Who's on first...

Yesterday, all the news stations were predicting a winter storm that was going to really hit by the afternoon. And it did. The kids and I headed out in the morning for groceries and we got back before the roads got bad.

It continued to precipiate throughout the day and by evening it was really icy outside.

When TC came home from work, I went and got a flashlight to shine it in X-man's mouth...his two year molars are poking through! (Yes, he's about to be 3) After I was through, he wanted to play with the flashlight, so I gave it to him and told him to put it in a specific place so we could find it if we needed it. Can you see where this is going?

Around 7pm last night, the power went out. It was dark outside and it was dark inside...with the exception of TC's iTouch. That was a pretty handy flashlight! So, we asked X-man where he put the flashlight. The conversation went something like this:

Us: "X-man, where did you put the flashlight?"
X-man: "Where did I put it?" (in a most adorable little boy voice)
Us: "We are trying to find it! Do you remember where you put it?"
X-man: "Yes"
Us: "Where is it?"
X-man: "Where is it?"
Us: "Did you put it in the drawer like we asked?"
X-man: "Yes"
Us: "Well, it's not there. Did you put it in your room?"
X-man: "Yes"
Us: (in his room) "Is it in your dresser?"
X-man: "No"
Us: "Is it in your frog tent?"
X-man: "No"
Us: "Is it in your closet?"
X-man: "No"
Us: "Where did you put it?"
X-man: "Where did I put it? Mommy, FIND IT!"

And it just went on from there. It would have been funny if I wasn't so stressed. Buttercup was wailing mostly because X-man was whining. I did have another flashlight in my bedroom but it didn't work.

After the power came back on TC remembered that there was a really nice battery-powered lantern/lamp in the front closet.

And I ordered two crank-up flashlights from Amazon (one for my sister and one for us) so we don't have to worry about not having a working flashlight.

And no, X-man, you may not play with it.

And no, we have not found the flashlight yet.

Out of the mouths...

The backstory to this could get cumbersome, so I'll make it simple. We were discussing how we were people/persons with X-man (one person, two or more people was a little over his head) and daddy said, "You are a person."

X-man looked at daddy with a very concerned look on his face and said, "I am not a person!"

Daddy said, "Well, what are you?"

X-man said, "I'm a gentleman boy!"

...

Tonight X-man wanted to take a bath with Buttercup. He likes playing with her in the bathtub and it's fun with all four of us in the bathroom!

They were playing just fine and Buttercup started to sing...more like hollering, but it was a happy holler. X-man clouded up, pouted his lip, looked at me and with tears running down his cheeks said, "Buttercup's hollering at me!" And he started wailing so Buttercup thought it was just in response to her song so she started singing louder! And you know how resonant the bathroom is!! (You do, don't you? Yes, I've practiced my flute in there several times...it just sounds so pretty!) X-man just kept crying and didn't stop until I took Buttercup out of the tub!

Anyway, I'm not sure what set X-man off about Buttercup's singing, but I'd have been laughing at him if it wasn't so pitiful!

...

We bought Wii Music today. It's a cute little game and X-man was more interested in watching than actually playing. And the one time we tried to let him play (I think we picked the xylophone) he couldn't get the wii remote and nunchuck moving with enough force for it to register. Anyway, one of the songs on there is "Daydream Believer" so we played that song. TC started singing and out comes, "Cheer up Sweet BaJean!" I almost fell over laughing! He said he didn't think those were the real words but they fit...and he wasn't interested in looking up the real ones (Cheer up sleey Jean).

...

And lest one thinks that *I* never mess up the words to a song, I'll go ahead and tell some on me. I don't remember the setting, but I was singing along to Seal's "Kiss from a Rose" and at one point I said, "To me you're like a rolling dictionary did ya know, yeah.*" I thought TC was going to hurt himself laughing! He didn't know what the real words were, but he was 100% certain that Seal wasn't singing about a rolling dictionary and what was that, anyway? I told him I had this interesting picture of a rolodex in a graveyard. I know...weird. And of course I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Aerosmith song "Loving it in Lovington" or George Strait's "I'm a River by Mornin'!"

So, any interesting song lyrics you've messed up lately?

