Wrestlemania

Here is a little bit of video of my monkey's Wrestling. They crack me up. And I know it may look like Abby is being tortured by her big brother, but believe it or not, she is the instigator. She loves it!

Christmas At Home

I know I'm late, but Merry Christmas to everyone reading this! Due to the holidays, Josh has got to spend some extra time at home which translates into: Josh got to spend a lot of extra time playing World of Warcraft. Not a big deal really, but unfortunately, this means no free computer time for me. So the blog got put on the back burner. But we have yet another long weekend coming up due to New Year's, so I best be bloggin' before it hits. Because for some reason, World of Warcraft trumps the Blog. Christmas was great this year. We stayed home. We don't usually travel on Christmas due to having kiddos now. I prefer for them to wake up to Christmas at home. I don't have a single memory of waking up anywhere but home when I was growing up. Christmas eve was spent with my dad's side of the family and the afternoon of Christmas day was spent with my mom's side of the family. Of course, that works when your entire family is located within a half-hour driving distance.
Anyhow, true to tradition, we spent Christmas Eve with some of my dad's side of my family. It was nice. My family breeds like rabbits, so gift exchanging just isn't realistic. But it's plenty of food and fun though. We got to take the kids on horse rides. Abby spent the day crying (she is apparently a home-body). While Alex spent the day following all of the kids around. His new best buddy is Jamie. He talks about him all of the time now. The day ended with two very sleepy monkeys.
Then Christmas morning came. My little monkeys had a blast waking up to presents under the tree. Santa gave Alex (and eventually Abby) a little trampoline. The presents were ripped open in under an hour and each toy was played with before 24 hours were up. I'm also sad to say that in that same 24 hours, we had two toy casualties as well. One of their marvelous presents was a little shopping cart with play food. It was, by far, the favorite toy they got. That was, until Alex attempted to ride in it and...well...let's just say that it has a one way ticket to the recycling bin next week. There is no hope for fixing the poor toy. It never had a chance. The trampoline came with a jump monitor that was pretty cool. It lasted about 8 hours and was snapped off. In the words of the dear doctor McCoy of Star Trek....It's dead Jim. It's got a lot of jump-life in it though. Even miss Abby has had a few turns on it. She can even climb on it herself. (much to my dislike) So thanks to all who got Alex and Abby so many wonderful toys and goodies this year. They were all winners. So here is the holiday in photos. We hope yours was as nice as ours.

My mother and father in law came for an early Christmas. Abby isn't so sure about Grandpa.

Alex found his new best friends on Christmas Eve. He LOVES his cousins Jamie and Linda.

Here is Abby on Christmas morning...note the shopping cart is still in one piece.

Alex and Abby sharing a gift. Though the 'sharing' doesn't seem to be Alex's favorite thing to do now that we have a plethora of new toys.

Here we see the kiddos enjoys stocking stuffers...

...more stocking goodness.

Here we have Alex with his new fire truck. The kid is obsessed with fire trucks.

My wonderful family opening gifts. Aren't those the greenest pants you have ever seen? Who doesn't love a good pair of Mt. Dew pajama pants. Yikes. We aren't exactly known for our keen fashion sense.


Here is Alex enjoying his Christmas stocking stuffer later in the day. Christmas Fun Dip. Who knew. Notice the candy in their mouths in most of the pictures? Yeah...they didn't really nap that day.

Giggles & Grumbles

There really aren't a lot of new things to talk about in these short few days before Christmas. So I figured I would talk about some of the funny and not so funny things that have been taking place over the last week. So here is my first blog of giggles and grumbles.

Giggle: In the past few weeks, Alex has become very aware of his diaper status. Within moments of pooping, he will come and tell me that he needs a new diaper. So I figure that if he is capable of doing this, then he is coming closer to his potty training days. So a few days ago, after he told me that he needed a his poopy diaper changed, I had the same conversation with him I usually do. Here it is for your enjoyment:

Alex: "Mommy, I need a change a poopy diaper!"

Me: "Okay. Bring me a diaper." (Alex lays on floor and changing commences.)

Alex: "I poopied."

Me: "Yes you did. Next time maybe you can can sit on the potty and poop, okay?"

Alex: "No, mommy."

Me: "Why not? Why don't you want to sit on the potty?"

