so boring mom!

So Noah and I were playing on his playmat while Meredith took a nap! I ran to the bathroom real quick and when I cam back, this is what I found. Guess I was really entertaining that or the playmat is super comfy! Maybe I should put it in his crib! Just kidding, I know it is a SIDS risk!

It is painful to be this cute!

My superstar!
My cutie pie

Today I am feeling.....

Meredith and I were reading "The Pigeon has Feelings too" the other day and they were talking about: Happy, Sad and Angry. So we practiced our own facial expressions as well. She loves making these faces and this morning I caught them on camera:

Meredith feeling happy! probably because she has the damn mouse shirt on!
Meredith feeling Sad....
Meredith feeling angry!
Noah feeling happy!
Noah feeling sad!

Noah down right angry!

Little miss homemaker

Yep that is me!

Ha seriously. I turned over a new leaf, I made a NEW rule for my family. We will only eat out 1 night a week, which really means 2. Why?????

The eating out rule started because I knew since Noah's birth we were eating out or getting take out way too much..like 5-6 meals out of 7. I am so not kidding. It was not doing much for our bank account or our mid section. So if we cannot eat out, then what he heck were we going to eat? I am no chef, I can barely open a can of Spaghetti O's. I do not like throwing things together and trying it out either, I need specific written directions and instructions and hell I will admit pictures are fabulous. I follow recipes like no one you have seen before... talk about anal retentiveness.....if you omit a step or substitute an ingredient then my world will come crumbling down and I lose it.....ask Josh about my breakfast pizza. I know.....live a little. So with this new rule I had to broaden my horizons on dinner and my ability to produce these dinners. I am also trying to incorporate more "healthy" meals when I have time instead of tons of carbs. We have switched to wheat pasta and brown rice and fresh or frozen veggies instead of canned ones.....baby steps people.

Anyway I needed some new recipes and got tired of all the recipes in South Beach, which are pretty good and have helped waistlines in this family, but I am branching out. I now head over to Work it Mom on Tuesdays to get a new recipe each week, by Chris Jordan. Her blog is an awesome read and her recipes at Work it Mom have pictures. Fool proof for me, well almost and the best part if you have a question, even a stupid one , you post it in the comments and she answers it! The recipes are really good, well the ones I have tried. And they even had me chopping up fresh carrots, onions and celery to use to cook with. I am pretty sure I have never purchased celery or carrots before. Heck I am really living....... the other night I did not have all the ingredients I needed for a dish so I substituted and guess what we all lived. Not to mention I cooked with onions......I know hell will freeze over next week don't you worry!

So, wish us luck.
Last night chicken curry with sweet potatoes can you say D-e-l-c-i-o-u-s.

Tonight beef stew.

Tomorrow night Chuck-e-cheese......Baby steps people!

Welcome baby Ty!!!!

This is Noah's newest little friend.....Tycer James!

Look how sweet he is. We cannot wait to meet you Ty. Congrats Jeff, Caryn and big brother Ian!!!! We miss you guys and look forward to seeing you all soon!!!

Note to self....

Please always make sure the "mouse" shirt is clean. You know the Chuck-e-cheese shirt that was purchased for you toddler's birthday last year, yep that one. Make sure it is ALWAYS clean that way your toddler has no reason to throw a tantrum night after night for the damn mouse shirt.

did i say sleep....

No one is sleeping, do not even be a little jealous of me. Last night, I am not sure what was in that tilapia I cooked or the veggies or heck the water, but there was NO sleeping going on here. Meredith was up until 1030pm crying, not sure what was up with that. The past 3 nights she has cried when we put her to bed and has not fallen asleep until close to 10pm. So we thought maybe she was getting cramped in her crib. So we decided to move her to her "big gurl bed." Josh put the rails on and the whole time she would point to the rails and say "big gurl bed", she was so excited. Once it was ready, she did not want out of it, even to take a bubble bath.