*"To me you're like a growing addiction that I can't deny"

Where's the candy?

TC's parents gave X-man Candy Land for Christmas. He wanted to open the box immediately (only, I think, because it was a box to open...not because he really knew what was inside!). When we did open the box, we were telling him it was a game called Candy Land and that he and grandaddy could play together. X-man was grinning and bouncing and pulled the lid off and pulled all the stuff out then looked at daddy and said, "Where's the candy?" Poor guy!

So grandaddy and daddy explained the game to him and he understands the concept now, though he sometimes has a difficult time following the path. And TC said that after a few times of drawing the card to find the next move, X-man apparently gets bored and says, "Time to kiss!" He gathers up all the little Candy Land playing people and stacks them together. That's new. TC says he's started to do the same thing with his bathket balls (those are small basketballs for the bathtub). Cute!

They've got Chutes and Ladders to give him for his birthday.

They had some other great ideas for Christmas gifts this year. Check out this blanket I got...



It is awesome! It came from Adirondack Blanket Works and it's beautiful! The blanket is made from recycled cotton, double-knit and the photo is actually knit into the fabric. It's not screenprinted or an iron-on transfer. The photo is from homecoming last October. Paw-Paw was pulling the kids up and down the street in their wagon. I managed to capture both of their impish grins in this one photo, so TC did a great job picking the photo for his dad to put on the blanket! I'll be using this for a long time!

I need to keep my brain warm!

X-man has a little red knit hat (my mom found it in the Target dollar spot) and he loves it! When he puts it on he tells us that, "it keeps my brain warm!" Makes me giggle every time.

And speaking of giggling, when daddy tickles him, X-man says, "Don't giggle me daddy!" or "I wanna giggle YOU, daddy!"

Buttercup turned 10 months old yesterday.

She can clap, take some steps while assisted, and she's even got a tooth trying to poke through!

She loves kisses...both giving and receiving. I love it when I'm holding her in front of me and she'll lean toward my face with the sweetest, wettest open-mouth kiss. And then she does it again. And again. And I think I end up with my chin even more slobbery than hers!

I turned 33 last week! Yea for my birthday! My sis got me a great present...Twilight and New Moon in paperback! And she even said that the next two are forthcoming...just as soon as they come out in paperback! I've been hearing great things about these books so I'm pretty excited.

I've got our Christmas cards to get out, cute little gifties for X-man and Buttercup's teachers at mother's day out, laundry to fold, and we have lots of TV to watch before our DVR gets full! TC was gone over the weekend (hunting...those of you on our friends list in facebook might have seen some of the pics) and he's going to be gone for the next few days with work. We will have alot of recordings pile up between now and then!

And I need to make some more spiced tea mix. I'm almost out and it's supposed to snow tomorrow. Hope it doesn't strand TC in Denver!

X-man was a great boy today! It was wonderful! He did start to throw a few fits and I just reminded him about the things he couldn't do if he was fussing. I guess he really understood it because he'd stop the fit right there! Awesome! Though I don't expect it to happen every time. I have to remind myself he's still very young.

So, there's my stream-of-consciousness post. That's about how my brain works these days.

It's just a jump to left...

...and then a step to the riiiiight!

TC and I went out on a date last night. We had tickets for an on-stage showing of Rocky Horror Show. It was hilarious! I grinned like an idiot through the whole thing.

No, we didn't dress up.

No, we didn't buy a prop bag.

I'd been telling X-man that Ms. K was coming to play with him and every time he'd say, "Cause mommy and daddy goin' ona date!" Very cute!

Ms. K finally got to the house and poor X-man got that little frowny face and his chin started quivering like he was holding back a flood of tears. He never did cry, but TC and I both got really sweet kisses and hugs. It was just too pitiful.

Now, how long do you think you'll have that song in your head?

Just a little late

Well, I clearly missed Buttercup's 8 months post on the 7th and X-man's 2 year, 8 months post on the 11th. I'll just put it all together here...

Buttercup:

• She prefers her pacifier upside-down. It looks like she's got a constant frown when she has it like that!
  
• Her army scoot is just too cute! Occasionally she'll get up on her hands and knees and rock, but then her little knees just flop out from underneath her.
  
