Two: From Sammie to Sammy

Today as I put Sammy down for his nap I was thinking a lot about how fast time has flown by. It’s a little bit surreal to think that my baby is already two. Has it really been that long? And then I started thinking about how my sweet baby Sammy is not even going to be the baby anymore in less than 5 months! I can’t really imagine him NOT being the baby, you know? haha Anyways I’ll probably be super sentimental as I write this post. #sorrynotsorry Also, most of these pictures are from my phone and of a wild boy who never stops moving, read: blurry. Sorry!

So last Sunday our Sammy boy turned two!!! It’s so funny because I think in my mind I already had him turning three. I seriously almost made him a cake with the number three on it! I feel like Sammy has grown up so fast, in such a short time. He wants so much to be like his big brother, that sometimes I would forget that he was only one!

Anyways we started out the birthday festivities on Saturday because Sunday was going to be really busy and I wanted him to feel like he had a special day. I decided to make lasagna for his birthday dinner, because picking a food that is his favorite is so hit and miss. Some days he loves spaghetti and some day he ends up on the floor like this:

Did I mention that he’s two now? lol

I also wanted to make him a special cake. When I asked him what kind, his favorite response was “CANDY!” but when I looked up candy cakes online there weren’t really any that stood out to me. So I ended up just baking a 9×13 banana cake and was gonna cover it with candy. But it just felt too boring! ha! (Disclaimer: I LOVE making cute cakes, it seriously brings me so much joy!) So I took the 9×13 cake and cut out a big number two. Then I used the left over cake to make another two for a second layer. It worked out perfectly and there was hardly any extra cake. I filled the middle with chocolate buttercream and frosted the outside with regular buttercream.

I was seriously so proud, I took a million pictures of it. No joke. Especially because I was planning on letting the kids help decorate it, so I wasn’t really sure what the finished product was going look like. There was obviously a lot of candy eating rather than decorating, and I probably wouldn’t serve the cake to a group of strangers (not because it wasn’t cute) because some of the m&m’s were questionable as to whether or not they had been “tasted” first. LOL But when you consider it was a two and three year old decorating. It was pretty much the greatest!

I also wanted to surprise Sammy with decorations when he woke up from his nap. Sammy’s favorite color is blue, so we bought blue streamers and a bunch of blue balloons! Daniel hung the streamers and I’m so glad he did because he made it super fun and SO different than I would have done. 😉 (Isn’t it funny how differently men and women think?) Me and Carter were in charge of balloons! Carter was such a good helper, especially when he had to be super quiet while Sammy was napping. Do you know how much self control it takes a three year old to not run around like a maniac when there are tons of balloons and streamers to play with?!? I’m guessing a lot! haha

Here’s Sammy with his birthday lasagna. I think it came our fantastic, but really, how can you go wrong when there is so much cheesy goodness involved!!Then we had cake!!! Sammy was a little unsure at first about blowing out the candles and I literally had to cover Carter’s mouth so he didn’t do it for him. The cake was huge and we actually just finished it off two days ago. But I think Sammy’s favorite part was everyone singing Happy Birthday to him! This kid was born to be in the spotlight!!! He’s just so cute!

After cake we opened presents. Sammy made out like a bandit! He also was super possessive of his toys which was really new. I think his favorite present was a truck that had dinosaurs in it from G-ma & G-pa Martinez. He carried those dinosaurs around the whole night, and wouldn’t let Carter so much as look at them. haha Carter of course was ticked because he didn’t get any new toys, (he was also born to be in the spotlight) but it was a really good opportunity to help him learn that sometimes, it’s just not all about him. It also has him super excited for his birthday, probably just so he can get present and not Sammy (lol), but we’re working on it. *sigh*

