HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

We have had a quite nice Halloween this year.  Our festivities started last week at Ollie's with a storytime.  The kids both wanted to dress up, so they got to wear them to that.  Elijah had picked out robots and pirates as his costume, but at the last minute decided he wanted to be fire boy.  So with some duct tape and yellow tape and some black sweat pants and a large black t-shirt cut down the middle...FIRE BOY!  Grace was going to go as purple, but she didn't like the purple boa she picked out or the purple hat she picked out, so she ended up as a butterfly, which was super cute! 

Thursday our play group had a small Halloween party at the park.  It was fun to see everyone dressed up.  We did little stations so the kids could go around and "practice" trick-or-treating.  It was super fun.  

   

                 

 

                   

However, after nap on Thursday I brushed by Elijah and his skin was burning up.  He had a temperature of 103!  He wasn't acting sick, so I gave him some ibuprofen and left it alone.  On Friday, he woke up with a low grade (101) so we went to the library to check out some books and run a couple errands, then came home.  I made the executive decision to keep him home from soccer as the next day was Halloween and I wanted him feeling better.  Friday afternoon he ran a fever again of 103.  So I put a call into the doctor's office to just make sure I shouldn't bring him in. He still wasn't acting sick.  The nurse informed me that it was probably the beginnings of flu, but since it was just a fever to simply to treat the symptoms and keep and eye on him.  We started alternating Tylenol and ibuprofen every three hours.  His temp would go down to about 100 and then shoot back up.  We just kept at it.  This morning it went down again and since I had promised him a mommy-Elijah date, so instead of going to the Children's Museum as originally planned, we went to the beach instead!!  I mean, seriously, what is better for your health than beach air!  The weather was perfect (82 and overcast) and we had a blast.  We rounded it off with lunch out.

 

I checked his temperature again before nap and it was back up to 102.5.  Sigh.  So I decided on a change of plans:  We were going to go to a Trunk or Treat over the bridge, but I was kind of already leaning against that since our friends weren't going to be able to make it, so the fever just pushed us over to staying home and doing the neighborhood.  It turned out to be a good choice.  We don't have many trick-or-treaters here so people were giving out HANDFULS of candy.  After about 10 houses, we came home because Grace couldn't even lift her bucket and Elijah was complaining that his was too heavy!  So home we came and they got to have a few pieces of candy and watch some of the original Benji movie. 

               

  

Elijah's temperature is down to 99.5 (which is normal for this time of day....right mom??? hehehehehe!) and hopefully it was just a bug that is moving on.  We have the fair on Tuesday and I don't want to miss that!!!  (BONUS: Jerry is taking the WHOLE day off!!!!!  Blog post to follow, I am sure!!)

To the farm we went...

What a fabulous day we have had!   We went with our playgroup plus many others to a local farm for a tour.  I guess I wasn't sure what to expect.  But it was really fun.  We started by waiting for everyone to get there and then listened to a quick introduction.   I do have to say that I was nervous when I saw there were three large dogs there.  Elijah is terrified of any dog other than the ones that he has people become.  But after a few cries and a minor broken back, he calmed down.  Grace, on the other hand, was fascinated by the dogs for the most part.

 

Then we were off.  Over to the lake to shuck corn and watch it get de-cobbed for feed for the animals.  We fed the ducks withe corn.

Then it was on to the rabbits.

Then up to the sheep, goats, and chickens.  And while We observed from a distance, there were a brave few in our group that went into the chicken pen to chase chickens.  I do have to wonder if those chickens are really high strung, or just used to kids handling them.

 

After a bathroom break we met back at the starting point to walk over to the horses.  Since we didn't chase the chickens we had a little time...

Then on to the horses.  Seeing that Elijah was scared of the dogs, I anticipated that he wouldn't want to ride the horse once he saw they were not small.  And I was right... at first.  He got a little skittish, but there was a tractor ride for those not wanting to ride or didn't want tot stand around waiting.  So we opted for the tractor ride to begin with.

