Another one for the list

AB was home this morning. I love that because he gets a taste of my mornings and usually ends up marvelling, "how exactly is it you get out of the house at 8am everyday with those two?"

Magic.

Oh and a little bribery.

This morning it wasn't the cabin or camping that Leif was fixated on. It was...

The grocery store.

Leif: "I want to go to the grocery store."

NM: "Why sweety?"

Leid: "Because I do."

NM: (New tactic...) "What do you want at the grocery store?"

Leif: "A box."

NM: "What kind of box?"

Leif: "A big box."

NM: "What are you going to do with the big box?"

Leif: "I want to paint it and cut a hole in it to crawl inside like a cave."

NM: "Well we might have a box in the garage we can do that this weekend with."

Leif: (Enter whining.)"No, I want to buy a box at the grocery store."

NM: "Well I don't think they have boxes like that at the grocery store."

Leif: "Yes they do."

NM: "Ok, we'll see."

Later in the drive up at Starbucks.

NM: "I will take a grande cinnamon dolce latte, a kids --"

Leif: "AND A BOX, TELL THEM WE WANT A BIG BOX TO PAINT TOO!!"

NM: "This isn't the box store!"

(Giggling over the intercom.)

Leif: "Let's go to the grocery store now."

Leif funnies

Skadi loves to feed others. She will take a bite and then feed whoever is willing the next bite. This is most often the dog.

Leif: "Skadi, it is very important that you listen to me, you must not feed Winny-dog lasagna!"

------------

Leif took one of the pigeon books in for show and tell. "The Pigeon Finds A Hot Dog" that he picked out at Barnes and Noble last weekend. We were on the way home from school in the car.

NM: "So what did you tell your group about the pigeon book today?"

Leif: "I said, this is my pigeon book I bought it the other day at the latte store.

Hanging head in shame... Barnes and Noble is the "latte store" for my son... not the book store. Just because everytime we go, we get lattes!

------------

Leif was drawing a picture for Bompa in his card the other day. He was meticulously drawing straight lines.

Here is the thing with this age group - he is getting to that point where you should be able to tell what he is drawing... or so he thinks. They are pretty much all circles or lines to me.

NM: "Leif what are you drawing so I can write to Bompa what your picture is?"

Leif: "Mommy, can't you see I am drawing straight lines."

-------------

Leif woke up this morning insistant that we go to the cabin. He is such an outdoors kid. All last week it was camping, he wanted to go camping so badly. We set his play tent up, but that only worked for an afternoon until he was asking for the big blue tent outside please and not in the back yard.

Leif: "I know what we should do today!"

NM: "Well I think we are going to go to work and school, but what do YOU think we should do?"

Leif: "We should go to the cabin, and then to C's house, and to N's house, and then to the park, and go climb the mountain, then we can go to Miss Donna's (McDonalds - he has been there three times now his entire life) and then we can go to the doctor!"

First off, busy day there. Second, the fact that going to the doctor is lumped in there on his list of fun things to do concerns me.

Happy Valentine's Day part 2

I have to share what made me giggle this morning (aside from the weirdness of doing the Avent calendar with Leif on Valentine's Day)...

We were driving to work/school and I saw the kids walking to grade school. The girls in their red and pink dresses and tights and their neat bags of Valentines.

Then the boys... dressed normally with their bags of Valentines probably signed by their mothers - I discovered the past few days, boys have no interest in helping with Valentines. I tried. I really did. But it kind of makes me laugh when thinking about how much I put into getting a Valentine from the boys I liked... and how they must have painstackingly picked out specific Valentine's implying lifelong love...

Anyways, I digress. There were the boys swinging their Valentine's bags at each other and hitting every post they walked by with those poor bags.

Just another observation for nature versus nurture.

(Not quite sure what this says about my husband though...)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I am a holiday person, I love birthdays and nearly every other holiday out there. We put window clings up and I sometimes go a little overboard in decorating for holidays.