On Sunday, we went up to G-ma & G-pa Turley’s house and had a special dessert after dinner. Banana splits!! I thought it was a genius idea, I mean this kid LOVES bananas, and who doesn’t like ice cream with delicious topping too?!? Survey says… Sammy! (And actually Carter strangely enough…) I don’t even know you guys, sometimes my kids stump even me. In their defense we don’t eat a ton of ice cream and they’ve never actually had ice cream with bananas. I guess they are just purist when it comes to bananas. Sammy ended up eating like four cuties instead of his banana split and was as happy as a clam, so we’ll count it as a win. (For the record I loved the dessert and was even nice enough to eat Sammy’s and part of Carter’s. Just another motherly sacrifice. lol)

Now for some fun facts about Sammy. First off he’s so cute. Like its painful how cute he is. Seriously. As a result, he sometimes ends up doing things that in any and sometimes all circumstances is not ok. And he gets away with it because I mean, look at him!

Case and point. This boy loves to put his feet on the table. We laughed so hard the first time we were all eating, and one of his chubby feet appeared next to his plate. Buuuut now it’s a constant battle trying to get him to keep his feet down. (I still secretly laugh about it though, I cant help it, it’s so hilarious to me.) So here’s hoping we can break that habit sometime before he goes to college. lol

One of my favorite physical characteristic of Sammy’s (besides his chubby cheeks), is his hair!!! He gets so many compliments on his hair and its so long and shaggy! I LOVE it! He 100% needs a haircut but I cant do it! I just need to figure out a way to trim it so it looks nice, but is still wild at the same time. Is that possible???

Sammy is also my sleep anywhere boy. Carter was always a good sleeper, but he always fell asleep in his bed. Sammy on the other hand cannot miss  his nap or he will fall asleep….

literally…

anywhere!

He has even been know to sleep-eat dinner. His eyes are completely closed and he just keeps putting his food in and chewing. We’ve had so many great laughs on account of this kids sleeping habits. Moral of the story, Sammy needs his nap!

In other news this little boy is finally turning a corner on the potty training business. I say that while knocking on all the wood in the universe. Transitioning to underwear has been somewhat of a nightmare and I think most of the blame for the that can be placed on me. From morning sickness to busy seasons (aka the holidays), I would just put him in a diaper on and off for weeks at a time. My excuse: he’s not even two yet. But even with my shortcomings he is really doing awesome!

We still have hard days, like a week ago when he flat out refused to even look at the potty ALL DAY LONG! But most days he does awesome! And it’s so nice having a little break in washing diapers. I like to say he’s about 90% potty trained, which (at his age) is good enough for me. 😉

All in all Sammy is such a character and I’m so glad he is part of our family! We call him our little sour patch  because he can throw a fit like nobody’s business and then follow it with the sweetest of apologies and hugs! He’s my silly, passionate, red head and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Happy Birthday cool dude! I love you to pieces!!!

P.S. To explain the title, Sammie looks like such a baby name, don’t you think? So I’m gonna try spelling it with a “y”. Sammy is way more grown up (lol), but not TOO grown up… I could just be crazy. I have a history going back and forth with my love of the letter “y”, like is college when I started signing my name, Chelsey. haha Anyways, we’ll see if it sticks! 😉

Baby Turley #3

First off, thanks everyone for all your kind words!!! It really means so much to our family! I think everyone knew it was going to be a girl except me. I still don’t entirely believe it!!! Anyways thanks so much! I read all your comments and seriously smiled at every single one! Love you guys! (Maybe even as much as Sammie loved this giant minion balloon. lol)

On completely different note, me and Facebook are in fight. And my stubbornness is pretty much preventing me from getting on my Facebook for the next little while. Sooo if you want updates on our lives and my kids and whatnot I’ll be on Instagram (where I post pretty much EVERYTHING about our lives- username: cmmz88) and I’ll be on here from time to time! Just in case you’re interested. 😉 I’m not a blogger or anything, but subscribe!(if you can do that on here…) haha

Ok now for the good stuff!

This pregnancy is seriously kicking my butt. I was up all Tuesday night just worrying and stressing about yesterday’s doctors appointment. I’ve had such a hard time getting on board with this pregnancy. Mostly I’ve just been stressing!

