Ok, I had another epiphany today. I realized (finally) why my DD’s dancing cracks me up so much. Last night my DH was prepping the kids’ dinners and he said, “come on, its Scebby Doh time”. As soon as he uttered those words, she came bounding into the kitchen doing her coming-to-Jesus dance. You know the dance I’m talking about. Think back to those 80s-90s family sitcoms that always had ‘an African-American church choir coming down the aisle, hands waving in praises and feet dancing/high-stepping, (as the music swells in the background), to rejuvenate the entire congregation’ scene at some point during its run. (That might be a jump-the-shark moment for all I know, but I digress.) Some of my favorite movies have these scenes too as a matter of fact. That Ben Stiller movie where he is a Jewish rabbi comes to mind, but anyway that is my DD’s dance.

In the perspective of a canned pasta meal, it comes across even funnier, I swear. She backs it up too. Once she’s in the chair, she hoovers that stuff down like there is no tomorrow and usually ends up eating someone else’s portion too. DH was complaining of being hungry later last night b/c he said DD didn’t leave him much to eat. Of course, this was probably a complete ruse to polish off the last of the homemade cookies, but I can’t say for sure. So anyway that is my newest epiphany. Some of us cure cancer, others of us figure out what is so freakin’ funny about our kids. We're all here to do our part, right?

Dora from a Dad's Perspective

Well I got the sweetest compliment on my Thank You card the other day, so I thought I would share them with you. I am personally very attached to the Doodle This stamp set, so I can dare to dream that it is included in the new Fall/Winter 2007 catalog.

After the adventure of putting tubes in DD's ears yesterday at Children's Hospital, it was humorous to listen to my DH (which could be Dorky Hubby) read her favorite Dora book tonight. I don't know if he was trying to test her hearing/listening skills or just amusing himself, but his rendition was enlightening at the very least.

Some of his observations....

...an eight year old and a monkey walking into the woods alone...that's safe...abuela needs to get off her butt and make a grocery run instead.

...Backpack has a teddy bear and some mittens...that will keep them warm...the least abuela could do is knit her a sweater before they go.

...Dora needs to ditch Map and get GPS already...there's gotta be another bridge without a grumpy old troll.

...what's with the buck toothed purple chipmunk? Why is he holding a steaming pile of...?

...cross the mud puddle? It's 10 feet wide..walk around Dora! Geez!

Ok, so maybe this might have traumatized my DD but I was personally crying trying to hold off from bursting into hysterics. You might have to be a parent of a toddler to understand how reading the same book over and over becomes a mind numbing experience, but I will now be able to read it another few hundred times with my newly inspired perspective.

Children Say the Darndest Things!

The other day I was grocery shopping with the whole family and my DS realized that every kind of food item in the store suddenly had Spiderman plastered all over the boxes. So now he wanted everything...the cheese crackers, cereals, everything! After the hundredth question of "can we get this?", I finally stopped and took the box down for him to study it. I showed him that it was the same box we had at home, but now there was a fancy picture of Spiderman on the front. Then we flipped it over and saw that there was no toy hidden inside, no special shapes---just a picture on the box. Then we hit the dairy case and he saw more fancy pictures and he said (I swear), "Momma, it's not nice of them to make me want all these things just b/c Spiderman's picture is on the box."

Now as a mother I think advertisers should be required to put their fancy pictures on an equal number of vegetables and fruits as useless snack foods. Wouldn't that be new? I can see it now...tantrums in the aisles as kids beg 'please let me have the radishes Mommy!!!' Farmers are always needing subsidies so why don't we make the most prolific advertising agencies take on some farms pro-bono? I know why---b/c then the useless crap on the cookie/candy/chip aisles would get stale and moldy and big business would get a tad upset.

In the same mode, yesterday my DD pulled a bag of diapers off the counter in excitement b/c I had finally bought a pair with Dora the Explorer on them. I thought the pictures might entice her to move on to the pull-up kind and boy did it! She raced me upstairs to get them on her little hynie. She even flashed them to her Daddy when he got home later.

Anyway so this thought led me to a new one, unrelated to food (imagine that). I have challenged myself to start taking a hard look at our buying impulses. How often do I fall for a pretty package when what is inside the box is exactly the same as what I already have at home? I bet I will be surprised. So if you come across a good example in your life, let me know so I won't feel so alone ;o)

What a hoot!

Ok, I know a 1 yr old has no idea what is going on half the time really, but I have to brag that my DD just put little fisher price baby Jesus from the Nativity set into her much larger scale grocery buggy to give Jesus a ride. She unloaded the whole buggy just to give him a stroll around the house all by himself. Maybe this mother is delirious but I'd like to believe Sunday School is really making a big impact already!

