No more monkeys jumping on the bed!

Big sis taught little man a new trick - jumping on the bed - and he LOVES it! Me, not so much. But they are adorable giggling and bouncing while I try to contain their enthusiasm and encourage safer behavior. Who am I kidding? This I am sure will be an uphill battle for years to come.

Tonight we enjoyed "dance party night", a wagon ride/walk through the neighborhood, and just hanging out at home. And I even got the kiddos to bed by myself BEFORE 9pm while Disco enjoyed steak with the guys. If any of you have witnessed the double "mommy-mode" my kids entered this summer you will understand how amazing a feat it was to wrangle both of them on my own at bedtime while they are both recovering from croup. I am as always amazed by those who have to do this alone so often - you rock ladies!

Nice evening and looking forward to the weekend. Still no cute kiddo pics - hopefully soon.

My Vote is Set

There are few if any cute kiddo pics from this particular week. Croup is kicking our family's proverbial butt!

Big sis is starting to feel better and is back at school. She is even starting to sleep a bit better overall. But last night I ended up in bed with two buzz-sawing kiddos and by the end of the evening little man was sounding suspiciously crackly. I didn't sleep at all.

It surprised me that little man actually made it through school today. Although by bedtime he was having a tough time. The coughing/barking/wheezing started shortly after his last bit of milk. So guess what came flying back at me when he started coughing? Ugh! Curdled milk smell lasts FOREVER!

My vote is in . . . croup SUCKS!

Disco Dyn-o-mite!

I'm very proud to announce that Disco's picture of little man won third place in a local cutest kids photo contest! He works as hard on his craft as a full time working father of two kiddos can. There are permanent photography fixtures scattered throughout our house - I find cords, photos, lenses, tripods, lights, and memory cards everywhere. Since our rascals have come along Disco's photography subjects have switched from bugs and leaves to babies - one of these days we will get those kiddos out in the bugs and leaves again. But here is the "uncropped" version of his fabulous indoor shot that placed third (sorry, I don't have a copy of the submitted version):

Congratulations Disco!

Back to School

"But I am still sick, my mouth doesn't talk so much, I don't want to go to school" . . . and on and on and on this morning! I felt so guilty sending big sis to school today but yesterday she was bouncing off the walls when she wasn't mesmerized by TV. Even allowing her extra time to get moving, taking a stuffed animal buddy, and promising extra time with gaga after school didn't help the attitude. (Usually bribery is NOT how we get out the door but man, the momma guilt was rough this morning!) She is still having a rough time sleeping. But I suspect she didn't want to go because over the last 3 days she got to watch a lot of TV, eat ice cream, and stay with grandparents/mom/dad.

Luckily enough big sis did have a good day - she was all smiles, hugs, and kisses when I picked her up this afternoon. Only two more days to go this week . . .

The plague continues . . .

Big sis is still sick - fingers crossed that Weds might be the first normal day for her. She spiked a fever this afternoon and then slept for two hours. Poor little bear! Of course when she gets a bout of energy she is jumping and laughing and wheezing like nobody's business. It must be fun to be 3!

When she talks about being sick it is in the past tense like she is already better. But the seal-like cough continues and the wheezy/crackling breathing isn't better yet. My favorite description from her so far is "my mouth wasn't talking very much when I was sick". And that is true because to keep her calm and less active she has been watching quite a lot of Dora . . .

Little man is quite the charmer right now. He is in a REALLY good mood this week - not like last week when he was a (green) snotty mr. grumps. Hoping that he already had his bout of "the plague" because I like the cuddly, happy, 13 month attitude.

THE CROUP!

I was going to blog about a wedding and a cool birthday party we attended Saturday. Great quotes from each respectively: "The secret to a happy marriage is a secret" and "Motorcycles and wheelchairs, that's how we roll!" Big sis even was super adventurous for her cautious self and slid down a HUGE waterslide several times. We were really proud of her courage!

But last night . . . big sis began to lose her voice. And act really tired. And say "I can't breathe". So Disco stayed with her while I dealt with little man at bedtime. And he looked up "the croup" b/c it was going around her daycare. He is such a super dad - he didn't leave her side all night!

