Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The Heat Is On

After debating with myself all morning on whether to turn the heat on or not...I decided to put on a pair of socks and wrap myself up,burrito style, in a blanket.

Hubby woke up and thought it was rather chilly in the house and I told him it was a breezy 43 degrees out despite the sunny- like appearances outside.

That's when a miracle happened..... the guy with a built-in sweater........ suggested we turn the heat on!

So I did. It sure is o' so nice to feel my toes again.

I was hoping not to have to turn the heat on until November...mid- October at the earliest but I admit......I'm a wimp.

I hate being cold, although I love winter. Strange, I know, but I don't like to have to wear a coat while in my own home.......like I do at my mom's.

When do you turn your heat on? Do you have a month wait out like I was supposed to or do you turn it on when it dips below a certain amount? At what temperature do you average?

I like to average around 76 degrees, but I have been known, much to hubby's chagrin, to put it up as high as 82. Ian likes it no higher than 70.

Just curious to see if you all are as wimpy as me.


This was taken just last week.


*Note the warm weather attire and humidity infused hair.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Drive My Car


"Beep!Beep! Outta my way lady!"



"Can't chat right now, I'm late for a play date!"


"All right already, here's a smile. Happy now?"

Thursday, September 25, 2008

I Want My MTV

Sorry I haven't updated since last week but we've all been sick with nasty head colds, which got me back into watching TV. All the goods shows premiered this week and I got a chance to catch up on the "The Hills" too.

Speaking of "The Hills", OMG I was bawling like a blubbering idiot at the end of the episode when LC and Audrina finally patched up their rocky friendship. If I had been wearing mascara, you better believe I would of resembled a raccoon after watching that tear jerker moment.

Yay! I love fall! I can officially start wearing my forgiving black pants again!

I have some funny stuff coming soon, here are some teasers to ponder.......

"Hair today, gone tomorrow"
"Clean up in aisle 9"
"Patty Cake and it's ability to produce babies"
"Slacker mom tries(and glues) her hand in decoupaging"
"My boyfriend's back"

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Head Like A Hole

Today I experienced my third bloody nose in a week.

Do you have seasonal allergies? no

Are you sniffing Pine-Sol? no, do people still use Pine-Sol?

Is it from the Pier One reed diffuser you bought? no, that thing just gives me the "someone.put.me.out.of.my.misery."migraines

Are you still wearing that Stella McCartney P.U.fume? no, pawned that perfume onto Mel. funny though, I've never smelled her wearing it.

Are you pretending to be an elephant with tusks by using chopsticks..again? no, I learned my lesson weeks ago.

Is it time to bring out the humidifier? no, surprisingly it's been relatively warm here on the Tundra.

Then you must be picking your nose!


Puleeze! Why would I do that, when I have this:




Ruby has discovered that her finger can point, poke, and pick.....my nose. We'll be sitting calmly, let's say, reading one of her books and out of nowhere, in Mach speed, her finger will be up my nose. She does this hook thingy with her finger while running her nail along the inside of my nostril.(insert cringing here)

She literally brings me to tears,then she's in tears, followed by Ava because I've frightened them both with my scream of terror. (side note. since having children I will let out a scream of terror for things not really that terrifying. And what's up with this nervous laugh suddenly appearing in inappropriate times..like in the middle of getting Ava's hearing checked. I couldn't stop busting a gut. I'm pretty sure the lady thought I was nuts.)




Don't let that cute baby hand fool you. Those paper-thin nails hurt like hell when inserted into holes not her own. Believe it or not, I clipped those nails two days ago and look how long they are. Not only is it impossible to keep them at a safe length but she makes clipping the cat look so much easier. She's goes into this crocodile kill mode..... arched back, dead weight,rolling technique and rolls herself right off my lap, refusing to let me clip her nails. I need a baby fingernail whisperer to help a mother out. Any tricks of the trade I'm not utilizing? My pop lock dance moves are not working anymore and my poor nose can't take it anymore.



" Psyche! Wow mom, I didn't know you could jump that high."


Tuesday, September 16, 2008

All 'n My Grill

On Monday, Ava had her very first dental appointment. She was very excited to go and couldn't stop talking about it for hours afterwards. They counted her teeth and she has an extra tooth, a lovely little snaggly one, I might add. Unfortunately, it is making her teeth crowd on top and she will eventually have to get it pulled and braces put on. No surprise there, the 'rents were not blessed in the straight teeth department and by the looks of it, Ruby will be sporting braces as well.

