Wiggles, here we come!

Every year, The Wiggles make a tour across the good ol' U.S.A. with their most recent concert. I never expected we would ever actually get an opportunity to go. But with the increasing love for The Wiggles from Alex and Abby (and me), I started thinking that it would be something we should look into some day. So a few days ago, I went to The Wiggles website to see where they might be touring this year. About ten minutes later I was one click away from purchasing four tickets to their show in Grand Prairie, Texas. I called Josh to see if he was game for a weekend trip to the great state of Texas and he said the three words I was waiting to hear. "Go for it." As the little timer for reserving really awesome seats was about one minute from expiring, I hit 'purchase'. And so...the split second decision was made. Honestly, if you would have told me four years ago that I'd one day be super excited to go to a concert meant for kids, I would have laughed in your face. That day is upon me now. Now you can giggle at me behind my back for saying what I'm about to say, but I really don't mind. I am so super excited! To go see these amazing guys from Australia perform will be a treat. Of this, I have no doubt. They have an amazingly refreshing sense of humor, awesome dancing skills, superbly written songs, and the greatest outlook on children and life that I've ever seen. Coming from guys with childhood development degrees, I am not surprised they have succeeded in gaining the love and affection of millions of children (and parents) around the world. So this Thursday, we're loading the kids in the van at bedtime and driving halfway to Texas. Friday we'll be there with our wiggly grins on and a camera in tow. I can't tell you how excited the kids are. They are already talking about how they will 'wake up Jeff', give roses to Dorothy the Dinosaur, give bones to Wags the Dog and play their guitars with Murray. To make my silliness just a little greater, I think I'm going to admit that I might just be a tad more excited to take this little family trip than the kids are. (Especially because I get to see Anthony in real life.) Everybody...get ready to wiggle!!

Pee-casso

Yesterday I got to experience something very...well...strange. Alex watched an old episode of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood on PBSkids.org (one of his favorite places to play). I was never a fan of the guy, but Alex has been watching him for three days now and is intrigued it seems. The episode he watched was about abstract art and the artist he mentioned was Picasso. (If you read the title of the blog then you see where this is going, perhaps.) Well, Alex is quite potty-trained of course so accidents are few and far between. So when he called me to help in the bathroom I was a bit confused. This is how the next two minutes went:

Alex: "Mama! I got pee everywhere!"

Me: "What?! What did you do?"

I proceed to go into the bathroom where I find him standing next to the toilet and zero yellow tinge to the water. He then points to the floor...and the wall...and the magazine rack...and the vent...you get the point. I stand there, jaw dropped to my pee-soaked floor and stare in shock. Alex is smiling. I finally get my wits back.

Me: "What on earth did you do?"

Alex: "Um, I just peed everywhere."

Me (trying to not explode): "What the heck did you do?"

Alex: "Well, I was just trying to do something mom."

Me (dumbfounded): "What in the world were you trying to do?!"

Alex (shrugs indifferently): "Well, I was just trying to do something and I peed everywhere."

I tried to tell him how upset it made me but I don't think he believed me. I came up with the fairly certain conclusion that he was attempting his 'hand' in abstract art. It's the only theory I could come up with. There was literally urine dripping off of everything...except the toilet. There's no possible way that whatever he was trying to do was unintentional.

Despite the absurdity of the situation, when he left the bathroom, I couldn't help but laugh.

Big Girl Bed: Fail

So the big girl bed for miss Abby was a fail. For two straight days she was a disaster because she couldn't sleep in her new big bed. After day two with no nap and after three core meltdowns, she just happened to walk past the laundry room and see her old bed sitting in there. She asked me, "Mama, is that me bed?" To which I replied, "Yes sweetie. That's your old bed." To which she replies, "Can I sleep in me old bed? I want me old bed!" I set it up in the front room just to see what would happen and she then promptly took off running, blanket and pillow in tow, to her old bed. I've never seen her move so fast. I swear it's true. I clocked her at 153 MPH. She got about two seconds of air time when she leaped into her old bed. She curled up, sucked her thumb, smiled at me, and said, "I want me old bed, mama." So the big girl bed is being stored at my mom and dad's house until she is more ready. And by 'ready', I really mean until we get a house where two beds will actually fit without becoming a toddler sized amusement park. She slept so well last night that I couldn't possibly complain about the switch back. Was it a massive waste of money? In theory...yes. But it will eventually become her big girl bed. I suppose through all her whining for a bed like Alex, she really just wanted Alex's bed. *sigh* Kids.

The walls are closing in...