Alex: "It too cold!"


Grumble: Over the past week, Abby has made her decision on what she would like her sleeping schedule to be. She has been gradually going to bed earlier and gradually getting up earlier as well. So for a week now, she has gone to bed at 8:30 and gotten up at 6:30 in the morning ready to start her day. Alex continues to go to bed at around 11:00. So now it appears that my children have gotten together and came up with this clever little scheme that one of them can be a night owl and the other one can be an early bird. Their ultimate plan is to rub sleep out of my life completely. Apparently God blessed me with children who believe sleep to be a dilemma and not a privilege. Grrr...

Giggle: Alex's new favorite thing to do is take a shower or bath at night. He has always liked bath time, but now it seems to be exceptionally fun for him. No idea why. But in support of his new found obsession, he has become prone to stripping down to his butt-nakedness at any given time during the day. Last night, right before dinner was to be served up, Alex came running out of the bathroom in all his glory. Apparently, he was ready to get clean.

Grumble: One of our five little furballs (the cats) have decided that they need to sleep with Alex at night. Not just with Alex, mind you, but on Alex. She is the little devil cat of the bunch and when you move a toe, she is prone to attack in full force. So for two nights now, I've woken up to poor Alex screaming from a cat scratch. So now, Jasmine has been banned to the laundry room at night. Oh...and yes...Abby wakes up screaming as well. Pitty screams, you know.

Giggle: If any of you knew Josh before I came into the picture, you should remember that he was notorious for wearing big, black framed glasses. He called them his 'sex-proof' glasses. He wasn't bound to meet a girl in those dreadful specs. That is, until I came along and saw past his exterior shield and made him buy wire-rimmed glasses. So for those of you remembering his former look, here are pics of what my kiddos are destined to look like. Aww...little Josh's.

Miss Abby's Skills

Thanks to my wonderful inlaws, I have an awesome new camera with the ability to take videos. So here I will make a feeble attempt in uploading one to the blog. Here is hoping it works. This is Abby using her fun talent of walking with toys. She just seems so small to be doing this already.

Is It Spring Yet?

Spring can not get here fast enough. Oh, I love Christmas time. It's a holly jolly time. Everyone is a bit nicer. Houses as far as the eye can see are dressed up in twinkling lights. Festive music can be heard in every store and feel good, holiday movies are on the TV. Yes...Christmas is nice. But unfortunately, with Christmas comes the dreaded winter. The bitter temperatures, the icy roads, the blankets of snow covering all that was once green. It's pretty. I can handle it. Kids can not. That beautiful blanket of glistening snow is merely an icy, white set of prison bars meant only for keeping energetic children inside. Mix that with the bitter, bite-your-nose off temperature, and it is a deadly combination resulting in the dreaded... (enter psycho music here)...Cabin Fever. Yup. My kids have it. It's not even the beginning of the cold days, and they are already bouncing off of the walls. Alex NEEDS his outside time. He begs me all day to go to the park or go outside and play and I have no choice but to tell him no. So to expel this insane amount of energy, Alex spends his time ramming the poor Christmas tree with his tractor and Abby practices pulling up and cruising on it's fragile pipe-cleaner branches. Why can't they play outside, you ask? Well, in case you aren't aware, we are amidst an arctic front and my wee ones have been battling various infections. Yet another reason we are desperate for the warmer days of spring. Alex and Abby got some kind of cold back on the day after Thanksgiving. They have yet to be well a single day since. Just when things were looking up and the snot was starting to lag, both of them got sick...again. Cue the snot rockets and breathing treatments. Hopefully they can all be well again soon and perhaps a few days will reach the 40's or 50's so that we can burn off a little of that Cabin Fever. Until then, you better pass me the glue...another Christmas tree ornament just bit the dust.

Timber!

