Thoughts on a Thursday morning

Kate is home from school today.  They have 2 days off for Parent Teacher Conferences.  She's happily lounging around doing nothing, Aidan is already napping, and I'm going to blog about whatever pops into my head!

Kate is apparently a "delight to have in class."  Her teacher said she's very cooperative, works really well with others and is a good friend.  She's learning to read up a storm, doing well with math, but still is thrown for a loop on her birthday and phone number.  It's so funny how last year it wasn't a big deal with the birthday but now that they've thrown in the year she was born she's forgetting the rest of it.  She sometimes remembers our phone # but I don't really blame her.  That's why you have a cell phone to store all those numbers right? :-)

Recommended Movie of the week: "Up".  Super cute, great family film.  Even if you don't have kids to watch with you, I highly recommend it.  We've taken to renting $1.00 movies from the redboxes all over town.  We may be behind the times in some areas, but at least we have the redbox.  My favorite feature is that you can peruse the movies online, find one you like, search for a nearby box that has it in, and reserve it.  You walk up, swipe your credit card, and it vends your movie like a bag of chips.  Genius!  No more waiting out in the cold, trying to decide what you want.  I wish I was the guy that had come up with that one!

Speaking of cold.  Brrrr!  I'm more then over this cold spell.  I'm tired of chances of snow, snow, wind chills, Winter storm watches and warnings, blizzards, and ice.  Bring on the heat index and sun.  I wanna go to the pool and the park.  I want to wear shorts and flip flops and plan vacations to the beach that won't happen.  Well I guess I could do that now.

Pretty cool looking tree in the from yard but not to thrilled about the fact that it's stayed like that all week.

Speaking of vacations that won't happen... My husband sent me a lovely text message yesterday that said, "Going to Germany and Italy in March for work."  My response: "I don't think so."  I quickly followed up with "Oh wait... How nice."   The "How nice" is is a reference to one of my favorite jokes.  But seriously how unfair is this?  He's going to be out visiting castles and spending $100.00 for just himself on dinner while I'm here in stupid, cold, Kansas.  Grrrrr.   He'll be gone at least 6 days and maybe longer.  The Germany part is for sure and the Italy part is TBD today I think.  I suppose if I had an extra 2 grand, Kate wasn't in school, Aidan was older,  plus some more moolah to expedite some quickie passport renewals I could live it up shopping for cuckoo clocks too.

Who wants to go here?

I discovered the other day that an old credit card I haven't used in more then 2 years with no balance has all these rewards points on it that you can exchange for all kinds of merchandise for free.  Apparently I have enough to get me a lightweight vacuum among other things.  No more crushed up puffs and cracker crumbs because I'm too lazy to drag out the big boy.

I've been working on an invitation for my niece Ava's 1st birthday coming up next month.  Here's a little owl I worked on yesterday to go on the invite.

10 Months

Dear Aidan:

Today you turn 10 months!  It's kind of hard to believe you've been out in this world a month longer then I carried you.  When I was pregnant with you, you liked to kick me like crazy at night, during the day, and everywhere in between.  I imagined that when you came out you'd be this crazy, hyper little baby.  I imagined sleepless nights and a fiery attitude.  You surprised me when from the very beginning you developed an easygoing, sweet nature.  I marveled at how easy you were.  You slept through the night early.  You didn't cry much.  You were always content to just be.  

Now the little bouncing baby that did gymnastics in my belly has finally made his appearance.  You are filled with curiosity and an endless supply of energy.  Your sweetness and go with the flow attitude is still ever-present.  But now you're vocal and funny.  Sleep seems a little more over-rated some days but we don't talk much about that anymore since it tends to jinx things.  You crack us all up with your adorable laughs and we especially enjoy your new "drunken" cackle where you throw your head back,  then fall to the ground.

You've learned to say Mama, Dada, and more.  You're working on saying kitty but I know it's a hard one.  You adore the cats and laugh every time Mr. Kitty walks by.  Just today you cracked yourself up by trying to feed him part of your graham cracker.  You love playing with your sister.  You discovered the joys of your 1st toy car and refrigerator magnets have become the key to my success in the kitchen.  If it looks like you shouldn't play with it you want it and bad.  You've genuinely surprised me in your accepting any food we've offered.  We're hoping your sister will not want to be shown up by a baby and enjoy potatoes one day as much as you do.  You've mastered drinking from one of your sippy cups and finally have figured out how to gum finger foods without gagging yourself.  

