TWELVE YEARS!!!!

I'll be offline most of the weekend, as Prince Charming and I will be celebrating our twelfth anniversary. How is it possible I'm old enough to be married for this long?!?!? I feel young anyway, LOL! We've lived in Charleston, SC, Groton, CT, Newport, RI, Virginia Beach, VA, Chesapeake, VA, and a few towns around Houston. He's given me the best two anniversary presents ever, circa our anniversaries in '03 and '05, albeit one I'm not really ready to repeat this year just yet, so we're going to just spend the weekend hanging out on the lake with our girls.

"That's called comma!"

I was watching Reba in reruns last night (yes, Reba. I LOVE that show. If you watched it, you'd love it too. Barbara Jean and Cheyenne? Freaking HILARIOUS!!!!). Anyway, Cheyenne was talking about her sister Kyra (or Kira, not really sure how they spell that name.) and karma. Reba looked surprised that she knew what karma was and Cheyenne said in her inimitable way "Yeah, mom, it's Buddhist for 'I'm rubber, you're glue' ". I laughed my butt off. My mom is half-mortified, half-tickled that my girls get the concept of karma. We're Baptists, but I believe there's nothing wrong from learning that you reap what you sow ;) And it's fun to stand there and say "that's what we call karma" when they get what's coming to them.

So, about a week ago, we were at the mall, playing at the Children's Museum. After an hour or so, we decided to go to the food court for lunch. There were these two ADORABLE little boys with their dad. The older one was happily torturing the younger one, while the blissfully oblivious dad talked on his cell phone. Finally, the younger son got fed up with the torture and yelled "DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!", at which point the older boy turned to run away as fast as he could, only he ran smack into a stroller (not mine) and tripped and went sprawling and then scrambled up and ran right into a pillar in the walkway. He was fine, but I almost wet my pants when HRH, walking up on the scene, turned to the older son and said "that's called comma". And nodded not unlike Mary Poppins when imparting some of her infinite wisdom, lol.

My, those words are tasty!

We've all eaten our words before (except for maybe my big sister Keri, she can't help it, she was made 98% perfect, it's her burden to bear in life, and we love her anyway ;) ). My most flaming examples seem to be in regards to parenting. I was one of those people who knew SO much about parenting before I had children. I HAD, after all, babysat all of my life and taught preschool/daycares as my only real job. So I WAS an expert, right? I thought so! Since the appearance in our little familia of HRH and the Hurricane, I have discovered that maybe (just MAYBE) I was not quite as naturally gifted on this subject as I previously assumed (perish the thought!). For example, these beautiful ditties have come out of my mouth on one (or more) occasion.... generally when speaking to Prince Charming about how WE were going to raise our perfect (cough, cough!) children as opposed to how other people we knew did it.....


~Our children will NEVER sleep with us. That's ridiculous.
..........................um, most nights, we have two little lovebugs with us in our queen sized bed. Yep, you read that right, a queen! We'd get a king, but our bedroom is too small :X HRH began sleeping with us when she was about 4 days old. This is a direct result from my fear that she would not breathe if I wasn't within 4 inches of her at all times. You wouldn't believe the things I can accomplish while holding and nursing a newborn (or toddler, for that matter). The Hurricane? Coslept in the hospital, lol. Cleanest bassinet EVER! A nurse walked in that first night to "check my vitals" (WTH do they do that anyway? It's freakin 3 AM, I just squeezed a watermelon out of my nether regions, leave me the HELL alone!!) and promptly said "oh, dear, you can't let her sleep with you here" to which I ever-so-nicely replied, "begging your pardon, ma'am, but I just gave birth to this little bundle of heaven, I can do whatever the hell I want to do with her, please don't wake me up again and don't let the door hit your butt on the way out". Or something maybe not quite as nice as that. In my defense on this whole subject, I do try to get them to at least start OUT the night in their bed once they hit 18 months or so. LOL!


~Yeah, I'll nurse, for a year, probably. Why on earth would you need to do that longer?
................ I'm nursing an almost-28 month old. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Keep crappy comments to yourself. I'm not asking YOU to nurse her, so you don't get a vote. I COULD say that I'm nursing her for added health benefits for her and me, as I have a family history of breast cancer, or to strengthen the bond between mother and child, but I'll be totally honest here and say I'm lazy. And a sucker. When she cries and asks to nurse b/c she's sleepy and says "pleeeeease, mommy?" I'm a puddle. Anyway, that falls into the NOYB category for anyone's opinions, so I don't really care what anyone thinks about it, for the record.


