Pumpkin Carving

Eric and Hope invited us over for a "pumpkin carving party" with some friends of theirs from church. We all had a fun time - at least the kids and I did, and I think Adam did, too. Everyone else seemed like quite the seasoned professional carvers; one guy even had his own little mini-chain saw carving knife thing. Pretty impressive! Hope's pumpkin is on the left - presidential candidate John McCain. We had to leave before she did Barack Obama, but I'm anxious to see how he turns out because I think McCain looks awesome. Alyssa's pumpkin is the kitty cat on the right; I think he turned out pretty cute, too. But I may be biased since 98.7% of the carving was done by me. ;)

Tip to you early carvers out there ~ supposedly rubbing vaseline on the cuts will help preserve the pumpkins until Halloween so they don't shrivel up as much ... time will tell if its true or not!

Hope bought some Mr Potato Head type things that you could stick on pumpkins that Alyssa had fun play with while I was "scooping the goop" out of her pumpkin.

Helping me carve ... kind of.

Carvers hard at work

First round of pumpkins ... pretty cool, huh?

Weekend fun

Lenka invited Alyssa for a playdate at "Boingz!" this morning. Alyssa had such a great time ~ I love the first picture; the look of pure joy/excitment on her face ... that's not a look I get to see very often. It took her a few minutes to warm up to the new environment, per usual, but before long she was running, climbing, bouncing, sliding, etc with the best of them. I had a great time watching her, chatting with Eric and Angie, and hanging out with my special little lady, Janika.

As years go by ...

Inspired by one of my October '04 moms' blogs

1st birthday

2nd birthday

3rd birthday

4th birthday

Can you BELIEVE how much older she looks from 3 to 4?! Its like she aged at least 2 years ... did I miss something?

Working Woman

Most of today I spent at the Omaha Steaks holiday/seasonal job fair. I got offered a position in their "specialty sales" department ~ basically inbound sales without the upselling part (thank goodness). I'm excited about it and feeling a lot better about our money situation with the holidays coming up. On the flip side, I'm nervous about Adam having to be a "single dad" a couple nights a week, but I hope I can have things organized and put together enough to make it a smooth ride for him. And I keep telling myself its only 6 weeks ... we can do anything for 6 weeks. And if I decide to go back next year I get a $200 rehire bonus ($300 for year 3, etc) and the day I start I get a really great employee discount and if I complete the "season" its mine for an entire year, which is pretty cool. I think its safe to say everyone on our Christmas list should expect meat for Christmas. ;)

Happy 4th Birthday, Alyssa

Dear Alyssa,

Today you turn 4 years old. That statement takes my breath away.

You are everything I could have asked for in a little girl. You are sweet, thoughtful, loving, smart, beautiful, creative, and funny. I love you so, so much. I'm so proud of you and I adore watching you develop, grow, and discover every day.

This fall you started preschool and so far you seem to really enjoy it. I can't believe how much you have learned and blossomed in your first month in school. (It does scare me a little, though, because it reminds me that you are growing up so fast). You can spell your first and last name (and you love to spell out S-T-O-P when you see a stop sign), are singing tons of new songs, have started "reading" books more vividly (holding a book and telling us a story based on the pictures), and just overall seem a lot more outgoing. You're starting to tell us more about your day and what you think of the world around you. I would say that you're very brave when it comes to physical feats - you mastered climbing along the top of the swingset by yourself, out of the blue, a few weeks ago. I guess you were tired of waiting for someone to help you across the monkey bars, so you decided to go over the top on your own. And I constantly find you jumping off/on things. But on the flip side you seem a lot more timid when it comes to social settings. You've definitely come a long way since starting school, but you still like to have a familiar "backup" when you're putting yourself out there.

Sophie is still your best friend, but you've started playing a lot more with the kids on our street the past couple months. You think you are pretty big stuff now that Jessica, Mya, and Katelyn are including you in their little posse. Braden, who lives across the street, has quickly become a favorite playmate of yours and you talk about Gary from preschool quite a bit.

You are currently taking your second year of dance classes, which are a favorite part of your week. You told me this week that your favorite "trick" at dance class is "butterfly arms". We were all so proud of you when you performed in your Christmas and spring recitals this year without any stage fright at all.

Some of your favorites include:
Movies: High School Musical and High School Musical 2 - I'm really looking forward to taking you to see the third one in the theater when it comes out in a few weeks.
TV Shows: Phineas and Ferb, Dora the Explorer, and Diego. My Friends Tigger and Pooh were a huge part of your life for awhile, too.
Color: Blue
Playing "chase" in the backyard with Daddy where he narrates your "tricks" and moves while you twirl/run/hop around the backyard and then he has to repeat what you did.
Doing your "homework", which consists of writing/coloring in a notebook and then cutting it up with scissors.
Books: Fancy Nancy (your birthday party theme this year). You are definitely a girly-girl and love dressing up, make up, and painting your nails.

You talk about your "kids" a lot. You don't seem to have a special imaginary friend, but you talk about "my boys" and "my girls" and what they have at their houses or where they currently are staying. Most of the time they are at Grandma and Poppa's or next door at Robb and Crystal's house.

We had to say goodbye to our sweet Pomeranian Joey this spring. I'm not exactly sure how much you understood of that whole situation. You still talk about her a lot and want to make sure that we remember that she's still part of our family, which I love, but I hope we've been able to explain to you that sometimes people/pets have to go away, but that its okay to miss them and to keep them in our hearts and memories.

You are a spectacular big sister. When I first found out I was pregnant with Joel, I was so worried that I would be cheating you out of something or that you would resent me for making you "share" Daddy and I, but watching you and Joel together warms my heart so much. I hope you realize how much he loves you and looks up to you. Especially the looks up to you part ~ you have a hard time understanding that a lot of the things he does that frustrate you are things he learned by watching his big sister. You definitely have a very nurturing side to you; when I would drop you and Joel in the childcare room at the Y you would immediately fold him into your arms for a big hug when he started to get sad about me leaving. You do a great job thinking of him and trying to include him in whatever you're doing - most of the time.

