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 :)

Some things never change

Again, a day late for 10 on Tuesday. But hopefully this post will be jammed packed and it will make up for it.

1. We decided to ditch the toddler bed for Little J. It's really not working out well. I think he really wants a big bed. Scratch that. I know he wants a big bed because he told us so. We were on vacay last week and he slept great in a big bed with the bed rails. The day we got home, sleeping fell apart when he went back to the toddler bed. Safe to say, yesterday was probably the worst day I had with him. He pretty much cried the entire morning because he skipped his nap the day before and fought us at bed time the previous evening. I got so frustrated that I moved the bed from the spare bedroom into his room. all. by. myself. And no, that last tid bit is not being passive aggressive. at. all.

2. Little J's favorite color is definitely orange. Whenever given a chance, he choses it over any other color. It's kind of funny to see him have such a favorite.

3. I took these snaps just a few days after I got my camera back. J was working late and I decided to take the kids out for a "photo shoot" after their naps. They did ok for a few minutes and then it basically turned into them running around chasing each other and laughing because I wasn't able to take their picture. Even at 2 and 3 they team up to conspire against me :). My mom made these outfits for them and I like the way they turned out.

This little series is how these two typically interact with each other. It's just so them. At first they are all sweet with each other

Then it quickly turns to a shoving match. On this particular occasion they were having fun with it. But ordinarily it turns ugly. real ugly.

4. Miss C started school at the end of August. She's having a blast. Here she is on her first day. No tears what-so-ever. Usually I walk her up the ramp to the front door and give her a hug and a kiss good bye. This week she decided that she was old enough to do that herself. So my big girl gave me my hug and kiss at the car and walked up to the door by herself. She didn't even want me waiting and watching her do this. I guess being too cool for your parents starts at 3, huh? But of course like every parent in the world, I hid behind the bushes and waited and watched until she was safely inside. At least I'm still getting the hug and kiss good bye. I know it won't be long until I'm too embarrassing for that too.

5. So we're in the swing of trying to decide halloween costumes this year. For the past couple of weeks, Miss C has consistently wanted to be a bunny rabbit. Little J then says he either wants to be Elmo (which is what he was last year) or a baby bunny. We're trying to convince him to either be spider man or Yo Gabba Gabba. Last night I was at Wally World looking at costumes and Miss C has now changed her mind on what she wants to be. Now she wants to be Hello Kitty. I guess I'll give it another week and ask her again. Whatever she says is what I'm going to order!

6. You know what I'm tired of? Cleaning poop up after my 2 year old smears it all over his room. For crying out loud. It's bad enough that I have to clean him up after each dirty diaper. But it's insult to injury when he decides to fish it out of his own diaper and then touch just about everything in his room. Today was the 3rd time this happened. Believe me, it doesn't get any funnier the second and third time around. This time it was especially disgusting. I ended up throwing him in the shower because it was everywhere. After I hosed him off, I had him in a towel while I finished disinfecting every inch of his room. A grown woman should not have to clean poop off of the blinds. I think you can guess what happened next. Yep, he peed on the floor. I just steam cleaned all of the carpets two weeks ago too. It's a good thing I'm lazy and hadn't put away the steam cleaner yet. So as I'm steaming the carpet, I say to him, "way to go buddy. thank you very much" to which he replies, "you're welcome." Oy vey.

7. Just because I'm all about my little buddy right now, you wanna know what his latest favorite phrase is? Oh, it's a good one. He's often letting us know, "It's not fair!". Isn't that a gem? He even crosses his arms and slams them down on his chest. You know, just to complete the effect. Most of the time I have to turn my head when I'm laughing. It's just so wrong, but it's just so funny.

8. My nephew is due in 6 days and I can't wait!! Let's all send some good (and easy) labor vibes to Aunt J!

9. We had our annual trip to the beach last week. The weather wasn't so great, but we still had a good time. We took the kids to the aquarium and we even had a family bowling afternoon. That was a hoot to say the least. I'm still editing the pictures, but here are a few on the beach that I managed to get.

10. I've been kind of slacking on my 52 weeks project. While we were at the beach, we had the opportunity to be photographed by 11 (yes 11!) amazing photographers while we were there. We looked like total movie stars on the beach :). Anyway, here are a few that were posted on their blogs. Feel free to check them out! PS--I made the dress I was wearing....don't look too closely! I decided to do this the week before we left :)

Little Moon

Amy Ro

Jami Bush

Shey Marin

Kristina Young

Some of you have already seen the first four, so be sure to check out the last one. It's a little slide show. Enjoy!!

I scream you scream

We all scream for ice cream!

I'm back! I know it's been a long time. I finally got my camera back 5 weeks after I sent it in and I'm ready to start blogging again :)

We're at the beach this week (with horrible weather no less) and the kids are livin' it up. Tonight we took them all out for dinner and then an annual tradition of ice cream from this local ice cream shop. We've been going to this place for the past couple of years. I don't have any great beach shots yet since we have literally had one day of sun. Well let me rephrase that. One day of sun but with low 70 degree weather and 20 mph winds. We only have 2 days left here and we're hoping we may actually see some decent sunshine tomorrow. For now, the ice cream snaps will have to do

I'll write more soon! I have a lot to catch up on :)

Oh, and the big thing on J's chin--not ice cream unfortunately. He fell by the pool yesterday and scraped his chin. We're supposed to have family pics done on the beach on Saturday. Perfect time to fall and have a huge boo boo on his face!