29 April 2008

Sweet Girl Funnies

Sweet Girl is just funny sometimes, she is very honest and a dramatic but funny. We went to Leo's office again. Actually, we have to go every Monday and Wednesday because I go rowing those nights. When Sweet Girl asked why I wanted to "row my boat" I replied to her that I wanted to get smaller. This seemed to confuse her but I didn't know what else to say and didn't want to tell her I needed to row my fat ass off. She thought for a minute and said "Mommy you can't get smaller. You can only get bigger." Gee thanks, I already know that, I've already been getting bigger thus the rowing. It was just funny, I wish you could have seen the expression on her face.

So we go to see the ducks every Monday and Wednesday and we have to bring stuff to feed them. They must have been hungry this week because they were really close to us and Sweet Girl was feeding them a cracker when one of the female ducks jumped up and nipped the cracker in her hand. This caused Sweet Girl to scream and cry a little bit proclaiming "The duck bit me." I asked if she was OK and inspected her finger which seemed fine. To which she says "That duck tried to eat me." I guess in a literal sense it did in fact try to eat her but didn't get very far.
The downfall to feeding the ducks and fish is there are also pigeons. I hate pigeons, probably because as I grew up my Grandma Jean hated pigeons and did just about anything to keep them off her balcony and from pooping everywhere. There were three pigeons siting by us and I shooed them away with my foot:
Sweet Girl: "Did you just push those birds away with your foot?" (stern concern here...)
Me: "Yes"
Sweet Girl: "Well that's not very nice. You tell that bird you're sorry."
Me "OK, but they are nasty birds and needed to go away" (I stopped myself here from saying they are nasty birds that are basically rats with wings and will shit on your head at any given chance).
Sweet Girl: "Get away nasty bird" as she is now chasing the pigeons away. Thankfully they did not poop on her head.

The last thing of late is, she has become a fan of Puff The Magic Dragon. We sing the song or read the book, sometimes we sing the book. In her song Puff lives in Bonalee not Honalee. She loves this song. It's so funny and cute to hear her sing it. Hearing me sing is probably not all that pleaseant so I wonder if anyone can hear us thru her monitor as we belt out this tune during our bed time ritual.
There was a CD that came with the book. I think they sing Puff a little slow and I find it annoying. But what I find even more annoying is their rendition of 'Jimmy Cracked Corn'. They sound like the Will Farrell and that other chick from the Saturday Night Live skit when they would sing songs all slow. It actually sounds like a joke but it's not and they also have some pronunciation issues because at some points during the song it sounds like they are calling old Jimmy a bastard. I would too, with how that song goes. But Sweet Girl won't let me go past that song.

Thank God the CD only has 4 songs on it.

28 April 2008

The Pool Is Open!

We had a nice weekend and spent some time on both Saturday and Sunday swimming in the pool. The water was above 80 and was still slightly cool mostly because it was 95 degrees plus outside. But after about 5 mins it was fine as you got used to it (or your body went numb however you want to look at it, just kidding it wasn't THAT cold).

Sweet Girl was into it right away. Swimming around using her noodle to swim and retrieve the duckie thermostat for Little Man who was obsessed with it.
We also had "Ecco" the gecko float. Sweet Girl picked this out and you ride on it and it has a handle to hold on to and stripes and spots. It's a cute little thing but she did fall off it and into the water. And if you ask her about this she will tell you she "Sank to the bottom of the pool". Which she did NOT sink to the bottom; before you start thinking I'm a neglectful pool parent, I was right there and she did not come anywhere close to the bottom.
Me: "You just fell in, you didn't sink to the bottom"
Sweet Girl: "Yes I did. YOU SAW ME" (now please read this as if she's saying "DUH MOMMY, DON'T BE A RETARD").
Me: "OK, but you were saved"
Sweet Girl "Yes".
This thankfully did not scare her away from Ecco the Gecko or the pool.


Little Man on the other hand did not initially like the water. He would not really even stand on the top step. I had to sit on the top step (which didn't even cover my thighs), and he HAD to sit on my lap, which means he wasn't even IN the water. Then I got him to sit by himself, big step! But by Sunday afternoon that kid was jumping blindly into the pool. We went from clinging to me, and only me, with the death grip to kicking his feet on his own and jumping in! He floats pretty good since he is a cute little chunky kid. And surprisingly he figured out how to kick his legs pretty fast. He was so proud of himself. He had a blast so I think his timid days are over!