Then I could not get to sleep. I stayed up watching one of my favorite shows on TLC, John and Kate plus 8. She makes my life seen so normal and un-chaotic. I love it. They went to Disney World and since we are going in October, I had to watch it for pointers. So yes I stayed up until 1:30am. I cannot remember the last time I did that.

Needless to say when Noah woke up at 3am to eat and poop, that new 1:30am bedtime I had killed me. Luckily Josh got up with him to change his diaper and get him back to bed. Unfortunately I was so tired I shortchanged him and cut that feeding short so he was back up at 5am wanting more.

Then Meredith was up at 5:30am crying and just when I got her back to sleep I heard Noah screaming downstairs. Ah the joys of parenting. We were thinking about a 3rd child one day and had decided last night we were pretty confident we did indeed want a 3rd. This morning we decided that 2 really was a nice even number.

Sleep, it is totally over-rated!

my husband.....my hero

I got a call from a good friend of mine last week. This friend and I go way back, to elementary school and growing up in a city and not a small town, keeping up with friends from elementary school is no easy fete. Anyway she called to thank me for Noah's birth announcement and let me know that the address I sent it to was no longer her address. I asked if they had moved, that was the only logical explanation for that not being her address in my book. She then explained that her and her husband of 6 years, that she had been with for almost 1o years were finalizing their divorce this month. I was shocked....in awe....I never would have dreamed in a million years that this couple would have headed for the big "D".

If asked to line up all of my friends' husbands and pick out 3 that I thought were all around "good guys" he definitely would have been one that I chose as a "good guy." The news was devastating to me. I mean they have 2 children and were seemingly the "perfect couple." Their children are little..... ages 3 and 11 months. How did it just hit him that he was unhappy and not in love? That does not just happen overnight. How did he walk out on his wife that gave him two beautiful daughters? What about his responsibility as a husband and father? I know some marriages are doomed from the beginning and some people really would be better off without one another. But marriage is not easy, it is not about just making yourself happy all the time. And do not get me wrong, I have nothing against divorce, hey if it is not working than get out. If you spend everyday wishing you were somewhere else or bitching about the person you are with or if that person really makes you hate yourself or the person you have become, than by all means do what you need to, to get out. I guess this situation hit me by surprise.

I started thinking, what if MY husband came home and told me he was not happy and wanted out. What would I do? I am sure my friend never thought it would happen to her. I mean I am well educated, I have a master's degree and could definitely provide for myself and my children....but I would be losing my best friend. My husband, my hero. He truly is. He is definitely number 1 of the 3 "good guys" that I would pick out. In fact I hope my daughter marries a man just like her father. He is kind and patient, he has a good head on his shoulders and is a very rational man. I honestly feel bad sometimes because he is a much better person that I am. He tames me, he helps me see the other side of things, he is a great listener, he loves me, there is nothing he would not do for me and I know this. I try not to take advantage of it too much.....but I do own my fair share of designer jeans.

In all seriousness I do not know what I would do, I guess there is nothing I can do. I do ask everyday if he is happy.....and his answer is always the same "more than you know." I ask because I want to know, I want to know that he is always happy. That he loves this life we have as much as I do. I want him to know how thankful I am that he does what he does to provide this life for me and our kids. I cannot imagine how hard it is to work on weekends and tend to other families and other people instead of your own family. But he does, and he does it with a smile.

Sometimes I think how unfair it is to me and our children, that he has to work weekends and some nights. That he has to take calls and rush out to take care of other people and other people's children, leaving his own sick children behind. I think how unfair it is that his daughter cries on the weekends for him or her favorite saying when he is not home is "dada at wurk." And then I think how unfair it is to him. How unfair it is that he did not get to play outside on the slide with Mizit this beautiful Saturday and I did. Or how he misses so many milestones and I get to witness them all firsthand. I think how unfair that after getting up all night with his own children, he then has to get up with his pager too. I think how unfair it is that he does not get to stay home on rainy days and spend them all cuddled up in the bed with us.