I feel like I’m huge, everyone says I’m not. But in comparison to the last two I am ginormous. (Also every time I scroll past that picture I see my awesome double chin… just thought you all might want to enjoy that too 😉 ) Speaking of comparisons, can I just say that this pregnancy has been so so so so sooo different than the last two. I seriously should have just known it was a girl. But I really truly just expected to be a mom to all boys. Don’t ask me why but I 100% expected THIS to be my life, for the rest of my life!

Superheros, capes, thomas the train underwear, you know, the works. (I promise I dress this kid everyday, but it’s usually in vain)

Our appointment yesterday wasn’t until 3:30, so I had most of the day to just worry, and I honestly spent more time than I’d like to admit just crying. (I’m telling you this baby has me an emotional mess). Anything and everything makes me cry these days, and even though I’m probably just a big baby, I’m gonna go ahead and blame the pregnancy for that one, because I can.

But 3:30 finally came and it was so reassuring to finally get to see our baby!!!

First off, there’s definitely only one! (Thanks mom for making me legitimately worry that there would be more. #takethatmotherscurse) Everything is growing and developing right on track, and I was so shocked when she told us we were expecting a baby GIRL!!!

Daniel said his heart skipped a beat! He is so excited guys! Seriously he kept saying how he really wanted a little girl, and I (being the always optimistic one) was just like, don’t hold your breath. lol I’m excited to see how they will interact. I’m pretty sure she will be a Daddy’s girl, which already makes me a little jealous! haha No worries though I bet she’ll still be on Team Mommy when all the boys try to gang up on us!

So a few people asked what Carter and Sammie thought about the new baby. Honestly they weren’t too interested in the gender. Carter kept telling the ultrasound technician (I literally just looked up the name for that, because I was gonna call her a sonogrammer) that it was a boy. Mostly they kept asking if they could go back to the waiting room to watch Finding Nemo. lol Oh well. I have got some pretty good name suggestions from Carter though. He said we should name the baby “Grandma Martinez”. Then when I told him that probably wouldn’t be a good name for a baby he settled for “Serena” or “Aunt Laura”. He’s an original thinker this kid. lol

After the appointment, we stopped by Smiths on the way home and got our “gender reveal balloons”. I’m so lame when it comes to cute gender reveal ideas so I just stick with the tried and true balloons! 🙂 I also though we should get jelly filled donuts to celebrate! They had one with pink frosting and I totally bought it!!

The boys really loved walking around the store with their balloons. And the lady was nice enough to put a weight on each balloon so we didn’t accidentally lose one! p.s. We ate the donuts this morning… yuck. And then I remembered I totally made the same mistake when I was pregnant with Sammie. The donuts at Smith’s are always dry, don’t do it!

Afterwards we celebrated by eating out at Culver’s! I love that place. It seems to be a lot of old people who eat there, which honestly makes me like it even more! lol Their custard is seriously so rich and creamy, I couldn’t even finish it, but in a good way of course!

And everywhere I looked I saw pink!

Even the sunset was pink! Obviously my kids put their best face forward for this picture. lol

When we finally got home, it was late and we were exhausted, but I made everyone try to get a good “gender reveal” picture! This was our first attempt, but using a timer for the picture just didn’t work out.

My cousin posted a picture asking how people get clear pictures of babies  in baths, but I really want to know how people get clear pictures of any kid EVER?!!? Seriously. I took a million pictures, and the one we ended up using was still super blurry. Also it was night time, so we lacked the crispness that is daylight! Oh well!

This one was my favorite but I didn’t want anyone to think Daniel wasn’t excited about having girl. haha I told them all to make a silly face! So cute, right?!