Everyone had fun, we'll be out there a lot as the temperatures heat up some more. I will be happier when the water is warmer!
I see many happy times spending time outside and by the pool!

26 April 2008

Our New Toy

Leo and I are very excited to be proud owners of a new digital SLR camera! Yeah this baby takes 3 frames a second so no more missing that perfect moment while the point (and wait) and shoot camera focuses to take the picture.

It was a great deal at Costco, we got a bag, two lenses, photo software and of course the camera. And it had a nice rebate.

We are all set to get back in the swing of taking more pics of the kids and as I've promised so many people I will take pictures of the house and send them off!!

Our fast moving kids are no match for our new camera! Woohoo!

25 April 2008

The Exhibitionist and Dare Devil

I am thinking of renaming the kids codes names to something different. While Sweet Girl is very sweet and that is what I have called her since she was born, she is a complete exhibitionist. The kid loves to take her clothes off, and always has. I am sure some of you are thinking well she gets that from me since I have been known to take my clothes off. However I will remind you that I did this under the influence of a LOT of alcohol. And trust me this is NOT the case with Sweet Girl. She is not under influence of any sort of thing. Except maybe Toddlerhood. Up until recently she had been doing pretty good with keeping clothes on. However, we're now back to running around in no clothes except for her underwear phase, unless she's trying to get into the pool then she takes those off too. We don't want them to get wet you know... I don't really have a problem with her lack of clothing because we're at home, and thank goodness she hasn't refused to not wear clothes when we're going out. Although based on some of her outfit choices of late she would probably be better off with nothing on, it would match a little better.


Little Man is some sort of wicked dare devil. We have one of these lovely toys in the back yard, left over from the previous owner (this picture is a newer and nicer less faded model, but still the same general toy):


Yesterday he got up and stood on the saddle AND then attempted let go. He's bound to give me some level of heart attack. He also likes to stand on their play slide thing and wait for you to get close and then completely let go in hopes that you catch him. He's one crazy crazy kid.
He is always climbing on something and into everything.
I see many many ER visits in our future...but not for sickness anymore!

23 April 2008

Fun & Games

Sweet Girl has been exposed to so many new things at her new school. She can write her name and is learning new games. We are expected to play them nightly in our evening ritual of playing in the backyard before bath time.

The new games are:
Duck Duck Goose and Hot Potato

Our circle for Duck Duck Goose is rather small since it's really just Leo, Sweet Girl and me. Little Man doesn't sit, he just continuously runs around the backyard. So since the circle is so small I get dizzy as I walk around finding my goose. And when you pick Sweet Girl and you start running she doesn't run to catch up with you, so if you slow so she'll catch you she also slows down. This increases my dizziness as I am basically running in a bigger (but not much) circle then the duck circle. But we still play and it's a good time.

I am amazed daily at the things she learns and comes home talking about. Some are rather strange and I want to say "What the heck?" Sure keeps things interesting...

21 April 2008

Even A Freshly Clean House Doesn't Stand A Chance Against Two Kids

Ah it was nice to walk into the house today, it was clean and straight since the cleaners came today. It was so nice and pretty. I enjoyed it for a full 10 mins. And it was a nice 10 mins. Then the kids wanted a snack which was peanut butter and crackers and a juice box. There goes the nice clean table, the decrumbed rug and clean tile surrounding table. Score one for the small ones on their never ending quest to cause havoc and mayhem in our house.

Next stop, Sweet Girls room. I was out in the living room paying bills on the PC (yet another thing I use the Internet for - finding friends and paying bills and for all you pervs out there, that's where most of my Internet surfing stops, we have DVDs for that...sorry wrong tangent again..jeez I might need some help for this...) and I hear them quietly playing...translated to I don't hear any fighting but hear talking so not total silence which can be a deadly deadly thing with two kids who like to get into trouble. So I didn't think anything of it. I do hear some racket though, now coming from the master bath which happens to be right behind the wall in the living room and I can hear they are throwing things or something into the tub. I'm about to get up when Sweet Girl rounds the corner. I ask her if Little Man is playing in the water and she say "No he fell in the tub. " Now I didn't hear anything that sounded like that. So I get up and go in there and Little Man is NOT in the tub but is playing in the water. We leave there and I get to Sweet Girls room where the contents of ALL her drawers are now in ONE giant pile in the middle of the floor.
Here is that conversation:
Me "Sweet Girl, what are you doing?"
Sweet Girl "Trying to find something beautiful but all these clothes are crazy"
Me "Crazy?"
Sweet Girl: "Yes momma look at them, they're crazy"
Me "Ok, let's put them away now"
Sweet Girl "My tummy hurts to put them away. You do it"
Me "No, you have to help"
Sweet Girl "My arm hurts I can't put them away"
Me "Well your arm didn't hurt when you pulled them all out so let's clean them up"