                       

We talked about the horse on the ride and I discussed with Elijah that he could ride the horse with Grace and I would walk right next to him.  I asked if he wanted to try it and he said he did... About that time, I also noticed he was still wearing a jacket.  Here is the discussion: me: Hey buddy, you wanna take off your jacket it's getting kind of warm? Elijah: No thank you.  It's my horse riding jacket and it will help me to not fall off.  So the jacket stayed on, the ride came to an end, and off to the horses we went.  They both got on and I think that if the horse had not started moving, they both would have come right back off!  But luckily, the horse moved and they had a blast!!!

                 

Since one could not top this, we headed back to have some lunch and cookies and then home.  The weather was amazing, the company grand, and life is great!

February 2009

February 05

Enter February!

February (what a weird word...) has started with a bang.  I guess January wen out with one.  We went to a super fun birthday party.  They rented a bounce house and while it was chilly, all you had to do was jump jump jump to get warmed up!  It was a blast!  Elijah had a great time once he got over the initial shyness of being around people (that he's around at least once a week...)  Jerry kept Grace at home and therefore making him stay away from work for a little bit.  He hasn't taken a whole day off since Jan 17th (not that I'm counting... well, really I am!)  And while that's a lot of overtime, it is becoming obvious that Elijah and Grace miss him a lot.  Grace sees him and immediately wants to crawl over to him and snuggle.  Elijah has a tough time after lunch when Jerry goes back to work and then coming to the table to eat dinner.  The latter because Jerry comes home and plays with him.  But it's okay.  I have something for every weekend the rest of the month, so he'll have to be here.  And I need a little break too!  I'm going out with the two K's this weekend to see a movie and I'm soooo looking forward to it.  Honestly, it could be a blank screen for 2 hours and I"d be fine with that!

So the weather has been all weird!  Today the high was supposed to be 35 by Sunday it's supposed to be 70!  So whatever!  Yesterday we had 20 minutes of hard snow and then it stopped, but was FREEZING the rest of the day!  We went to a friends house and iced Valentine's Day cookies and had lunch.  Today we went to the train museum (where Elijah had his party last year!) and had it completely to ourselves.  I was happily surprised.  They have a great children's room and I thought it would be packed with moms that wanted to get out of the house...alas, it was not the case.  So that was nice.  I think that I might get a membership there.  I mean if we go just 3 more times it would pay for itself and they do cool stuff like Polar Express readings and whatnot... so we'll see.

On another note: I love our crock pot!  It's my new favorite thing!  I mean we had one before, and I guess I just wasn't that into it or something.  It just didn't seem to cook things right or something... of course, the only thing that ever really cooked was beef stew... But I have been trying all kinds of things in it and most recently I made BBQ!  It was so easy and SO yummy!  I love it!  Just wanted to share! ;)

Tomorrow we are heading for a park since it's going to be in the 50s.  I also have a baby shower that I'm taking Grace to this weekend.  While it's nice to get out, I really wish I just had two days to really work on the house.  I don't know what the solution is to the toy room, but there has to be a better way.  Maybe I'm just not diligent enough at keeping things where they go, but Elijah is REALLY into piling things up.  That's fine, but then when it's time to clean up everything gets all mixed up and unless I go through and sort it all out it's impossible to find things.  THEN he gets all whiny that he can't find one specific toy and tears up the room finding it.  I really think shelving maybe the answer, but when the heck am I going to have time to install them?  sigh... My folks are thinking about coming down for a week in March, so maybe I can do it then.  I really think that I depend on order.  And while I don't want to be anal, or pass this tendency onto my children, it really makes me a little crazy to not have organization.  We won't even talk about the mess that is the master bedroom right now...though it may say something to my lack of sleeping well lately...hmmmm... sigh...again... time...

Okay...that's all for now...