But that said I am not a huge Valentine's day girl.

I am not on the anti-Valentine's day bandwagon that says you shouldn't have to have a holiday to tell someone you love them (my counter to that group is what do you do about every other holiday on the calendar - Mother's Day. Father's Day...). I am not anti-consumer holidays necessarily either.

I am just not a big Valentine's day person. I don't insist on flowers or chocolates and usually am ready to strike a deal with AB that we don't do anything for each other for Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day comes on the heels of our three pack of gift giving holidays - Christmas, then my birthday and then AB's birthday. By the time it arrives I am out of gift ideas! (And usually realizing I have had far too many sweets the last 8 weeks...)

I do always make sure he has a card and a little something sweet. (The kids get a touch more spoiling.)

AB agrees to this and nods his head... then goes off and does something on a much grander scale. Last year it was chocolate truffles (to satisfy my pregnancy cravings) and flowers. This year he has something up his sleeve... but I don't know what.

Upon discovering that something was in the mail and him "hoping" it arrived by today, it sent me scrambling at 10am this morning to get something in the works for him.

Kind of takes away the romance though when you have to call your significant other at work and make sure they don't have anything on their schedule tomorrow so he can go get a massage for his present. Nothing says "last minute" more than that phone call ON Valentine's Day...

He was thrilled.

I felt like a dode.

Next year I am not going to be a Valentine's Day slacker!

So onto the meaning of Valentine's Day. Love.

I am so very lucky to have AB and am so thankful for our relationship. We rarely argue, we respect each other, we have two beautiful children and respect each other as parents, we value each other's opinions and we love each other still after nearly 8 years of marriage and 6 more on top of that of hanging out together.

Happy Valentine's Day AB!

My biggest fan

For those of you who don't know, I thought I was an artist for awhile. I even went so far as to declare "art" my second major. Then I transferred schools and gave it up figuring I wanted to make some real money and could do art as a hobby anytime.

"Anytime". That would be anytime I actually HAVE the time for art.

Yesterday late afternoon I was working on the closet in Leif's room and I pulled out my portfolios. I asked Leif if he wanted to look at my drawings.

"No," he told me matter of factly.

I left the portfolios sitting there and he came around. "I want to see what is in there," he told me.

I pulled out the first one, a bird I did. It was always one of my favorites. Of course Leif's response was, "ooooh a pigeon!!"

My drawings are a little bit better than Mo's pigeon... but we got a good laugh out of that being where Leif went first. I pulled out the least whacked out pictures of the bunch to show Leif, he picked one out of there.

A panther on a piece of posterboard done in three media. Ink, airbrush and oil pastels. I had always liked him.

Leif decided he wanted it. He carried it into his room while I bit my lip trying to curtail it from certain anhilation at the hands of a three year old.

Funny when I did it in high school I never envisioned a three year old manhandling it.

He decided he wanted it hung on his wall next to his lion chair, and down low. Not high like I hung his carved fish that Bompa made him for hanging his pictures up.

I did happen to find an old framed poster and AB has promised to try and figure out how to get the poster out of said frame so we can put the panther in and maybe somewhat protect the "art" after 20 years of residing in a portfolio.

Weekend wrap up

This weekend flew by. AB poured Pinot Noir on Friday and Saturday and enjoyed that.

I took Leif to swimming and wrestled with Skadi while we watched. Just did not want to sit still. I think we will put her back in swimming starting next session. She loves the water and is just getting to that point where she recognizes the pool and really wants to be in it.

We came home and Leif had quiet time in his tent in the dining room. He has been begging for a week now to "go camping" and talks about building fires, sleeping in the tent with the dog and mommy and daddy, gathering firewood and saving C from any monsters that might invade the campground.

I told Leif he had to be quiet in his tent for quiet time, otherwise it was off to his bed for quiet time. He took me seriously. He was quiet and layed still in there for about 45 minutes, relaxing. No nap, but lately we are at about 50-50 with naps.

