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Fun at the Res…

Growing up, “The Res” was a place that teenagers hung out and did drugs after hours. Turns out that the reservoirs in neighboring towns around here are actually pretty nice, and great places for families during the day on the weekends ;-)

Yesterday was a lazy day filled with rain and thunderstorms, tv and lazing about. Today we made some memories. I took a lot of pictures, we splashed in the water, we made a great sand castle with a moat.

Sure, we were an hour behind schedule getting there. We dawdled a little in Target. We all have sand in unmentionable places, and we didn’t manage to take naps. That stuff doesn’t matter; it’s not what we’ll remember. We’ll remember laughing. We’ll remember playing on the playground. We’ll remember trying to make a moat around our sand castle. We’ll remember the sprinkler. We’ll remember swimming with Daddy and splashing with Mommy.

Good times.

Summer {Wordless Wednesday}

image

She isn't very interested in taking a photo. :)

Cupcake loves to take pictures!

Sweet profile, little baby nose

Nothing like running full speed down a hill!

Learning to drive early

She bikes like a pro.

Joy

First of all, thank you all for your sweet compliments on my little mp3. You are all rockstars.

This weekend Geeklet hit another little milestone. She said her sister’s name!

Cupcake was so excited. She just busted out with it at the dinner table, like it was no big deal, and Cupcake was thrilled. “You know my name! She knows my name! Say it again! ”

That day had been full of suck until that moment. It’s amazing how one little thing can turn it all around.

Now if only she would say Mommy….

I have never been so excited about poop in my life.

From the moment you become a parent, bodily functions – pooping, peeing, and everything else – start to take up more and more of your time.

A lot of women have trouble controlling their bowels on the delivery table. One of the biggest concerns when the kid pops out is for the first black, tarry poop. After that, it’s a well known fact that new parents do not talk about anything other than poop.

In fact, until all your kids are potty trained? It is the number two agenda item. *

On Saturday, as I worked to rectify the naptime issues we have been having, Cupcake wanted to go potty. “I need privacy, Mommy!” So I went to the kitchen to grab a cuppa. I was almost done when she called out, “Mommy, I did poopy on the potty!”

This statement didn’t mean much to me – she is learning to potty and sometimes thinks her farts are poop. She has only pooped two other times on the potty – once was horrible, she was constipated and I had to help it out. A lot. The other was pretty good, but other potty setbacks meant it was a one hit wonder.

So I walked to the bathroom without expecting much but lo and behold! She did poopy all by herself!

It is so silly and simple, but the look of pride on her cute little face matched the bursting swell of pride in my heart.

That is what parenting is about. Being proud of everything, celebrating life with these kids… even the shit.*

*those are my best attempts at poop puns. Please forgive me.

Sunday Memories

Today rocked. I mean seriously rocked. In the morning I got to sleep in (after being up with the baby for an hour from 5am to 6am  & then waking hubby to switch out).  I was in bed until 8:30am and that rocked hardcore.

The kids played all morning, inside & outside. I got some critical project work done and then it was naptime. Naptime yesterday didn’t happen. Hubby tried, and it just didn’t work out.. his reaction wasn’t right, her reaction wasn’t right.. it just didn’t work. I knew today would be tough so I took it, I’ve had more success adapting to her mood & switching up my naptime style than DaddyGeek does.

Everything was all good until the second potty trip, and then she started up with bouncing on the bed, giggling, and generally doing whatever she could to stay awake. I opted to talk to her about it rather than play “stern mommy”, and it actually worked.  I told her that even if she didn’t want to nap, she needed one, she had to nap, and those were the rules. I can’t change the rules, babygirl. She finally settled down. She wasn’t happy about it. Then she conked, because DUH, she was tired even though she refused to admit it :)

So, for an hour while both kids slept, IT WAS BLISS. Got more critical project work done. Then we all packed up & headed to the park to enjoy the rest of the day. We played at the park, then got ice cream, then headed home and had movie night. Watched UP!, ate popcorn, ate pizza & mozarella sticks, and generally didn’t do *anything* until bedtime. That, also, was awesome.

These are the kinds of weekends I want to be having with my kids. Not a sequence of two stressed out, running around, errand-doing days. I want to make memories.

