Terrible Two's=Panic Attack

Bria has recently hit a new phase in the wonderful terrible two's. It's hard to explain the phase, it's weird. She gets really hyper and you think, "Oh, look she's being silly and fun, how lovely." Then you realize she's going a little too crazy and she will not listen to you in any way, shape, or form. And you freak out because she must have lost her hearing, there's no other explanation for why she is blatantly ignoring you. Then she starts talking baby talk, sticking her tongue out as she talks and her lower jaw, and then you realize you have morphed back in time. Only this baby talk is not cute, it rates up there with nails on a chalkboard and you want to plug your ears.

The baby talk-well I'm assuming that will eventually go away. And although it's super annoying and not cute, I can somewhat deal with it. What I can't deal with is her completely ignoring me/us, especially when we discipline. I feel like I've lost my authoritative role with her and I don't know when or how that happened. But my stern voice is barely affecting her and I'm at a loss. Time outs seem to work short-term, but she still seems to ignore punishment and I just want to scream sometimes.

Yesterday she smacked Aunt Heather right in the face and I nearly lost it. I don't think Bria did it to be mean, I think she was playing around in one of her uncontrollable silly moods and just went with it, but I was livid. Even after I disciplined her and she apologized, she went back to being crazy silly and although that should be a good thing, I don't feel like she's phased by my discipline anymore.

I spent the car ride home in utter panic, how can I deal with Bria and a baby? How am I going to control Bria's crazyness and deal with a newborn on little to no sleep? How in the world do people get through this?

Seriously, it was a rough night, just ask Brian. I'm doing better today but I'm still nervous and wondering how it's all going to happen. I know somehow I'll get through it, everyone does, but that doesn't help me freak out any less.

What added to my panic attack was Brian's overnight trips. He takes a few for work here and there and he has 2 hiking trips planned this summer, one is a 4 day hike. I'm just freaking out because I don't like when he's gone overnight, it's hard to do it alone and my heart goes out to single moms, this job is tough. Especially when they are young and need constant attention.

So yeah, I'm in a little funk of panic. Anxiety/panic attacks (what's the difference? I'm not sure if I'm using the right term or not) come and go in my pregnancies, sometimes they are over trivial things. Like the time I was pregnant with Bria and started freaking out that Brian's commute was too much driving for the Bug. Random, but true. Anyway, this attack is for realz and I'm not sure how to cope with it, I guess I don't have a choice :)

I don't want to be all doom and gloom so I will say we have fun times too. I felt all crafty when I mixed corn starch and water together to make Bria some putty.

She had a blast squishing it and the mess was minimal and easy to clean. A win-win really :)

Overall I am so excited to add to our little family, I can't wait for Bria to have a little sister and I look forward to all our family trips together. I'm just worried about the beginning of it all where we are getting to know each other and stuff. Praying it goes smoothly, and if not, praying for a really good pill prescribed from my doctor.

Shasta-The final

So let's complete our look at Shasta with more pictures. I actually wish I had taken more, but when you are busy relaxing and having fun you don't always remember to whip the camera out.

We got this little floaty last year for Bria but she enjoyed it even more this year. She called it her tent and I think she liked having a break from her life jacket.

Brian vs. the kids

He dunked them all once and then the second round put up a good fight but let them be victorious :)

Captain Lindsey, that's what they call me ;)

I really enjoyed driving the big party barge, it was relaxing and fun. Plus let's face it, I was the only one 100% sober ;) I even docked it up which is a little tricky.

Bria loved going through the first aid kit. Man am I glad we brought that, we had lots of little boo boo's that required bandaids. And let's just say Bria and Brian didn't need them. I'm so clumsy.

We had a Zombie themed night and some friends put black lipstick on Bria, she thought it was pretty cool.

I can't tell you how much I love this outfit and hat. LOVE.

"Oh hello, yeah it's hard being a diva."

One of our favorite parts was riding out to a cove on the barge. It topped out at 16.8 mph so it usually took 1/2 hour to get anywhere but we loved it. So peaceful and relaxing.

