randoms, an addendum

• To the person who sent a text message to my email via an unknown phone number inviting me to stop by tomorrow evening for a glass of wine? I have no idea who you are, but yes, yes I will stop by! That sounds lovely. Thanks for the invite.

randoms

Apparently this is becoming the venue for my Wednesday randoms…

• I am annoyed. By kids, by migraines, by needed haircuts and static hair and rashes and gashes and scratches and screaming.
• I had a migraine yesterday, so I probably shouldn’t even be staring at this computer screen as I’m still recovering from the migraine hangover. Which is, the hangover that occurs the day AFTER you have a migraine. I consider myself lucky that i haven’t had a migraine since I was pregnant with Sam, but last night it reared its ugly head once more. Strangely enough the migraine came on right when I was getting ready for bed, so I was able to sleep it off in peace instead of dealing with it during the day. Because, you know, in my line of work there ARE NO SICK DAYS. EVER.
• So today I let Ryan watch Cars after lunch and I took a nap in his bed.
• More and more, I feel like I live in Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. (When I was a child we had- count ‘em- FOUR channels on TV. So I do clearly remember Wild Kingdom.) I’m sure this is something a mother is never supposed to say, but I wish the children in my house would just SHUT UP for a moment. That’s all I ask- a moment. One. The constant screaming- at me, at each other, at the world at large is intolerable. (And probably what brought on my migraine!) I know they say you’re supposed to speak with your child in a calm, quiet tone when he revs up and screams, but let me tell you, me whispering or talking quietly and calmly while they scream does NOT WORK in our house. They never shut up I tell you. They scream when they’re happy, scream when they’re mad, scream when they’re hurt, scream when someone else screams, scream in in their sleep. The bathtub water temperature isn’t up to Ry’s liking? SCREAM. The air in the bathroom outside of the tub is chilly? SCREAM. Sam doesn’t have his pacifier the instant he’s laid down to get on his jammies? SCREAM. The strawberries are all gone? SCREAM. I’m 4.5 and I just hit my head accidentally on the coffee table? SCREAM. (and then kick the coffee table.) I mean, WTF is this???? Pat and I do not walk around exhibiting these types of behaviors. Where is this coming from? Do they secretly belong to a band of gorillas? (Do gorillas scream?)
• MOVING ON…
• We are embarking upon a home remodel project, people!! Our first ever! This has been in the works for, oh, years now. The famous designer who’s working with us tells people behind our backs that we are the SLOWEST DESIGN DECISION MAKERS EVER! hahahaha! Hello…when you basically live in one room of your house and that’s the room you’re remodeling you kind of want to spend a really long time obsessing over the deets, you know? Also, it’s expensive. We’re having some cabinetry built and refacing a fireplace and then later painting and then eventually getting some new furniture. It’s very exciting!
• And here’s something that’s not exciting: a rash! Ryan has had this off and on rash for about two weeks now. The first time it appeared was at the end of a cold, so I figured it was just his cold virus working its way out. (As a long-time hives sufferer, I’m quite familiar with this phenomenon). So then the rash was gone, and then it came back, and sometimes it’s itchy and sometimes it isn’t and of course it’s so bothersome (SCREAM!), but actually Ryan’s been handling it really well until tonight. Tonight it flared up and is blotchy and itchy everywhere. He has an appointment with the MD tomorrow, which stinks because now he has to miss preschool, Sam and I have to miss music class, and I get the joy of dragging the both of them to the doctor’s office. (SCREAM! that one was mine). And I know they’re just going to say “it’s viral! it’s hives! it’ll work itself out! give benedryl!”
• Thus conclude my rants of the night. This final paragraph I dedicate to my husband.

To my fave hubby ever: Today I ate the.best.cereal.of.all.time.
It’s snowing outside #snowissopretty
I am so blessed to have you in my life.

