Dang it!

So I thought I would paint the 4 shutters on the front of our house. I went from maroon to brown, so not a huge change. Just a little face lift. We had a couple come by to look at the house and I had only painted two. So I told them "I'll paint those other two shutters tomorrow" Then as we were walking around to the back yard he pointed to the EIGHT shutters down the side of the house (8 on each side!) and said "Are you going to paint those too?" I totally forgot about the side shutters. Well that's maybe not true. I thought we didn't have any. Now my simple quick face lift is a project that will take several days, lots more paint and a tall ladder. Dang it, man!

A little too young

Here is the crazyness that goes on when we visit Jen's house. Also, don't call family services on me...we checked the seal before giving him the bottles. Also, Jen did this....not me :)

It's a big day around here

Somebody is learning how to play Mario

Happy Birthday Squish!!!!

Today my little man turned three. It's very bittersweet. Partly because I'm starting to believe all those gals who tell me that three is worse than two. That attitude gets bigger as they do! But mostly my Squishy-tush is a sweet man who loves to laugh and make everyone around him do the same.  He is so tough and makes his daddy super proud every time he hits a baseball or plays his super imaginative games. They will set up epic battles with all of his "men" (in fact, that is what's happening in my living room right now, even though it's past bedtime....guess everybody parties on their birthday) Last night I snuck into his room and talked to him about the fact that this was the last time he would ever go to bed as a two year old. I said goodbye to my little two year old boy and told him that I was looking forward to meeting three year old Squish in the morning. Then I cried some.

This morning we had another special pancake breakfast (we're becoming big fans of special pancakes around here.) Jen taught me a super cool new way to do pancakes and here are today's results.

We played around the house and Gaggi and Pop sent a big balloon bouquet. As soon as Squish got his hands on it one of them popped and that sent him in a little tailspin but he pulled it together and had TONS of fun with his balloons. He has to keep them in his room cause little Bear wants to get his hands on them so bad he can taste it!

Then Jen and Wibef came for hot dogs on the grill.

There were also cupcakes.

 They liked the cupcakes.

A lot.

Bear the Dare Devil

This kid scares me.....

A lot.

Squish-A-Palooza



Bear spent a few days with Gaggi and Pop last week so Lou and I could have some time with Squish. The thought was that it would help with the jealousy and when Bear got back Squish would be much nicer to him and stop beating the fool out of him on a daily basis....ask me if it worked. We went to Chuck E. Cheese the first day and spent the whole morning feeding coins to each game and ride he had his heart set on and then watching him crawl around on the suspended playground.

The next day we started out with a special pancake breakfast

Then we went to the lake to play on the sprayground

Then we took Daddy to the doctor and he got to watch some great action across the street

Pretty great couple of days for an almost 3 year old, if you ask me. A couple of times he asked where Bear was. Usually in the mornings when he gets the dog and takes him to see Bear (something I didn't even know he did until this little adventure) But now the Bear is home and Squish continues to bully him, so we failed at meeting our main goal for the trip. But we had tons of fun and got to spend time alone with Squish for the first time since Bear was born...so I'll call it a win

More on the Bear

Bear said his first two word sentence today. "Bye Pop." So cute...and may have broken Gaggi's heart

yay Poop!!

Little Bear pooped on the potty tonight. It was a total accident and I have no plans to potty train anytime soon. But the boys were in the tub and I heard the tell tale tooting coming from him and I thought "I better get him out of there" (he's been known to be a tub pooper) but instead of putting him in his night-time diaper I just sat him on the potty and read him a book while Squish continued to play in the tub. And wouldn't you know it...poop:) Again...totally accident, but still a pretty big deal.