Again, I loved driving.

My co-captain was a huge help.

I got to lay on my belly! The blue floaty that my lower half is on had a hole for your feet, well I put my big belly in there and then layed on another floaty. It felt pretty darn good to lay on my stomach. Baby girl was moving all over when I did this...the one in my belly. Although Bria enjoyed climbing on me too :)

We love Shasta!

She looks like such a big girl in this picture. Sigh.

And of course, Bria got to have a few ice cream cones while we were there. Funny how it took her awhile to learn how to eat one, I thought that was a trait we were born with. She caught on fast though.

Nothing like ice cream after a day on the lake.

We had an absolute blast and it was such a wonderful week. Nobody got burned (in the Holcomb family, Lance and Kayla are a different story ;) which is a huge positive. My back did get a little toasty in the beginning but I corrected that. We all left with a nice tan and Bria and I have blonder hair now. I love the sun.

Things that shocked me:

• How well Bria did in the car, she was such a trooper!!
• How well we all slept, guess we tired ourselves out. I was not expecting to sleep in until 8 am or later
• How happy Bria was, she is a born camper

Things that I could've done without:

• The ear wigs, ick. They were everywhere
• Losing power. We had a little hiccup with the trailer's electricity that needs to be fixed, fortunately we were able to rig it to where all the outlets worked, just not the lights inside.
• The trailer rocking (not that kind, get your mind outta the gutter!). Seriously, anytime sometime moved a muscle the whole entire trailer would rock, this did not help the feeling that I was still on a boat.
• Having to go outside and walk to the bathrooms in the middle of the night. I did stop drinking at dinner time to avoid this but 2 or 3 of the nights I did have to get up.

Overall:

I give our Shasta 2011 trip two big thumbs up! An A+. A job well done!

Bria agrees :)

We headed home on Saturday morning, my birthday. The big 2-8. What a way to spend my birthday, in the car ;) That's okay, my Mom made me my favorite for breakfast: strawberry shortcake. On the way home we stopped at my Dad's and Anna made me a delicious dinner of shake 'n bake and mashed potatoes. Plus, dessert was strawberry shortcake! What's better than a helping of strawberry shortcake? TWO! Oh, and I had a brownie, yum. We continued on home and that night we got to sleep in our own beds and sleep we did.

We miss Shasta but it's always nice to be in the comfort of your own home :)

Shasta Part 2

So let's continue our lovely look at Shasta. The weather warmed up quickly and by Tuesday it was in the 100's. But fortunately the water was refreshing and we had lots of shade on the boat. I did overdo it a little on Tuesday and woke up in the middle of the night to some intense contractions. They lasted about an hour and then went away, I think I just got overheated and swam and walked too much that day.

Anyway, we were able to stay cool in our tent trailer with a fan and we kept a window/vent open. It was a perfect little set up. We also bought dark out fabric and it Macgyver-ed it around Bria's side of the trailer. People may think we are crazy, but we got to sleep in so we know we're not crazy.

Bria and Kayla chillin'

Stare down with Daddy

Lance and Kayla attempting to fit on one floaty together

Sitting around the fire

The evenings were fun because we'd go around to campsites and visit our friends (that we usually only see once a year in Shasta) then head back to our site, put Bria to bed, and build a fire. A few of the nights Bria was still up when we made the fire and she did get some s'mores so don't feel bad for her. Plus, she was eating licorice every single day, among crackers, and other healthy food.

Bria started doing this little game where she'd go in the cooler and get ice, then spit it out in her pink bucket. Hilarious.

"So, we just hang around the fire, huh?"

Bria and Sammy with the same look on their face.

Uncle Lance and Bria

2 of the mornings I got up and went for a walk and it felt great. I should've gone more but sleeping in was wonderful too. Plus I figured I did a lot of swimming with Bria so that was good exercise. Of course, I also indulged in licorice, s'mores, and ice cream so I probably should've done some daily doubles. At least I wasn't drinking beer, that saved me some calories! I enjoyed refreshing VitaRain, Izze, and good old H2o.

