10 on Tuesday

Well, this is probably going to be my last installment of 10 on Tuesday this year (at least with photos).  I'm working on kind of a "year in review" montage that I'll try to post before we leave.  We'll just see if I can get it done.  Right now, it's not lookin' so good.  But hey, who needs sleep?  But if all else fails, I'll be back after the 1st of the year.  Probably bitchier than ever since I will be on the gluten free diet.  J is already starting to peter out on me......

1.  We had a great weekend.  J and I got a night out with a few friends.  Kiddos spent the night at Mee Maw and Goompa's house.  Did I mention that I love having them so close?!

2.  I must ask this because it just baffles me.  So Sunday J and I were cleaning the house and I was tasked with the master bathroom.  After cleaning my half, I moved over to J's side and couldn't help but notice the exorbitant amount of toothpaste splatter all over the walls, the picture on the wall, the mirror, the floor, etc.  I mean it was unreal.  Do all men do this?  I mean, what....do you have a seizure while brushing your teeth or something?  Seriously.  WTF.

3.  So as I was frantically trying to get out of the house this morning (with two kids who have been up since 5 a.m. no less) to meet friends, this is what I turn around to.  

Oh, and Little J was standing there pointing at it and saying "a mess!".  Little J frequently helps himself to things in the cabinet if we leave it open.  So I can only guess that he found a box of cookies and decided to have some.  He must have tripped or something on the way to the living room.  Nice, huh? 

Don't ask me what the random fly swatter and hat are doing there.  I don't know, I just live here.  

But without out a beat, guess who swoops in to help clean the mess up?  Yep, you guessed it.  And she had a rather unconventional way of "cleaning up".  Not exactly what I had in mind but certainly just as effective.  Just look at the face on her.

Oh, and not to mention those cookies are gluten free.  Read:  liquid gold.  At $6.99 a box, I about died when I saw them on the floor.  I should have handed Miss C a straw so she could have sucked up the crumbs too.

4.  This past weekend we took the kids to the city.  They have a little show with dancing/singing bears during the holidays that we wanted to take them to.  They really loved it.  It's actually pretty cute.  On the way down there we rode the train.  It was a big hit.  It's not really a "train" but more like the DC metro.  

After the show, we walked around a little bit and even "washed" our hands in a local fountain.  Thank goodness it was warm outside.

All in all, a good morning.

5.  Miss C and I baked cookies yesterday afternoon.  She kept telling me we were baking them for Santa.  In true 3 year old fashion, she had to do it all by herself.  From rolling the dough

To cutting out the cookies (they were supposed to be snowflakes) and putting they on baking sheets (do those look like snowflakes to you?)

Then look who decided to join in on the fun

Finally Miss C told me that we have to put sprinkles on them.  Santa won't like them unless there are sprinkles on them.  Now, I have it on good authority that Santa doesn't really care if there are sprinkles on them or not.  But we did it her way.

Check out how some of the cookies  have mounds of red or green sprinkles.  And finally, enjoying the fruits of our labor.  She did manage to find the biggest one to sample.  Interesting how that happens.

6.  I think I'm finally done with all my Christmas shopping.  And it's only the day before Christmas Eve!  Plenty of time to spare :)

7.  Miss C has been into singing silly songs lately, thanks to her friend Miss G.  A couple of months ago, we are all at lunch and Miss G was sing "Old McDonald has some....underpants!"  Well, Miss C just thought that was the funniest thing on earth.  It's kind of caught on around here.  She will sing songs and intentionally make them silly.  Usually it's with whatever she is looking at during that moment.  Little J tries to sing too and I'm so afraid he is going to learn these songs as she sings them.  I can just imagine him at school confused because Old McDonald doesn't really have any underpants.

8.  The Polar Express is the new favorite movie.  Even Little J is captivated by it.  Those two can watch that movie over and over and over again.  I must admit, sometimes I use it as my "babysitter".  I've actually never sat down and watched the movie, but I love it.

9.  We got the kids one of those power wheels things for Christmas.  J hasn't even opened the box yet and it is 6:30 on Tuesday.  In fact, he's at happy hour right now.  Apparently not at all worried about it.  I did mention to him that a friend of ours said it took him 8 hours to put together theirs.  This could be a fun Christmas Eve.....*snicker, snicker*

10.  Ok, I'm ending here.  It's my 52 Weeks:  My Kids and I.  I'm kind of cheating this week.  It's a family pic that we took over the weekend.  I didn't have time to put together something with just the three of us.  So this will just have to do.  At least I got in front of the camera!