The end.

things I’ve actually done from pinterest

Tonight as I was squirting shaving cream into a muffin tin for my kids to ‘paint’ with in the bathtub, I got to thinking about Pinterest. I’m a total Pinterest stalker…I never pin anything, but I always look at other people’s stuff. I guess I use Pinterest more to satisfy voyeuristic needs to see what OTHER people like, than to actually collect a database of what I like, haha! Even though I don’t ever pin anything and barely follow anyone, there have been a few things I’ve actually made/done that were inspired by Pinterest.

end-of-year teacher gift

screen shot from pinterest. Link to original blog post here.

I thought these were adorable and very usable. The little flags say “thank you for being a great ‘ade’ for our class”, and “thank you for quenching my thirst for knowledge.” The packets inside could be any type of powdered drink packet- I think I used the Crystal Light Pure. I also had Ryan draw a picture for each teacher and sign his name to make it more personal. This is how the ones we made turned out.

And lucky for me Ryan has two different teachers this year so I could use this idea again!

shaving cream bathtub paint

screen shot from Pinterest. Link to original blog post here.

I do not have my own photo of what my muffin tin filled with colored shaving cream looked like, but trust me, it was not nearly this neat and pretty. When I stirred in the food coloring the shave cream oozed over the top of the muffin holes and went everywhere and the colors merged together and it was not exactly pretty. I’ve done this twice now with the boys in the tub and they both love it. For brushes I gave them some of my old makeup brushes and they went to town. All the colors come together to create a lovely brown color, that then drips down the tiles of the bathtub walls and into the bath water, making it look like your kids are bathing in filth. But they love this activity, so I give this one two thumbs up.

abstract art with tape and painting

screen shot from Pinterest. Link to original blog post here.

This one was fun, albeit slightly frustrating for me to listen to Ryan whining that the tape wasn’t coming off the roll right and it was sticking to his hands and waa waa waa. We didn’t have any spare canvases (?) just lying around, so I used white paper and blue painters’ tape. And watercolor paints. The tape peeled off just fine once the paint was dry. That is, the tape peeled off just fine if a grown-up was doing the peeling. For a 4 year old on delicate paper, there was some tearing and screaming, but we got through and the art turned out nicely. Peeling the tape off definitely was the most fun part for the kid. Depending upon how much a blank canvas costs, I could see this being a fun activity to do and then actually hanging the art on the wall of Ry’s room or something.

Our finished abstract art (top- Ry’s; bottom- mine)

To make it official, I think I’ll log into Pinterest right now and will actually pin these things:)

randoms

-I have NO complaints about this winter’s weather so far. NONE. There is no snow, which means no annoying snow-related problems like getting stuck in the alley or parking restrictions or sliding through intersections. And since there’s no snow, I’ve been able to take Sam on wagon rides and push him in the stroller on sidewalks, and Ryan has been biking. And they’ve been running through yards and playing ball in the grass. It’s been awesome. I could handle winters like this every year. No shoveling, no slipping and falling, no trekking of muddy salty snow into the house. LOVE IT.

-We haven’t been able to try skating though this winter, which is kind of a bummer. The rinks around here are all shot. Last Thursday a neighborhood rink and warming house were going to open for the first time all winter. We planned to head over in the evening, but after a call to the warming house we found out the rink was total slush. We went down to the lake to try skating there instead, but no skating was to be had there either. Instead we spent a very warm January evening playing on the beach at night, going down the slide and swinging. And then we went to DQ for a treat. Still, not complaining about the lack of winter. There’s always INDOOR skating, right?

-I wandered into Gap Kids last week to see if they had any good boys’ clearance, and I was wowed by the cuteness of the new arrivals for their early spring lines. Even the BOYS’ stuff was cute! It was refreshing to see some bright colors. Love this green and bright blue for the little boys…

we love ourselves a good bike tee in this household

(although Ryan wouldn’t be caught dead in a v-neck sweater)

Fortunately, Sam is still dressable. Unfortunately, he’s about out of the baby sizes, so no longer can I put him in anything like this.

