My Own Little Science Experiment

I just discovered a really cool recipe for turning Crayola crayons into paint. Step by step directions are below.

Step 1: Allow your 15 month old baby to toddle around the house while you check e-mail.
Step 2: Make sure that the crayon box is within her reach.
Step 3: Listen for the ominous lull in playtime noise in the other room.
(NOTE: It is important to wait for the lull. If you go in too soon, you will just find a baby holding a crayon and you will not have the paint you are desiring.)
Step 4: Once you have heard the lull, go check on said baby.
Step 5: You should see that the baby now has a mouth clamped tightly around a crayon which creates the perfect saliva-to-blue crayon ratio.
Step 6: Pry your child's mouth open. This act will cause the now dissolved crayon to pour freely into your hand and onto the floor and baby.
Step 7: Enjoy your new paint!

Kitty Crack

Apparently I stepped in something savory at the park today. No clue what it could be, but the cats are loving every bit of it.



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Now if you will excuse me, I am off to boil my flip flops.

Yackity Yack

I am doing my best to stay on my daily blog streak but this weekend has made it a challenge. Of course, we were busy with Claire's party and also had family in town. But the biggest potential blog-killer was the fact that both, yes BOTH girls have been sick in the past few days.

First there was Sarah's phantom fever. I took her to the doctor and there was no obvious reason for it. She seemed to get better quickly and I thought she was out of the woods until we got her up the other morning and found that she had puked in her sleep. And? It didn't wake her up. Soooooo, she just rolled around in it all night spreading it to the four corners of her crib and smearing it all over her PJs. Yep. That was a fun thing to wake up to. But apparently that was all there was to it. We have seen no more puke since. From Sarah that is.

Then it was Claire's turn. I knew it was a bad sign when my normally ravenous little girl refused food or drink all morning long. We went to Kroger to pick up a few things we were needing and she refused one of their free deli cookies. Now I know something is up. Claire doesn't even call Kroger by it's rightful name. She refers to it as, "The Cookie Store". I kid you not. So for her to refuse the cookie told me were were about to see something wonderful out of this child, literally. And I was not wrong.

We dropped off the items we had purchased and headed to a nearby park to run off some of Sarah's energy. We were there for about 5 minutes when Claire asked to go home so she could go to bed. Wow. So off to the car we head. I got Sarah all buckled in and started the buckling in process for Claire when it happened. I'll spare you the details but know that there was quite a mess to be had. Round 1 hit the car interior. Fortunately, I got her out of the car before round 2 and round 3. Those we left behind on the parking lot to be washed away by the rain one day soon hopefully.

But with a newly empty stomach, Claire was suddenly energetic and ready to play once more. I decided we'd better play it safe and head home just in case. Good call, Mommy. Claire yacked once more as soon as we pulled into the garage. Poor thing. My car, that is.

Happily, I can report that there were no more vomiting episodes out of either of my children. Claire had a temp for the remainder of the day but is now back to her normal, happy, eating self. And now, I am just waiting for my turn. Boy am I hopeful to avoid this. But I am now finding that my fear of getting sick is causing my mind to multiply every little twinge I feel. I am tempted to just forgo eating for the next few days until I know I am out of the woods.

Somehow I don't see that happening.

Happy Birthday Claire!

Claire's party was great. She had a blast and was sad to see it come to an end. She has been convinced for weeks that she would get bigger on her birthday. Like all the progress between 2 and 3 happens on the one day magically named "birthday". Either way, she was thrilled to tell everyone she came into contact with that she was now 3 and a big girl for real.

Here are some pics from the day:

Panda bears from Mimi.

Easel from Daddy and Mommy. Plus Claire's new favorite facial expression. 

PIZZA!

CAKE!!

  

PRESENTS!!

Happy birthday sweet angel girl! Daddy and Mommy love you tons and are so blessed to have you in our lives!

As Promised

Here are the pictures of Claire's castle cake as promised. I kinda like the way it turned out. I'm sure there will be another blog tomorrow about the party complete with Claire pictures. I just had a quick moment to post these while the kids were napping. Once they wake, all the craziness will begin and I doubt I'll have the energy to blog again until tomorrow.

Ace of Cakes, here I come!

Pathetic

This is what a 102 fever does to my normally super-active-into-everything baby. When I took this, she was doing her best to watch Sesame Street through one barely-opened eye. Poor pumpkin. Rest assured she will be getting tons of cuddle time today.