~As soon as baby's about 6 weeks or so, I'm finding a good sitter and having a girls' night out. (stop laughing Lara. I can hear you in Houston). Um, yea. I'm a tad bit "attached" to my girls. HRH had never been away from me for more than about 3 hours when I was in the hospital having the Hurricane. Hardest thing for me about having a second baby? Not the pitocin, not the labor, not the delivery, not the afterpains (which SUCK and no one will tell you about so you're wondering WTH is happening to you!)..... it was being away from my 2 yr old overnight. I couldn't sleep at ALL. No one has ever watched my girls for me that wasn't a family member. And I mean grandma or aunt.


and the best one ever?


~I will never let MY child behave that way!
...............I have carried both of my children, usually on separate occasions, but on one memorable day at the same time, surf-board style out of a store, while they were screaming at the top of their lungs at me. Generally this is caused by my refusal to buy a duplicate of a toy that we already have that they do not play with NOW or by my refusal to let them put 7 pieces of gum in their mouth at one time. You'd THINK I'd get appreciation for the fact that I am, in fact, saving their life in advance, keeping them from choking, as the Hurricane thinks gum is to be chewed about 10 times and then swallowed, but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. @@ Ungrateful little heathens!


And I have a two year old who bites and hits and pushes. All the while looking like a precious little delicate angel. Here she is, attempting to talk her way out of being in trouble one evening:






How could we stay mad at that precious little thing?

I'm sure I have more, but those are the biggies. :-)

Lara's "weird" sister

So, my uber-cool little sister Lara:

has blogged about her weirdo personality traits.

As her sister, I can safely say she's got NOTHING on me, LMAO!!!!! I'll save some of the more "out there" ones for another day, but here are some easy ones:

~I hate hate HATE for anyone other than me to load my dishwasher. Drives me so crazy that I will reload it after a "helper" has loaded it for me. And by "helper" I don't mean a two-or-four year old helper, I mean my husband or mother-in-law :X

~I am adamantly opposed to children's movies being sad. I edit the movies HRH and the Hurricane watch, lol. I swear, my kids are going to grow up like Phoebe on Friends, they think that Finding Nemo starts at chapter 3, where Nemo wakes up yelling "First day of school!!!!"

~On the rare occasion that I have cash in my wallet (don't ask.... I pay for everything with my debit card. It works MUCH better that way for me. Cash is like Monopoly money to me, it's play money. Blown easily at Starbucks, Taco Bell, whatever), the bills all have to be face up, right side up, in ascending monetary value.

~I hate feet. HATE them. I don't want to look at them, don't want anyone to touch me with their feet, etc. The only exception is baby feet. And my children's feet. And HRH's are starting to skeeve me out. The very thought of pedicures, which most women ADORE, repulses me.

~I am the boogie nazi. I can't stand for my girls to have yucky noses, or even sleep in their eyes. They, after a lifetime so far of this, must have clean noses and eyes when they wake up immediately.

That's about it for now. Surely that's plenty for you to feel a little better about YOUR idiosyncrasies. I know Lara does ;) And as far as how our family "brownie is baked"? I think brownies are ALWAYS better with nuts!

Fire! Fire! Think fast!

So, MommyTime over at Mommy's Martini asked in a post, "what would you save if you had to run out of your burning house"? This assumes that all humans and pets and computers are safe. I've been meaning to post about this, as it takes me for-freaking-EVER to get anything done around here (even thinking), I'd probably be a big pile of ashes by the time I finished deciding, so kudos to MommyTime, you just may have saved my hide! ;) Having pondered this for a few days, as I haven't had much computer time lately due to our sudden devotion to "stay-cations" at Papi and TiTi's lakehouse, lol..... I think almost everything in my house is replaceable. I have some paintings that my great-grandmother painted, three so far (I'm hoping to score more once I move into a bigger house, lol). I also have this absolutely super cool quilt that she made:

Please excuse the laundry on the floor :X (don't tell Prince Charming, it's a pet peeve of his and I generally try to keep it under control when he's not on a trip). And there seems to be a fuzzy spot. Huge orb? Anyway, you get the picture. It's gorgeous. :*) It IS, however, fairly secure in its attachment to the wall. The hanger on the top is bolted to the wall, the quilt is sandwiched in there and then the sides and bottom are nailed to the wall. (HRH and a rather wild game of peekaboo, long story)

So the rest of my "stuff" is pretty much replaceable. I mean, I'd be sad to lose the gowns the girls wore home from the hospital, and my wedding gown and all, but I'm not so sentimentally attached to those things that I'd run BACK INTO a burning house for them. My wedding pics? Momma has copies. My wedding video? Mom and inlaws both have copies. Birth certificates and passports are already in a fire-safe box, so if those are lost, I'd be smelling a lawsuit in with all of the soot.