Happy Holidays!

10 on Wednesday

So this post may be a little skimpy on the pics, we'll see.  I have 462 things to do before tomorrow.....and this wasn't really one of them.  But I'm currently stalking the UPS man in the computer room, so I thought I would at least try to distract myself.  Once he comes, I'm ending this post.  I don't care if it is mid-sentence.  I designed and ordered some photo stuff that I'm expecting to be delivered today and I just can't seem to concentrate on anything else :).  

Anyway back to business:

1.  I wrote down a list of Little J's new words because I do want to post about them.....but now I can't find the list.  I half suspect a little munchkin stole it and started drawing all over it.  She loves to draw on my random pieces of paper.  Ah ha!  I just found it.  Let's see:  adios, open, close, empty (and even understands the concept), juice, yellow, Frostttteeee (Frosty), santa, and trees.  Again, I know there are others, but this is the best I got.

2.  Little J and Miss C have this little ritual when they say goodbye to J in the morning.  Miss C must always open the door to the garage for him.  Then they each give him a kiss and a hug and must say bye bye and adios about a million times while waving their little hands.  Finally right as J gets in the car, Miss C always says, "go slow daddy".  Kinda cute.  Makes me wonder if he drives like a bat out of hell when I'm not in the car......

3.  J's half sister "C" came into town over the weekend.  It was the first time Miss C, Little J and I had met her.  We had a great visit and she even brought the best presents for the kids.  Little J and Miss C each got a stuffed animal bird native to Colorado (and it made noise--a big hit), Little J got a beautiful pair of maracas, and Miss C got a porcelain blue tea set.  She gave J and I an ornament from Colorado for the tree.  We hope that we get a chance to see her again.

4.  Little J has been doing sooo much better on this gluten free diet.  I think it's finally starting to pay off.  He has been so good lately.  Almost like a different child.  You can tell he feels so much better.  Which makes mamma better :)

5.  Little J broke the top two canine teeth over the weekend (finally).   Good lord those things took forever.  I think that had something to do with his mood over the past couple of weeks.  Now he just needs to pop the bottom two and he should be done until the 2 year molars.  

6.  Miss C had her little preschool performance today.  It was too cute.  They all sat in chairs and sang songs for an audience of very proud parents.  Basically all you could see is the flash of cameras going off every few seconds.  You would have thought it was a performance at the Kennedy Center by the way we (as in the parents) were all acting.  

7.  Speaking of school, Miss C has been going for about 2 1/2 weeks now.  I spoke with her teachers the other day and they said she is doing great.  She is very social, listens and does whatever they ask her to, participates in all the crafts/activities, and is so sweet.  They are also impressed with her fine motor skills (writing letters, coloring, cutting with scissors).  She is the youngest one in her class and they are surprised at how well she is adjusting (since she started so much later than the other kids).  I'm so proud :).  And I swear I'm not going to be one of those parents that has the bumper sticker that says something like, "My kid is an honor student at XXX".  Um, er, really I swear.

8.  I had a girls night out on Friday with some of the other ladies in the neighborhood.  We were celebrating two big birthdays (ahem the big 3-0).  We rented a limo, had dinner downtown and then did a little dancing.  Well dancing in the sense of a bunch of married old ladies out at a bar with a bunch of college kids.  It's not my favorite thing in the world to do (bar hopping that is), but it's a whole lot of fun after a few drinks with 8 of some of your best girlfriends :)

9.  Miss C is always trying to get Little J to do something that she was just told not to do.  For example, today she was in the bathroom and all of a sudden I hear giggling.  So I run over there and low and behold they were having fun with the toilet paper.  So I asked her to not use so much.  Next thing I hear:

Miss C:  Pssst, Little J.  Come here.  Here, can you get me some toilet paper?

Knowing full well he was going to unravel it into a big mess.  That little stinker.  