It lasted longer than I thought it would, but today the Christmas tree finally bit it. Two weeks after the tree went up...it came crashing down. Alex decided that he would go behind the tree. Then once he was there he decided that he needed to come back to the front of the tree and instead of crawling underneath it like a good little boy, he opted for the more difficult route and attempted to shimmy his way between the tree and the couch. Due to space constraints, there was about a centimeter between the two and, needless to say, not enough room for a two year old to clumsily amble through. Before I had time to react, the tree lay helplessly on it's side with a guilty...and smiling...Alex standing next to it. He, of course, was proud of his accomplishment. This tree has fallen a few times in the past thanks to cats. But I suppose it only had one fall left in it. The base of the tree, made from cheap plastic, cracked into 4 pieces and is not fixable. I think I'm gonna try to find a new base for it this Thursday on my weekly run into town. Until then, it is leaning pathetically against the bookcase and the wall. Another victim of two-year old mischief. Poor thing...didn't even see it coming.

Frosty the Snowman

Winter is upon us and with the season comes many changes. Snow, colds, holidays, and much much more. And kickin' off the beginning of the winter season was a nice first snow. Alex was very excited about the snow. We have put up our Christmas tree and lights and the snow was just an added bonus of the week. Even though it makes driving conditions a bit on the worrisome side, it is nice to see the pretty white blanket of snow outside. Last year, Alex was a bit too small to appreciate the snow in all it's glory. This year though...wow. What a difference a year can man. We went outside yesterday and made our first snowman. Talk about bringing back childhood memories. The last time I can remember making a snowman was pre-high school. After making one with Alex, I realized just how much I've been missing in not making one every year. It was really fun. Abby stayed inside while she napped in her warm crib. Alex and I got all dolled up in our snow gear and headed to the backyard for some fun. He got a kick out of it and even put on the staple carrot nose. We finished off our hour outside with snow angels and snowball throwing then it was back into the warmth of the house for lunch. He was by far, no masterpiece. But nevertheless, here is our handsome snowman. He is the same size as Alex.

Note the pink snowboots. Well...my wonderfully giving sister-in-law has passed along many girl shoes for Abby. Oddly enough, these fit Alex right now and well...we don't have any boy boots for him as of now. I hope to get him a pair for Christmas though. Wouldn't want him to grow up with a complex, you know?

Anyhow, my poor little monkeys have been fighting...and I do mean fighting...a nasty cold. They both got sick over Thanksgiving and have been battling their best to get rid of it. Turned out that they got Croup and then after 12 days of green snot, coughing and sleepless nights, we headed off to the doctor for some meds. I would have waited it out, but Alex developed a fever of 103.5 and couldn't seem to shake it. Then to add to the fun, he got a nice head to toe viral rash. 15 days later, we still have green snot and wet coughs, but it does seem to be improving a bit for both my poor little monkeys. You see, when my kids get sick...the go all out. And for more added joy, Josh got really sick and then trailing the group in last place...I too have been hit with this lovely virus. Now believe me when I say it is a big deal that Josh is sick. In the entire time I've known him, he has been sick maybe 3 times. So this is big news. The guy must have superman's immune system. The doctor said that this was a pretty bad group of things for the monkeys and said that maybe this was the world's way of getting it all out of the way for the winter and we might get a nice illness free Christmas. Here's hoping.

Here are the monkeys enjoying a little playtime despite their colds.

And guess who just turned eight months old? Miss Abby! Hooray for my little girl! She is movin' along so quickly too. I sometimes can't believe that in a mere 4 months, we will have a one year old. *sniff* She is growing so fast. And just a couple of days ago she decided to try out a balancing act and let go of the couch to stand for about 3 seconds on her own. She cruises everything now and is using walker toys to make her way around the house when crawling just won't cut it. I looked back at Alex's baby book and she is moving a bit faster than Alex did. She wants to play with her big brother so badly. I imagine that this is the reason for her motivation.

Until next blog, I hope you all are having a Merry Christmas season and enjoying the

A Seinfeld Moment

So I have absolutely nothing to blog about right now. I actually have a spare moment to myself and time to sit here with my cup of ice cream and blog...and I have nothing. So I will take a Seinfeld moment. If you ever watched the show 'Seinfeld', then you would know that it was a show about nothing. So today I shall just mention a few moments of the past week or so.

This seems to be the only way I can get a picture of both of my monkeys together. Poor Abby.