Planning

Claire's birthday is Saturday. She will be 3 years old. This fact is crazy to me. I can remember things from when I was three. Granted, they are just snap shots of memory, but still. It is scary to know that I can no longer hide behind the idea that she will never remember my little . . . er . . . . big mistakes. At this point, any one thing could become a significant memory for her to carry through her entire life. GULP. 

So in the vein of making memories, I let her choose the theme for her birthday party this year. Last year, the theme was, "We-Just-Had-A-Baby-And-Mommy-Isn't-Up-To-Planning-A-Party-So-It's-Just-You-Me-Daddy-And-Baby-Sister." And as fun as that was, I think Claire wants something a little different this year.

After much debate that mostly centered on various animal themes, Claire finally settled on a princess party. Now don't be fooled, there may be a theme, but we are still keeping it simple. I think we have two of Claire's friends who are coming at the moment. I figure there will be plenty of time for HUGE parties when she is older.  

For this party, I am making a castle cake. I am really excited at the prospect of making this cake. I love being crafty and have grand plans for the cake. That said, it could be a total flop. Often times the plan is much better executed in my head than in reality. I do promise (right hand held high) to post pictures whether good or bad. 

Pictures will be posted on Saturday, so be prepared to either be really impressed, or have a hearty laugh at my expense. 

Simplistic

I ventured out to Hobby Lobby this morning to get supplies for Claire's birthday party. More on that later.

There were several items on my list and I found most of them. But I was having trouble finding one particular item. I hunted down a sales associate and asked if she could point me in the right direction. She happily told me that the item in question was located in "Crafts".

Really? Crafts? In a CRAFT store? A little generic don't you think? Still not having a clue where to go search, I asked her if she could point me in the right direction. She went above and beyond by actually walking me back to the area to which she was referring and all was well.

I found it a little humorous, but nothing too noteworthy until I got checked out and got my receipt:

I will inform you that I did not buy a single card. nor did I buy a scrapbook. Apparently they are keeping it simple at Hobby Lobby these days. Descriptions that are short and sweet must make for a stress free inventory day. 

I just hope I don't have to take anything back because I have no clue how they'll know which item is the $7.99 craft and which on is the $2.99 craft. 

My Children Need Contact Lenses

Apparently our big screen TV isn't quite big enough to be viewed from the couch.

New Toy

So this is my new toy:

Not the bike, I've had that for years. Although my use of it has been limited since having the girls. I asked for the trailer for Christmas and my wonderful mother-in-law came through!! I realize that since it was a gift at Christmas (almost 4 months ago) it isn't really a "new" toy, but considering that I just opened and assembled it a few weeks back, I am still counting it as new.

The girls LOVE riding in the back and I LOVE getting to get out and get some fresh air. We get to travel to parks in our neighborhood with much ease which is a win-win in my book.

There is just enough space for the two of them and while they are a little cramped, they seem to like it.

The rides almost lull Sarah to sleep. Good thing there is always a shoulder near by.

Thanks, Nana!! It's a hit!

Date with Daddy

When we were pregnant with our first baby and found out that we were having a girl, one of our many "plans" for her is that she and her Daddy would often go on daddy/daughter dates. We felt this was important because we wanted her to have a special bond with her Daddy that would last through the years. We also wanted to start this process early so that it wouldn't feel strange or awkward to her once she became a late elementary schooler/teenager. We ended up starting their regular dates when Claire turned 2 and she has grown quite fond of her own special time with Daddy. Here they are leaving for today's date:

         

I couldn't decide which picture was cuter, so you get to see both! 

The location of the dates vary. They've done McDonalds for lunch, Chuck-E-Cheese, a bounce house, a park, etc. And all dates end with ice cream--as all dates should.

These dates were sporadic at first. Maybe once every other month. But suddenly Claire caught on and started requesting dates with Daddy. Now they go about every third week. I love the excitement that floods her face on the morning of the date. She doesn't want to eat breakfast, she doesn't want to watch TV, all she wants to do is get dressed and GOOOOOOOOOO! 

Multiple times, I get to hear, "Mommy, you can't go. You have to stay here with Sarah. I am going to go and Daddy is going to go. Okay?"

It's like she feels I need to be reminded least I jump into the truck with them as they venture out to one of their varied destinations. 

So in the truck she hopped, waving a very enthusiastic good-bye and off they went. 

