Help me write my Valentine

Following last week's events I'm not complaining about the boring week we've had so far. Nope not one bit.

Friday will be a fun day if we all stay healthy so I'm focusing on that instead of succumbing to the fear that something like what happened last Wednesday night will happen again. Focus Mary. Focus on the positive. We have Ty's first Valentine's Day party to look forward to.

My first shot at being Super Mom. At least to his school friends. If you believe that that's what I'm going for you don't know me very well. I'm sort of an underachiever. To me, showing up and no one wearing their lunch on their shirt means it's a great day. Let's get real, though, Joy usually ends up wearing all three meals (and snacks,) on her shirt. She's a baby cut her some slack.

I hope to be creative and fun again one day. For now, I'm relying on Big Lots craft finds.

One big bag of mini Play Doh tubs + One silver paint pen + Foam hearts: Magical valentines for Ty's classmates.

Maybe not magical but certainly practical. The moms in his class will probably love the fact that I didn't add more sugar to their little cherubs' bags. The kids, however, will probably learn that Ty's mom is no fun at all. Until they have a rainy day at home and their mom pulls the mini tub of Play Doh out and they suddenly find me super exciting. I'm secure enough to wait for the latter.
If you were me what would you write on these little dude's cards? There are a few dudettes too...I'm thinking about, "Thanks for being a great friend!" but is there anything more, well, exciting to write? When I ask Ty he says, "Valentine! It's red! It's white! Mom it's a Valentine!" That's the extent of it. He IS in a speech program, remember? We're a little challenged in that area. Thanks in advance for your help.

Blast from the past

I took the girls to my parents house to hopefully beat the inevitable-that they would both catch The Croup as we now call it. Guess what. It worked! At least so far...

While hanging around my hometown I tried out a new restaurant and loved it. The look, the food, the people. Well see for yourself.






Cool, isn't it? They have fantastic Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches.





Look. Yum.





This one liked the fries. No surprises there.





After her belly was full-literally-look at her sweater-we put her in bed and her life was complete.





Here's the front of the place. Taken with my phone of course so you can probably see my reflection...it's called Byrons. Can't wait to go back!

And on to the title of my post: a blast from the past. This was our family at the State Fair last year. Technically two Octobers ago. I was pregnant with Joy and feeling nauseous and lucky for me fried food tastes really good when I'm not feeling great. Weird I know. The Fair was not shy about sharing it's food with me. Corn dog, funnel cake, twister fries and all. And the occasional Diet Coke.

You know, just to even things out.






Other than Sean looking miserable we had a good time. See, even though he grew up in the same area he didn't grow up going to the State Fair??????? It's still a mystery to him really. But he goes and hardly complains now. I think he's realized it's one of those things about me (and my family) he'd better just get used to.

Ain't marriage grand?

Right now just to appease him and his desire for Mexican food I'm going to make a new batch of chipotle salsa. I call salsa hot sauce, (another mystery to him,) and never eat much of it at home. Going out to eat, now that's where I make my sacrifice. Only to make him happy of course.

I'm rambling. Y'all have a great day. If you live in my area, what is up with the rain? I mean really.

Ok I'm done.

Thank you thank you very much

Well he woke up two nights ago gasping for breath. I thought I knew what croup was but I have now learned what it CAN be the hard way. The scary way. The "should I take him to the hospital right now" way. I now know what striper is. I know what it sounds like and how much it can freak both mother and boy out.

You think Sean was home? Oh don't be silly. Of course he wasn't. For about two minutes I seriously weighed Ty's life against my future prison sentence for leaving my girls unattended in their cribs until I could get another person in my house.

Had the shower/stand outside in the rain combo not worked the second time, I'd have chosen prison. But it worked. And for the next 6 hours following the initial coughing/choking episode, I lay awake beside him praying it wouldn't happen again.

It did. Two more times. The additional shower/stand outside in the rain combos worked. Each time we finished and he calmed down I told myself if we made it through the night I'd buy him something fabulous. As scared as I was it was nothing compared to how scared he was. Oh Lord he was scared.

By 5 am my mom had gotten there to stay with the girls so I could take him to the Dr. He got a steroid shot and was a miserable insane child for the rest of the day. Steroids are necessary but you've heard how I feel about the demons they bring out in my kids. Crazy crazies I tell you.

So anyway.

Once things calmed down a bit I went to Walmart and came home with a guitar that he hasn't put down since. Best 30 dollars I've ever spent. He now has a drum set, a violin, a toy guitar, and a real guitar. The family band should make it onto YouTube soon.

You're welcome.

The magic of Northpark

It was magical. It was spur-of-the-moment but we managed to score helpers to meet us there. It was a chance to practice showing our teeth, (practicing how to smile on command for pictures.)

For some reason I thought if I did it too he'd copy me. It's as if I forgot he was in front of me instead of facing me.

A fountain! Wow. A thing of sheer delight.

Popeye, have you seen this? It's the most beautiful (only) fountain I've ever seen!

They have fancy places to eat at Northpark. Take a look at our spread.

Joy practicing her new favorite move: The I wish I could get onto my feet from this position half herky. Does anyone know how to spell herky? Send me a message. Thanks. Spell check doesn't know what to do with me.
Ah her all-time favorite position. I have no idea how she can hold herself like that for any amount of time. It's like a constant ab workout.
Wow look at the pretty flowers. Let's see how fast I can run in all this open space! And there's mud! Woohoo
Our attempt at a pose. We were in the middle of looking at the ducks and turtles so as you can see, the kids all wanted to break free from the big people.

Oh freedom AND a tile floor=better than Disneyland.