We headed out for a playdate with sibling friends where it dawned on Skadi that L was doing something she doesn't do. (L is two months older.)

Walking.

SO since that playdate Skadi has been striving to stand on her own.

Without holding on.

Just the other day I was saying Skadi was a long ways from walking. I am taking that back. I think she will take her first unassisted steps in the next 2-3 weeks.

We all got home and AB and I looked at each other and about the same time asked, "where are we ordering food?" PF Changs it was.

After the kids went to bed, AB and I finished "3:10 to Yuma", which wasn't half bad. AB enjoyed it "allright" for a Western. And since I never care for Westerns I really liked it comparatively. I am sure that had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. Nope, not one bit...

This morning we ate Swedies (crepes). Skadi actually ate more than Leif did... she loves her daddy's crepes. Then we hung around the house doing chores and such for the most part. AB made a quick trip to the grocery store and then to retrieve Sonic limeades, but that was about it - other than our morning walk.

I tackled the scary closet and have hit the motherlode with respect to garage sale fodder. And trash.

I pulled out my wedding dress and AB told me to put it on. I argued, but finally gave in. I couldn't zip it all the way (after 8 years), but I got it on. Leif looked at me and said, "you look like a butterfly! No an angel, you look like and angel mommy." Awww!

I made my way through about 1/3 of the closet while AB hung the Ikea animal hanger and herded the cats. I mean kids.

The closet still needs some serious attention, but it is started. I will admit that a few times I found myself just standing there looking, not sure what to tackle next.

At one point I pulled out a pair of leggings from my high school gymnastics team. AB laughed at them and said, "what did you wear those when you were 8?" He joked they might fit Skadi now.

Nope, I told him, I used to wear these when I was 16. Oh those were the days when I, like every other teenaged girl, complained about being fat at 104 lbs.

I threw the leggings away.

They only served to remind me of "those days". And well, I will never weigh 104 again, nor do I want to. I don't need the momento leggings from team.

Fish tacos and pinot noir for dinner. (Not the best match in the world.)

And that does it for our weekend. How was yours?

Our place in the space-time continuum

Did I spell continuum right? Spell check tells me I did. This has got to be the only word with two u's in a row. Anyways, on to business.

Our weekends have been busy lately. Every year as summer slows down I always look forward to the weekends lightening up some. This winter that doesn't seem to have happened. There is always that little inkling of being ready to go back to work on Monday to relax a little.

Oh my goodness - I wrote "being ready to go back to work on Monday"... Yes, things are going better for me at work lately. The fall is such a hard time as it's transition time for projects. Once we get past the holidays though the money starts rolling again and new projects are spinning up. I have my big project that is very nearly managed into the ground by a high up who is absent much of the time. I am tossed up between trying to step up to the plate, take control and be the hero that rescues the day and gets us back on track (or not) - I am afterall now the project manager for a project between three and five times this one in monetary value and with 12 staff members working on it. Or do I bide my time, do my job for the next 6 months while shrugging my shoulders saying "I offered to manage the project but you guys said I was too young".

Yeah, I talk big, but I am not that type of person.

Yet.

I have a few more years before I get that cynical. I have a meeting where I am sure I will find the words seeping out of my lips offering to take over project management. Frankly I will be surprised if it happens, but then I can at least say I offered twice.

I picked up a new task and managed to finagle 2/3's of the project's budget for my task. Finagle... ok, I didn't finagle much, they gave it. While it seems like a lot in the coffers, lining out what needs to be done and my time and the engineer's time, and it is pretty small potatoes. But I have the opportunity to make a big splash if it works. And it opened a door for me that I never expected with sharing the job of being a custodian of a brand new, big money, new capability instrument. That and being labeled as the go to girl for gas handling systems since I have had two more inquiries since. Not exactly what I want to do in the long run, but it's kind of fun to design and build things.

I still have one proposal sitting out there in "strong consideration" and I just sent out another that I am very hopeful on. I am in a happy place with work right now.

AB as well. He hasn't said it yet, but he loves his job. So being gone 12 hours a day is rough (mostly on me). Going to bed by 9pm sucks (for both of us). Vanpooling an hour each way isn't fun. But he is excelling at his job and appears to be a shooting star - that hopefully doesn't burn out anytime soon. He is working Safety, but was offered the chance to move back into Environmental - more related to his Masters degree. In one instant he was excited to do Environmental work, but in the next is a little mournful of "but I really like what I am doing right now". Deciding what is best career-wise is hard. I tell him to just do what he likes... but his response is that he likes it all. Which is a new world compared to where we were a year ago today.

He has five weeks of vacation a year on top of having Fridays off. Every Friday off. Unless he wants to work overtime - which is nice too. This has been great. Today, for example, he was pouring Pinot Noir all day. A little tasting might have been going on too... A week from Monday he is staying home with both kids for President's Day and says he is looking forward to it. I, otoh, am completely lacking time off of all types and will be toiling away in my office.

Moving onto the kids...

Skadi is leaning towards deciding that she is a one nap girl. Leif didn't jump on this boat until he was a few months older and I remember bemoaning the fact that daycare was forcing him into one nap and he needed two. On Monday, Skadi's teacher told me they are struggling with forcing her into two naps and she just wants one long one. In the middle of the day. Which I hate to admit, we have often been doing on Saturday out of convenience to our schedule. She is so the second child...

But this nap in the middle of the day? The same time *I* go see her daily.

I wasn't ready to give up my lunchtime visits yet. I am fully in denial that she turns one year old in just six weeks on Easter Sunday. (Yes, Easter is THAT early this year.) Her best friend has hung out in the Infant room despite having turned one a few weeks ago. This has been nice for Skadi, and after a discussion today I am going to push that she stay in this room until she moves to Leif's school. Her teacher said it is not an unreasonable request given the overload of kids in the room up and the waiting list in front of her from her present room going into the next higher room.

She isn't walking yet and I don't see much motivation to walk in her anytime soon. Why spend the time standing up and getting somewhere on two feet when you can crawl there three times as fast? She cruises along the furniture, people's legs, the cupboards. But she doesn't stand by herself much yet and has yet to get herself to standing from being on the ground without help.

She is set to start at Leif's school in June and is fought over with regard to teachers. One teacher (Leif's teacher from last year) informed me it was decided, she was hers. But today I ran into Leif's 1-2 year teacher who said, "not so fast!' - and proceeded to make my little girl giggle.

I could have selected her teacher - AB asked why I didn't. I narrowed down the selection to the two teachers, both fantastic but very different people. This is one of the few times in the daycare/preschool period where I feel completely at ease with whoever cares for her. I figured I would let them battle it out. I told AB that the person who wanted her the most would win - and I want my daughter's teacher to want her from day one.

I left out the tiny little fact in talking to the two teachers fighting over her that she isn't her easy-going brother. She is a true redhead - personality, temper and all!

We will just let them be surprised!

I had good news earlier this week in dropping Leif off that he seems to have transformed again. All week he was a pleasant child who napped and did the things the teachers asked and didn't push buttons. She said he was just back to being a joy to be around. I don't understand the mood changes. But we have seen it at home too.

I don't have much new or original (not already blogged about) to report on Leif's end. Right now he has an obsession with being "big". Most mornings he wakes up and after telling me he had a good sleep, he tells me, "I grew a little bit and now I am bigger". This morning he told me that "this leg grew longer last night". He kills me! It pains me to hear his desire to be big. I want to tell him to just enjoy being little for now, no need to grow up too soon! And I probably will start telling him this. Though I distinctly remember hearing this myself and promptly ignoring it.

When I was talking with my Co-PI this morning he had a rationale for this, Leif still has his entire life ahead of him, everything for him is looking forward. While we as adults spend a lot of time, good or bad, looking backwards.

Love and marriage preschool style

So the little chicky who proposed to my son and is probably still waiting for his answer via phone call, latched onto me today. Ok, not latched. As a nursing mom, "latch" means something that I am not trying to convey here. I got a HUGE hug from her.

I hugged her back as icily as I could - in typical mother-in-law-in-practice fashion (though my MIL doesn't hug with ice, she is a good hugger). I wanted to whisper in little chicky's ear not to be expecting an answer from Leif anytime soon, he can't read and there is no democracy in our house, it is a dictatorship and I control what he reads. But I didn't. I just thanked her for the hug, but I see through her tactics...

Love and marriage is in the air at preschool though. One of the other moms who I am friends with told me her son was trying to decide which of two girls he was going to marry at recess tomorrow since she had told him he could not marry his sister.

And then the other day on the way home from school Leif blurted out that he was going to marry me. I was flattered, but told him I didn't think Daddy would like that too much since he is already married to me. He proposed a three-way marriage, but I reinforced the one man, one woman thing. (I accept homosexuality and I am pro gay marriage - but my three year old doesn't need to start thinking about that anytime in the near future.)

I told Leif that he was going to need to pick out someone else to marry, and he did. Our friend's daughter and not terribly surprising.

I want to think of Leif as being immune to the advances of girls everywhere - but I know him too well. Everyone gets a hug in our house, and kisses get doled out too and not just for the girls either.

He and one of his male friends always kiss as they depart from a playdate. Not surprising since on New Years Eve at their house I was kissed hello and goodbye by nearly everyone there and very few of them I had met previously. (A little weird... but whatever.) But at their house, Leif gloms onto this practice. Kisses all around!

Then there are the two girls we are closest friends with, it is hard to pull Leif off them... I have a Christmas eve picture I could post of a "Leif sandwich" with the two of them - it is apparent he was enjoying a little slice of heaven there... There are usually threats of dad's needing to become involved - though Leif doesn't pay them much heed. N has proved to be her own woman though as she puts up with his advances for about three seconds and then shoves him off saying, "no kissies Leif". C, on the other hand, eats it up and we have questions of "when do we force them to stop this" with regards to the present as well as future timeline with respect to age.

So while I want to think that my son is an innocent bystander not provoking any of this attention... I fear that he is an active participant in garnering this attention.

February goal started

As the first weekend in February, it is also the first weekend to address the current goal at hand... Leif's room. As I said before, his is not a hard room. Here are pictures of the starting point... a little organization is all the room-portion (excluding the closet) really needs.

I went to Target on Saturday and found nicely coordinating bins and containers for the shelves. I cleaned off the shelves, the Ikea organizer and the book shelf top and dresser top and started sorting. Keep (keepsake), keep (put back on the shelves in some organized fashion), garage sale or toss.

The garage sale pile is pitifully small. The toss pile was good sized, but a lot of the stuff was set for keep.

After a few hours (maybe at most) of sorting and putting things back AB came in. I was surprised by his comment - "I like the organizers".

Well so do I. So back to Target I will go (after AB gets paid next week) to buy another set of green plastic organizers: a new garbage can, a medium sized flex tote for cleaning day pick up, a small flex tote for holding essentials on the dresser top, some little bins for marbles and other "pieces", and some more medium sized bins for the shelves.

I cleaned out his dresser while AB put him to bed one night and purged most of the size 2T clothes since he is just now out of that size. And then I retrieved some hangers and started hanging his nicer shirts and sweaters in the crazy closet.

AB still needs to hang the stuffed animal holder. I mentioned this on Sunday and he reminded me he has all of February to do it. ;-) As far as I am concerned he has until I get the new storage bins from Target. Because once that is done, the room part is done and the closet shall remain.

The closet. The closet that looms. (And houses monsters if you believe Leif.)

Anyways, I haven't told AB this, but as of today our time schedule is being slid up. My MIL just wrote that she will be here March 13-18th. Which means that Skadi's room, though it won't be ready for her to occupy, will need to be cleaned out and prepped as a guest room for one last hurrah before our guest room goes away for good - or at least until we buy a new house.

And that little bathroom that doesn't really serve to have a whole month devoted to it? Also needs to be handled before then. (More little bins from Target.)

(Can you tell I have a thing for little plastic storage bins?)

A whole new scary phase

Today as I was picking Leif up and cleaning out his box, I happened upon a note in his box.

I am used to notes - usually instructing me to bring extra clothes in or go see the director. But this note was different.

It was in a child's handwriting. And since Leif only makes four various lines and curves to represent his name in some vaguely semi-recognizable fashion, I knew it wasn't his.

Yet it had his name on it.

And a big heart.

I opened it cautiously where I saw it said "mary me (heart heart heart) E----".

Oh and she didn't stop there... she gave him her phone number too.

Somehow I had hoped I would have time to prepare myself for this eventuality that would likely happen in 25 or so years...

However, the little chicky needs to wisen up if she wants my son. Because she has a big barrier between herself and my little boy... ME!

A whole new label

I get to start a new label today... "Skadi funny". I have Leif funnies, or Leif sayings that are often funny, but so far Skadi's funnies have been limited to her laughing at us or, most commonly, Leif. Not exactly "blog worthy". But she did a funny today that cracked both AB and I up - and it was 100% on her own accord.

The other night AB and I had salad with supper. As we sat around the table, I picked at the lettuce. I grabbed a piece and stuck it in my mouth. Skadi, sitting on my lap, quickly figured this out and took to grabbing a piece of lettuce and sticking it in my mouth. It was awfully cute.

I should also mention at this point, before going on, how freakishly fast my daughter is.

Fast.

Seriously.

Deceptively fast.

You might think since she is a big girl that she lumbers along. She crawls at lightning speed to get to the dog food bowl when she is sure no one is looking. (And in typical second child fashion, she is correct, no one really is watching. Second borns get away with EVERYTHING.)

Then there was N's birthday a few weeks ago where in a flash, 1/3 of my banana cupcake was swiped and stuffed into her mouth where in typical second child fashion, I laughed about it. As opposed to freaking out - mostly. Though I did quietly run through the possible ingredients in banana cupcakes - and frosting - in search for anything potentially allergenic. Then asked myself who I was kidding... they are cupcakes. And she IS my daughter. No way can she be allergic to cupcakes. It would be a horrible tragedy to befall in my house.

Tonight AB and I sat at the table chatting after releasing our captive from his restraints known as the dining room chair. Skadi was on my lap.

Before I knew it I had a handful - serious handful here, we aren't talking a piece - handful of lettuce complete with Ceasar dressing stuffed in my mouth, up my nose and all over my glasses.

While a little girl sat on my laugh giggling hysterically.

And husband was NOT helping the situation at all by laughing either.

Ok, I can laugh about it now... hence, the label.

"I love my doggy."

And my doggy loves me.

There's the kisses I wanted!

Wait, I didn't say you could be done kissing me!

Oooooh, sparkley!

I love my doggy and my doggy loves me.

(Winny IS a great dog. Yes, she pretty much sits and lets the kids and cat roll all over her. She's a good protector dog too.)

Mammary glands?

So I am really curious, who uses the word "breasts"?

We have taught Leif the anatomical words for everything so far. Ok, well so he only really knows "p----". And he talks about it a lot. We haven't gotten to "v-----" yet, because as far as Leif is concerned he has a p---- and Skadi does not and mommy does not, but daddy does. Someday he will ask or it will come up when Skadi is learning, but until then we are fine with this status quo. (I have abbreviated those words not because I have a fear of typing them - but I do have a fear of someone searching those words and winding up here.)

Since I nurse Skadi, and I take a bath with the kids, and we have a pretty open door policy in our house regarding nudity, Leif also knows that I have something he doesn't. My boobies. He also knows that someday Skadi will have boobies, but he just has nipples. Take this exchange the other night on the way home from work as evidence:

NM: "Leif I am so proud of you, today is two days of not pooping your pants at school, you are doing so good with your poopies."