She was a bit bothered by the bright light shining down on her while the hygienist cleaned her teeth. She was unable to don the cool '80s glasses they offered her because the day before she decided to re-enact that "Brady Bunch" episode where Marcia gets hit in the nose with a football. But instead of a football, her nose made full contact with an end table which resulted in a swollen nose and a black eye. "Mom always says don't run in the house."

She had a great time and had the office in stitches with her absolute cuteness, crazy questions and her very vocal observations. When we left she immediately asked when we could visit again.


"Whatcha talking about Pam, you wanna put what.... where?

"Hee, Hee. That tickles me, Pam!"

Under that cute smile, I can't help but see this:




"The Wallet Breaker"

Monday, September 15, 2008

Do You Really Want To Hurt Me



My poor baby is in the thick of some major teething troubles. I am pretty sure she is getting the incisors/fangs in. Saturday and Sunday she had been running fevers and barely able to sleep comfortably. Saturday night she was waking up every 20 minutes, screaming in pain. She is hardly eating and that is shocking in itself because she always wants to eat. I've tried everything to ease the pain but nothing seems to help...not even the magical Hyland's Teething Tablets.

Despite it all,she tries to flash us a smile here and there but her mood has been mostly on the cranky side. Really cranky. I don't blame her, I remember getting my wisdom teeth in when Ava was getting in her first year molars and yowza! it hurt bad. Not bad meaning good but bad meaning bad.

When I hear people say that their kids never had teething troubles or even knew that their child had popped a tooth, I can't help but feel a bit jealous. My girls will let you know loud and clear that they are in immense pain and you, too, shall suffer...with a bite. We've had two casualties so far...... Ian's nose and my nipple.(and I'm not breast-feeding!)

She's got seven teeth now, so that makes 13 more of these terrible teething woes to go.

Does anyone know where I can get an suit of armor at?



Fever just broke and she's got her "ready to chomp" look.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Say You, Say Me

"Mom you the da best cook in da whole why world!"

Now that's a phrase I never expected to hear...ever.

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

"Ava, please stop body slamming your sister!"

Now where in the heck did she learn this?

From the Olympics, I'm sure.

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

"Mom, sometimes me and Loic fight. We just whittle kids and dat wat whittle kids do. We still learning." she says in the most convincing way.

Time-out averted.

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

"Ava, now that you're three, you need to stop trying to ride the cat like a horse."


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

"Ava, all these toys need to be picked up before you go to bed. Don't forget to put your books back where they belong."

"I know. I know. Top harassing me!"

*sigh* She's only three, can't imagine what the tween years will bring.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

From A Distance


"Ooooo Mom, did you make this for little o me?"



"I love it! It's the most fantabulous thing I've ever seen. Whoohoo! look at those things shake. You should get a patent on this. This is amazing, the best toy ever. I'm telling you.....



WHOMP!


that thing is dangerous! Much better on the floor...all by itself. Seriously Mom, what were you thinking?"

Monday, September 8, 2008

Light My Fire

On Saturday we took the girls to Burnsville to attend it's annual Fire Muster. It's a get together to celebrate all the hard work the Emergency Personnel do. They had tons of fire engines, ambulances, and police cars all over the place. They also have a little kids fair and with not being able to attend this year's Minnesota State Fair we thought this would be something Ava would enjoy while being informative as well.








tattoos and ice cream...what a perfect ending.

She's My Baby

So my real reason for going to the Fire Muster was to enter Ruby in a Crawl Derby. She's a fast little lady despite the fact that she crawls with her right leg dragging.

Before we left home, we had Ruby practice crawling from me to Ian. We thought for sure we had a future trophy holder in our midst.

When we arrived we filled her up with some protein and waited for the race to begin. They had 4 heats and we were in the second heat. From the looks of it, her only competition came from a little big boy who looked over one but had not yet begun walking. I was hoping that he would stand up and take a step thus resulting in him being disqualified.

Ha! Wishful thinking....this is how Ruby's race debut turned out:


"On your marks.get set. Go!"


She's got great starting form..........




But she never left her mark. She experienced a sudden case of nerves, which I had not prepared for, and we left empty handed.

And that little big boy won!

There's always next year. I'll just put a little mustache on her and forbid her to walk. Next year that trophy is mine.....er I mean hers. That trophy is hers.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Hello, I Love You

My dear, Ava, has been asking me every day since we've returned from the funeral out east if she can see her cousins Stuart and Mary Katherine. I've explained to her that they live very far away and someday soon we will see them again. Those kids must have left quite an impression on her because she likes to go into great detail of the time she spent with them. Which was maybe, a total of 10hrs. I get to hear about it all.day.long.

So after the hundredth time telling her that, no we are not going to go see them after she wakes up from nap, I persuaded that she write them a letter.

