My kid is better than yours

Yes, yes, I know. Every mother says this. We all think our kids can do no wrong.

Wait, that may be a lie. I'm on Twitter and Facebook. All I can say is kids do some crazy things!!

My son may have his own list of crazy things, but I've realized lately that he is a genius. Hence better than your kid.

Taken at Chick Fil-a
Mommy & Son date night
2-25-11

He learned how to whistle in a matter of minutes.

He also learned how to blow a bubble with gum in a matter of minutes.

Both feats he accomplished much earlier and much faster than his big sister.


The boy also has some mad skills when it comes to Star Wars Legos. I can't tell you how many times the husband has watched him play and made comments about how hard a particular level is. It took the husband a few tries to beat said level. Before I know it, the husband is walking away, shaking his head. The boy has beat said level. The first time. Oh, the shame of being beat in a video game by a 5 year old!


I'm sure I'm making you jealous by this point, so there's probably no need to tell you how wonderful of an artist he is, too. Really, you should see my walls!

And not only can he color on the windows, too but he excels at any arts and crafts project. Just pretend you don't notice the glue in my carpet that I can't figure out how to remove.


Not only is my prodigal child great at doing things, he is also a creative thinker.

His back has been incredibly itchy the past few days. Right in that one spot you can never reach. I'm blaming the tags on his shirts because lord knows, there's nothing there!. He was complaining once again in the car on the way to the store. I told him I would take a peek as soon as I parked. Instead of waiting the 2 minutes, he found an object in the car that he could use to scratch his itch. See? Creative thinking.


The only thing is, the object was a pen. Can you guess which end he used to scratch his itch?

Have you ever tried to wash black ink off a child in a public restroom. Fun times!



I really need to stop taking this kid to store!



Until next time....

::Facepalm::

Thursday started off like any other morning. The husband woke GG up to get ready for school, while I laid in bed for 15 minutes calling out to Little Dude, trying to wake him. Can you tell who the morning people are?

We took the husband to work and I took the midgets to school. I was a little early dropping them off. I took that as a sign that it would be a good day. Little did I know what was to come.

Nothing extraordinary happened throughout the day. I could tell you about the amount of laundry I have to do, or the never ending vacuuming, but that's not really blog worthy. And quite frankly, I'm trying to ignore the laundry with the hopes that it just disappears. Talking about it won't help me with that cause!


Three o'clock was soon approaching, which meant it was time to pick the midgets up from school. I decided to walk. Parking is already limited to street only, but with the recent snow dump, it's even more scarce. I grabbed my umbrella just in case and began my weave up the street. Let me just throw it out there real quick that a certain person might make an anonymous phone call to the borough about people not clearing their sidewalks. Hence the weaving while I walk.

Little Dude, being in Kindergarten, gets dismissed a few minutes earlier than the rest of the school. Don't want those precious Kindy-garteners getting trampled on, now do we?

Like I do everyday, I let him run around with his friends while we waited for GG. As her class started to trickle out I realized that Stupid Mom day had been moved from Tuesday to Thursday.

Stupid Mom Day (Tuesday) is when GG's class exits the building from the lower doors, not the usual upper doors. Gym is her last class that day and those doors are closer. Every Tuesday I, along with the other parents from her class, wait at the upper doors. Then there is a mass of facepalms before we all trudge down to the lower doors.


I stood at those upper doors for a good 10 minutes before I realized that Thursday is when GG has her after school activity. She didn't need picked up until 3:30!


::Facepalm::


That was a good 10 minutes I wasted. I could have been sitting in a warm dry house.


Why did no one inform me of this earlier in the day?




Until next time...

What did she do now?

Toddlers are curious creatures. Thankfully I lucked out with one who was happy with just asking why and hearing the answer.

Or so I thought.

GG was a joy as a baby. She slept through the night early, excelled at eating, hit all her milestones on time, and never really caused any trouble. Until she was a toddler.

GG was the child that we didn't need to baby proof for. We bought a baby gate to keep her out of the kitchen and off the stairs leading to the second floor, but it wasn't necessary. She was free to roam the house. I guess we put too much trust in our little girl because one afternoon she presented us with some gadgets.

In one hand she had a screw and the other hand she had a long metal tube. For the life of us we couldn't' figure out where she got those things an why she was interested in them. That led us to walk around the house searching for the source of those metal objects.

After searching high and low we found our answer.