Leif: "Mommy, I have told you and told you, I am a boy and so I only have nipples, not boobies."
Evidently I need to work on my "p" sound! Or turn down the music.

I was raised using "boobs" or "boobies" to describe our mammary glands. And believe me, with a grandmother like mine, the topic was discussed frequently! She used to make me cry as a prepubescent girl when she would tell me I was going to have boobies like hers someday.

Now I know better. My response should have been, nope, I won't, because I will get a reduction before I ever get to that point!

Anyways, back on topic... I told you "boobies" come up and my grandmother's name does too - believe me the stories go on.

Leif also knows what my boobs are for, they make milk to feed Skadi. However, he hasn't quite figured out that boys can't make milk. Enter exhibit two...

I was getting the kids dressed and Skadi was flopping backwards onto Leif's lap and giggling. He loved having her lay her head on his lap. He was kissing her and being generally sweet, so I jumped up to go do something.

I came back and Leif was leaning over Skadi.

"Whatcha doin'," I asked him.

"I am feeding Skadi milk from my nipples," Leif said,

"No silly boy, you can't do that, only mommies," I tell him removing Skadi before certain trauma set in that would scar her for life.

"No, I have nipples, I can feed her too," he said,

All I could think of was the supposed tribe in Africa that our lactation consultant rallied on and on about where the men lactate and feed the babies... AB could tell you all about it... it is imprinted on his brain for life.

Getting back to my question though... I have to admit I was a little mortified a few months ago when friends were over, mom was nursing her little girl who is 2 months older than Skadi. Leif walked up and said, "is she eating milk from your boobies?"

I was sensing the scorn from the other parents that MY son doesn't use the word "breasts". My face was burning.

Very politely she told Leif she was feeding her little girl like his mommy feeds his sister. Thankfully he dropped it.

I did a HUGE phew though a few weeks later when I was nursing Skadi at their house and their son walked up and said, "she is eating from your boobies like my sister does!"

He said boobies.

PHEW!

Why is it I have no problem with p----- and v----- but saying "breasts" just nearly kills me?

Is it because we were a "boob/boobies" family growing up? Or is it that a few certain girls in high school (let's see if Vargas Girl can guess who I am talking about - if it drove her as insane as it did me) thought it was hilarious to wander around saying "breasts" with a lisp as they clutched her own.

That might be what did it for me, because when I read the word I hear it in my head like THEY used to say it.

Ok, now that I got THAT off my chest.

What IS the problem with snow angels?

I'm really not asking for much here...

Just some smiles? Happy angels?

Snow Day!

February Goal

I am preparing - at least mentally - for my February goal. My son's bedroom. I picked this room because it is relatively easy. He has a big toy box, a book shelf and an Ikea storage unit for sets of things. Like the picture below, but ours is white and has green and white different sized bins. (Which I really, really like by the way. No more boxes. Of course you are sorely out of luck unless you have an Ikea store near you.)

The things I have to work on in his room are relatively few and somewhat easy. Such as:

-Hang the stuffed animal storage net thing (another Ikea see below).

-Clear off the orange shelves and return only displayed items. (Or items that have been put into time out.) A few little storage bins might be necessary.

-Clean out the toy box (garage sale fodder?)
-Sort through the book shelf
-Under the bed storage redo.
-Finish curtains and hang them.

And the big task is to tackle the closet. Clean out the walk in closet, sort out what can be sold versus stored. Return storage items. Carve out an area where Leif can have some storage for big toys and places to hang HIS clothes.

Not bad, reasonably do-able. I don't expect I will get my huge burst of, "it looks so good and so much better" from this room, but at least it will be done.

March is the scary month. And the month where I will no longer have a guest room. If you want to visit and not sleep on an air mattress, the couch, in a hotel or in Leif's twin better do it before March!

