The Forecast Calls For Snow?!

Ummm... I don't think so, unless Kaleb knows something that the weather man doesn't. Whether it's a form of self expression or the start of I new trend, I don't know.

All I know is that some days it's not worth the fight.

I also know that these are the moments that make me smile as a Mom. And seeing his proud little face strutting his stuff down the hall of his school with his "super fast snow boots" on makes it all worth it.

A Wise Drunk Man Once Said

While eating out with my small family at the local BK (for all you people who don't get down with the get down or actually prepare home cooked meals for your loved ones, BK stands for Burger King) I was approached by 'drunk man', who kindly shared these words of of wisdom with me,

"You know...(words slurring a bit, balance staggered)... back in the bathroom... (wipes chin)... they have braille on the wall. And I just want to tell you how important it is for you to teach those kids braille". I casually lean back to avoid the stench in his breath while slowly sliding the children behind me giving a polite, yet awkward smile. I think to myself for a second, "Is this man blind? If so, how sad. That makes it twice as hard for him to walk in a straight line being drunk and blind. The odds are really stacked against him."

He continues with more power and conviction, (I can tell this is something he firmly believes in), "It is just soooo important for them to feeeeel you know?! It's like braille and they need to be able to learn to feeeeeel things!". I kindly nod my head in agreement, after all, the ability to touch is one of the 5 senses and we should never neglect the sense of touch... very important, very important indeed. Then to show active listening (thanks to my Communication class I took in college) I repeated back to him, "Braille on the bathroom wall huh? You're right, I see that this is very important. I will do my best to teach my kids to read braille." I then look over at Nate who is finding this little scene very amusing and say, "Braille honey" trying to bring him into our little conversation. After all, it would be selfish of me to enjoy this fine discussion with 'drunk man' all by myself.

After some more wise ramblings from 'Drunk Man' he abruptly stops what he's saying, turns around, and flounders out the door. Leaving both me and Nate shocked and mildly confused,... yet oddly entertained. I think to myself again as I watch him leave, "I need to eat out at BK more often."

Happy Birthday Macie Girl (ummm...a week ago)

So little Miss Macie turned 2 last Sunday, which means this is the longest amount of time I've gone without being pregnant. Its crazy how time flies! These past two years have been so absolutely wonderful with her added to the mix of our little family. Honestly, when I found out that I was pregnant with her I prayed every night that this little child I was going to have would be a good child... and also that my child would have hair. My prayers were answered, she was the best baby I could have ever asked for. As for the hair... well, that prayer's gradually being answered day by day. I figure by age 5 she'll have enough hair to pull it up into a pony tail (that is, if I don't attempt to cut it again).

As far as the whole birthday thing goes... she's still trying to figure that all out. I figure by next year she'll have the whole birthday thing figured out and she'll actually enjoy it when we sing Happy Birthday to her instead of acting awkwardly embarrassed.

It was still fun for her none the less. Who could complain when you get a day full of sugar and presents to open?

Conference Weekend

The days feel like they are starting to fly by, almost too fast. The closer it gets to our move the more I feel like I'm not quite ready yet to let go of this little life I've created here. I'm also not quite sure I'm ready to be thrown into the "real world" (not the Real World MTV... cause that would be wicked awesome!). The 'real world' where you don't rely on loans to live off of, but this is a subject for a different time.

We had a great past weekend. I have always loved conference weekend... scratch that. I have learned to really love and appreciate conference weekend. It's so nice to just sit back and be with the family and enjoy the amazingly beautiful talks, although the kids didn't enjoy them as much as we did. So to keep them entertained I pulled out the Mr. Potato Head toys. It kept them pretty entertained for 5 minutes or so. After they were finished with their Potato Head master pieces they called me over to have a look, "Mom, can you guess who's is who's?".

I don't know, it's a tough one, but I think I've got it figured out. Seriously, Kaleb cracks me up! I just hope he doesn't have some deeper psychological issues revealing itself through Mr. Potato Head.