Yes, I married one of the good guys. One of the most selfless guys I know. In fact he is not a guy, he is a man. And in today's world it takes a lot to be a man. Thank you honey for all that you do, for all that you sacrifice and give up for us. I love you so much, thank you for being one of the "good guys."

Guess who slept all night........

And by all night I mean from 8pm until 730am when I woke him up to nurse him. My boobs were about to explode. If he was not in my room I would of feared him dead, but he was breathing and peaceful and not even stirring when I whisked him out of his bed to feed him and get some relief. Poor guy probably thinks.....all I hear is sleep, sleep, sleep, when I do mean old mom wakes me up! UGH!

She is coming around.....finally

So Meredith is warming up quite nicely to having a baby brother. Perhaps she will get more siblings after all. She still occasionally hits him or raises her hand to hit him and occasionally she still kicks or places her foot right up against his head as if to say.....doubt me and I will do it. But overall she is getting sweeter and sweeter by the day. Here are somethings that happened this week:

- when she wakes up she looks for bubby, then she goes right over to him kisses him and says "Hi bubby, hi bubby!........hi sissy, hi sissy!" it is a one way conversation that takes place.

- the other day poor bubby was crying from exhaustion, but for the life of me I could not find his pacifier (well a pacifier, they both take the same kind.) So I asked Meredith if Bubby could have hers, she thought about it for .5 seconds and then handed it to me. I washed it off and gave it to him and she said "is otay, is otay bubby!"

- at night she sings the goodnight song to him and to her. Josh and I sing it to everyone, Brownie included....but she only sings the verses with No-wee and Mizit!

- if someone she does not know holds bubby she kind of watches them, to see what they will do with him, if they walk away from me for a minute, she will start tugging on me saying "mama, mama..." in her very panicked voice.

- at night she takes out her pacifier to kiss bubby, if his is in...she will take his out too!

- she has tried sharing her pretzel fish and cheerios with him this week....I have to really watch this one.

- the other day I covered bubby with her "bankie" it was her favorite. she did not need it at the moment ....when she saw it, she freaked. I told her bubby was just borrowing it, he would give it back..... and although it was probably one of the hardest things for her to do, she left it on him. I was so proud. This particular blanket was purchased for him, she made it her own before he arrived though.

So yes, she is definitely coming around. It has only taken 3 months, a dozen or so time outs, 1000 be gentle's, 2654 do no kick/hit bubby's, and a couple 1000 gallons or two of patience....for us both.

A great subject for the blog....Feet!

So little Noah was napping today and this is how I found him.... See those cute little feet sticking out! My children hate socks and shoes and love to stick their feet out from under the covers.
After Meredith woke up from her nap, we got dressed to go on a walk. She picked the outfit out all on her own, check out those feet! (and yes she is nursing her baby before we go!)
Close up of the feet....those are last years sandals that she found in the closet. Her heels were hanging over the back and I could barely buckle them. She was insistent though!

Big sisters

This is what will happen if your big sister gets to pick out your shoes......

Mommy's Little Monster

I could not resist, is he not a ham????

Oh yes he did...

I honestly cannot believe he did it either.......

So the other morning my tikes slept late, and by late I mean 8:30am. That is late... that is sleeping in... that is a LUXURY... that is unheard of in this house.... especially both of my tikes at the same time. But it is true the did, in fact it was Tuesday morning. Noah had slept all night and he woke up at 5:30am and nursed and then went right back to bed. Ahhhh the luxury, he is normally up for good at 6am, so yes it was a luxury indeed. It would have been really nice if I were able to enjoy this luxury, but I did not get the chance. Why???

My husband woke me up at 7:15am to ask me if his shirt matched his pants. Oh, yes he did. I wanted to scream, I wanted to ring is neck! I wanted to knock his lights out. He had on khaki dockers, the same color that he wears most mornings and a brownish colored, striped shirt..... for God's sake it was close enough. Not to mention he dresses himself every morning and if I am up I may occasionally say...."honey, that does not exactly go, you may want to rethink your shirt choice" but for the most part he does it all on his own! If he was unsure about his color selection this particulary morning that his wife and children were all still sleeping at the same time, he could have chosen one of the other dozen or so shirts of the same style hanging in his closet!!!!