• Buttercup's getting really good at babbling. Her favorite word now is "bla"...I don't know what happened to ma ma, but I'm sure it'll come around again!
  

X-man:

• It is obvious he loves his sister! He can make her giggle like no one else can!
  
• Buttercup and I seem to have recovered from the stomach virus, but he doesn't seem to. I wondered if maybe he's finally getting his two-year molars, but I don't see anything that looks like teeth coming in. Though I wouldn't be surprised if I saw something pop through in a couple of days.
  
• He is so cute when he sings! He's always making up songs made of nonsense words and then telling us the name of the song...which is whatever nonsense word he's honed in on at the time.
  
• X-man is getting really good at saying "yes, ma'am" and "yes, sir." He even says it when he's fussing. There is nothing more pitiful than a little boy who's crying because he doesn't feel well, answering a question you just asked him with, "Yes"-sniffle, sniffle-"ma'am" He's such a polite boy!
  

TC and I were reminincing about the days before children. How, on Saturdays, we used to sleep until we woke up (which was usually 10 or 10:30 am) and then we'd get ready and go to lunch. No more sleeping that late! We also vaguely remembered a time when there weren't toys strewn all over our living room floor. At least we've taught X-man how to pick up his toys before bedtime so they're not all over while we're having "our" time...which is pretty much the same as always: butts on the couch watching our favorite TV shows!

Please help me...

WARNING: Do not read this post if you have a weak stomach or are doing anything similar to eating!

Yesterday I woke up feeling a little queasy...and my back hurt...and my hair hurt (which is usually a tale-tell sign I'm sick). Thank goodness the kids went to CDO yesterday. I felt a little better after I dropped the kids off and went to run my errands.

One of which was a total "me time." I had an appointment with Mario at the local Sephora to help me find some makeup that would look good on me and to show me how to apply it. As I was walking up to Sephora, I noticed the store was dark and it was an hour past their opening time. No power. That meant no lights, no register, no nothing. No "me time" for me. I went to Penney's and got fitted for a bra now that the sisters are mine again.

I picked up the kids and both acted fine. Buttercup hadn't been eating much, but aside from lots of diapers, she wasn't acting sick. Yesterday afternoon, she had two diaper blowouts. Yuck!

This morning was a new day. I still felt pretty sick to my stomach, but the backache and hair pain had gone away. Buttercup blew through two diapers and one of those got on her bed sheets during her morning nap. I had apparently shared my crud with her. On-demand load of laundry #1.

Now lunch time. In the middle of lunch, X-man starts crying and says, "X-man not feel good." And then he says, "X-man tummy hurt." Great. Please don't throw up while we're having lunch. I'm having to choke down my lunch as it is. And since I'm really good at sharing, apparently I shared with him, too!

Buttercup blew through another diaper while in her highchair.

X-man took his nap and Buttercup took hers. Buttercup blew through yet another diaper and another bedsheet during her nap and X-man spent the afternoon wallowing on the floor. Lovely. That's what he did the last time he got sick. On-demand load of laundry #2.

TC came home (how has he missed all this mess?) and I wanted a hamburger (my go-to meal when I don't feel well). He took X-man with him, which I thought might be a bad idea considering the situation.

Sure enough, I heard the garage door open and TC said, "Clean up on aisle 2!" We undressed X-man in the garage...at least he didn't throw up on his boots!...and while TC got dinner ready for those of us that were going to eat, I took out the car seat and started to take the washable parts off.

I don't like cold burgers, so I left the car seat and ate. X-man watched Nemo on the couch and Buttercup cried through us eating. I bathed her and gave her her night bottle (it's 7pm at this point). She was done and I burped her. Nothing. That's good. Then it came. She needed a change of clothes and so did I.

Put her to bed and off I was to completely dismantle the car seat. I hope I can get it put back together! On-demand load of laundry #3.

I am worn out...

Homecoming

For those of you that read this and are alumni of the same college that TC and I went to, you probably got your homecoming registration form in the mail recently. Look right under the form where you'd put your email address...

See him?

There's Mr. TC fully engrossed in his running and iPod tunes!

Did he just say that?

