Weekend Fun

bean went to "major home improvement retailer" for their kids project. she was excited. it was her first time. she is obsessed with tools. she couldn't wait to use the hammer.
she built a fire truck!

it was a really great day because they weren't just having the kids workshop that day- they were having an "event"!! :)

*there was elvis music and a store associate was dressed as elvis... (man i wish i had a picture of that! it was a lame but totally amusing costume!) AND what that had to do with anything, i don't know. but it was fun!

*there was another store associate making cotton candy for the kids. yay, free cotton candy! oh wait, i don't like cotton candy. (i know, i'm totally weird) bean and daddy loved it though.

*they had the sheriff's department there making photo id cards for the kids. (bean thinks she has a driver's license now! ha!)

*they had hula hoops for the kids to play with. bean might need a hula hoop now. are you listening santa??

*they had free food from the resturaunt next door! woo hoo, free (tiny) club sandwiches and chips!

*then some real firefighters showed up!!! they brought a big red engine AND the heavy rescue truck. why did they bring the heavy rescue truck??

so they could do this- duh!

oh yeah, the "jaws of life" rock!

bean stood in complete awe while the firefighters took this car apart. she thought it was so neat. she wasn't sure why they were doing it but she LOVED watching it! i explained several times that they were showing us what they would do if there was an accident and someone was trapped inside the car. but i don't think she was listening to me! i mean, there were firefighters cutting apart a car right in front of her and that was way better than anything her weird old mother was saying! ;)
(in case you were wondering sprout was present and asleep during all this)

we spent WAY too much time at "major home improvement retailer" but we really did have a good time. (and we actually left without spending a dime! can you believe it??) i just hope that bean doesn't think all this is going to happen every time she goes to do the kid workshop project!!
how about you? did you do anything fun this weekend??

Shot? Whatever!

so the bean had to get her flu shot today. she hasn't had a shot since she was about 18 months old. i was a little concerned about her reaction. i told her if she was good that i'd take her to the zoo afterward. a little bribe never hurt anyone, right.

so we get there and the nurse says she'll just give her the shot in her thigh. i help bean pull down her pants and she sits on the table. she watches the nurse pick up the needle. she watches as the needle goes into her skin and then she says....
"ouch, that hurt me." in a very calm and even voice.
the nurse says, "yes, it does hurt, but just for a little bit. once you get up and walk around it will feel much better."
bean's reply, "yes, it will. can i have a lollipop?"

that was it. she pulled up her pants picked out a blue lollipop and we were on our way. not one tear. not one whine. nothing. the nurses were all rather impressed- i'm sure their other flu shot recipients weren't as well behaved!!
and of course, we went to the zoo next.

************

the zoo was lovely. today was probably the single best day i've spent with my kids in the past two-three weeks. seriously!
bean was interested. really interested. we talked about what the animals ate, where they lived, and thought about what they might feel like if we could touch them. we had to read all the signs. she remembered things from one exhibit to the next- those monkeys eat the same things as the parrots do! and okapis and bonobos live in the same place! it was fun talking about how the rhino and the elephant had skin that looked the same and it would probably feel rough. and how the mommy bonobo holds her baby just like i hold sprout.
we also found a friend on the ground that we could touch and discovered that he was soft.i'm not sure what "he" is actually called, we always called them "woolly worms". bean thought he was great. she thought that it was funny that he crawled every time she touched him. i tried to get her to hold him but even though i told her his feet would tickle her when he moved she just wasn't ready to go there! ;)
sprout kinda liked him too.
he was going to reach out and grab him- really. i had to yank my hand away pretty quickly after taking this shot! (and yes, the hat is a tad bit dorky but it was all i had and it was rather chilly here this morning!)

hopefully this fantastic friday is just the beginning of a wonderful weekend. i need- no scratch that- i deserve that!
you hear that kids? mama deserves a wonderful weekend! make sure you keep that in mind. ;)

It's a river in Egypt

de-nile is not changing a thing. no matter how much i tell him that it just can't be so, sprout isn't listening to me. sigh.

we have entered the realm of crawling... and it is not good.

the sprout has developed a sort of modified army crawl for his endeavors. this is all well and good, in theory.
this "crawl" seems to work when he is going after something that he really, really, really wants. he reaches way forward with one arm and that kinda helps him get his motion going. HOWEVER this isn't always the case. as a matter of fact, i'd say a good 90% of all crawling expeditions end in frustrated screaming. why?? because 90% of the time he ends up going backwards! this is totally normal, i know. but... OMG the screaming! he wants the toy but is getting farther and farther away from it and he just can't handle it.

and poor mommy is there stuck between trying to sooth her wailing child and laughing her ass off as her son continues to scoot away from what he must have now. ;)