I have to say we have been REALLY lucky at school with illnesses. I can count on one hand the times that we have actually gotten anything when the "health notices" have gone up. We have had our fair share of colds but so far not RSV, hand/foot/mouth, pink eye, etc when the signs were posted. This time we weren't as lucky . . .

So today we are hanging out in front of the TV and resting. I hope little man has already had a minor version of this illness - he has been fighting something all week with a bunch of crackling in his chest. Fingers crossed that this is the tail end of illnesses for the family! Big sis is handling it all in stride - hard to complain or whine when your day is full of tigger and pooh.

Vacation

My vacation ends tomorrow . . . sigh. I guess TECHNICALLY it ends on Sunday - but tomorrow is the last day my kiddos go to school so that I can accomplish anything around the house. Little man is still breastfeeding at night so until he makes more steps towards weaning I am reluctant to travel without him. Which led to my "staycation" this week.

I really needed the reprieve from the office and I enjoyed my week off! I kept the kids home one day so we could hit the local water park. But for the most part this week was all about me and unpacking some "overlooked" rooms in our house. I organized the master closet a little bit, organized the laundry room, and unpacked/cleaned out the office. Who knew our office actually had a floor or that the top of the desks were made of wood? I certainly had forgotten! I am ashamed to admit that it took us one full year since we remodeled to set up our office again.

Top 10 Items I located while cleaning:

1. The receipt from our marriage license from 2001 ($47 for: Intent to Wed)
2. Enough change to by dinner for a family of four at Sonic
3. Tools Disco had "lost" during the construction on our house last summer
4. Extra photos of big sis and little man tucked in every corner of the house
5. A beach towel I had totally forgotten existed
6. Maps, maps, and more maps (it is a Disco thing)
7. An owner's manual for everything we have bought over the last 5 years
8. Enough keepsakes for the kiddos to keep me scrapping for at least a year
9. Random bills from 2005, checks from 2001, college papers from 1997 (why?)
10. A Christmas card big sis made her great Aunt V last year - oops! Will be dropping that into the mail . . .

We have some fun planned for this weekend so I am looking forward to the final days of my vacation. Although I don't think I will move far from the couch, bathtub, or bed tomorrow . . .

Future Occupations

If I had to guess future occupations for our kiddos based on the things they are "into" right now:

Big sis would be a chef
Little man would be a drummer

I hope I remember to do this every so often to see what changes over time . . .

Tutus

So big sis wanted to put on this purple costume with a tutu:

And then little man picked up another tutu and wanted to put it on:

And yes, I know, as an older child he might not like that I actually responded to his request and then took pictures of it. But a friend of ours likes to say "colors are for everyone" and I am applying that to tutus now as well. Besides, he asked for it . . .

Personal Trainer

Ok. I know that I have to start REALLY trying to lose weight. I am 15 lbs over my "comfort" weight and have been at that same point for quite some time now. Since I gained this extra weight while carrying little man, he has taken it upon himself to become my personal trainer.

Here he is making sure I put everything into my sit ups with the "ab roller". It is going to be a long process . . .

Yup, they are related

I was looking through old pics on my computer today. (Sniff, sniff . . . time if FLYING by!). I came across some of big sis that were too cute! I do believe all of these old pics came from catlady originally.

This one is her downward baby - little man learned from the best!Who wants a cookie?

And these pics show a cute pair of 13-16 month olds (who are now 3.5 almost 4!)

Looking at all of these pics of big sis (and MANY MANY MORE) leave me no doubt that these rascals depicted below are related!

Dance Night . . . Yes and No

I love dance night around here! We crank up the "old school" music (XM 80's on 8 and 90's on 9 on our satellite). Big sis dances when she isn't whining about watching Dora. Little man runs around and stops to bob his head at regular intervals. If little man hears "you spin me right round, baby right round, like a record baby right round round round" he will show off his sweet spinning tricks and twirl in a circle until he falls down laughing. Disco and I just boogie like two really white folks who never get to leave the house to catch the new moves "the kids" are doing these days. It is fun!