Last week, X-man, Buttercup and I ran some errands. One of them took us by this big field that had some rolled hay bales scattered around. When we were driving by, X-man said, "Wha's dat mommie?" It's his new favorite question. I asked him if he was talking about those big brown things that looked like they might roll.

"Yes!"

I told him it was hay. Horses ate hay.

And I thought we were done with it. I really should know better.

Last night, we were playing and he kept saying, "Hey!" I told him that hay was for horses and we laughed some more. So, before bathtime last night, I was tickling X-man and he said, "Hey! Hey! Hay is for horses!" I laughed and then he said, "And hay is good for rolling."

TC looked at me and said, "Did he just say something about rolling in the hay?"

Men...their minds are always in the gutter.

Always Learning

Yesterday we all learned a little something:

I learned that I can keep my lunch while X-man is losing his (even though I had a few close calls while washing out the soiled items). A good lesson to learn.

Poor X-man learned what it was like to have a tummy ache and then throw up. I hate that he didn't feel well! When daddy was giving him a bath after the incident, X-man looked up at daddy and said, "I made a mess on the carpet."

And he didn't have dinner (it was about 2 hours before dinner when this all happened). He watched Finding Nemo in the living room while the rest of us had a quick dinner. We asked him if he wanted a popsicle (I had some pedialyte freezer pops from a while ago when X was running a fever and not eating much), and since he didn't know what a popsicle was, he said no. Even after he saw one. So I let that one thaw for a bit and gave it to him as a slushie. As Nemo was finishing up, X-man asked for a bicycle. What? It took a few seconds to realize he meant a popsicle. They do sound the same! So he and daddy had a freezer pop (I also had some regular freezer pops) and neither one of them spilled!

8 years (and one day)

Yesterday was our 8 year anniversary. We celebrated by going to see Mamma Mia! and then out to ice cream. Though, I think TC's dinner of popcorn, gummy bears and ice cream didn't sit too well with his tummy.

The movie was a hoot! We saw the stage musical in Las Vegas several years ago (pre-kid days) and we've had the soundtrack on our iPods for quite some time. The singing wasn't knock-your-socks-off-great, but at least it was heartfelt. Now, poor Mr. Brosnan looked like he had gas every time he sang...but he sure was nice to look at anyway!

We had a good time and were home by 9:30 so the babysitter wasn't out too late either.

All kinds of stuff!

Christmas was great! TC is still off work (doesn't have to go back until Jan. 3) so I haven't been on the computer too much.

We got several games for the Wii and we've been playing them. The game I got from TC's aunt is Raymon and the Raving Rabbids. It's a fun game, but it's got quite a bit of potty humor. The rabbit that appears to be "taking care of himself" under the lunch table in one of the games was enough to make me fall out of my chair laughing! TC got Mario Party 8, Zach & Wiki (this one is fun!!), Carnival Games and Namco Museum Remix (Pac-Man, Dig-Dug...games like that). I can't handle playing a game much longer than about 30 minutes. That's ok with TC...lets him get a longer turn to play!

X-man got some great presents...but his favorite has to be the tube from the inside of the foil. Of course. He really enjoyed passing out the presents to everyone. He had been told for several days not to play with the packages and we finally let him touch every single one! After about 30 minutes of opening presents, though, he got pretty tired of it and wasn't much interested. I opened the rest of his presents for him. And he's still playing with his new toys, too, so that's good!

I had my 34 week check up today. I'm up to 177 lbs...the weight I was when I first got pregnant with X-man. That puts me at 22 lbs gained. With X-man, I gained 22 lbs total. Looks like I'm going to go over that a little, but as long as it comes off this time as fast as it did last time, I'll be fine! I'll go back in two weeks (and I'll get the beta strep test) and then I'll go back every week after that. Whew! It's flying by!

We just started putting together the furniture for Ms. A's room. She's going to get X-man's dresser...it has a changing "table" on it. We got X-man a new dresser and even though it looks smaller, I think it will hold all of his clothes better!

He said, She said

I was just sitting on the floor in front of TC (who was on the couch) and he started playing with my hair.

Then he said, "I'm just trying to figure out if these hairs that are a lighter brown are blond or gray."

Yes, I love this guy!

There's a First Time for Everythang!

I knew our "turn" was bound to come sooner or later.