And in our family tradition my DS is already pouring over the latest learning toy catalog circling everything he'd like for his birthday this year. I have such fond memories of my little brother pouring over the Sears Christmas catalog for months refining his list. He was methodical about it at a very young age. He'd spend months weighing the positive and negatives of each possibility. So while I don't worry about DS's list until about two weeks before his birthday, I like to take note of the few items that always make the cut.

Yesterday I also talked to DS about getting rid of some stamp sets so we would have more room for some new sets. It took some talking out for him to understand completely but after a few minutes, he was ready to give up all MY sets to ensure he will be able to get all the new sets he's coveting. So nice of him, right?

The Laundry Monster Strikes Again

Does anyone know how to get rid of the laundry monster or have the number of a good exterminator? I have been going round and round with this terror for more than a month and I just now feel like I'm starting to get the upper hand! Embarrassing, I know.

It probably doesn't help that DD's diapers seem to be exploding/overflowing multiple times a day (creating vast quantities of time sensitive laundry) and DH's softball uniform has to be washed twice a week. Or maybe the real problem is DD likes to drag clothes out of the hamper and "spread the wealth", so after 10 minutes of hunting for the stupid red jersey we finally found it in DD's hamper in her room under a lovely pile of "time sensitive" laundry. The last place we'd thought to look may well become my first spot from now on. I've also caught her trying to cram a sheet and her own socks into DS's crowded underwear drawer (probably b/c it is the only one she can actually pull out.)

My washer even seems to be complaining these days as it does a jig in the laundry room much more often than usual. So should I feel guilty that we obviously have enough clothing to cause such a commotion or should I start a "might be sort of dirty pile" since my DS has taken to changing outfits several times a day? I can't tell you how many pairs of corduroys I washed just the other day, so obviously we aren't sticking to the season at hand.

I washed the same pile of laundry at least twice the other day AFTER I realized that DD likes to helpfully unload a basket full of folded laundry into the floor so she can sit inside the basket. She even managed to shut herself in our dark laundry room the other morning. She wasn't screaming or scared, but I heard this weird scratching noise and went to investigate. She was scratching around searching for the door knob that was lost in the dark. When I opened the door (which she had blocked by standing in a basket) there she was calmly riding her hamper pony.

So if you have the name of a laundry monster exterminator or even a hamper pony rustler, please let me know. I'm getting desperate!

Bottoms Up!!

After an evening of “who’s got the Benadryl?” you would think I wouldn’t be surprised to wake up this morning to find a bare pink bottom staring me in the face. (You’d think, but then you’d be wrong.) I wouldn’t even venture a guess as to what kind of diaper malfunction occurred in the wee (no pun intended) hours of the morning, but I am pretty tired of wrestling my washer this week while it spin cycles our sheets and mattress cover. But oh thank heavens for the mattress cover!

The last three weeks we have been limping along as a family trying to stay well, but just as soon as one of us perks up another takes a nose dive. If this is the outlook for Spring, I am ready for Summer! Yesterday was one LONG day of multiple doctor visits for me and the kids (and poor generous Bx2) but I have hope that the future will include full nights of sleep any day now. DH and I have been limping along with roughly 4 hours of sleep a night for well over three weeks now and I can see the impact. I am cranky. He is cranky. We just want to fall into bed and crash but every time we try, at least one child wakes up wailing. What we wouldn’t give for everyone to get a good night’s sleep.

So while we have been limping along at home, I have tried to stay organized even though my efforts seem to be driven thru a hazy fog. It is fortunate I am not asked to operate heavy machinery too often. The car alone is plenty enough for me to maneuver these days while loading the diaper bag seems almost a bit too complex some days! Right now I am obsessed with conquering the multiple calendars I keep updated around the house. Not that I expect this to truly solve anything, but in my haze it seems like a good place to start.

I will say the High Impact class appeared to go over well this past weekend. Everyone seemed to learn something new and enjoyed making new projects. It even served to reignite my excitement about May being National Scrapbooking Month. Convenient that the first Scrapbooking Blitz is planned for this month. This blitz is very exciting to me personally, as I am in just as much need of a catch-up day as anyone else. The beautiful papers have me particularly excited. So much that I’ve almost had a hard time planning the layouts for fear of missing an opportunity to use them all equally. The double sided nature can help and/or hurt with this dilemma depending on my mood (which changes more often than the wind these days).

Well I’m off to wrestle the dryer now and get more coffee. Thank goodness for coffee. It is the only thing that gets me out of bed some days!!

Another Man's Trash

My toddler threw away a cup today because it was empty. I know she's fascinated with the tall shiny trash can in the kitchen, but really! So I guess the old adage is true about one man's trash being another man's treasure. I just wish DD wouldn't always lean towards the trash part. I hate digging through the garbage!

