Spring Break anyone?

So I know it's not March anymore.  I know it's barely April.  But in an attempt to get back on track with my blogging I'm going back and highlighting a few of our high points over the last month- starting with my little Spring Break trip.  I won't go into great detail except to say it was nice to get away, the kids had fun, Aidan learned the car seat wasn't always his friend, I wish it had been a little warmer down by the water, and Daniel made me glad I wasn't in Germany because they would have made me eat pigeon.  Eeeh.

Kate & Aidan enjoy riding my poor Dad like a horse the night before we left

Aidan and my Dad on a balcony at the beach house

Always ready to pose for a picture

Not so eager to pose for a picture but was eager to get at the camera

Posing inside a touristy shark's mouth outside one of the stores

Thanks Dad for cutting out my butt

Did I mention she likes to pose?

Enjoying his 1st beach trip and new sand toys

Recreating a similar picture I have with Kate from 2 years ago

Mom & Dad- Can you tell she probably wasn't amused by something he was doing in that moment?

Getting dirty

He loved driving with my Dad on the beach

Group shot-not so great

He's a cutie

So is this one

They play so well together until he realizes she's stolen his toys

Who Knew

Who knew we were operating a safe haven/boarding house for all the kitties of the neighborhood?  The little guy who frequently sleeps on our front porch wasn't even involved this time or the Sammy look alike that picks on him occasionally.  I dropped Kate off from school and looked out the back window to discover this little cat pow wow.  I've never seen any of them before but 1 of them could have been a different Sammy twin and the other Mr. Kitty's.  Eventually they all sat down and sunned in our back yard.  Maybe it's more like we're operating a kitty day spa.  It was weird.  Then our cats started freaking out at the front door and I started smelling cat pee.  I opened it to watch yet another cat run away that I've never seen before who had apparently sprayed our front door.  So I figured as I explained to Kate one of the kitties is a girl and the other cats want to be her "boyfriend."  So then I guess we're kind of running more of a cheap motel.

"Over my dead body."

Beach or Bust

Well since Saturday I have spent all my free Internet time searching the great www for a place to rent for Spring Break.  Apparently I am going to be a bad Mom and take my Kindergartner out of school for the week before Spring Break and head down to the Texas coast with my parents while my husband lives it up in Germany.  Have I mentioned that he will be touring castles and gets 100.00 for just himself for dinner?  Did I also mention his boss might have told him on more then 1 occasion that prostitution was legal there but that he couldn't expense it.  Really?  REALLY? (insert disapproving tone and face when saying the "Really")  Anyway....

So my parents have graciously provided a sponsorship for a beach vacation for me and my kids and my husband's work is sponsoring a European one complete with glowing hooker endorsements for him.  Everyone wins!  I actually am excited to be going.  I got the OK from Kate's teacher, got Aidan some cute swimwear last night at trusty Target and if I can survive a 1 day car trip to Port Aransas, TX from central Oklahoma then I'm set.  I'm going to get to relive my youth and travel in the backseat with not 1 but both of my children.  So I guess if my children start hitting me and burping a lot then they'll be an equal trade for my little brother.  With stops we're predicting it to take about 12 hours.  As in half a day.  Are we insane?  I'm very interested to see how well we're all going to fit and which one of the 5 of us cries first.

I learned a lot during my searching.  For one, there are almost no properties left for the week of March 15-19 when apparently everyone except the state of Kansas is on Spring Break and apparently also wants to be at the beach.  Somehow we managed to score a pretty nice little house not too far from the beach.  I personally think it was just because it wasn't really well advertised on 5 different sites like a lot of the other houses.  But someone else's loss is another one's gain right?  I also learned google maps shuts down and gets very irritated when you put a space in between 2 words that shouldn't have one.  It refuses to show you anything that might possibly be what you're talking about.  I also remembered how much I want to live in a tourist town.

When we went to Hawaii and few years ago I remember thinking how lucky the girl who rented us our car was.  I mean sure she's stuck all day renting out cars to tourists but she lives in Hawaii!  She gets to stay there and so many people have to go back home.  That IS her home.  I can just imagine whenever someone returns a car because they have to go back to their boring lives in Kansas she's thinking, "Ahh. Poor midwesterners.  Poor babies have to go home.  But not me!  Ha Ha Ha Ha."  That's how I'd be anyway.

So yee-haw!  Texas here I come!

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.