Annoyances: The weekly Wal-Mart trip that I once enjoyed is now the one day of the week that I dread most. And today was the icing on the cake. After asking Alex to poop before we go to the store (he is a morning pooper generally), he proceeded in telling me 'no'. After waiting until about noon for the um...bomb to drop...I figured that his bout of diarrhea was over finally and decided to chance the trip in hopes of a poop-free outing. Alas...upon entering the doors of Wal-Mart, I caught a wiff of a dreaded dirty diaper. I lifted his shirt up to check if it was him or Abby, only to find that the poop had crept it's way up his back. I guess if you think about it, When you are sittin' there strapped to a carseat, the poop really has no other way to go but up. *sigh* I never thought i'd be hosin' down a kid in the Wal-Mart bathroom. These are things that no one ever warns you about.

How many people do you know that can have 5 cats all in the same picture at the same time? Oddly enough, this happens more than you think for us.

New findings: Every kid is completely different. To use a bulb syringe on Alex's nose is like pulling fingernails out with pliers. The screaming...the kicking...the crying...and that's just when he sees the bulb syringe in my hand. Abby, on the other hand sees the bulb syringe in my hand and smiles from ear to ear. She waits eagerly for it to go up her nose and giggles when I suck the boogers out. Alex wouldn't eat anything I put in front of him even if it was deep-fried in chocolate sauce. Abby inhales anything that is placed in front of her. Alex can thrive on zero sleep even at his sickest moments. Abby requires a minimum of 4 hours of beauty sleep per day or there will be hell to pay in the evenings. It's just weird how two kids can come from the same two parents and be totally different.

My dearest family chillin' on the couch. Don't we all have a keen fashion sense?

Current concern: What the heck am I gonna do with my poor Christmas tree this year? It is an older tree and has weathered 7 cats, 1 ferret, and 1 very curious toddler. I'm not so sure it has enough life left in it to weather an even more curious 8 month old who is currently pulling up on everything and putting any and all findings in her mouth. I guess tinsel is out this year...and ornaments...and lights....and a tree skirt...wait a minute. Why am I even putting the tree up?

Daddy plays WOW while holding daughter. How many men across the country do you think have this very same picture?

Don't mind me, I'm just chewin' on my toes while I watch George of the Jungle with my trusty blanket and Ape at my side. (I find it odd that he is so fascinated by people in loin cloths.)

Thanksgiving

Another year, another Thanksgiving. A day set aside to be thankful for what we have been blessed with. Not to mention a day to eat until you bust a gut. This year we packed up the monkeys and headed off to spend Turkey Day with my in-laws. It was nice to have a change of scenery for awhile. My brother-in-law, Ben, made a fantastic turkey and there were plenty of sides to go with it. My wonderful sister-in-law made all the efforts to make it completely Alex friendly with the one exception of the green bean casserole (a dish that would be impossible to be dairy-free). Of course, despite all of our efforts, mr. Alexander decided to not eat a single thing. This is, of course, including the pumpkin pie that took me almost 4 hours to make (boiling down soy milk takes a loooooong time.) All in all, it was nice to see everyone, but it is nice to be home. The trip had a few downfalls. And when I say downfalls, i mean fall downs. True to form, Alex was his usual monkey-self and proceeded on putting on a pair of snowboots. One of these boots has been not-so-affectionately renamed as 'the snow boot of doom'. He enjoyed wearing them around. It was cute...yeah...until he decided to wear one while going down a flight of stairs. You see, we live in a small house so stairs are very rare to come by for my kiddos. He is physically capable of going down them on his own, but apparently wearing one tennis shoe and the one snowboot of doom when you are really tired, makes for a disaster. He took one step down and tripped on said snowboot of doom and tumbled all the way down. One black eye and many bruises later, he is fine and back in the comfort of stairless land. I'm seriously reconsidering have a dual story house. Anyhow, to add insult to injury, both Alex and Abby got a nice cold that turned out to be croup and poor Alex got a secondary virus that involves explosive diarrhea. Poor kiddos. They are much better today and I think I may actually get a night of sleep tonight. On the upside, Alex LOVED being with his cousins. He loved it so much that it he refused sleep much of the time. He also has great fondness for his Uncle Ben. He talks about him all the time. Abby on the other hand did not enjoy herself so much. She was very clingy and hardly let me out of her sight. But on the last day or so, she finally warmed up to everyone. So right now, we are just hoping for an injury and illness free Christmas. My camera died while we were away so I didn't get any pictures of the trip, so here are some pics of the monkeys at home. I hope you all had a great holiday!