February 15

How I lost my Mother of the Year Card and regained it!

I've been soooo bad about blogging lately.  I honestly, have wanted too, but...well, am too lazy.  Though, we have been busy.

So last weekend I went to see He's Just Not That Into You.  Good movie, great cast!  I went with two of my good girlfriends and we had an absolute blast!  I love hanging out with them.  Usually I'm not a good triangle friendship type of girl.  But with these women, we seem to really connect and have a good relationship with just the three of us.  It was really nice to get out of the house!  On Sunday I went to a baby shower and I took Grace.  It was nice and low key.  Again, nice to get out of the house.  The weather was absolutely great!

Then Monday happened... sigh... I was striped of my Mother of the Year card for sure!  We went to walk the loop (I am determined to get in shape!!) and everything was good.  Though Elijah now understands landmarks and generally where things are.  Since the loop goes right by the beach, he KNEW we were there, and would NOT stop asking about it...so I reluctantly crossed the road and allowed him to spend time at the beach.  I thought that we would get out there and he would want to leave because the wind was really strong and a little chilly.  sigh... not so much.  He was perfectly content to play.  As was Gracie.  So I let them.  It was fine.  I had very little to do that day, so why not.  We were there for about 30 minutes and I was starting to get hungry and we needed to stop by the grocery store on the way home, so I gave Elijah a five minute warning, then a two minute warning, then a one minute warning and then told him it was time to go.  I picked up Grace and started back toward the stroller.  Elijah screams, "NOOOOOOOO!" and takes off running in the wrong direction.  Okay. I think, he's going to stop and come back, because he knows better.  or not.  So I say, "Elijah Jacob Jones, you need to come back here right now!"  And I proceed to count to three.  He doesn't stop.  So I start walking slowly after him thinking, SURELY, he is going to stop and turn around and come back.  SURELY he KNOWS that I'm already mad. He DOES stop and turns around and sees that I am coming after him, and starts running faster!!!  Now, my blood is physically boiling.  I am honestly thinking about sitting down and crying, because this is what happens to me when I get REALLY mad.  I'm at a loss.  I have a 20 pound baby I'm carrying as well as a jacket which contains my camera, keys, and wallet (not too light) and I'm on the beach alone.  I stop for a minute.  Elijah stops. Then starts running again.  He is now about 100 yards in front of me.  I drop my jacket and start jogging in sand with Grace.  I'm not covering any ground.  My only two choices are, watch Elijah run away out of my sight, or put Grace down, sprint after Elijah and hope that Grace is fine for the couple minutes she'll be out of my sight.  I choose the latter.  I sprint (mind you I don't run) after Elijah and have to contain myself from not ripping him a new one because the girl child needs me to get back to her.  Grace is, of course, happily eating sand and could have cared less, but the fact that I had to put her down pissed me off beyond belief.  So I'm half dragging Elijah back to Grace.  He's laughing which irks me to the point I am seeing red.  I say, "That's it Elijah, we are going straight home, you will have lunch, and go to bed.  No chicken fries (McDonald's), no TV, NOTHING!"  Elijah suddenly realizes, hey, mom's pissed!  And collapses on the sand crying.  I say, "GET UP NOW!"  He goes limp (must be opposite day I didn't get the memo.)  I jerk him up, and do something I thought I would never do, I swatted his little butt.  He walks for three steps and collapses again.  At this point, I don't care anymore.  All good parenting has left my being and sailed away on the ocean.  I let go of his arm and say, "Fine.  You know what Elijah?  I'm done.  You can stay here.  The tide is coming in you might want to go up to higher ground, good luck."  And I walk away.  I pick up Grace and I keep walking.  My lungs heart, my heart is racing, and I just want to curl up and cry.  Elijah comes bolting up next to me saying, "NOOOOO MOMMY!!!! 'Ijah want to go with mommy!!!!  P'ease...... 'Ijah going to be a good boy now."  I say, "You may come with us, but you need to make big boy choices."  He says nothing, just follows us back to the stroller where I chug the rest of my water and sit down while I calm down.  I then start getting the good parenting vibes again.  I explain to Elijah why it's dangerous to run from mommy.  He apologizes and we finish our walk.  He was upset that there was no special food and no Curious George, but every time he whined I said, "Next time you won't run from Mommy" and he shut up.  After nap we started fresh and had a great rest of the day!  sigh...