Not really expecting her to take me seriously, I go about my business finishing supper clean up and then come upon this:




I didn't even know she could make the letter "H". "i" I knew she had mastered but "H"? Then combining them together to form a word. I had no idea! I'm so proud of her.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Bootylicious

Ava rubs my butt while stating, "I like your big o' booty."

"Gee, thanks."

"Mom, do you like my little booty?"

"Sure do."


Who knew that that day would embark her booty fascination. She would later do the booty dance whenever music would start playing. Then came the mooning while shaking and shouting, "Booty, booty, booty!"

Now she is into slapping them. I'm thinking she developed that skill while watching sand volleyball (they did A LOT of booty slapping) during the Olympic games because that would be about the time the slapping started.

First it started with just slapping the butts of the family members in the home. Then it progressed to family members outside of the home then it moved on to family friends. No biggie, I thought. She doesn't mean harm and it was pretty funny......at the time.

Since I have decided to teach preschool at home this year, I signed the kids(Ava and Loic) up for a Year Rounders Class through our school district. Basically it's a one day a week preschool and while they are in class, I'm at class too, discussing parenting issues and concerns with an educator. It gives us all a much needed break in the week to connect with others in our own age groups.

Anywho....yesterday was our first day of class and when I returned from my class the kids were still finishing up their snack. Ava finishes her snack and she helps the teacher put away the crackers and throw away the trash and then I hear a SMACK!

"She really likes my booty!" the teacher says laughing. Meaning it wasn't the first slap she received that day, but one of many.

The teacher didn't seem to mind the slaps..... in fact she seem to rather enjoy them?

Enjoy them or not, I put the booty slapping to an end.....not entirely true.....just no butt slapping out in public, just in the home. Oh and no butt slapping Mom. Everyone else is fair game.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Stuck In the Middle With You




I'm predicting Rubini (un)like Houdini will providing me blog material for a long, long time.


*an hour later I found her stuck in the the dolls' basket....upside down!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Cool Like Dat

Yep, someone thinks I'm cool other than my kids.

Well... that's until the girls realize that mom moonwalking in Wal-Mart may not be the coolest thing but rather mortifying and likely result to roaming the aisles by myself. But I'm sure that won't come until they start high school so I've got more than a few years left to ooze cool.right?

Nevermind that I was just cursing these dang awards the other day due to the my lack of writing skillz ability and thus the probability of ever receiving one was slim to nil.

But I pop over to see what crazy antics Shannie from Where Is My Mind? has gotten into and when I finish her post, sitting right there is an award waiting for me to accept.

I snatch it up and copy it to my side bar first and now I'm writing this post because there are rules to be followed when accepting this award.

First rule: Answer these questions with one word as they pop into your mind.

1.Where is your cell phone? dunno
2. Where is your significant other? Work
3. Your hair color? fading
4. Your mother? short
5. Your father? unbearable
6. Your favorite thing? ipod
7. Your dream last night? weird
8. Your dream/goal? mindreader
9. The room you’re in? living
10. Your hobby? chillaxin'
11. Your fear? writing
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? earth
13. Where were you last night? home
14. What you’re not? asian
15. One of your wish-list items? hutch
16. Where you grew up? Illinois
17. The last thing you did? peed
18. What are you wearing? ring
19. Your TV? reruns
20. Your pet? fat
21. Your computer? dying
22. Your mood? even
23. Missing someone? hubby
24. Your car? small
25. Something you’re not wearing? socks
26. Favorite store? pottery barn
27. Your summer? crazy
28. Love someone? somebodies
29. Your favorite color? red
30. When is the last time you laughed? minutes ago
31. Last time you cried? Olympics

Now for passing on the award!

The rules of this award are:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.

2. Link the person you received your award from.

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4. Put links of those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you’ve nominated

Okay this is where it gets tough.

I nominate not seven but everyone on my blogroll. (that's the thing over to right labeled Say You, Say Me)

Why? Well, first of all, I'm a rule breaker and secondly, these are the blogs that I read everyday without fail.

I subscribe to many blogs and my bookmarks are a sight to behold but these are the ones that I connect with the most. Some due to actually knowing the bloggers personally and the others because they inspire me, make me laugh, provoke thoughts, and are snarky just like me. I suck at writing but these guys can write and they write well.

So if you're on my blogroll please claim your award and pass on the bloggy love.


9/3- Or you can just copy the award and post it on your blog without doing all the stuff above.... again cuz I'm cool like dat.

Monday, September 1, 2008

It's Tricky


Delayed reaction:





Who needs hands when you've got teeth:





My girls are my comic relief....a funny sitcom that I could sit and watch all day.