Alex and his best bud, Penny.

Abby sporting her headband...now all she needs are some leg warmers.

Adios My Old Friend

Finally. The day has arrived. I thought it might never come, but to my surprise and much awaited delight, the last days of the dreaded pacifiers have come to it's end. Just over two years ago, little Alex (not really so little as he was born at a whopping 9 pounds) was born and within 24 hours of his birth, I did the ultimate 'no-no'. After 29 hours of labor and hours on end of crying, a very tired mama (that's me), decided to give the little guy his first pacifier. It worked, and I slept. It was wonderful. Over the last two years, the pacifier has been Alex's best friend. In the night, he would happily suck it non-stop for his comfort (and mine). During his many trips to the hospital and doctors, he would calm down quickly with a pacifier to ease his distress. During colds, the pacifier would ward away his tears as he combated his snotty nose. It was his his true blue friend for two whole years. And then the pediatrician said it must go. We opted for the Pacifier Fairy for our battle to rid the house of the sucking monstrosities. It worked...for awhile. For two weeks, we were to say good-bye to one pacifier every third or fourth night. Alex would choose which of the 5 pacifiers he would never see again and place it in a basket. And the next morning, the Pacifier Fairy would leave a nice toy in his basket as a trade. 5, 4, 3, 2,....and then there was one. Upon this last night, utter horror broke loose at bedtime. Alex refused to say goodbye to his last orange pacifier. All hope was lost. I feared that I would infact have a 16 year old still hooked on this devil's chew toy. Then earlier last week, I sat down and had a nice talk with Alex. I explained how he was a big boy and that he wouldn't want to go see his cousins for Thanksgiving with a pacifier. And if he were to get rid of it, that next morning when he woke up, we would celebrate with a candy and ice cream breakfast. I, of course, was just floored when he looked up at me and said, "Okay, mommy. By Paci!" And that, my friends, was the end.
He slept without a pacifier for the first time in 2 years. The first thing he said to me when he woke up was "Ice cream and candy, mommy?" So we celebrated his 'big-boy' day with ice cream shakes (soy ice-cream), candy, and ice-cream cones. Prouder, I could not be. Here is my big boy with his celebration breakfast.

Abby has never really caught on on the pacifier. She is a thumb-sucker all the way. And I couldn't be happier. If a third kid is in the picture, I do believe I will avoid the pacifier. It may have a few pleasant advantages, but the side-effects can be a royal pain in the...um...mouth. And here is a picture of miss Abby. Ain't she just a doll?

Napping Hiatus

It's a phase right? At least that is what I keep telling myself. Alex has decided to give up napping. He's only two, so this has got to be a phase. I was under the impression that children needed naps up until at least the age of four. I have tried everything. He refuses to stay in his bed for even "quiet time". So I've come a a point now where I just don't know if I can keep forcing him to stay in there. It doesn't effect him though, if that is what you are thinking. He can go from morning to night without so much as an ounce of sleep and is just as happy at 10:00 in the morning as he is at 10:00 at night. Actually, he is crankier after a forced nap than he is without one. And to be honest, it's destroying poor Abby's sleep routine. She needs her sleep. And I do mean needs. She is a disaster if she doesn't get her 3 to 4 hours of daytime sleep. And now that they are sharing a bedroom (a joyful experience I hope to rectify one day with separate rooms), Abby just can't get sleep with Alex in there with her. He insists on keeping her awake. And the real trouble is that when she is sleeping soundly in her crib, Alex will go to take his 'nap' and will yell at the top of his lungs to entertain himself. He will then jump on Abby's crib railing and say "Abby, wake up!" This ends in the waking of Abby within moments and only leads to a very unhappy Abby. I'm not sure what has led to Alex's need to stay awake all day, but I'm starting to think he needs to have his brain stimulated more during the day. We already do playdough, markers, crayons, letter of the day, books, and dancing. He knows his alphabet and numbers for the most part, shapes, colors, and has mastered almost every puzzle we have in the house. What the heck else am I supposed to do with him for now? So unless I tie him to the bed kicking and screaming, it's either two frustrated children, or two happy children. I'm opting for the latter.