On Tuesday we had soccer. I LOVE this class!  Elijah is doing well in it as well.  We got home from soccer, Elijah watched about 5 minutes of TV and announced he was going to bed...and then did so!

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we played at various parks because the weather was sooo AWESOME!  I wanted to get to the beach again, but the wind was REALLY strong AND I didn't want a replay of Monday.

Yesterday we went to a really fun birthday party at Monkey Joe's.  This is big indoor area filled with inflatable jumpy things.  Elijah and I have been there before but he's been to nervous to really do anything and I was either preggo or had Grace so I couldn't really do the things with him.  Yesterday, though, I got to play with him and we had a BLAST!!!  Jerry worked for a bit and then brought home chocolates for me.  Next weekend we are going to Myrtle Beach and staying at this place.  It has a HUGE indoor water park, so I think it will be really fun.  Today we walked around Home Depot and daydreamed about home improvement stuff.  We priced a bunch of stuff and I think much of it will be doable within the next year.  We also went to Target because Elijah's feet have grown (AGAIN!)  I bought shoes for him three months ago a size to big and he's outgrown them...sigh... so new shoes for him.  Ohhh, and I forgot, I treated myself to some Fit Flops.  They are not THE fit flops, but they are 1) MUCH cheaper and 2) helped out our neighborhood Avon lady.  I picked them up Friday and wore them for about 2 hours.  They are SUPER comfy and Saturday morning, my thighs were a little sore.  So I'm really excited about them.  I mean if I'm going to wear flip flops anyway...right???

GRACE: has three teeth now, is crawling like there is no tomorrow, has the funniest chuckle EVER!, occasionally says some words (other than mama and dada), and is pushing up...not so much pulling up.  She pushes up on her legs to stand.  This only works if she has her hands on something, but she doesn't seem to pull with her arms so much as just use them for balance.  She LOVES doing downward dog and REALLY wants to stand up from that, but alas, gravity (and strength are against her in that endeavor...soon baby girl too soon!)  She loves to go into the playroom when Elijah isn't in there and play with all the toys by herself.  It is AMAZING to me EVERYDAY how absolutely different the kiddos are and yet rather similar.  Grace also LOVES her veggies.  She will eat corn and peas and broccoli.  She also LOVES rice of any kind.  However, said food must be whole.  None of that mushed up crap for her.  Easier for me!  Oh, and of course, the world might stop spinning if we run out of cherrios!

Okay... so this is a REALLY long entry...but now ya know!  I'll post some pics and hopefully I'll write sooner than later.

February 20

The 3 year old stats!

Today we took Elijah for his 3 year well child check.  While a little late, we wanted to wait until we had our new insurance...which is nice because well child checks are free on our insurance (well, no co pay anyway!)

So here are the stats: He's 36.6 pounds which is the 90% for his age.  And he's 40.5 inches tall which is 97% for his age.  He is roughly the size of a 4.5 year old!!  He grew 5 pounds and 4.5 inches in one year!  The doctor was impressed that he grew that much.  Though he doesn't think I'll have a 7 foot kindergartner, he probably will be one of the taller kids in his class...unless he stops growing (ha!)  Elijah is healthy all around.  The doc answered my questions about the car seat/booster seat thing (he said to go by weight as opposed to age...so in a 3.4 more pounds or two more inches, he's in the booster part of his seat) and reassured me that his speech issues were normal.  I figured they were, but it's always nice to hear from a doc. There is a cool little form you fill out at the beginning of the appointment to see where you child is developmentally.  Elijah does everything on the paper except say his first and last name when asked what his name is...which is something we just started working on anyway. During the appointment Elijah was super shy and wouldn't let go of me until the doc said he was done and then Elijah was all about saying bye bye.  Grace was a very good girl though the whole thing.  We went to McDonalds as a treat afterward.