My Hawaiian sweetheart.

I'm not going to lie, I loved picking out her swim suit and cover up each morning :) Although most mornings we went without a cover up because it was so dang hot.

We couldn't wait to get Bria out on the tubes since she's such a huge fan of water. She seemed to be indifferent to it, but I think she was just surprised at what was going on. Once we hit bumps she was thrilled to pieces and got the biggest smile on her face.

I must be explaining the philosophy of tubing or something.

We kept it somewhat slow, but fast enough to get some good bumps.

Lance and Kayla had a much crazier ride than us.

Of course, Brian and Lance went all out. Brian fell off more times than I can count (he's going to love me for saying that) and each time Bria was sooo worried about her Daddy. I had to reassure her that he was having fun and splashing in the water. She didn't believe me until she could see and talk to him.

I have one more Shasta post and then we should be all caught up on our sweet vacation :)

Shasta Part 1

We spent a glorious week in Lake Shasta, California. It was absolutely heavenly and we were soooo sad to leave. I really didn't think I'd feel that way about camping with a toddler, but Bria was an absolute trooper and in the best mood the whole time. It helped that we had the tent trailer and all slept pretty well.

We headed down last Friday to my Dad's house for a father's day BBQ and stayed the night. It broke up our trip a little which was nice. Saturday morning we left at 9 am with Lance and Kayla in the truck behind us. We made a few stops, one was a pretty long one so we didn't pull into the campsite until about 3:30 pm.

Bria was awesome in the car. Such a huge change from last year. She didn't cry, she didn't complain, and she told us when she had to go potty. Which inevitably was right after we passed a rest area. She held it though, my good little girl.

We weren't sure if we were going to go out on the boat or not but I think we were itching to get on the water so my Mom and Randy were nice enough to take us out. First they watched Bria so we could set up camp, then we suited up.

It looks cold and cloudy, but it was just cloudy. It was the only day though, the rest of the time it was blue sky and SUN!

Mom, Sammy (dog), Lance, and Kayla enjoying the boat ride.

Captain Randy at the wheel

We had a wonderful time getting out on the lake and couldn't wait for the next day when we would swim and play and have a grand old time.

The first night was the only night I slept horribly. I'm not sure why, probably because I didn't use ear plugs and I was stressed about Bria-which was silly because she slept AWESOME the whole time we were there. She would take 1/2 hour naps on the way in from the lake, so they were pretty late, around 5 pm. She'd go to bed late, around 9:30 or 10 pm (unheard of for Bria) and then sleep until 8 or 9 am. FABULOUS.

We ended up going in on a party barge type boat with 3 other families for the week. It was nothing fancy, but it did have a BBQ and a bathroom. It worked out so well because we would drive it out since the other families had ski boats, and then we'd anchor and just lounge around. It felt wonderful.

To say that Bria loved the water is an understatement. She wanted to be in the water at all times and by the second day she didn't want us to hold onto her. This girl is a fish.

This is Bria's driving face apparently. I'm so glad I captured this picture, attitude at it's finest!

My Mom and Randy watched Bria for us while we went out with our friends Dave and Kim on their boat. We came back to Bria napping, Yaya rocks!!

Bria loved Kim and Dave's little girl, Caitlin. She is 7 and was so sweet with Bria. I think she reminded Bria of her cousins and Aunts :)

Looking fabulous of course.

Family shot

Kayla and Lance were a huge help with Bria, Bria loved all the attention.

Brian and Lance tying up the boat

After only 2 days of being there I was already getting sad that our trip was going too fast. It just felt so wonderful to be out in the sun, swimming, relaxing, and just enjoying ourselves.

We had a pretty good little routine going early on:

Wake up

Eat breakfast

Get suits on

Walk down to the docks and drive the boat out to our decided cove in the lake

Anchor up

Enjoy the sunshine

Here's a little clip of Bria having fun in the water:

More to come...