Hi Daddy!

Just a shout out to Daddy from the kiddos. Missin' you!

Giggles and Grumbles: Issue #2

Giggle: Kids say the darndest things and with Alex learning new words daily, he picks up on all sorts of things. But sometimes he just can't get it quite right. Today, in an attempt to take a relaxing moment, I made a nice cup of hot cocoa. While drinking it, Alex asked me what it was and I told him it was hot cocoa. He looked at it, obviously wanting some too and said, "Mommy, I need some hot dog cocoa too!"

Grumble: Josh is gone on yet another trip for work. He is gone for the entire week, so things can get a bit hectic around here with old mom getting zero breaks. So Alex has decided to rebel again and won't take his naps. In a desperate attempt to get him to just stay in his room for a little quiet time, I placed an old reliable baby gate up at his door to keep him at bay. Um...apparently this made him angry because he proceeded to lay on the ground and throw one heck of a temper tantrum....for AN HOUR! That is NOT what I call quiet time. Honestly, I'm very surprised that I have not had curious neighbors knocking on my door to see if someone is being beaten or something. Terrible twos...ugh.

Giggle: Having a boy and a girl is interesting. Especially at bath time. Alex notices there is a slight difference between him and Abby. To save time, they of course get to bathe together. Alex had attempted, in the beginning, to poke and prod poor sissy in her private area and ask what it was. So after a few times of explaining that 'we don't touch other people in their special place', he caught on and it has never been a problem since. But this morning when I was changing Alex's diaper, Abby went to go grab him in his special place, he pushed Abby's hand away and said, "No Abby! No touch my willie! That's mine!"

Grumble: Abby is teething. The poor thing has been teething for months it seems. Her entire bottom gumline in the front is grey-white and swollen. She now has a mild fever and is very grumpy nearly all the time. She has yet to have one tooth bust through. I know I will regret wanting those teeth to come through so badly due to the fact that I am still breast feeding, but carrying around a 20 pound kid all day due to a sever case of the grump-a-lumps is exhausting.

Giggle: Alex has taken to imitating Josh in every way possible, including peeing standing up and shaving. So Josh let him pretend to shave with him. Too cute.

Giggle/Grumble: With the coming of winter, comes giant gas bills. Not unusual, but annoying. But that really isn't the grumble part. As if our drafty house didn't make it hard enough to keep it warm, the cats decided this year to make it just a little harder on the heater. At least two heater vents are covered at any one point during the day by one of our well-fed cat's bodies. It's kinda funny too. You know that they are just trying to stay warm in this lovely winter weather. Each picture is of a cat on a vent...even if you can't really see the vent.



See here for more Giggles and Grumbles that you may have missed.

Harry Potter the Next Generation

Here's a nice pic of my family...even Logan joined the nightly book reading.

It seems to be that Alex has switched his movie obsession again. It goes through phases, so I've noticed. About a week ago, I made the decision to have a Harry Potter movie marathon to pump myself up for the new upcoming movie in July. I put the first movie in during nap time. Now, seeing as it is a 2 1/2 hour long movie, I didn't quite make it through the whole thing. I stopped it when the kids got up and was planning on watching it later when they went to bed. Thus, the movie case sat atop the TV in plain view. I didn't think much of this. I mean...honestly, Alex didn't even know what Harry Potter was. He has a habit of wanting to watch any of the movies that are within his grasp. This is why we no longer have movies in his reach. It can drive you a bit batty to have a kid asking to watch whatever movie he finds, over and over and over....ahem. Sorry. Let me continue. Alex spotted the Harry Potter DVD case and reached up to grab it, brought it immediately to me, and said, "Mommy, I wanna watch Harry Potter!" More surprised, I could not have been. I mean, how on earth he knew it was Harry Potter is beyond me and what surprises me even more is that he even knows what Harry Potter is. The only explanation I could conceive, was that when I was pregnant with Abby, I was reading the books every night while I patiently sat in his room waiting for him to go to sleep. He can even point out which kid is Harry Potter on the cover and knows Harry, Ron, and Hermione when he watches it. I am also continuing my Potterthon with another round of the books. I'm currently on the first one and about one chapter away from the second book. Alex spotted me reading it the other day and said, "Mommy read Harry Potter?" I believe he is recognizing the Harry Potter font now. It's impressive. Needless to say, his new favorite movie is Harry Potter. And for all you parents out there wondering about freaky Voldemort...yes....I skip the scary part at the end. He loves it. So it looks like yet another generation is about to be sucked into the craze that is Harry Potter. I've bred a little nerd...isn't it wonderful?