                          

                                       my little guy!!!

We are now waiting for Jerry to get home so we can load into the car and hit the road to Myrtle Beach for the weekend. We are staying in a resort that has a HUGE indoor water park, so even though the weather isn't going to the warmest, we'll have a fun time.  I have been fighting a nasty cold all week and think I'm finally nearing the end of it.  I sound all low voiced, but I feel a lot better...mostly due to Jerry being so great.  He kept Grace the past couple of nights and brought me soup and juice and zicam and cough syrup and anything else I could have needed.... JERRY ROCKS!!! (in case there was any doubt!)

February 22

Mini Vacation

We're home!  We had a GREAT time!  I wish we could have stayed for longer, ah well...next time!  I gotta say that this was one of the nicest places we have stayed.  There were two indoor water parks.  We were right on the beach (though it was rather cold...but ya know!)  There are restaurants on site, so you don't HAVE to leave...and we only did once.  Everyone that works there was SUPER nice!  I do have to say that I cannot imagine being there at peak season.  I don't know how booked they were, but it was fairly crowded...not so much that it was bothersome, but if they were at full capacity, I don't think it would have been as fun.  The kids had a blast in the water.  I posted some pics in the February album ( had more but apparently there is some mystery error so a bunch didn't upload...whatever...)  I wish we had brought the camera the second day, but on our way out Elijah's hand got caught in the door and we got sidetracked.  The second day we went to the second park.  There was a lazy river and smaller slides that allowed tandem sliding.  Elijah actually went down with me twice...but that enough for him.  The other water park is cool too.  It was in our tower, so a little closer.  It had a submarine that had water features all around it, and I think that was Elijah's favorite thing.  Grace LOVED the water.  A friend of ours lent us a little float for her and her little legs just kicked and kicked under there.  It cracked me up!  She was just happy as a little clam hanging in that and watching everything!  The two bedroom unit was the way to go.  We tried the kiddos in the same room and it worked really well.  I slept in their room and Jerry slept in the big master bed.  When Elijah would wake up and want to sleep with me, I transferred Grace to Jerry.  But they slept well together in one room.  Elijah even slept through Grace crying when she woke up.  That was my biggest thing about transferring her into her own bed in their bedroom.  So I think we will start that transition soon.  This morning we got up and went for one last play in the water before check out at 11.  We got back to the room by 10 and changed clothes and went to load stuff up.  We had to wait a while for an elevator down and then decided to just carry our stuff across the road to the parking deck instead of trying to fight the insane check out traffic.  If we had expendable income, I seriously think we would consider getting a time share at this place.  Even if we were there at a warmer, more crowded time, we could walk just about anywhere anyway!  There's also a new bypass (or maybe it's not new...but whatever) that made getting to this place super easy (we did it in just over one and a half hours.)  On our way home we stopped at the outlet mall for lunch and went into Old Navy.  They were having a huge clearance sale so we walked out with a bunch of new clothes!  Now we're home and (sorta) ready for another week!

December 2008

December 04

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

My mom doesn't have Windows Live Writer on her laptop, so bare with the typos and what not...

SO after Jerry left on Sunday, we have hit the road running.  It snowed on Monday.  Not a lot, but enough to go play in.  Elijah really liked it.  Until his feet started hurting.  I'm a bad mom... poor guy was wearing boots way too small for him.  totally didn't think about it.  So I ended up piggy backing him up the mountain to my folks driveway.  I just couldn't carry 37 pounds on my back any farther (or is it further...i always got those mixed up... i think that farther is the distance...right?)  ANYWAY, we nipped that in the bud.  We exchanged them at a place where my folks volunteer.  SO now his feet won't hurt in his boots.

Tuesday we went downtown Black Mountain for me to meet up with a friend of mine.  It was good to see her and chat.  We did that and then came home for a bit.

On Wednesday, my folks watched Elijah in the morning and I crashed for 2 hours with Grace.  Neither of the kids had been sleeping well and I was exhausted.  When we got up, mom, Elijah, Grace and I went out for lunch and then went to get a Christmas Tree.  It was really fun.  They get their tree from the fire station.  The fire man that helped us let Elijah go see the trucks.  Made his day!!!  After a good nap we decorated the tree.  Elijah LOVED that.  I'm pretty stoked that Elijah is getting into Christmas this year.

Today, mom and Elijah and Grace and I walked up to the coffee shop to meet with mom's group of friends.  I ate the best broccoli corn beard there... yyyyyuuuuuuummmmmmoooooo!!!  Elijah and I wandered around downtown for a bit and then came home and played.

Tomorrow we'll go to Holly Jolly downtown.  Just a night on the town where all the shops are open and having goodies.  Should be fun.  Then Saturday we'll go to the parade in the afternoon.  That's about as far as I've gotten.

I'll post some pics now... OR not... WTF... this new crap is messing with me... so no pics until I get home and can deal with this.  I can't get pics to turn the right way... sigh... oh well... maybe i'll post with pics later, but the girl child is on my chest and not so much right now...

December 19

December...since almost over and all...

So to pick up where I left off two weeks ago...

We went to Holly Jolly and waved to Santa.  Elijah is still not too fond of actually speaking to Santa, much less going anywhere near him, but I'm okay with that.  If he wants to have a distant relationship with the big man in red, I'm fine with that.  I have no pictures of me with Santa and I don't think that it's the end all be all if he doesn't either.  We talk about Santa daily and Elijah has taken to wearing a Santa hat and his new galoshes and calling himself Santa.  He goes around saying, "HO HO HO!"  He's attached a chair to his scooter and it has become his sleigh and reindeer.  To me this is way cooler than sitting on Santa's lap. ;)  Anyway, Saturday we went to the parade.  I have never in my life seen so much candy.  Luckily we had a plastic bag in the diaper bag, so we took a ton of candy home with us!  We got a Christmas tree from the fire station and Elijah helped decorate while Grace and I supervised.  I went shopping in downtown Asheville and mom took Elijah to see a gingerbread house display.  It rained a bit the rest of the week.  I made some cookies and mom played with Elijah out in the rain.

A low note of the vacation, well there were two.  One was grace's eczema.  For some reason it really flared up while we were there.  Maybe it was because it was so dry.  It did seem to get better once the rain came...but who can say.  Anyway, the other low note was the fact that I left my cell phone in my jeans and then proceeded to put them in the wash...sigh.  My folks have a front loader, so even when I realized what I had done, there was nothing I could do.  Sigh.  I dried it out, but the microphone didn't work.  We got another one in the mail yesterday, but it was odd being without for so long.  I was nervous being without it with just me and the kiddos.  But we survived.

Mom and I did Christmas in the Valley Arts and Crafts show.  While I didn't do as well as I wanted I did better than I expected.  The economy is really taking it's toll.  Mom said she did SO much better last year.  But it was fun.  Mom and I hung out with Grace all day.  Jerry, Dad, and Elijah hung out together.  It was good experience.  I realized what sells the best, so that's good to know.  I got a little spending cash and that's good too.

I sent out our Christmas cards earlier this week.  We went with e-cards again this year.  We do this for a few reasons.  1) it's super easy.  2) it's free!  3) we never have stamps that are the right denomination since we do almost everything online.  4) it's more environmentally friendly.  I don't claim to be some environmentalist, but I like to save money and if I save the earth a little too, BONUS!  Having said all this, I do enjoy getting Christmas cards in the mail and I reuse them as tags on gifts, so I guess that's recycling too! hehehehe!

