Happy Fourth of July

Happy Independence Day! 

May God Bless America and May God Bless all the brave Americans who are serving, or have served, our awesome country.

Have a safe and happy holiday.

Daddy’s Day ’10

My kiddies have the BEST Daddy in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD, so we had to do it up right.  The day started with ME making the breakfast.  If you’ve joined me here before, or know me, then you also know that I can’t/don’t cook.  Well, I had to give my hubbie a break on Father’s Day so he was “treated” to my whole wheat French toast, which I kindly coated with tons of powdered sugar, fresh berries, and thick maple syrup.  I added a side of strong coffee, so it was all good!

Then I quickly moved on to the gifts!  The best presents were all the cards including the special homemade cards from Bean and Annabel.

Then hubbie was off to the spa for a 90 minute massage followed by a sushi lunch at the bar all by himself.  This is how we do Mother’s Day and Father’s Day at our house.  The reward of being so awesome and involved in your children’s lives all year long is a special day where you get to spend time ALL ALONE.  IT’S THE BEST.

But then our family quickly regrouped for a grand finale dinner at the Outback Steakhouse! 

GG joined us and it was super yummy.  For some reason we all ordered the fresh veggie side so there was an insane amount of green broccoli all over the table and I wish I had taken a picture of that.  I am glad that I did NOT  take a picture of Annabel’s meltdown when she could not hold her milk cup right or balance a piece of penne pasta on one spoke of her fork.  But other than that, we survived the Father’s Day dinner.  Hubbie had a beer so all was right with the world.

I just wanted to say thank you again, Baby.  Thank you for another amazing year as Daddy.

And just like the Father’s Day card said: You sure know how to make a kid feel loved and a wife feel lucky. 

I love you.

Happy Mama’s Day!

Happy Mother’s Day to my mom.  My sister.  My mother-in-law. My sister-in-law. All my mommy friends.  All the moms who read this website.  Have a great day.  We all deserve it.  I have so many cool Mama’s Day Weekend stories to share.  But I’ll get to ALL THAT this week.  I just got off a plane with my son and I’m EXHAUSTED.  I’m ready to relax.  Wine and TIVO awaits!  Cheers!

Easter Eggs ’10

So I’m a little late writing about our Easter celebrations because of this giant blue Easter egg that landed on my kid’s forehead:

But we’ll get back to that in a minute.

Now that I have a PRESCHOOLER, Easter celebrations start a week early.  Daniel’s assignment was to create a one-of-a-kind Easter bonnet/hat for his school Easter parade.  I, of course, being the awesome Mom that I am, called up GG (Hubbie’s mother) and gave her the assignment right away.  She is very creative when it comes to these type of art projects and she actually LOVES to do them, so WIN-WIN!

GG and Daniel made the coolest Easter top hat EVER and it was the hit of the parade!  (GG also made Annabel an Easter hat too.  And it was pink, of course.)

Bean then participated in his first ever school Easter Egg Hunt! It was perfect weather and all the kids had a blast.  But what is up with the non traditional eggs?  (Check out Bean’s basket.) I miss the standard, old-school neon colors.  Maybe I’m old fashioned.  Or sentimental.  Probably both.

I also recently joined our neighborhood “Mommy Group.”  This is my first venture into the world of Mommy Groups. And let me tell you, I was a little nervous about it. But it’s been really wonderful.  One mom organized an Easter Egg Hunt in our neighborhood park the Thursday before Easter.  (This was great because our annual downtown Easter Egg Hunt was canceled this year?!) We all contributed 6 eggs per kid.  The kids played on the playground, had snacks in the park gazebo, and then ran around to find the eggs.  I actually had to borrow snacks and sunscreen.  I guess my OCD organizational skills go to the wayside when I’m worried about meeting a brand new group of people.  I should really relax because we all had the best time. 

Then it was Easter Sunday!  The Easter Bunny brought Daniel and Annabel some books, a toy, and the most important ingredients, a chocolate bunny and jelly beans.  After ALMOST making it through the entire Easter Sunday church service, we were back home trying to stop two kiddies from eating all of their chocolate bunny and jelly beans before our Honey Baked Ham dinner. (Our Easter tradition is to pick up a Honey Baked Ham.  Once a year we do this and OH, it is SO GOOD.)

But before dinner could start, Daniel decided to fall on the kitchen tile.   And when I say fall, I mean he SLAMMED his head on the floor. It was such a loud smack that it was SCARY.  He screamed.  I think I transcended to another place in my brain.  I was so panicked I just kept thanking God my husband was home to be the calm, cool, rational player in all this.  He said that Bean needed to go to the emergency room.  I gathered the shoes and keys and off they went as I watched this huge, disgusting bruise grow before my eyes.  The ER doctor said all his vitals were fine. We passed on the CAT Scan in exchange for watching him closely for 24 hours.  He rallied and came home for dinner and we ended everything on a semi-happier note.

It was definitely an Easter I will never forget.

Will You Be My Valentine?

Part of the fun of having a preschooler actually IN SCHOOL is experiencing all the neat holiday stuff.  Bean celebrated Valentine’s Day this week at his preschool and I got to take my kid to the store to pick out his very first box of Valentines.  The teacher said they could include a piece of candy or a sticker with their Valentine card.  The first thing I noticed was that most of the cards came with candy or sticker included.  Wow, that is SO 2010.  I’m sure it was also SO 2009 and SO 2008, but I have never done this before.  Those Hallmark people really make it easy for you. 

Bean picked out these cute “Toy Story” cards that included a Disney lollipop with the letter “D” on it.  (Get it?  “D” for Daniel. Cute, right?)  So we sat down over the weekend and picked out cards for the 12 kids in his class while he wrote his name on each one in red or pink crayon.  He only ate two lollipops, I think.   It was fun.

Well, today was the best day ever because Daniel brought home an entire bag of Valentines from school.  He was THRILLED.  Yep, it BLEW HIS MIND.

One friend gave him pretzels (Healthy!)  One friend gave him a long fruit roll-up tape dispenser (Interesting!) Lots of friends gave him candy and lollipops (Holy Grail!)  He even got a magnet photo frame from his teacher.  It was a blast to experience this all for the first time with my son.  

I remember when I was in fourth grade and I got my very first “secret” Valentine.  That’s when we decorated empty cereal boxes with construction paper, glue and glitter to create our Valentine’s mailbox.  Maybe it’s a LITTLE embarrassing, but I’ve actually kept that ”secret” Valentine card in a memory box all these years. 

I love the homemade pink construction paper heart.  I love that it actually says from “?”

I think I told him “Yes.”  Actually, I don’t remember.  But isn’t this the sweetest thing ever?  It still makes me smile.  The innocence of it all makes me smile.   It’s just a fun memory that makes me realize that my kiddies will have so many of these fun memories in their future.  And I get to experience it all again. 

Being a Mom is pretty fantastic.

Holiday Rooooooooooad ’09

I am now drowning in laundry and new toys and excess body weight, but it was SO worth it.  We had an amazing holiday road trip. 

I think it was because the kiddies are now at the ages where everything is just a LITTLE BIT easier.  Daniel no longer requires diapers (Hooray!) or a travel booster seat or a special cup or spoon or fork or bowl or, and this is the BEST part, a Pack ‘n Play to sleep in!  He slept on his “floor bed” – a super cute Lightning McQueen inflatable sleeping bag.  Annabel still requires all the above items, but I wasn’t gasping every single time she walked along Pop Pop’s marble tile or cruised past the hotel room’s glass coffee table. 

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at home with GG and then we were up and down the East Coast stopping off in North Carolina and Maryland to see the rest of the family.  There was one common factor at every leg of the tour: IT WAS COLD.  That was a special treat for Daniel and Annabel since they have never seen snow nor have they felt that bone chilling wind.  I was bummed that they didn’t actually get to see snow FALL to the ground, but Daniel did toss icy snow balls at my face and Annabel touched a patch of snow with her pink mitten and then screamed for me to pick her up. 

The BEST part of the trip was all the “quality time” (or rather the “running around, dancing, jumping, toy playing, junk food eating, beer and wine drinking, TV watching, comfy clothes wearing time”) with Pop Pop, Queen, Grandma, Grandpa, Miss Aunt Marsha, My Uncle Kevin, Maddie, Kate and Baby Luke.

Now we are back home in Florida and a little sad and a little sick (Bean woke up with a nasty cold and now must postpone his very first day of preschool – UGH), but I’m ready for a brand new year.  Hello 2010!  It is very weird to write that when I’m still staring at a December calendar above my desk. 

Well, we’ll miss you Christmas.  See you next year.

Merry Christmas ’09

Christmas Cookies

My amazing husband is the chef of the family.  I wrote all about it HERE and HERE.  He loves to cook and is really, really good at it.  Everything he makes is super yummy.  But now he has ventured into my territory: Baking. 