Overall, peanut, I am just madly in love with you. I'm totally in awe of you. And I wish you all the happiness and love in the world because you are an amazing little girl.

Love always,
Mommy

Misc birthday eve thoughts . . .

In about 2 hours it'll be 4 years since I woke up to my broken water ... wow. Its funny that I can still remember making meatloaf for Adam 4 years ago tonight (I've only made it about twice in our marriage, so maybe that makes it more memorable, too), I remember him talking to his Aunt Nancy on the phone while I was on the elliptical machine (I did 30 minutes) and she predicted that I would go into labor that night.

This year marks the first October 12th since 2004 that my good friend Angie or I hasn't been pregnant (that we know of ...). She was pregnant on Alyssa's 1st and 3rd b-days and I was pregnant on her 2nd. You can tell that its "my year", but I'm hoping that we've passed the torch on to my friend/neighbor Sherry. Of course we have another neighbor that just told me that she's pregnant, so maybe we'll bring her into our "circle". Or maybe the tradition will just have to die. ;)

Happy Alyssa's birthday eve!

Oh, she's good.

Alyssa's bedtime routine usually consists of Adam helping her brush her teeth, go potty, get jammies on, then reading her books. Then I finish out the evening by laying down with her for a few minutes before she's off to dreamland. Well, the past couple weeks she's been arguing with me when I tell her that I'm leaving then she'll kick and hit and squirm as I try to give her kisses and hugs. I usually start walking out and then when she starts wailing for me to come back, I'll go back and give her the kisses, hugs, etc. I'm such a pushover when it comes to bedtime; I would rather be all lovey dovey than a hard ass. But last night I put my foot down. When she argued and fought, I told her goodnight, blew her a kiss, and shut the door and didn't look back. She came out begging and pleading for me to come back in, but I told her that I was tired of her arguing and fighting with me and that she would get another chance tomorrow night.

Fast forward about 2 hours and Adam and I hear her crying hysterically in her room. We both rush in and I lay down to cuddle with her. She went right back to sleep, so I didn't get a chance to find out what was wrong, but this morning I asked her if she had a bad dream. She said she had, so I probed to get her to talk to me about it. At first she said she didn't remember. But then the "lightbulb" came on and she told me that it was that I wouldn't give her hugs and kisses. Ouch. I didn't completely understand if she was dreaming that I wouldn't give her hugs and kisses or if she thought she had bad dreams because I wouldn't give her hugs and kisses, but either way, ouch.

There goes me feeling proud of myself for sticking to my guns.

I believe in magic!

Magic Erasers, that is.

Take one 20 month old boy named Joel, one black sharpie marker, plus a wood floor ... need I say more? 4 lovely, large black scribbles ... and the magic eraser erased them all.

And an extra shout out to our good friend "Little Green" for getting black sharpie out of the playroom carpet that was an innocent bystander as Joel attacked the entry floor with his artistic ways.

Boys.

14.5 hours ...

is how long Joel has been sleeping. Since about 7 last night and still going strong. I keep checking on him and he looks so peaceful ... I'm a little jealous.

I guess being so stinking cute is tiring. ;)

Weekend Project

I don't know why, but I decided to paint the long wall in our kitchen this weekend and add a glaze/faux finish to it. Probably because I had nothing better to do and its so much fun to do those kinds of things with a 4 year old and 20 month old under foot.

Anyway, last night I spent 4 hours painting the wall a soft buttery-yellowish color that I "customized" from a bright yellow that I used in the bathroom and some brown/gold craft paint that I had laying around. About 1/2 way through painting I started crossing my fingers that I would have enough ... which I did.
* Lesson 1 - Get over fondness for 4 inch rollers on big walls. They turn the project into a much bigger project. Learn to love full sized ones. In this case, size does matter.

This morning, figuring that the glaze process would be pretty quick, I decided I would finish up the wall, clean everything up, and be on my merry way. Not so much. About 6 hours later I finished.
Lessons learned from working with glaze
* I should have tinted the whole gallon of glaze or at least a lot more than I originally did. I kept remembering Adam's mom saying that a little glaze goes a long way, so I started out by mixing it in a pie plate-type container. I think I did this at least 6 times during the wall and I think I kept getting a tad bit darker every time I mixed up a new batch, so I feel like the right side of my wall and the left side are drastically different. Thankfully most of the middle is open, so I don't think its too noticeable. And there's a lot of wall decor to be hung up and Joel's high chair hides most of one section of the wall.
* I don't know why I didn't think I could use a roller to apply the glaze. Putting it on with a brush made it a much longer process and I don't think it would have mattered that much.

Adam's mom (I blame most of the stress of the project on her because she's the one that gave me the glaze and tools yesterday morning) mentioned that she wanted to try a technique where you put your glaze on, then press a plastic sheet to the wall and then immediately pull it off for a unique finish. I thought that sounded like a cool idea, but didn't have plastic or want to attempt something that big on my own, so thought I would try plastic wrap.

I ended up using Glad "press n seal" and it turned out kind of cool. I bet the good people at Glad never thought of using it that way! I joked to Adam that it would be my luck that "Glad" or "press n seal" would be etched into the wrap somehow and I wouldn't notice until I stepped back to look at my wall and saw my own personal billboard.

Pictures to come once I get everything hung back up. I have an Uppercase Living piece that I'm going to hang near the entry way and want to paint the frame of one of my pictures before I hang it up.

Definitely a learning experience, but I've gotten the seal of approval from 3 female neighbors ~ one even wants me to come help her do it in her bedroom and I think the next time I do it I'll have a better idea of how to do it more efficiently.

Update from Alyssa

According to Alyssa this morning: "Mommy, I'm going to call the pizza man. What do you want to drink? Hot tea?" *dials play cell phone* "Hello? Christi K____. Please some hot tea." *hangs up phone* "Mommy the man is coming, so don't worry. He'll be here in 5 minutes".

