Wednesday, January 28, 2009
When she is 16…
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Shopping just got a whole lot cuter
Friday, January 23, 2009
Dollhouse Time out
After dinner last night Addison and I went upstairs to play with her dollhouse. I haven’t had the chance to play dollhouse with her (usually Jay gets dragged in) so I was excited to see what she would do. After taking all the furniture out and putting it all back in (at my insistence… there’s something about a bathtub, kitchen table, and piano in one room that really bugs me!) we got down to the business of playing.
I put one girl at the piano and Addi tucked several “babies” into bed. A few minutes later Addi made the “mommy” get out of bed and climb the stairs. Then she yelled, “You go to time out. Quit playing your piano and waking up the rest of us.” So my girl went to time out.
Next, a dog climbed on the couch and Mommy yelled again, “You get down and go to time out. Bad dog!”
Next to succumb was a bunny in a dress. Standing on the kitchen table. Never a good thing.
Seeing this trend, I ran downstairs to get the camera, leaving “Mommy” in charge. When I came back, this is what I saw:
I'm not sure what the hamster did but it must have been bad.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
King Obama
The next day was of course inauguration day. I was home with Sam, so I watched the events all day long. And like many people I was inspired and hopeful about this new change in the world. When Addi got home, she saw our new President on TV and asked who he was. I explained to her that he was the new president and said his name was President Obama.
Addi looked at me like I was nuts and said, "No Mommy, he's not the president, he's the King."
After I stopped laughing I tried to explain his name to her again, then gave up. But I am happy that she's getting some (albeit, confusing) education.
Are you smarter than a pre-schooler
Case in point: This past Saturday the Dettman's came over for a few hours. The guys moved some boxes over to the new house while Jenny and I
Anyway, the girls had been playing nicely for a few hours when Addi came tearing downstairs, crying. Jill followed her with a perplexed look on her face. After calming Addi down we asked her what the problem was and she said that she was sad because Jill wouldn't call her "Mommy." Jill said, "She's NOT Mommy. She's Addi." And every time Jill said that, Addi got more upset.
Poor Jill. It's hard to explain to a 3 year old that Addi is just nuts.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Growing up... and sick

Doesn't she look sick?

Sunday, January 18, 2009
My First Baby
1. Were you married at the time? Yes, had been for 2.5 years.
2. What were your reactions when you found out? Excited and surprised.
3. How old were you? 27 when I got pregnant, turned 28 a month after she was born.
4. How did you find out you were pregnant? A pregnancy test at home.
5. Who did you tell first? Jay
6. Did you want to find out the sex? Yes - I figured it was a surprise no matter when I found out. And it didn't seem real until we saw it was a healthy girl.
7. Did you deliver early or late? 4 days early.
8. Due date: February 5
9. Did you have morning sickness? OH yeah... for a good 8 weeks I wanted to die.
10. What did you crave? Fruit nonstop. One week I ate a gallon (literally) of fruit salad and an entire watermelon alone. Jay was shocked.
11. Who irritated you the most? My first overnight nurse in the hospital. She yelled at me for not getting out of bed and I still had a catheter so I couldn't.
12. What was your first child's Sex? Female
13. How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy? 25 or 30
14. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? Non-stop contractions from week 25 on. Boy that was fun.
15. How long were you in labor? 6 minutes. Love me a c-section!
17. Who drove you to the hospital? Jay
18. Who watched? Jay and 20 nurses and doctors.
19. Was it natural or c-section? scheduled c-section. They estimated a large baby.
20. Did you take medicine to ease the pain? A lovely, lovely epidural and lots of pain meds after.
21. How much did your child weigh? 9 pounds, 4 ounces. Turns out they knew what they were talking about.
22. What did you name him/her? Addison Marie
23. How old is your first born today? Will be 3 in two weeks
Saturday, January 17, 2009
The Eye Roll
We are still working on potty training. Now I really think it's just a battle of wills. At school Addi is potty trained with minimal accidents. At home, it's like I have two of Sam. In an effort to make Addi more comfortable, we moved her potty seat to the dining room for privacy (per a potty training book). She will use the regular potty but sometimes she prefers the old style potty seat. It's pretty basic... she does her business and then Jay or I (read: ME) pour the business into the regular toilet. And it is as much fun as it sounds, believe me.
Last night Addi came running out of the dining room yelling, "Mommy, I pee-peed in the potty! I get an M&M!" Because I had doubt that she actually did go I asked her to show me. She proudly took my hand and guided me into the dining room. I bent over to get a good look at said pee pee, and saw.... a dry potty. I said, "Um, Addi, you didn't go potty. That is empty."
She looked at me, rolled her eyes, and said, "Mommy. I already flushed."
Friday, January 16, 2009
Miss Mommy
The bad news is, she is still "Mommy." And according to Mommy, this baby has diaper rash and really needed diaper rash cream.
Not sure why the baby needed Desitin IN her mouth too. I'm sure there is a reasonable explanation.
I'm starting to get the feeling that not all kids are like mine. This could get tricky....
Thursday, January 15, 2009
'Tis the Season... To be Freezin'
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
She's doing some learnin'.... and some lovin'
Last night she came home and rattled off the days of the week for us, albeit in a mixed up order. This morning while driving to school I asked Addi what she was going to do today and asked her if she knew what day it was. "Snow," she said. "No, that's the weather, not the day. Today is Tuesday. What is tomorrow?"
"Rain!"
Sure, why not.
Tonight at dinner she kept talking about her new friend Tyson. He is her "best friend" and according to Addi, he likes to poop in his pants too! Right before bed, she was struggling for a word.... and finally managed to say "Tyson? He's my boysfriend. My Boysfriend, mommy!" When I asked her where she learned that word, she said, "Sami." I'm pretty sure she did NOT learn it from her, since Sam doesn't talk, but she wouldn't tell me where she really heard it.
Now I have that 70s song in my head...
Poop, Poop will keep us together, Think of me babe whenever, Some sweet talkin´ girl comes along, singin´ a song.....
Patience Update
According to Wikipedia, Full Moons are traditionally associated with temporal insomnia, insanity (hence the terms lunacy and lunatic) and various "magical phenomena" such as lycanthropy.
See? It's TOTALLY not my fault I wanted to strangle my husband. It was caused by the moon.
Here's hoping, anyway.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Patience is a virtue
Let me back up a bit. Last Sunday, we made the trek home from Indy after our glorious vacation. We then spent the rest of Sunday running around like maniacs, preparing for the week ahead. Not only did we have to go back to work after our two week hiatus, but the kids started a new school on Monday, so we had to mentally and physically prepare the entire family for that too. I also had to "come down" from our travels, which apparently has taken much longer than I would have thought.
Here's something most people know about me: I'm pretty superstitious (read: neurotic). For example, prior to us flying to Florida, I insisted that we get our Wills in order. Just in case.
Because THIS is the only type of plane I am totally comfortable with.