Cupcake {Making Memories}

Cupcake,

You will be four years old in June, and you say the funniest things. Your vocabulary is growing in leaps and bounds (hell, you know what leaps & bounds means!) and you surprise me, all the time. It’s little things. Today while we were going potty you put your hand on my knee while getting your Pull-Up on. You said to me, “I’m holding your knee to keep me steady!”

For some reason, that sentence crushed me. You’re not a baby anymore. You use words like steady in context, instead of just saying “so I don’t fall down.”

You are currently obsessed with dresses. Not all dresses. In fact, half the time the “dress”you want to wear is a tunic with leggings. Your favorite, though, is this shirt and pant combo that Nana gave you. It’s light purple with little white flowers all over it. The shirt has a ruffle on the bottom and it’s a little bit long. You call it your purple dress. You would wear this every day if you could. You completely freak out when we tell you it is dirty and needs to be washed.

Last night you were extra cranky. You missed your nap, and I didn’t catch your tired signals in time. Nothing made you happy! You wanted more tv, but I shut it off AND made you put on pajamas. OH THE INJUSTICE OF IT ALL. You pouted and balled up your little fists and said “Mommy, you made me mad because you turned the tv off. You made me mad because you put these ‘jamas on me. I’m grumpy.”

I told you that I was proud of you for using your words instead of having a temper tantrum, and then I played peekaboo and tickled you into a good mood again.

You are so independent, my beautiful girl. I long to hold you and cuddle you all the time but you just want to run and play. I cherish our moments. I love you.

Love,
Mommy (thank god you started calling me Mommy again! )

Mind dump.

This post is exactly what you think it is. Brace yourselves.

  • Hubby is away until Thursday night. He’s in Florida until then. In fact ,as we speak, he is attending his Uncle Frank‘s funeral. Not what we expected to be doing this week… apparently he had high blood pressure. No one knew, he hadn’t been treated for it. Please, folks – go for a yearly checkup with your doctor.  Meanwhile, I’m single parenting it until he gets back.. but not really. Uncle J (who is not really an uncle, but DaddyGeek’s best friend from childhood, who moved here last year and who is also Geeklet’s Godfather) has been a huge help. I mean, above and beyond. Seriously. He shoveled a space for my car at the apartment complex. Just for us. He helps with the kids, he helps get Geeklet to sleep and puts up with the incessant questioning and requests by Cupcake. He cleaned my kitchen. He cleared the snow off of our second car, which we aren’t even using this week, just so we didn’t have to do it later. He takes the trash out. He’s been awesome. Last night my mother did a whole judgy-thing about why he was there helping… apparently I’m not allowed to have help? I don’t know. Whatever – he’s been awesome, she can keep her opinion to herself. Things could have been far less awesome this week. For example, I could have had to deal with my massive head cold, the girls’ massive head colds, plus Cupcake’s puking on Sunday night 4 hours after DaddyGeek’s plane took off all by myself. But I didn’t. Mother can judge away, but the kids are doing better for J being around.
  • Work. Work work work. There is a lot of it and I am barely keeping my eyes open after the kids go to sleep, so projects have been moving more slowly than I’d like. Thankfully I punched out a lot of work last night and today, so I’m nearly back on track. I don’t see it letting up this month at all. Oh, PS — did you know January is ALMOST OVER?!
  • I got a new planner. It’s a GTD planner, and I love it, and it’s helping me be organized, and I love love love it. Seriously. Love. It. I’m usually a digital gal but I truly enjoy literally penciling something in. Or, penning it in. I hate pencils. It’s a texture thing.
  • I am behind on blog reading, and I feel sorely out of the loop. It’s making me cranky. I have over 350 unread posts that I can’t get to. Also, my fishes, farm, deserted island, restaurant, cafe, zoo and pet on Facebook are feeling neglected. (lol)
  • Taxes soon. I do taxes for my whole family (incl. brother, mother, sister, us) and I am not looking forward to all. those. fucking. numbers. I hate numbers. Speaking of taxes, next years taxes are going to be all sorts of borked. Also I have to start setting aside money for estimated tax payments. Not fun, y’all!
  • I have about 4 posts planned in my head about songs that are meaningful to me, but I never get around to writing them.. I really should, because they are cluttering things up. Do you care about songs?
  • I’m pissed at Mother Nature for starting 2010 off with the Haiti Earthquake. I’m pissed there isn’t more I can do.
  • I finally decided I really do need to stop eating such disgusting food and do something about my weight, and my health, and my general fitness. I ate four donuts yesterday morning. FOUR. And another today, even though it was stale. Not good. So for lunch I had a Lean Pocket. It was hardly satisfying.. though could have been worse. I wanted to eat two. I ate one. Now if I can just keep that up, I can lose the baby weight, which is no longer baby weight, and is actually pastry weight, but saying pastry weight doesn’t sound as legit so baby weight it is.
  • Speaking of babies, I don’t have any anymore. I have two toddlers. Geeklet is 14mos now and is walking and running and climbing and doing things she shouldn’t do, and saying things like “ceiling” and “nana” and “daddy” and “yes” and she thinks it is funny, oh so funny, when you shake your head yes or no at her. She also loves: spinning, trying to eat lightbulbs, the TV clicker, anything that is electronic that she isn’t allowed to have, mashing the keyboard. Cupcake is 3.5 and is amazing. She’s getting ready to be rid of her bedtime bottle (no judging you whore) and we are so close to really getting somewhere with this potty training (again with the lack of judging!) and bedtimes have been better on a whole. She is saying adorable things, and her favorite joke right now is to substitute the word “underwear” anywhere in a sentence unexpectedly to make you laugh. She also loves jumping around, playing tag with herself, saying grown-up things like “You can say that again!” and “Oh brother!” and she knows how to work the DVD player. She also DM’d @chibijeebs for me the other day, which was oh so sweet of her. (lol)

