Upgraded

So the darth vader costume has been upgraded.

This was taken before Christmas, so it's been upgraded even more.....with a real light saber. Next project will be to make a real cape :)

Snow....or sleet days

Miss C really wanted it to snow for Christmas this year. Unfortunately this is all we got during the big blizzard last week (about 6 hours north they received 20 inches!). Anyway, the kids decided to get their boots on and throw sleet balls at the house. You may wonder why they don't have any coats, gloves or hats on. Besides the fact that Little J loudly refuses to wear a coat, it was actually quite warm that morning. If you blinked, the sleet was gone. Miss C keeps asking when is it going to snow. She really wants it to. Unfortunately, it doesn't snow much here. We might get lucky sometime in late January/early February. Let's hope for at least a few inches before the winter is over!

PS--we have a bag of sleet in our freezer (thanks Mee Maw). I want to throw it away, but Miss C still checks on it periodically, so I have to keep it awhile longer. I'm sure this spring when I'm cleaning out the refridge, I'll find it again!

What choo want?

Tonight while putting me C to bed, the kids started playing a favorite game of what I like to call "What choo want". They pretend to take orders from each other like we are at McDonalds. It's kind of cute, actually, and is pretty good entertainment for at least 20 minutes.

Little J: What choo want?

Miss C: A hamburger

Little J: ok. What choo want? Chicken nuggets?

Miss C: Ok, chicken nuggets. And a hot dog, and french fries.

Little J: Ok. And apple juice?

Miss C: Yes, apple juice.

Little J: What cho0 want?

Miss C: A salad. And no tomatoes and no olives.

All of a sudden J looks at me and says, isn't that what you usually order? Busted! I guess the cat is out of the bag that we lunch at Panera often enough for her to memorize what I typically order!

Here are my munchkins playing What Choo Want!

Playgroups of holiday past

So, I was just in the kitchen making the 8 dozen cookies that I need for tomorrow's traditional holiday playgroup/cookie exchange (and desperately thinking will anyone really know if I just go to the store and buy them) and that thought got me thinking about how much playgroups have changed within our group over the years (at least for me anyway). When we first started this playgroup (the kiddos were babies--like 3 months old), the mom's would take turns hosting every week. These playgroups were lavish, each mom spending hours in the kitchen before guests arrived making gourmet lunch spreads which included speciality sandwiches, fruit cut in shapes (ok, not really but it certainly does spice up the story) and desserts straight out of the Martha Stewart catalogue. No boxed macaroni and cheese (*gasp*) or PBJ sandwiches here. Then the pregnancies for baby #2 started happening, mom's got tired, kids entered the terrible 2's and the spreads became noticeably less fancy. Instead of gourmet sandwiches, chicken salad from HT started showing up (of course the mom hosting always put it in one of her own bowls to disguise the store bought packaging). The homemade lemonade disappeared, juice came in boxes, and crustables became a staple. If you are a mom out there and don't know what crustables are, then I salute you.

Now with all of us having two or three kids, playgroups are rare (boo!) and your lucky if you even get served lunch. If you do, it's a store bought muffin still in the plastic wrapping. You pray for that boxed macaroni because that means your kids will at least eat something. If you want a soda, better bring your own because the host mom has probably been to the grocery store at least 5 other times this week and has forgotten to pick up the diet coke.

Ok, ok, I'm being a little dramatic. It's not really that bad and there are still some mama's with homemade spreads (overachievers). I guess it's just how I feel when I host these days. And it's a little bit how I'm feeling as I made these cookies for the party tomorrow. They are no bake, which means I'm kind of cheating a little bit anyway. I've been to the store 3 times getting ingredients already and the recipe I used (and doubled) made 80 cookies. I need 96. Next year, I'm pretty sure mine will be store bought and of course I'll package them like I made them :)

10 on Friday

eh, who needs Tuesday! I feel like there is so much to catch up on....