Crafty Bean

bean has been in quite the crafty mood lately. we craft at home and craft time is her favorite part of school too. any excuse to get out the paints or scissors or glue out is welcomed by her. i already shared my favorite craft by her here. but i thought i'd show off a few more that i thought turned out really cool.

squirrel in a tree.

this was a picture of a squirrel i printed out and had her color. i then cut it out and we glued it and some items found during a backyard nature walk to a construction paper "tree". turned out a lot better than i thought it would.

apple stampin'

we cut two apples in half (one in each direction) and i gave her three paper plates with different colors of paint. then we dipped apples in the paint and pressed them onto the paper. i had to help her a little because the apples got all painty and slippery and she had a hard time picking them up once she put them down. she really enjoyed this one! (of course she did, paints are messy and therefore her favorite of all crafting supplies.)

and the craft she did at school today... she LOVED it and it kinda blew her mind. really! get this, they finger painted..... with PUDDING. they combined two of her favorite things into one. she got to lick her fingers when she was done. she was SO excited that she actually told me about it when i picked her up! (she usually tells me she can't remember what she did at school when i pick her up) so, hooray for crafts!! :)

Best Shot Monday

sprout had his first real "fall" experience this week- playing in the leaves! bean LOVES her some leaf pile fun so we decided to let sprout try it out too. it was.... humorous! i mean, get a load of these facial expressions!

he is confused... perhaps concerned.
"what the heck is going on here anyways? where am i??"

he is unsure.
"what is on my head?!? i don't think i belong here!"

he is suspicious.
"what is this crunchy, dry stuff i'm sitting in, mother???"

he decides to give it a try.
"uhhh, it doesn't taste good. it doesn't taste good!!!!"

he's had enough.
"mother, get me outta here!!!!"

no big deal, i don't think bean loved her first leaf experience either. he'll like it better next year when he knows what the heck is going on! :) but really, he did kinda enjoy it for a little bit.

no really, he did! he is going through a phase where he sticks his tongue out when he smiles!


if you want to see anymore "best shots" don't forget to stop by tracey's! have a great monday, everyone!

Weekend Funny

she picked out her clothes and dressed herself today....(she has two different sandals on and they are both "right" sandals. hmmmm. does anyone know where the "lefts" are?? he he!)

10

today is a big day i suppose. i have now been married for 10 years. 10 years........ i would post a picture but that was WAY before our digital days! ;)

10 years- damn, that makes me feel old!
i can't possibly be old enough to be married for 10 years, can i??
(of course i can, i'm 34 after all. but then again i have a hard time believing that too!)


(no we aren't doing anything fun or exciting... unless the husband is planing a surprise, which i doubt. his big idea is to rent a movie. oh well, i guess that is what happens when you have been married for 10 years!)

Our New Friend

while cleaning up our yard (hurricanes are NOT supposed to be in the mid west- i'm looking at you ike!!) we found ourselves a new friend...

an ever so friendly praying mantis!

bean found him to be interesting.
(thank goodness because she has a tendency to freak out about bugs!)

she found him... engaging?
really, i have no idea what is going on in this picture! ;)

i found him friendly.

well, unless he is a she. i've heard what those ladies do to their mates! eeek!

Best Shot Monday

saturday we went to the apple orchard with mommee and her boys. we had a fabulous time- even though it was HOT. every year it gets hotter and hotter... what's up with that?!? anyways, here are my best shots from our lovely day!

goodness an apple with "hair"!! ;)
bean thought this was the funniest thing!

look! i got a good one mama!

you simply must eat apples while you are picking them.
you must! :)

sprout tried but with only two teeth he didn't get very far! ha!!
(he really was trying to chomp on that apple- no joke!)

it's time to go already?!?
we'll be back next year... promise! :)

want to see more best shots? head on over to tracey's!

Life Imitating Art

this is a picture that bean made on friday. it is about her and adam going to the apple orchard. it is a sunny day (the sun is between the trees... there is a sun with lines coming out from it and just above that is the sun's friend. he he! i love it!) she is the pink figure on the left, adam is the pink figure on the right. it may be my all time favorite craft by bean. (i mean seriously, how cute is this??)

(oh, the thing on the ground that looks like a blue sun... that is "where the sun goes to bed" according to bean.)

so when we went to the apple orchard on saturday i was surprised at how realistic her rendering actually was. it was a sunny day. bean was on the left, adam on the right. and they were surrounded by apple trees.

of course there was a difference. if you look at the picture she made you will see a figure on top of the tree on the left. according to bean that is matthew, he climbed the tree and is being naughty. i'm 100% certain that did NOT happen in real life. :)

Tonight

i definitely just spent 20 minutes watching my not-quite-6-month-old son squirm and wiggle across the floor to the entertainment center where he tried to open the doors.

there are small double doors under the tv. he used his right hand to reach up and grab at the handle. then he put his hand down. now repeat with his left hand. he went back and forth with this until he did indeed open the cabinet. then he promptly slammed it shut and started trying to open it again.

i think we may have our hands full with this one. oh yes, i think we will.

