Monday, September 29, 2008

I never thought I'd see the day...

Those of you who are dedicated blog readers (all three of you!) know the struggles we've had with the pacifier. Addi is over two years old and still thinks she needs a paci at least once a day - before Sam was born she was totally done with it but now she just takes her sister's.

A few weeks back Addi used Sam's paci so often that her lips were literally bleeding. We gave serious thought to just getting rid of all paci's in order to break her of the habit - after all, Sam isn't really addicted yet, in fact she sometimes doesn't even want it. We've gone back and forth on the issue.... should we break her now and make her learn to self-soothe, or risk another paci-addiction in a few years? I was learning towards weaning her, even stopped picking them up on my routine trips to Target in hopes that we'd soon be over the need for them.

Then........

It happened.

I never thought I'd see the day.....

That I would WISH for a paci addiction.

That's right.

Sam's a thumb sucker now.


And I'm pretty sure we can't cut the top off of her thumb and convince her to throw it in the trash like we did Addi's paci.

I guess when your sister steals your favorite soothie 10,000 times you gotta learn to improvise. Super smart Sam.

And I'm headed to the store to buy 100 more paci's.

These boots are made for walking....


...Or running, in Addi's case.
We spent several hours this weekend shopping for Addi's new fall wardrobe. After sending her to daycare several days in a row in what can only be labeled as questionable outfits, I finally broke down and decided the girl could use more than two pairs of pants. And some shoes that would not double as a lifesaving device (she LOVES her some Crocs!).
She got it all........ some boots (see above), some light up Dora tennis shoes, some pants, shirts, and sweaters, and some exercise. Addi seems to think that when she is in a store, she should RUN, not walk, as fast as she can. And mom and dad are slow, especially when toting around a 4 month old as well. Needless to say, Addi also spent several hours in time out. Typical Sunday.
Oh and Blogger won't double space today. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Friday, September 26, 2008

The bugs are officially out

It’s officially fall so there are bugs everywhere. And when you are two year’s old like my adorable daughter is, a bug is quite possibly the most terrifying thing around. Apparently, even though she is about 1,000 times bigger than any bug she's ever seen, they are scary and should immediately die a quick death.

Addi also has issues identifying different types of bugs. If it flies, it’s a “bee”. If it crawls, it’s a “spider”. No amount of persuading her otherwise will work – the bees and spiders must go NOW, if not sooner.

A few weeks ago, I begged Jay to let me cut the grass and he finally agreed. This might seem like a weird thing to fight about but think about it for a minute – you get an hour, uninterrupted, listening to our not-pod (my name for my generic iPod). No kids yelling, no dishes or cleaning, just walking and trying to go in straight lines. Like our own personal heaven I tell you.

But I digress. Anyway, I had just finished cutting the backyard - Jay was pulling weeds and the kids were hanging out on the patio. Addi immediately ran up to me to tell me about this GIANT SPIDER that needed to move. It was SO big in fact that she couldn’t even get into the house because it was blocking the step. Jay confirmed said bug and said that it had been there for a while but he hadn’t had time to go take care of it. Plus, it was SO big that I think even he was a bit afraid of it. Being the good mom I am, I stopped what I was doing to go take care of this problem and help Addi make her way into the house. After all, bugs can be scary, especially really big green ones.

And wow. The bug was HUGE! And bright green. But it didn’t look quite like any bug I’ve ever seen before. In fact, it looked remarkably similar to THIS:



That’s right. It was a gummy bear. TERRIFYING.

Maybe I’m not the only one who needs to pay a big more attention to details.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Not today

Slowly but surely, Addi is growing up. Last night I walked into the kitchen after changing Sam’s diaper and saw this:


Addi loves to “help” with dishes, so this was not a huge shock. Her "helping" means she rinses the clean dishes, fills the bowls and cups with water, and makes a pile of water-filled dishes next to the sink. Not the most efficient way of cleaning up but hey, it’s 10 more minutes I don’t have to worry about her using Sam as her “baby doll” and trying to shove plastic fake food in her mouth.

Last night as she was standing there she turned to Jay and said, “Daddy, how was your day?” He looked shocked for a minute and then said, “Well, it was pretty good, thanks for asking! How was your day? What did you do?”

As always, we expected, “I go to Kim’s” or “I read books.” But no, not today. Addi responded, “I bite Mason. Then I sit in time out on the steps.”

I quizzed her and she recounted how she bit Mason after he pushed her down. Last week Mason bit HER after a tussle over a plastic tub of toys, so this story sounded strikingly familiar. I called Kim and she said that yes, in fact Addi had claimed to have bitten Mason, but Mason said she didn’t. Apparently they did fight over the same plastic tub and my brute of a daughter threw him out of it and made him cry. Either way, Addi got to sit in time out.