1. Bye, bye binkers. Little J has been binker free for probably about 2 1/2 - 3 weeks now. Unfortunately the decision to cut it out was kind of rash one day, but it was easier than I thought to get rid of it. He had been playing games with it lately (throwing it out of the bed and then yelling for us to come pick it up, etc), so it was really time to go (for my sanity). I feel kinda sad about it, because it was his last "baby" thing and now it's gone. But I'm happy that the games have stopped. It was getting beyond frustrating and I think he was using it more for a power play than for comfort.

2. We got our Christmas tree last weekend. It's so pretty! Probably the nicest looking one we've had in the last couple of years. We got it at the same place we always go, a little mom and pop stand about 25 minutes away. We stumbled on this place when Miss C was only 3 weeks old (which was our first Christmas down here) and we love going back year after year. About 2 years ago we heard that they were going to close the business, but fortunately they were able to make it though tough times. They are the nicest family and they always help us find the best trees. Here we are during the process of selecting the tree.

3. After naps, the kids helped decorate the tree. This year Miss C was really into the ornaments. I personally love trees that are adorned with unique ornaments, ones that are collected by a family throughout the years. As we unwrapped our ornaments, Miss C wanted to know the story behind each one of them. And every single one brought back the memory of a special point in our lives. From the bride and groom one, to Indian fertility ornament that was given to us the Christmas before we conceived Miss C (which this year was purposely left off the tree), to the two that we have saying "baby's first Christmas", to the foot and hand print homemade ones from when they were babies, to the hello kitty one, to lightning McQueen and Sally, to the one that says 2009 with our family picture in it. Each one represents us, who we are as a family and the journey that we have made over the years. I just love sharing that with her. Now Little J, he could have cared less. He just wanted to play with McQueen and Sally. Maybe next year he will be into a little more.

Here are my babies hard at work decorating the tree. look at that concentration.

And I just love how little kids decorate trees, with all the ornaments bunched together in the same spot. Here we have 4 icicle type ornaments, Sally, McQueen and a tractor all fighting for precious branch space. J wanted to move them around and spread them out a little more after the kids were done. I told him he better not dare. I love them right where my babies put them, bunched up and all.

4. I have the itch to clean up and redecorate my office. Over the past 2 months, I've probably spent 99% of my time in there. So I want, no need, a change. It's so overcrowded with a big desk, 2 bookshelves and an armoire that we converted to storage. With all the big furniture I have very limited wall space, and I've been ordering pictures like crazy and I need a home for them. I'm also lusting over these chairs and just can't decide what I want to do. The black and white one is so me, but the others are so pretty. My colors du jour seems to be green and orange, so I'm kind of thinking maybe I would go that route. But I'll certainly take any opinions! Do you believe these chairs are from Target?! In true fashion, I will probably order 3 of them (free shipping), try them out in the room, and then return 2 of them. That's just how I roll.

5. Little J pronounces hamburger like hanga-burg. Makes me giggle every time. He also calls J's car "daddy work". Any other car is "like Mommy's car" or "like B's daddy's car". Not J's. It's "daddy work".

6. On Thanksgiving day we took the kids uptown to the parade. This is the second year that we've gone and they love it. Their favorite part is these cheesy trumpets that they sell there (of course for a small fortune). That was the first thing they requested when we got there. This picture reminds me of THIS. Man, what a difference a year makes.

Someone should probably tell twiddle dee on the left there that you won't get any sound blowing the horn that way

Much better

The dueling trumpets

Waiting for the parade to come by

7. Well, I was going to try to make it to 10, but it's now Saturday and I figure I better get this posted!

It's just too good not to blog about

So I'm not exactly sure where this is coming from, but lately Miss C thinks she is Darth Vader. It's been going on for a little over 2 weeks now and it looks like its here to stay for a little while. Mee Maw's birthday was this past weekend and she even wanted to go to Mee Maw's "party" dressed up as Darth Vader. We've even made several appearances around town in the Darth Vader get up, light saber and all. Of course, I just love it. I love letting her express her own style. When else are you going to be able to walk around town as Darth Vader and not get those, "you're a weirdo" stares?