Mission Impossible

Okay, so I don't really have a spare moment here to be blogging, but I just realized something. Exercising with children is virtually impossible. Okay, impossible may be a bit of a stretch, but it is pretty darn close to it. I have decided to try yoga in hopes of regaining a bit of my past body. (note that this goal itself is a highly unlikely possibility due to the damage my children have already inflicted on my body) So I set out to find a nice beginners yoga dvd and have now attempted do it a couple of times. Um yeah...trying to achieve the downward-facing-dog position with one kid dangling off of your neck and the other riding on your back is something only superman could achieve and even then I think he might find it a bit difficult. 10 minutes into the routine, I gave in to the insanity of my children and decided it wasn't worth the battle. Looks like it's flabby abs and a saggy bottom for this mama. Exercise truly is Mission: Impossible.

A Good Man

I'm sad to say today President Bush is no longer our president. I'm sad to see him go and hope the best for him. Good bye and good luck Mr. President. We will miss you and all you did for our country. Best of luck back home! The new president has some very big boots to fill.

Uncle Ben's House

I never knew that a two year old could become so obsessed with single ideas. I actually didn't know that they could think about the same thing for such a long period of time. I just assumed that they would talk about one thing one minute and quickly move on to the next subject without a second glance back. Apparently, I was badly mistaken. Alex has become dead set on the idea that we are going to Uncle Ben's house. Now where he got this idea, is totally and completely beyond me. I never mentioned it. Josh never mentioned it. Please keep in mind that Uncle Ben is one of Alex's favorite people. He is quite fond of him indeed. Alex is drawn to the male influences in his life. He is consistently talking about them. But Uncle Ben is right up there on the very top of his A-list. Yesterday he woke up with this idea that we are going to see Uncle Ben and has stuck to his guns about it. In fact, it has become so engraved in his mind, that he begged Josh to let him talk to uncle Ben and ask him if we could come to his house. Ben, being the wonderfully patient uncle he is, listened to his every word on the phone and told Alex that we could maybe go up for Superbowl. I think today if I could have an 'Uncle-Ben-Counter', I would have heard the words, "I go to Uncle Ben's house," at least 200 times. And no...I'm not exaggerating. It's a bit annoying, really. Cute. But annoying. So get the guest room ready, we're goin' to Uncle Ben's house!

On a non-Uncle Ben related note, Abby has been walking more often lately. She surprised me by walking about 10 or 12 steps from one couch to the other. Without a bat of an eye, she took off to her planned destination. Then turned around and did it again. She is still quite content to utilize crawling as her main form of mobility, but she tries to walk a few times a day. Practice makes perfect, you know. Here she is standing on her own.

Each week, we have our play-dates with my friend Mandy and her wee little one, Wesley. Mandy and Sean (her hubby for anyone who doesn't know) own a big green tractor. Alex, with his new found love of tractors, was beyond thrilled to find out that he now has a tractor at his disposal. Mandy mentioned that they have the tractor to him and it was instant love. He wanted to sit on it. Now, when he talks about Aunt Mandy and Uncle Sean and Wesley, he talks about the tractor and the trains (geo tracks). Check out this issue of mandy's blog for a cute 'conductor Alex' picture. So here is farmer Alex on the tractor. Too cute.

Boys Will Be Boys

Alex's new favorite toy. Thanks cousin Jamie!

So the other day, Josh asked me if I thought that never showing Abby anything that was girly (i.e. ponies, princesses, etc.) would have any effect on her. His theory is that no matter if you show the ponies to girls or the trucks to the boys, kids have a natural instinct in them to be attracted to the things their gender is most likely to love. Or I guess in the case of kids, most likely to play with. Reason for this topic of conversation all goes back to the fact that Alex has become fascinated with all things engine related. Cars, trucks, tractors, trains, fire trucks. All of them are his main focus right now. He could hear a train whistle 2 miles away and if he is outside playing will immediately go running for the tracks. (I need to finish fencing in my yard to prevent this due to fear of him running into traffic before I can catch him.) He sees a fire truck, and a little light seems to be flickering in those adorable, brown eyes of his. But the thing is, neither Josh or I have ever really pushed this on him. The first time he saw a fire truck, he was hooked. And since then, there has been no going back. We must go on our daily walks to see the train tracks and tractors around town and every time we go get the mail, (our podunk little town doesn't deliver mail so we are forced to have a p.o. box) then we have to walk up to see the fire department. And to make his life even more wonderful, his cousin, Jamie, gave him all of his outside tractors for playing in the mud/sand. More excited, this kid could not be. He even sweet-talked his daddy into letting him bring one of them in the house. One extremely dirty bathtub later, it was all cleaned up and his new favorite toy. I'm sure we somehow subconsciously give him these ideas, but who really knows. Abby is, of course, too little to be leaning towards my little ponies or princesses, but time will surely tell. Personally, I can picture the little tiny, microscopic tractors driving through the bloodstream on boys and itty-bitty unicorns dancing their way through the bloodstream of girls. It gives me a good giggle.