I'm not sure if I'm the only one, but for some odd reason whenever it's conference weekend I start feeling oddly crafty. I say oddly crafty because I'm not an extremely crafty person. I'm not sure what it is... tell me I'm not the only one. So I was talking to my Mom on the phone about this,

me: "I'm feeling so motivated right now"
mom: "Really? To do what?"
me: "I don't know. Something really domestic and crafty."
mom: "Oh, that sounds fun. So what are you going to do?"
me: "...umm,.. (long, thoughtful pause)... probably nothing."
mom: "...oh..., OK. Why?"
me: "...Well, I guess I'm not motivated enough."
mom: "huh, well that motivation didn't last long."
me: "Nope, it sure didn't."

I ended up pulling myself together, finding my inner domestic diva and made some of these cute little bows for the girls since I've deprived them long enough of a good, girly childhood.

I can't take all the credit for them though, my friend Sarah (the true domestic, crafty diva herself) was the one who showed me how to make them. Now, when we go out Macie doesn't get mistaken for a little boy... at least I hope not, or else she's getting mistaken for a little cross dressing, gender confused little boy who likes to wear pink bows. Which, now that I think of it, could be the root of all of Kalebs problems since I did dress him up as a little girl from time to time just because I thought it was funny and his Dad hated it so much.

See, isn't he so pretty? I say the true test of man/boy/small toddler is how confident they are wearing girls clothes. Nate passed this test with flying colors when he wore my pants for Halloween.

He worked those pants like they have never been worked before ...snap, snap, snap!

Well, now that I'm far from my original topic of how awesome and inspiring conference was to men in drag, I am going to stop.

Until next time....

Kalebs Punishment (part 2)

So after Kaleb's massive melt down I made him let me take his picture as part of his punishment. Then to make sure Kaleb never throws another tantrum like that again, I upped the ante by adding Abrie into the mix. This did not go over well.

Watch the melt down unfold...

This is the classic Kaleb look... so dramatic. It cracks me up!

Gotta' love that forced smile at the end. Let's just say he won't be throwing another tantrum like that any time soon. Well, at least for the next few hours that is.

Best If Refrigerated

Some things just need to be refrigerated like;

heart shaped lollipops,

2 lonely little sugar babies in a Ziploc bag,
empty fruit bowl cups,
toy guns,
toy cars,
stuffed animals, books, and of course, shoes.

I'm not exactly sure why they need to be refrigerated, but I'm sure there's a good reason for it. All I know is that lately, every time I open up the fridge I find a nice little surprise compliments of Kaleb.

Just Breath

Some days... OK, most days, I just need to remind myself to breath. Especially on days like today. Not that today was any different than any other day, it was just a day.

Well Kaleb decided to throw the mother of all tantrums today (actually, I call all of his temper tantrums the mother of all tantrums... he's got 'em down good). And a day wouldn't be a day without Kaleb throwing some sort of fit where I have to call in a priest to perform an exorcism of sorts. Say it with me now, "Demons be gone!". Today's tantrum was just shy of the projectile vomit and spinning head. He was screaming so loud that my friend in a different apartment building called to make sure everything was OK. You get the picture.

So I sat Kaleb in a lengthy time out (long enough for him to regain some self control) and when he was able to talk to me without reaching an ear piercing decibel he was able to get down. I was sitting on the floor in the corner of the kitchen and Kaleb was at the opposite end. He slowly walks up to me not cracking a smile; his face bright red, his eyes swollen from crying. I don't say a thing, he doesn't say a thing. Then finally he gets his big Kaleb smirk on his face, jumps on top of me, and gives me a big hug melting my heart in the process (he's a smart boy). He looks at me and says sweetly, "Mom, I'm sorry".

As part of his punishment I made him let me take his pictures. Call it what you want; sweet portraits of a tired little boy who's had a long day or mug shots or perhaps a combination of both.

I keep telling myself that the terrible two's have got to end soon, right? I mean the boy is 4 & 1/2 and by the rate he is going he should be out of it by at least age 18.

Somedays the only thing that saves this little boy is this sweet face.

Closet Confessions

So a while back I said that Macie had started climbing out of the crib. It's been so much fun!

