10 on Wednesday

Forget it.  I have the hardest time with making the Tuesday deadline.  So now it will just be 10 on whichever day I can get around to it :).  I've been pretty busy and this has kind of taken a back seat.  Sorry kids!  Your mama has a life too!

Anyway, here is my 10 or as close to it as I can get!

1.  This is my absolute favorite.  I swear I did not set this up at all.  But some things never change.  Kids just can resist the urge to put on those Mr. Potato Head glasses.  What is it about those things?  Don't the realize that they are just too small?  I mean, I have at least 15 pairs of sunglasses hanging around the house and these are the ones they prefer.  The first pic is Miss C at about 17 months old.  The second is Little J at about the same age.  Isn't that a coincidence?  I think not.

2.  Little J has picked up the Happy Birthday song.  We sing it a lot around here.  Especially when we blow out the lights.  This is his version:

Hap birth to yoooooouuuuu

Hap birth to yoooooouuuuu

Hap birth to yoooooouuuuu

and then he blows out the candle.  He actually has the tune too.  It's too stinkin cute to watch.  He also has the idea of Baa Baa Black sheep.  Although he only gets out the Baa Baa part.  He also attempts Twinkle Twinkle but can't get the word out.  So he just kind of grunts to it.  He usually tries to sing that when he is rocking a baby doll.  It's the one song they both associate with calming down and going to bed.

3.  We went to the pumpkin patch again with Miss C.  This time it was with her preschool class.  Even though she isn't going yet (we pushed the start date back to December 1st), we were still invited to attend the field trip with the class.   They had a good time playing on the playground, taking a hay ride and picking out their own pumpkins.  Actually, Miss C picked them out for all of us.

4.  Little J has a few new words.  They are bus, park, truck (although he misses the t and the r), balloon (boon), hello, go, again and help.  He is also saying, "Max, no!".  Hmmmm.  Wonder where he gets that?  He is repeating some stuff back to us too so there are others, I just can't think of them.  J has been letting him watch Thomas the Train (the cartoon).  Little J freaks when he sees it.  He screams, "Choo choo!" over and over again.  I think he really likes trains!  Maybe that will be the theme of birthday #2.

5.  While we were at the pumpkin farm, the kids fed the animals.  Each child got one small cup with the feed in it.  They were supposed to put the food down these tubes for each of the animals.  Each of their approaches couldn't have been more different.  Miss C took one kernel at a time and put it down the shoot.  I'm sure the animals on the other end were going crazy.  Little J just decided to dump his entire cup into the cage.  No tube required.  

6.  Miss C's birthday invitations are out.  I'll post a couple of the out-take pics in a few days.  I don't want to spoil the surprise for anyone!

7.  It's 4:05 p.m. and both of my kids are still napping.  Pure heaven.  We went to Monkey Joe's today again.  I'm thinking I'm going to be hitting that place everyday.  

8.  I don't think I'm going to make 10 today, so this is my last one.  I got a chance to practice photography with friends last weekend.  It was a whole family (which I've never done).  I had a good time and got lots of great practice.  Here are a couple of the cute family.  

Can't you just eat them up?  

Flashback Friday....already

So I had a draft for 10 on Tuesday started two days ago and never made it past number 1. You will notice the time stamp on this post.  It actually is Thursday because I had to start this a day early to get it out on time (which I'm actually posting at 7:45 a.m. on Friday).  That pretty much sums up my week. Busy, busy, busy. We've been running around all week. Doing what, I'm not sure. Well actually we did do a bunch of stuff. Pumpkin patch, Monkey Joe's (like Chuck E Cheese but with bounce houses instead), library for story time, walks to the park, and I can't even remember Monday and Tuesday.

Plus I've been working on Miss C's birthday invitation. For some reason I've been agonizing over every little detail. For what, I don't know. SHE'S ONLY GOING TO BE 3! It's not like it's her wedding invitation. Regardless, I think I'm finally finished and I'm sending it off to print today. I hope they turn out ok. I've been having trouble with the colors on the monitor and I'm a little nervous how it's going to look printed. Of course I'm probably going to be the only one that even notices.

In celebration of Miss C's birthday in a couple of weeks, here are some pics from her actual birth-day. I can't believe it's been almost 3 years. It really does seem like only yesterday. She's ready for her birthday this year. We're having a tea party and she is so excited. Everyday she asks if her friends can come over for her tea party. She's requested lemonade in the tea pots and is flipping between a pink caterpillar cake and a blue Lightning McQueen cake. I have no idea how she got the idea of a caterpillar cake in her mind. I don't think she has ever seen one of those before. I hope she's not too disappointed when it's pink frilly cupcakes. That's what I want for the party :). I figure this is probably the last year I get a say in the matter. Next year it will probably be a truck and tractor party. So I'm going girly for my last hurrah. I mean pepto-bismol pink everywhere. I can't wait.

