mommy needs a time out!

we have been crazy busy around here! before ben was born we started yet another big remodeling project and got most of it done, we took out the old horsehair plaster, put in new plastered walls, new heat, new hardwood floors (we already had the new windows in from the last remodel) in the third(and final) bedroom and the hallway upstairs. we also took out a closet that didn't really make sense in the hallway-it had two cubbies, and we never really used them it also made the hallway really narrow. we bought this house from my in-laws and my father in law had built it to add storage.

this weekend we finally got the closet stuff put in (rods and shelves), the cable ran, filled all the nail holes and spot painted and moved in! so we moved out bedroom over and we will be moving William into the bigger room, mostly cause he needs more space and i need his toys out of my living room!

all i have been doing is moving closets, cleaning rooms, setting up our room. last night i went through wills closet and pulled out all his summer clothes and stuff from the spring that he outgrew, put all his clothes in his new closet and bureau we bought for him this weekend. i also started painting in his room-we are leaving it blue, but i am painting a hillside on two walls, it's going to have a road with some trees and stuff, and we bought some wallpaper cut out cars and trucks and planes, on the other wall i want to make some clouds and his name coming from behind the planes like sky-writing, and he asked for a sun. it's hard to find time to paint when you have two kids under two in the house!

having all these projects i want to do is making me crazy, it's not like i can stop diapering, feeding, holding, cuddling and playing with the kids. so it just sits in my head all day...i could be doing this, i want to be doing that...and when dinner is done and kids are finally asleep (the baby has been going down between 8-10 sometime) i'm wiped, stick a fork in me i'm done!

also we have new rules for the two year old, i had been spanking-i know, i know, but i'm not beating him, one spank on the bum here or there, but it wasn't working. he is very much my husbands son, he constantly has to one up me! here is an example this is an extreme one though, from after we brought the baby home:

he hit the laptop screen with a matchbox car, i told him no, he went to do it again, i took the car out of his hand and told him he could not have it back, he swung at me, i slapped his hand and told him no, he walked over to the bookcase and started throwing his books one by one across the living room-well reacting wasn't working so i started ignoring him. that kid would throw a book and look at me, then throw another book and look at me. i pretended not to notice him. he threw the entire shelf of books! when i didn't react he walked over to me and said "i threw the books" i said then you have to pick them up, i'll help you. that day it worked, most days when i say pick up that thing you threw he says no and walks away. so new rules.

now when he does something i don't want him to he gets until the count of three-then he gets a time out, two minutes in the high chair. no he does not sit nicely, i have stand there for the entire time or he will just get up, or not sit. needless to say we have been doing multiple time outs a day, but it is working, now i say do you want a time out and about half the time he changes his behavior, if i start counting most of the time by one or two he is picking up or stopping whatever he is doing. man am i getting tired of time outs though!

i could use a time out! time to just get stuff done that i want to without being on a kid schedule but it will all get done, it will just take longer!

so that is where i have been, thrilling right?