Under Construction

Please excuse the slightly chaotic, unorganized aspect of my blog right now, I am currently "messing" with it (I use that word because a web developer I am not), trying to find a new look. So please bear with me!

Out With the Old, In With the New

These are my new kitchen curtains. We've been living here for a year with the awful, ugly, hideous original curtains that the owner of the house put up. Since I have six windows in my kitchen, it was quite an undertaking (for me, anyway, since we're always on a budget). Which is why it has taken me so long. Very country-kitchen like, right? I love them.

One Lazy, Spoiled Cat

Gretta loves to sleep curled up on Taylor's booster seat at the kitchen table (gasp! I know, I know, comletely unsanitary). Last night we were getting ready to sit down for dinner, and I asked Taylor to move her. After dinner, this is what I found. Taylor had put her in the recliner like this, and she stayed that way for an hour.

In Remembrance

Dezi died last week. He was only 2 years old. We miss him, and hope he is now in a cooler climate, sitting by the pool sipping margaritas and surrounded by girl dogs.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the love of my life. A fantastic father, and great provider, and a kind, loving, patient husband. Who could ask for more?

Happy Father's Day to you, too, Dad. I miss you and think of you often. It's not the same here without you. Please take care of Dezi.

I Have No Words Today

***At least not to say outloud, because the ones I do have are not fit for the ears of children. Or grown men.

Parallel Play...

...has evolved into cooperative play here at our house.

However, based on my children, I think the theorist who labeled it "cooperative" play is way off base.

Aaaarrrrgggghhhh! I am going to drive this car off of a cliff (and jump off at the last minute, of course!).

In other news, what does it say about your time-out technique when you tell your 19 month old she is going to be put in time-out and before you can even finish the sentence, she is pushing the chair over to the wall and climbing onto it with a great big smile?

In other other news, how smart are the marketing execs of the YMCA that they tell all the children in the Mother's Day Out program that swim lessons will be right after class is out, so that you are forced to pay more money for said lessons because no way will you make your child sit there while the other children are getting ready for and talking about swimming?

Before I was a Mom...
1) Getting my hair done did not need to be planned and executed like the invasion of Iraq.
2) My boobs didn't look like a pair of pantyhose with potatoes in them.
3) I didn't really believe that love and hate were opposite sides of the same coin.
4) I had two nickels to rub together.
5) I'd never had someone else's pee and/or poop on my hand.
6) I didn't constantly feel guilty about every little thing I've ever done wrong.
7) I didn't try to stop reduce my yelling. When I wanted to yell, I yelled.
8) I didn't care much about the kind of person I was. I did what I wanted, and to hell with the consequences.
9) I didn't walk around with my heart outside of my body (I know that is someone's quote, but I love it and it fits).


If you can dredge up the energy after a day with your kids to play along, visit Mama Kat and pick your prompt!

Madhouse

***In the second picture, I told Brittany to make a normal face because she kept doing silly things (as you can clearly see). That was her "normal" face, she said.

Waiting For the Tide to Turn

Newton tells us what goes up must come down. What I want to know is if the opposite is true. What goes down must come up? Will our recent run of bad luck eventually hit rock bottom and start heading up? On the way home from dropping Taylor off at the YMCA (which will be a whole other post, because the experience today has left a bad taste in my mouth), we had a flat tire. It's getting to where I'm afraid to leave my house.

*** Please excuse me, I'm going to go get out my violin....

Keepin' em Busy

I picked up these really cool flat foam pieces that fit together with letters and numbers on them. The constant picking up of the cut-outs is not so much fun, but seeing Taylor's creations grow from a simple cube to this (see below) is definately worth the trouble! You can't really tell from this picture, but the top is angled just like a roof.

Taylor starts Mother's Day Out at the YMCA tomorrow. Wish her (and me, cause despite it all I'll miss her) luck!

A Little Bit of Payback

I believe in karma. I believe what goes around comes around. I believe that when you do something wrong (you know, like leave a cart in parking lot instead of returning it to the cart thing and it starts rolling and slams into someone's car), something equally frustrating will happen to you. I have been driving around with an expired inspection sticker since February. I don't have an excuse, really it was just laziness. I didn't relish the idea of sitting in the tiny, airless waiting room with two restless little girls. Part of it also was that we knew we were going to try to trade it in soon, and I wanted to save that lousy $35 bucks. Well. I got away with it until the day we went to the car lot (last Saturday). We pulled out of our garage, and a cop was driving down our street. So we were given a $147 fine, because he didn't buy our excuse. I think he even said "I don't buy it". Irony? Karma? I had high hopes that when I took the paperwork showing we had it inspected quickly, the court would dismiss the fine. Well. Today Corey took the car to be inspected, and now it will not even pass inspection.


I knew I should have put that cart away.........

I've Created A Monster

So, I've said many times here that I will not (nor have I ever with any of my children) let Madison cry herself to sleep. I know some parents use that strategy and are successful with it. I can't bear the thought of her crying so hard that she finally just gives up out of sheer exhaustion. I can't bear the the thought that her last waking thought of the day is "I need my mommy, I'm calling to her, and she doesn't care enough to come". In the good old days, I would lay her down at 7 pm and she would put herself to sleep within 15 minutes with no crying at all. The past two weeks, that routine no longer flies. We've already moved her bedtime back to 7:45 or so, thinking she cries when I try to put her down because she's just not ready for bed so early anymore. After all, my baby is no longer a baby :(
As soon as I (or Corey) lay her down, she sits up and starts crying. I give her about 5 minutes and then go in and get her back up. 10 minutes later, I lay her down again. Repeat process 3 or 4 times. It's supremely frustrating, especially because she has always been such an easy baby regarding sleep/bedtime. Last night I actually had to rock her to sleep. I won't lie, I kinda loved it because I have been missing having a baby lately. But still. And so, in repeatedly getting her back up when she cries, I have created a monster. I'm not sure how to remedy the situation, because I still will not let her cry herself to sleep.

Wish List Wednesday

I'm not going to be very original here, because I have "wished" for this item before. We could really use a minivan right about now.
When my older two children from my first marriage are staying with us, we used to solve the problem of space in my car by just taking two cars. A pain in the butt, yes. But doable. Now that I can't drive for 6 months, that solution doesn't work. So we can't go anywhere as a family. We had a deal in the works but it fell apart. Now I can't go anywhere during the week or on the weekends. #!@^#@!!