I am hoping and praying that on these dates, Claire will learn from her Daddy how boys are supposed to treat girls on dates and also that their bond would be so strong that Claire will have no problem coming to her Daddy for help with boy trouble. (You know, when she's 35)

I told Michael to get ready because once Sarah hits 2, he'll be making these little dates twice as often. Not to mention the times he dates his wife. Poor guy. Living in a house of women is going to be quite the adventure for him. Maybe y'all should start praying for him now. 

Strange Dreams and Ear Infections

This morning I woke up intending to hit the ground running. I had quite a lot to do today. At 6:00 AM, I rolled over and turned on the radio. Then I rolled back onto my pillow for a moment to reflect on what I needed to do today. After a short moment, I jumped up and made my bed. Then I took a quick shower, got dressed, dried and fixed my hair and put on make-up. I was raring to go. The day has started off right. I was just about to head on to my next task when I woke up. Yep. I dreamed the whole thing. Can you believe that? The turning on of the radio actually happened. The rolling back onto my pillow for a moment actually happened. But the rest? A dream. Unbelievable. I hate getting ready in the mornings. I am always glad when I am done and can start the day, but getting started is always my downfall. And here I was proud of myself because I got ready so fast only to find out it was all a dream. Because the radio was blaring in my ear as I was sleeping, my morning show made it's way into my dream and made it seem even more real.

So then I had to drag myself out of bed and get ready ALL OVER AGAIN. But this time, I had to do it in hyper speed because I had now overslept to the point that I had very little time to get myself ready and get the girls up, fed, and dressed so I could take them to the doctor's office.

The doctor's visit was for Sarah. She was diagnosed with an ear infection last week and didn't seem to be getting any better. When we went today we found that not only was her infected ear still infected, but that now the other ear has joined in on the fun. So now she is on her second round of antibiotics.

Oh, and we had to change doctors again. You may recall my great doctor search of 2009. Well thanks to my awesome church friends, I did find a doctor I loved. The practice is efficient (I've never, EVER waited more than 5 minutes to see the doctor), the nurses are super sweet and the doctor was a dream!! But last week, the doctor told me that she was leaving the practice to spend more time with her family. I admire that. I really do. But ARGH!!!!!!! It is so hard for me to find a doctor I like and now that I had one I was devastated to think that I was about to have to start a whole new search. (Do you like how it's all about me? I really need to work on that.) Fortunately, we were seen today by one of the other doctors in the practice and I really liked her as well. So for now all is well--except, of course, for poor Sarah's little ears.

Okay time to go be productive. I have to clean the bathrooms, fold laundry and start supper before the girls wake from their naps. Boy am I going to be furious if I do all that work and then suddenly wake to find I dreamed it all.

11:26 PM

It's late and I am blogging. Why? Insomnia. Grrrr. It only happens every once and a while, but here it is. I am sure I'll fall asleep eventually but after two hours of lying in bed wide awake, I figured I'd be less stressed if I'd just get up and do something productive. Then it dawned on me that I hadn't blogged today. You see, I am apparently an all or nothing blogger. Since my blog revival last Friday, I have blogged once each day. It has been fairly easy to keep up with and I have managed to find something to chat and/or rant about each day. However, when I skip a day here and there, the skipped days always seem to meld into one giant month or two of no blogging. So to keep it up, here I sit at 11:29 PM typing away.

Today was a fun day with the girls. Our playgroup went to a very interesting restaurant. It is a restaurant/petting zoo. Seriously. Farm animals with a side of fries. The girls loved it though and Sarah got to experience her first sand pit. Here are some pics:

You know your kids had fun when at least one of them has to leave the party naked--or at least stripped down to the diaper. Sarah's clothes are still sitting atop my washing machine in a to go box.

And with that, I will call it a night. After all, it's 11:41 PM and I've got some tossing and turning to do.

Nighty-night.

Where's Waldo . . . er . . . Claire?

Whether in a box,

under Sarah's bed with Daddy,

or behind the curtains,

hiding is such fun!!

Rant

Warning, I am needing to vent. 

Today is Monday. In my world, that means it is grocery shopping day. It was quite busy in the grocery store today and I will say that without exception every person I passed by seemed to have an air of thankfulness. The gratitude was practically radiating off of each and every face I saw. Why the air of such thanksgiving? Glad you asked. They were all grateful that they weren't me. Yep, that's right. Grateful to be anyone but the crazy, frazzled mommy toting two screaming, yelling babies while attempting to purchase her weekly groceries.