It was summer and we had the backdoor open to let in some fresh air. The screen door, which is ugly as sin, must have glowed in GG's eyes. She wanted to know how it worked. She took the screw out and pulled off the "arm" that connected the door to the wall, but she didn't know how to put it back together. In the mind of a toddler, when in doubt, ask mom and dad for help.

The husband and I had a good laugh at her expense. To this day we still talk about that story. Perhaps someday our little girl will be a great engineer!

Prompt #2: What did they get into now?
Describe a time your toddler got into something they shouldn’t have.


Until next time...

Pure Torture

Surprise, surprise, it snowed.

I could share a picture with you of the 7 inches that wreaked havoc on this city Monday night as well as Tuesday morning, but I won't. Not only am I sick of snow, I'm sick of taking pictures of the snow.

So instead I'm going to share the ultimate form of torture!






Last Friday was Girl Scout cookie delivery day. The truck comes, us leaders help unload it, and then we stop and stare.






Some cases are smaller than others so you can't see every type of cookie in this picture. I took this after we were done unloading the truck. There are well over a thousand cases of cookies in those piles. Most sections are 150-200 cases across as well as 2 or 3 rows deep. That's a lot of cookies.

The torture? You may think it's the constant bending over to unload the cases, or counting everything to make sure we have the right amount, but it's not.

It's pure torture to be surrounded by over a thousand cases, more than 12,000 individual boxes of cookies and we can't touch a single cookie!

After the truck is unloaded, leaders collect all the cases their troop ordered. Then leaders have to break down those cases to the individual girl level. And then we wait for those girls to come and pick up their order. The whole process took 5 hours.

We all seem to have a good system when it comes to this, but I couldn't wait to get home so I could open up my own boxes. 5 hours looking at something so yummy and not being able to touch it? I repeat, pure torture!!!




Wordful Wednesday by

and



Until next time....

Maybe he was trying to find his princess

There is nothing that my Little Dude loves more than art.

Except maybe diggers.

Our art drawers are full of markers and crayons of every color. We have colored construction paper, a 500 sheet pack of white paper, a drawer full of coloring books and stencils. Everything fits in the drawers if I can keep it all organized. Even when organized, the supplies still spill out onto the table and floor next to those white drawers.

As much as I hate clutter, every single one of those supplies are used. It is probably the only pile of clutter in this tiny house that I can deal with.


My MIL realizes that both of my kids love to color and create, but Little Dude has the most love and passion for those activities. Every Sunday when we go to visit my in-laws, she has some project for them to do. Sometimes it involved glue and glitter, which unfortunately always come home with us. Other times it's simple coloring projects.

Yesterday was one of those simple coloring project days. She bought each of our kids a wooden sign that can be colored or painted. At the time I was eternally grateful that she chose markers instead of paint. I must admit I am getting kind of tired of scrubbing paint out of the boy's jeans!

Of the wooden signs, Little Dude chose to color the frog. My boy definitely knows that most frogs are green. He colored every inch of that frog green. Front and back. He is always very proud of his creations, as he should be. He loved this frog so much that he decided to give it a kiss in the car on the way home.





I had to stop at the grocery store on the way home and I won't even begin to explain some of the looks I received regarding my boy's face!







This was taken after his faced had been scrubbed. Most of the green came off, but there's still some on his upper lip.

He is still quite proud of his creation. Again, he did a good job so he should be. But I'm not looking forward to explaining to his teacher why he looks like he's wearing green lipstick!



Until next time....

God has a sense of humor

I know this for a fact.

How do I know this? Let me explain.

God has a sense of humor because he gives people children who are the opposite of them.

Take my son, Little Dude. I love him dearly and most days I wouldn't trade him for anything. He can be sweet as pie, but when he's not? Well, let's just say there isn't a day that goes buy where I don't mutter the phrase

"You're working my last nerve!"

Apparently God thought I needed more than one last nerve as well!


You might think I'm just annoyed with my boy because I bitched about him yesterday. Well, it's not all about him. The humor just keeps on keepin on.


GG, my precious GG. She's my little fashioista. Most moms would rave over having a girl they could dress up. I could have cared less about that stuff as a kid. In other words, I'm not sure what to do when she tries to match every accessory right down to her socks!