Little man has figured out how to express "yes" these past couple of weeks. So now he will shake his head "no" and bob his head rather dramatically if you say "yes". We are loving it! And he seems to understand correct usage of these movements. The interaction we had tonight really cracked me up:

Me: Do you want banana?
Little Man: (Chomp, THEN nods "yes" for like a minute)
Me: Do you want more banana?
Little Man: (Blank stare)
Me: Did you like your banana?
Little Man: (Blank stare)
Me: Banana?
Little Man: (Snatches banana, stuffs his mouth FULL, the nods "yes" for another minute)

Summer

We are stuffing summer time fun into every available moment these days. The pool, creek, ice cream, sprinklers, family, late nights, crafts, fireflies, library, etc. This was my favorite activity so far - artwork for the fridge. Big sis made the watermelon at school, little man provided those cute toes/feet representing "m's", and I put it all together. I may not ever get to scrap entire albums again but this once a season or holiday page for the fridge seems to be manageable.

Hope all our blogger friends are enjoying some summer time fun!

Another fun photo session

Another fun photo session so that our kiddos have SOMETHING to talk about in their future therapy sessions. Actually, there were many fewer tears from the kids and cursing under our breath. Now that doesn't mean that everyone actually complied with requests - the following pic happens to be my favorite example of the strong willed child. What a beautiful "downward baby" as we call this yoga pose in our house:


And I was really happy we got a decent shot with mom for once (no one even looks like they would want to run screaming from me during this shot):


Uncle Scott sent these AWESOME outfits for little man. Can't wait to call a babysitter and have him wear this one (and neither can little man if that smile indicates his future plans of true mayhem):


COOL DUDE:


And SWEET shot - I don't know what forces aligned for Disco to capture this one but it was just an awesome shot!


Thanks Uncle Scott!

Fourth of July

Fourth of July is my favorite holiday. For 40+ years my extended family has celebrated the 4th with their neighbors from their first home in Little Rock. They aren't neighbors anymore but the bonds of friendship they built extended past the physical location which brought them together. My grandparent's house was the gathering place until just before big sis was born (both of my grandparents missed meeting big sis, my grandma by 6 years and my grandpa by 1 month - the would have LOVED both of our kiddos!). We all meet at a different house way out in the county now but the tradition is still the same.
What I love about this day is the ease of preparation, the sights and sounds, and the comfort of a family tradition.

Everyone brings one or two of the same items each year - and in general the "planning" involves one set of brief phone calls the week of the event. Our little family brings bread. It is so easy compared to the other holidays we have to balance between two families - not that I don't like Thanksgiving and Christmas but there is a lot of juggling with two small kiddos in tow.

The experience is one that brings back many fond memories I have of my childhood. Traveling from one grownup lap to the next, happy lanterns, grandparents in the house with the little ones when the noise of the fireworks becomes too much, mixing ice cream up until it is one sloppy mess, sparklers and smoke bombs, fresh vegetables from the garden, dud fireworks, saturn missiles that send everyone for cover, watermelon, the mixed scent of fireworks and food, cicadas and tree frogs, and falling asleep on the drive home. Now I watch my own kiddos experience each of these things.

Disco enjoys the event - he has attended every year with me since early in our relationship. I know there is a part of him who would like to go see the "big" fireworks downtown or hang out with other groups of our friends. But I can't pull myself away from this particular celebration. It reminds me of my roots, my childhood, and my grandparents. And while everything seems to change at a phenomenal rate, I relish that one day of the year where we slow down and enjoy this family tradition.

Those two!

We decided to have dual family brunch with catlady's family this past weekend. The adults ate like pigs, took a few pics, and the kiddos cut loose in the pool. Big sis and her buddy are just too funny these days - here are is an example of their silliness (really, flags between the toes?):



And here they are too sweet:

Is it sunny yet?

This little dude is looking forward to sunshine and swimming this 4th of July weekend! Have a safe one everybody!