Anyway, here are the pics. We have a busy weekend so I promise (hopefully) a 10 on Tuesday on time.

Welcome to the world Miss C (please ignore the woman holding the baby.  After all she just gave birth!):

Meeting daddy for the first time.  She actually opened her eyes for the first time to look at him.  I say it's love at first sight.

Sleeping in mama's arms

Sounds like somebody has a case of the Mondays

That would be me.

*Sigh* I probably shouldn't have even gotten out of bed this morning.  My back hurts.  It's cold outside.  The kids are squabbling.  I practically cut my finger off and it's still bleeding like heck.  Every stinkin' toy we own needs batteries at the moment.  We have a whole drawer full of them except for the one size we need.  Miss C cut her hair AGAIN over the weekend.  When I went to get ready this morning, I found a half eaten bowl of apples in the shower waiting for me.  It made me wonder if the other half was actually eaten or if I'm going to find it someplace else six months from now.  And the one person who holds the answer ain't talkin.  You may be wondering why there was even a bowl of apples upstairs anyway.  I'm wondering the same thing myself.  I have no idea how one 17 month old got them up there without my knowledge.  I let the kids play with play doh this morning.  Whoever invented that stuff should be taken out and shot.  It's like crack to kids and it's every mom's worst nightmare.  Little J ate about 1/2 his body weight of the stuff.  It took me forever just to clean it all up.  Mom mental note #1:  Don't ever put a sisal rug in an area where there are kid's eating or playing play doh.  In fact, just don't own a rug like that if you have kids.  Period.

So that's my day and it's only 10:30.  

But despite all of that, it was one small conversation with Miss C that totally turned the day around for me.  We were in the playroom and I was quizzing her on the days of the week (she has the weekend down, but still mixes up the other days).

Me:  Miss C, can you tell me the days of the week

Miss C:  Are the tractors working?  (We pass by a construction site everyday and she always asks this.  She knows they don't work on the weekend)

Me:  Yes, today is Monday.  Can you tell me the days of the week? 

Miss C:  Monday, Tuesday, Threesday

Ha!  She knows Wednesday but it just cracked me up that she said Threesday.  Naturally that comes after Twosday :)

Sorry for the lack of pics.  I haven't been using the camera much on my own kiddos.  I'll have some tomorrow for the weekly 10.

Ok, 10 on Wednesday

Well, it's probably not going to even be 10 today.  Let me just explain.  It's 6:45 a.m., I went out with the ladies last night (although it was pretty tame), and there is no coffee in the house.  Let me say that again.  There is no coffee in the house.  I literally think I might lose it :)

Anyway, I got on last night at 11 to post (for my girl CG) and the site was down.  So technically the tardiness is not my fault.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!  So here is what I've got without any coffee in my system.  It may even be unintelligible, if that's even a word.

1.  We put Little J in time out for the first time on Saturday night.  He just has this bad habit of throwing things when he doesn't get his way.  I've decided that I've had enough.  We were at Mee-maw's house (but I've made sure she's equipped with a time out chair).  He actually did pretty well.  Better than I expected.  Miss C was so good with time out.  Never got out of the chair.  I expected Little J to give me the look like he was giving me the finger and be up and out of that chair so fast my head would spin.  But he actually sat there.  He did get up once, but I marched him right back and he sat there for almost the full minute.

2.  Miss C has become increasingly interested in the differences between boys and girls (if you get my drift).  This is the conversation that I heard this morning (at least it's what I think I heard):

Miss C to J:  Daddy, are you a boy

J:  Yes

Miss C:  Do you have a XXX (insert male word here)?

J:  Yes

Miss C:  Is it spicy?

Me:  WHAT?!  Did she just ask you if your XXX was spicy?

J:  Yep, I think that's what she just said

Good grief.

3.  Here is how Miss C decided to roll the other morning:

4.  We went to the Disney on Ice show this past weekend with Miss C.  Little J stayed home with Nana and it gave J and I a chance to spend one on one time with our little girl.  It featured Cars, so of course she loved it.  But she's not too familiar with the other acts, so after the Cars part she lost a little interest.  She was good for about the first hour or so, and then she started playing around with the seats.  She was so fascinated by the fact that the seat part went up all by itself.  I guess that's the attention span of an almost 3 year old.  I'm glad she had a good time.

**I had a couple pics of the event to upload but the site is acting funky and I'm about ready to hurl the computer through the window.  Dang lack of coffee.  So I'll have to upload those later**

That's about all I got for today.  Happy Wednesday!