But under NO circumstances has he or should he EVER wake me up out of a dead sleep in the morning, when both of my tikes are still sleeping AT THE SAME TIME! unless of course it is a real emergency, not a fashion emergency. And that emergency better be life threatening and something that cannot be handled when everyone is awake and total chaos is running the household.

I remember laying their bewildered and thinking.....you are kidding me......you are effing kidding me......what the hell are you thinking.....you have a death wish......what in the effing hell are you thinking????

Oh yes, those are all thoughts that passed through my mind. And yes, I was mad.... very mad. And not the cute, kidding kind of mad. In fact if I had special radar eyes that could harm people, I would be collecting a big, fat life insurance policy right now. Damn husband!

If he did not learn his lesson Tuesday morning, I promise he will after reading this blog.

Thanks honey! And yes, for the most part he is a damn good husband, but on Tuesday morning he had lost all of his marbles, that or someone did a craniotomy on him while he was sleeping and removed the part of his brain that deals with logical thought processes.

She did great!

Surprised the shit out of me! It went really, really well. I dropped her off this morning and she immediately warmed up to the college girl that looked like my cousin Lindsey. She said "in-see" and when the college girl asked her name she proudly said "Mizit!" So after our introduction I told her she would stay and play and mommy would be back to get her later. She was a little hesitant, but she never cried. I left and Miss Angel was holding her. I had to run out to the car to get the sippy cup we left there and when I came back I saw through the window that she was crying and asking for her mommy. Three other mothers had come in to drop off their tikes and she wanted to know where her mommy was. But I put on my brave face, handing the sippy to the director, who promised to call me within the hour to let me know how things were going. And off I headed, heartbroken.

An hour later I got the call, she was doing great. She cried briefly, but now was sitting back and taking it all in....no tears. The director said she was not really interacting with the other tikes, instead just watching, but not crying.

15 minutes later I got another call from the director saying, that now she was definitely interacting and having a good time. I debated on whether to leave her for lunch, afterall I had packed a damn good luvch for her complete with pudding, oh the MDO teachers would have loved me. In the end I picked her up at 11:30am right before lunch, I missed her.

When I went in to get her they were coming back from playing in the temple or sanctuary, whatever Methodist people call their house of worship. They do this when it is a rainy day and they cannot go to the playground. I stood around the corner out of sight and watched her march in her line back to her classroom with a smile on her face. Then I watched her through the glass before we went in to get her. She was smiling and playing and having a good time.

When I walked in to pick her up this was our conversation....

"no, no mommy!" with a big grin

"mommy luuuuunch!" one of the teachers had just said it was time for lunch

"Hey baby, mommy missed you so much, did you have a good time?"

"mommy lunch!.........pay wit kidz"

"Yeah did you have a good time playing with the kids?"

"uh-huh, mommy luuuunch!"

"Yep we are going to go home and have lunch!"

"no, no mi-zit luuuunch!" pointing to the lunch table

"yeah next week you can stay for lunch, today we are going home kiddo!"

I would say she had a pretty good day! I on the other hand did not spend my morning productively. I sat with my phone in one hand and bubby in the other waiting for the call. The call that she was screaming her head off and missed me so much she could not and would not survive another second until I rushed right over to the Mother's day out building and rescued her. That call never came, but it did not stop me from sitting and waiting and worrying. Next week I promise to be more productive and do better!

Pictures from today:

Miss Priss getting ready for "school"

Can you see the attitude? I am in big trouble!

Loving her new "purse"

Showing off her school bag, lunch pail ensembleAnd of course the new bags for school, cost me a fortune!

double trouble!!

Meredith and Adalyn --- double trouble!