X-man poopied in the tubbie this evening.

Instead of freaking out (which is what I wanted to do) when he started grunting, we picked him up and sat him on his little potty seat over the big potty. Not real sure he liked that...but he was cold, too...poor guy!

And it was the first time he'd pooped all day. He's been running a fever and hasn't eaten much and later in the afternoon he started to get a barking-like cough. We'll have to see how he's feeling tomorrow before deciding to take him to CDO or not.

Needless to say, the tub got a good bleaching and the tub toys are in a bucket of water and bleach. And TC gets all the credit for cleaning it up!

All Hail the TV

We seriously have too much TV to watch.

And the DVR doesn't help it any...just makes it worse. But do we change anything? Well, I watch a whole lot less TV during the day now just because X-man starts to pay attention to it and I don't want to watch kiddie TV.

Yeah, yeah...my son is 19 months old and doesn't have any idea who the Wiggles are, who the Little Einsteins are or any of that. I've decided that's not necessarily a bad thing.

So, last night (NBC Monday Premier Night) we recorded Chuck, Heroes and Journey Man. We watched Chuck and Heroes and didn't get to Journey Man. So that's waiting in the wings. Chuck was pretty cute and I actually got interested in Heroes this time. We haven't heard good reviews about Journey Man, but the main character was in ROME on HBO and we really liked him, so we're gonna watch.

Tonight we're recording The Biggest Loser, tomorrow we're recording Bionic Woman (again, haven't heard good reviews but TC is a big sci-fi fan so we're gonna watch that, too). Thursday we must record Survivor and Friday we record Flash Gordon.

We do get to watch most of these shows, just after they've recorded or started recording due to X-man's bath time of 7:00.

Oh, and on top of all of this TV that we've got ourselves watching, we got a Wii this weekend and we're both entrenched in Super Paper Mario Brothers (or whatever the name of it is). TC got the game specifically for me because he knew I'd like that type of game (I loved Super Mario on the Nintendo!).

There's just not enough time in the day to watch all this TV, play Wii and cuddle with my sweetie...and most of the time I'd just rather cuddle.

Sandbox

Yes, X-man's lazy parents finally got his sandbox put together. We bought it on May 26th...

It's really cute and it comes with a fun canopy. There isn't any sand in it yet...and if we don't go get sand some evening this week, we'll go over the weekend while my parents are here. They'll love playing with X-man in the sandbox!

And I've started to see my backyard in a new light. I don't really go back there much (I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've been out there) mostly because I don't like being outside in the heat. We really should get a nice table and chairs and I'd sit out there when it wasn't so hot (like in the fall...I love the fall!).

But I noticed that a good portion of the yard stays in the shade due to the placement of our house and a giant tree. It will be a really nice place for X-man to play and there's even some room for a swing set or something!

I have a feeling we might be out there more often.

Fireworks and the Bellamy Brothers

Saturday evening, we headed out to our local community college for their annual Labor Day Arts Festival. Now, I really enjoy looking at art...especially the handmade stuff like was at this festival. But, the majority of it is Native American art and that doesn't really blow up my skirt.

We were going out there to meet up with ASH, her parents, her sister and her sister's fiance. And I wanted to see the fireworks (and I'll always eat fair food!!!). The headliner that night (on the outdoor stage) was the Bellamy Brothers (you know..."If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me..."). I thought that X-man would enjoy being outside and the music and the fireworks.

He really was a good boy while we were out there. We got there around 6:30 and I got a turkey leg (big surprise), X-man had a foot-long corndog (but of course, didn't eat it all...it was good though, a nice crispy sweet cornbread crust) and TC had a bratwurst with sauerkraut.

After we got all cleaned up from dinner, we found a nice spot on the ground in the shade and put our quilt down. X-man LOVED it!! He ran around the quilt and stayed on the quilt, which amazed me. TC asked me if I had thought to bring any toys. Dang! I didn't. But I looked through the diaper bag and found:

a set of linking rings

an empty travel wipes container

4 crayons (I kept them from a few lunches at our Sushi place where we got a kids menu)

a spiral notebook (I forgot I had that!) and it was quite handy to use with the crayons!