Drum roll please....

Well, after much agony (on my part) we finally have halloween costumes!  I feel like a huge weight has lifted off my shoulders.  Miss C was driving me a tad crazy this year.  I really wanted her to be whatever she wanted to be.  It is the first year that she really understands the concept of halloween and I wanted her to be able to pick out her own costume.  But after weeks and months of me asking, "what do you want to be for halloween?"  And weeks and months of a different answer every time I asked, I finally drew the line.  So the other day I took them to Target and let them pick their own costumes.  For the record, Miss C wanted to be

a blue pumpkin

the blue carebear

lightning mcqueen

spider

kitty cat

fish

cowboy

peter pan (courtesy of her friend G)

So this is what we settled on

ELMO!

And the great pumpkin

And for kicks, here are a few out-takes.  By this point, she was NOT going to cooperate.  I tried everything in the book, even candy.  Nope.  Not gonna do it.

Check back later tonight for a new post.  We had a couple of firsts over the last couple of days that I want to share :)

Ten on Tuesday

Happy Tuesday everyone! Here's my 10 favorite things for today:

1. Little J is saying a few new words. Some of these I may have already blogged about, it's kind of hard to keep up. I write when I remember :). Anyway, new ones include outside, off, happy, cheese, and please. He also counts to three. It's so cute. He says, "one, twooooooo, eeee!" He also holds out his hand and tries to use his fingers. Just for extra emphasis.

2. Miss C loves to watch Mickey Mouse. We have a two story family room and the TV is kind of up high (above the fireplace). So Miss C prefers to go upstairs and watch TV like this:

3. We went to the pumpkin patch this past weekend. We got to ride a tractor trailer to the patch and then pick our own pumpkins. Rustic style. The kids had a blast and after the ride we headed to a little "playground" on the farm. They transformed silos into slides. Really cool to the other kids, but to Miss C....not so much. She didn't even attempt them. Apparently it was too dark. Maybe next year.

4. Gotta love a little brother-sister love. I just love it when they randomly kiss or hug each other. This was one of those moments that I happened to catch. The hugs can sometimes take a turn for the worst and end up with one placing a choke hold on the other.....but I'll take what I can get.

5. Little J has these two swirls on the top of his head.  Of course they are going in opposite directions....kinda looks like two little hurricanes up there. J calls it the "perfect storm". I kind of think it's reflective of her personality. You know, the calm right before the storm. That's him to a T. Well, the calm and the storm part. When he's in a good mood he's great to be around. When he gets a bee in his bonnet, watch out. It's usually a rough ride.

6. We had a great play date at the park today. Gotta love hanging out with your friends. It's amazing to watch them go from independent play to actually playing with each other.

Then we all decided to get in for the photo op. How many kids can you fit on a slide?!

After all that slidin', check out Miss C's new 'do

7. I just love their individual styles. To me, that is what being a kid is all about. I've always been into letting them express their style. Plus I just think it's too darn cute. Miss C has been known to go shopping in rain boots or yellow sparkly Minnie Mouse shoes. Here's a couple of them expressing their style

Miss C will finally wear hair bows for a short period of time.  But she insists on picking them out.  Usually she requests blue.  But on this particular day she wanted two in her hair....

8.  Miss C and Little J have started this new little ritual where they must blow the lights out.  It's so funny to watch them do it.  It all started when I had the light on in our front foyer (it's a chandelier type thing).  Miss C started singing Happy Birthday and then blew out like she was blowing out candles.  The second time she did this, I stood behind her and shut the light off when she blew out.  You should have seen her face!  So now every time we leave a room, we have to count to three and then blow the light out.  Little J has even picked up on it and tries to sing Happy Birthday so you will turn the light on and off for him.  They get the biggest kick out of it.

9. Miss C has exactly 9 freckles. The latest is a small one right under her bottom lip. I just love all 9 of them.

10. K+K, two of Miss C and Little J's friends, are back in town. We're all so happy they are back. We missed you guys!

This one is dedicated....

to the one I love....

Happy Flashback Friday and Happy 5th Anniversary to me and J :)

J and I have been married 5 years today.  So this Flashback Friday is dedicated to him.  I can't believe it's been five years already.  Seems like only yesterday we were getting ready for our big day.  But then again, five years seems so long ago.  We've accomplished a lot over the last five years, more than I ever dreamed.  I'm so proud of everything we've achieved and we did it all together.

So Happy Anniversary love.  Here's to our yesterdays, today, and a lifetime of tomorrows.  I love you!

And what flashback friday wouldn't be complete with a few pics.  Here's a few from 10/3/03: