Muscle Man Reedy

Strong isn't he :)

Kids Band

When you have three young kids all close in age you expect tips in the van to be a little noisy. We recently went to my sister's house and the kids decided that they were going to form a band and sing for us.....unfortunately they decided they were all three going to sing a different song at the SAME time. In case you are wondering if this is cute or crazy chaotic you can make the decision. Here is the video.

New Toys

I took the kids shopping today and decided to let them each pick out a cheap toy from the dollar bins at Target. My kids are so different.

Elizabeth my 4 year old daughter that loves dresses, hair bows and babies decided to pick Flarp. For those of you not familiar with flarp it is a putty that makes a farting noise when you push on it in the container. Elizabeth thinks it is the funniest thing ever. Gotta love the girl.

Isaac was more sensible with his toy, he was preparing for his future with his toy choice. He decided on a doctor's kit. When we got home I, being the good mom I am, volunteered to be his patient. I told Isaac I did not feel good and he told me "you have to wait because I am in my office"
After waiting a very short time I was seen by "Dr. Oil" I have no clue where the name came from. He told me that he thinks something might be wrong with my heart. He decided to listen to my heart and he said "Yep something is wrong with your heart, it has a blister." I acted concerned and panicked and told him I did NOT want a shot, he told me that it is okay because all I have to do is take some medicine.
Dr. Oil gave me my medicine and then decided that he needed to check and make sure that I was okay. He made me go lay down on his bed so he could take picture, which he said means "x-ray"

Elizabeth then decided that she was also a doctor and she wanted to give me shots. She came out with her "kit." Her kit case was the drawer from her kitchen, inside it was a baby bottle, hamburger bun top, and a round piece from Chloe's stacking toy. Elizabeth took the round piece and rubbed my arm with it, apparently it was an alcohol wipe. Next she took her needle (baby doll bottle) and gave me my shot. Finally she put a bandaid on it, yep the toy hamburger bun top was the bandaid.

Who says kids need expensive toys?

Slacker

I know I know, I suck at keeping up. Let's try again.

Meow

I was watching Elizabeth. She would throw a piece of cereal on the floor and Chloe would crawl over and pick it up with her mouth. She did this a few times and I told her to stop. Of course she is a 4 year old so she just had to throw another one. I told her "stop that, she is not a dog" her response "I know, she is a cat"

DUH Mom.

Melt my heart

Elizabeth is such a darling little girl.......when she wants to be.

We were driving home from shopping, mom and daughter trip. Out of nowhere she says "Momma you are pretty" I love her.

Ring ring

I called home tonight and asked to talk to Isaac. This is our conversation:

Me: "Hello"
Isaac: "Hi momma"
Me: "What do you want for dinner"
Isaac: "Chips"
Me: "What do you want to go with it"
Isaac: "Chips"
Me: "What else"
Isaac: "Chicken and french fries"

Nice try Isaac.

Classy

Can a two year old be classy? I like to think so. I think I may have the classiest two year old around. Let me give you examples:

-Spits in the toilet every time she goes in the bathroom.

-Lifts up her dress to reveal her naked butt and proceeds to shake her butt while saying "shake your butt baby"

-Laughs when she farts.

-Makes sure everyone knows when she poops.

-Puts as much food as humanly possible in her mouth while eating.

Chloe=Class

New Doctor

The kids now have a new pediatrician that they go to. Friday Elizabeth had her first appointment with him. His name is Dr. Crow and he told Elizabeth that he was named after the bird.....of course Isaac picked up on this and kept saying "Dr. Crow Dr. Crow" Elizabeth seemed a little bit nervous because she was not sure what was going to happen. Elizabeth has an extreme fear of shots and she worries that she will have to get a shot whenever she goes any place new, whether it is a dr office or not.
The doctor assured her that he was nice and that he was not going to hurt her. He began looking over her charts and realized she just turned 4 and had not had her 4 year old shots yet. He looked at me and said that he just lied to her because she needed to get caught up on them. I assured him that he did not lie to her since he was not going to be the one that actually gave her the shot.
Well after the doctor left the room to tell the nurse to get the shot ready Elizabeth asked me if she had to get a shot and of course I could not lie to her and get her mad at me later so I told her yes. Instantly the panic set in and I had to frantically search for something to calm her. I told her that if she did good she could have an ice cream after we left. I tried to reason with her through the tears. I got her to calm down a little bit but it wasn't working. I decided to add in that she could also get a juice. I finally got her calmed down and "happy" again. The doctor pops his head around the corner and tells me that he was out of one of the shots and that he could do the rest of them and then get the other one at the health dept.........I opted for no shots so that I would only have to go through the actual shots 1 time, he thought it was a good idea.
Elizabeth left with a new toy from the doctor's treasure chest and no new holes from shots. Of course we had to go get ice cream anyways :)
I am now hoping that I can get her into the health department without her asking if we are there for shots. I don't want her to realize that she has to get one until she sees the needle going to her arm.

Friends are the Spice of My Life.

This post is dedicated to a few of my friends that have recently decided to "come out" about their dislike of certain spices. I tried to convince them to have an open mind about the spices but they are some pretty stubborn friends. Since my friends have decided to become so stubborn on the issue I thought I would educate them through this post about the spices they have so openly dissed.

Kathy has a strong dislike of the spice Cilantro. The following information is for Kathy.
NOTE: This information all comes from a very REPUTABLE source.......the internet.
Cilantro: "One of the most widely used and loved spices in the world"
Health Benefits
-Protects agains Salmonella
-Aids in digestion
-Lowers blood sugar
-Lowers bad cholesterol and highers good cholesetrol
-Good source of iron and fiber (CECILIA you could benefit from this)
-Relieves intestional gas (K** could benefit from this)
It also "disinfects and helps detoxify the body"..............this is helpful when one quits a cleanse and takes up drinking lots of wine. :P

Patty has a strong dislike of Cumin. Patty's dislike is completely unfounded, she dislikes it simply because of it's name, tsk tsk.
The benefits of cumin may come in very helpful for my friends, especially if you knew what they shared with me :-x
Benefits:
-"Boost the power of the liver's ability to detoxify the human body" (hmmm wonder what would affect the liver....drink me)
-Helps with flatulence, indigestion, diarrhea, and nausea. I would say Cumin could even replace the good ole Pepto.

Kim has a dislike for Cream of Tartar.
Cream of Tartar happens to be a byproduct of winemaking, Patty and Kathy both seem to like wine. How can something that comes from the process of making wine be bad. Perhaps this is why Patty and Kathy have both kept their mouths(typing) shut about cream of tartar.
It is also used to make baking powder.
It is a "vital ingredient in Play-Doh" If you get rid of cream of tartar you get rid of a favorite kid passtime :( NOT GOOD.

I hope that my friends have gained very useful information from this post and will carry it with them for the rest of their lives. Next time you are given a dish, such as chili and someone has added cilantro or cumin to it don't turn your nose in the air, instead you should be relieved that it may help with some of the side effects (flatulence/intestional gas) the chili may cause.

Final note of the day: Drink your wine and eat your spices to help your liver fight off the wine.

Love you gals :)

A wonderful day at the Park

Today we decided to have a family day since both Tommy and I were off of work. The flowers were in full bloom so we decided to take lots of pictures. The kids seemed to love it, they ran wild, lots of open field to run in. They chased squirrels, smelled flowers, climbed rocks, and peed in the bush.

That's right. Isaac decided he had to pee really bad and we were not near a bathroom so I told Tommy to take him to the side and let him pee. The park we went to was a pretty happening place to be today so Tommy tried his hardest to be discreet, he was very successful. I am pretty sure Isaac has absolutely NO idea what discreet means. He came running back to me and for the next 3 minutes talked about how he peed in a bush..........of course we walked by quite a few people as he LOUDLY and happily told me. Obviously we never let him pee outside so he was pretty excited about this.

Overall it was a very pleasant trip. Here are a few fun pictures for your enjoyment.

I love being a mom

Being a mom has several rewards, the list could go on forever. Here are some examples of motherhoods best things.

The first time your child says your name.

The first time he/she says "I love you."

Cuddle time.

Those are really sweet aren't they. To me one of my favorite things about having children is having live in comedians. I can pretty much guarantee that I will have a minimum of 5 laughing spells in a given day. My mom once asked me if I only had children so that I could play with them, sounds good to me. What prompted this post you might ask, let me tell you today's funny LOL moment.

Elizabeth was apparently extremely dehydrated after being out all day and not having her usual 10 glasses of water (in the morning). When we got home she drank TONS of water. A few minutes later she came up to me and said "Momma listen to the water in my belly." I listened to the water slosh around in her belly as she jumped up and down. If you are not familiar with this sound just go to youtube.com and sear belly full of water. Elizabeth thought it was just great. Moms never run out of entertainment.

Happy Birthday Sweet Chloe

Just wanted to say happy birthday to my angel Chloe.

2 years ago today.

Isaac and Elizabeth's first time meeting Chloe.

Arachnophobia

Arachnophobia is defined by wikipedia as the irrational fear of spiders. This can be very serious and can affect people badly.

I respect people that have this fear, I really do. That being said my husband has a severe case of arachnophobia and I am constantly making fun of him.

I took Chloe's diaper off when we got home today and since she had not peed in it I decided to use it as a sort of practical joke for my kids. Elizabeth was in the bathroom washing her hands so I decided to take a fake toy spider and put it in the diaper and I told Elizabeth there was a spider in it. I then opened the diaper super fast and moved it very quickly towards her. She got a quick look of panick and fear on her face and then laughed. I know this sounds mean to do to an unsuspecting 4 year old but hey I get my laughs where I can, don't judge. I thought Elizabeth's reaction was funny so I tried it on Isaac and got a similar reaction, but not as frightened.

Tommy was in the kitchen and had no clue what I had just done to his children, or else he would have been a part of it. Well I took this lack of knowledge and used it against him. I took the spider and put it back in the diaper and did the same thing to Tommy. Those of you that actually know Tommy are probably already laughing. Tommy had a quick moment of shock and fear but unlike his kids he was not quiet, he had to add a scared "Ahhhh" in there. I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe, I am sure Tommy would have been embarrassed if I had not seen him freak out about real or fake spiders in the past.

I do have to defend Tommy and say that this spider was VERY scary looking. I mean it was orange. Take a look at this scary thing.............the spider that scared my family:

Scary huh

My sweetheart.

Isaac is my sweetheart child. We were playing in the backyard and our neighbor, my kids Sunday school teacher, was walking down the street after visiting another neighbor. She waved at the kids and told them hello. My kids were lined up at the fence to get some attention from her, Isaac won. She was trying to get back home, probably to have dinner or rest after work when Isaac yelled at her "Mrs Cami, I got you a flower" in his hand was a flower. Who could resist that, not her. She walked across the street and got the flower and told him thank you, meanwhile Elizabeth ran around frantically looking for a flower for her. When Cami was half way back across the street Elizabeth yelled that she also had a flower for her, so she came back again. Chloe quick to pick up on the attention they were getting quickly picked a weed and put her hand through the fence and gave it to her also. I love my sweet kids.

Death

My kids have not really had much exposure to death and dying, except for the tons of bugs that they have taken the lives of. Today it was really nice outside so we decided to play in the back yard. Isaac was leading us out there and our dog lady came to greet us. Isaac started yelling at me and his exact words were "Momma, Lady died a bird" Our lovely dog was carrying around a bird that she had captured. I quickly covered up the bird that she dropped at my feet and waited for Tommy to take care of it, no way was I going to touch the nasty thing.
You would think that was the end of the story but not if you know my kids. Our neighbors were outside playing across the street and I guess Isaac thought they should know that Lady got a bird. I am sure my entire neighborhood now knows that "LADY DIED A BIRD!" thanks to Isaac yelling it. At least it sounds better than saying killed.

Kid Quotes

Me: "I love you."
Elizabeth: "No you don't, I love you"

Elizabeth: "Can I have candy"
Me: "Maybe"
Elizabeth: "Say maybe yes"

Monday: Isaac: "No school?"
Tuesday: Isaac: "No school?"
Wednesday: Isaac: "No school?"
Thursday: Isaac: "No school?"
Do you sense a theme?

OH GIRL :)

I love my kids every minute of every day but sometimes I really have to remind myself. For a solid 2 hours Isaac and Elizabeth seemed to try whatever they could think of to annoy the other. I don't know how many times I heard them yell "MOMMA" and then continue on to tell on the other one. I heard fighting over everything from who gets to sit where on the couch to who gets to play with Chloe. When it gets bad enough I try to just send them to their rooms, which is not always successful considering their rooms are directly across from each other.

Needless to say I was very ready for "naptime" today. Of course naps in this house consist of Chloe sleeping and the older two laying on the couch watching tv..........I commonly refer to it as my sanity time. After I put Chloe in bed I was fixing Elizabeth some water and I poured about 1/2 cup of juice in it and told her not to tell because it was our secret, guess what she said next, "Can Isaac have some too?" there went all the annoyance with her. The next thing she did was took Isaac his cup and told him that she loved him. It is crazy how quickly your mood can change just from sweet little gestures from a 4 year old girl...........of course it helps when she looks like this:

Clothing wars

Isaac has always loved long sleeved shirts, called "down sleeves" in our house. During the winter long sleeves are great, in the spring not so much. Now that the weather has been nicer out we have been wearing short sleeved shirts, called "up sleeves" in our house.
Tonight after bathtime we had a complete meltdown from Isaac because we would not let him wear his down sleeves.
This is going to be a very long summer.

Toilet Paper Excitement

Kids seem to notice everything so it should have been no shock that Elizabeth, my 4 year old, noticed that I bought a different brand of toilet paper. Tommy opened a new package of toilet paper and Elizabeth was amazed by it saying that it was not toilet paper but infact was little towels. She commented that it was "so thick" Nothing gets by her.

Oh my goodness, my kid cracks me up.

I just heard Elizabeth yell "CHLOE CHLOE ugh" then Elizabeth came running to me and said "Do you know what your little turd was doing? She got your drink!"

I can't believe she called her that. I could not help but laugh. Laughing of course did not help any because then she kept calling her "little turd" for the next 5 minutes. I have no idea where she learned to call her that. After I stopped laughing I had to tell her not to call her that.

Creating a Cake

I decided to throw a birthday party for my girls. They turn 4 and 2 within weeks of each other so I decided that it would be a good idea to combine their parties and save some trouble on my part. Instead of making it easier on me I had to make two cakes instead of one. Considering cakes are the most time consuming part of birthday parties for me I kinda screwed myself over a bit on that one. Note to self: Next time think first.

It actually was not as bad as I am making it out to be. I did have three little helpers. Chloe and Elizabeth helped at the beginning and the end. Isaac helped in the middle, after I had the icing made. They all helped as taste testers for the icing. I decided to document my process with pictures. Enjoy.

Step 1: Find two willing helpers and let them pick which cake they want to help with.

Step 2: Let them add stuff and hope they don't drop some on the floor. Chloe really enjoyed watching it mix.
Step 3: Make kids help in the clean up process. Remember not to be picky in how they get the utensils clean.
Step 4: Bake cakes. Remember to sit and rest while cakes are baking.

Step 5: Let cakes cool. This is a good time to start making the icing.....or rest some more.

Step 6: I decided to make icing, no time to waste. The key to good icing is to make sure you have lots of stuff that is bad for you.......plenty of Crisco and powdered sugar.

Step 7: Admire your creamy goodness called icing.

Step 8: Color your icing. Since the party was for two little girls we made sure to have plenty of pink.

Step 9: Begin the chopping and piecing of the cake. If you are not sure how to do it I recommend trying anyways....just make sure you have plenty of icing to piece the cake back together.

Step 10: Start decorating. The more you add the prettier it will get.

Step 11: Stand back for a minute and think about what else it needs. In my case I was waiting for my wonderful sister to bring some princess figures to help with the cake.

Step 12: Add remaining decorations. Pat yourself on your back........also thank your sister for helping put finishing touches on the cake because you did not allow yourself enough time to finish TWO cakes.

Step 13: Make a mad dash to fully decorate a sock monkey cake. Note to self: Next time move the tail down a little so it does not look like a 3rd arm :)

Step 14: Pat yourself on the back again for completing the second cake.

Now that the cakes are done you can see the magical smiles they bring to kids. Here Chloe shows how much she loves the cake by giving it a kiss.

Good so far.

The potty training is going great. I am so proud of my little girl. Chloe will now go pee on the potty chair without me even asking her. I have found the last few times I have asked her if she needed to go she will walk over to the potty chair and give me a dirty look......the look says "Hey mom, get with the program, I already peed when you weren't looking" My bad Chloe :)
Her reward for going on the potty chair is a huge high five. She has become very used to it. If she does get her high five from everyone in the family she will chase you down to get one.

Wish us luck

We have begun potty training this week. So far Chloe has done pretty good. She has gone on the potty chair a lot, but also has had her share of accidents. We are running out of panties so she is currently going commando........I have to say she is the cutest little half naked girl ever. She has not had an accident since we have left her in the buff. Let's see how long this process will take.

Heigh-ho

Elizabeth has recently become very fond of the movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I think she is really fond of the music. Her favorite song is Heigh-ho.....although her take on it is a little different.
Elizabeth's version:
"I'm ho, I'm ho, time to make me ho"

I love that girl.

Adventures at Bedtime

I love my son to pieces, he is one of the funniest kids I know. We have had several occasions where he will wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom but instead will lose his way. One night we thought he was going to pee in his toy box, LOL.

Last night was particularly funny. I heard the bathroom door open and I assumed one of the kids were going to the restroom. I walked past our hallway and noticed our hall closet open, this is where we keep all of our bathroom stuff. It took me a second to realize that it was not supposed to be like that. I took a couple of steps back to see what was going on. I have to say I was very surprised to see that my son was standing in front of it 3/4 asleep, pants and underwear around his ankle, reaching for something. I asked him what he was doing, he said "nothin" as he is putting his toothbrush back. It was very obvious that he was still mostly asleep. I asked him what he was looking for in the closet, his answer "cartoons" It took everything I had to keep my calm and help the poor child.

I asked him if he needed to go pee, since his pants were down. He said yes so I told him to go to the bathroom. He turns around and goes in the bathroom and starts to pull his pants up before going pee. I told him to pull his pants back down, lift the toilet seat up, and go pee. My poor sleepy boy pulls his pants back down, lifts the toilet seat up, and tries to sit to pee. Isaac has not sat down to pee for quite a while now. When he goes to sit down he almost falls completely in. He finally finished and I sent him back to bed. I had to check and make sure he actually made it back to bed.

It took everything I had to not go in and wake up Tommy to tell him the entire story.

Now I have to come up with a plan for Isaac. Obviously he is fast becoming a frequent sleep walker. I might have to safety proof my house for my almost 5 year old at night...........big sigh.

Night time singing.

Chloe woke up last night and fussed for a minute, not uncommon at all. Typically she will fuss and then go right back to sleep, well not last night. She fussed for a minute and then stopped, silly me assumed that she went to sleep. A few minutes later I hear a noise, I made sure all was quiet in the house so I could use my super detective skills to figure it out. The sweetest little noise at 1am would be my almost 2 year old singing her version of the abc's. I guess she decided that since she did not have an audience to praise her she would give herself applause when she was done. As soon as she was done with her song I heard "yay" followed by clapping.
I would like to say she was singing herself to sleep but she decided to not go to sleep until 4am, I got quite a few more encores of it, long night.

Chloe cracks me up!

We went to my sister's house for her birthday celebration this past weekend and Chloe developed a sudden fear of her porch. It was quite a lovely day outside so we were all sitting on her porch. Chloe was walking around fine and then she stopped and looked down. She then decided to look between the cracks of the porch. I guess she decided that the porch was just too high and she was small enough that she could just fall through the cracks. The rest of the night she was too scared to walk on the porch, she had to hold onto something when she was on the porch.
Here is a video for your enjoyment.

Deeply Missed

I went to my sister's house today to celebrate her birthday. Tommy was feeling sick and Elizabeth was sick yesterday so I decided that she should stay home with him to avoid spreading the "bug" Isaac decided that he should stay home also, but mainly because he likes to stay home all the time.
I had to bribe Elizabeth to stay home and be happy about it. I let her have some of the cotton candy her Aunt Becky gave her yesterday, I also told her that she could color.......she is an easy kid to please.
I decided to call home when I was on the way back home, Elizabeth was in the background saying that she wanted to talk to me. As soon as she got on the phone she started to get emotional and asked me if I was coming home. I assured her that I was on the way and would see her shortly.
Tommy then asked Isaac if he wanted to talk to me and he said "No, I am talking to her on my phone" I guess Isaac would rather pretend talk to me on his pretend phone than actually talk to me.
I guess one out of two is not bad :)

Is it my birthday yet?

Elizabeth my 3, almost 4, year old daughter has been excited about her birthday for almost a year now. When Isaac started school this year she had to learn that she was too young, a sad day for her. At the time we told her she had to be 4 to start school......boy is that coming back to bite us in the butt now. At least once a week since August she has reminded us that once she turns 4 she can start school.
What we failed to tell her was that she had to wait until August to start, the problem is that her birthday is March 27th. She knows when her birthday is and reminds me all the time. On March 1st she randomly asked me if it was March yet, when I told her yes she could barely contain her excitement......mean mom had to tell her she had to wait 26 more days.

Today she looked at the clock and seen that one of the hands on the clock was on the 3 and she thought that meant it was her birthday. It is going to be a long month.

Slacker Slacker

I have been slacking about blogging but I am vowing to be much much better.