I've Been Boo-ed

Kaci at Ellyphant has boo-ed me!


This is how the Blogging Boo will go. Go to as many bloggy peeps as you want and tell them they've been B00-ed! Have them link back to your blog to pick up their Halloween Treat (picture) and tell them to Boo their peeps. (Then put the pic in your side bar so everyone knows that you've already been "boo-ed and to send the pic to someone else). Watch your comments to see if you get booed!

Such a cool idea :) And to join in the celebration of Halloween, I'm offering up a picture of me and one of my brothers and one of my sisters... I think I was in about 2nd grade. My mother was super creative and every year she would home make our costumes! She always had the coolest ideas! Of course I had always hoped that I would do such things with my children... but I guess I'm just a little lazy ;) No, really, the kids want the store bought costumes. Some year I will talk them into homemade costumes, and I will have the time and energy for it! :)


My brother is on the left and is a mummy. I'm sure it was made out of a sheet. And my sister is Raggedy Ann! My mom even made the hair out of yarn! I am the Martian. For some strange reason I was a Martian for several years running. This one was the tinfoil box with a tinfoil helmet :) One year I had 3 eyes and 4 arms :)

Wordless Wednesday: Rocking Chair Follies

Baby B figured out how to climb into the rocking chair yesterday! And she loves it!! :)

D decided to show his appreciation for the rocking chair yesterday too!

Toddler-Proofing

Just when you think you've got your whole house baby-proofed, guess what? That's when it's time to start toddler-proofing everything. They end up messing with the craziest, most uninteresting things too. Like curtains and tables...

A couple of weeks ago D figured out how to turn the TV off... and at the same time Baby B figured out she could reach the volume control. I leave the room and the TV goes off and the volume goes all the way up. Now I would have just spent my days turning the TV back on and volume down, but luckily I'm married to a genius. The first time it happened while my husband was home, he fixed it.

This play-yard has come in so very handy! We had been using 4 of the 6 pieces to close off the second living room to corral the two little ones when we needed some little kid free zombie movie watching time (they rarely pay any attention to adult stuff on tv [aside from the commercials that is] but throw in a zombie movie and all of a sudden they're interested!). Nicely these things come apart in sections of two. So we can still corral them when necessary :) Of course D can climb right over, but if we stick them both in there most of the time he will play.

Notice the lack of lid on the toybox? Of course it was one of those "safe" lids that don't slam shut and has plenty of openness for breathing room... but D kept wanting to close his baby sister in, and both of them kept getting their fingers pinched in it. Of course baby B figured out last week that she could shimmy her little self into the toybox for some major fun play.


And I didn't even know they made blanked out switch/outlet plates! But it became necessary in our house due to major infatuation with the outlet. I put those plastic plugs in, but they also soon became a much sought after plaything/chewthing. Of course this made D really mad. Every time he looks at it he tells me to open it back up. No way is that going to happen. Not until they are at least 10 or so. ;) OK, maybe 6? When does the fascination with sticking your fingers into something you're not supposed to end?

The Stacker ;)

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Ever have this happen? You leave the room for a few minutes only to return and see that your pantry has been raided? And the little raider has decided that he would much rather have the pantry in a place more accessible, such as the bench at the kitchen table. And he would also appreciate the cans being stacked instead of having one can behind another. More visible this way.

Wordless Wednesday: Sweetness

Blackmail photo for when he's older? ;)

OK, I know this is "wordless" Wednesday, and I should have just saved this picture for Photostory Friday... but I just can't help myself ;)

I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters. Back when we were kids, my oldest younger brother was always wanting to play dolls with me and my oldest younger sister... he wanted a baby doll of his own. My mom decided to get him his own baby doll for Christmas that year. Both my step-father and my uncle were totally appalled and against it. My mother justified it by saying that little boys needed to learn how to be fathers. So she went against their wishes and bought my brother his own baby doll for Christmas.

When my little brother opened that baby doll on Christmas Eve he was so surprised and so happy. He grabbed that baby doll and gave it a big hug and kept saying "my baby, my baby." He was just so overjoyed at having his own baby doll that it brought tears to just about everyone's eyes. After that, my uncle decided to get a baby doll for his son.

When I was pregnant with Baby B, I decided it was a good time to get D his own baby doll. I thought it would help him adjust to the new baby. I think it helped. Of course after a while he had forgotten about his baby doll. But yesterday I got Baby B her first baby doll and that renewed D's interest in his baby doll. They both ran around hugging and fussing over their baby dolls yesterday. Of course I was really trying to get a picture of both of them holding their baby dolls, but you know how hard it can be to get two little ones to cooperate for a picture :)

Teething Times Three and An Award!

Well, Baby B's first 5 teeth came in with very little problems. She was just a tad fussier than normal (which isn't much at all). She actually got her first two teeth right in the middle of our move in March, while we were spending a week in a motel. It was amazing that she wasn't too bothered by her first teeth. (D on the other hand, was very fussy with his first four or five, then not so much after that).

But this week? Baby B is sprouting 3 new teeth all at once! She's getting two in the middle on the sides up top and one in the middle/side of the bottom. The poor baby has been quite fussy and clingy. And angry ;)

We have finally worked it down to nursing only in the middle of the night... and she's been really good and only waking up once, sometimes twice a night - and usually not until 3 or 4. But last night? She was up at midnight, 1, 2, 4 and 5.

This teething business sucks. And 3 at once? Poor baby!

But I am glad that she's finally getting her bigger teeth in. She'll be able to chew some foods better. She is my good eater, and she's starting to get a little frustrated with being fed. She's ready to go it on her own. And there are so few "toddler" foods in the baby food aisle. But once these teeth come in we can probably start giving her more of what the rest of the family is eating. I know she will be digging that!

And check out this award from Crackerjacks at Izzy 'N Emmy!And now, I need to figure out who to pass it on to! All they need to do is leave the following message on their post when they pass the award on to their chosen eight blogger buddies.

“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

1. Nut Nut of Nutty Tales
2. Kelli of Gohn Crazy
3. Tina of Life in the Lapadula House
4. Lisa's Chaos
5. While the Baby Sleeps
6. Simply AnonyMOM
7. Holly from Tropic of Mom
8. Jenn of I Hate Whine

It's always hard to pick JUST 8 or 5 or however many the award says!! There are just toooooo many good blogs out there!!

Caught in a Quiet Moment

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

I just love this picture of my little boy. He's at that point where he is suddenly growing up all to quickly. He turned 3 in September, and he has just been full steam forward ever since. I'm sure it's been happening all along, but I swear that daily he is making huge mental leaps.

You can almost see a mental leap forward in this picture :) he's caught pondering something, some new concept. Some new idea. Maybe some new scheme? (I kid).

And those of you with 2-4 year old boys (or girls for that matter) know how precious such a quiet moment like this is ;)

Wordless Wednesday: Moo Buddies

Is it Blue or Red?

Three weeks ago D knew his colors really well. His favorites were blue and red. He would ask for blue Gatorade or blue juice all the time and I would give it to him and everything would be fine.

Not so much anymore.

Now he seems to have his blues and reds a little mixed up. He asks for blue Gatorade, I give it to him and there is a huge meltdown because to him its red, its not the blue Gatorade he's asked for. We have arguments over the fact that its blue, not red. I've tried and tried to reason with him. I've pointed out things that are blue and things that are red. And every time I am met with, "no mommy, that is red/blue (whichever is not the color I just pointed to)" He asks for a red fork at dinner, I give him a red fork, he cries and says "not the blue fork, D wants the red fork" We have all tried to reason with him to no avail.

All the other colors? Yellow is still yellow. Green is still green. Orange is still orange... etc... But red is blue and blue is red.

I have racked my brain trying to figure out how this has happened. The only thing I can think of is that a few weeks ago we were in the Dr's office, and there was this wheel toy thing that had a red cat and a blue dog on it. D says to me "blue cat." And I said "no honey, it's a blue dog." Until this point he had also known a dog from a cat. I thought maybe it was a bad rendering of a cat and a dog, but nope, they both looked like what they were supposed to look like.

Where the flaw lies? With the toymaker. Any toymaker who knows anything about Clifford the Big RED Dog would simply not chose any other color to make a dog. I am convinced that this is what has my son confused about his colors now. I hold every argument with my three year old son about blue and red against this toy company.

I just hope he can be convinced before he reaches kindergarten.

PS: I went to see if I could find a picture of this toy, or who the toymaker was... googling "dog cat wheel" comes up with pet strollers! Yep, that's right you can now buy an all terrain covered stroller for your cat or dog!

Couch Capers

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Here is the battle I've been having all week. If I hear mad giggling or squeals of delight coming from the living room... here is what is happening:

Did you notice that hint of attitude in her face there?

She is so happy about getting that cushion off the couch!

She loves it :)

And here is where it gets really fun.

Lovin it! Don't stop me now!

Almost there...

Grab brother to join in the fun. Silly mommy thought he was the one taking the cushions off.

Ah... now let the jumping commence!

I think I have spent all weekend getting kids off the couch and putting the cushions back on. And did I mention what a tragedy it is when couch jumping time is called to a close? Does anyone know of a good jumping toy?

Weekly Ramblings...

I missed my Wordless Wednesday :( I guess it happens to the best of us ;) I've just had a really busy week. And tons of "nebo smoot snacks" shoved in some really weird places. Apparently Lightning McQueen loves driving over fruit snacks as now he has gummy wheels. Note to self: If I find some piece of goo with hair stuck all over it, it probably used to be a fruit snack.

This week the child gates have become completely useless. D will scale three of them to get into the kitchen. We have one at the bedroom door so he can't run out at naptime. We had a play-yard gate thing that we sometimes open up and string across the two living rooms to keep the children in one area (and away from the tv and stereo since they figured out how to turn the volume up and the tv off). And then we have a safety gate between the living room and the kitchen. Once he figured out he could get over one of them... he can do all three in about two seconds flat. I have a feeling that baby sister won't be too far behind him. She can get about halfway up with her little monkey toes.

We are getting pretty close to having to remove every piece of furniture from the living room, as baby B is really getting into the climbing thing. She does great at getting up, its just the getting down thing that is a little problematic. Her latest fascination is with the couch. Come back tomorrow for Photo Story Friday and I'll tell you all about it.

And I think I'm going to have to give up on naptime for D for a little while. At least until we can get some paneling up in the bedroom... my wall is suffering. Just when I think he's given up on peeling the wall, I go in to find another big chunk of painted wallpaper missing.

On the lighter side, D is speaking more and more clearly and intently with each passing day. It's so funny how they just start stringing intelligent sentences together. Of course it always seems so all of a sudden, but really they've been working on it in their brains (or out loud) for quite some time. It just fascinates me how much he is really understanding. I mean he totally gets the concept of what goes in must come out. Don't worry and hide your eyes, I won't go there today ;)

Things Heard Around the House

I suppose with potty training on the mind, my son has come up with some pretty strange ideas...

Last night at the dinner table: "Don't fart in your ice cream D, don't you fart in your ice cream."
I have no idea how he even comes up with this stuff. I can only imagine that he is thinking about where and when it's appropriate to fart/poop. But he said that the whole time he was eating ice cream last night.

And I think he's got the two a little confused. Or maybe not... The other day while I was changing his poopie butt - "Oh no mom, it's just a fart" Believe me, it was not just a fart.

And now, every time I lay him down to change his diaper "Don't you poop on the floor D, don't poop on the floor." "Don't you poop on the couch D, don't you poop on the couch."

And we are still laughing at his telling himself not to poop on dad's back at Copper Falls.

His other big thing now is "tomorrow."
"Do you want to poop in the potty chair D?"
"Oh no mom. Tomorrow. Go potty in the potty chair tomorrow mom."

The boy is too much like me. Already procrastinating.
Speaking of... I have to teach "motivation" tonight... guess I'll have to find some myself ;)

Book Meme!

I got tagged for this meme by Tina from Life in the Lapadula House

Here's the rules: Grab the nearest book. Open the book to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post the text of the next two to five sentences in your journal/blog along with these instructions.
Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST. Tag five other people to do the same.

Ok, so I walked into the room with the most bookshelves and lucky you, I didn't manage to grab on of the millions of science textbooks or the English textbooks as I figured I would... but I grabbed out "The Dance House: Stories from Rosebud" by Joseph Marshall III. So here is the fifth sentence...
"Nelson wrapped a long scarf around his head, leaving a slit for his eyes. The scarf kept his head warm, but its main purpose was to keep the relentless glare of the glistening snow from causing snowblindness. Nelson was aware of this winter danger. Exactly as the sun reached the middle of the southern third of the sky, Nelson spotted the outer edges of town where smoke was rising from dark buildings in thin columns. The first half of their trek was nearly finished."

That was actually one of the most unique meme's I've seen... so now I must tag 5 others for this one...
Of course I will choose Nut Nut, because she probably has about as many books as I do!
MamaGeek from What Works for Us
Kelli at Gohn Crazy
Honeywine
and Hattie at Warning: Just a Little Bitchy

Enjoy!

Yippee 100!!