Okay then.

We've had pizza delivered once in the past 3 or 4 months and I rarely drink hot tea around her, so I'm not sure why/how this all comes up, but I love listening to her carry on "adult" conversations. Makes me realize some of the things I say consistently on the phone.

Now she's calling my friend Staci, aka Rowan's mommy, who's phone number is 5-4-3-2-1. She must have moved since I talked to her last.

New Gym

On Wednesday after working out at the Y, I canceled my membership after finally deciding to join a gym closer to home. I figured out with our family membership, which was almost $60 a month (and Adam used it 5 times, I think, since we joined in February) plus gas to drive the 20 minutes there and back it was just ridiculously expensive. If I were to drive there 3 times a week, it would probably be close to $100 a month for our membership, gas, and childcare.

So this morning after dropping Alyssa off at preschool, Joel and I joined Fitness Premier. $20 a month and about 5 minutes from our house ~ can't really beat that. And an additional $15 for unlimited childcare for both kids. A few thoughts on the first experience:

Daycare:
* I am not impressed that they charged me a $25 processing/membership sign up fee for the childcare. The woman doing my membership didn't seem to know what she was doing, so I'm hoping that that was a mistake.
* The woman in the childcare room this morning would not pick Joel up. Evidently after talking with my neighbor who also has a membership there this is a characteristic of the woman's culture as she is from another country. Quite the change from the Y where as soon as we walked in, the childcare workers would both welcome him warmly and make room on a lap/in arms for him until he was comfortable. Shaking a toy at Joel and saying "Look, Joel, look ~ you want to play with this?" just doesn't sit well with me as a way to help him adjust and feel comfortable.

So I think that the gym will be "mommy time" and I don't foresee taking the kids very often. I plan to cancel their unlimited "membership" and will just buy a punch card or pay cash when I do take them in. But I think that will work out okay since the gym is so much closer and I can easily run over there early in the morning or after Adam gets home without it taking 2 hours for my workout and travel time like with the Y.

In the 15 minutes I did get to work out before they paged me to come get my screaming, hysterical child, I was highly impressed with the treadmill with personal flat panel TV attached. Pretty nice way to walk!

I miss the "family" feel of the Y already, but you get what you pay for, right? And for now, that's the way its going to have to be. And maybe that's what I need to get my act together and get healthy.

Boo to you!

While unloading my tub of Halloween decorations this afternoon, I came across my very favorite fall decoration. My inherited "pregnant ghost". My mom made a ghost for herself and for my aunt and uncle back in "carefree single days" and my cousin Jay named it the "pregnant" ghost ~ notice its "belly bump"? As soon as I see my ghost every year, I immediately think of my mom and then my thoughts go to my Aunt Pauline and Uncle Ross who both passed away entirely too soon. I also think of my Grandma Carlson, my mom's mom, who passed away around Halloween the year Adam and I were married. The evening of her funeral, Adam and I were invited over to my cousin Jay's house for a football party. It was really special to be able to spend the final part of a very sad and difficult day with my cousins, their families, and my Uncle Ross. It was this night at Jay's house that I noticed that he had also inherited a pregnant ghost that was proudly displayed on his fireplace mantle.

Every October this figurine makes me smile and makes me a little sad; it has a very special place in my heart and in my home.

I feel like a kid again ...

because I DON'T WANNA CLEAN MY ROOM!!!

I got the closet organized/cleaned out. I got the bathroom picked up/wiped down/decluttered. But I just can't seem to quite bring myself to branch out into the actual bedroom. I know it'll feel so good to have it done and it REALLY needs it, but I can't help think that I might pick a root canal over cleaning my room. After all, with a root canal you just lay there in a semi-reclined position. Not such a bad deal, right? ;)

Thursday Cuteness

Alyssa, Joel, and Sophie last weekend watching "The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl" on Disney. Evidently its pretty intense. ;)

Alyssa came downstairs with her mouth all "stickered" up like this. I encouraged her to leave it for the rest of the day, but she wasn't sold on the idea.

A shout out to my homies/family back home ... John Deere and ISU; it doesn't get any better.

Its the little things

After Alyssa woke up from her nap this afternoon, I decided to take advantage of the fact that Joel was still sleeping and do an activity that I'd read about on another blog ~ a paper chain countdown. The one I read about was for Halloween, but we did a combination birthday AND Halloween one. Pink and blue chains for the days until her birthday and then purple and orange for the days between her birthday and Halloween. Each morning she'll tear off a link to count down the days. I can't remember the last time she and I did something like that ~ it was really nice to sit on the floor working on something together while watching Phineas and Ferb and not thinking about what else I "needed" to be or "should" be doing. I was reminded of how the top thing on my list NEEDS to be and SHOULD be spending time with the kids because I'll never get these chances back ... there's always laundry to be folded or a kitchen to be cleaned up or toys to be put away. And I feel like I'm in such a better place after taking time to do little things with them, so why is it so hard to make it a priority sometimes?

Photography by Alyssa - Berry picking edition

Alyssa got tired of berry picking fairly quickly, so she entertained herself by taking pictures with my camera. Here's a few of my favorites that she got.

Got Berries?

Some pictures from berry picking yesterday. It was the perfect day to be outside and a fun "end of summer" activity. Maybe I'll try my hand at making jam next year, but this year I did make some really, really yummy raspberry white chocolate muffins. I thought they were awesome and the neighbors seemed to like them (although most of them were pretty drunk last night, so that might have something to do with it). Of course no one else in my family liked them, so I gave away or froze most of them.

Popular

Last night I realized that Alyssa was in fact telling us the truth when she said that there are THREE Alyssas in her dance class. 3 out of 13 girls are named Alyssa. I thought she was getting confused because there is another Alyssa at preschool, but no ... there are 2 other Alyssas at dance and 1 more at school. And here we thought that we were going with a fairly unique name. That's what we get for picking a name that wasn't on our "list".