I also love that she's unique. Definitely not a girly girl, but just girly enough to love purple, and jewelry and all things that sparkle. By the way, purple is the color du jour. Not pink. Nope. Not anymore. Now she wants to redo her room because it's pink and she loves purple now. This mama is only going to let her express her style so far. I spent a lot of time painting that room and unfortunately for her it's going to stay pink for awhile. Now, when she suddenly loves a nice burnt sienna or some other yummy color like that, then we'll talk.

For now, here's Darth Vader

We're keepin' it real with the pink blanket cape (made with a binder clip) and backwards pink polka dotted rain boots. Oh and the light saber is her own design. She helped J color it in and was very specific on the color combination. She asked, no begged, me to take out my camera and take pictures of her as Darth Vader. Mommy loves you baby.

And because Miss C wanted her picture taken, guess who else wanted his picture taken? This face is so him. To a T.

This is the usual pose I get when I ask them to stand together so I can take their picture

before we ran out of light for the evening, I made Darth Vader go put a bow in her hair. After all, I'm still the mother. She was none to pleased with that request and it was like pulling teeth to get any photos after that.

And finally the piece de resistance. The main reason (in my opinion) for this post. This is just too good not to blog about. A little backstory. J is like a kid at Christmas now that the kids are a little older and are getting into the "cool" toys. He just can't resist. When Little J opens any sort of gift, J is in the background telling him, "let me show you how that works." Ok, it's a matchbox car. I know my son isn't a rocket scientist, but I'm pretty sure he can figure out how to roll the car back and forth. If Little J takes too long to open a gift (or finds it amusing to just play with it while it's still in the box) J goes crazy. J is also prone to showing them the "right way" to play with something. So when Miss C was out for her photo shoot as Darth Vader, J had to butt in and show her the right way to pose with the light saber. Practically grabbed it out of the girl's hand because it was driving him nuts that she wasn't holding it just right.

**as a note, I did give fair warning that this would be posted**

Serves you right :)

Candle it up!

So it's a week later, but here are just a few snaps from Miss C's birthday breakfast. We celebrated several times last week and finished it off with a party on Saturday with all of her friends. I'd say she had a great birthday.

When Miss C was little (well she still is little) she would say, "candle it up!" when we would light candles. She loved to pretend to play happy birthday and we'd oblige by sticking a candle in play doh and letting her sing happy birthday to herself. After she was done singing and blowing out the candle, she'd shout "candle it up!" and repeat the whole process. I swear she could do this for hours.

Here's my birthday girl with her happy birthday donut--candling it up 4 year old style.

hallelujah

He finally is doing #2 on the potty again! Holy moly this has been one tough road. It's been 2 days now, and I hope I'm not jinxing it by blogging about it. I'm sure I'll eat my words tomorrow. After 2 episodes on Saturday, he and I had a little heart to heart about the whole situation. I was pretty much at my limit after spending the better part of 10 minutes in a public restroom trying to clean him up after one of his episodes. If I could have carried him out naked, I would have. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

I signed both of them up for preschool next year. That deserves another, Hallelujah! And a hells yeah for good measure. This mama is excited to have 3 mornings a week all alone. I told Miss C I was going to throw a party when they were in school. She asked me who I was going to invite and what we were going to do at this party. I told her it's a party of 1 and I'll I'm doing is relaxing. To which J piped in that he hopes I'll use that time to clean. Hmmmmm. What kind of party is that?! It's actually going to cost us a small fortune to have both of them in preschool, so I guess I better clean up around here otherwise I'm going to be asked to get a real job :).

Tomorrow is Miss C's 4th birthday! She's so excited about it. She requested donuts for breakfast and Chuck E Cheese for dinner. Hello kitty is the cake du jour (it was a toss up between that and my little pony). Sounds like a fun day to a 4 year old. I can't believe 4 years have gone by already. She'll have her party with her friends this weekend.