HA! I won, she helped me clean them up. She even learned how to fold her pajamas in the process.
And apparently all clothes from Target are crazy, just in case you were wondering. Watch out for those crazy clothes! I'm not really even quite sure what it means and I have yet to perfect learning to translate Toddler Logic. I do know it's a lot like Husband Logic just a little more rudimentary. They must inherit that from their Father's.

So clean for 10 mins and on it's way to losing the battle to stay clean for longer...But they did help clean up clean up their playroom before bath time, so maybe I need to work this a little better and get them to WANT to clean up a lot. Hmm...I'll need to think about how this will work with Toddler Logic.

20 April 2008

Sooo....Will They Get Sick?

Since living in a bubble here in Phoenix/Chandler is a bit out of the question as a way of keeping the kids from getting sick again, we were brave and ventured out to a public place for a birthday party. It was at a Pump It Up in North Phoenix for a daughter of one of the mommie friends I met on line. Yes I meet my friends online, how else do working mommies meet other mommies? Come to think of it, this is how I met ALL my current mommie friends. So far they've all turned out pretty normal and I am extremely close to a few of them.

I did think to myself as we were leaving on the this trek that hopefully they have been exposed to all the new Arizona germs to not catch anything at this fun event.

Excuse this tangent on how far it was from us, it was about 45 mins each way. And we never left Phoenix, this should tell you just how big this area is. If we drove 45 mins north or south from our old house in Brentwood we would pretty much almost have been in Kentucky or Alabama respectively; completely different STATES. And here we drove 45 mins north and never left Phoenix (except to drive through Scottsdale and back into Phoenix). It was just sort of funny when I looked it up on Google Maps on how to get here and saw it was 47 miles and 56 minutes away (or up to 1 hour and 30 mins in traffic, thankfully it was a Sunday...). An eye opener you might say.

So we went and had a good time. And those places make me feel old and too much jumping makes me pee my pants a little bit, much in thanks to the two small people jumping with me. I am even the kegel queen but still...ok I'll stop THIS tangent now because now my post is taking a completely different turn. I did feel like one of those germaphobe parents that would have pretty much dipped Sweet Girl and Little Man in a hand sanitizer bath if anyone with a runny nose so much as looked at them. I was so freaked out that they were touching all that stuff after all those kids and all the hundreds of kids before them. Oh the germs that were there. OH THE GERMS, OH MY GOD. The thought of it makes me a little nuts I think.

I am praying hard that they do not get sick AGAIN. Please Please Please say a prayer for us too. Pretty Please?

17 April 2008

Lots Of New Phrases and Words

There are some new words and phrases going on in our house.

Sweet Girl's new phrases include:
"holy crap!"
"what the heck?"
"sweet! baby!"

She'll be explaining something that happened at school, which usually involves some boy and ends the sentence with "what the heck?". It's really funny.

Now you're probably surprised by the lack of profanity in her new phrases. If you're not, I am. I've been dropping a lot of profanity lately, especially f bombs due to an extremely heinous project I am working on at work. I actually am afraid I'm offending one of the fellas at work with my language. And I think it's only because he's Mormon that I feel like I'm offending him. Oh well, I will clean it up at work. Or at least try...
But anyway this isn't really about my new phrases.

Little man, you know he doesn't say much. But he's added a couple words to his hopefully ever increasing vocabulary. These new words are:

snack (big shock here...it's about FOOD)
backpack
mine (this one is causing us some trouble between the two of them because up until now everything in the house has been Sweet Girl's and now he's starting to fight for his things, so there may be profanity out of her yet!)

Those are the words that are flying around our house!