You crawl, pull up, let go, and fall down with no concern.  You discovered crawling the stairs will make Mommy say "No" and make you grin.  You turn around before trying and check with me to see if it's still the same answer.  You're into taking toilet paper off the roll, digging through boxes, bags, and drawers, and  every time I come at you with the camera as long as you're not tired or getting distracted it's like you know you're supposed to smile and ham it up.  You've taken to nibbling on everything- even if it's attached to your Mommy and Daddy.  We're going to have to work on that one.  But your sweet baby slobbers, goofy grins, and cuddles more then make up for it.

I can't believe that in 2 months from today you'll be 1 whole year old!  To instill a little competitive nature in you... just so you know, you have 2 weeks to learn to walk if you want to beat or tie with your big sister!  But we won't be too sad if you want to hold off for a while.  You're growing up too fast and Mama needs to build up some more stamina to chase after you!

Love,
Your occasionally tired but ever grateful Mama

New laugh

Yesterday we discovered that Aidan has developed a new way of laughing.  He does this high pitched, throw your head back, and fall to the floor thing.  See for yourself.  But you may have a hard time hearing his laugh since it's "slightly" over-powered by us laughing hysterically.  Trust me though it's hilarious in person!  It cracks me up!

Snow explained

While talking the other day about this weekend's impending snowstorm...
Kate: "How do they make snow?"
Me: "They?  Who do you think they is?"
Kate: "I don't know.  Probably Santa Clause or something."

There you have it.  No wonder snow is so magical to children.

February photo shoot

The day of Kate's Valentine's party at school my little cuties were wearing their Valentine's day shirts so I thought I'd take them outside in the warmish weather and snap a few photos.  You can't see but Aidan's shirt says "I Mommy and the back says "and Mommy me"  It's really precious- trust me!

Happy Valentine's Day

Yep it's not Valentine's anymore and I hear it's not really February 17.  But who's keeping check anyway?
Nothing much to say.  I just thought I'd share some pics of my beautiful kids taken on Valentine's day at my parent's house.

Technically the day before (but it's technically not the day it says it is. What?)

Valentine's bags are for chewing

Miss Kate

Playing with his first toy car he got from Mimi and Dude.  He loves that thing!

Mama put your high heels on we're goin' to town!

Since moving to Kansas where I have no family and don't really know anyone I'd feel comfortable asking to babysit my kids... date nights are few and far between.  I mean I'd leave Kate with plenty of people.  She's pretty independent and would probably love to do hair and makeup with some college girl.  But Aidan... dear Aidan.  He's a different story.  I think he'd be fine.  But would I?  He is in the stranger/separation anxiety stage and I don't know how he'd do.  But none of that really matters since I'm not overly concerned enough to do the legwork and find someone suitable and give it a try.  I hear you have to pay people to watch your children when you're not related.  Hmph.

So Valentine's day was coming up and we were planning a little trip down to Oklahoma because I still after more then 2 years refuse to let go of 2 very important Oklahoma connections: my cell phone number and my hairdresser.  My parent's had graciously offered been volunteered to take our little cherubs for the night so Mama and Dada could have a date.  Yes a real date.  Like where I get to wear a dress, heels, AND panty hose.

Before kids and when Kate was little I pooh-poohed (how does one spell that?) Valentine's Day.  I thought it was ridiculously commercialized and stupid.  A waste of money, a day designed to make you feel bad for a whole year of not being "loving" enough to your significant other.  We resigned to put on pajamas and cook breakfast for dinner.  It was our anti-Valentine's day tradition.  Of course if my husband didn't show up that day with flowers or some trinket you could forget about breakfast for dinner.  You see I was a woman who pretended not to like Valentine's day because of all the reasons people don't like it yet I secretly wanted my husband to swoop in and do all the traditional things one does for their lady love to surprise me or somehow change my mind about this wretched day.  We women are ridiculous aren't we?