Little D is out of the hospital, thank goodness. All the tests came back negative, so it was just some sort of little bug. We're all breathing a sigh of relief that it wasn't more serious.

Little J is still singing the monster mash. They watched that video about 10 million times. We're trying to wean them off of it slowly. He even does the little dance. It's quite funny. J is talking about getting one of those flip video things, so hopefully I can start posting video too. He's quite a little comedian and we want to be able to start capturing more of the funny things that he does. We have a regular camcorder, but it's such a PITA to upload to the computer (and edit). It's bordering on the dinosaur age of technology and still uses tapes. I can see C and J reading this down the road and wondering what tapes are. Remember Beta Max anyone?

Here's a recent pix of all of us. We took this over the weekend. I had a session in the morning and the fam met up with me to take some snaps for Mee Maw and Goompa's holiday cards.

Would you believe

I actually started this post last Tuesday? Notice that I couldn't even make it a week later. sheesh.

1. Miss C measures time in terms of her naps. I often get asked, "well, how many naps is that?" Like her birthday. How many naps does she have to take before her birthday is here. She even gets a little more precise and breaks down the naps between the "dark rest" and the "sun rest". Pretty sophisticated if you ask me.

2. We went back home for a short trip to attend the blessing of my nephew this past weekend. Little J got to meet his first cousin for the first time. I don't have any pictures of it though! *gasp*. I know, I know. I should hang my head in shame. I hardly pulled out the camera this weekend, in fact. Anyway, Little J loved his cousin. He got a chance to hold him for a few minutes and he constantly wanted to hug and kiss him. Little D has gotten so big! He's 6 weeks old and is smiling and trying really hard to communicate. I got quite a few big smiles out of him while I was there. He's already got this auntie wrapped around his little finger.

3. We finally had the #2 issue beat with Little J last week. He finally decided it was time to poop on the potty, thank goodness. He was good for about 3 or 4 days in a row. But then we left town and we are back to square 1 again. sigh. I'm getting really tired of swishing undies in the potty. I don't know how our parents did it before disposable diapers were invented. This swishing thing is totally for the birds. Not to mention it's totally disgusting. I'll admit that I've thrown a few pairs in the trash because I just don't want to deal with it. Hopefully he'll pick it back up sooner rather than later.

4. I'm finally getting around to sharing the halloween pictures. We started the day with a good ole pumpkin carving after the naps. When we went to get Miss C up from her "rest", this is how we found her. She did her hair all by herself. Of course we giggled to ourselves and let her wear it like that for the rest of the afternoon because she of course thought it was beautiful. Hopefully it will be blackmail later :)

She's a maniac, maniac on the floor......

5. Then we got down to some serious trick or treating. The kids had a blast this year. We let them stay up late (like 8 p.m.!) and eat candy like crazy.

Pre halloween silliness. Notice the skeleton's hand is on her shoulder

6. Consurey (I have no idea how to spell that!) has been popping up a lot lately. She is often accompanied by her brother "T" and her two dogs Jimmy and Swizzlely. Yesterday we were driving around the neighborhood and we had to stop multiple times to let Consurey and her crew in the car. I think I've mentioned Consurey on here before, but just in case I didn't, it's Miss C's imaginary friend. I think it's so cute. She's even got Little J in on it. He talks about Consurey all of the time too. I don't remember having an imaginary friend as a kid, but it sure sounds like a lot of fun.

7. J and his best friend B. The two spidermen :)

Right after this series of shots, J decided it was a good idea to whack B in the chest with the bike helmet. Nice huh? I almost couldn't believe my eyes when he did it.

8. Miss C's birthday is next week. I can't believe she is going to be 4 already. She is growing up so fast. Here is an outtake from her birthday invitation shoot. She started posing and being silly.