I’ve been perfecting my baking skills all this year by rolling out tons of blueberry muffins, banana bread, pumpkin bread, brownies, cupcakes and cookies.  I was going to make Christmas cookies for Santa, but my husband decided HE wanted to do it instead. 

Here is the video of the hubbie and Bean having a blast making cookies for Santa.  Happy Holidays!  Enjoy! 

PS: They are DELICIOUS!

22 months

Tomorrow Annabel is 22 months old.  The best word to describe her at this stage in the game: CRAZY. 

I say this partly kidding and, well, partly NOT kidding.  She is a bunch of fun and honestly one of the best parts of my day is when I get her after her nap and she screams with glee!  She smushes her little face into a cute, funny smile and reaches for me with all her might.  We hug and cuddle and kiss.  But then she starts SCREAMING for her Hello Kitty doll or her Minnie Mouse doll and struggles and twists when I try and change her diaper.  She runs to the kitchen for a snack and AWAY WE GO.  She is ten times the ball of energy she was at 18 months.  She knows what she wants and she wants it - NOW.  The moment she has any type of freedom from her stroller, she starts to run away from me like a crazy wild child.   I don’t know if she would stop or even look back if I didn’t snatch her up in 2 seconds. 

She is also in that crazy stage of wanting something and then NOT wanting it and then wanting it AGAIN and then NO, YOU DIDN’T GIVE IT TO ME FAST ENOUGH LADY SO NOW I DON’T WANT IT ANYMORE.  DON’T YOU GET IT ?  It’s very frustrating, but I also have to giggle.  Maybe it’s because she’s my second child, but I really don’t freak out about her outbursts as much as I thought I would.  She has meltdowns at Target, at Gymboree, at the dinner table, really anywhere and at anytime.  Sometimes they are little and I can appease her with food or a toy.  Sometimes I just sit and watch and marvel at the craziness of it all until she calms down.

We went to get portraits taken at Sears on Sunday and there was one salvageable shot of Annabel. It was taken one second after I placed her on the “X” on the floor of the studio.  (QUICK.  SNAP IT!) After that, there was NOTHING we could do to get her to stop “fish flopping” around.  No puppet, no gimmick, she was just done for the day.  And forget SMILING.  I was just trying to get her to be STILL. 

Today was the mall visit to see Santa Claus.  I was very pessimistic, but, again, you never know what to expect with my baby girl.  She was an absolute darling to all the strangers waiting in the long line.  She smiled and played peek-a-boo with everyone.  She looked and pointed at all the fake snow and fake trees.  Then, after 45 minutes, it was the MOMENT OF TRUTH.  Here is our 2009 Santa photo:

 I love you crazy girl.

The Annual Christmas Card Photo

It’s always an adventure to plan and execute our annual family Christmas card photo.  Every year I decide we need to be practical and just go to a professional photography studio. But then the thought of getting the kiddies dressed, keeping them clean and happy while we try to get a DECENT photo within the designated time period, well, yeah, that thought just equals loads of STRESS.  So we always buckle down and pick a Sunday to stay home and just GET IT DONE.

The first year we did the photo, Bean was only 4 months old.  We dressed him in a cute red Santa suit and took about twenty photos of him laying on the bed before he started to squirm and cry. 

The second year, I think we had 250 different shots of Daniel wandering all around the house.  But then we took him outside (barefoot) and he plopped down in the front yard and smiled.  DONE. 

Last year was the first year with Annabel.  She was 10 months old and Daniel was 2.  We finally got a shot of the two of them laughing in front of the Christmas Tree. It took over an hour of dancing, playing  puppets, making faces, and throwing things in the air to get that ONE laughing smile.  We were EXHAUSTED.

This year, Annabel was sick.  She’s had a snotty cold since Thursday and I almost canceled the in-house photo shoot we had planned for Sunday. But time was running out to get these Christmas cards ordered and mailed, so we had to take a deep breath and just go for it.  By the end of the day, Bean had finished off two “treat” bowls of whipped cream (bribes) and Annabel was just…OVER IT. 

But…we did it!  We got the photo!  (Christmas is indeed a time for Miracles.)

Now I can finally cross this off my holiday “to do” list and worry about all the OTHER things like shipping out all these gifts piling up in my bedroom closet and trying to find a pair of shoes to wear to the hubbie’s company holiday party on Friday night. Phew.

Here are some 2009 Christmas card photo ”outtakes” from Sunday morning…AND afternoon.  It was a LONG (but really fun) day.

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