Thank You....You're Welcome

Manners. Do unto others...yadda yadda yadda. In the end, it really does pay off when it comes to your kids. Ever since Alex was born, i've made it a point to say please, thank you, and you're welcome when ever appropriate. Apparently it has all rubbed off on him. I remember working so hard to get him to attempt to use baby sign language and taught him to sign 'please' whenever he whined to get something. (I say whined, because at that time, he was incable of using speech to articulate his needs and wants). It worked for the most part, because he generally will say please now for whatever he asks for. But up until yesterday, 'Thank you' was not something he said on his own. Oh...he would say it when I asked him to say it, but it just doesn't mean as much when you have to force it out of him. Today when I asked Alex what he wanted to eat for breakfast and I gave him a choice. He asked for pancakes much to my surprise. I asked him if he wanted chocolate chips in him and he said yes. After dishing them out to him, he sat down to eat and before taking a bite, he looked up at me with those adorable eyes and said the magical words to a mother's heart. "Thank you mommy." I instantly melted and said "You're welcome". Well, later in the day I asked him to put his cup in the sink. After saying thank you to him for doing what I said, he looked at me again and said "You welcome mommy." Adorable.

Here is Alex in all his craziness. No, he isn't naked...there is a diaper in there somewhere. And yes...he got in there himself.

And here is Abby showing off her mad new skills. Pulling up before 7 months...I'm in trouble.

On some new notes, the kids have been sick over the last week so things have been kinda crazy around here with all of the lovely snot rockets coming out of everyone's noses. But that hasn't slowed either of the monkeys down at all. Abby is full on crawling now. She crawls pretty fast now and pulls up to almost everything...including my legs. She has also started to climb small obstacles in her way. She tried her hardest to climb the indoor slide we have, but has yet to master that feat...thank goodness. She also uses her ability to crawl, to make her way to any item that is considered a choking hazard. Hence, why we had to call 911 for a choking episode for her this past week. Lovely. Don't worry folks, she got it up before the ambulance arrived, but they checked her out anyways. Alex has continued, in spite of his illness, to learn a few new tricks of his own. Mind you, they are not necessarily good tricks. Apparently he just discovered that he has two holes in his nose and has decided that there are many new things that can fit up there. Great. And he is now learning cause and effect. So I spend the better part of my day explaining to him that just beCAUSE Abby is sitting there happily playing with a toy, does not mean that he can EFFECTively push her over to see what happens. Poor little girl has had more bumps on her head than I can even begin to count. Alex has also decided that whatever he eats, Abby can have too. So to date, miss Abby has had nearly every food that they tell you to NOT have until the age of one year. Milk and nuts excluded of course.

Halloween

I'm a bad blogger. I Don't post daily, but I try to at least post once a week. I have posted this week, as you may have noticed, but I failed to make a Halloween post last week. What kind of blogger am I not, to post on such a fun occasion? Well...at least I'm rectifying my mistake with a nice blog with plenty of photos. So here we go...

Alex was lookin' cool as could be in his costume this year. He picked Superman. And yes...I gave him plenty of costumes to choose from and he went with this. Gotta support our super heroes you know. He was loving it too. I half expected him to want to take it off half way through the night, but he was more than happy to keep it on. The two kiddos with him are my twin niece and nephew, Jamie and Linda. Jamie was a vampire (note the teeth) and Linda was a ghost.

Then we set off for the hunt of candy goodness in my brother Jake's neighborhood. At first, I was worried because so many candies have milk in them. So after much online research, I found a TON of candy options for our little dairy-free toddler. Skittles, Starburst, Dum-Dums, Smarties...the list is surprisingly long. True to Superman form, he was full of energy and speed after the high dosage of candy he ingested throughout the night. And he was more than happy to ask for a piece of candy before we got to the second house. Naturally, half of what was given to him was chocolate. What happened to the good old days when not everything was chocolate? I remember thinking it was a real treat to actually get a piece of chocolate candy. So here is a nice photo of him running with his loot.
He did pretty good. He said "Trick-or-Treat" like a little pro and knocked on doors with the best of them. He even weaseled a couple extra pieces out of a few nice older ladies. I mean, come on...can you blame them? Look how adorable he is!

As for poor miss Abby, she didn't enjoy the evening as much. She just isn't there yet. We didn't even torture her with a costume, but she sill managed to have the same look on her face most of the night. And here she is in all her tortured state. Doesn't she look miserable?