Hey look! Nattie and Popeye are here! Sean worked weird days this week so I thought I'd do something different as well. When I picked Ty up from school I had the wild hair idea to go to Northpark and beg Emmy to meet us there. I didn't have to beg her because as it turned out she needed an excuse to skip her run. Done. I'm always good for that. When I told Mom we were going there she talked to Dad and I may or may not have played the "But you haven't seen the kids in over a week" card and it totally worked. Mom+Dad+Emmy=an easy outing for me!
When we were little kids my mom didn't let us do this but since it was before she got there Emmy and I decided to let the kids have at it. Mom, sorry. I know it's making you cringe.

Wow! Ducks! Turtles!

Charlie as close to Tiffany's as she's gonna get until her Mr. Wonderful goes shopping for her there. Honey, it's glamorous an all but a tad overpriced. We'll go to the New York store one day. Pinky swear. Except I don't.

Aunt Emmy and Joy making the rounds. I love this picture.

The End.

Where there's a ceiling there's a leak

I don't have a picture of the ceiling. Sorry. I do have pictures of the kids though. Are you still mad? That I didn't show the leak? See, I believe women don't really care about that stuff as much as men do. Sean and I have a Sonic drink bet about this so y'all back me up. We don't really care about seeing something like that-we just want to know if it's gonna, you know, mess up our activities and/or cost a lot to fix. How it gets fixed? WHO CARES.

Maybe I'm wrong. Either way, I don't have pictures. The plumber said it was the seal around the toilet that was off/broken/not put on correctly so instead of having to call a roofer like we thought we would for the mysterious leak that would show up during rain storms???? he fixed it and all we have left to do is the dry wall. Well, not we as in WE but the dry wall guy. Remember when Sean fell through the attic? We're gonna use the same guy who fixed the dry wall then. God love him. Not the guy, Sean. That was so funny and I'd kind of forgotten about how funny it was. Now I'm laughing and Joy is looking at me like, "Oh good, you finally get my joke!"

Anyway.

Here are some pictures of the kids from this week so far...

Joy eating her smaller-than-bite-sized grapes that I furiously cut up so she won't have the chance of choking on them. It takes her about 15 seconds to pick up each piece they're so small so it's also a great time-killer.
Here are her latest Ross shoes-Robeez that I got for 9 dollars that I think are pretty cute and match everything an almost 9-month-old girl has in her closet. Almost 9 months old. Wow. Time has flown with this little toot.
Oh hi honey. There you are! She doesn't really like saucers anymore but I trap her in them outside so she doesn't hurt herself or crawl into Max's deposits. You know, deposits. You with me? She looks more like Sean in this picture than she really looks like him I think. Hmmm
Awwww big hug. If pictures could talk you'd hear me say, "Charlie, I SAID DO NOT PICK BABY JOY UP." I say that approximately 57 times every day now. Charlie is obsessed with picking her up and Joy thinks she's big enough to trust so she just reaches her arms up like, "Sure, let's do this." We have to intervene or there'd be a trip to the ER every other day.
Once Charlie gives up she just kind of pats Joy on the head. Like a dog. She calls her "Sister, Baby Joy, or Friend." I don't know where she gets that. :)
I had the brilliant idea to have Sean take pictures of Ty playing the drums this past Sunday so we could print a picture for Ty to look at. Y'all, he is so proud of it he takes it everywhere.

"There's Ty playing the drums. That's ME that's Ty playing the drums at church. The blue drums and the sticks and the cymbals. That's ME!"

It's his most prized possession right now and I'm sending it with him to school Thursday for show and tell. Isn't it hilarious that his little class of three year-olds has show and tell? Oh to be a fly on the wall!

Okay the girls are up. Northpark date with Aunt Emmy. It'll be great to get out of this house!

I think that's bad

When water drips from a light fixture that's bad, right? Yep I thought so. When it drips enough to drench the couch in the living room then that's a new level of bad, right?

Great.

Thanks.

This is how excited I am about this new development.







You're welcome.

Look you can see my pigment mustache in this picture. Thank you, motherhood for the concealer-dependent state I am now in for the rest of my life. Did this happen to anyone else? Come on be honest.

Giver

I've noticed Charlie giving us things lately. Giving me a cookie from her little snack trap bowl. Giving Ty his drink when she finds it. Giving Joy a toy when I haven't even asked her to. Yes there are times when I HAVE asked her to and man is that nice. She gives Sean a glance that she never gives me. It's the classic Daddy glance. The "Don't you think I'm cute?" glance. You know the one.

She gives Max things. Usually food from her plate, which she knows not to do. She gives Ty the toy she's playing with if he wants it. She gives Joy food too. Remember when I (thankfully,) pulled four cashews out of Joy's mouth? Joy has already learned to be quiet when she's doing something she's not supposed to and now that I'm on to her I've retreived whole grapes, (I'm terrified of grapes around babies-you should see how small I cut them. It's one of my unnecessary obsessions), Bobby pins, pretzel sticks, and the remote off her high chair tray: all put there by Charlie.

She's a giver.

Giving me grief when I try to leave to run errands while Sean is home. Giving Ty his drum sticks even when he isn't allowed to play his drums. Giving her Daddy half-eaten apples that she gets tired of, (almost every day she begs for the whole apple to carry it around, then gets tired of it.) Giving pats on the back when I pick her up and hug her. Giving squeals at the pet store every time EVERY TIME the bird looks her direction. Giving Elmo his own blanket in her bed so he won't get cold. Giving Joy her bottle when she gets fussy.

She's a giver. And I'm so glad God made her just the way she is.



This is how I found her after her nap. I'm not sure how that ties into anything but I couldn't NOT share it.