What a crazy morning. Seriously, y'all. Unbelievable. Today I dared to attempt one of those car/shopping cart doohickey thingers (serious cool-point deduction for that one) in the hopes that my children would be happy for at least half of the shopping trip. See, sweet little Sarah has decided that sitting in the shopping cart seat is for the birds and refuses to do it any longer unless she is allowed to wail at the top of her lungs the entire time. She does, however, like to sit in the little car/cart and turn the wheel while beeping the horn. (did I mention how cool I look as this is going on?)

The problem is with big sister, Claire. This lovely little one who is usually content to walk beside the cart and help Mommy put things in the basket, now must, MUST also sit in the car/cart because . . . well, we can't let little sister have all the fun now can we? So I cram both little ones in the car compartment with barely an inch to spare on either side of them and all they do is fight, fight, fight. Actually, all Sarah does is react, react, react to Claire's need to pester the daylights out of her. So I separate them and end up with Sarah in the basket seat (which she hates) and Claire cruising alongside the cart because it is no longer fun to be in the car compartment without a little sister to pester.

For those who don't know, these carts have a significantly reduced basket space to make up for the clown car at the front. So now I have a small cart that won't hold my groceries, a screaming baby who doesn't want to be in the jump seat and a toddler who is crying because I took Sarah out of said car. Exhausted yet? Just wait.

So my grocery store is going through quite the renovation. This renovation will be wonderful once it is complete, but we are going on 3 months of construction and it gets worse by the day. I used to pride myself on my ability to get in and out of the store in 45 minutes with a full weeks worth of groceries and two happy children. I could accomplish this because I had a mental map of the store. I could organize my grocery list in the perfect order of where items were located in the store.

Now? Every time I go back, they've moved items to new homes. What was once near produce, is now WAAAAAAY over by the meats. All the makeup is now divided into three different aisles that, by the way, are not adjacent to one another. And because a majority of these moves are temporary, they haven't moved the signage above the aisles. You know, the signs that tell you what is on the aisle? Yep, those are wrong too. This is tough enough with a regular cart, but with one of those car/carts? Those things are near impossible to turn and when you find yourself forced to make hundreds of extra turns as you go back and forth through the store to find what has been moved for the eleventy-millionth time your patience starts to wear thin.

So after an hour and a half, (that's right) I was finally heading to the check-out lines (minus a few items that I just couldn't locate and decided weren't worth an extra lap or two around the store). Here is where it really got fun. Claire was back to her sweet helpful self and was taking items out of the cart and putting them on the conveyor belt. She grabbed a can of soup and managed to drop it right on her big toe. Ensue wailing. Actually, it was more like ear-splitting screaming. I did feel sorry for her, poor thing. I am sure her toe hurt, but it was a can of soup for crying out loud. (oh the irony of that statement) I kept repeating the Mommy Mantra, "Oh, you're alright. It's okay." as the crying intensified and the grateful looks on the faces of those around me multiplied with alarming speed.

We finally get checked out and to the parking lot. The car is loaded and Sarah is about to be freed from her torture seat when Claire declares through stifled sobs that she really, REALLY needs to go potty. I can see from her expression (not to mention the "tee tee dance") that she won't be able to wait until we get home, so I haul both kids back into the store. I am sure the employees are thinking, "NOOOOOOO! We just got rid of that crazy family!!!"

Fortunately I know where the potty is located because we have frequented this latrine on multiple occasions during Claire's potty training phase. Wanna guess what happened? Come on, take a wild guess. No, she didn't have an accident. Want to try again?

THEY MOVED THE BATHROOM!!! Actually, it was just closed for remodeling, but there was a sign on the door that informed me that I was now going to get to take my desperate duo into the bowels of the store. Back where only employees are allowed just so my precious one can relieve herself.

Eventually we got home. The groceries eventually got put away and the girls finally got to eat some lunch. I sat down with Claire for a moment and she told me that her toe still hurt. So I removed her shoe to inspect her big toe and found this:

No wonder she was crying so much. So much for the Mommy Mantra.

End rant.

Leader of the Pack

We started swimming lessons for Claire two weeks ago and I am SO glad we did it! The first three days were a little trying. On the first day, Claire was surprised to learn that she was going to have to put her head under water every single day. At that, she informed me that she was no longer going to take swimming lessons.