And here is a picture of him proudly displaying his pumpkin find from our little visit to the pumpkin patch. (See earlier blog post of the Pumpkin Patch). It was a bit small to carve, so we just drew a nice classic face on it.

Otherwise, Halloween was a blast. We came back from Uncle Jake's house and needed to wear him out more due to his sugar-high, so we trick-or-treated our neighborhood as well. The highlight of the evening was Alex's trip to the local firehouse. They were giving out all sorts of goodies and let the kids play on the fire trucks. Alex is obsessed...and I do mean obsessed...with fire trucks. Loves them. Talks about them all the time. So he spent about 20 minutes running all over the place with another little boy dressed up as superman. Naturally I was lacking my camera at the time. But let me just say, that we literally had to drag him from there kicking and screaming. Broke my heart to do it, but it was 10:30 after all. They even offered to take him for a ride someday when it is nice out. As we walked home, he called my mom and told her all about the fire-trucks. "Grandma, I ride in fire trucks!" Too cute.

George of the Jungle

I never really knew what to expect when it came to kids. All I knew, was what I had experienced with my many nieces and nephews. And when it came to movies or TV, I knew that eventually, each kid will find their favorite movie and want to watch it until their eyeballs fall out. And in my past experience, the kids I knew fell in love with cartoons. Thanks to Disney and Pixar, we have a plethora of cartoon movies to choose from. From Toy Story to Lion King, we own a good majority of the best ones. We have tried many of these movies on Mr. Alexander to no avail. No, I'm not pushing movies on him, but we got a little sick of watching YouTube videos and decided that there must be more to life than Elmo's World. So movie after movie was plopped in the DVD player and movie after movie was rejected with strong criticism on Alex's part. So we all but gave up until one day. We have quite a few old VHS tapes of movies and one of the ones I liked to randomly watch when there was nothing on (we have no cable now), was "George of the Jungle". Back in 1997, the wonderful world of Disney created a live-action movie of the very old cartoon series. It's a plucky comedy starring the well-toned Brendan Fraser and a various array of funny jungle animals. Of course, the most important animal is a talking gorilla, An Ape Named Ape. I plopped it into the old VHS player and to my surprise, he sat down and watched the entire movie, from start to finish. It didn't stop there though. He was in love. Here he is watching it for, what may be, the 10th time or so.

Then it became his obsession now for going on the last month. He watches it once a day (it's the only TV he watches now seeing as how Sesame Street is no longer available to us). My friends, when I say obsessed, I mean obsessed. George eats bananas in the movie so each time he sees George eating a banana, he runs to the kitchen, gets his stool, climbs up, and gets himself a banana. Which is funny because he had previously grew to dislike bananas for a long time. Now we go through many, many bananas a week. Hey...at least it's not candy or cookies, right? So here he is with his new love for probably the 20th time, if I could estimate.

And sometimes, he doesn't even make it through the movie, but falls asleep near the end. Here we have Alex and Josh having fallen asleep right near the end. Awww...precious.

He repeats lines, has fallen in love with his monkey stuffed animal (who yes...has been named Ape by Alex himself), and reenacts some of the funnier scenes of the movie on his spare time. It's very funny to us that he loves this movie. It's live action. He has been like this from the beginning though. He loves YouTube music videos, Home Improvement (the TV show), and now he is beginning to like two other movies. "Rocketman" and "Galaxy Quest". Both of which are also live action movies. No idea what has sparked this new passion, but we think it's just adorable and hey...it sure beats Elmo. I don't miss that furry red monster at all. So I guess, for now, we will enjoy "George of the Jungle" for a few million times until he moves on to his next obsession. I'm not complaining. It's a great movie and I highly recommend that if you haven't seen it, you should go out and rent it. It's a keeper.