OK, so this is actually my 101th post, but:

1. I just couldn't pass up Wordless Wednesday... because:
2. it took me a while to be able to get some good pics of that sumac! :)
3. I don't think I can think of 100 things about me! ;) (I'm just wasting some numbers here)
4. I don't think I even know 100 things about me.
5. OK, I'm way too obsessed with this blogging thing
6. And don't even get me started on the tweeting thing
7. Really, I have way too many blogs
8. And sadly, most of them are horribly neglected ;)
9. Really, 3 of them I manage to post about once a month to
10. I just did a monthly posting about my disappointment in "America's Got Talent" on one of them
11. I started a blog with my two sisters, who apparently actually have lives ;) as I'm the only one who's posted to it (very infrequently)
12. The other blog I have associated with this email I had just started and posted once before:
13. getting a part time teaching job at a local community college.
14. I started it because I absolutely adore memoir and totally aspire to write one someday :)
15. Someday will probably take a long time to get here ;)
    
16. And I'm lucky to post once a week/2 weeks on my family/friends update blog. (which I won't give you the url to in case you're a horrible stalker) ;)
17. I also love to crochet, when I'm not obsessively reading other blogs or posting or tweeting.
18. Someday I plan on sewing
19. See #15
20. Really, I bought a machine and fabric almost two years ago
21. I've sewn about 3 things since
22. How many things do I plan on sewing?
23. Millions.
24. Someday
25. See #15 again.
26. Somebody's been googling me
27. I hope it's not one of my students
28. 'Cause they happened upon this blog, not my family/friends blog which has my name all over it
29. I only had something with my name on it here once
30. And I took it down once I got googled
31. But it still shows up under a google search
32. Grrrr
33. It probably was one of my students
34. they were probably my new subscriber that day
35. they'll use something here for blackmail for a good grade ;)
36. My husband is more comuter savvy than I
37. He will find out who googled me
38. then I will google them
39. I just like using all the forms of "google"
40. Crap, I'm not even to 50 yet!
41. Oops, I just said crap, so I will probably get a PG-13 rating on my blog
42. Seriously, I've never used a swear word here (that I can recall) but the word "poop" makes me rated PG instead of G.
43. When I'm not blogging, I'm swearing all the time just to make up for all the swear words I don't use here.
44. I was hoping to get this post done before nap time was over.
45. Didn't happen.
46. I'll be lucky to make it to #50 before all hell breaks loose.
47. We live in the vacation/fishing/hunting capital of Wisconsin
48. I saw three bear cubs running across the street within spitting distance of our house the other day!
49. I'm addicted to Hazelnut coffee.
50. I'd love to have a Hazelnut Late
51. But there are no coffee places around here
52. We live in a town with a population under 100!
53. The closest grocery store is 25 miles away.
54. The closest Wal-Mart is 35 miles away.
55. If I want to do any *real* shopping I would have to drive at least 1 1/2 hours, if not 2.
56. I have to order ink cartridges online
57. We had to drive an hour to get a toddler swing last summer
58. We drove an hour last weekend so I could get some fancy schmancy yarn :)
59. I spent too much on fancy yarn
60. I feel a little remorse
61. But then I've never actually bought any fancy yarn before
62. It wasn't really that expensive
63. Nor was it all that fancy
64. But it was wool and alpaca blends, which I've heard are really nice to work with
65. I bought them to start making x-mas gifts
66. Can't decide what I'm going to make this year
67. Last year I made all the nieces and nephews hats
68. And coffee cozy/coaster sets for the adults
69. I might just make hats again, but different ones
70. hats are easy and fun and quick
71. And did I mention that we have tons of nieces and nephews?
72. We had a new addition this week! One of our nieces had a baby girl on Monday!
73. I crocheted her baby booties, hat, pants and a nursing reminder
74. I keep meaning to crochet up a bunch of nursing reminders and sell them on Etsy
75. See #15
76. I also meant to get her the baby gifts before she had the baby
77. I'm lazy
78. I got them in the mail yesterday
79. But I did send them priority
80. the dog just came out chewing on a q-tip from the bathroom garbage. ewww. stupid dog.
81. I'm just reaching now ;)
82. Shrek will only keep the kids entertained for about 10 more minutes
83. I've been working on this post off and on for a couple of hours now
84. If any of you are still reading, sorry for the major lameness ;)
85. I hate housework. But who doesn't?
86. But I'm lazy and hate housework
87. That's just not a good combination at all
88. I'm completely addicted to Pearl Jam
89. And the Chili Peppers
90. And the Foo Fighters
91. And oddly the Dixie Chicks
92. I hate country music
93. I love reading,
94. But I'm too addicted to the computer
95. Reading blogs counts as reading right?
96. 'Cause I think I read like about 90 or something these days
97. D wants some donkey crackers
98. at least he's not asking for damn crackers (that's what he calls graham crackers)
99. I've got goldfish mashed in my carpet again
100. Shrek attention gave out just in time ;)
     

Wordless Wednesday

Of all the fall foliage, I find the Sumac the most beautiful!

And hey, this is my 100th post!! As I just can't bring myself to miss a Wordless Wednesday, I will do my celebratory post tomorrow!