The first few days I battled it out with her. She would climb out, I would put her back in. She would climb out, I would put her back in. She would climb out.... (you get the picture). This would last anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half. I tried my best to stay calm and then I would ask myself, "What would Super Nanny do?". Then I realized that Super Nanny hasn't ever been in this position since she doesn't have kids, so that didn't help much. Then I tried a different approach. I stand by her crib until she falls asleep. Not as much of a work out as the first idea, but equally as fun. After several days of doing that I realized that it was a stupid idea, so I stopped.

Finally I decided to just let her figure it out herself. After about 15 minutes of Macie pounding on the door it got quiet, which means one of 3 things,

1. My child is getting into massive amounts of trouble.
2. My child is laying unconscious on the floor.
3. My child has fallen asleep.

I cautiously opened the door hoping that my room wouldn't be in complete disarray or that I wouldn't have to call 911 and brush up on my CPR skills (thankfully that was not the case), instead this is what I found,

Macie has now decided to call our nasty carpet floor her bed. But it doesn't stop there. The next day, after the 15 minutes of banging on the door, I went to check on her. I couldn't find her anywhere. I looked under the bed.. not there. I looked under her crib... not there. I looked under the masses of laundry... nope, not there. Finally I see some little toes peeking out from behind the closet door.

Macie had fallen asleep in our little closet (I would like to emphasize "little"). I'm not sure how she managed to fall asleep among the piles of shoes and other miscellaneous items, but she did.... and she still does.

Yep, Macie officially sleeps in the closet. I always start her in her crib, but she always ends up in the closet. Now what I end up doing is making a small make shift bed in the closet for her before I put her to bed, because if she's going to sleep in the closet I might as well make it a little bit more comfortable for her.

I realize that I might be setting myself up for a visit from the child social services. I can see it now, Abrie going to school telling all her friends and teachers that her little baby sister sleeps in the closet. Which will either confirm their suspicions of neglect or make them feel extremely sorry for us *"poor dental students" that we are so poor that our child has to sleep in the closet.

I also think that Macie's new sleep habits can be attributed to her fathers rare ability to sleep anywhere, at anytime, in any position.

( A couple of these you've seen before, but I definitely think they are worth seeing again.)

As for me, well I'm anxiously looking forward to the day when we own a home and have a bigger closet for Macie to sleep in.

*I must state that we are not poor. Nope, not at all. We have access to an unlimited amount of loans we could take out if we ever wanted to feel rich.

Diggin' For Gold

Really not much to say. Just thought your day might be lacking a picture of a child picking their nose. So here you go,

I'm thoughtful like that.

Short Term Memory Loss (or something like it)

I swear, I am not a spacey person (others might disagree), but lately I don't even know my head from my butt (OK, actually I do... at least I hope I do). My new famous line whenever anyone asks me to do something is, "Sure, I can do that. Just call and remind me". For example, "Ginnie, can you watch my kids in 20 minutes?", (me) "Sure, I can do that. Just call and remind me". Why I can't remember something that's only 20 minutes away? I don't know. And second question, why would anyone trust someone that has that bad of a memory to watch their kids? Hmmm, not sure on that one either.

So here's what I'm thinking; besides hiring a nanny, maid, cook, masseuse, and a part time pool boy, I'm considering hiring a personal assistant. I mean, why not? It's the perfect idea! They do all of my unwanted thinking for me leaving me with plenty of time to think about things like, why do I have this one abnormally long hair on my arm that keeps growing back longer, and longer every time I pluck it? and what possessed me to have bangs the majority of my life when all this time people were secretly mocking "the bangs"? and why in the world does my toilet still smell like pee after it's just been cleaned?... the maid must not be doing her job.

As you can tell I'll have plenty of things to keep my mind busy while I'm thinking about nothing. It will be great! And for those of you who are automatically assuming that I might be pregnant due to my new found problem with short term memory loss... rest assured. I'M NOT PREGNANT! Nope, little Pubert or Bonquesha won't be coming anytime soon. Sorry.