Ok this post is probably way too long now. I included lots of pictures because someone *cough cough* MOM *cough cough* complained that I didn’t have any in my last post! lol Thanks for reading! Lots more exciting posts to come, promise!

p.s. Who announces their baby’s gender in a plant? Is that really a thing? This might actually be easier than a balloon. I’ll have to remember that for future reference! haha

Being a Mom

I wrote this yesterday when I was having a terrible horrible no good very bad day. Today is a million times better, thank goodness. Plus it’s almost the weekend!!! Party!!! Anywho, here you go: 

Some days are just hard. Like when you wake up feeling like death hard. I’m almost half way through this pregnancy and this is actually the first time that I’ve been sick-sick, you know, sore throat, runny nose kind of sick. I forgot how fun it is to feel like this and a million months pregnant (when I’m only actually 4 months along 😬) at the same time.

Sooooo we may have all stayed in bed until 10 watching Paw Patrol… Which may or may not be part of the reason today has been so hard.

I don’t know, some days (especially when I’m sick) being a mom feels like such a hard, thankless job. I spend all day taking care of these two tiny humans who seem to do everything in their power to make me want to pull out all my hair!

The other day I emailed a friend about how jealous I was that she gets to travel and have all these fun experiences, while I sit at home and try to get my two year old to poop on the potty. What she responded with really got me thinking. She said she was sometimes jealous of me! I mean, does she know that I’m still in my robe and haven’t showered in two days?!? Or that I spent the morning taping up ripped up movie boxes that Carter decided needed a makeover? 

Being a mom is anything but glamorous. It’s cleaning out poopy underwear, scrubbing jelly off the forever sticky kitchen table, and trying to get your toddler to nap because you know they will be a monster if they don’t. It’s finding your kids hidden behind the recliner eating the starbursts you got for Christmas and not knowing whether to laugh or cry because they ate them with the wrappers on. It’s timeouts, meltdowns, screaming fits over breakfast, and all around destruction of all things clean, organized, and new. 

But when I really stop and think, being a mom really is the best job. I get to tickle little tummies and kiss booboos. I get to chase monsters and have ridiculous  dance parties to the same song over and over. I love watching them play nicely together after a morning of endless fights or when they have laughing fits over the way one of them said granola bar. Being a mom really is beautiful. It’s slobbery kisses, early morning cuddles, and laughing until you cry because kids really do say the darnedest things. 

I’d be lying if I said everyday was easy, because most days aren’t. But sometimes all it takes is the worlds tiniest poop in the potty to turn around a rotten day. So we’ll just be here praying for poop, smiles, and no more sick grumpy mommy…  😁 Wish us luck!

Bubble Wrap

My boys are the most rough and tumble kids. They love to tackle each other, for no particular reason, then that it’s fun! I use to worry, now I just watch and hope for the best. 😬 Surprisingly they haven’t had any major injuries as a result *knock on wood*

The other day when we were are Joy School, I was playing with Sammie and I found a giant bite bruise on his arm. And by giant I mean 100% Carter size! He hasn’t bitten anyone since he was two so I was super surprised. So I asked Carter if he bit Sammie. His response, “yup!” The problem is I couldn’t even be super mad because Sammie bites Carter ALL THE TIME. 

Then I saw Sammies neck. There were tons of scratches on it. And Carter had similar scratches on his neck… What are these kids doing when I’m not looking?!?

Throw in the bruise that was healing on sammies face and I’m pretty sure my kids look like they’re abused. 

With this sediment fresh on my mind, Carter ran across the living room, tripped and face planted on the entry way floor. I knew when he started screaming there would be blood. And of course blood came pouring out of his lip (and I thought above his teeth). I was sure that his front teeth would fall out and he’d have to be toothless for the next 8 years… 

He just ended up with a fat lip but man did I feel extra bad after that. My kids are so beat up and bruised it’s a wonder they can still function. 

Before I was a mom, if I saw kids with cuts, bruises, or any injury in general, I was always a little concerned. Now I 100% get it. Kids are wild (especially my kids), and there isn’t enough bubble wrap or padded walls in the world to keep them safe! lol So next time you see my kids and they have a giant bruise on their forehead or something, DON’T PANIC, they just play as hard and have the marks to prove it! 😉