Some days I look around my house and think we could throw away more than 50% of our STUFF and we'd probably be happier, but I come from a long line of pack rats and just can't bring myself to do it. I gather up unused toys fairly regularly but then I hardly ever remember to drop them off at Goodwill. The bags become silent inhabitants of the garage, collecting dust and draining my energy every time I see them. I'm constantly getting all gung-ho about organizing and purging, and then normally everything sits in giant piles for ages waiting for me to finally remember to haul it away. I would be much better off if I set up pre-planned pick-ups but I just never manage to work that out. (One bad rain experience to blame for that, I guess.) Excuses, excuses, I know. I want to get better, I really do.

I want to set a good example and overall I think children are WAY more giving than most adults. Maybe I should take a page from them and really declutter our lives. I guess I always feel this way when the laundry gets out of control. I hate having piles and piles of laundry all over the place. It really doesn't matter if it is clean or dirty, just piles that aren't in their proper place drive me bats! I'm so easily distracted, yikes! Gotta work on that.

So in an attempt to pull myself out of this unorganized funk, I have started stalking some well organized online ladies. I hope to learn their secrets and pull myself out of this funk for good! Or at least find some new pretty baskets to hide all my junk. After all it is all about the pretty baskets, right?

Scrapbooking for the Hesitant

I have already converted two self-proclaimed non-crafty people into scrapbooking moms, so I believe any woman (but especially moms) can find something to enjoy out of scrapbooking, if you give it a try. Actually it would be more correct to say my DS and I have each converted someone. When my DS was a toddler he carried a scrapbook over to my friend Cortney and said, “read book of me!” She was so amazed at how much fun and excitement he had showing off the album full of pictures of himself that she wanted to create the same kind of experience for her own child. Honestly I think all sizes of scrapbooks should be called brag books because what mother doesn’t enjoy bragging about her children? So I challenge you to disregard any feelings of craftiness inadequacy and find some way to proudly display your photos!
Post-Pregnancy I realized some manner of scrapbooking was the only way I would ever succeed in getting any of our family photos out of the computer and into any sort of viewable album. (Later I also realized how much I enjoyed sitting down with my DS and our albums and letting him tell our family story.) My favorite part of the scrapbooking format is called journaling. This is where you write a blurb about the significance of the pictures on that page. Journaling allows me to add little snippets about the kids that go along with the photos so I won’t forget all those great details (especially since I already have a horrible memory).
While I fully admit I enjoy scrapbooking, I have to qualify that I go for the simple approach. I like to use the large 12x12 scrapbooks so I can cram as many photos as possible into one page without regard to exact sizing. Or for example, if I have a picture of my baby’s blue eyes, I like them to be HUGE so that I might never forget their exact hue. Plastic sheet covers are also a must for all my scrapbooks. This way toddlers can look through the pages and not ruin the photos with smudgy fingerprints. After these two Must Haves, everything else is all based on personal preference.
For my first scrapbook I bought solid brightly colored paper and a 12x12 scrapbook. Everything else I used was from craft supplies I already had in my home. You can get lost in the embellishment section of hobby stores, but overall I like to keep my books pretty simple. For one, I like to use things over and over to get my money’s worth, so I’m not a huge fan of stickers. Kids, however, love stickers so usually my oldest sets up next to me with his own art supplies and puts stickers on every piece of paper he can find, while we have some “craft time”. (Hint: Be on the lookout for cheap stickers in the Dollar aisle at Target and other merchants like A.C. Moore. With little kids I believe it is quantity over quality when it comes to things like stickers.)
Since my first album I discovered the bevy of fabulous patterned paper, but I prefer the large sets of coordinating papers. (Stampin’ Up! has a beautiful selection if you are looking for some fool-proof supplies.) The papers are great for other crafts like card making as well. As a time-saver, the colors are already coordinated so I don’t have to waste time pondering what kind of paper to buy for a particular occasion. If I hadn’t found these great pre-coordinated sets, I would probably just stick to solid black or dark charcoal. I have yet to see a photo that doesn’t pop off the page on these two colors.
The other reason I’m not a huge fan of many embellishments is that they make the scrapbook LUMPY. Being the tightwad that I am, I don’t like wasting space or limiting how many pages I can pack into one album by having fat pages. The one type of embellishment I have learned to love are my Stampin' Up! stamp sets. I can use them over and over in a multitude of ways without making my pages too lumpy or chunky. Many styles of albums sell additional pages, but there is a limit to how many can be reasonably crammed into the binding without splitting the seams of the cover. I learned this after my DS’s first album developed a split down the seam. His constant use is emphasized by that rip and now I love it all the more. You see, I’m sort of a “warts and all” type of girl at heart.