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It was all fun and games…

23 Feb

Snow Angels

Having a Blast

 

You might be thinking – what was I thinking?  I couldn’t help myself though.  Nate was watching a cartoon and the little boys in it had on their hats and mittens and were having a blast playing in the snow. He looked at me and asked, “Snow?  Nate play?  Hat?”

What was I supposed to do?!  He was so sweet and I could tell how much he wanted to bundle up and dive in to the white stuff.  It would have never happened if it wasn’t for my sister and brother-in-law.  Whenever Brian mails us something, he loads it with stuff like the packaging peanuts.  I usually cringe when I see the stuff because it can make such a mess – it’s so funny what you’ll do for your children.

For the record though, about the mess, it took about 15 different runs of the Dyson to collect all the pieces – and there’s still some of it lingering around on the carpet and in my hair!

It was EVERYWHERE!

It was totally worth it

 

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The Cute Boy with the Cool Jacket

21 Feb

Nia was all smiles today when I picked her up from pre-school. You see, there is a new student in her class. His name is John.

I saw this John as I was waiting in the car line to get Nia. He walked out with her and their teacher and Nia was walking on her tiptoes, flashing her sweetest pretty princess smile.

She ballet-stepped her way into the car and immediately asked, “Momma, did you see John?  He’s the new boy I told you about. Did you see him? He runs fast. He’s a faster runner than me. I like his jacket. It has a map on it. It’s a cool jacket … ”  (It was a bomber style jacket and I’ll have to admit did look pretty cool.)

All I could do was smile and say a good bit of “uh-huhs” as she went on and on a mile a minute about John. I found out that he helped her clean up the kitchen set and that he sits at a different table and that he is nice and funnier than Will (another boy in her class) but he can also be shy. After all of that though, I still didn’t know what she really thought of him.

“So Nia, do you think John’s cute?”

“Ah (smiling) yeah!  John is cute.”

“Oh yeah? So you really like him huh?”

“Ah, (smiling bigger) I guess …  I think he likes me though.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because he helped me clean up the kitchen.”

OH! If it were only that simple! Our sweet Nia. I can’t believe how quickly she is becoming such a little miss. I just hope she will always be this open with me about boys! (Although I’m sure her daddy will disagree with me on that!)

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Patience Wanted: Apply Here

18 Feb

Stay-at-home mother of two, ages 4 and 2, is in need of patience immediately.  Must be willing to work long hours, lift 30 to 60 pounds (depending on whether both kids want to be held or need to be separated) and endure a short-tempered boss who loses it when asked the same question 20 times in a row.  Must have a proven track record of handling unnerving situations with ease while maintaining a calm composure.  Salary is negotiable between a bag of chips and a pint of Ben-n-Jerry’s.  Benefits include a few beers or a White Russian at the end of the day.

So there it is – my somewhat confession that my patience is gone.  Lost.  Or maybe it just ran away.  For Lent this year, I didn’t give up junk food, chocolate, cuss words – I made a promise to try and be more patient.  Well, the first weekend of Lent just so happened to be the trip to Philadelphia – so much for keeping it together then.  Now though, I feel as though I still haven’t really been trying.  The littlest things set me off – I already wrote about Nia asking me the same question over and over again (even though I answered her 2 or 3 times already) or repeating “Nate” over and over again until my eyes want to bulge out of my head as it pops off and explodes (I think Nate feels the same about that one).  Nate’s tantrums have another kind of effect on me.  I more want to bury my face in my hands and start crying.  He’s just exhausting.  Then there’s the both of them together.  The SCREAMING.  Oh my goodness.  The SCREAMING.  I know I’m going to be deaf.  I can almost feel the damage happening as the shrieks pierce my ears.

Well, so much for my period of peace as the kids rest.  I just heard Nate throw some things out of his crib.  As long as he doesn’t have poop on his hands like he did yesterday – I’ll be fine. Well, I’ll try to be anyway.
 

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The Sweetest of the Sweet

14 Feb

Nate and I crashed Nia’s Valentine’s Day party at her school today and I captured our little sweetie getting ready to dig in to her sweets –

Happy Little Valentine

They passed out cupcakes and chips for the students and Nia made sure her uninvited little brother didn’t miss out – holding her cupcake out for Nate to sample and loading him up with cheesy Doritos.

What more can I say?  That’s what Valentine’s Day is to me – love.  Pure and simple.

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Hotel Bathroom Blog

8 Feb

So here I am – in a fancy Philly hotel with a beautiful view of downtown – trapped in the bathroom as I agonizingly wait for Nate to stop fake crying and fall asleep.  Don’t worry, I’m not dropping the kids off at the pool or anything like that –  I’m just sitting on the beautifully tiled floor hoping that they clean it really well.

Nate and I should be at a wedding rehearsal with Andrew and Nia right now but the little angry man decided he was going to have a terrible-two fit and not eat and not take his nap.  (I mean, what did we think?  We did just have him strapped in his car seat for the most part of the last 24 hours!)  Nevertheless, a No-Nap-Nate wasn’t going to work for us because there was no way we would have been able to make it through a church rehearsal without causing a major scene.  Nope.  We – number 1 – aren’t that brave to test it out and – number 2 – aren’t that stupid to test it out.

Wow.  I wrote that whole last paragraph in peace.  I don’t hear Nate anymore.  That, of course, doesn’t mean he’s sleeping but still, at least I don’t have to be tortured with the whines anymore.  Nope, instead I’ll just be stuck in here – me, some toiletries and this computer until the battery dies because I left the adapter out in the room.