9. Keep my little nephew in your prayers. He's in the hospital right now and will probably be there a few days. He came down with a fever of 100.6, was lethargic and not really eating well. I guess he also threw up a couple of times. In a 6 week baby, anything above 100.4 is an automatic trip to the doctor. I guess he has an infection (and it's actually not the swine flu, thank goodness) and they are waiting for his white cell count to normalize before they talk about releasing him. They did a battery of tests and we are all waiting for the results. Hopefully it's just a simple infection and nothing more serious. Please pray for my brother and sister-in-law. They've had a rough start with this little guy!

10. My 52 week project kind of fell by the way side. But I did get one for last week. See #5 above!

Post Halloween ritual

So if you have kids (or if you remember being a kid yourself) the post halloween ritual is always the same. Sit on the couch "looking" at your candy, sorting it, counting it, thinking about it, playing with it, and ultimately bugging your parents to eat it. No matter who you are or where you live, we are all doing the same ritual this morning. Well, this household is no different. The kids have spent the better part of the last couple of hours asking, no begging, us for candy. We've heard it all this morning. From the simple "plllleeeeassse" to the old "I just want to smell it" to "I don't feel good, I need candy" to the straight out hiding in the closet and just eating it without permission. Oh yes, we caught Little J in the closet eating the blue lollipop that he has been eying since he got it last night. About an hour after we caught him, he was digging in his candy and picked out another lollipop. He proceeded to walk around with it. J asked where he was going and he quickly replied, "in the closet." Yeah. Nice try buddy!

So after all the negotiations, we've given up and decided that if they eat all their breakfast they can have a piece of candy. Today is going to be a fun day.

A friend of mine has instituted the halloween fairy at her house. The halloween fairy comes at night and takes all of your candy and then leaves a toy in it's place. I think we should have started that this year because it's been pretty ugly this morning. Maybe next year we'll build it up before halloween and give it a try.

Here's a little halloween fun going around the internet. Enjoy!

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A lot to catch up on

So once again, it's been awhile! What else is new?! I feel like we have been so busy around here. Not sure doing what, but real busy none-the-less. I'm toying with the idea of switching the blog over to another site. I've got to be honest, uploading pics to this is a royal pain in the you-know-what. In addition, I can't figure out how to make the pictures bigger--you know my motto, go big or go home! Maybe over the next couple of months I'll make a move and make the switch. For now, here's what's been going on around here.

1. Potty training is going well. We are still having issues with #2 though. It took Miss C about 4 or 5 weeks to finally stop doing it in her underwear. I'm on about week 3 with Little J. And I've got to be honest, it sucks. I'm ready for him to figure this out! He doesn't seem as motivated as Miss C did, so I don't know how we are going to get him to start doing it in the potty. He actually has done it a handful of times, but still doesn't do it consistently. I need to go to the store and get a few toys to help motivate him. I didn't really have to motivate him to get #1 down, so I've been a little slack. Any other ideas would be appreciated! I've thrown away enough underwear in the last couple of weeks!

2. It's been a tough transition for Miss C and going to afternoon preschool. She goes from 12:30 to 4, which means she skips out on quiet time 4 days a week. She wasn't really napping anymore, but she did need that 1 1/2 - 2 hours of quiet time each day to kind of relax and get her through the rest of the day. Without it, she's been pretty tired and a little sassy. I talked to the teacher about it because I've definitely seen a change in her attitude at home. She told me Miss C is perfect at school. Listens, behaves, follows direction, participates, etc. She just leaves the sassiness for the hours she's at home. Nice, huh? It's amazing how they do that. I'm hoping the adjustment period won't last too much longer. Mama can't take the attitude.

3. Miss C met her cousin (first one) Little D at the beginning of October. Uncle M and Aunt J had their little boy on September 25th. He's perfect, isn't he?

Miss C even got a chance to hold him. She was fascinated by his little hands and toes. She kept unfolding the blanket to take a peek at them. Reminds me of the time she met Little J for the first time. He was in a long sleeve onsie and his little hands were tucked up inside the sleeve. She kept looking in the sleeve to find them.