Since I can’t get over to your blogs/twitter/whatever why don’t you tell me in the comments what’s up with you?

Girls Rule, Boys Drool

We have two little beautiful girls – Cupcake and Geeklet. If you’re new around here, you may not know what Cupcake is 3.5 years old, and Geeklet is recently 1yr old. I love them to pieces – for all the usual reasons, but also because:

  1. You never have to worry about not having enough Reds to run a full load. Ever.
  2. No pee-pee tee-pees.
  3. They have the most *adorable* clothes. (Though honestly, nothing beats a 2 year old in a tux.)
  4. The shoe selection is much wider.
  5. They can wear all the colors, even the boy colors, and all you need is a bow to let the world know you’ve still got a GIRL here.
  6. The bows. Oh gosh, the bows. Headbands SQUEE!
  7. Frilly butts. On tights, pants, onesies, you name it. I LOVE A RUFFLE BUTT.
  8. Easily entertained with one doll, two dresses, and a pair of shoes.
  9. Easier potty training.
  10. Less likely to hear things explode when I’m not looking.

Do you have boys or girls? Why do you love it?

Things I Never Thought I Would Say

Yes, you can eat under the table as long as you are quiet.

“Yes, those are Mommy’s boobies. No, you can’t touch them.”

“Don’t smother your sister!”

“No! We do NOT eat POOP!”

“That’s called your vagina.”
“My ‘agina?”
[stifled horrified laughter - good lord that sounds wrong coming from her]
“No, Mommy was wrong. Those are your lady parts.”

“Get that plug out of your mouth. Now. Seriously.”

“We do NOT eat lightbulbs. Ever!”

“OH MY GOD there is a Phineas and Ferb WIKI. I’m in love.” [bookmarking it]

I love you, Mommy

I was headed to bed last night. I was sleepy, padding around in my PJs making sure everything was locked up and the floor clear of death traps toys so that we’d have a path to Cupcake’s door if she needed us at night.

I went to Cupcake’s door to open it up a little bit, and put something i n the door to keep it from closing all the way. With all the humidity around here, it’s been swelling and sticking. She woke up the other night, scared of a “bug” – or a bug – in her bed and couldn’t get the door open. She was terrified (naturally) and has talked about it for a couple of days. I told her I’d make sure the door didn’t stick ever again and damnit, that’s one promise I’ll keep.

As I adjusted the door, she awoke. She said sleepily, with this tone of wonder and amazement, “Mommy!”  I walked over to her bed to give her a kiss. “I love you Mommy,” she said sweetly, holding out her arms for a hug.  We embraced. “I love you, sweetpea,” I whispered into her hair. It had just been washed… I love the way she smells right after a bath.

She looked up at me and said, “Mommy, you’re sooo pretty!” and then fell promptly asleep.

We all slept well last night. There is something magical about those moments that fills me to the brim.

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