Now I need to decide if I should be more worried that I have a biter on my hands or a compulsive liar. Either way, preschool will be a blast.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Seven Things...

As you may have noticed, since I've gone back to work my blogging has become.... somewhat... lagging. So, in a move to make myself be more creative, I'm going to write seven things you may not know about me. And believe me, this is a toughy because I'm known to some of my closer friends as a puke mouth. So, here goes.

  1. I am dying to take drumming lessons. Seriously... when I drive in my car I pretend I am a rockstar. The downside is I can't carry a tune, so I try to do this while I'm alone.
  2. I actually like Blue's Clues, Handy Manny, and Hannah Montana. I have on more than one occasion been stumped by what Blue was wanting to play and have on several occasions urged Addi to watch Hannah because I really wanted to. The Wonder Pets are a different story.
  3. I LOVE being a mom, and exactly how much surprises me everyday. I always figured I'd have kids but am not really too big of a fan of other people's. But mine... man I think they are cool.
  4. I judge other people when they use poor grammar and type badly, but I do both of these on a daily basis. Double standard anyone?
  5. I talk daily to people I met online during my pregnancy with Sam. Jay calls them my "imaginary" friends but I really rely on them for guidance and just a sounding board for lots of things. We are even meeting up in person in November. I guess if people can find their spouse online, why can't I find friends?
  6. I have never done a single drug. Never, not once. For some reason people never believe me but it's true.
  7. My brother and I have some weird cosmic connection... like, I'll think "I wonder what Lee is doing," and BOOM he calls. One time at work I was describing this phenomenon to my coworkers and Lee called less than a minute later. Creepy. Or maybe a total coincidence.

Hey! There you go! Seven!

4 months down...

Today Sam had her four month checkup. This past weekend she had a fever which ended in a big rash all over her, so the timing of this appointment was pretty good. Of course we woke up this morning and the rash was pretty much gone... already trying to make a liar out of me!

Anyway, Sam's favorite part of the appointment was rolling around playing with the paper. Kinda like this:



She weights 14 lbs 1 oz and is in the 60% percentile for weight. Proving she is in fact my daughter she is in the 25% for height and proving she's Jay's, 90% for head circumference. It's because she has such a big brain I bet!

All in all, a pretty boring visit. But we got the green light to start solids whenever we want, which means more laundry will soon be headed my way. I wonder if I can hold off on that till she can operate the washing machine herself?

Monday, September 22, 2008

Welcome Baby Lorelai!

This morning, my brother Lee and his wife Roxy had a baby girl! Lorelai Lee weighed in at 6 lbs, 14 oz and was 21 inches long.

The Beautiful baby...

The adoring daddy...

Big sister Sabrina was there to help mom and dad celebrate! Congrats Lee and family!

After telling Addi that she had a new cousin, she spent about 30 minutes walking around with a coaster under her shirt, pretending like she had a baby in her belly. When we asked what the baby's name was, she said "Baby Roxy." At least she had the right idea...


Sunday, September 21, 2008

Selling the Garage

So, in a random act of braveness (read: stupidity, foolishness, looniness, etc.) my friend Jenny and I decided to embark on the crazy road of the garage sale. We both had some junk to get rid of and Jenny had a ton of baby clothes to sell. Jay also helped by stealing some carseats out of our neighbor's trash... and we sold one for ten bucks.

Friday and Saturday we sat in my garage and bartered with people. We really saw it all... people who wanted to pay full price, people who wanted us to throw in the house for free, everything.

Before the sale...

During the sale... we had a TON of people come by!


The sale of the day (to me) was to some landscape bricks we had lined up against the garage. Jay was planning a weekend project with them but people kept looking at them, so I sold them for fifty bucks. I thought he might be mad but he said, "whew... you just saved me a weekend!"

Saturday proved to be a bit harder because I had both girls there to help us out. Here they are, showing off their selling techniques:

All in all, a very busy weekend! We made a few bucks and got rid of some clutter...... can't beat that! Now, off to the mountain of laundry!

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Can you feel the love tonight...?

Yesterday the kiddos and I were hanging out and I took some videos of them. As you can probably tell from this, Sam LOVES Addi just as much as Addi loves Sam.

Oh and for those of you who don't speak "Addi" - she is singing Pat-a-cake to Sam... "Roll it, mark it with a B...."