Today they are having a pajama book party at preschool. The kids were all supposed to wear jammies and bring a favorite book. Alyssa was the third girl to bring in "Fancy Nancy". We should have tried to dig up "Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy" or something to be a little different! Glad I thought to put her name in the front of her book.

Stay tuned

Amy mentioned tonight at the girls' dance class that she was planning on going to pick raspberries sometime this weekend. She said that she remembered that I said I was interested in going with her sometime (I don't remember this, but I do think it sounds like fun), so asked if I still wanted to go. Enter me getting all excited about the thought of being all domestic and making all sorts of raspberry jams and whatnot. As of the end of dance class she said she would probably want to go tomorrow later afternoon. Then we ran into her as Alyssa and I were walking around the block about 30 minutes later and she said that it might be later Saturday afternoon. Anyone want to take bets that Monday comes and I haven't picked any raspberries?

Coronado Island

My last night in San Diego we ventured across the "big blue bridge" (trying saying that 5 times fast) to Coronado Island. We saw Hotel del Coronado ~ made famous by the Marilyn Monroe film "Some Like It Hot". It was HUGE and very intimidating. They wanted $80 in the gift shop for a polo shirt; I don't really want to know how much it costs to stay there.

You can see the skyline of San Diego in the second picture, which is across the bay.

San Diego Pictures

A few pictures from our trip to San Diego. The first two are from when we took a cruise around the San Diego bay harbor ~ home of navy ships and where cruise ships dock. The next two are from Torrey Pines beach that we kind of stumbled upon the second night. I love the sunset one. And the one of my "surfer dude", of course. :)

San Diego day 1.5

I wanted to say that it was San Diego day 1, but since we technically got here yesterday, I'll name it 1.5. Here some highlights (and for anyone who doesn't know, Adam is out here taking classes for work, so I decided to tag along for a couple days ... kind of a second honeymoon/mommy relaxation/hopefully make travel less stressful for Adam by not being alone trip).

* I had a really difficult time driving to the airport. I kept trying to make Adam talk to me about silly things so that I wouldn't think about leaving the kids. His solution was to quiz me on my multiplication tables. I got stuck on 64 x 64. :)
* Our flights went smoothly. Both were overbooked, so we weren't able to get seats together on the Denver - San Diego leg, but that was okay.
* Adam was very excited to see what kind of car we got at the car rental place; he was desperately hoping that they would mess up and give us a convertible or jeep or something ... we got a minivan. HOT DOG! Its a very cool minivan, though. The most un-mom-mobile like one I've ever seen.
* I was anxious to do the San Diego bay Harbor tour, so we decided to do that yesterday afternoon after we arrived. We missed the 2 hour tour, which I was bummed about (for $5 more you see the entire bay), but I decided that most of what I wanted to see was on the 1 hour south bay tour. Of course we missed the south bay tour, too. Bah! So we did the north tour, which was still nice, but about 75% of it was about the Navy ships. Cool, but not all that interesting to me. We did get some good views of Coronado island, though.
* I had the BEST clam chower (chowdah, as Jeff says) in a really long time at the San Diego Pier Cafe last night. Adam *almost* ordered samon, which is HUGE since he is a proclaimed hater of all things seafood (other than the shrimp appetizer at Upstream .. yum), but backed out at the last second and got a burger. We may get him over to the dark side yet this trip.
* We shopped/walked/had supper last night at Seaside Village at the SD bay. Really cute area.
* Today Adam is off to class.
* I finished my first book of the trip (3 more in my suitcase).
* Its about 70 degrees and sunny right now. Too cold to actually go IN the pool, but I think I'll put some shorts and a tank top on and head down with a new book and my iPod to get some fresh air.

And I'm sure you're all wondering ... I've only called home 3 times so far. :) Showing great restraint, don't you think?

Interesting thing is that San Diego reminds me a lot of my trip with my mom a few years ago to San Francisco ... which is strange because I've always thought that Northern California life vs Southern California is supposed to be radically different. Maybe its just that we spent so much time in the SD "bay" area yesterday. I think we're going to hit the beach later this afternoon, dudes, so stayed tuned.

Overkill?

As I'm sitting here printing out my 10 page "instruction manual" for my mom and Mary to look over/review before leaving the kids with them tomorrow I have to wonder if its a little overkill. Is it a sign of today's society being routine and structure obsessed or is it just that I'm OCD and crazy?

I think when my parents left me when I was younger they tossed me and my duffle bag out the car door as they slowed down going past my grandparents house and yelled "don't call us; we'll call you". ;)

Accomplished

This will seem boring to probably everyone, but I feel like I got A TON accomplished this morning while Alyssa was in preschool, so wanted to make a list.

1. Ran home because I forgot my cell phone and since Alyssa's not feeling the best wanted to be easily reachable.
2. Stopped by Dr. K's office to pick up forms needed for mom to take the kids to the doctor next week (not that she'll need them).
3. Borders to look for books for the trip.
4. Target to pick up basic groceries, food for football party tomorrow, and trip odds and ends.
5. Got gas.
6. Dropped off package and letters at the post office.

May not seem that impressive for mere mortals, but considering I had a 19 month old who HATES to sit in a stroller or cart or be buckled into his carseat more than twice a day, I basically battled a dragon ... and WON!

Tweet, tweet!

My latest addiction is twitter. Do you twitter? If so, let me know and I'll follow you ... I will follow you, follow you where you may go ... anyway, my user name is ajmommy. And if you don't twitter yet, sign up! Its awesome! www.twitter.com

Therapeutic

The other day I was listening to the radio and they were talking about the idea of writing a letter to someone who you felt had wronged you who you just couldn't quite seem to "forgive and forget". A letter listing your feelings, thoughts, everything that you really wish you could tell that person and then you're supposed to rip it up and throw it away. The twist this time was that the person explaining the exercise said that its not always a one time cure-all. Sometimes you have to write (and destroy) the letter again and again and again before you are finally able to get past it.