Weekend Not-So-Funny

when we bought bean her very own pair of scissors we had a discussion about what was acceptable to cut and what was not. we do not cut books, we do not cut magazines, we do not cut the newspaper before daddy has read it. basically it ended with this phrase: "how about you just always ask mommy before you cut anything. then neither of us have to worry, ok?"
yes, of course that was ok with her!
the first day with scissors was messy and fun. nothing got cut that should not have. today mommy realized there was something very important she left out of that whole what you can/cannot cut conversation.....

(this isn't all of it. i found two more clumps after i took this picture.)

um, yeah. don't cut your own hair! don't cut your own beautifully fine and wispy hair! for the love of pete, why did i not remember the do not cut your own hair rule!!!!

it could be worse, it could be in the front where it would be immediately noticeable. sigh. i guess someone is going to be getting a real hair cut soon!

BUT saying it was not funny isn't entirely true. when i realized what she had done i gasped and cried out, "did you cut your hair!?!" and she started to bawl. she cried and cried and cried. i told her i wasn't mad at her, that it was ok. i got up to go into the family room to tell daddy. she jumped up screaming "no! no! don't tell daddy! don't tell daddy!!!" i told her of course i was going to tell daddy.
i find it amusing that she cut her own hair but then wanted no one to know or see that she did it. she is very concerned that someone will see it. she is very concerned that she won't be able to wear ponytails anymore. i had to reassure her that she still looked lovely BUT she would have to get a hair cut to help even it out faster.
she really did NOT want me to take a picture but really i had to. this is just one of those things you really want to remember. so she stood and let me take a picture but also said that i shouldn't show anyone..... don't look at me like that, i made no promises!! ;)

then when i was tucking her in bed tonight, it wasn't funny anymore.
"mommy," she says.
"what baby?" i reply
"i just don't want my hair to be cut anymore."

sigh....... if wishes could come true her hair definitely wouldn't be cut anymore.

Guess What!!

i have power! sweet, sweet electricity!!

(insert image of me doing a crazy looking happy dance here)

eh, you'd think i went 68 hours without power or something... oh wait I DID! ;)


being without power for a few hours, no big deal. being without power for a day, slightly annoying. for two days, starting to become upsetting. for three days, frustration and anger start setting in. we did survive though. of course our food did not- i just got done dumping almost everything that we had. we tried keeping it on a cooler with ice but it only lasted so long. sigh. at least we hadn't been to the store recently.

we did not lose any trees or even large branches. our neighbors weren't as lucky. seems maple trees were especially hard hit. three of our neighbors lost very large portions of theirs. we also had one tree on our street that the trunk just snapped in half- scary. it did take most of the day yesterday to clean up our yard. 5 yard waste bags of leaves and pine cones and a small mountain of small to medium branches is what i collected. boy do my muscles ache! but i've seen many neighbors with far more debris than that so i consider myself VERY lucky.

there has been no school here for the past three days. last night there was still over 50 schools in the district without power. so, daddy has been here with us the whole time- this was a great help to my sanity. no word yet on whether or not there will be classes tomorrow but i imagine we will know soon.

so...
i have POWER! woot!
now i'm off to do some laundry.... somehow it does almost seem exciting to do laundry but it is still laundry. ya know what i mean? ;)

Weekend Funny!

was he too hot perhaps?while he was trying to fall asleep at nap time he took off both socks and it appears that he was trying to remove his sweatshirt too. hmmmmm. i didn't know babies did that! ;)
he's not going to grow up to be a stripper is he???? ah ha ha ha ha!!!!

The things that come out of her mouth

here are the beanisms for this week. it is a good thing to start the weekend off with, don't you think??

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we are at the zoo. i ask her if she wants to go see "the dark animals" (what she calls the nocturnal house). she says ok but she wants to leave before we get to the end. why? apparently she doesn't want to see the "poky-pine"

hmmmm. i didn't realize that she didn't like the "poky-pine"!
(and no matter how hard we try we cannot get her to say porcupine!)

*************

she was sitting in front of brother. she covered her face with her hands and giggled. then she opened her hands and yelled....
"peek-i-love-you!"

awwwwwwwwww! of course she hasn't done it again, it has been peek-a-boo ever since. :(

*************

i'm feeding sprout. she comes up to the high chair and looks at her brother very seriously. she says, "some day i'll move away and you'll never see me again."
i look up and say, "oh, that's not true!"
and she says, "yes, it is true! i'm going to move to florida someday!"

ok..... so we can't see you in florida???? interesting.....