See, even though I have jumped OUT of a plane before, I hate flying. Now I DO enjoy the speediness of the plane, assuming there is no fog in Atlanta. And I am very much aware that I am more likely to die in a car accident versus a plane crash. However, I don't like flying now that I have kids. So the wills were necessary because, superstitiously, I thought if we had them in order, we wouldn't die. If we spit in the face of fate, then of course we'd die in a fiery crash.
Hey, I said I was neurotic.
And obviously, we were perfectly safe and made it home fine. But I really and trully think that the stress of the layover mixed with being stressed over crashing totally wore me out in ways I had no idea would happen.
Monday was fine, the kids loved school, blah blah blah. Tuesday was fine, albeit a bit... longer than Monday. Kids still loved school, hooray. But by Wednesday, I felt as if I had been hit over the head by some sort of tired stick. Concentration took a backseat to pure survival, and sleep was all I could think about. Until 10 p.m. of course when I'd be wide awake each night.
Fast forward to today. The kids were both up by 8. By 8:30 Jay had asked me to go back to bed and wake up on the good side of the bed because I was a grump. And it just went downhill from there.
By noon, I asked if it were Monday yet, so we could go back to work. Now I love my kids. But everything they did today (OK, everything Addi did) drove me nuts. And I know it was way more ME than THEM. And everything I did drove Jay nuts.
We are the picture of harmony at the Ralph house.
Kum-by-ah, my Lord.... Chant with me! Kum-by-ah!
Tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow will be better.....
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Halfway to Paradise
Fast forward to December 27th. Jay and I woke up and headed to the airport for our 6 a.m. flight, sad to leave the girls but very excited for the warmth to soon come. Jay even refused to wear socks and a coat because we were "already on vacation", despite the freezing Indiana temps. We landed in Miami and headed to the car rental place, where we waited for four hours for a car. Apparently Alamo overbooked the cars so we were happy to drive away with an upgraded convertible vs. being bussed to Orlando (as some other customers were).
The drive to Marathon Key was beautiful to say the least.
Once we got to our house we were happy to see that it very much resembled the pictures we had received. We quickly got down to the serious business of the week… eating, drinking and relaxing.
Our pool, hammock, and yard
One of the many lizards that lived in our backyardOn Monday our boat was due to be delivered and the boat company had trouble finding our house. Jay kayaked out to sea to meet the boat (literally kayaked, I only wish we had pictures!) and his only issue was a Man of War jellyfish (put to death with an oar) and a giant bird that flew out of nowhere, scaring and almost capsizing him. Once we got settled on the boat, the seven of us boated out to sea to do some snorkeling and fishing.
View from our dock
Captain Jay and his passengers
Here’s a few ocean tips, brought to you FREE by our group: When planning a sea adventure, take a few minutes to check out the tide times and rules of boating in the ocean. We had a few moments of "what does that sign mean?" and "What side of that buoy should we be on?" After snorkeling and boating for a few hours, the girls planned on heading back to the house but were unable to, due to the giant sandbar now visible between the ocean and our house. Back to sea we all went for some fishing fun. And the fish tasted yummy too.
On Wednesday the seven of us loaded into the minivan and drove to Key West for New Year’s Eve festivities. We had two options for that night – party on one end of Duval Street, where at midnight they dropped a red high heeled shoe with a drag queen inside, or the other end of Duval where they dropped a Conch shell. We opted for option 2 and enjoyed a relaxing day.
Captain Tony's - Greg, Jason, Mitch and Jay
Jodi and I on the balcony of the Whistle Bar
Watching the conch shell drop
The remainder of the week was spent relaxing, playing cards, and on the beach.
At the end of the week, we were well rested and sad to leave the warmth of the south. However, the best was yet to come. After an eight-hour layover in Atlanta due to fog we finally landed in Indianapolis and got back to my Mom’s house.
By far the BEST part of vacation was seeing our two kids again.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Jay's Big Catch
Monday, January 5, 2009
Popcorn
Welcome to 2009!
Perspective always helps... Like rereading this post I did back in June when the girls refused to sleep. Several things have changed but frighteningly, many of them are being repeated on a very regular basis.
http://lifewiththeralphs.blogspot.com/2008/06/im-reliving-my-college-years.html
I hope 2009 brings great things to our family and to you. My only resolution is to try to achieve balance in my life. Balance in every aspect of our lives.
Here's to a great year!