Tuesday, November 08, 2005

The First BodySlam

You all know that when you have your second child, it is inevitable that the first child will push, pull, steal, and do who-knows-what-else when Mommy isn't looking in order to make sure that baby sibling knows who's been around the boat more.

And all Moms secretly wait anxiously for the day when the baby sibling figures out that he just isn't going to take it anymore.

Well... that time has come!


This weekend, my mom took my daughter for the weekend. So Noel and I spent the weekend smoking a brisket and just having some good old-fashioned bonding time with my son.

When my daughter came home, she was suffering from post-Mimi-hyperactivity-disorder. (All parents with grandparents who spoil know what I am talking about). She was everywhere... bouncing, singing, playing, yelling.

In the midst of this celebration, she laid on the floor.... and that is when he took his shot.

From nowhere, my son slyly walks up to my daughter and ... whammo! Lands right on top of her... BODYSLAM!

I couldn't help but just laugh and laugh and laugh. The proper response from a good mom would probably have been "Now son, please get off your sister... it is not nice to pile drive her like that"

My actual response was more like "Woooo Hooo! You go Son! What a big boy!" Which translated to toddler-ese meant "Oooohh... I did something great... look at my mommy react... I need to do this more often!"

Fortunately, my son suffers from short attention span (anyone remember ten-second-Tom from 50 First Dates???) And he is easily swayed by the offer of food.

So a few seconds post body slam, my son was up and wandering around again...Moments of hilarity.. then... over.

I can't wait until Round 2.

I will explain the consequences of these actions at a later time....maybe.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

The Present

So, Noel and I decided that we would like to have a swingset in our backyard for the kiddos to play on so the older one isn't confined to the house during the younger one's nap time and vice versa. We really approached this in a very scientific matter... we listed our needs:

1) we need 2 swings - to avoid the drama
2) we need a fully enclosed loft area... if provided - minimizes the trips to the ER, hopefully
3) we need a slide


Fairly simple, right? So we were off on a mission.

We started at Sams... Great set there. Priced as expected. Roof looks a bit cheesy, but could be replaced and the set as whole looked really cool to play on. OK Check. Remember that.

Next was Costco... they had a set made by Rainbow, who everyone knows makes a really great playset. But they also love their playsets... ($$$) . Costco had one for the same price as sams... really cool. But the problem with this one was that we would have to order it and that would cost an additional $500 for shipping... (800 pounds of lumber... of course it costs that much)

Next we thought... Hey, we will build our own from scratch.... went to Lowes and Home Depot. Cute plans for the sets... but it dawned on us there... we would have to cut all of the lumber then stain it....ummm..... maybe not.

So, after about 2 weeks of research, we decided on the Sam's set. Unfortunately, the weekend we decided that we would build it (we had made arrangements for our 3 year old to be at her Mimi's house) was about a week too late for the set at Sams. they were sold out and wouldn't have more until after Christmas. Bummer. back to the drawing board.

Anyway - long story short... (like it is really going to get shorter...) Noel found out that Rainbow sells a kit that sells for about the same as the Sams package. So we went out there and bought it. We were chatting with the salesman about the construction... Noel and I figured it would take about 8 hours or so to construct... the salesman says... "Three hours.." GREAT! that is fabulous...we will have it done by the time our daughter gets home that night.

Three hours... HA! The bag for the screws was larger than my pillowcase...

Three hours....

That night (about 12:30am.... after the time change) we had the fort built. That is all... No monkey bars, no rockwall,....

then things got interesting... we wanted to keep this as a suprise for our daughter, so we had to hide all the construction items (lumber, screws, the BIG YELLOW SLIDE) and had to hide Daddy all day Sunday so he could finish.

Sunday came and went.

After the kids went to bed Sunday night, I went back out to help with setting the monkey bars and all...

We decided that after all was said and done, it took us about 16 hours to do a "Three hour" project.

We are still recovering. Fortunately, we are still happily married, didn't pull any muscles and shed only a little bit of blood.

Monday morning, the set was complete and we suprised our daughter with it. She LOVED IT and still refers to it as her "present".

I really hope Christmas assembly is much faster.

Friday, August 19, 2005

Jesus Flag

Lauren goes through these stages where she will just suddenly come up to you and want hugs and kisses. Fine with me. Soon will come a day when she won't want them as much anymore... that will be sad. But in the meantime, I relish in these days.
Anyway, she came up to me and wanted hugs and kisses. So, I obliged.
Then, strangely, but not really cause she is a silly little girl, she wanted to kiss my shirt. No, this isn't like the pope and his ring, I am just wearing the ever so elusive and stylish 2005 Old Navy flag shirt.
I asked her if she knew what was on my shirt. (fortunately, I had no spit up on me this morning). She said "Flag". ( I will spare you the actual annunciation she gave, since she still works with the letter "L".)
I asked her if she knew who's flag it was. She looked me square in the eye and said "Jesus's".

And there you have it.
It is amazing what you can learn from your child. Things that you thought that you knew. But you forget the basics.