*************

she put on a shirt yesterday. it is getting a little small. i tell her that i think she is out growing her shirt.
she says, "i'll have to stop wearing it at some point then."

uh. yep, i guess you will. (where did she learn to talk like that? honestly!)

*************

bean asks me how old the neighbor boy is. i say, "he'll be six in november."
she gives me an annoyed look and says, "so he's five then?"

ummmmm, yes. yes, he is. (damn, how did she figure that out so fast??? i'm amazed, truly.)

*************

so that is that. i'm sure there was plenty more i wasn't able to write down. (if i don't write it down immediately it is gone FOREVER! i have the worst memory!) she blows my mind every single day with the things that just pop out of her little mouth. hope you find them as entertaining as i do!
AND i hope you all have a super fantastic weekend too!

The Little Perspective

we originally gave bean my old camera while i was pregnant with sprout. it kept her busy for long periods of time so i could sit and rest. it helped me keep my sanity and was also amusing when she brought back the camera to show me what she had done. we had TONS of pictures of the carpet, her blanket, her toys, her babies, and our dog. literally TONS.
so, when tracey mentioned having a "little perspective day" i knew bean would be up for taking pictures. BUT i didn't really want to see any more shots of the blankie. so i took her to the park and surprised her by giving her the camera once we were there. she was thrilled because she hadn't gotten to use it in a while. i said, "if you see something you want to take a picture of just tell me to stop." and off we walked.
some of her shots we quite lovely...others were just kinda cool to look at...and then there was ones like this.
she said, "i took a picture of your legs!"
"you did?" i replied.
she has a huge smile on her face and says, "yes, i like them. they are pretty cute."
ok.......and then when we got home she took this one...
and she wanted to know "why did my head come out all white mommy?" :) he he he!

what does your kid see when he/she looks through the camera??

The trouble with Blue's Clues

blue's clues is a relatively new show for bean. we can get old episodes in the "free on demand" section of our cable service so we have started taking advantage of that when we need a break during the day. there is a problem though.... bean wants to do whatever it was that blue did that day.
the first time it was making orange juice pops. then tuesday we had to learn to play hopscotch. although slightly frustrating for me, she had a fantastic time. she wants to play ALL THE TIME.trying to explain the actual rules is difficult. "why? why can't i jump on the three? i want to jump on the three!!"
"because your stone landed on the three. you have to jump over the number your stone is on."
"but in want to jump on the three!!!!!"

so, we throw a stone and jump down and sometimes we jump back and sometimes we run back. ehh, whatever. she's only three after all. :)
i am however a little concerned. i mean, what is blue (and bean) going to do next time???

Look!

hey! check it out! you can see my teeth!!!

that is one funny, happy, talking and laughing baby!

What's Wrong?

i've been trying to put my son to bed for almost 2 hours. it seems like he can't fall asleep. we can't find anything wrong with him. he just cries and cries, then stops for a couple minutes, then cries again. this has happened the past 2-3 nights. he used to go to bed great but now you just never know. we haven't really changed anything in his routine, so what is suddenly bothering him so much???
daddy is "swinging" him in his car seat right now. he believes that he is just over tired now. this is probably true, but why couldn't he go to sleep before he got overly tired? i don't understand!

sigh. being the mommy is hard work. this mommy needs a break.....

It was bound to happen eventually

yep, it happened. our first night time accident.

bean has been wearing big girl undies to bed for quite a while now. i've been waiting for the accident. i knew it would happen. the thing is... it was kinda funny!

she was very upset but she didn't realize that she had peed in the bed. she knew her jammies were wet but she said they were just a little wet. so, she went to the bathroom and finished going potty.
i checked her bed and discovered that things were more than a little wet. i told her her bed was wet. she started crying. why? perhaps because she was upset that she had wet the bed? NO. she thought that she wouldn't be able to sleep in her bed anymore! like it was ruined forever or something!
i tried her to calm her down. i told her everything would be just fine, i'd just take off the wet sheets. well, that got her crying AGAIN. why? she thought i was going to make her sleep with no sheets on her bed! "no mommy! i need sheets to sleep!" is what she told me. "do you really think i'd let you sleep with no sheets??" i asked her. she is still sobbing. "i'll put clean ones on after i take the wet one off, silly head." i tell her.

so she curled up on her pillow on the floor and i changed the sheets on her bed. then i plopped her and her army of stuffed friends and babydolls back into the bed and said good night. i left the room shaking my head. i still can't believe that she thought she wouldn't have a bed anymore because she peed in it!!!