Anyway... this little tradition worked for a while.  But after 2 kids, a move, and very little alone time, I decided that tradition was nearly as dumb an idea as Valentine's day itself.  So we decided to take advantage of it being the weekend of love and having someone to watch our kiddos and we took to the big town of Oklahoma City.  Of course we didn't have reservations anywhere.  We tried to get a reservation for Saturday night on the Thursday before and the people on the phone should have just laughed and then hung up.

But by the "miracle" of Valentine's day some other couple decided that the pressure was just too enormous and canceled their reservation at this little gem at the prime eating time of 6:30 on the Saturday night of Valentine's weekend and as fate would have it I just wondered onto their online reservation website at just the right moment and snagged it up.  I headed over to my hairdresser, got my hair cut, colored, and styled up, fretted over what color of panty hose to buy, got dressed, and headed out.

Yes it was expensive. But Oh was it worth it.  You see I'm not a big steak fan.  If I'm eating a steak it's gotta have some sort of sauce on top to cover up what I've been told is just a bad steak.  But this place knows how to do a steak.  I gave it the highest compliment by saying it was perfect just the way they cooked it.  Salt, pepper, and butter.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Tasty, tasty.  After dinner we did what every couple does after  a fancy dinner and headed over to the mall.

Enjoy some pictures of us before our delightful Valentine's date.  I wasn't even being sarcastic that time!    

He got me flowers!  I didn't even have to prompt him!  Except for that tiny little conversation the week before when I might have mentioned that women should receive flowers at the VERY least on the following occasions: Birthday, Anniversary, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, and whenever they push or have a baby cut out of them.  I might have been kidding just a little.

Normal pose

Nervous prom date pose

Maternity pose (NO there is NOT a baby in there!)

I don't even know

Outside love pose

Kissy kissy pose

School Valentine party

Kate had her school Valentine's party today.  (It was today wasn't it? )  Hmmm.   They made cute little flowerpots with paper flowers and suckers and hurried through decorating rice crispy treats and chomping on chocolate covered pretzels.  I wised up this time and didn't repeat my Halloween class party experience and toted Aidan in in his stroller.  As I told one of the other Moms he would tear this place up faster then the whole class of Kindergartners combined.  He tolerated watching the kids and only fussed to get out right at the end.  

Kate working on her flowerpot she made for her Mom.  Shh it's a surprise!

I tried to bribe good behavior out of him with lots of toys, books, snacks, and a little juice.

Aidan looking unimpressed while Kate and one of her classmates pose away.

Since I like to fancy myself a card designer,  I made her personalized little Valentine's cards to hand out to her class.  Aren't they cute?

front

back

I know it's a little wrong but I couldn't help myself

Continuing to dress my little boy up in things some might say or better suited to little girls, I present you with my little fairy.  Yes I know he's going to get me back for this one day.  But he is wearing a shirt that has a bull on it and says "Little Bully."  That's sure to macho things up a bit.  He's so cute I could eat him up!

Childhood revisited

As a child growing up in Oklahoma we were lucky if we had 1 or 2 good snows a year.  Then you were super lucky if that snow was significant enough to actually play in or build a snowman.  My parents somewhere found or likely ordered us a sled for the rare occasions when we could slowly but surely make it down the ever so slightly sloped back yard.  But hey we didn't complain.  It was Oklahoma after all.  No one we knew owned a sled so we felt pretty cool.  In Oklahoma you slide down "hills" on giant tupperware lids or cardboard boxes but never a sled!  We never went skiing or to anywhere with a really big hill so we didn't think we were missing out on anything.  So this past weekend ( yea it's Feb. 2 right?) Kate and I slapped on the snow gear and headed outside to enjoy the snow before it started to melt.  It made me realize that I'm getting older and don't have the same energy I once did but I can make a snow princess with the best of them!

Then we did a mini photo shoot out in the snow before returning inside smelling like wet puppy dogs!

Overheard

Daniel: (while watching the cartoon Phineas and Ferb... "Is it wrong that the other day I came downstairs and watched Phineas and Ferb when Kate wasn't even down here?"

Me: "Was it on when you turned the TV on or did you change the channel to watch it?

Daniel: "I changed the channel.   But there was really nothing on.  It was either this or an episode of Dirty Jobs I didn't really like."

Me: "Yes.  It's wrong."