Obviously she doesn't know me as well as she should. Doesn't she know that once Mommy makes up her mind, there is no turning back? So on day two and three, the lifeguard had to peel her off of my body kicking and screaming to take her to the pool. They have a "no parents poolside" policy. I was nervous about this at first, but you get to sit in a room with two way mirrors the entire time. So you get to watch your baby, but they don't get to see you. This proved very beneficial for Claire because I think seeing me the entire time would have kept her upset. Without me there, she was forced to focus on her teacher and ended up calming down way faster. By day 4, she walked on in just like a pro and has loved it ever since.

The beginners class is called the "Guppy Class". In this class, she has learned to float on her back, swim with her head in the water (all 4 strokes worth) and dive for rings in 5 feet of water. She even took a couple of turns going down the water slide. Yesterday, her instructor picked her up and tossed her into the water face down and she immediately rolled on to her back and started to float. (which was the goal, by the way.) All this after only 2 weeks of work. She has now graduated to the Goldfish class and will continue lessons through the summer. I am hoping that this will make outings to the pool with two little ones a little less taxing on me.

Here is a little video of her leading the pack in kicking with barbells. You'll have to excuse the glare on the window. I am videoing through the two-way mirror so you get to see plenty of reflections of the other people sitting in the room with me.


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What a champ!

Date Night!!

Tonight Michael and I had a date night. So. Much. Fun. We actually trade off childcare with another couple from our church so that we each get one date night per month. I can't tell you how awesome it is to get out and eat a meal and chat with the love of my life. We love our children dearly, but getting to focus on each other is priceless.

Tonight we went to a Mongolian grill and it was quite tasty. Then we went to a pool hall and played pool and darts. We haven't done that since our first date so in a way it was a little nostalgic. And no night is complete without a warm, gooey dessert so we made sure to stop in to a steak house for their brownie sundae to finish off the evening right.

I love our date nights because it makes us better spouses for each other, which in turn makes us better parents for our babies.

Sorry so sappy tonight. I just love my family! I'm sure I'll return to my snarky, sarcastic self later. Right now, I'm just too refreshed to snark!

Just to Start the Flow

Okay no excuses this time. I have been a blogging slacker. Thank you to Pigs for waking me from my blog coma. I had actually been reading several of her posts and felt shame, oh the shame for how well she was doing at her blogging and then I'd look at my page. March 12th. Yep. That is the last time I blogged. Just seeing that date was enough to create writers block in me and I would leave my computer head hung in shame and tell myself there was always tomorrow.

Welcome to tomorrow, Aims. I am going to just ramble about in the hopes that it will re-start all the creative juices and they will flow out of me once more. Sorry if that sounds a little gross.

So we recently invested in a whole-house water filtration system. Which is super-duper nice. Oh my it is nice. My skin has never been so soft and finally, FINALLY my towels smell like the soap I wash them in instead of the chlorine and metals that were alarmingly high in our water.

While I love the system, the process of getting the system was a bit trying. I CANNOT STAND salesmen. Seriously. I don't trust them. There is not one word that comes out of their mouths that I don't question. I do, however, trust my wonderful husband. So when the salesmen show up, we fall into the good cop/bad cop roles and make Fast-Talker McSaley really earn his money. Michael does the majority of the talking while I just stand in the background and listen and glare a bit. From time to time I chime in with a question, but usually I direct the question to Michael because, once more, he is the one I trust. In the end, if Michael says all is okay I relax and the sale is made.

Once all the paperwork was signed the installation process began. I had no idea it would take so many different people to get this thing up and running.

We've had many-a-man come through yea ole house as of late. First there was the installation guy (who was here for about 9 hours one Saturday). Then we had the inspector guy who showed up randomly a week later to check the work that was performed by installation guy. Then Fast-Talker McSaley showed up again today to retest the water to prove to me (the bad cop) that what he said really was true. Oh and? Since we had a new system to make our water all nice and clean, we decided that it would be a good time to replace our water heater. So we had two other men here all morning long to complete that daunting task.

Claire actually asked me today if another man was going to come to our house tomorrow. Great, now I have to worry about her going to church on Sunday and telling her teacher about the numerous men that are frequenting her house. That'll be a fun one to talk my way out of.


(By the way, I tried and tried to come up with a better way to re-arrange that last sentence so it wouldn't end in "of" but I am too tired. So the teacher in me shudders, but the exhausted mom of two won the battle and we are leaving it as written.)

Good night all!