I'm a little jealous

So Squish has been SUPER mean to our little Bear the past few days. Lots of pushing and hitting and scratching. I'm trying to figure out what the problem is. He was sent to play in his room alone several times today because we told him that our family plays nice and if he couldn't play nice that he couldn't be in the playroom with the family. I've asked him over and over what the issue is and gotten nothing from him. Lou asked him tonight, though, and he said "I'm a little bit jealous" So we asked him what he was jealous of and he said "You and Mommy and Bear." We've always made a huge effort to be equal with the boys and if I'm being honest, Squish usually gets the lions share of everything. It comes with the territory when you're older. But we got to thinking and, while he has spent a few weekends at Gaggi and Pop's and Bear had us all to himself, Squish has not had any alone time with us in the 15 months since Bear was born. So, sometime this week we are planning to send Bear on his first overnight trip to Gaggi and Pop's so we can get some quality time with Squish. Hopefully that will help!:)

Hi-Ya!

We took Squish to a trial karate class yesterday. I think he enjoyed it but it doesn't seem to be a super fit. I wanted him to go so he sould start working on a little structure, discipline and self-control. But it was a little too much structure for a 3 year old, I think. It was just a bit boring. I think 3 may be too young for karate. We're going to try one more class next week and see what we think. We are going to a tumbling class today. The description for the class said that it is a "loud, high energy class" that seems a bit more like my son.

home sweet home

We are FINALLY back from vacation. We had such a wonderful time but I'm also super glad to be home. I could tell that the lack of routine and good sleep was really wearing on the boys. They (especially Squish) have been so much more pleasant since we've been back.

I usually joke/complain that my house looks like a daycare center. We have a living room/dining room combo and the dining room serves as our playroom so when you walk in the front door you can see all of the boys stuff. Sometimes there is a bounce house blown up in there, we really let them have run of the place. I realized while we were gone just how easy that makes my life. It's pretty much kid-proof around here. I can come and go (you know switch laundry, make lunch, pee....all those little luxuries I afford myself) and know that the boys will be busy, happy and relatively safe (they're boys...they can find the danger in a cotton ball....especially Bear) I missed that relaxed freedom while we were gone.

I've been doing TONS of work around the house to get things ready for our big, possibly not even happening move. I'm toying with the idea of starting another blog just to keep track of all my projects. I may have caught the blogging bug there, JEN. If people actually read mine I may even be inclined to post more than once a week.

Squish has been telling me lately that I am a sweetie pie. Only he can't make the SW sound so he says "Mommy, you're a feety pie." I'll take it.

Bear has been working on two teeth for about a week now. He's miserable with it. I feel so sorry for him

Back to the real world

We have been at the beach since last Thursday. It was wonderful. Gaggi and Pop have a condo right on the beach, and for us, you really can't beat the rates:) We went in Thursday morning and they came Sunday night. Here are some highlights....

- Going to the beach with two toddlers...NOT relaxing at all.
-Bear isn't even a little bit afraid of the water...not even a little bit. He would just get up and head to the ocean, all by himself. Not even pausing to wait for a grown up.
-One afternoon Bear got up and started walking back to the condo (it's quite a trek from the water up to the building) I kept turning him back towards our prime beach spot but every time I spun him he would start crying. He would walk a little farther up the beach and I would try to work him back down and he just kept getting more frustrated. Finally he started yelling POOW! POOW! and I figured out that he was trying to go to the pool.
-Squish and I were walking up to the main pool and as we walked through the smaller pool area there was an Arab family. He took off for the pool and I very quickly and slightly sharply said "No Squish, we aren't going to this pool!" I was saying it in that manner because my 3 yr old was running for the water while I was holding a huge bag and all of our towels and couldn't get to him fast enough to keep him from slinging his little non-swimming body into the deep end. But then I started to worry that the family there may have been offended and thought I wasn't staying there because of them. I became even more worried that we had offended them when Squish commented (VERY loudly) about the woman with the family who had her head wrap on "Mommy, that lady looks like Medusa!" All I could think was "This has international incident written all over it."
-We made a pit stop at Lou's parents house and that's where we are tonight.  I'm a little worried now. We spent 6 days at the beach, the last few with one set of Grandparents. Now we are visiting with another set of Grandparents. These kids may be horrible to live with once we get home where there is no pool, no sand, no ocean and worst of all...no grandparents to spoil them!