop, not pee. Awesome.

So he sits on the toilet and this means everyone else must leave. They must leave immediately and not come back. Until it’s time to wipe his butt, that is.  So I leave and go finish dressing poor little cold Brooke. Just as I finish getting the little munchkin dressed, I hear Wyatt yelling from the bathroom.  Although this time, it was not his usual Mom! Come wipe my butt! (Yes – this is how I’m called after pooping. I feel so special) No, this time I heard Mom! You’re ring’s in the toilet!

Really?

Yep.

I get into the bathroom and there stands naked Wyatt in front of the toilet peering in at his poop. And my ring is sitting on top of the poop.

Really?

Yep.

The first thing out of my mouth was Well, reach in and get it! Wyatt looked at me, horrified, and responded But I’ll get poop on my hands! To which I promptly replied Well, you should have thought about that before you PUT MY RING IN THE TOILET! I know, cliche, right?

Sigh.

No, I didn’t make him get it out with his hands. I fished it out with a pencil, which was promptly thrown away. While I ran to fetch the pencil, Wyatt screamed after me I WON’T FLUSH YOUR RING MOM! I know he was probably just fiddling with the ring while he was sitting there and it dropped in, but still – my ring was sitting on top on poop. Shudder. The ring sat in disinfectant for two days.

Oh sure, yeah, I dress her pretty girly and put cute hair accessories in her hair……

but see how in the very next picture she is chewing on a JOHN DEER fruit snack wrapper?  Chewing on garbage? Not too lady like if I do say so myself.

Next example -

Tonight we were playing on the floor and I saw a baby doll lying close by so I picked it up, snuggled with the baby doll and showed Brooklyn how to cuddle with the doll. She took it from me, threw it to the ground, ran over it with the car she was playing with, and laughed. Laughed HARD.  It’s funny to squash the baby doll with your car, mom!

What’s going on here?  She refuses to snuggle, even though I insist continuously.  I can practically read her mind: Squirm squirm – let me down! No time to snuggle, must get into trouble! She really enjoys playing in the dog dishes, doesn’t even fuss when she is soaking wet from the dog water.  Once the dish is emptied onto the floor and her clothes, she just moves on to the next thing to mess with. I’m left wiping dirty dog water off the floor, while she crawls over, soaking wet, to smear her little wet hands all over the glass door.   I guess, in my mind, my girly girl would hate the thought of being wet and cold with dog water. Hmmmm.

One day, not so long ago, I caught her splashing around in the toilet. This was more horrifying than the dog water.  It was also more fun, according to her shrieks of joy.

I can vividly remember my mother dressing me up in huge frilly dresses when I was little, and vowing that I would NEVER do this to any daughter of mine.  The dresses itched, they were so uncomfortable, and frankly, I thought I looked a bit silly at the time.  Well, here I am. Dressing my daughter in ridiculously frilly, foo-foo dresses.  Do I think this will alter her personality and that I can WILL her to be a girly girl? I can only hope, but the answer is No.  I guess the real question here is – Do any daughters of mine really ever even have the chance to be a calm, snugly, girly-girl with the crazy Hustad genes running through them? I kind of fear the answer.

So my next blog will more than likely be a 2009 in review – stay tuned.  For the mean time, here’s some Christmas pictures from the Hustads….

There may very well be a reason why we have next to no family photos.  It’s really really hard to get two kids to look at the camera at the same time, and look normal.  Wyatt always smiles this weird, contorted smile when posing for pictures. I don’t think he’s doing it on purpose, I believe he honestly thinks he’s “smiling nice” for the camera.  And it does no good to show him the picture and say See what a silly face you are making? Smile nice next time because this makes him laugh hysterically at his silly face and the next picture is worse.

He really is a beautiful child, but you can’t have him “smile for the camera” because then he looks a bit silly.  There goes his modeling career for now….

That last one actually isn’t too bad of Wyatt, but look at Chris. Now I know where Wyatt gets it I guess.

My parents may have finally learned NOT to look at the kids when trying to take pictures with them.  Every time I take pictures with them and the kids, my mom spends the entire time trying to get the child to look at the camera.  Making all sorts of silly faces in the process. Then, when the kid(s) finally do look at the camera, my mom’s face is all weird.  So I say every time, Just smile at the camera – don’t look at the children!!!! They got it, I think….

Almost. Almost.

The kids, of course, were spoiled rotten. I fretted for weeks that Brooklyn would have NO PRESENTS, and of course this would be OK because she’s 11 months and really – she won’t remember.  But Wyatt will know, right? He’ll wonder why he’s getting so many gifts and she has just a few. Yeah, not so much.  She ended up with a bigger stack than all of us. And Wyatt could’ve cared less what anyone else got.

This biggest SURPRISE! was a motorized car for the kids from my parents…

which I think the kids will love. But after we brought it in the night before, I looked at my dad and said What a tease! This huge, motorized toy that they can’t play with until next summer! We are EVIL! He responded I thought of that too! So dad took Wyatt out to take it for a test ride in the snow.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! I can’t believe it’s 2010 already!!!