We got our Christmas tree on Sunday.  The place we went only had 9+ foot trees.  So we thought it would be okay, but we got it home and in the stand and WAY TO TALL!  So we cut the top foot off.  It looks a little funny, but it's still pretty.  Then I got the lights on the tree and plugged them in... and NOTHING.  Lesson learned.  Always check the lights before putting them on the tree.  So Jerry went to Target, which was out of white lights.  So he got the icicles instead and I gotta say, they worked really well.  Now our tree is all decked out and ready for Santa!

Yesterday, our playgroup had a Christmas party.  It was fun and almost everyone came by at some point.  The weather is insanely warm this week, so it was fun playing at the park.  We didn't get home until 2:30!!!  oops!  It was worth it though!  'Tis the season and all!!

Which brings us to today!!  It was 77 degrees today, so we spent the morning at the BEACH!!!!  It was perfect.  Not crowded, warm enough to be bare foot, and free parking!!!!  We built sand castles and flew a kite (until it broke!) and played with friends.  It was awesome.  While it's hard to get in the Christmas spirit when it's 77 degrees out, it's been nice to be out of the house and playing in short sleeves.

So I have added pictures.  There are some turned on the their side and I'm sorry for that, but my computer (for some reason) will not allow us to rotate pics and this new upgrade that MS has done doesn't allow for editing...sigh... so sorry... but enjoy!

December 23

If only...

HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! (thanks Amy for sending me this!):

Dear Santa,

I've been a good mom all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my children on demand, visited the doctor's office more than my doctor and sold sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground. I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son's red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll find any more free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:

I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any color, except purple,which I already have) and arms that don't hurt or flap in the breeze, but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle in the grocery store.

I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month of my last pregnancy.

If you're hauling big ticket items this year I'd like fingerprint resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music, a television that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals, and a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, "Yes, Mommy" to boost my parental confidence, along with two kids who don't fight and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools.

I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting "Don't eat in the living room" and "Take your hands off your brother, "because my voice seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.

If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning, or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container.

If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely. It would be helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is calling and my son saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayon back. Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and come in and dry off so you don't catch a cold.

Help yourself to cookies on the table but don't eat too many or leave crumbs on the carpet.

Yours Always,

MOM...

P.S. One more thing...you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my children young enough to believe in Santa.

*Santa has asked that this gets passed on to all the mommies you know.

December 25

We had ourselves a Merry Little Christmas

We'll start with yesterday.  We went to the park in the morning to meet with Rachel and co. to exchange gifts and play.  We came home and Jerry came home from work for the day!!  After a nap, Elijah and I made cookies for Santa:

Then I made some sugarless cookies for Jerry's dad and yummy full of sugar cookies for his mom and siblings.  Before going to bed we made sure the cookies were out for Santa and a carrot was out for Rudolph.  After a seemingly endless night we awoke to find this:

And unwrapped gifts such as these:

After a relaxing morning of, um, hair styling: 

We traveled to Jerry's parent's house, where both kids received a TON more gifts which I totally forgot to get pics of, but will tomorrow and will post them.  We then went to visit Jerry's dad in the hospital.  He's recovering from really bad arthritis in one of his hands.  He is doing much better and it was good to see him in good spirits.  Matthew played cars with Elijah while we visited.  Jerry got pics of the rest of the family, but Matthew's head got chopped off... Sorry Matthew!

We plan on playing tomorrow and going to the beach again on Saturday (supposed to be 75 degrees again!!)  While I'm not thrilled about not having cooler weather right now, might as well make the most of it.

I think that I will probably post like this until we figure out the picture thing.  It's kinda fun, and for the time being works well.

