Happy Birthday

today is daddy's birthday. bean baked him a cake. she frosted the cake (and stabbed the knife into it several times while doing so.) she decided that he needed pink heart shaped birthday candles.

she sang him happy birthday (and i SO should have gotten it on video!!!).

she helped him blow out the candles too!

Happy Birthday Honey!!!

now that you are as old as me you'll have to stop talking about how old i am. right? right?
damn.

Karma

so, why didn't one of you smack me upside the head for not saying i was thankful for our health?!?! i mean, i have wonderfully healthy kids. they almost never get sick and when they do it is usually just a little cold that passes in about a week. why didn't you tell me to be thankful for that?!?!

fine! it was too late i know- i wrote those posts sunday night after all. but karma caught up with us on tuesday. oh boy did karma ever!

first sprouts cold decided that it was no longer comfortable in his head and moved south into his chest. ahhhh, a baby that can't breath and now has coughing spells on a two hour car ride. lovely!
THEN, about 1/2 hour into our trip bean says, "mommy there is something wrong with my eye!" i turn and see that her one eye is full of oozy crud. CRAP! she showed no signs of anything all day but now, NOW she seems to have an eye infection. you must be kidding!! (no, there was no kidding) 1 1/2 hours later we reach our destination. i call urgent care. they are open but there is quite a wait. my husbands says he will take her. that was at 7:15pm. they arrived back home (with some of the saddest and grossest eyes i have ever seen) at 10:20pm! they were the last in to see the doctor and the last prescription filled at the pharmacy. at least we have the medicine to clear up the crud though.

the next night my mom and i go out to buy a humidifier hoping that it will allow us all to sleep better since sprout woke up 97 ba-jillion times the night before. (FINE it was only 6 times but when you are really tired it feels like 97 ba-jillion- or more even!) thankfully that night goes a little bit better than the previous one. but i was still up several times. the next night is better still but the day starts far to early- if the sun isn't up my kids shouldn't be either. isn't that a law or something?
it isn't??? well, it should be!

bean fights her eye drops. she screams, cries, and thrashes. you would think that we were unleashing a swarm of angry bees directly into her eyeballs. sheeesh! after doing this every four hours all grown ups involved are more than a little frustrated at the end of the day.

our holiday weekend ends early. we decide to leave nana and papa's house and head home hoping that the kids will sleep better in their own beds. i have my fingers firmly crossed that i will get a good nights sleep tonight. AND next year i will be thankful for our health so karma doesn't kick our asses again.

Things that make you go hmmmmm?

we are listening to christmas music. why? bean insisted, that's why!
rudolph was playing. bean suddenly looks at me and says, "why not?"
"why not what?" i ask a little confused.
"why don't the reindeer play with rudoph, mommy?"

OH.

"well, the reindeer noticed that rudolph looked different than them. he had a red nose and no one else did. they didn't want to play with him because he was different."

bean just looks at me with a very confused expression on her face. "but why mommy?" she asks.

why indeed, bean!

"not everyone is nice, sweetie. that is why it is important that we are nice," i tell her.

bean is quiet. then she says...
"mama, i wish i had a red nose. i really want a red nose!"

ummm..... ok?

Happy Thanksgiving!

i hope your day is filled with fun, food, and love. i hope you are with people that make you happy- or that you can fake it with out too much trouble. ;) and i hope that we all come away from the table weighing exactly the same as we did when we sat down! HA!

happy thanksgiving everyone!!

The Program....

last wednesday was the day of bean's preschool harvest potluck. a day when all the children invite their families to the school for a potluck. there are about 60 or so children in the school. there was 250 people eating lunch that day! so when it came time to sing the adorable turkey song that they had practiced........ well, bean kinda froze.
it was kinda cute in a way. she sort of did the motions to the song and she bowed when she was done (super adorable!!) BUT she had a look of pure terror on her face the whole time. poor thing doesn't like to be surrounded by strangers. we did our best to calm her down and after a while we succeeded. (thank goodness!)

bean said she was thankful for mommy and daddy. i don't think she forgot sprout, she just isn't feeling all that thankful for him some days! ;) ahhh, those sibling rivalries run deep already!