My twist on it ... I wish I could write the letter, watch the person read it, then wipe it from their memory so that I wouldn't have to deal with their response. I think that may be a sign that I have deeper issues. ;)

The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire.

Okay, its not on fire, its being replaced, but man, does this process stink royally.

It makes me uneasy because there are a dozen guys looking in my windows that don't speak English (or at least don't speak very well).

Its loud.

I had this big, beautiful mum bush pop up out of no where this year. It was big and full and had tons of little buds on it and I was anxiously awaiting flowers to blossom to see what color it would be and add some life to the dead area that is our front flower bed. Its now about 70% flattened from shingles being tossed onto it. I realize that they probably have better things to worry about (like getting my roof put on before it starts raining), but it still makes me sad.

Its loud.

Of course Alyssa is using all the banging as an excuse to not nap. And she needs to nap today. She's getting a cold and was up early this morning and is extremely crabby. I wonder if she would let me put earmuffs on her to block the banging. I keep hoping that if I crank up her "pooh songs" loud enough and put them on repeat it'll drown out the banging.

Whoa, I think someone just fell off the roof. Probably landed on the last remaining 30% of my mums.

*disclaimer ... no one really fell off the roof; it was just really loud.

Its tough watching them grow up

I was watching Alyssa sit naked at the kitchen table tonight while eating her fruity pebbles before bedtime and she turned around and said "I love you, Mommy". Just out of the blue. She does that a lot and I love it. This afternoon she started yelling at me from upstairs that I had to come up immediately because she HAD to tell me a secret. The secret was that she loves me. I don't think she'll mind me telling.

So tonight I walked over to her, kissed her on top of the head, and told her "Alyssa, I want you to stay my sweet girl forever, okay?". Her reply was "Okay, Mommy, I will. And Daddy's. And Joey's and Lexi's and Joel's and Sophie's". If only it were that easy.

And speaking of difficult things, I can't wrap my head around the fact that 4 1/2 days from now Adam and I are flying to San Diego. I really haven't even started thinking about packing or anything. Besides writing my mom and Mary the "Taking care of everything precious to us ... and Lexi" book.

Genius

My boy, Joel, is a genius. Just in case there was ever any doubt.

This morning he found Addison's binky in the play room. He looked at it and then immediately made a bee line for the daycare cubbies. He pulled one purple one out, looked in it, and the put it back. Then he pulled Addison's cubby out and dropped the binky in it and came running back over to me. I didn't acknowledge that he had found her binky nor did I encourage him to go put it away. He's just that smart.

And now I think he's trapped himself under the little tykes picnic table again, so I better go rescue my little Einstein. ;)

Thank goodness Joel is a boy

The kid can be sooo moody and prone to mood swings that I can't imagine what he would be like when he was PMSing, so I am INSANELY thankful that he's a boy. Or maybe its just that his big sister brings out the worst in him. Oy.

Overheard at daycare

From an almost 4 year old after taking a big swig from a sippy cup of apple juice:

"mmmm, this is good beer. I love this beer."

I think I may have to mention that one to his daddy when he comes to pick him up today.

At least Alyssa didn't add "If you like beer, you should try some Boone's!". ;)

The power of observation

I evidently have no observation skills tonight.

1. Adam and I are going out to dinner with some friends tonight, so I told Alyssa we could go get pizza for her, Joel, and Jessica (our babysitter). I sent Alyssa out the door with her shoes and told her to get in the car while I found my keys. Of course instead of getting in the car, she played around in the driveway until I came out. Per usual. And in the back of my mind I told myself that she probably left some toy behind my car and I should go check. But I didn't. Fast forward about 2 minutes and crunch went the sound of her scooter being smooshed by my big, bad SUV. And I'm not sure if I'm more upset at myself for not looking behind the car or mad at her for not listening to me and getting in the car when I told her to.

2. So she lost the chance to go get pizza with me and I made my way to the pizza place and picked up a $5 cheese pizza that actually cost me $5.94, which just seems wrong, but I'll ignore that for now. I got home and was looking at the "cheese pizza" with Alyssa only to notice that there was hamburger all over that pizza. Not a big deal because both my kids will eat hamburger, but now I don't know if I should be mad at myself for not checking the box or mad at the pizza guy for giving me the wrong thing.

I wonder if the Chinese place we're going to serves grown up drinks ... I don't think hot tea is going to cut it tonight.

A familiar face

Last night Alyssa and I met Amy and Sophie at the mall for a little Friday night getaway. Note to self, there are some creepy people hanging out at the mall at 7:30 on a Friday night. Anyway, the girls were sidetracked as we walked by the calendar store by a display of "Hannah a'tanna!", so we decided to walk in and look at some of the calendars. I was immediately drawn to a Pomeranian one. *sigh* I held it up and asked Alyssa who the picture on the front looked like and she immediately gasped "Joey! Oh, its Joey!!!!!!" and tore it out of my hands to show Sophie. "Look, Sophie, its Joey! Joey!!!!". Sophie wasn't too impressed.

On one hand it warmed my heart that Alyssa still gets so excited over "Joey sightings" and that she obviously still has a lot of love for her, but on the other hand it makes me a little sad because I don't think she really gets yet that Joey is not coming back. Lately she's been talking a lot about her "girls" or "boys" (imaginary friends if you missed that post) being dead. They're usually "dead" at Grandma and Poppa's house or Robb and Crystal's house, so I don't think she entirely gets that Joey isn't coming back. But maybe that's okay. I don't know if I totally get/accept that Joey isn't coming back.