The only other things I'd even think about grabbing are OneBaby and Bubba Baby. The world's most well-loved Madame Alexander Huggums dolls. OneBaby is HRH's. She also has a TwoBaby. She was very creative with her names. She's branched out a bit, as she now has Barry the Bear (a tribute to Hannah Montana's bear) and Tilly the Turtle as bedmates along with OneBaby and TwoBaby. Bubba Baby is the Hurricane's. When she was about one, she started calling her Huggums "bubba", which cracked me up, so I encouraged it. Well, Bubba got lost or stolen, we're not sure which, during her overnight stay at Texas Children's Hospital in October (double superinfected and abx-resistant chalazion). After explaining to Prince Charming the importance of her HAVING a Bubba, (the $40 price tag gave him pause), I quickly ordered a replacement, as they are practically IMPOSSIBLE to find in real life (they are the "pink check" huggums dolls, FYI). So, when NEW Bubba gets here, we were surprised to see that she could tell it wasn't her real Bubba. That's when she began calling it Bubba Baby. Bubba Baby has since lost her pink check outfit, I'm 85% sure it happened during the Hurricane's "nakey nakey bo bo" phase, where she insisted on being "nakey bo" as often as possible and trying to recruit other nakeys, too. I'm sure it's somewhere here in the explosion of a playroom, we'll probably find it when we move. But for now, Bubba Baby is nakey nakey bo bo.

A little help, please

So, I've been trying to figure out which is easier....

A) Trying to convince the Hurricane that she NEEDS a diaper as opposed to "juss pannies" because she obviously does NOT understand her body's signals yet when it's peepee time. (this can take upwards of 45 minutes out of every hour. I kid you not. The kid has staying power in her debates. I say it's the Hispanic in her, Prince Charming claims it's the German.)

or

B) Just following her around with a spray bottle of vinegar water and roll of paper towels and making her go sit on the potty every 5 minutes. (to which she replies "NO, Mommy. I not need go peepee. My belly no have peepee in it. I just drop a cookie". "drop a cookie" is our family's way of saying "pass gas". MUCH more appealing than hearing "MOMMY, I TOOTED!" hollered across Target or Chili's. :X)

Besides, she's so teeny tiny and looks SO freaking adorable in her little Dora panties. :*)

big fat reminder than time goes FORWARD!

I love my girls. I love the age they're at right now, no matter WHAT I tell you in a sleep-deprived grump some days. They are so much fun, they're so deliciously girly(all painted toenails and sparkly body powder and bows and glitter), so sweet and little and yet I can see the girls they're going to mature into one day. Then once in a while, something comes along and smacks me in the face and reminds me that they're growing up ENTIRELY too fast for my liking. I am one of those dorky moms who is SAD the first day of school. When they're not with me, I feel like I'm a little lost, I'm not quite sure what to do with myself for the first few moments (then I taste the sweet freedom of shopping ALONE and not sharing my Frappuccino!!!!!). When HRH started Mother's Day Out (two days a week, from 9 until 2:30) after she turned 2, I cried the night before her first day. I even went so far as to tell Prince Charming I had changed my mind and she wasn't going to go because she "really didn't need to". He ever so kindly pointed out that I'm her mommy, and I probably know best, but she was AWFULLY excited about "school" and HE was not going to be the one to tell her she couldn't go. Coward! Me, too, evidently, so I bucked up and prepared for the tears I just knew she'd shed as I prepared to leave my baby for the first time with someone who wasn't me, Prince Charming, or her grandparent. Imagine my surprise when she pranced right into her classroom, waved over her shoulder, and shouted "see you after nap, Mommy!". !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had to beg her to come back and give me a hug, lol!!