GG is also 9. 9 is such a lovely age. She's not a teen and I'm not sure if she's classified as a preteen yet (if she is, than hush, I don't want to know!). But the attitude of a teen is starting to creep in. And the stomping of the feet. And the slamming of doors. Sometimes I think I hear my mom laughing, but really, it's God. In case you didn't know, karma is a sub category of God's sense of humor.

Perhaps I should have been more behaved.



Until next time....

Brace for it

Don't let this adorable little face fool you.

The pinchable cheeks and baby blues are only a cover.

He owns this shirt for a reason!







Since the weekend, Little Dude has been nothing short of ridiculous. The only explanation I can come up with is his fall down the stairs Saturday afternoon. His forehead met the metal banister. The corner of it to be precise. A nasty purple bruise and a nice sized egg, but he's ok. But I believe that in this fall, he destroyed the part of his brain that tells his body to listen to his mother.

Monday night I finally had enough. The sideways glances from every single patron in Caribou Coffee sent me over the edge. I think they were just as fed up as I was with the

sitdownbestilldon'ttouchthatputthelidonbeforeyouspill

As soon as we returned home it was off to put my escape plan into action. I ran to the bathroom and slammed the door. Ten minutes and a nice hot shower were all I needed. No screaming, no crying, just me and the hot, steamy water to wash all my stress away.

As my need a manicure hands were tangled in my light brown soapy hair, I hear it. The toilet lid came crashing down. I was so involved in my thoughts that I failed to hear the door open and close. I failed to hear bottles rattle as a little person sat down to do their business. But I did hear the lid.

I stopped what I was doing and braced myself. Don't stand directly under the water, hold my breath. Oh dear God! It's coming, it's coming!




Thankfully I was spared a flush.

My sanity however, was not fully spared.

Wordful Wednesday by

and


Until next time....

I hit the big one

If there is one thing I have learned since having kids it's that they can be little manipulators.

Last year Bendaroos were the big thing in this house.



Bendaroos are pieces of yarn covered in wax. They can be manipulated in various creations. Animals, pictures frames, your name on the wall, you name it, it can probably be made. GG begged and pleaded for some Bendaroos. She even went as far as sitting in front of the tv, pen and paper in hand, so she could write down the phone number for us.

Our grocery store has a "Seen on TV" section and they finally got an order of Bendaroos. I caved and for 2 weeks, we played with nothing but Bendaroos. Since then? They're sitting in the bottom of her Moon Sand covered toy box.

I'm not proud to admit that we have caved on a few other pleas from the midgets. I don't feel the need to list all of our downfalls, but I will saw we have a nice collection of Swinkies. Those things are like rabbits - I swear they multiply overnight!


One night while watching cartoons, Little Dude started his pleas for a particular item - a sleep number bed.



Now the husband and I are fully aware that the Dude needs a new bed. Space and money are issues, but we are working on it. I told him he wasn't getting a sleep number bed, so he upped the begging a notch or two.

I don't like my bed! It's not comfortable!

I start to chuckle. He would have room to be comfortable if he took out some blankets, pillows, stuffed animals, cars, blocks...

My back hurts when I sleep!

This plea induced a good belly laugh from me. Complete with tears!

I climbed the steps to tell the husband upstairs. I had to go slow and hold the railing because my laughter was throwing me off balance and the tears made it difficult to see.

I return to the living room to see a meek 5 year old with big crocodile tears streaming down his face. When he sees me looking he promptly hides beneath one of his many blankets.


I hear a muffled "My back really does hurt when I sleep"




I think this may have been the mother of all mom fails.



Until next time....

Love is in the air

We all know that today is Valentine's Day. For some it's a time to celebrate, while others could care less. As far as I know, there's nothing special happening in this house. Sure, the kids have their school parties, but as for the husband and I? We just celebrated one big event. Shopping for one occasion is torture enough for the man. Having to do 2 special days within days of each other? Oh the horror!

The husband and I may not need one day to show our love for each other. However, our midgets are really getting into it. I would like to share their special poems an stories they wrote for their teachers...

From Little Dude -

This story is about a horse meeting a bunny. The horse was walking along the trail and he saw a bunny. But the frog said that in this land bunnies aren't alive. There is another horse doing a puppet show with 2 bunnies for all the horses to come to his puppet show for Valentine's Day.

From GG -

Hey, hey, hey
It's Valentine's Day
Here is a special treat
that sure can't be beat
You might wonder "this is from who?'
It is from me just for you

Whether you deem this a special day or not, Happy Valentine's Day from my family to yours!