Alyssa's First Day of School

The first day of preschool came and went and the big announcement is that there were NO TEARS on the part of Alyssa or me. I'm not sure about Adam though. ;) She seemed really excited for the most part, but she did get pretty clingy once she was dressed and her hair was done. Evidently it doesn't hit home until she's all gussied up. When we got to school Alyssa was really quiet, but she didn't put up any fuss or try to get me to stay, which I was relieved about. I don't know if I would have made it without tears if she seemed sad to see me go. She settled down quickly to make a bead necklace at one of the "stations" they had set out on the tables in her room and I was on my way. The first thing she said to me was that she "did NOT have fun", but upon further discussion aka interrogation in the car she started to get more excited and seemed like she had fun. She told me that there's another Alyssa in her class (but not the Alyssa that is in her dance class), she played games outside, dressed up as Aurora, had Goldfish for snack and dress a picture of herself wearing a dress. Sounds like a pretty full morning! She told me that her teacher told her she got to come back in two days and then I told her that she gets to come back lots more days than that. She's convinced that she's only going back one more time, so we may have to work on that one. :)

Joel and I met our friend/neighbor across the street Sherry for breakfast after dropping Alyssa off at school. Sherry had dropped her son off at a different preschool for his first day this morning, too, so we've decided that we're going to do breakfast every year on the first day of school since Alyssa and her son will go to one more year of preschool after this and then start "big school" together. Joel and I got into the car after breakfast and I was a bit lost as to what I should do with myself for the 45 minutes - an hour that was left until pick up time. This schedule will take some getting used to for all of us, but I'm looking forward to watching Alyssa "blossom" at preschool and spending some one on one time with Joel.

Extra-special adorable for her BIG day

Alyssa's face = EXCITEMENT
Joel's face = Isn't she gone YET?

On the way home ... she survived her first day!

Joel's belated Birthday present

My mom's good friend Mary who is one of the kids' "adopted" Grandmas quilted these adorable wall hangings for Joel for his first birthday and gave them to him today. A little late, but well worth the wait. They match the colors and dinosaurs in his border almost perfect and I absolutely love them!

Breakfast

This morning Alyssa spilled her grapes and chips all over the floor. She didn't want to pick them up, but lord help her if her brother get anywhere near them, so she kept clothes-lining him with her arm when he tried to get anywhere within a 20 foot radius of her spill. I finally had to pull out the "mommy means business" voice and insist that she pick up her mess (and to anyone who notices that my child was eating grapes and chips for breakfast ... hey, its a holiday!). Alyssa kept telling me that she didn't want to eat them because they were all "Lexi-y". I immediately replied that I just vacuumed, so they would be fine. And by "just" I mean on Friday. But I did think to tell her that she didn't have to *eat* them after she picked them up, she could throw them away.

Fast forward 3 hours (okay, maybe 5 minutes) and she proudly proclaimed that she picked everything up. I congratulated her on a job well done which is when she proceed to tell me that she put everything "in there". "In there" translated to the air conditioning vent. Enter speech about how we don't put food down the vents. "But, Mommy, you can't see it anymore". Oh, well then ... perfect.

And now Joel is running around looking pleased as punch and thinking of himself as a genius because he put HIS breakfast of toast in a butterfly net. Breakfast on the go. Because when you put your breakfast in the vents, its gone for good. Lesson learned.

This is why I feel the need for regular medication.

Back to Dance Night

The night that Alyssa has been impatiently waiting for for weeks finally came!

Our little mommy

It seems like ever since Joel was born I've gotten comments on what a great little "mommy" Alyssa is. And she is. She's the sweetest big sister I've ever seen ~ oh she has her moments where she loves to terrorize him, but overall she's awesome. She's comforting, she always wants to make sure he gets the same things as every one else, that he's taken care of, etc.

She's getting to that age where its fairly common for her to start taking about imaginary friends (or in the case of another little girl in her preschool class imaginary siblings). Sophie has her best friend "Alyia" that comes over to play when Alyssa can't come over. And I never really thought about it until yesterday, but Alyssa always talks about her kids. Its "my girls" this and "my boys" that. They don't always have names (or if they do all the girls/boys have just one name), but its kind of funny that she refers to them in kind of a mothering manner.

I see you, Mommy!

Otherwise known as "outsmarted by an almost 19 month old".

Yesterday Joel ran a fever on and off, which I'm betting is due to teething. Last night he was really restless, so I was up a couple times with him rocking and cuddling. I started thinking after I had gone back to bed that maybe the reason he would starting crying/wake up when I put him down was because he was cold (I put him to bed in just a diaper and pair of shorts because his fever was high-ish when we went to bed), so after getting up with Alyssa, I decided to sneak in and toss a blanket over him. BOOM! Insert awake Joel. So, in my up since 1AM brilliance, I decided to dive to the side of the crib so he wouldn't notice me and then once he went back to sleep I could safely leave the room. Yeah, right. The side of the crib that you can't really get to because there's a TV tray in the way. It worked for awhile ... I kept checking on him and he was just staring intently at the door because of course I left it open when I came in to do the covering. He started moving around a bit, so I "dove" back into my non-so-great hiding spot, crouched down next to the TV tray, hoping that he was just going to give up and go back to sleep. After a couple minutes of silence I tentatively lifted my head to peek into his crib and there right next to me was a little blonde head, peering over the side, grinning from ear to ear because his silly mommy was attempting to play hide and seek at 2 in the morning. Busted. Oy.

That damn dog

At least 3 evenings in the past week I've been sitting at my computer finishing up odds and ends as Adam is doing his part of the bedtime routine with Alyssa and doggy fart comes wafting into the room. Lexi is always laying at the bottom of the stairs, so its not like she's close to me - I can't even see her, but I smell her. Its like the gas shoots out of her butt and makes a bee line around the corner and across the room to me. And the smell just keeps going and going and going. Its not a passing thing.

Remind me again why we don't send her to the glue and/or sausage factory ...

Let them eat ice cream

Last night I was a bit "miffed" at Adam because he had polished off the last of the ice cream. But trying to look for the silver lining, I decided to eat some of my "strawberry daquiri sorbet" instead ~ because of course sorbet is healthier than ice cream, right? Its God's way of intervening and guiding me towards the healthier alternative. Right?

WRONG!

Yes, the sorbet is fat free, but its still 3 weight watchers points per 1/2 cup serving. The EXACT same as a 1/2 cup serving of vanilla ice cream. So why the heck am I wasting my 3 points on that healthy "crap" when I *could* be eating the good crap?! Unfair. And now my so called "healthy" treat is tainted and doesn't make me feel so good about eating it anymore.