I have to say these two little girls are so cute, but I bet one day they will be a handful! Katey and I will be pulling our hair out and crying on one another's shoulder. The teenage years should be fun, glad I have someone to go through it with!

We call this the pout....

And this is because he is so damn cute! I just love this little boy so much!!!!

me and my boy

Today Noah and I had lots of time to snuggle together and we did. We cuddled in my bed for a good while after we ran errands all over town. Unfortunately my little buddy is sick, say a prayer he gets better soon. He has the most awful cough and congestion. I wish my tikes would get better already.

Pay the lady!

So last night we ran to "Tah-get" - yes it is sad, my toddler knows exactly where this place is. I have been in withdrawals. With 2 it is much harder to get there and much harder to peruse the store like I love to do. But last night my hubby was in tow, so we did some perusing. Unfortunately it was very close to bed time, which makes for a cranky toddler. I was insistent on getting the most out of my visit, I was not going home early. So I did what any good mother who wants to stay at target longer would do, I bribed her. My first tactic was on the $1 shelves, elmo barretts, rings and stick on earrings. My second attempt was a baby doll, very cute but we already have 10. My third attemp was a $2 ball so we threw it in the buggy with the mantra "if you stay in your seat you can get the......" Fill in ball in this case.

As we were heading over to housewares I remembered we needed milk and there was no way after going home from target and getting two kids in to pjs, nursing one and getting them both to sleep I was going to go back out to the grocery. Josh offered, but I needed so many things that I decided to just grab some at target and head to the grocery in the morning. My bribery attempt at keeping Meredith in her seat was wearing off and fast. I needed some new material. Then I remember that she LOVES food, bribe her with food, that will work.

Yay more target time. Then we hit the food section and I remembered that we needed: pop tarts, oatmeal, milk and many other things that somehow wound up in our buggy. So this is how the rest of the night went:

"Look Meredith Woody & Buzz applejuice! If you stay in your seat we can get these juice bottles."

"Mizit juice...o'en!"

"No we have to pay the lady first."

"pay da lady"

"Yep, we have to pay the lady first."

"Ooooh Oreos!"

"mizit rio, mizit rio!"

"No we have to pay the lady first" as I toss the oreos into the buggy

"pay da lady"

"Uh-huh we have to pay the lady before we can eat them."

"Oh look mizit, pop tarts what kind do you want?"

"Mizit pop karks! o'en, o'en" making really drastic open signs with her hands

"No we have to the pay the lady first"

"pay da lady"

"Yep!"

"pay da lady mama"

"That is right we have to pay the lady first."

This conversation went on and on with various food items....pop tarts, brownie bites, crackers, oreos, ice cream sandwiches, sausage biscuits, cheerios, and candy! I had a new mantra.

By the time we left target Mizit was happily chanting "pay da lady, pay da lady!" She loved the nice woman at the checkout, she was her hero. She even got to eat a reese's peanut butter egg on the way to the car after we "paid da lady!"

my splurge!

I am addicted to this stuff.....so good. I have not introduced it to Meredith, but I did introduce it to Josh a few weeks ago. I bought one little box of the lite gourmet bites in creamy swiss and told him that they were all individually wrapped to enjoy one at a time. Not 5 or 10! That is not what they were meant for. I explained how it is all about portion control. How you have to savor the taste...it is a treat. So each day I would sneak to the fridge when two little toddler eyes were not watching and grab one. Then I could not help myself and I would go back for one or two or three or heck five or six more. Then I would delve into my delicious treat. When Josh came home and noticed how many were missing, he asked with a puzzled look"I thought you could only have 1 at a time, like a treat?" Exactly YOU can only have one at a time, me I can eat the whole damn box if I want. I keep the tikes all day. So this time around I went to Sam's and and got the 3 pack of round containers that contain the big triangles of the creamy swiss....oh melt in my mouth baby. And yes, I am sharing them with my hubby! They are fantastic on top of whole grain crackers or just by themselves. Heck you can put these little babies on anything and they would be fantastic.