Just when I thought our tiny little house couldn't get smaller, I was proved wrong. The past month or two, miss Abby has been having a bit of an issue with her bed. She has a toddler bed. Alex has a big boy bed. So guess who wants a big girl bed? If you guessed me, then you are way off. I already have a big girl bed. Abby has been begging for a big girl bed and is consistently attempting to crawl into Alex's bed to compensate for lack of one. Dilemma - the room they share is a tad bit on the teensy weensy side. It's a snug fit with one twin bed and one toddler bed. Short of getting bunk beds (can we say 'Emergency room waiting to happen'?), this room is not meant for two twin beds. Seriously. Two beds just don't work well in this room. But in a final attempt to keep Abby in bed at night, I bit the bullet. I bought her a new mattress, box springs, and a cheap hollywood frame to set them on. The beds will only fit in there one way. A great big 'L' shape with the mattresses only about six inches from each other. This = not cool. But, she was super excited about it and I was happy that it looked like it might just make things easier on bed time. That is, until they spent the better part of the day leaping back and forth from one bed to the next like two fresh trampolines straight out of the box. Ugh...you see now that having two monkeys for children can be trying at a time like this. I'm trying to teach them no jumping but this concept is not sticking well in their developing brains. So as I sit here and listen to them leaping from one bed to the other like mexican jumping beans on a concentrated sugar serum, I ask myself what it would take to actually move to a new house. Three bedrooms sure would be handy right about now when the walls feel as though they are closing in on me. I'll let you know how night one goes in the 'big girl bed'. Seeing as how I put them to bed over an hour ago and they are both still merrily playing leap frog in their beds, I have a feeling that the follow up blog isn't going to be pretty.

Bunny Burrow

You always hear and read about rabbits living in burrows under the ground. I never really thought that rabbits actually lived under the surface of the earth. I assumed that a good majority of them just hunker down in brush piles and bushes. I mean, have you actually ever been walking along and seen a giant hole where a rabbit pops out? I sure haven't and I've even lived in the country most of my life. Well, if you ever wondered if it was true and that rabbits do indeed live in holes under the ground, then you are about to have that question answered. I made a pen for our bunnies, Pickles and Nacho, last year so that they could enjoy getting out of their cage every day and experience a little hopping room. They started digging out the corners to escape. I filled in every attempt with bricks and rocks in hopes of thwarting their efforts. So they decided to just give up. This is what they focused their attention on.

Will I fill it in? Yeah. But probably not until one of two things happen. 1. We move, therefore taking the bunnies with us and not wanting the buyer of our house to break an ankle while looking at the property. Or 2. They burrow so far down that they pop their little heads out in the neighbors yard. I'm not sure how you approach that situation when you knock on your neighbors door. "Uh, hi. My rabbits burrowed a twenty foot tunnel under the fence and I was hoping that I could go fill that in for you." Crazy rabbits. I guess they aren't bored anymore.

Hay Haulin'

Every year around this time, I get the joy joy experience of working in the hay field. For all you out there who this doesn't translate for, this is when you go out in a big open country field and haul hay in for your livestock. I've been working in the hay field every year since I was a kid. I couldn't exactly toss fifty and sixty pound hay bales back then, so us kids were put to use rolling them around until they lined up so machines could pick them up easier. Of course we have no machines now...just pure old fashion muscle. The deal with bringing in your own hay is that you save a whole ton of money by doing it yourself as opposed to having it bought and delivered. Lucky for us, my aunt owns this particular field of prairie hay. I don't know what we'd do without her. So, as soon as I got the call from my mom, I gussied up in my holey hick jeans and faithful baseball cap and headed out to the wide open fields right smack in between 'Nowhere' and "Where the heck am I?". Lucky for us, my brother Jeremy had awesome friends growing up and they are still willing to aid us as hay hands in these situations. God bless them for being so wonderfully helpful. So in order to feed my three retired cows, one horse, and my pony (all whom still live with my folks), we had to bring in 250 bales for the winter. We also had to get 150 for my pal Mandy's livestock. And it wouldn't be fun to go out haying unless you pick the hottest day of the year to do it on. (sarcasm intended) I think the heat index was nearing 110 this past weekend. Ouch! Boy howdy! It was hot out there for sure! I swear at one point I was certain that I had teleported to the surface of the sun. I drank so much water that I thought I might have floated away. But as fast as I gulped it down, I sweated it all right back out again. I'm still fairly certain that I sweat off half of my left butt cheek. Not that this would be a bad thing, ya know? I'm sure I can even things back out with my next splurge of ice cream. So, several bruises, some sore muscles, lots of hay splinters and a tick bite later...we were done. All in all, it was nice to have it finished and know that my ladies (cows) are taken care of for the winter. As hot as it was and as hard as I had to work, it was actually nice to let Josh man the ship (kids) for awhile. I went two days without putting them to bed. This is the first time this has ever happened and they did great. Didn't miss me at all. (How touching.) Operation Hay Haul 2010 - Complete.