TGIBLD!

Thank Goodness its B's Last Day!

Today is the last day for one of my daycare kids. I have to confess, I am not sorry at all that he's leaving. I can't think of anything he had to "offer" my daycare ... unless it was more stress and gray hairs for me. I will miss his mom; she was a really sweet person and I do hope that maybe we can get the kids together from time to time. But as for "B" ... he caused so much stress and frustration on my part, he antagonized Joel, he was rough with toys, kids, Lexi, etc. Not a good "vibe" to have in the house.

There went my streak ...

I was motivated by my friend Christy's challenge to blog every day, so I was trying *REALLY* hard to post something every day. But then our house was invaded by a visitor from the East and everything fell apart. ;) Just kidding, Paula!

My wonderful friend Paula arrived Friday morning to spend a long weekend with us. I loved having her here, getting to spend time with her and having the kids spend time with her. We had a great weekend of all things girly ~ a trip to the zoo, shopping, pedicures, more shopping, chick flicks, ice cream, more shopping, lots of great food, laughs, and a little bit more shopping.

Today my mom came to town and we took Joel to get his 18 month pictures taken. We also did some fall shopping for the kids. I think they are pretty well set, although Alyssa doesn't have a whole lot of skirts/dresses. Not very practical for preschool, but if the "fancy" trend continues, I may have to go out and add a few more pieces to her wardrobe. I'm anxiously awaiting cooler weather now.

Overheard at daycare

I told Adam one time that I wanted to do an "overheard at daycare" blog after reading some of the "overheard in the office/new york/high school/at the beach" blogs. I don't know if I would really have enough stories to entertain people, but here's an "overheard" from today.

"Last time, when I was playing football, I saw a wasp. And that wasp ATE me on the arm. I was just looking at it and it ate me. And then it ate me on the other arm. And I didn't get the football! And then I died. Forever. "

The Blame Game

Yesterday morning Alyssa asked me if she could have a fruit snack. When I told her that she needed to wait until snacktime, she screamed "NO!" and hit me. So I told her that because she argued with and hit me she wouldn't get any snacks at all yesterday. About 10 minutes later she asked for a fruit snack again and when I reminded her that she argued with and hit me so she lost fruit snacks for the day she tried to convince me that it was Joel who hit me. I don't think so, kid.

Then this morning I heard some suspicious "scribbling" sounds coming from the closed laundry room. Upon investigation I found Alyssa looking wide-eyed with a purple crayon in her hand and purple graffiti on the back of the door. First thing out of her mouth was "Joel did it!". Riiight. So she had a time out and then she and I talked about how she's Joel's big sister and she has to think about what she's doing because he learns from her. And now she's trying to scrub off the crayon from the back of the door as the rest of her "punishment". Although I think she's rather enjoying using the sponge and "spray-y stuff", so I'm not sure how great of a punishment it is.

That which does not kill you ...

makes you stronger.

I went to my dreaded 10 year high school reunion this evening, and seeing as I'm blogging about it, you can see that it did not kill me. I'm not sure if I'm stronger, but I did have a really good time. I'm glad Eric and Hope guilted me into going. And I'm glad Adam went with me and had a somewhat enjoyable time ... what's more enjoyable that watching (mom, don't read this) your wife having too many drinks?!

I can't really explain why I was dreading this evening so much, but there was a part of me that felt like I would be 10 years older Christi in a room with my stilll 18 year old classmates and that I would stick out like a sore thumb. I was right on some level, probably 65 percent of the people there were still in the "let's chug beer and talk about how we kicked some _______ (insert other 3A school here) ass! Yeah!" type. But I really enjoyed spending time with the people that we spent time with. Most were people that I had at one time been pretty close to in high school and for some reason or another had drifted from during our years inschool. It was really nice to see that we had left that past behind and evolved into somewhat mature adults (I still stole Heidi's drink when she wasn't looking) that could enjoy each other's company while talking about kids, jobs, and of course the incredible device known as the Wii!

I get happy when ...

1. Joel sleeps until almost 10 allowing me to do important stuff like:
a. Give Alyssa my undivided attention so that she doesn't cry (tear free since 8:03!!! ... what's the remind you of, Boomer?)
b. Load dishwasher, sweep and mop breakfast nook, and declutter kitchen counters slightly.
c. Chat it up with my girl Angie for our daily "check in".

2. Alyssa and I cleaned her room with minimal fuss from her and minimal help from me. She probably did at least 75% of it on her own. Its amazing what the promise of chips for lunch and "winning" monies (she earned 23 cents for cleaning her room) can do to motivate that child.

3. I feel like I've accomplished something. See items 1 and 2.

4. There's the promise of 2 children napping at the same time today ... miracles happen, people, miracles happen.

5 MOST IMPORTANT! See sidebar for countdown ... Paula will be here in less than a week! One week from now I'll be touring the zoo with Paula and the kids; I can't wait!!!

I get crabby when ...

Okay, a lot of things make me crabby, but I'm having a crabby day, so I'm hoping that by identifying the things that are making me crabby today I will get said crabbiness out of me so that we have a somewhat pleasant day. Because Alyssa has burst into tears 3 times already this morning and its only 8AM. And I can't take much more of her emotional-ness in my current crabby state.

1. Children that wake up early. Thus waking me up early. And because she got up waaay early and didn't go back to sleep, becoming beside herself over the simplest things and crying/whining.
2. Children that go into their closet and take all their clothes off the hangers, then pile the hangers up in the middle of the room, but hide the clothes so that mommy won't suspect anything. Because I wouldn't notice that the normally full closet is empty. And then insert crying when I tell her that the first thing we're going to do today is clean up her room. Because she didn't do it, Joel did it. She means, Sophie did it. (Sophie did it once I pointed out to her that I didn't think that Joel could climb up and pull all the hangers down; but maybe I shouldn't underestimate him).
3. Kitchens where you can't see the counters. I cleaned the kitchen 3 times yesterday; I don't understand how it gets so trashed so quickly, but I hate, hate, hate looking at it. And I hate, hate, hate feeling like I do nothing but clean the kitchen all day.

