#1 Piece of Advice for People Under My Roof

C and Bean are sitting on either side of me, watching Sesame Street while I take advantage of some baby free time to work on photos.  C, looks at me and grins...  and then slooooowly extends her index finger and heads towards my keyboard...

"Buttons!"

"No, C."

Her finger keeps moving towards the keys... as the distance closes, her grin widens.

"BUTTONS!"

"No, C!  Don't push my buttons!"

Heh.  Hehe.  Sound advice for life with a happy Mama, wouldn't you say?

Smooshies!

He's got crater sized dimples, delicious chubby cheeks, and sparkly baby blues. 

That combo makes it easy to forgive him when he grabs my face with his two meaty little hands and chews. 

Well, come to think of it, that's pretty cute too. 

Slobbery, but cute. 

There's Something I'd Never Thought I'd Threaten

Today I managed to get our little family out the door to church.  (OK, full disclosure, Shaun was home and so it wasn't a solo deal as it would normally be).   Last week's snow pushed our annual Christmas service to this week so Bean made a Christmas tree ornament that looked like a tiny baby Jesus in a little manger.  She was VERY proud of her ornament.  In fact, every time it came across C's vision, she would screech, "BABY JEEEESUS!  BABY JEEEESUS!  Peas?  Peas?  Have BABY JEEEESUS?!"

Needless to say, Bean didn't want to give it up.  "But I don't want to share my baby Jesus!"

"JEEEESUS!  BABY JEEESUS!"

And so on... and so on...  It got a little crazy.

Anyway, after lunch, I was trying to hurry Bean into her car seat so I could help her buckle up and she was being a trifle difficult.  "Mama, I can't buckle the top buckle.  I can't reach it."  "Mama, my arms are tired."  "Mama, I want YOU to do it."  Etc., etc., etc.

Finally, my patience were shot and I snapped at her,

"BEAN!  If you don't get your arms into those car seat straps right now, I'M GOING TO TAKE BABY JESUS AWAY!"

She got her arms into the straps.

C piped up, "BABY JEEEEEESUS!  HAB IT!!!"

Oh good glory.

Merry Christmas!

May you and yours be blessed this Christmas season and all year long!

Wash The Dishes, Do The Laundry...

I've often joked that the only reason I have kids is to raise tiny indentured servants that will do my bidding. 

Kidding, of course.

The only reason I have kids is to do that AND to take care of me in my old age. 

Obviously. 

But in order to make indentured servants worthy of earning their keep, I'm finding that I need to invest considerable time in teaching them the finer arts of how to clean. 

Yesterday, I was coaching Bean on how to remember the proper location for her toys as opposed to pushing them out of sight into another room.  (She's quite masterful in the realm of "out of sight, out of mind")  She became more and more exasperated and completed each assigned task with the maximum amount of huffing and sighing that she could get away with. (Which isn't much). 

Finally, she had enough of my instruction, and turned towards me, hands on hips, and said,

"MooooOOOOOM!  I am NOT Cinderella!"

Heh! Not yet, kiddo...  But now that you mention it...  those dishes could use some washing... and the laundry needs doing... and hey, the toilets?  Hmmm.... 

Cinderelly, Cinderelly
Night and day it's Cinderelly
Make the fire, fix the breakfast
Wash the dishes, do the mopping
 

And the sweeping and the dusting
They always keep her hopping  

She goes around in circles
Till she's very, very dizzy
Still they holler

Keep a-busy Cinderelly!

A Poll - Indulge Me, Please?

So, answer me this, my friends...

Is it completely nosy to ask a friend if they're planning/hoping to have more children?

Or is that one of those utterly taboo questions you should leave well enough alone? 

Obviously, exceptions made for very close friends, (who most would ask) and near strangers, (who I imagine most wouldn't).

Weigh in, folks! 

At Least I'll Have Seen It Coming

Bean's in a funny stage lately.  She sings.  A lot. About EVERYTHING. 

She hums and sings and until recently, the vast majority of her songs consisted of exactly 5 words, sung over and over and over and over. 