Something about being a three year old...

I promised Leif we could make a robot today.

There is a brand new Curious George episode this week where George builds a robot to entertain Hundley.

We pretty much copied the design (box and metal colander) except that George's box is red. I suggested we name the robot Leif 3.5. Leif had other ideas and asked that it be called "Curious George".

He watched the episode a few times today, acting it out along the way in his robot costume. The picture below is where George fell asleep next to the elevator.

Seriously I have THE cutest little boy. Grumblings about Terrible 3's? Me? Naw...

The poor abused dog

If it isn't one being...




Then it's the other...

And then there is this thing called "the breaking point"... where no possible good can come to an innocent bystanding dog when two beings approach the cat residing on said dog...

The endless, endless clutter

I took the plunge earlier this week.

I let our housecleaner go. (Ok, really, AB let her go as I am a wuss... but it was my telling him to do so.) She was "fine" and cleaned our house every other week for the last three years. She routinely needed reminders to do things like move the kitchen appliances and clean under them, wipe the window sills, things like that. My biggest problem with her was her hit or miss nature. One week was great, the next notsomuch. And she had plenty of personal issues that she liked to talk about (A LOT) and that I suspect made her distracted with her work regularly. Yes, if I had a 20 year old son who was schizophrenic I would probably have a hard time focusing too. But I was paying her to do a job... it was a business transaction after all and my satisfaction was hit or miss.

I didn't just let her go and decide I was going to do it myself. I am not crazy! Instead I climbed aboard a service that my closest female friends in the area have glommed onto. For only $30 more a month, I am signed up to start getting weekly cleaning service.

I am so thrilled about this because what I REALLY need done all.the.time is my floors. My floors are always a mess. Around my table is a disaster since Skadi has started eating solids and Leif can't always locate his mouth.

And how much stuff can a family of four track into the living room? I can give you a good approximate since I am constantly prying the stuff out of Skadi's mouth. Incredible oral child, she is.

So I am thrilled about this new path to a clean house.

Here is the issue though... picking up the house for the cleaner.

We could deal with the every other week scramble the night before to get the clutter picked up. But now, the scramble is going to be a weekly occurence.

I am not the only one worrying about it, AB has voiced concerns about it many times. I keep telling him that if we do it weekly, it won't get nearly so bad as it does after two weeks. In theory, we should spend far less time each week.

Right?

Ok, so I might just be expelling steam. I don't know this.

How do you deal in your house with the clutter? The things left behind day in and day out by your kids, the things that get dropped when everyone walks in the door, the toys the cat has sent sailing into neighboring rooms?

It is the common area (kitchen, dining room and living room) that get bad. Leif's room is never that bad and he helps pick up in there. We are considering introducing chores and have started this informally with the introduction of a Dust Buster... it is Leif's job to clean around the cat box with the Dust Buster... a job he does with gusto, precision and pride.

In some attempt to try something new, this weekend I am buying four new laundry baskets. One for each of the main areas of the house aimed to collect things. Not laundry, things. Then the baskets can be carried around and stuff returned to where it goes. Or in a pinch, stuff stuck in there and then set up off the floor (on the couch?) so the cleaner can get what she needs done, done.

Believe it or not, this is mostly AB's idea and one he swears he brought up months ago. Of course then I took it as, "yes we need more laundry baskets for the dirty laundry!" And I bought baskets, for laundry.

Anyone have any wonderful solutions?

Sonic opened today.

We decided to pack the kids up and head down for an ice cream after dinner. I was coveting a 99 cent mini banana split and just maybe a limeade (no cherry for me thanks).

We got there and I was a little enthused to see a few open slots as we turned into the parking lot.

Then a person appeared in front of us...

A staging area?

An hour waiton a Tuesday night?

Apparently I am not the only one who knows about the secret (or not) of Sonic.

Pretty amazing when Sonic probably had a longer wait then PF Changs two blocks away.