Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving was a great time at my parents house. Lots of food, and the most delicious turkey ever!

The stars of the show! (Mom & Dad)

Connor, sitting in the high chair that used to be my dads.

What a beautiful family! (That's us!)

Connor sitting on Grandpa's lap and scamming some food!

"Now I'll feed you dessert!"

What if? (Starbucks) RED

Safe...no. Fun...YES!

Connor LOVES helping Tyler color! Although - Connor prefers the markers over the crayons, which makes for a HUGE mess!!!

I Love Edward

Okay, I've been sucked in. Sucked into this "Twilight Mania" that is sweeping that nation.

Friday night, I sucked it up, and went to the 9:45 movie (I normally don't stay up voluntarily past 10pm) with some friends. Actually, it was exciting.

One of the girls bought tickets at noon, which was good because tickets for the 9:45 show sold out by 4pm. We waited in line for nearly an hour, just to GET IN to the theatre, and once in there - it was a mad dash to get a good seat. Of course, the four of us women were four out of about only twenty women, over the age of 20. There were A LOT of teenagers, which made it even more exciting, I guess cause it reminded us of high school.

By the time the movie started, I must say I had had fun so far, but actually wasn't looking forward to a movie about vampires. How silly could that be?

I cannot say how wrong I was. The movie was AWESOME. It was a bit dark (duh - it's about vampires), and I didn't care too much for the lead actress (Kristen Stewart), but Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) made up for it. He's the main vampire in the movie (yes, there are multiple vampires) and I'm totally in love with him now. He has the most gorgeous eyes I'd ever seen, and every time he looked deeply at someone, it's almost as though he could melt them with his stare.

I started reading the book at about 7am Saturday when I was up with the kids, and although I haven't made it too far, I'm sure I won't be disappointed. If the book created a following like it did, and the movie was as good as it was - I'm excited to get into the first book, and then the next three.

Now I just have to break it to my husband that I'm in love with a vampire.

The Motrin Wave

I came across this ad while during some quick surfing while inhaling my taco salad lunch, and felt so passionately about it, I had to stop and write this.

What do you think...




The first thing I said to myself is, "Are you kidding me?!?!" I imagine this ad must have been put together by a couple of 22-year-old interns, and they somehow, got it past all senior leadership at Motrin and actually put the ad on TV, and magazines that are now on newsstands everywhere.

I get the point of the ad. "Babywearing causes backaches, so take Motrin.", but they way they go about it by saying "It makes me look like a cool mom", and suggesting that "Mom's that wear slings cry more..." What???

I think Connor lived in his sling until he was literally falling out of it. Having a 2 year old to chase around at the time, didn't leave me many options. I could do virtually anything with Connor in his sling, including grocery shopping (with both hands), cook supper, give Tyler a bath, go for a walk, or even, sit and read a book. Seriously, I would not have survived Connor's first 6 months without it.

After probably being attacked by thousands of e-mails (not to mention the hundreds of blogs that are discussing this now, including this one and this one), if you Google "Motrin Commercial", you come up with about a million hits, and just reading some of them from the first view - the titles include;

• "Motrin Commercial Angers Moms"
• "Motrin Faces Twitter Headache over new Commercial"
• "Motrin Learns, Hell hath no fury like baby-wearing moms"

I also learned that Twitter, a site many use to send instant messages to each other, reached it's 1200 post archive limit for a 12 hour period, with messages related to this topic.

Although one could argue, yes, there are more important things to be passionate about, but trying to suggest that I have to remember to "think about me when my back is hurting from lugging this burden of a child around with me all day" (okay, not a direct quote), is insane.

I can assure you, I needed LESS Motrin because of using my sling. Fewer arm aches, less headaches, and most especially, one of the happiest babies I had ever seen. I literally had strangers come up to me in every store and ask where I got my sling. It generated so much positive conversation, and the key to that story is - I was in stores. Shopping. With a 4 week, or 8 week or 16 week old baby, who wasn't fussing or crying. When I put Connor in his sling, he would fall asleep. I used to joke that it was my tool for an automatic nap.

So, Motrin has pulled the ad, thousands of moms are furious at Motrin. Hopefully, when I go back to school someday to get my MBA, maybe I can study the economic effect of poor advertising choices that corporations make. This would be at the top of my list.

My 25 month old

Yep, as we continue the Stanfield trend, Connor seems to be fitting in quite nicely. He measures 34.5 inches, and 30 pounds at his 18 month check-up - measuring the size of a 25 month old.

No wonder my back hurts.

Things that happened before I even left the house today...

1. I woke up at 4:58 with Tyler's face approximately 2 inches from mine, him breathing in my face. Tyler is apparently allergic to sleep now, and has been waking up at least twice in the middle of the night, and at about 5am, plus or minus 15 minutes. (More on the minus)
2. Connor woke up just as I was about to start drying my hair. Since Connor wants to be connected to me the first 15 minutes he's up in the morning, I sat him on the sink next to me. Try drying your hair with the lights going on and off and on and off and on and off. I can only pray that it looks halfway decent when I'm done!
3. I called Santa Clause to tell him Tyler was being bad. Luckily - Santa has the same phone number as our voicemail.
4. I had to put Tyler's socks on the refridgerator, as he was using them as whips on all of us, including Connor.
5. I left my (untouched) coffee in the pantry, and didn't realize until I was about 10 minutes into my commute.

And that was only the start, of what turned out to be, no so much better of a day.

At least tomorrow is a new day. We'll start all over!

Night Night

Tonight, the boys were playing in Tyler's room while I was messing around putting clothes away. I soon noticed that Connor had been missing for a couple of minutes, and found him in his bedroom, sitting on the floor, reading "Melmo" (Elmo) books to himself. Every page was "Melmo!"...

I walked into his room and asked him if he wanted me to read him books - to which he walked over to his bookshelf and found a book and brought it to me.

After about two more books, he got up up and walked to his crib. I grabbed his blanket and handed it to him, and turned on his Rainforest machine in his bed.

He looked at me and said "Night Night". Then he waved goodbye. I think he was asleep in less than 15 seconds.

Holy Cow. Trying to remember back just over a year ago when we would rock and rock and fight him to sleep at night - compared to a night like tonight. Almost amazing!

I LOVE Christmas - Part 2

It's a cold day, so we're just going to stay inside and relax today. I think we could all use the rest (myself included - after having WAY too much fun at a wedding reception last night!), so Tyler is coloring on the floor, Connor is taking a nap, and Kyle just ran to the store quick.

Tyler is getting a bit restless after being cooped up every weekend, so I try all sorts of new things to keep him entertained. I found some packing paper that my husband brought home from work, and Tyler thinks its an enormous coloring book. I'm also digging out Christmas movies because there is nothing better than watching Christmas movies when you're cooped up inside on a cold day during Christmas season.

We're watching "A Christmas Story" today. If there was every a classic Christmas movie, that is it. I think I've watched the movie over 100 times, and between my mom, dad, sister and I - I'd bet that number could reach up to 500 times. We even play "A Christmas Story" trivia on Christmas sometimes.

Now, I'm passing this obsessive tradition on to my son. I've let him know that there is Santa in the movie, a gun and they stick their tongue to a metal pole and it gets stuck. He's VERY interested to see this now!

And for those of you that can't wait for TBS to start playing this over and over and over and over, here's the first 10 minutes....

Christmas

I LOVE Christmas! Every year, at about this time, I start getting excited. I love the decorations, the shopping, the atmosphere, and most of all - the music.

On my way home tonight (on my AWESOME XM radio!), I fould their "Holly" channel - which is all Christmas music, until the day after Christmas!

I have only fond memories of Christmas, growing up. I remember the anticipation, then going to church on Christmas Eve when Santa magically came (while we were at church) because he knew we had to go out of town the next day. I remember how my mom usual "forgot" something in the house and had to go back in while my dad, sister and I sat in the car wondering "what on earth did she forget?". And then the TOTAL surprise when we would come home. I remember sitting through those church services. It was like putting a t-bone in front of a dog and telling him "you can't eat this - just yet...".

I loved the presents, the happiness, spending time with our family, going to Grandma and Grandpa's house, and the general sense of security, I guess, that Christmas brought.

Tonight was my first real taste of Christmas. Finding the "Holly" channel, then finding my favorite Christmas song... "Sleighride" by Johnny Mathis. I will sing that song at the top of my lungs, which is what I did tonight, which was much needed after an absolutely, totally insanely, stressful day.

I saved the song as one of my favorites, so hopefully every day between now and Christmas, I can hear the song and sing in my loudest, beautiful singing voice (insert sarcastic cough here)...

"Our cheeks are nice and rosey and comfy and cozy are we.... we're snuggled close together like two birds of a feather would be....."

I love Christmas!

Totally Random...

RANDOM THOUGHT #1:

On our way home tonight, about one block from home, Tyler asked where his shell was that he got from Grandma and Grandpa's house???

This shell was a simple river clam, but it was huge. It was about the size of a softball, so Tyler brought it home with him this summer. Little did we know - it was still alive.

That totally disgusted me, and of course, being out of the river, it finally died, and dried out, and he drug the shell around for most of August. Then we threw it away because it was a) gross, b) dirty and c) driving me crazy. For some reason he asked for it tonight. To which I replied "That was totally random."

RANDOM THOUGHT #2:

I was feeding Connor supper tonight and listening to the radio in the kitchen. The song, "Never Surrender" came on, from Corey Hart. I LOVE that song, because if you've ever listened to the words, it totally sums up most of my days. I heard the song on the way home in the car, then in the kitchen - humm.... I guess you could say I look for small signs in everything that happens to me - to hopefully guide me along the way. So, I hear the song "Never Surrender", twice within an hour. Followed by "Jenny - 865-5309". Wow - if that's not a sign from God, I don't know what is. Immediately after that - it was Queen, "Under Pressure". Okay, is someone telling me that they understand what's been going on for me this week?

Someone is watching over me. Okay - so maybe it's XM/Sirius Radio, or maybe someone else. Who knows? I just appreciate the thought that someone is watching out for me - and letting me know.....in totally random ways.

RANDOM THOUGHT #3

Here's some recent pix for my parents. Connor eating an Oreo Cookie!!!

I'm gonna do it!

"Look what I did!"

"I can assure you, I am totally innocent!"

The Sleep Nazi - Part 2

I posted months ago about how I refer to myself as the "sleep nazi". Well, this weekend I was reminded that my "nazi-ness" has not yet subsided.

Some things I have learned having two kids:

1. If one goes to bed at 7pm, the other will want to stay up until 10pm.
2. Regardless, someone is always up before 6am - weekends included.
3. If/when they nap, it will never, EVER, be at the same time.

That was our weekend. Connor was desperate to go to bed Friday night at about 7pm, then was up at 5:30am. Tyler stayed up until after 9pm, then slept until 7:30am. Both Saturday and Sunday, Connor took a nap that started at about 10:45, and lasted 2.5 (precious) hours. Both days, Tyler took a nap that started at about 2pm, and lasted 3 (precious) hours. I don't fight what time they go to bed (if they want it to be early) or if they want to nap late, because regardless, having healthy and happy kids means they need LOTS AND LOTS of sleep. Although I do try to enforce something of a schedule during the day, nighttime means "go to bed early" - usually for everyone!

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That being said, it's almost ridiculous to try to plan anything around a schedule when someone is either sleeping, eating, or having a meltdown because they a)need to sleep, b) woke up crabby or c)they are having a sugar crash because they secretly found their Halloween candy!!!

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Although it was such a cold and windy weekend, I'm glad we didn't go anywhere, really. Tyler had a rough week at daycare last week, and the poor kid napped for 6 hours this weekend! He's 4!!! Connor didn't even sleep that much - so, I'm guessing by Friday he was about totally exhausted and running on pure adrenaline for his totally anal teachers at daycare.

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We're trying to get Tyler to bed earlier so he isn't a demon child by Friday for them at daycare, because I swear that kid is half Energizer Bunny. When he wants to he can just go and go and go...

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When they do sleep though, that is the best, and also the sweetest. Kyle and I race every night to see who is going to check on the boys before we go to bed. It's so cute to see them all cuddled up and snuggled in their beds.

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Connor, crashed in bed.

Tyler frequently sleeps in the car. Although it doesn't look comfortable to me, he's OUT!

My Perfect Afternoon

It's so cold outside.

We didn't even play outside today, but everyone was okay with that.

The boys and I went to the Hardware Store to buy fire starter logs, and then I lit a fire at about 2pm. The living room feels awesome.

Connor and I sat by the fire and watched the Hawkeyes win against Penn State while Tyler took a 3 hour (much needed) nap.

I'm drinking a Fosters, next to the fire, with my 18 month old in my lap reading a book, now listening to 80s music from the satellite tv.

This is awesome.

Happy Fall!

I'm pretty sure we might've finally experienced the last of the beautiful weather we've been having. Last weekend was so nice, we wore shorts and a t-shirt at times.

Let's all say a prayer that we don't have a winter like we experienced last year. No thanks. If we have anything that starts to look like that, I'm moving to Mexico! (Looking back at these pictures makes me shudder!)

Damn the time change...and other ramblings...

4:35 this morning. Connor woke up, although I was already awake since my body was telling me I head overslept. "Holy. Crap. We have a LONG way to go before anyone leaves this house." I thought.

I went and got Connor and sat int he rocking chair in his room, with hopes that he might fall back asleep. No go. Actually - while we were rocking, Tyler woke up at about 5am. Wonderful. Both kids are up, and I haven't even peed yet. This should be fun.

I took them to the living room and found the most entertaining show I could find at 5am, which turned out to be Blue's Clues, I believe. Tyler will actually watch that - and Connor will watch whatever Tyler is watching. Then I hopped in the shower.

No more than 2 minutes later, Connor was pounding on the door and crying. Something that is on my list of "Top 10 Pet Peeves...number 7, having a crying child pounding on the bathroom door while you're trying to shower."

Soon the crying stopped, and I was actually worried. What happened? Why was there quiet? You know - the "this is too good to be true" quiet?

I walked into the living room, and found this....

Kyle had got up, and put them both in the chair in the living room, where they must've sat for at least 15 minutes. Enough for me to finish showering, dry off, put on clothes, etc. Although Tyler doesn't look thrilled in the picture, don't let him fool you. If you didn't like it, he would throw a total fit and toss Connor on to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Thanks boys.

Oh - and today is our anniversary. Or as Kyle refers to it..."8 years of wedded bliss". Yeah. My thoughts exactly.

Happy Anniversary Honey! I wouldn't call it bliss - but I wouldn't trade it for the world!