15 April 2008

Recycling We Are

Since moving to Chandler we've started recycling. We try to recycle as much as we can. The reason: they make it EASY to do it. We have ONE recycle can for everything. We throw it all in one place and then every Monday they come pick it up.
While living in Brentwood, we recycled to some extent but not nearly like we do here. Back in TN it was such a pain because you had to separate it and drop it off yourself. Too much trouble if you ask me and took a lot of effort. A lot of effort we didn't have to put into it.
I have never really been a big recycle person, sure I understand it's importance but it just wasn't a priority to me. But now that it has been made so easy and the effort is minimal, I make the effort to recycle all that we can.
I've become a pro searching for that little recycle symbol on stuff! Now I'm not to the point where I will pick stuff out of our trash if someone throws it in there but try to remember and look at everything I'm about to throw away.
I will say it is quite amazing the difference in our trash can now that we recycle more. We used to fill that garbage tote up to the max and overfill it on a regular week. Now we barely fill it up on a regular week.
It feels good to know you're making a difference. Now don't go expecting us to turn into sandal wearing, hybrid driving tree huggers or anything.
Nothing against you if you're wearing sandals, driving a hybrid or hugging a tree though, OK.

13 April 2008

Some Relief

No pink eye! YAY! It was probably due to 1. Little Man's dragon like fingernails scratching his eye, which I have since clipped must to his dissatisfaction and protest OR 2. Severe allergies, despite what you may think or may have heard Arizona is NOT the best place to come if you have allergies. It is, in fact, the worst. So I'm banking it was #2 that caused our potential pink eye scare. He's been rubbing his eyes daily, has the clear running nose, sneezing and there is a crapload of pollen all over the place. Unfortunately for us, there is no rain for us to wash it all away.

Sweet Girl has become quite fond of dressing herself and wants everything to match. However she must be living in opposite world because everything is FAR from matching. We just politely tell her it doesn't match to which she replies "Yes it does". Who wants to argue with a 3.5 year olds logic? Not me. At least not right now. So we just go out with some weirdo outfit and you know I really don't care because it got us out of the house without a fight and she feels like she has some sort of freedom.

Leo and I made good progress on cleaning out the garage. We are more then halfway to the point of parking in there! Looking forward to that.

Hopefully after a few days of 90 degree plus temperature the pool won't feel like an ice bath. The water is about 78 degrees. When I grew up in Michigan I think we were elated when the water got to 78! Now there is no way on earth I'll get into that water with my whole body, my feet are about all that make it. I'll have to wait until it's well into the 80's before I get in. And really it won't be too long!

10 April 2008

It's Heating Up

Well the past two days have been cooler and windy. And by cooler I mean in the high 70's. It has been nice but a bit nippy with the wind.

However looking at the forcast for the next few days, we're heating up! By Monday the high is 99. Maybe it will finally heat the pool up above 76 degrees so we can go swimming. Well so I can go swimming the kids will swim in the 76 degree water. I think it feels like an ice bath.

But humidity should be low so hopefully 99 probably won't feel too bad.

Keep an eye on my weather forcaster thingy to the right and see how hot it is.

09 April 2008

So My Logic Was REALLY Wrong

Again I'll start out with two words: Pink Eye.

Although not confirmed yet it is certainly looking like it. So now we'll have to figure out how to quarantine Little Man and limit everyone else being affected. Highly unlikely if you ask me, we'll all get it I'm sure. Looking forward to that. Should be fun! Woohoo!

Fucking hell.

08 April 2008

My Logic Was Wrong

Two words: Sick again. My thoughts of warding off any new sickness failed. Well I guess if you want to get techincal I haven't really failed since our latest sickness is not really new. It's the puking one again. But it could be a DIFFERENT one so the failure possiblity is high.

I get to do my favorite things. Clean puke out of the car seat. YAY!

I thought we were over this. I mean seriously my kids have never been this sick and I think in the past two months we've been to the doctor more then in their years of life.

I have nothing positive to say. I'm going to stop writing now or you will be subjected to a bunch of nasty four letter words and extreme usage of F*bombs.

07 April 2008

The Tantrum

Little Man is almost two, he will be two in a about three months. The first tantrum has reared it's ugly head. And boy was it ugly. If this is any indicator of how the next probably two years will be, boy do we have our work cut out for us. Sweet Girl has had her share of tantrums but it's been a while since we've had THIS kind of tantrum. And of course it had to be in public, no we can't have this type of screaming mess at home. What fun would that be?
It was at our favorite place...Target. And it was all over a bag of popcorn. Little Man wanted out of the cart. Our rule: the popcorn stays in the cart. This was not acceptable to Little Man. So he SCREAMED and SCREAMED (and yes it was loud) and he added a screaming NO in there when we started moving the cart and he couldn't have the corn. Oh he was PISSED. It was actually kind of funny. But only for a few moments.
He had to be removed from the store to the truck while Sweet Girl and I paid for our goods.