10.  It's my submission for 52 Weeks:  My kids and I.  Week #5.  Let me just say this is not at all what I had in mind.  But I took the kids to see Santa yesterday.  I thought Miss C would do ok, but I knew Little J was going to lose it.  Well, they both were a wreck.  I thought I could at least get them to sit on his lap, even if it was kicking and screaming.  But I grossly underestimated how this was all going to go down.  So I couldn't even get my token shot of the two of them with Santa.  That is, unless I was going to get into the picture too.  So here we are, all three of us with poor Santa.  I'm sure that guy just hates when people insist on getting that one picture even if their kids are crying hysterically.  And yes, I'm one of those moms that just insists on doing it.....just look at the tears....and I do mean my kids :)

11.  And bonus #11.  Fugly Frosty has a friend.  Fugly Frostina.  Did I forget to mention they came in a match set?  Oh yeah.  They did.

Friday favorites

Thank goodness it's Friday.  I haven't had a chance to go back through old photos, but this is one of my all time favorites of Little J.  He was about 6 months old.

To balance it out, here is my current favorite of Miss C.

And finally, why I don' t have much time to dig through my old photos.  Meet Mr. R.  Man this little guy made me work for it this morning.  Of course as soon as the kids went upstairs for naps, I couldn't resist digging in.  Forget waiting.  And this little guy wasn't going to crack a smile.  Not gonna happen.  But I did manage to sneak in one or two with a smile.  I think his mamma will like them.  But for now, this is my favorite of him.  Although I haven't had a chance to go through all the photos, so this favorite may change :)

Happy Friday!

10 on Tuesday

Happy Tuesday!

1.  This past weekend we had R's 1st birthday party.  The kids had a great time.  Everything went well until after lunch.  Then Miss C couldn't get her mind off of cake.  She basically stalked the kitchen until we finally announced that it was cake time.  

I swear she started singing Happy Birthday before everyone else was ready in order to hurry the process along.  Unfortunately for Miss C, the birthday boy came first.  It took him a minute or two to warm up to the whole cake smashing, and this was obviously pure torture for Miss C.  She kept telling me, "but mommy, I don't have any cake!".  Poor R.  His dad was trying to film this milestone and in the background Miss C and I are arguing over cake.  Finally I busted out with, "if you say cake one more time, you're not going to get any!".  To which she responded, "but mommy, I don't have any" and motioned to the non-existent plate on the table.  Smart cookie.  In the end, this is how she let us know she was not pleased because the cake was taking waaaayyyy too long.

2.  We have been gluten free with Little J for about a month now.  He was sick and is still trying to cut two teeth, so it's been hard to tell if it's working.  But the last 3 days he has been in a great mood.  So here's to hoping!  We are trying to go dairy free with him too, but I haven't found a great alternative to the lactose free milk he is getting.  I didn't even realize that contains dairy.  Besides that, he is off all other dairy.  I just need to do my research on the milk part.  

3.  J and I have decided to try a gluten and dairy free diet as of January 1st.  We're committing to 30 days and then we will see how we feel.  Any bets on who caves first and when?  I'll take the over/under on J caving by January 2nd.  Any takers????

4.  We finally got our Christmas tree this past weekend!  Now it feels like Christmas to me.  We went to the same local farm that we have been to for the last 4 years.   The first year we went, Miss C was only 3 weeks old.  Ignore the stoned look on both of our faces, we were new parents....

Gosh how time flies.  Now she is a sassy 3 year old.  Here is how Miss C decided to roll at the tree farm.

Here is a pic of little J and his Mee-maw.  Holy sun flare.

And here is a pic of the fam

You know, I think that is the same scarf I wore when she was 3 weeks old.  Geesh, time to get a new scarf!

5.  After naps that day, Mee Maw and Goompa came over and helped decorate the tree.  Miss C was totally into it, but Little J kept saying "ball!" and throwing the ornaments.  He even was trying to slam dunk them into the plastic container that I store them in.  Needless to say, there are a few broken ones this year.  But after awhile, he got it.  I do have to watch him like a hawk though, he's already tried to take a few more "balls" off the tree and throw them around.

6.  Mee Maw celebrated a birthday last Friday.  Happy Birthday Meems!

7.  Fugly Frosty is still hanging around for any readers that need an update.  In fact, he has elevated to 2nd baby status.  Miss C has to have him for all naps and bedtime.  I guess he is going to be around for awhile.  We may need to break him like we broke the paci habit.  

8.  I forgot to mention that Miss C can spell her own name.  It's so cute.  She can do that and the word "stop".  

9.  Little J also has some new words.  Of course I can't seem to remember them now.  If I had a minute to think, I could probably do it.  But I have a certain 3 year old on my lap now telling me "mommy, you have to share" as in I better let her use the computer.  I hate it when my words come back to haunt me.  Maybe I'll have a special post dedicated to my little guy when I have time to think.