But let’s rewind a bit.  Two weekends ago was Wyatt’s fourth birthday party. Fun was had by all!

Ah, my sweet four year old boy.

See, I was planning on a LEGOs birthday party.  A nice, quiet, relaxing day at our house with a couple of family members and a few friends over.  Then, about 1 week before the day of the party, Wyatt tells me, “I want a pool party. A pool party with a ship.” Well, those are tall orders to fill, especially when Bismarck has no pool with a ship (like Fargo does-where he got this idea). And especially with only one week to plan.  So being the good mother I am, I drove around town one day to find a place to have a kids birthday party. With a pool.  A kiddie pool. In 1 week. And a ship.

I didn’t find the ship, but the pool party I did!

Ther may not have been a ship, but there WAS a big slide…..

AND video games…

AND pizza, and root beer, and cupcakes, and M &Ms, and chips….

AND presents…

And twin baby girls eating cupcakes on lawn chairs….

And Wyatt posing like Dr. Evil…….

And, yes, I even put on a swimsuit. It was scary for all parties involved. But once I got there and looked around, I realized that all the girls in swimsuits were either age 10 and under, or moms, just like me.  So, I braved it.

Once the fun was over, and the children’s teeth were chattering from being in a pool for four hours, we packed up the mess and headed home.  That was it. Four hours, and my son’s first “real” birthday party was over.  Tear.

When I was still unearthing my house the following week, I discovered that we had forgotten to get out the PARTY HATS!!! What a disaster. So we wore them one night at dinner. It was just as fun.

The reason I say Christmas is a HUGE deal is because this is the first year Wyatt actually GETS it.  He understands that Santa will eventually come (understanding WHEN is a little different story), that he comes down the chimney, and I actually caught him singing “I saw mommy kissing Santa Clause” the other day.  So the whole presents from Santa idea is a big deal.  We went to see Santa at the mall this weekend. Wyatt informed Santa that he wanted a big transformer for Christmas.  When he mentioned this to Santa, Chris leaned over and whispered, He’s getting a big transformer, right? WELL, HE IS NOW!

I’ve been doing an advent calendar to help Wyatt “count down” to Christmas and this has been helping a bit. See Wyatt? We have this many more days until Christmas! But he is still a little impatient to open presents. It may have been a  mistake to put some wrapped gifts under the tree… what better way to torture a 3 year old than to dangle presents in front of his nose for 2 weeks? Hindsight is 20/20 I guess.  So because Wyatt is SOOO excited for Christmas and SOOO excited for Santa to come, you can imagine my delight when this morning he asked me, Mom? Was Brookie a present from Santa?  Did he bring her down the chimney for us?

Anyway, now that I can relax a bit… the blog is back.  To catch you up:

1. We had Thanksgiving in Fargo this year, just like every year.  Nana Ruth always puts on a great production with lots and lots of yummy food. We stayed for the entire weekend, and I’m pretty sure Nana slept for 5 days after we left.

2. While we were in Fargo, my sis and bro-in-law had their baby a few weeks early! How convienent for ME!  Didn’t have to make the drive back in a winter storm. Thanks baby Ella – love you! Here’s me and my new niece:

I love the look on her face in this picture – like who the heck are you? I’m only 12 hours old!

Here’s Chris with his new niece:

It took me about 12 shots to get this one. He kept trying to smile big when I would take the picture, and, well, he’s still missing that tooth and I just can’t have a picture with the toothless husband on the blog. Oh, what the hell. Here’s how ridiculous he STILL looks….

SEE? I HOPE YOU ARE READING THIS CHRISTOPHER.  HAVE YOU CALLED THE SURGEON YET?

Anywhoo…

3. Wyatt LOVED spending some time with his cousins.  Maddy is pretty much still the boss of the trio, but Conner and Wyatt are slowly learning to hold their own.

Maddy, Wyatt and Conner

4. Wyatt is still amazing us everyday with his pure genius.  They must be teaching him lots and lots at preschool cause here’s what happened the other night.

SOPHIE:  Wyatt!  This Christmas ornament has an “S” on it ‘cuz my name’s Sophie and that starts with “S”!

WYATT: My name is Wyatt. That is spelled W-Y-A-T-T.

Well – aren’t you a smarty pants! Who knew my almost-4-year-old could spell? Thank you Child’s Hope Learning Center.

4.  Brooklyn is still amazing us with her gorgeous-ness:

I know, she’s way too cute. She loves to smile with her mouth open. I totally sound like that sterio-typical parent right now with my Wyatt-is-so-smart and Brooke-is-so-pretty stuff - whatever.

5. We decorated the tree finally.  I feel like this Christmas season is slipping away from me…

He always wants to hug her so tight – but she almost outweighs him. This is a problem….

A 26 pound 1 year old vs. a 32 pound 4 year old. Who will win? Time will tell.