Turns out, that was plenty of things to keep X-man entertained. Then as soon as daddy came back with the kettle corn (gotta love that fresh made kettle corn!), X-man was in heaven!!

Just as the Bellamy Brothers were coming on stage, ASH and her family showed up! Yea!! They came and sat with us and I'm pretty sure that I talked to ASH and her mom through the whole concert. X-man was starting to get a little punchy around 9:00 (the concert started at 8:30 and X-man's bedtime is 7:30).

After the concert, about 9:30, the fireworks started. The first one that went off scared X-man. He got a very concerned look on his face and ran straight for daddy and didn't let go. But after that first BOOM, he loved the lights! He would point, giggle and make oooohhh faces. It was great!





After about 5 minutes of the fireworks he lost interest and played as best he could in our little area in the dark.

Little cutie pie was dead asleep after the 20 minute car ride home!

(And wouldn't you know it, he didn't sleep any later on Sunday morning!)

It wasn't funny, but I almost fell over laughing anyway...

Yesterday after TC came home, he said he was going to go change into shorts (isn't it interesting how when he comes home, he thinks the house is super-hot and I'm freezing my toesies off?).

I said, "X-man, wanna go help daddy change clothes?" So of course, X-man takes off for our bedroom. But when we get there, daddy's not in there! X-man looks at me a little concerned and I said, "Maybe he's hiding in my closet."

So, X-man toddles over to my closet but before he gets there, daddy comes around the corner of our bed and says, "Boo!" And he didn't say it in a big scary way either.

It startled me, but you should have seen X-man. His hands went up in the air and he hollered...I mean really screamed! I didn't see his face, but TC said he really did have a scared look on his face.

That made daddy feel really bad, but X-man fixed it by running straight for daddy and giving him a great big hug through those great big cries.

Daddy felt horrible...and I was in the hallway doubled over with laughter...and I think I snorted a few times. I'm giggling right now just thinking about it!

Guess the kid only likes to be "Boo'd" when he knows where we are...

Kiss my Knees!

The other day, TC and X-man were playing on the floor and I was sitting on the couch doing something on the laptop. At one point, TC came over to me and kissed me on the knee. Very sweet.

So X-man toddles over and "kisses" me on the knee. It was more like an attempt and a wide-open mouth hickey...cause that's how he kisses. I can't get the kid to pucker up for anything!

He did that again today and added in little sucking noises. It just about cracked me up. He was being so sweet and trying to get my attention (I was trying to clean up a work problem via email). It kinds tickles, so I giggle. After one of the sweet little knee kisses, he noticed a freckle on my knee. He pointed it out (since I'm always asking him where his freckle is). And no, sis, he didn't think it was chocolate and try lick it off!

Date Night!

Saturday night, TC and I went on a date. As in hired-a-babysitter-went-to-dinner-and-then-a-movie date! We had a great time and even were able to have some conversation that didn't involve X-man or the little one wiggling around (I'm assuming s/he is wiggling...can't really feel anything yet) in my belly.

TC took me to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. Yum! Steak! However, due to my delicate condition, I had to order my filet medium-well and butterflied! I really prefer it medium (or even a little less so...it's just so much easier to chew and so much more juicy when someone hasn't cooked the heckola out of it!). And you know what? It was pretty tasty. But what made it even tastier was taking my little bites of steak and running them through the cream gravy on TC's chicken-fried sirloin. That was just almost heaven right there!

After dinner we headed to the movie theater (where TC had a coupon for one free ticket! Woohoo!) and we got tickets to Bourne Ultimatum. While we waited for our theatre to open (we got there a tad early) we watched all the kids go into Superbad. I didn't realize that it was an R movie so they were checking IDs at the ticket counter and checking tickets at the door to the theatre. And wasn't it handy that our theater (showing Mr. Matt Damon) had an upstairs access to the theatre where they were showing Superbad? There were kids (and I'm old now, so I think pretty much everyone under 20 is a kid) that ran up the stairs about the time our movie started and they finally came back about 5 minutes before the end of the show.

I wouldn't have even noticed it except TC pointed out that he figured they were sneaking into the "other" movie.

Oh, and TC is going to see Superbad with his work friends after work today. I hope he enjoys it.