When we got back to the truck, Leo couldn't even get him in the seat. I was able to get him in but he was still pretty worked up. We were brave (or stupid, take your pick here) and decided to go out to lunch. Thankfully it turned out pretty good, except for the whole cup of sauce Little Man dumped on Leo's shorts and shoes, and the four forks that ended up on the floor. But both kids ate good and we even enjoyed a trip to Cold Stone.

Ice cream makes everything better. :)

04 April 2008

Over and Over and Over and Over

Somehow Sweet Girl's repeat button is stuck. She likes to repeat things over and over and over and well you get the idea. Being honest here, it's annoying the crap out of me. Here is an example, we are in the car and she has a baggie of snacks. She is apparently unhappy with its contents and wishes to add grapes to it. This is not a problem except we are in the car where normally I don't just keep a stash of grapes.

Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"
Me: "OK, we can get some when we get home"
Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"
Me: "OK Sweet Girl I'll get you some grapes when we get home"
Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"
Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"
Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"
Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"
Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"
Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"
Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"
Add whining and crying to it now...
Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"
Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"
Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"
Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"
Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"
Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"
Me: "I understand you want grapes, however right now I cannot get you any grapes since we are in the car so I'll get some some at home. Now stop whining please"
Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"
Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"
Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"
Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"
Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"
Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"
Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"
Sweet Girl: "I want grapes"

Now I turn up the radio so maybe it will drown out some of the whining, crying and incessant asking for the stupid (in my head I am calling them something much worse then stupid) grapes.

Eventually it works and she stops crying and I turn down the radio and guess what I hear "Mommy I want grapes".

Really? I had no idea you wanted grapes...

03 April 2008

I Float!

I enjoyed the first day of my rowing class by passing a "float test". I know now that I can float/tred water for 10 minutes in a long sleeved t-shirt and shorts without drowning. Yay! But that was in confines of a nice warm pool. I'm not sure how I would react by having to do this in the open water of the lake!
It was fun and I am looking forward to next Monday when we get into a boat and out on the water.

I hope I can literally row my ass off. And my arms too, so when I wave I don't wave multiple times.

01 April 2008

Trash, Boys and Major Appliances

Well apparently we don't feed Little Man enough food, I don't see HOW this is possible since he's basically always eating. His new favorite place to get food....the trash can. Yes my friends and family, Little Man is eating out of the trash. Even with food on the table, I guess the lure of the trash can is much more appealing. This is not the first time he's done this. Hopefully no one calls DHS on us now. For the record we do not eat of the trash, encourage eating out of the trash or any of the like. I guess he just does not want to waste food, he's being economical. Remember this is the same child that would purposely throw food on the floor in order to come back later and eat it. And would get QUITE upset if you picked it up off the floor and he saw you do it.

Sweet Girl is becoming quite popular in her new classroom. To the point of receiving hugs from boys upon arrival. When you ask her about it, she gets this sly little look and is all funny about naming the boys in her class. Leo starts asking her if they have good intentions and are they nice boys. I just roll my eyes and Sweet Girl just stares at him like he's got 100 eye balls. It really is quite funny the way she acts when discussing the boys in her class. I think Leo and I are kind of nervous now. She does have a picture of a former classmate from her old school on her nightstand. It's a cute picture and she still talks about him. Every day they went to school together he would take her on a plane to the beach. They liked each other so much, he had to celebrate his birthday at school a day later just so she would be there. That's toddler love right there.

Major appliance update. The microwave is still broken. We had a scare with the dishwasher. I was half excited since it might mean we could get rid of that retarded thing. But Leo got it working. Damn. And the air unit is working fine now. Yay.

And Leo and I experienced a loud noise at 12:30 AM, that woke us with a start. We still cannot find the source of it. Nothing makes sense. It was a loud beep, almost a millisecond of a house alarm. It was loud and woke us both up. Weird. Another haunted house??

Tomorrow I start a rowing class on Tempe Town Lake. I'm so excited, I've been interested in rowing for a long time. I can't wait to row in a boat. I bet you're singing row row row your boat now aren't you? Ha Ha, I sing it to myself every time I think about it. :)