i'm thankful for bean and sprout. i'm thankful for all the time i'm able to have with them. i'm thankful for my husband. i'm thankful for the job he has (because it pays the bills and allows me to stay home with the kids). i'm thankful for bean and sprout's grandparents (they have two awesome sets). i'm thankful for the roof over our heads and the food in our bellies (because there are so many who don't have such luxuries). and i'm thankful for you- all my blogging friends. you lift me up when i'm down and you make me laugh when i really need it. i'm most definitely thankful for that!

so, on this day before we gorge ourselves with fattening foods (mmmmmm, turkey......) what are ya'll thankful for? :)

This is why she asked for tools.....

when bean visited with santa last week she asked him for tools. he seemed a little surprised. but if he had been at the science center with us this past weekend he may have understood a little better....



she really wanted to build something. (she never really specified what exactly!) unfortunately, i couldn't find any wing nuts that weren't already being used so she really couldn't. BUT that didn't stop her from trying!

maybe she will be an engineer or architect when she grows up? perhaps.
:)

Best Shot Monday

this weekend instead of sitting home and watching football we decided to get out and hit the local science center. we told bean the night before that we were going somewhere in the morning. she asked "where?" our answer, "someplace fun." (we were hoping that it would in fact be fun and not some horrible preschooler nightmare!) we really didn't think we could go wrong when the place has the "sesame street: the body" exhibit there. what little kid wouldn't want to go to sesame street and learn about their body?!? (please don't let our child be the one!)

well, we had nothing to worry about. other than a few jitters at the beginning it was fine. no, it was perfect. she LOVED it ALL. we thought we would be there for two hours. we thought that she would be tired and want to leave.
um, NOOOOOO. we were there for FIVE AND A HALF hours!!! and she did NOT want to leave. here are a few of the best pictures from our day....

bean really loved this thing- there are jets of air on which you make these little purple balls "float". we had to do this for quite awhile.

all kids like to put on raincoats and play in the water, right?
(in this science center there is a "little kids space" where if you are in the first grade, you are too old! it is so awesome for all the preschoolers and toddlers.)

she was quite taken with this dinosaur. (if you turn a wheel you can make him move but after watching two adult males try and struggle i decided that i was not going to try to make it move for her!)

yes, sprout was there too. he crawled around in the little kid space and smiled at everyone.
until the incident, that is....

yeah, i'm sure i got a few disapproving looks as i snapped a picture (and laughed my butt off).
come on people, he's perfectly fine! it just scared the snot out of him! ha ha!
(and you know you all would have done the same thing!!!)

i know i mentioned that there was sesame street involved and there was. BUT it was in a large exhibit hall that had TERRIBLE lighting. all of the pictures are really bad. if you didn't use the flash they were way too dark, if you did they looked all freaky. ugh! but it was adorable! if you ever have sesame street: the body" come to a place near you, you should check it out!

it was a really super day. i don't think the husband really minded missing the "big game" for this outing. (ok, he probably did- and i'm sure i'll hear about it sometime in the future- but i'll give him the credit anyways.) what i am sure of is that my daughter had the best day. how? you ask. well, because as i turned off her light that night she said:
"mommy, can we go back to the fun place tomorrow? please??"
:)

p.s. don't forget to check out other best shots over at tracey's.

Portraits

well, here are some of the christmas portraits we had taken of the kids..... the best ones.

really one of the only times sprout smiled, which is odd because he normally smiles all the time. but this picture really cracks me up because he looks JUST LIKE a blackjack dealer! does he not?!?! ha!


this is the second best facial expression that bean had during the shoot. although i'm not sure i like how freakin' OLD she looks here! gah!


bean's best facial expression (because it was an honest to goodness smile- actually a laugh) and sprouts "oh no! my tongue is suddenly too big to fit in my mouth" expression. this was really the only good shot of them together. i was hoping for something a little.... i don't know.... closer? snugglier? whatever! maybe i better learn to express my wants to the photographer a little better....

ehh, i guess "you get what you get and you don't get upset." ;)


BUT one picture did turn out A LOT better than expected! LOOK! :)

yeah, we still have bean's fake half smile but really, i got two happy kids ON santa's lap! damn, i'm one lucky broad! ;)

Best Shot Monday

we went to a greenhouse that was having a christmas open house this weekend. it was a grandma/mommy/bean outing and bean didn't any part of it. she complained the whole way there. she just wanted to go home..... until we got inside!


she really liked all the trees and displays. especially this bridge.

and she was excited that there are flowers for christmas AND you can get them in PINK!!

also, twig reindeer = awesome!
nothing amazing, just a girls day out. a day that turned out better than expected. :)

for more best shots head on over to tracey's and see what everyone else is up to.

Little One

you know, i went and saw my new niece last weekend and FORGOT the camera!! seriously! i was so mad at myself. how do you forget to take a camera when you are seeing a new baby! man i suck!

so my lovely sister sent pictures to me thursday and i can now share the new sweetie in our lives with you all.....
is she not the cutest one week old you have ever seen!?!?!?! don't you just want to nom-nom-nom on those chubbers cheeks!

sigh. babies are so sweet.... but no, it does NOT make me want another one. it only makes me want everyone else to have more sweet babies for me to love. i'll hold, hug, kiss, etc. as long as it isn't coming to live in this house.

hmmm, apparently two IS my limit. ha ha!!

Bean's Dress

here are some pictures i took of bean (in the photo studio's waiting room because we did a WHOLE lot of waiting). the lighting was a little bad but they came out ok. and since i know you are dying to see "fancy bean" i decided to go ahead and post them.

she had no problem posing for me- i didn't ask her to do this she did it all on her own. although this is one the weird phony smiles she used on the photographer.... most of them were even worse than that!

she was a little concerned about the other people in the waiting area..... i'm not sure what she thought they were going to do but she kept her eye on them and refused to look at me. hmmmm, she did that to the photographer too.

i asked her to put her feet up on the ottoman so i could get her pretty shoes in the picture. this is how she sat.... awwwwww!
BUT she wouldn't stop looking at her feet! (not that this isn't super sweet but i did want one of her looking up too.) she refused to look anywhere else.

sprout... well, he had had enough..... (yep, he wore the gray.)

hope you enjoyed seeing my little princess (and my little prince) all dressed up. now i just need to find some place to take them and show them off in their fancy duds! ;)

have a great weekend!!!

Picture Day....

did not go as planned.

it wasn't fun.
bean wouldn't smile a real smile and she couldn't seem to look at the camera.
sprout kept his tongue hanging out of his mouth as if it were too big to fit in there.
there isn't any real good pictures of them together. there is two that i would deem "ok".
we spent tons of time waiting and i spent more money than i wanted to on pictures that are just average.
i'm in a terrible mood now and daddy isn't coming home until late tonight because of conferences.

bean is not cooperating with anything now that we are home. she pushed sprout on to the floor when he was trying to stand.....

it is a bad day.

A Simple Request

will someone please come and convince my son that he needs to slow down.

really.


i'll pay you.......




why? this is what sprout is up to.
* full time tummy up crawl- everywhere. especially where ever you don't want him to go.
* pulling up to stand. mostly at the music table (because that is fun) but other places too.
* has managed to "cruise" around the corner of the music table (fell down once he got around the corner but he did get there on his feet)
* climbed the two steps from our family room to the dinning room (when daddy was supposed to be watching him...... no comment)
* screaming chants of "dah dah dah dah dah" all the dang day long. sigh. he looks me in the eye and says "da da" (he even makes it sound like a question by raising his voice at the end! no, i don't think this is his first word- he doesn't seem to know what it means. he just loves to say it.)
* EVERYTHING goes into his mouth. if it isn't nailed down it will go in his mouth. (i hate this stage. there is nothing worse than digging gross soggy stuff out of their mouths!)
* he claps a lot- sometimes at the strangest times.
* he waved the other day but it hasn't been repeated. i'm not sure he knew what he was doing but he was sitting there all smiley and waving his little hand in the air. :)
* if it looks like it might open, he will try to open it. he has opened three different cabinets and one drawer so far. sigh. i'm not used to this, bean was not an opener!
* he only takes one nap. sometimes that nap is 2.5 hours, sometimes it is 25 minutes. OH MY GOODNESS!!

PLUS
bean is starting to get jealous. sprout needs more attention now (because of his daredevil ways) and she doesn't like it. and since naptime is always up in the air she isn't getting the one on one time she was used to getting before. she doesn't get mad at sprout though, she gets mad at me. yay!



so yeah, if you think that you can slow things down over here let me know. mama needs a break and she is willing to pay good money for it.


crap! i don't have any money.



will you take food as payment???

Because I'm Crazy Like That

i went out and bought the other outfit for sprout to wear in his christmas portraits. it actually does go better with bean's dress because her dress is FANCY. think gold and sparkles fancy. with a flower even. sigh. sometimes having a girly girl can be difficult.

so forget about the black and red, this is what sprout is going to be wearing..... i'm fairly certain.... almost 100% sure. (dang i gotta get a life!)

oh yeah, it is a dress shirt, black pants and a gray vest. how cute is that??
(damn he's a handsome devil!)

i did NOT pose him. he did that all by himself!!

isn't he just the cutest (and happiest) little man!
i need to find some fancy places to go because he needs to be seen in this!

i'm going to wait to show you bean's dress because i haven't gotten a decent picture of her in it. it is quite lovely. a little over the top but lovely. she saw it and had to have it and since grandma was there she got it. (grandma's are good like that).
picture day is thursday. wish me luck!

Best Shot Monday

i actually took no photos this past week...... what is up with THAT?!?! but i dug around and found a few taken at the end of the previous week to share with y'all.

this is the outfit that sprout will wear in his christmas portraits.... probably. i saw something at another store the other day that i LOVE but i don't think it will coordinate well with the fancy dress that bean picked out. what is a mom to do?? i might buy it and bring it home and see. because maybe it will be perfect. how will i know unless i try?!?! ahhh!
i know buying them dressy clothes is entirely unnecessary BUT i so adore it! i will dress them up in ridiculous yet adorable clothes and everyone else will love it. so what if they will never wear these outfits again! i'm totally crazy, i know. but i only do it for christmas........ and sometimes easter. :)

so here is sprout trying on dressy clothes.....

ooooooh, what kind of pants are these?!?

he he he! mom left the tags on!!

oh yeah, i'm a stud!
i'm totally rockin' these threads!

so that's what i got this week. stop by tracey's and check out what everyone else is sharing this week!

For those who were wondering

the book i quoted in the previous post is "pinkalicious" (by victoria and elizabeth kann). it has nothing to do with babies and everything to do with pink cupcakes. it is a really cute book. (we liked it so much that bean's birthday party was based on it.)

i do find the quote works for most situations you and your disagreeable preschooler will encounter. :)

Hooray!

bean and sprout have a new cousin! she was born less than an hour ago. she is 8 pounds 9 ounces and 19 1/2 inches. this is girl number three for my sister.

bean is excited but wants to know why they didn't get a boy baby because "they don't have a boy baby yet."
and i quoted one of her favorite books, "you get what you get and you don't get upset." ;)

congratulations sis!

Buried Alive

my son napped for a grand total of 20 minutes this morning and 20 minutes this evening. he then went to bed an hour later than normal. i had to go in to his room 4 times and lay him down because he kept standing up and "talking" before he finally settled down and went to sleep.

my daughter spent 90% of the day whining, crying or yelling at me. none of the things were worth whining, crying, or yelling about- what bowl her apple slices were in, what she was (and was not) going to eat for dinner, that it wasn't fair that i would put her brother's pajamas on but she had to put her's on herself. (honestly, if he was old enough to dress himself i would make him do it! but seeing as he is only 7 months old i'm going to have to give him a hand!) she even screamed at me as i was putting her to bed. nothing like some bed time love....... sigh.

i'm so tired. i feel like i'm about to lose my mind. i would give anything for a couple hours of peace. anything.

i so wish we had family near by that could take one or both of them for just a few hours.