Until next time....

A lazy celebrating kind of day

If you want to get technical, I suppose this really started on Wednesday since Tuesday was the last day I published something. But who really cares about those technicalities, right?

I'm declaring today a blog boycott day for me. It may or may not be my birthday and I'm taking the day off.






Friday is a lazy celebrating kind of day. The kind of day where I celebrate being another year older (shoot me!) by sitting on the couch eating junk and drinking coffee.

I'll be back next week. I have a good solid 4 hour block of time, just me and the boy tomorrow. There's no way he won't give me something to blog about!


Until next time....

Conversations with the kids

I feel old. I'm tired - I don't know how I used to stay up all hours and function on little sleep. My back hurts, my knees creak. My upcoming birthday certainly isn't helping this "I feel old" feeling.

To take my mind of off that, maybe I'll share some stories from the midgets. They always make me laugh!







I do believe Little Dude was trying to make a picture. Of what, I do not know. After the randomness of those questions, I decided it would be best not to know!








These are the conversation I have in the morning. My alarm hadn't even gone off yet and she wants me to play fashion designer? Coffee first. Decisions later.






Until next time....

I just can't do it!

The past few days have been full of ups and downs. Mostly ups and downs for me. Just when I would get excited over something, it would be followed by a disappointment. Let me explain...

In preparation for the Super Bowl, our school declared last week black and gold week. J and I had decided to do something during our Brownie meeting that would coincide with all the black and gold stuff.

Her and I both crochet. I have tried to teach GG a few times, but with no luck. Honestly, it took me a while to figure it out. All I have to say is thank goodness for YouTube! What made it even harder to teacher her is the fact that she's a lefty. I'm not.

At our meeting last Thursday, we decided to teach the girls how to make the basic crochet chain. They would use yellow yarn and add some black beads. It took longer than anticipated, so we plan to do another tutorial at a later meeting. We were only able to show a few of the girls, but GG was one of them. It wasn't me who finally helped her to figure it out how to make a chain, but hopefully in the future I can help her learn more.

My excitement over her new skill continued into the next day. But Little Dude had crushed my excitement. It wasn't intentional, but that doesn't make me feel any better!

The 4 of us were in the car on the way home from picking the husband up from work when I hear a noise. I wasn't sure what it was so I let it go. The boy makes weird noises because he's a goofy kid. Sometimes it's better not to ask. He does it again. Sure enough it sounded like a whistle. When we were stopped I looked behind me and asked him to do it again. He did. And then GG joined in, followed by the husband. I'm surrounded by 3 whistling fools and I am not happy about it!


They tried giving me pointers and telling me to keep practicing. I'm sorry, but some people just can't whistle!




Until next time....

I didn't mean to break tradition

It's Super Bowl week, we bleed black and gold in this house, so yes, you're getting a football post. And why I got in trouble over traditions and superstitions.


The big game is next Sunday and I cannot wait! Words cannot express how excited I am! Of course that excitement will end 10 minutes before kickoff, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

To celebrate Super Bowl week, GG and Little Dude are having black and gold week at school. Monday was wear something from one of the city's sports teams. Tuesday was decorate your head day.

Little Dude wore a Steelers hat, while GG wore the hat I made for her.





I tried to take a picture of her modeling it off, but the flash blinded her. So you get a picture of the hat on my hand!


Today is Terrible Towel day. And this is the day that led me to trouble. Yoi!




I am extremely superstitious when it comes to my sports. I wear the same thing for every football game and I have my towel every. single. game. Ever since the end of last season I have been searching for 2 Terrible Towels. I have a total of 3, but have been MIA. When I found out about towel day, I asked my mom if we could borrow hers. With the promise of returning it before the big game of course!

She reluctantly agreed, but I decided to tear apart my house one more time. Lo and behold, I found those 2 towels hiding between the sheets. Way in the back of our hall closet. I'm giddy as a kid in a candy store so of course I have to share. I posted something on Facebook thinking my friends who are also fans will be excited for me. Two more towels = two more times the luck. Or so I thought.

One of my good friends told me we would lose the game because I wouldn't do or have the same items for the bi game as I had for previous games. We Steeler fans take pride in our towels and our superstitions, but damn! I didn't expect to get yelled at!

I'm still sticking with two times more luck!


Until next time....