"Mommy is making foooood.  Mommy is making FOOOD!  Moooooooommmy is making food."

Over and over. 

And over.

And while that was driving me crazy cute, I'm very glad that her songs are developing into nice, storytelling ballads instead. 

Except, her songs are a trifle... dark. 

The other day, she lined up her animal figurines and one by one she tipped them over, singing, "allllll creatures must diiiiie.  All creatures die!  They all die!  And when they diiiiie, they fall over!"  in the cheeriest voice imaginable. 

Erm, ok.  I mean, it's true and all, but um, a song topic? 

And then today, in the car,

"Santa won't bring the presents and Christmas isn't cooooooming!   Because everyone was bad, bad, and my Mommy said NOOOOOOO.   No more presents for anyone!  But thennnnnn, Mrs. Clause said we have to rescuuuuue Sannnnta!  Or Christmas will be goooooone!"

Where does she get this stuff?  I mean, really? 

Sometimes she sings about cheerier stuff, so I think I can safely assume she won't be pulling out the black clothes and Emo music anytime soon. 

I hope. 

Little Things

Let's not kid around here...  I'm not getting a whit of sleep.  It's C-Rex, Part Deaux. 

But it won't last forever.  (I hope so, at least.)

For now, I'll enjoy moments like this...  Sayer has to be holding something, anything, to fall asleep...  that time, it happened to be my nose. 

I didn't mind :)

And Now We Truly Know Which Kid Takes After Me

Yesterday, the whole family was in the car headed to various places for the evening.  As usual, it was a trifle chaotic.  Sayer was squealing, C was erm, singing.  Shaun and I were trying to have a conversation.  And Bean was declaring loudly for everyone to hear that she did NOT want to hear anyone else. 

I told her to hold her ears. 

That worked for a minute.  (Probably less).  Then again, "I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR OTHER PEOPLE TALKIN'!"

I rolled my eyes, sighed and asked the impossible question, "Why?"

"Because I am GRUMPY and I do NOT want to LISTEN to ANYONE!"

"OK, Bean, just chill for a bit, ok?  We're almost there."

There was a momentary lull in the cacophony before it started up again, double the decibel level. 

Bean screeched, "EVERYBODY NEEDS TO BE QUIET!!  PLEASE!"

And from the back seat, a little voice,

"Sister, chill!  Chill, Sissy, CHILL! CHILL SISSY!" 

(You can imagine the effect that had on the car... needless to say, Bean didn't think it was quite as funny as the rest of us did). 

A Good Friend...

A good friend is someone you can text when things get a little hairy...

JEN:  Ok, I'm done mothering.  Is 5pm too early for bedtime?

A great friend is someone who makes you crack up with Harry Potter allusions.


AMY:  Oh no!  No chocolate in the house?  Because I imagine how you're feeling right now is similar to a Dementor attack.

And a fantastic friend is someone who laughs just as hard at yours.   

JEN:  HAHA!  I'm beginning to think I need to summon a Patronus in the shape of Supernanny.   

(And come on, you know you wish you were us.  We emanate cool.  It oozes from our Harry Potter loving pores.)

Giveaway! General Mills Movie Cash!

Well, it's been awhile, friends, but alas, a giveaway is afoot.

General Mills is currently giving away movie tickets!  If you buy two specially marked packages of General Mills' cereals, you can get one free movie ticket through moviecash by using the codes inside each box.

And bonus (or curse, depending on how you look at it), the participating brands are all delightfully sweet...  Honey Nut Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Lucky Charms, Trix and Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs.

If your house is like our house, those are the "Mommy and Daddy" cereals for consumption when the kids aren't around.

Comment on this post for a chance to win four e-movie cash certificates, (worth $12 each) and a coupon for a free General Mills cereal.  If you'd like, include a good movie recommendation!  My husband likes to remind me that it's been ages since we've last seen a movie and I'm thinking it's time to catch one.  (But it better be good!)