of course, i still wouldn't get any "me" time. i'm so far behind on housework that i'd need someone to babysit the kids for a week to catch up. why am i so far behind? because i can't do anything while they are both awake. and since sprout seems to think that naps over 30 minutes aren't necessary, 90% of my day sees them both awake. what do i do? i have to watch to make sure bean doesn't "love" her brother too hard. (you have no idea how many times i had to say don't crush your brother today. and how many time-outs bean had for not listening to those very words.) i have to watch to make sure sprout doesn't do anything to hurt himself since he gets into everything. by the time bedtime rolls around i've been doing this for over 12 hours straight. don't forget the dog who wants more love and attention and the husband who wants me do to things for him too. i'm so tired i can barely move. so the dishes aren't done. the laundry isn't done. i haven't vacuumed in almost 2 weeks. (the house is so bad that i would need at least 3 days notice before i could have company- and that would just give me time to clean the worst parts) its not just the house though, i forgot to pay some of the bills the other day- yay, late fees that we can't afford!
oh yeah, i live here too don't i? well, i only get the opportunity to shower about 2 times a week. my laundry is always the last to be done. i am the bottom of the totem pole here. the least important thing in the house.

i feel like a complete failure. obviously no one is getting what they want and probably not even what they need either. i have no idea how i'm supposed to do everything and keep everyone happy. i look at all these other people and they seem happy, they look relatively sane, and while their house might not be spotless, i bet there isn't mold growing in their kitchen. i want to be one of those people. why can't i be one of those people......

Dude!

you know when you have to go to the bathroom and you think, "the baby will be perfectly fine in this room while i'm gone. it is baby proofed. and his big sister is here with him and will let me know if he does anything too crazy." so you just go ahead and go.

then you hear the big sister in her bedroom. she isn't with the baby anymore. and you think, "no biggie, i'm almost done. i'm sure he's just fine. after all, what can he get into?"

then you notice that it is really quiet in the living room where the baby is. really quiet. and your mommy alarm goes, "uh oh!"

and you hightail it out of the bathroom to find this:
this is when you realize that there was one portion of the living room that you did not baby proof. ooops! (damn plants!)
and you (grab the camera) say, "no-no-no! don't eat dirt buddy!! yucky!"

and he looks at you like, "huh? wha???" (apparently dirt isn't all that bad?)

and you say, "dude! you can't be trying to tell me we don't feed you enough! because i'm pretty sure we do!" in an oh so sarcastic mommy voice.

and that's when you realize he's too little to get sarcasm......
awwwww, man! don't cry buddy.....
i'd kiss you but dude, you got potting soil all over your face!

just kidding!! i would so still kiss that cute little mug, but he wanted none of that. i took his plant and dirt away and broke his seven month old heart. he thinks i suck right now.

yeah, i'm good like that. i'm just rockin' the good mommy skills! ;)

Best Shot Monday

monday again? already?? how is it that the days go SO slow but the weeks go by SO fast?!?

anyways, today i will share a few of my favorite shots from halloween. we had fun despite the fact that we were all sick.... ok, we all would have had a lot more fun had we been healthy BUT we still had a good time.

daddy took bean out for her first round of trick or treating. i really wish i would have gone with them because daddy said that bean's flamingo costume was a huge hit. everyone was asking where we got it. (one woman was very impressed when she learned i made the costume and told hubby that i should do that for a living- ha, if she only knew it was the first time i'd sewn anything!) sprout and i did go around to a few houses with them later. someone thought that bean was a duck. i was a good mommy and kept my mouth shut. ;)

daddy trying to adjust her head.... er, hat. it was a tad bit big!

after some help from mommy they are off!

bean went up and said "trick or treat!" and usually the people got a thank you as well. on the way back to us she would check her bag carefully to see what she got. they she would shout to us, "i got a kit kat mommy! i love kit kats!" or "daddy! i got m&m's!!", or something else along those lines. thankfully she was excited about everything she got- especially the toothbrush. oh yeah, my kid was nuts for the sparkling pink toothbrush. crazy but true!

here she had just scored a candy bracelet!

and i don't want to leave out sprout! everyone was gushing over his cuteness. of course, most of them thought he was a cat. sigh. i'll let it slide though because while sitting in the stroller they could not see his bat wings. but, i will say that if he was a cat i probably would NOT have given him fangs.... just sayin'. ;)

here's sprout hanging out outside our friend's house
(bean was too busy helping hand out candy to be in a picture! did you know that giving away candy is almost as much fun as getting candy??)

now don't forget to stop over to tracey's and check out what everyone else is sharing this week!

p.s. happy 3rd birthday adam!! :)