10.  Here's my 52 Weeks:  My kids and I photo.  How many weeks is this now?  I think this is #4.  I better start keeping track.  Anyway, it's my kiddos and I at the tree farm.  Thank goodness I didn't have to use the remote this time.  We have a love/hate relationship.

Flashback Friday

I only have a moment, but I came across these little gems from last year.  Little J was only about 7 months old. 

Ho, Ho, Ho!

7 on Thursday

Ok, so I missed Tuesday.  But if you look at the time and date stamp, I actually started this post on Tuesday.  Does that count?

1.  You know it's bad when every time you take a shower in the morning or *gasp* get dressed your 3 year old asks, "mommy, where are we going today?".  Oy vey.  I swear people, I really do get dressed most days.  I guess I should be making more of an effort.  I guess that also explains why Miss C has an obsession with pajamas.  She always wants to be in them.  Hmmm.  Guess I should have clued in before now.

2.  Miss C started preschool on Monday!!  Yiiiiiiiipppppppeeeee!  According to the teacher, she did great!  She did cry when I dropped her off, but I guess she stopped after a minute or two.  She also cried during each "transition" of activity.  I guess that's normal.  She didn't cry for long though.  She participated in the activities and ate her lunch with the other kids.  I'm so proud of her.  I was kind of nervous on how this whole thing was going to go.  She's been in a super clingy phase recently.  But 3 is definitely the magic number.  I have seen a nice change in her lately.  Hopefully this will be good for the both of us.  

The funny thing is, I didn't cry when I dropped her off.  But after I picked her up and started quizzing her about her day, I sobbed.  She's such a big girl.  I can't say it enough, I'm so proud.  

Note I wrote on her napkin

With her back pack

Heading off to school

3.  If your my husband, don't read this one.

Fact.  If you let a toddler play in your car and there is loose change floating around, you will probably end up with a penny jammed in your CD player.  Thank god for those Toyota people.  The masterminds behind the mini van must have anticipated this very event.  The penny didn't fall into mini van oblivion like I thought it would.  I was half bracing myself to hear the clinking of metal as I pushed it all the way in while I was trying to get it out.  But alas, there must be some sort of safety mechanism in there to prevent that from happening.  Pure genius.  And because I'm sure my husband is reading this, don't worry.  I got it out.  Nothing is broken.

4.  Fact.  If you think something is fugly, your toddler will love it.  It will become their favorite toy.  I have these two great-aunts (and I'm confident they will never read this considering they refuse to advance in technology past 1982 and probably don't even know what the internet is).  They knit and crochet all day long.  Usually I love getting their handmade items, which are typically sweaters and hats for the kids.  But every-once-in awhile I get something that I just want to hide in the deep depths of the back of the closet.  Never to see the light of day again.  Exhibit A:

Yes, that is supposed to be frosty.

For some reason, we found this.  She has been obsessed with Frosty the Snowman lately.  In fact, he is going to join Santa this year and bring her Christmas presents.  When he does, she tells me she is going to give him a big hug and a kiss.  So in our house (probably from now on) Christmas presents will be from Frosty and Santa.

Right now she is taking a nap and good 'ole fugly frosty is up there with her.  I hope this doesn't become another "baby".

5.  Nana has got to change her name.  The other day Miss C and I were talking about her and Little J thought we were talking about bananas.  That is his favorite food.  He goes nuts over them.  I limit him to only one a day, so it was quite a temper tantrum when I wouldn't let him have one.  

6.  My Christmas cards are in!  I've started sending them out and I am so happy with them this year :).  Be waiting by the mailbox :)

7.  I'm ending here.  If I try to make it to 10, I won't ever get this post out.  So here's Week 3 of 52 Weeks:  My kids and I.  Someone should tell the lady in the middle she needs a haircut.  This was a, "shoot, I need a pic of the three of us" shot.  Can't you tell?  Oh, and the tummy pose while trying to wrangle two children and hit the remote for the camera is not a cute look.

Giving Thanks

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and I have so much to be thankful for. I have a wonderful husband who works hard so that I can stay home with our kids. Even though it's hard work, it's one of the greatest gifts he has given me (besides our two beautiful children). I'm thankful for my kids, I may be a tad biased, but they are the greatest kids in the world. And finally, I'm so thankful for our families, friends, and all of our loved ones.