Well, my favorite child Joel* will probably wake up soon, so I should go get the dishwasher loaded before I have to add "children who climb on/in and try to unload dishwasher while I'm loading it" to a thing that makes me crabby.

* disclaimer, Joel is only my favorite child because he's still sleeping and that DEFINITELY doesn't make me crabby. Things may change once he wakes up. ;)

I love school supplies!

I'm sure there will be a day that I dread buying school supplies because it means my babies are growing up and going out in the world to fend for themselves, but for now I LOVE it. To me it means cheap crayons, glue, and paper, which we can never seem to have enough of around here (because Alyssa doesn't understand that "less is more" and Joel likes to just destroy/rip/break things).

This morning I was at Target, so I picked up a few boxes of crayons, some glue sticks, colored pencils, etc. And since Alyssa has never really had a pair of her own scissors, I got her some "starter" scissors. And I couldn't resist the High School Musical folder. :) So for the last almost 30 minutes, the kids have been coloring together with new crayons, then Alyssa is cutting their papers and putting them in her new "holder". Okay, maybe Joel's eating a crayon or two, too. Its got fiber right? ;)

Guess who

is almost 23 pounds, almost 33 inches tall, and 18 months and 1 day old! Its our boy Joel!

Dear Joel,

You are absolutely everything I could have wished for in a little boy. You are a cuddle bug, yet fiercely independent at the same time. I'm so proud of everything that you have accomplished and I love watching you grow more every day. It makes me sad that you're quickly leaving babyhood behind, but each day with you had proven to be more and more amazing, so I try to enjoy and treasure the moments we have together each day and look forward to watching you continue to develop into your own little person.

You are brave. You will climb anything and everything that stands still (and sometimes try to climb Lexi). Your recent conquests have been the swingset and Daddy's ladder. I cannot believe how quickly you have mastered slides and ladders; you definitely are gifted in the climbing area.

You are a lover. We have finally gotten you to the point where you will (most of the time) give sweet, close-mouthed kisses. Although you do save some big sloppy ones for me, and honestly I love them. :) You really love your big sister and are constantly giving her hugs out of the blue. And she thinks that's the best thing ever. Lately when I've been dropping you off in the childcare room at the Y you'll let go of me, cling to Alyssa for a few moments, and then its like you know that you've got your big sister to protect and comfort you, so you're on your way to play. The last time I picked you up you didn't want to leave, which is quite the change from you bursting into tears as soon as I walked back in the room and rushing off to get our red bag so that we could get out of there ASAP!

Your favorite word right now seems to be "see". You use it to point out things that you've done as well as things that excite you and you want to share. You love to put other people's shoes on and you'll clomp around the house saying "see!? see?!" as you point out your accomplishment to anyone who will look.

We struggle with your love of hitting and pulling Alyssa's hair. I keep trying to tell her that you're just jealous of her curls and long hair, but I don't think she's going to buy that much longer. You do seem to love to hit whether with toys or with your hands. Its not always out of frustration or anger (although you do do that often and I can't say I always blame you because you're sister needs to work on her sharing and compromising skills); sometimes I think you just don't understand "nice" touches. It'll come. And you're always ready with kisses and hugs after you hit someone, so that helps.

Another love of yours these days is Lexi. You love to lay on her, climb on her, and give her hugs and kisses. It makes me miss Joey because I think you would really get a kick out of her being close to your own size. You're such a little fire ball of energy, I think you could really give her a run for her money. Of course, maybe that's not such a great thing. Maybe someday we'll talk Daddy into getting a smaller dog again. :)

I love you buddy bear.
Mommy

Note to self

Alyssa is a little too obsessive compulsive and/or panty-losing to be ready for day of the week underwear. It just causes stress.

I think I've mentioned that our girl is currently completely addicted to "High School Musical" and "High School Musical 2". So I, being the enabler that I am, bought her HSM panties. But it wasn't until we opened them that I realized that they were day of the week panties. Maybe they'll help her learn the days of the week, I thought.

This afternoon she was running around naked asking for panties and since I didn't know where her Saturday panties were I just handed her Tuesday ones. And here's what went down:

A: What these say on them?
M: T is for Troy and for Tuesday.
A: Tuesday? Today is Tuesday?
M: No, its Saturday, but I don't know where your Saturday panties went, so we'll just pretend those are Saturday ones.
A: My panties say "Saturday and T is for tea parties".

Okay.

Conversation with Alyssa 8-1-08

This may become a weekly installment, so I dated the entry. Here's a conversation that Alyssa and I had on our way to the bank/gym this morning. A couple months ago they broke ground on an elementary school down the street from us; the elementary school where Alyssa (and Joel) will go to school. We started talking about how they were building the school and that's where Alyssa and Sophie would go and eventually Joel would go when he got big like Alyssa, etc. So here's what she had to say today.

"There's my Sool!!" *after some thought* "They need to put a topper on it. And books in it. Books in it, and doors and windows and a teacher and then put the topper on. Right Mommy?".

Exactly.

Weirded out

All I can hear in the house is the sounds of "High School Musical". I'm guessing that my children have finally offed each other. So in honor of that I was just surfing around on facebook. And I was surprised to find that one of my best friends from college is friends with someone I worked with on an RMP film. Doing further investigation I realized that they graduated high school the same year and I'm sure they were probably both involved in the drama department, so I guess it it understandable. But it still seemed really strange to me.

Then I found another friend is "friends" (I added the "" because you can't really tell how close people are just because they are friends on facebook) with someone I went to college with. I think. I don't know that I really knew her, but the name sounds very familiar.

I guess its a small world after all.

Ah, back to the joyous screams and slaps that has been the soundtrack of my day. The children are alive and "well".