The Pumpkin Patch

It's almost Halloween and with that, comes pumpkins. So my friend Mandy and I packed our kiddos up and headed out to one of the many pumpkin patches. They have a ton of things to do for kids there. It was fun to get out of the house and enjoy the nice weather we are having. Alex is at the fun age where taking him places like this is actually somewhat enjoyable to him. He got a real kick out of the whole thing. He got to ride the barrel train, which is just a little tractor that pulls barrels with seats in them.Then we all took turns going down a big slide that they built into a large hill. He also got to go down it by himself, but the first round, we went together.We enjoyed the corn maze. They also had a milo maze, but after one maze, Mandy and I weren't game to going through it.Alex has nine months on his buddy Wesley, so he got to enjoy more of the activities there. Even though, he wasn't sure how to hold on by himself, he got a kick out of the zip-line. Really, he did pretty well. I just basically held on to his belt loop of his jeans so he wouldn't drop and break a leg.And what is a trip to the pumpkin patch without a fun filled hay-rack ride. The tractor pulled us all down to the pumpkin patch and we all hunted for the perfect pumpkin. But to a two year old, the perfect pumpkin isn't round and orange. It's green, lopsided and worm-eaten. So here are the three kiddos lovin' on thier pumpkin finds.

Abby looks like she has three pumpkins there, doesn't she? Anyhow, Alex later ditched his green pumpkin and opted for a smaller gourd-like pumpkin. So for the final picture of the day, here is Alex showing off his awesome new pumpkin. And for more fun Pumpkin Patch pictures of the day, please visit my buddy's blog about The Pumpkin Patch.

The Night Owls

So I apparently have two very talented kids. Yes...they can do a very neat trick. They can shape-shift. By day they are monkeys and come evening, they shape-shift into owls. Not just any owls though. Night owls. Which I'm finding are the most annoying kinds of owls. I knew that kids take after their parents in a lot of aspects. But I had no idea that somewhere down the line, they could even pick up on your past habits. Pre-kids, I was the worst kind of night owl myself. Starting in college, I would stay up to the wee hours in the morning doing all sorts of things, from art projects to watching movies and chatting on the internet (which my poor roommate...sorry Mandy...had to deal with). I used to love to go to midnight movie openings and stay out until 3 or 4 in the morning. Alas...having children has given me a rude awakening on the true value of sleep. Since I got pregnant with Alex back in January of 2006, I don't believe I have gotten a full night of sleep since. Once he was big enough to beat my bladder to a pulp while growing him in my belly, I was up peeing all night. I truly believe that God tells the baby to beat your bladder so that you will get used to waking up every hour on the hour for the rest of your life. Now I have no stamina for the likes of those night owl days. I can manage a meager 1:00 in the morning on the weekends, but my days of all-nighters are far behind me I fear. Of course, their dad isn't exactly innocently going to bed at 10:30 like the good role model. No...he is guilty of weekend WOW binges. (that's World Of Warcraft for all you non-gamers) He can easly stay up until 4 or 5 in the morning on weekends. Of course, he doesn't have the joy of waking up 5 times a night with the kids and waking up at the butt-crack of dawn.

Here they are planning their nightly antics together.

So back to the kids. Yes...they are now taking after their mother-dearest and enjoying the fruits of the night hours. Last night, miss Abby decided to go on a sleeping strike and was up until 1:11 a.m. Alex wasn't guilt-free for the sleepless night either. He didn't pass out until well after 11:30. So you might be thinking that these late nights make for sleeping in for mama in the morning, right? No, no, no...no such thing. They were both wide awake and ready to start the day by 8:50 a.m. *sigh* I took a long look at myself in the mirror tonight and realized that I do, in fact, have the tell tale signs of weariness on my face. The dark circles and wrinkles don't lie, my friends. A night owl no more am I, but rather a tired mama with her two mini-night owls. Ahh...chips off the ol' block.

I like to Move It, Move It!

And she's off!! That's right. Abby is mobile. She has been 'mobile' for awhile now, but I believe now that I can officially label her as a movin' monkey. She isn't crawling, but she is commando crawling everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. She not only can get into any place her little heart desires, but she also can get herself into the sitting position on her own too. She also, as of last night, can pull herself up onto her knees if she has something to cling herself onto. Which of course only means one thing. She will probably be trying to pull herself to standing before I know it. She is one cute little movin' monkey. She pulls herself up to Alex when he is sitting down next to her and will cling on to him. Alex loves it and laughs the whole time. Which of course gets Abby to laughing too. They just lay around on the floor and tumble over each other. I call it baby wrestling because they lock their arms around each other's necks and it looks like they are wrestling. It's too cute. Well, here are some pics for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!