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.

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.