Friday, September 12, 2008

Her most prized possession

As it is becoming more and more apparent, Addison has a minor addiction to Sam’s pacifiers. And by minor I mean kicking, screaming, sneaking around in the middle of the night to steal them from her sleeping sister, sucking them until her lips are literally bleeding obsession. Once she got blisters on her lips we immediately started taking them from her the second she got them, and now she will hand them over pretty quickly when we catch her with one, so things are getting a bit better. But still, she digresses.

Last night I was folding laundry and noticed Addi was remarkably quiet. I called to her upstairs and asked what she was doing. When she replied, “Nothing,” I took off straight up the stairs to see what was really going on. And to my surprise, not a whole lot. She was in the guest room in a fort made of pillows, laying there pretending to sleep. I said, “Wow, I figured you were up here hiding with a paci,” and she said, “Look mommy!” She lifted up a pillow… under that was a hat… under the hat was a pink box… and in the box was a paci. She was keeping it nice and safe, should Jay or I decide to take up the habit or Sam miraculously learned to walk. She keeps only her most special things in that box (last week was a rock she gave to her sitter) so I wasn’t a bit surprised to find a paci there.

This morning, I was in the bathroom getting ready for work and Sam and Addi were laying in our bed, holding hands and watching cartoons. I knew Addi had gotten the paci out from the guest room on her way to our room but didn’t have the energy to fight with her over it, so I told her that she was NOT to put it in her mouth. I could hear Addi talking… She was saying, “I’ll keep you safe. You won’t fall. You be OK. You stay here,” and other random stuff like that. Assuming she had made a fort out of pillows on our bed for her paci again I went into our room to check and nope. She had made a fort around Sam and was telling her she would keep her protected, etc. I asked what she was doing and she said making sure Sam didn’t fall and was safe. I was a bit humbled, because I assumed all the attention was over the paci and nope, she was keeping her sister safe instead. She is so sweet and loves Sam so much it can melt your heart.

Now, I could end the story there and we would all leave with a warm, fuzzy feeling in our guts over sisterly love. But really, that’s not me.

When I picked Sam up to head downstairs, what did I find? Two paci’s under her. So, while she was worried about keeping her sister safe, I think she might have had an ulterior motive. I’ll let you decide. Me, I’m sticking with my original thought… that Sam is her most prized possession.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

1, 2, 3, 5... OH MY

One day last week, I was rocking Sam in the glider and Addi wanted to hold her hand. It’s a super sweet thing she does these days – she constantly wants Sam to sit beside her and hold hands. It usually leads to me yelling, “Stop! You can’t pick Sam up!” or “Stop! You can’t lay on top of Sam!” or the newest phrase, “Stop! Don’t bite Sam!” but for those brief few minutes, it will melt your heart.

Kind of like this...

... and this...
... and this...
... and even this...
I told Addi that I really liked her and Sam being friends and I hoped that when they were grown ups they would get along just as well. Addi said “Yup, and I be friends with the babies too.” I said, “Um what babies?” and she said, “We have more babies. I want more babies.”

Brief interruption here: To understand the rest of the story, you have to know that we tell Addi the reason she can’t feed Sam crackers, gum, dog food, etc. is because only I can feed Sam milk, since she has no teeth. This seems to work and on many occasions she informs us that Sam can’t do X, Y or Z because she is toothless. We might be screwed when those darn teeth come in, but that's another blog entirely. Back to the story…

I sent her straight outside to Jay so she could tell HIM what she wanted. There she said, “Daddy I want a baby. 1, 2, 3, 5 more babies.” I couldn’t see Jay’s face but I’m assuming he looked a bit shocked. He said, “Addi, I can’t feed five more babies. That’s too many,” and she said, “No Daddy, Mommy feed them because they won’t have teeth. It's OK.”

If only feeding five additional children was that simple. Sweet, yes. But SO not happening.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

My first posted video!

I've never tried to post video on here before, so today I decided to give it a shot. And what an amazing piece of cinematography it is.... It has all the key points to a great film... 2 year old in a diaper... great singing.... an exciting, thrilling ending.... Enjoy!

August pictures up!

I'm too lazy to come up with anything exciting and fun to write, so I just uploaded pictures from August, including Samantha's Baptism. Head on over and check them out. Enjoy!

One funny moment from her Baptism... the priest came over and asked her if she was ready to get "the devil out of her." I thought that was pretty funny (and random)!

http://jayandstephanieralph.shutterfly.com/

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Mommy's Little "Helper"

My kid is strange. I'll be the first to admit it... Or maybe she is just two years old. Either way, I find myself asking her, "What are you doing?" on multiple occasions each and every day. And if I DON'T find myself asking her that, then I am usually cleaning up a mess because whatever she was secretly doing just stained my carpet.