We had a great day yesterday. It started off with a parade downtown. The kids loved it. Miss C's favorite was Grimace on the McDonald's float. Mee Maw and Goompa bought them plastic horns and they had a blast blowing those. After the parade, we headed to Mee Maw's and Goompa's house for Thanksgiving dinner. The kids were so worn out, we were home and had them in bed by 7 p.m. J and I got to enjoy a nice relaxing evening miserable on the couch from eating too much :)

Here are a couple from the parade

10 on Tuesday

Ok, here we are again.  I feel like this is the only day of the week that I really post.  I've got to change that.  Notice how Flashback Friday has become a thing of the past (ha, ha)?  That's going to be one of my resolutions......

Here we go!

1.  Little J has got some new words.  I feel like there are a ton of them.  Here are just a few of the highlights because I'll never remember them all.  Fishy, owl, nose (and he can point to it), again (we hear this a lot), is it off?, is it hot?, oh shoot, oh dude, talk (when he wants to talk on the phone), doggie, kitty, hat, and blocks.  I know there are more, but he uses these pretty consistently.

2.  Both of the kids had their well checks last week (Miss C's 3 year and Little J's 18 month).  They both went well.  Both kids are average for height and weight and the doctor is pleased with their developmental progress.  Whew.  You know every mamma sweats those well visits.  

3.  Miss C had her tea party this past weekend.  Here are a few more shots from the occasion.  It went really well.  The kids seemed to have a great time.  Once they all arrived, we let them play for about 30-45 minutes.  Then Miss C announced that she was inviting them to tea.  They all marched into the dining room where they had tea, cookies, and lots of great company.  Lunch soon followed and then more playtime and finally cupcakes.  I had so much fun planning this one.  I let out my inner girly girl.  Miss C even cooperated and wore a tutu and a crown.  I was so surprised since she normally doesn't dress up.  That's my girl.

4.  The only downside to this party is all the sweets that are left over.  I think I ate my weight in rice crispy treats yesterday.  Thanks Aunt K for bringing those.

5.  Miss C has been saying some funny things lately.  The other day she was in time out and loudly announced, "I don't need this!".  Oh boy.  That one is all me I'm afraid.  And when Little J was in time out, Nana was peeking around the corner at him and Miss C marched up to her and said, "Nana, that is NOT your business".  That one is all me too.  When other kids are crying or misbehaving and she asks what they are doing, I always say it's not her business.  I've even caught her yelling at Little J that it's not his business (especially when she is getting in trouble).  I guess I better find some other way to handle these situations.  I just love 3 year old honesty.  They truly do repeat everything.

6.  Why, why, wwwwhhhhhhyyyyyy?  Oh man.  I thought we were going to skip right over this phase.  But it's in full swing.  Miss C has always asked a lot of questions.  She's a pretty verbal kid.  So I thought we were going to get a reprieve from the dreaded "why".  Nope.  I've seen a dramatic increase in this word over the past week or two.  Everyone said that once they hit three I would see changes overnight.  Boy were they right.  She really has changed quite a bit over the past couple of weeks.  Some for the good and some for the not so good.

I'm usually pretty good at answering up until about the 1500th "why?".  Then I go to a place that I swore I would never go.  Yep, the dreaded "because I said so".  Ugh.  Every woman swears they would never say that to their children because they always hated it when their mom said it to them.  Well, when you are just too tired of answering "why?", you go there.  I guess you kind of go temporarily insane.  So mom, I totally get it now.  But I still have a fighting chance to never use the, "because I'm your mother, and I said so."  Right?  *stop snickering*

7.   Miss C got some new PJ's for her birthday.  They are.....you guessed it....Lightning McQueen.  The second she opened the package she wanted to put them on.  She wears them every second she gets.  Every second.  It's a fight to take them off to put clothes on or to even wash them.  Thanks H family.  Thanks.

8.  I'm obsessed with that peppermint bark that they sell this time of year.  I've been buying one little bar at a time.  Maybe I should just buy the whole dang box, eat it all, and hopefully be sick of it until next year.

9.  The other night the kids decided to have an impromptu picnic on the couch.  Who told them this was ok, I don't know.  But it was too stinkin' cute not to get a pic.  They even took a little time out for a quick kiss.

10.  Here's my week 2 submission of "52 Weeks:  My kids and I".  I had about 10 seconds before they totally lost control.  Not exactly how I envisioned this shot, but hey, it usually never is!