Anywho, the Hurricane is starting MDO this year. Same as HRH did, two days a week. A good friend will be working the main desk there, so I feel comforted knowing that. (And I'm hoping she'll run interference as often as she can when we have discipline issues.... not that I'm expecting THAT. Nope, not with MY child. Never. She's going to be a model student, I'm sure :X). HRH is going either three or four days, we're still waiting to hear what the teacher I really really REALLY want has decided to teach. So I picked up their registration packets last week, and in it were their supply lists. Standard stuff, tissues, nap mat for 2 yr old class (no naps in pre-K!), etc. Then I see pencils listed on HRH's list. PENCILS!!!! My baby isn't old enough to use pencils! She's a baby! Do they not KNOW this?!?!?! I teared up thinking that my BABY is going to be using pencils to learn how to WRITE this year. How is this possible? I feel like she's supposed to be tottering around here, barely able to balance herself. Time flies entirely too fast. I keep bugging Prince Charming to figure out some way to slow this all down for my mental health. He tries to tell me that it's just not possible, but I've seen his diploma! It says right there under "Texas A&M University"... "Aerospace Engineering". Rocket scientist my left foot. HMPH. What good is that degree if he can't help ME when I need it!??!!?!?

Finished!

I finished it Thursday morning, but we've been out of the house since then at the lake, so no chance to update.

So, I ended up making the bias tape. Once I figured out what I was doing, it wasn't so bad. Although, I AM going to pick up the little ironing guide at Hobby Lobby, the bias tape maker, when I go today b/c that REALLY would have sped things along. Anyway, I am SUPER pleased with how it turned out. What do you think?!?! :)





In hindsight, it's not PERFECTLY square, maybe, but I'm hoping the fabrics are so cute she won't notice ;)

Pieced and quilted!

I got it pieced all last night. It went SO fast! Of course, it helps that the whole thing is only 36 inches square, lol!

Even got the baby's monogram on the bottom corner :*)

Then I got it quilted this evening, while the girls were having catch up play time with Daddy :)

The lines aren't PERFECT, but I figure she'll know for sure it was a handmade gift LOL!

I was telling some friends that a part of me really, really, really wants to try to make bias tape with the pink polka dot material and use it for the binding. And then another part of me is screaming at that part to shut the heck up and buy some white cotton bias tape, LOL!!! I'm going to do some Googling tonight when HRH falls asleep and see how hard it looks. We'll see! Stay tuned, I know you're waiting with baited breath!! ;)

Baby quilt ::::::::sighs::::::::

There is something so stinking sweet about baby quilts. I haven't made one in AGES b/c I don't know how to quilt on my machine, I've always done it all by hand, and I CERTAINLY don't have time to quilt by hand with the lovebugs around, LOL! HRH's teacher from preschool last year is expecting a baby girl any day now, so I'm plunging in to machine quilting. I absolutely LOVE Beki's quilt on the top of her page, and it was the inspiration for the layout of this. I used a bunch of my extra scraps from the dresses and skirts the girls have been wearing all spring and summer and some deliciously soft quilter's cotton for the white. I'm going to back it in the same white and I'm still not sure what I'll bind it with.


But anyway, I've got it all cut out and ready to piece, I'm going to work on that tonight. I'm so excited, lol.

I think it's going to be really sweet. :)

Home sweet home!

Aaaaah! There is NOTHING like sleeping in your own bed after a week of being away. HRH said, near Baton Rouge, "Mommy, I can't wait to go sleep in my bed tonight!" and the Hurricane piped in "Mommy, I sleep-a my CWIB!" LOL! So, after two drives from HELL (14 hours from Houston-ish to Mobile, AL, on the way down there.... I kid you not. And 11 hours from Gulf Shores back to the castle. ALONE. Me and the lovebugs. Prince Charming was "working" in Honolulu..... grrrr....he had to leave the beach on Thursday), we are BACK! Tan and sandy! The girls LOVED the beach. I have to say that by FAR the favorite activity of the week was our nightly crab hunt. We bought butterfly nets from the Dollar Tree (pink for HRH and purple for the Hurricane) and declared them to be crab nets. SO much fun. Also a good lesson on the fundamental differences between the sexes, as we went crab hunting with my stepsisters' two boys, who are a hoot and a half. They would run around, screaming their heads off, chasing the crabs with flashlights and then throwing themselves, nets and all, at the crabs, essentially bodyslamming them into submission. HRH would glide along the beach gracefully, spot a crab, then do a few little graceful pirouette-style turns, slowly and quietly come up to the crab, and gently float her net down over the top of it. Then she'd call out "Bucket boy! I caught another one!" LMAO!!!! My BIL would come over and she'd add her crab to the stash:

at the end of the hunt, we let all the little crabs go back to their holes to tell their mommies and daddies about their big adventure ;)

It's good to be home. I'll update the girls' blog (link to the right) tonight if at all possible. Also nothing like a beach trip to remind you that your Prince Charming is quite a hottie ;)