For Your Viewing Pleasure...

May I present, the monkeys.

Sock Monkey

I have my own personal sock monkey to take care of. His name is Alex and he has become obsessed...and I do mean obsessed...with socks. And not just any old socks he can get his hands on. No. He has chosen a specific pair of socks that he has grown extremely fond of. Over the past months, he has developed new interests. I think I may have mentioned in an earlier blog about my sister-in-laws awesome bags of hand-me-downs. And with this, was a big bag of socks. Now, please make note that these socks were, in fact, intended for girls. A good chunk of these socks were attacked by the dreaded sock monster that lives in everyone's dryer, so were missing their mates. Worthless, right? Uh-uh. Wrong. They have become a treasure trove of beautiful play things. I should have wrapped them up and given them to Alex for Christmas. He puts them on his hands and feet. Well, after a day of socks strewn about the house, Alex finally found a pair that, in the end, have become very near and dear to his heart apparently. It has now been one week and he has only taken them off once or twice and for baths. (Though I'm quite sure that he would be willing to wear them in the tub if given the choice) And more mismatched, these socks could not be. He has chosen a green sock, size 3-4 years, and an orange sock, size 12-24 months. You can see them on his feet in the picture I'm posting. I actually took my moment this morning and washed them. He was eagerly awaiting them when the dryer buzzer went off. Honestly, I have no idea what compels kids to do the things they do. Some kids have a blanket. Some kids go for the teddy bear. Mine is perfectly happy with a mismatched pair or socks. It's the simple things.

Here are another couple of pictures for your viewing pleasure, seeing as how I haven't posted in a few days.

Milestones

Wow. I can't believe I haven't blogged at all this year. But considering it is only the 5th of January, I suppose that really isn't all that bad. So Happy New Year everyone! Better late than never, right? It's been a big year so far already and it hasn't even been a week. Alex and Abby have hit a couple of major milestones. First up, Miss Abigail. She took her very first steps today. Two weeks before her big brother hit that major accomplishment. She was holding onto the laundry basket and without so much as blinking, took three big steps to me. To test my theory that it may be a fluke, I placed her back on the lovely laundry basket, and to my surprise, she did it again. She has been standing more and more on her own as of late, so I really am not surprised she is making this leap in mobility. She seems to be dead set on keeping up with her brother. I suspect they are formulating a master plan to see just how much trouble they can both make together.

Next up in the world of milestones is Mr. Alexander. He has been showing many signs of his readiness to potty train. Yes...once again I have taken on a worthy opponent. I never thought that a two year old could cause me so much stress and mental exhaustion. In the past, I have attempted a couple of days of the whole potty training thing. Never really went well. But seeing as how in the last week or two, he has made it a point to become ever so interested in toilets, I figured no better time like the present. So to Amazon.com we went and potty chair shopping we did go. I heard rave reviews from the Baby Bjorn potty seat and my friend, Mandy, got one for Christmas for her wee mister. It looked promising so I let Alex pick his favorite color and one big build up and a blue potty seat later, we have officially had our first successful moments of training. After one day of countless wet pairs of training pants, he realized that he has control. This morning he wet quarter-sized amounts for about 20 minutes straight until he realized that he could let it all go at the same time in the potty. He was very proud of himself, as was I. The smile on his face said it all and not two hours later, he told me he had to pee. No accident this time. Diapers may not be out of his life yet, but it's a start.

So to say the least, I'm a proud mama today. It's amazing how fast they change and how fast they learn. As soon as I can manage a video of Abby walking, I'll try to post it up. No video of potty training though...I'll leave that one filed under 'Private Data'. Wouldn't want to scar the poor kid. Until then, I hope everyone had an awesome Holiday season.