Contest ends midnight on Sunday, December 13th.  Get a second entry if you tweet about this contest.  (Must post a separate comment with your twitter name :)

The must knows:  I was provided with 2 Movie gift packs of four e-tickets, product information and 2 coupons for free cereal from General Mills through MyBlogSpark in order to write this review.  (One to keep and one to give away).

Bunkies

I hate change.  I really do.  So I railed heavily against the inevitable change necessary in our house.  In order to fit our kids into rooms other than our own, we needed to bunk up the girls and give Sayer the smaller room that C was in.

I didn't wanna.

Because really, what good could come from combining two girls in one room?  Nothing!  Nothing could come of it but things like early mornings, yelling and talking before bed, waking each other up, and mischief.

Come on people, you KNOW it's true.

So understandably, I procrastinated.

"Oh, Sayer is fine in our room!  We don't mind!"  Shaun would raise an eyebrow at me when I'd say that, recalling the need to whisper and tiptoe around the sleeping baby next to our bed.

"I want to wait for ____ to happen before we change them over!"

"Well, we'll eventually do it...  I mean, maybe soon?"

Yeah, I made LOTS of excuses.  (Who could blame me?)

Anyway, vacation forced our hand.  When traveling, most kids aren't afforded the luxury of having their own rooms.  So, *deep breath* we bunked them up.

The first night was ok.  At least that's what Shaun said.  I wasn't there.

The second night was a little more insane.  C shrieked, Bean fussed, and there was general chaos all around.

That chaos ended up with both girls in a full sized bed together, head to toe.  C was enamored with the idea of a big bed and Bean liked the novelty.  But they fell asleep that way, so that worked.

The next night, the chaos erupted again, this time in the form of a VERY tired and VERY cranky Bean.  I jokingly told Shaun that if Bean wouldn't stop carrying on like a baby, maybe he should stick her in the crib.

He did.

And wouldn't you guess...  not a peep from either of them.

So vacation went onward and by the end, they were actually going to bed well with no fussing.

Moral of the story?  If you want me to do something I don't want to do, force my hand with a vacation.

Preferably one with a tropical beach and drinks with umbrellas.

(And oh, the girls are sleeping in their rightful places... Bean's crib days were numbered).

A Very, Merry, Quirky Christmas

I love Christmas.  I make no secret of it.  I love Christmas and Christmas trees and presents and candles and evergreen wreaths, cookies and cakes, parties and play, families and food.  Christmas is awesome. 

But GAH, the commercialism.  It's bad.  Worse yet is that it starts BEFORE HALLOWEEN! 

Buy!  Buy!  Buy!  Spend!  Spend!  Spend!

I like buying a good gift as much as the rest of them.  I love the look on someone's face when I can give them something that they really love.

I married a bit of a Scrooge.  He likes Christmas alright.  (He really is one of the best present givers I've ever met. 

 He's been harassing me for years about my love for cutting down Christmas trees.  "Are you SURE you don't want a fake tree this year?"

"Do you KNOW, $40 will feed a kid in Africa for a MONTH!"

Every time, I glare at him and say, "NO."  No, no, NO.  NO.  That's my favorite tradition.  The tramping through the field in the cold.  The fighting over who picked the prettiest tree.  The pine needles all over the--

Wait a sec.

I caved.  I told him that we didn't have to do a real Christmas tree this year. 

I had been reading through blogs and came across this entry in Vitafamilae.  I was struck by how lovely their tree turned out.  Then I read their reasoning and was sold. 

So that's what I suggested.  A bare tree. 

He heard "free" and he was sold. 

So that's what we did.

And in my opinion?  It couldn't be lovelier. 

May you challenge yourself this holiday season to find ways to change, to serve, and to love.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Isn't it pretty?

Oy

It's been awhile, no?

We're mostly settled in at home after a 2 week vacation in Texas. 

I think I have a vacation hangover. 

Anyone want to sponsor a vacation for me?  Alone?  (Ok, maybe Shaun too?) 

No one?  Fine. 

I'll settle for 5 minutes alone in a bathroom. 

(And now for something completely different.  A completely unrelated picture of my squishy ball of cute.  Come on, you know you love it.  I certainly do.)