Here's a pic of my sister, brother and I. I can't believe my little bro is a dad!4. Here's how little J decided to hang around the house (and the front yard) the other day. I'm sure the neighbors got a kick out of this one. I was just too tired to battle this outfit choice. At least he is wearing his own boots and not his sisters.5. Lately Little J's favorite thing to do is put those boots on and roam the back yard looking for dog poop. Nice. When he finds a pile, he announces it very loudly followed by a, "ewww, that's stinky!"

6. The kids finally settled on their halloween costumes. Miss C is hello kitty and Little J is spiderman. Here they are modeling and doing some sort of lollipop dance.

7. We took a trip to the pumpkin patch this past weekend in search for the perfect pumpkins. It was complete with a hayride to a little petting zoo and then a trip to the pumpkin patch to pick our own pumpkins. The pumpkin patch looked a little picked over, but we still managed to find some good ones.

8. Miss C is already compiling her list for Santa. This year, she wants a trampoline. And a hello kitty clock for her bedroom. And two My Little Pony books (she's particular about which ones). It's kind of funny that she has specific ideas about what she wants. I hope Santa remembers everything she is asking for and pulls through!

9. I took Miss C to the dentist a couple of weeks ago. Di-sas-ter. Couldn't have gone any worse. It started out just fine.

Even got a smile while she was sitting in the chair. I was a little nervous because she has told me repeatedly that she only wants a female dentist (her last one was a male). I'm not sure why she has a preference (because she didn't like the female hygienist at the previous dentist either). So I took her to a new place and talked it up like it was going to be great (hence the smiles). It started to go downhill when the hygienist tilted the seat back to have her lay down. The waterworks and panic set in and we never really recovered after that. But we did manage to get through the cleaning after A LOT of coaxing. All was looking good until the male dentist walked in. She totally lost it. I mean the screaming, having to hold her down lost it. I explained to the dentist that for some reason she preferred a female, yada yada yada. I was trying to explain the behavior I guess. Well, I obviously made a wrong choice in telling him that. He proceeded to give me a 20 minute lecture. About what, I don't exactly remember but long story short, I lost it too. So basically Miss C and I left that office in tears. Suffice to say, I won't be returning to that office!

10. Speaking of dentist, I went for my check up last week and they found a cavity! My first one. ever. I'm so devastated. It's so small, they almost missed it. But it's there. I managed to go over 3 decades without having one. I guess there is a first time for everything!

This little piggy

This little piggy went to the bathroom......

Wanna guess who these little piggies belong to?

That's right! Little J. I decided to take the plunge on Friday afternoon because he fished in his diaper again at nap time. I think he was just really uncomfortable and he's been giving me signs that he was ready to potty train for a while now. Really I was the one holding him back. I just didn't want to have to go through it again--you know, being chained to the house, visiting every bathroom from here to eternity, spending half my day running a kid to the bathroom every 5 minutes--you know, the whole drill.

But I decided to do it anyway. And I must tell you, it hasn't been half bad (I'm praying I don't jinx myself). He had a few accidents on Saturday morning and really hasn't had too many accidents since then (only 2). He's even gone #2 on the potty twice (although we did have one accident with that in between). I'm kind of surprised. It's been so much easier than training Miss C. And she only took 3 days to #1 train (and a good 4 weeks for #2). I thought she was easy considering some of the horror stories I've heard. I guess there really is something to the second child wanting to be like the first. In a sense, he almost potty trained himself. My mom says this about my younger sister and I never understood how that was possible. Well, now I believe her.

The only draw back is that he is getting smart and using it as a tool to get my attention. Whenever he's mad at me he pulls the old, "i've got to go potty!" routine. Right now I'm trying to figure out when he's pulling tricks and when he's serious. There's such a fine line. I remember C did this too and it took me a couple of days to figure it all out with her. All in all, still not too bad.

editor's note: See, I jinxed myself. As soon as I started typing this, he had a #2 accident! We are still well shy of the 4 week mark that it took with Miss C. So I'm still hopeful :)