Bad Elmo

Every day, Alex has quiet time. During this wonderful time of the day, Abby takes a nap while Alex watches his pick of movie and I get to lounge around the computer and play Farmville. Pathetic, right? But I love this time of day and so do the kids. It's a nice break for us all. Yesterday, I picked through our dwindling VHS collection and found 'Elmo in Grouchland'. I showed him the case and he was excited to watch it. Seeing as it was an Elmo movie, I didn't think twice about letting him watch it. Um, hello? Elmo's a furry red puppet who's key audience is children under three years old. How could it go wrong? Well, in case anyone out there was wondering about that movie, I'd heard a few years back that this particular Elmo movie had a history of terrifying some kids. Mandy let her son watch it and he liked it so I figured, what the hay. I never actually let Alex watch it because of the abnormal reviews it got. It was about an hour into the movie and I was mindlessly blogging away at the computer when I hear Alex starting 'roaring' like a lion at the TV. (He sometimes roars at things that scares him. Don't ask.) About ten seconds later Alex lets out the kind of blood curdling scream that usually involves Abby's teeth and his skin making contact. Of course, Abby was nowhere near him and he came running at me absolutely horrified. Tears were streaming down his little cheeks and he was sobbing uncontrollably. He was pointing at the TV telling me that the movie was scaring him. I believe his words were, "The movie is scaring me! Turn it off! Turn it off! It's scaring me!" He threw his little arms around my neck in a kung-fu grip and refused to let go for the better half of an hour, sobbing all the while. Needless to say, that movie is going to a far away land called 'Library donation box'. I never thought I'd see the day when Elmo goes on the 'bad' list. He just went from friendly, furry, red puppet to scary, red devil doll. Sorry Elmo...but the moment your movies start mentally scarring my children is the moment we say farewell.

Back to Basics

Here's what I don't understand. How is it, that we can go the entire winter without so much as a sniffle and then manage to get sick multiple times in a two month span over the course of summer? I really don't get it. I was paranoid (and I do mean paranoid) about swine flu. Heck...so was half the world. We even got the vaccine due to the fact that Alex and Abby were in the 'high risk' category. We went the whole winter with zero illnesses. No idea how we got away with that, but we did and I was more than grateful for the break on Alex's poor lungs. He needed a break for his lungs to heal from all his past wheezing. So enters summer. The joy of leaving the house - parks, zoos, playgrounds...the sky is the limit. And instantly, we end up with two stomach bugs (which is a first for my kids). We also caught a nice cold somewhere in there which we just so happened to pass on to Mandy's kids thanks to a tornado warning and us needing shelter in their basement. We now are working on the second cold of the season. After our trip to spend time with family, Alex picked up something that he unwillingly shared with the rest of us. His asthma has been under control for the most part and so I was mildly surprised to hear him wheezing. He hasn't had to use his inhaler in over a year (thank you God). So I'm okay with that and I never once had my 'oh-my-gosh-my-kid-might-stop-breathing-in-the-middle-of-the-night' panicking. He actually only needed the inhaler at night due to drainage so it's a massive improvement from his past bouts of illnesses. The last night and day of our trip, Alex started to get really congested and coughed a lot. Heather and Ben have dogs and I assumed they were kicking his dog allergy into high gear (which we are seeing signs of him outgrowing). Honestly, I'm glad that it turned out to be a cold. It means that his allergies are not bothering him as bad as they used to and we are getting more freedom as to what he can be exposed to. Is that wrong? It's not like I secretly wish for colds. I just have to second guess ever drip of snot that comes out of his nose. It was nice to know what caused it this time. So after the past weekend, I've had to break out his Xopenex and other various meds to keep him out of the danger zone. I must admit it was a challenge for me to remember everything I had to do. I even discovered that his inhaler is expired along with one of his other rescue meds. (Don't worry...the doc said that's okay and I've got an order for new stuff.) Even though it was a rough weekend going back to the basics, the cold is on the way out and it was 90% stress free.