I hope that everyone had as fantastic a day as we did!  Merry Christmas!

December 27

Is global warming really THAT bad?

Of course it is...but we went to the beach today... Elijah and Jerry were in shorts and I was barefoot.  So, ya know...

Anyway, wanted to start with the gifts from Grandma and PopPop's house:

                    

Elijah's favorite thing to do is start at the top of the driveway and throw his feet up and ride down down.  It isn't motorized but has the sounds, so he pushes the button that makes it sound like it's revving and goes.  It's pretty funny to watch.  Grace likes to watch him go as well.  Grace is attempting to start to pull up on things.  She scoots across the floor on her butt and rocks on all fours, so it's just a matter of time before the crawling happens...sigh... but what she really likes to do is stand up.  She can be in a full blown screaming-crying-life-is-not-fair tantrum and you stand her up and it's as if you gave her all the chocolate in the world!  So this little table is good for her!  Now if Elijah would leave it alone...

Back to today.  When I woke up I was a little bummed.  It was REALLY foggy.  I was skeptical about going.  Jerry said we should go and if it was too cold, then we would just come home.  I'm so glad we went.  About 5 minutes after we got there the sun came out and it was warm and really nice.  There was still a fog bank to our left and right and out over the ocean, but it was GREAT!  Here are some pics:

So now Jerry and I are watching Burn After Reading and relaxing.  I love having him home for extended periods!!!

December 29

Getting Organized

So this morning was spent in the toy room.  We decided a while back that Grace and Elijah would share a bedroom, so her bed is already in there.  We changed her bedroom into a toy room.  So today, I took out Grace's dresser (which was in the closet in the toy room) and all her hanging clothes and moved them into the bedroom.  Elijah helped make a HUGE pile of all the toys in the middle of the room.  While he did that I moved the bookshelf and all the books into the closet.  Then I sorted through all the toys.  Got rid of a bunch that he hasn't played with and then split the rest in half and put them in containers to rotate out.  I did the same with Grace's toys.

I really hate defining them as "Elijah's" and "Grace's" toys because they are both of theirs.  It's been interesting watching Elijah want to play with the baby toys that he hasn't played with for a couple of years.  And Grace LOVES anything that Elijah plays with, especially if it has wheels.  Anyway... I cleaned up in there!  I have my old toy box and I use it as a place to store dress up clothes.  I would really like to take the top off so that it is open, but I can't figure out how to do that...the hinges are put on with some non-screw type things... hmmm... Elijah got a doctor's set and a tea set and Grandma got him some pretend food.  So those are all in the dress up area.  It just would be easier if the lid was off...I'll figure it out though.

I got a call to confirm Elijah's birthday party today!  I'm really excited.  It's a Curious George goes to the Fire Station party!  I found some great sites with things to do.  So all the gift bag things are going to be crafts that the kids do at the party.  I think it'll be fun.  we are having the party at a local fire station.  My friend that made the train cake last year is going to make us a fire engine cake and I'm going to attempt a Curious George cookie to "ride" on the fire engine.  I love planning birthdays!  It's so fun for me.  My mom says that I have been doing this since I realized what a birthday was.  She says that the evening of my birthday party I was planning for the next year!  It's not the gifts (our group doesn't do gifts), it's just a party!  And that's fun!  Maybe it's a sickness.  I know that Grace's first b-day will be at a park, maybe the beach park and the theme will be 1st b-day!  I know that next year we're going to have a Where The Wild Things Are b-day for Elijah... It is a sickness...hehehehe!

This afternoon Elijah put on his boots and we went out and jumped in puddles:

Afterward we came in and made dinner of beef stew and cheese biscuits.  While I did that:

Elijah saw Peter and The Wolf ballet the day after Christmas and he LOVED the twirling and the tutus.  I know the quality is not good, but it's funny to me.  He's fine at the end.  He totally got up laughing.

And my little miss?:

 

So a good productive day!