Friday, July 08, 2005

The Real Monet

I was always decent at art. My macrame and clay handprints were always the envy of the other 5th graders. But never in my wildest imagination would I think that I would be held to the highest standard of artistry.
Since I had Lauren, I have become the QUEEN of drawing. I do snowmen, cats, bears ... I even learned how to draw Minnie Mouse. But, the absolute best thing I do is Veggie Tales. Apparently, my husband isn't any good at Veggies... Mommy is the one to draw Bob, Larry, Junior, Mommy and Daddy Asparagus and the Gourds too.
Whenever there is a crayon and a blank peice of paper, Bob must be drawn first.
It is nice to know that I am absolutely the best at something.... at least in my daughters eyes. It is a big boost to my spirit.
Maybe someday I will post some of my "art".
In the meantime, it will just be for my girl.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Projectile Vomiting

Projectile Vomiting. I had never heard this terminology until I had my first child and was flipping through my Dr. Spock book during her naptime one afternoon. "Ha ha. That's funny. Seriously, that only happens in the movies"

Little did I know.

I was reminded of this early this week when after feeding my son his bottle, I received what we can call "the fountain of Enfamil".

Fortunately, my husband was still home so he could answer my scream of "AGHHHHHHHHHH" with a hand towel. (You know you are a real mom when your kid is vomiting... into your cupped hands. :) )

But you know, little kids are so "hearty" I guess you can say. Tyler spit up his entire 6 oz then smiled. "All better", I am sure he was thinking.

This makes me think of Jeff Foxworthy... You may be a redneck if...
In my MOPS group, we take time to share mom stories... "Real Moms..."

I once shared the following: "Real moms... use their t-shirt to wipe their kids nose when a Kleenex isn't available."

You can get real sentimental about this... "Real moms give up buying themselves things, so they can provide for their families", but most moms do that and that isn't really funny.

These should be things that you are afraid to admit, but are pleasantly surprised when you aren't the only one who does this. "Real moms lick off their baby's pacifier then give it back after it falls on the ground in Walmart".

I love those real mom moments. They do still freak my husband out sometimes... but he just doesn't get it... he isn't a mom.

Sunday, April 03, 2005

Sleep

I went on a women's retreat this past weekend. I initially was very excited about this for a very strange reason. According to Lynda-Logic, "Retreat" was synonymous with "Get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep". (Just to clarify, my son is sleeping through the night, but he hasn't yet learned to stick the paci back into his mouth AND we still haven't trained the dog to let herself out to go potty. There is nothing better than being woken up at 3am to "pant-pant-pant")

Isn't that sad? Looking forward to sleep...not the content or the girls I was going with, but the sleep. (BTW, the retreat was EXCELLENT!) I will share some of my thoughts on that at another time.

Anyway, in all my foolishness, I neglected to remember that I was going on a ladies retreat with LADIES!!! Ladies = Talking. So my 8 hours turned into 5 hours. But it was uninterrupted. And I wouldn't trade the time I spent chatting with my roommates or the other ladies for 3 more hours of sleep.

To top it off, when I got home Saturday, I had to deal with the depressing fact that Daylight Savings Time was starting. YIKES! I really hate it when my sleep is taken from me. Sleeping, Showering, Naptime. Gotta love those.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Little Girls

Little girls crack me up. A year or so ago, a girlfriend of mine asked me if my daughter liked to change her clothes several times a day. I looked at her confused and replied "No. Why, does yours?" Sure enough, she told me that her daughter liked to change her clothes at least 3-4 times a day. Hmm, just think of the laundry.

So lately, my daughter has adopted this behavior. Most of the time it is driven by this deep need to wear her minnie mouse shirt whenever she sees it. If it is in her laundry, she will pull it out, then put it on. Day after day after day. If it is in a stack of folded laundry...instant "Want Minnie Mouse".

But it doesn't stop there. Just today, she was playing in her room. She went in wearing one outfit, came out dressed for bed (although she had her pull up on over her pajama bottoms), went back in and came out in a different outfit. She seemed satisfied with the third outfit, at least for the time being. It isn't even naptime yet.

But what a little personality she has. I can't figure out if she is going to be a tomboy or a girly girl. It is one one day and the other the next. Doesn't matter to me though... she is MY girl!

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Favorite Time of Day

You gotta love naptime. 1 1/2 - 2 hours of peace and quiet. Sometimes I feel guilty for enjoying it so much, but then my 2 year old wakes up and it is non-stop once again. Toss the 5 month on in and it is a sprint for the rest of the day. Today my oldest is at MDO. Gotta love MDO. Good for her, good for me. My youngest is sleeping now and so I get to catch up on my email and take surveys...someday I will win that promised "$500". Sure.

Got an email from a friend this morning about my neighbor. She has lymphoma. She also has 2 kids and a husband. Her youngest and my oldest are 2 months apart. She is WAY TO YOUNG to have to endure what she is going through right now. Anyway, she is currently in ICU. She had to be resuscitated last night. Lord, if it be your will, save her! If not, comfort and prepare her family. Fortunately, she is blessed with extended family that is nearby and willing to help as well as numerous family friends who would give their right arms for them.

Thinking of her makes me give thanks for what I have. 15 extra pounds. But I am healthy. A messy house, but I am home to play with my children. Lots of laundry, but I am here to fold it and bury my kids in it...

Monday, March 21, 2005

Opening Day

So I thought that I would just share some of my stay at home mom stories with anyone who cares to read them.... Mainly grandparents I am sure, but those others that come across these pages, I hope that you enjoy these silly stories.

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