Happy New Year!

Just wanted to point out a new blog that I've added. It's my 101 things to do in 1001 days. It's my version of a New Year's Resolution.

Can you believe it's been 10 years since all that Y2K hysteria??? LOL

Announcement

Henceforth, Little Sister will be referred to as Sweet Pea. That is all.

It's a Christmas Miracle

Three days late.

Yesterday, Little Sister took a nap...by herself...in her bed...for over 2 hours.

We're still singing Christmas songs...

Mini Me is still wishing me a Happy Birthday (my birthday was almost 4 months ago), so it seems perfectly normal that we will be singing Christmas songs until the Fourth of July.



Here are some pics & video from Christmas. Sorry for the blurry pics, my attention was more on the action than the photography.

Santa and his reindeer ate the cookies & milk we left. Oh, and carrots too.

Back to Belly

Little Sister rolled from her back to her belly for the first time. Uh oh! We're in trouble now!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Merry Christmas everybody! Hope Santa brings you everything you wished for and more.

Track Santa's journey here

knock knock

We have entered the world of knock knock jokes. Well, a 3 year olds version, anyway...

My favorite from yesterday:

Knock Knock

Who's there?

Tomato

Tomato who?

A tomato is something you eat


Knock Knock

Who's there?

Grocery store

Grocery store who?

A place to buy food


These make no sense, but I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes. She tries so hard....

Visit with Santa: Part 2

After last weeks attempt, my new strategy was to be there early, so that we were near the front of the line. But, that also meant that I would be taking the girls by myself.

Not a big deal as I routinely take them places alone.

So, we get ready. I dress the girls in their coordinating Christmas-y clothes and we head out. We make a quick stop at the mall to pick up an ornament. That's when I noticed Mini Me standing funny. I paid for the ornament and as we started to walk away, I checked Mini Me's pants. Sure enough, they were wet. Her first accident. And, really weird since earlier that day, we had been at Target and she told me she had to go and was fine.

OK. So, we ran home, I fed Little Sister, got Mini Me cleaned up and put her in jeans since I could also change LS into jeans with their Christmas-y tops and they'd still match and be festive. I asked Mini Me AGAIN if she had to pee, then we left.

We got to the store and I asked Mini Me again if she had to pee. No.

We get in line. We were 5th in line. 2 minutes before Santa arrives and no more than 2 minutes after the last time I ask her about going pee, I again notice Mini Me standing still. Are you kidding me???? Yup, she had wet her pants AGAIN! 2 accidents in 2 hours. And, this from a kid who almost never has accidents (unless its attention seeking while she's in time out...but that's a whole other post).

So, I took her to the bathroom and the ONLY dry bottoms were a pair of pink leggings we had in the bag from her tumbling class. They looked ridiculous with her red & white top. So, I put her jacket back on her. Of course, Little Sister was screaming the whole time we were in the bathroom because she HATES her infant seat...

By the time we got back to Santa, the line was long. We waited and finally got a picture. So, yes, there is a reason that one kid is dressed and the other isn't. I thought about taking them back again to get a better picture, but I don't think I will. Something tells me that this year, we just aren't meant to have a good picture. But, hey...at least neither kid is screaming and it was free. Gotta love Bass Pro Shops!

Here it is:

A Christmas Elf...

...puked on my kid.

You'd better not pout...

Santa

So, a few weeks ago, we took the girls to our town's tree lighting event. It was cute. But, it caused a little confusion for Mini Me.

See, Santa arrived on a fire truck. And, Mini Me's Uncle D is a firefighter.

So, in perfect (almost) 3 year old logic: Uncle D is Santa.

We'll leave chocolate chip cookies & milk for you Uncle D.

We're weren't the only crazy ones...

Yesterday was by far, the coldest day we've had around here in many months. The wind was pretty strong, which added to the artic chill.

But, we had planned a few weeks ago to take Mini Me to an outdoor activity last night because we knew that hubby would have the day off and we'd be able to get there when the place opened and be out of there before it got too crowded (Mini Me isn't one for waiting in lines).


Well, we were a little behind schedule, but we just beat the rush. The place was kinda neat, tons of light displays and stuff. The biggest draw for Mini Me was the train ride. And, at least it was out of the wind and semi-warm. I'm really glad we decided to get on the train when we did because by the time we got off, the line had gotten really long. And, the place was starting to get busy.


Did I mention that it was freezing last night. Like, in the 20's???? It was a bit cold, but we were bundled up and were able to duck inside every little while. At least we weren't the only crazy ones...