Today was no different. I was doing dishes and turned around to see this:

I had to ask what she was doing because I had no idea. When I started dishes, the little white table and chairs were on the other side of the room, and the four chairs were around the table. I heard chairs moving but no screaming or splashing, so I ignored her. When I finally saw what she was doing she told me she was making "her bed". OooooooK.

And yes, she doesn't have on any pants, just princess panties. If you are shocked raise your hand. Yeah, I didn't think anyone would raise one.

Later in the afternoon, I was folding laundry and Addi came running in from the backyard and stole three of my towels. Then she and I fought over a fourth one and I lost the battle. I figured she had spilled something but no... She was doing this:


I still can't figure this one out. And yes, she is wearing a different outfit, still no pants. I can only do so much people!

At least she is creative and can find ways to occupy her time without needing our constant help. And at least it's still warm out - I'm hoping the hold weather stops the pantsless wonder I call my daughter.

Friday, September 5, 2008

A little too close for comfort….

The other day Jay was grabbing a map online and told me to check this out:


Apparently, if you go to maps.msn.com and put in your address, you can get a birds’ eye view of your house. LITERALLY. It’s a little creepy to me, but for you who always wonder what my big white fence looks like, there you go.

Makes Addi running around in the backyard naked seem like a bit of a bigger deal. Even with the fence, someone is still watching.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

What Daddy's are for...

I've said it before, and I'll say it a million times again, but I TOTALLY hit the jackpot when I married this guy.

As a husband, Jay is great. I couldn't be luckier. People are always shocked when I tell them Jay does all the cooking (and therefore grocery shopping) but hey, I'm no dummy! The man can cook... give him some raw meat and an open flame and YUM-O! He also does more than his share of household duties and even took care of me while I was on bedrest. Pause to hear the angels sing...

As a Daddy, Jay is pretty great too. He is super involved with both girls and they love him to pieces. As you can see, daddy is great for sitting on....


...sleeping on...
... climbing on....
...and so much more.

But.

Jay is NOT the fashion police. He can dress himself and most of the time looks pretty nice. He can match his shoes and his belt and make sure his shirts are (mostly) wrinkle free, but I don't think there is anyone who would call him a fashionista. When it comes to the girls, his fashion sense falls at an even more rapid pace. It's quite normal for him to dress Addi and have a somewhat questionable outfit be the outcome. Don't even get me started on him fixing her hair... Think about it, teeny tiny barrettes and giant man hands.... they just don't mix. I've seen it all... snowman shirts in summer, pink and red together, whatever. As long as we aren't leaving the house anytime soon, it's really no big deal.

Last week, Jay got Addi dressed for bed. He told me that we might need to go shopping for some new jammies because hers seemed pretty small. He was right, her shirt kept riding up but because "Daddy dressed me!" she refused to change. She's a growing girl so it comes with the territory. The next day I was folding laundry and came across Sam's pajama shirt (she and Addi have matching jammies). But it seemed a bit..... big? I checked the label and what do you know, it was a size 3T. A closer look at Addi's shirt revealed she was indeed wearing Sam's 3 - 6 month shirt. No wonder the thing was so small.

After laughing for a good 10 minutes, Jay informed me that this was why HE did the cooking and I was in charge of the kids. Well said, Jay.

Now, if I can somehow use this new found knowledge of his to go on a shopping spree, with no objections from Jay...

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Mystery Solved

Last Friday Jay helped me load the girls into my car to take them to the sitter. When he opened the back door he said, "Wow, there's a banana in here somewhere, your whole car smells like it." Well, Addi eats them quite regularly so I assumed there was a peel or chunk randomly thrown in the back seat, so I promised to search for it and off we went. Later that day, I looked everywhere and although I did find a pacifier, two pairs of sunglasses, and 47 cents, there was no banana to be found.

Well, as with most things these days, I forgot all about it. We spent the weekend with family, getting Sam Baptized (more on that later) and enjoying our time off. I was only in the car for a few minutes here and there so this morning when I got into the car and was completely overwhelmed with the smell of banana, I was, oh, a bit surprised. I AGAIN searched under seats and on the floor and AGAIN found no banana. But now I had several fruit flies buzzing around my head, so I knew my search must continue.

I called Jay, told him that tonight we would search the car high and low until we solved this mystery. He was of course super excited about looking for moldy food in my car. Then I headed into work, unloaded my computer, and found............. A BANANA IN MY LAPTOP CASE.

Nasty. But at least the mystery was solved. As well as the question of my attention to detail.

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