Rite of Passage

This past week I did something that I quite honestly never believed I would attempt to do. I visited my brother, sister and nieces. (They're my in-laws but I'm dropping the 'in-law' bit. Cuz, let's face it, they're just too cool for the 'in-law' title.) They live in a far away land riddled with dangers and adventure. Okay. So maybe that's a bit of a stretch. Unless of course, a four hour trip where the roads have four lanes and lots of busy traffic is considered dangerous. To me though, traffic is the enemy. I dread driving in the city and avoid it like the plague. I also have zero sense of direction and could easily get lost on a one way road that leads to only one destination. I'm hopeless when it comes to driving and finding my way. It took me at least a year to get used to driving from home to college without panicking that I was going in the wrong direction. BUT, back then there weren't handy dandy GPS machines to get you where you're going. And Mandy just happens to have one of those handy machines. So about two weeks ago, Heather invited me and the kids to visit for a week to pass the time while Josh is out of town. I'll be the first to admit that I was about 99% sure that this would not happen. The moment I even gave it a millisecond of consideration, my stomach flipped and my heart raced at the idea of driving a four hour trip by myself. Oh, I've been there before so in theory it shouldn't be a problem. But Josh was always the driver and I was the 'kid entertainer'. So I convinced myself I wouldn't do it after about three minutes of considering it. Then Alex and Abby got bored...again. So I picked up the phone to call Heather and tell her that I'd do it. I'd make the trek alone. It became my new goal. I wanted to be able to make this drive and visit Heather, Ben and the girls. (I took a lot of Tums the week before going.) So after the use of Mandy's GPS, a map from Josh, a map from Heather and a whole of nerve, I set out on my first long trip with the kids. I'm not gonna lie. It was the most nerve wracking, scariest, insane trip I've ever taken. Did I get lost? Yup. Road construction screwed up the GPS and I ended up driving around a town on the verge of hyperventilating for about ten minutes before finding my way again. Did I make it alive and well? Yup. I had to pry my kung-fu grip from the steering wheel and peel my body from the sweaty car seat like a burned pancake...but I made it alive and well. It was totally worth the panic and worry because the kids had a blast and I had a great time too thanks to my gracious hosts. When my mom asked my why I didn't just stay home if it made me so nervous, I told her it was my rite of passage. I had to prove to myself that I could do this. Call it weird. Call it Silly. Call it a pre-mid-life crisis. But I felt really good about making that trip. It was totally worth the worry. I think I'm going to invest in a GPS so I can do this more often. It was great to visit the family for so long. I miss seeing them and have already convinced myself to do it again soon. (If they'll have us anyhow.) Rite of passage - complete.

God Bless America

Happy Fourth of July! We celebrated by blowing up a nice crisp $20 bill. Oh wait. No. That's not right. We decided to transfer that twenty bucks into fireworks. And then we blew it up! Some people think fireworks are a waste of money. Okay, okay. So maybe in theory it's a waste. But between the joy it brings to the kids (and adults) and the memories that it gives, it's totally worth it. It was a blast. (Literally) We went to watch the town's big show too and the kids were thrilled. Mandy came over with her two wee ones to my mom and dad's house to give them a nice experience. Turns out that fireworks and miss Greta didn't mix well. So Mandy left Wesley with us for awhile and all the kids did snappers and champagne poppers while watching us big kids play with explosives. I hope you all have an amazing Independence Day as well! Thank you to all the men and women out there that continue to serve this great country so that we can continue to celebrate this wonderful day. God bless America!

Zoo 2010

It seems like we just went to the zoo yesterday, but it's actually been about a year since our last visit. I feel as though it gets a bit mundane to repeat the same blog over again. I mean, seriously, how much can I actually say about the same zoo trip? I will say that the kids seem to be the perfect zoo age. We probably could have stayed for another two hours and they wouldn't have complained a bit. They were actually quite unhappy to leave. It was fun and I think we will probably go again this summer because Alex was aware of the animals we missed out on seeing. It was really fun to get out of the house for awhile as well. Of course, my main goal was to wear the kids out so much that they would pass out at bedtime. Operation: Child Energy Drain - fail. Apparently not even the power of the sun and long bouts of walking will wear out my superkids. I put them to bed at 8:30. They fell asleep at 10:30.

Reason #1 why our zoo is awesome. You can take pictures and it looks like you took them in the wild. Grizzly bears.

Abby could have fed the Giraffes the entire day. Most of the kids were terrified of getting licked. Not Abby. She asked if she could ride one.

Reason #2 I love our zoo. They have a sense of humor. That's sculpted tiger poop on the ground if you were wondering.

Don't you love Abby's new 'smile' for the camera? Lovely.