At least I have a yummy (free) dinner to look forward to tonight!  I’ve already got my fancy jewelry on that I got for Christmas!  I just hope I don’t smell like Eau-De-la-Toilet!

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The Best Hints Ever

3 Feb

Lately, Nia’s been playing this game where she’ll say, “Momma, guess what I am.  I have wings and I fly.”

I pretend like I don’t know and that I need some help. To that she replies, “It starts with a b-b-b sound. B-b-b. B-i.  B-i-r.  B-i-r-d.  Bird.”

It is the cutest and most interesting thing – watching her try to quiz me and then sound out the answers. I don’t know where she learned it but it amazes me and leaves me asking, who is less than 3 feet tall, completely adorable and super smart?  N-n-n.  N-i.  N-i-a.  Nia.  My Nia.
 

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Charge me with a B.U.I.

2 Feb

I’m now guilty of Blogging Under the Influence.

Yep, four beers (shouldn’t it technically be beer since you don’t put the ‘s’ on deer?)  – that’s all it takes to get my cheeks all warm and red.

I don’t really have any more to say – I just thought it would be fun to blog while buzzed.  (Although I’m sure I’ll regret it later. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve had to backspace to correct my intoxicated typos!)

I really wanted to write about the 2 and a half hours of my life that I can’t ever get back after I let a Kirby vacuum salesman into our house.  (I really wanted to tell you about it but I’m afraid I really needed the beer after the experience.  Stay tuned for the next post on why you shouldn’t ever answer your door to people you don’t know – that is unless you entered the Publishers Clearing House or the person has your amazon.com order or a bouquet of flowers!)
 

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Too Cute to Correct

31 Jan

Instead of “Getting on my nerves,” Nia says, “Getting on my nerds.”
 

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Why ya gotta diss the mermaid?

31 Jan

Sometimes I just don’t understand people.  They pass judgment left and right but never look at themselves with those same eyes.  Here’s my beef –

I’ve been trying to check out more and more blogs written by moms – partly because I’m looking for people who are going through the same things I am so I know I’m not the only one and partly because I am curious about how other people write about/capture their experiences. (You know, the whole art of it all and stuff.)

Well, I kind of wish I would have stuck to my old reliables!  I feel so dirty to have cheated on you!  And for what?  So I could get all pissed off after reading one mom’s opinions?  In one post she talks about how she’s banned The Little Mermaid from her house because Ariel is an anti-feminist who gives up her legs, her voice and her family after just seeing a man who’s twice her age.  The mom thinks she’s being a good parent to keep something like that from her children.  Fast forward a few blogs later where she posts pics of herself with her laptop on her lap and her sleeping child (appears to be between one and two years old) sleeping on her stomach right next to the computer.  I’m sorry, but before you go and say you are such a good parent by shielding your kids from the bad example that is The Little Mermaid, shouldn’t you consider the example you’re setting by choosing your computer over your child?

Now, I’m not saying using the computer around our kids is wrong.  (Please, I’m totally guilty of that and in some cases, people are paid to have their computers around all the time.)  My main issue with this mom is that she doesn’t see how skewed her thinking/actions are.  It’s cute to have my child drooling on my computer but not cute to have them enjoy a Disney classic? Besides, what about what Prince Eric did for Ariel?  He sacrificed his life to save hers and fell in love with her even when she didn’t have a freakin’ voice!  Now it may just be I’m feeling all passionate about this because I love my girl Ariel!  Sure, there are some days when I wish I hadn’t shared my love of Disney movies with Nia at such an early age (she already has every princess doll) but then I think why not?  THEY ARE MOVIES AND MOVIE CHARACTERS.  I mean, if my child thinks that the only way to deal with someone who is different or a confrontation is by grabbing pitch forks and torches while singing “Kill the Beast!” or the only way to get what they want is by going to see a gigantic witch octopus then I have a lot more to blame than a movie.

What’s really messed up about all of this – if it wasn’t for her dissing my BFF Ariel – I probably would have thought the picture of her child sleeping next to her computer was cute too!  I’m a total psycho!
 

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Gets Me Every Time

27 Jan

I don’t know why I do it to myself.  I just can’t help it.  For some reason, I enjoy (?) watching the same movies over and over again even though I know they are going to make me cry.  And, I don’t just mean a few tears.  I mean, I cry.  Hard.  My body shakes. My chin quivers. I leak so much liquid from my face that my sleeves alone aren’t enough to handle the mess.  Even after I’m finished sobbing and I’m calm, the tears still sneak out of my eyes. Slowly sliding down the sides of my face.

I even get mad if something happens to prevent me from crying during a movie.  For example, if Andrew stares at me and smiles when he knows I’m about to cry – ah!  I end up having to tell him to stop looking at me and then all that built up emotion is ruined and I can’t cry anymore!  I really wanted to cry dammit!

What is all that about?!

One of the worst (best?) movies that has the power of me is The Green Mile.  It’s been on a lot lately and we’ve watched it a lot.  It gets me every time.  I lose it.  One of the times I was actually ironing something – so there I was – standing, bawling, iron in my hand, frozen, hysterical.  Even the Disney cartoon Mulan does it to me.  The kids will be watching it and I’ll be cooking or cleaning through the majority it and then, I pay attention to it for a few minutes.  That’s all it takes.

I guess, maybe it’s not so much that I enjoy watching sad movies. I think I’m just an emotional person who enjoys movies.  Whether sad or funny or a thriller or a sci-fi flick, I am addicted.  Especially to the ones that are powerful, beautiful, touching, hilarious, surprising, real and an overall amazing piece of entertainment.  For me though, there’s a lot of those. They bring tears to my eyes just thinking about them…

How about you?
 

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