While inside, there was an author of a children's book there selling his book and having the star of his book "pawtograph" the book. Mini Me loved the moose so much, that we bought the book. It was a feel good purchase since the guy wasn't a mass producer of literature. I think he was just a grandpa who wrote a book for his grandkids and self published it.

We also saw Santa, who wasn't really a big hit. Overall, it was a successful night. The girls even went to bed without a problem, even after sleeping in the car on the way home. Here are some pics:

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Much to my husbands dismay, we put up the Christmas tree last week. Here's a pictorial account of how it went down.

While I was hiking through the forest to select and cut down the perfect tree pulling our artificial tree out of the box, Mini Me was supposed to be watching Snow White. I don't think she did.

Every 2.5 seconds I heard, "Is it ready yet?"

"Is it ready yet?"

"Is it ready yet?"

"Is it ready yet?"

"Is it ready yet?"

Are you tired of this yet? Because I could keep going. God knows she did.

After wanting to stuff my ears full of prickly fake pine needles for half an hour, the tree looked something like this:

It is a pre-lit tree, you know-just like in nature. So, I plugged that bad boy in and it looked something like:

Hmmm. So, I re-checked all the segments. Unplugged and re-plugged all the segments in still listening to "Is it ready yet?" And, it looked like this:

Sh!t

So, I dug through the boxes and found several strings of lights, and then it looked more like:

Finally, I was able to tell Mini Me that it was ready and gave her ornaments to decorate the tree.

What did she do? Throw a fit about not wanting to decorate the f'ing tree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I kid you not.

So, after almost an hour of begging me to decorate the tree, it took another half an hour to bribe convince her to do it:

(Excuse the crazy outfit, she's still having a hard time pulling her jeans down by herself, so at home, we live in pj bottoms and sweatpants so she can go potty by herself)

And, the final outcome:

This is how I spend most of my day...

Excuse the disaster...cleaning has taken a serious hit lately. Wearing a baby is kind of like being pregnant all over again, but this time with kicks and punches from the outside. Oh, yeah. And the crying...

They Might Be Giants, but not really

In an attempt to find music that is both appropriate for a preschooler, yet not mind-numbing for me, I introduced Mini Me to They Might Be Giants. We've been listening to them for several months now and when I heard that they were going to be playing and having a signing at our local bookstore, I knew I had to take Mini Me.

We got there half an hour early and the store was already packed with parents and kids. There were also several, um other people. You know Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons? Yup, he was there. Several of "them" actually. It was quite an interesting crowd.

When they came out, Mini me was excited, but seemed a bit disappointed. I guess I failed to mention to her that they were, in fact, not REAL giants. LOL whoops!

Anyway, she had a great time dancing with her friends and was very happy. It was a good time all around. There is actually a really funny picture of Mini Me lifting her shirt up-she didn't learn that from me, I swear! I'm innocent! Incredibly funny (she'd gonna be a TMBG groupie, ha ha ha) but I didn't really feel it was appropriate to post here. Here are some other pics:

Visit with Santa: Part 1

We are planning to take Mini Me to see Santa in a couple of days. I've been avoiding the malls because really, there's no need to see Santa before Thanksgiving.

So, after Santa "arrived" at the end of the Thanksgiving Day Parade, I figured it was safe. I needed to run to the mall to pick up a couple of things, but had no intention of actually going to see Santa.

Just my luck, Santa was stationed right outside the 2 stores I needed to go into.

However, Mini Me would have none of it. She stopped in her tracks, and only would walk past with prompting. When I asked her if she wanted to go see Santa, she said, "That's not the real one!"

What could I possibly say to that? LOL

Candy House: Year 2

This was the start of our annual tradition.

Note to self: Next year, take the time to follow the directions. See, I did read the directions. It instructed me to trim the pieces so that they would fit together properly. I promptly ignored those directions, because a.) I needed to get it assembled ASAP because I had a kid who was desperate to decorate the candy house and b.) I knew it wasn't going to be a masterpiece anyway.

Um, yeah. It was a pain in the @$$ to assemble and I can never get the frosting/glue to be the right consistency. Why didn't I pick an easier, less frustrating tradition?!?!??!

I was hoping that each year, we'd get better at it. You be the judge:

So many posts, so little time

I have a million posts in my head, waiting to be written. And just as many pictures to post.

::sigh::

Neighbor Update

Sadly, we just found out that our neighbor did indeed pass away on Saturday.

In his memory, I've added a new charity to the list.

www.unitedspinal.org