Even more unfortunately, Ryan is about out of the “T” sizes in most brands, which leads us to the regular boys’ stuff, which is UG-LY. (in my humble o.)

!! Apparently this post has turned into an ad for Gap Kids !!

Now just look at the cute GIRL stuff…

Um hi? The Odile Collection.

Legwarmers!

This is a swimsuit. How cute is that?

spring outerwear…

cute one piece romper

love this dress!

Yeah, so. If any of my nieces/goddaughters/honorary small-girls-that-I-know need someone to do some shopping for them, they know who to call:)

Sam- 21 months

(How are we quickly approaching TWO?)

If you’re interested, go back and read this post about Sam at 20 months. Much is the same, so I’ll kinda just update last month’s post.

• Separation anxiety- SAME.
• Pacifier neediness- SAME. (If I tell Sam “no pacifier now, Sam” he’ll throw a fit. But if I distract him with something uber-exciting, we can get through without the paci.)
• The muy travieso-ness: SAME. Just today he took a dry-erase marker and wrote on the coffee table. Emptied the baking pans cupboard in about 3 seconds flat, right in the middle of dinner prep. (But then CLEANED IT ALL UP after dinner, all of his own accord!) Destroys Ryan’s towers and train tracks. Colors on Ryan’s pictures. Sticks the ends of shoelaces in his ears.
• Getting angry at my redirections: WORSE. Now, not only will he hit me in the face if he gets mad, but he also grabs us right in the face with his sharp nails, pulls my hair, kicks hard during changing, and flings himself onto the floor with an arched back and flailing limbs for the good, ‘ol stereotypical temper tantrum. He also gets crazy during a tantrum and will just start throwing stuff: books off a book shelf, a laundry basket, a plate of food, a water bottle. It’s dangerous stuff.
• Wicked throwing arm: YES. The unseasonably warm weather has had us outside playing with bouncing tennis balls on the sidewalk. Sam’s favorite place to throw balls is INTO the street.
• Loves balls/watching sports: YES. The other day he climbed up onto the couch in the middle of a weekday, and said “watch GAME?!” OMG a sports fan what do I do? He calls the sports he sees on TV b-ball, and whenever he sees anyone cheering he joins in with some clapping.
• Love of sweets: SAME. He’s now completely obsessed with the gummy vitamins they get once a day. Does NOT understand that he will not be given MORE than one a day. This results in many a hissy-fit. Overall eating has been better lately at least. He’s even been eating meat the past few nights. Loves his “loader” fork, and it appears we may be able to talk him into eating more off his plate if we pretend it’s a worksite and he’s shoveling debris into his mouth.
• Has gotten over his love of applesauce. Really got into eating Cheerios WITH milk the other day- this is a new one, the addition of milk! To cereal!- for both boys.
• Has sort of lost interest in peeing on the potty. He’ll go…not at all, or just one drip, and then will stand up and cheer like he just won a marathon. After that, he needs to immediately run out of the bathroom to tell whoever’s home about his epic potty production. He also whizzes in the bathtub every single time he takes a bath.
• Words: I’ve lost track of all the new ones. He’s been putting two and (sometimes) three word phrases together. There it goes! Ry Guy doing? Niiiiiice mommy. Niiiiice daddy. (While gently stroking our faces.) See choo choo. Mommy dance! Sam turn. Papis boom boom. See Karen! See Bop! (this is while pointing to the computer where he skypes with grandma and grandpa.) Other words he’s been saying: a-ki-ka (apricot), forker (fork), clean up!, kee-ka-kite (gummy vite), chute (loves throwing things down the laundry chute), chili, cookie time!, books time!.
• Songs: SAME. He loves the ABC song. Unfortunately, he’s heard Ryan tell his ABC joke where the letter P is missing, so now he thinks that anytime you sing the ABCs you’re supposed to say “where’s the P?” at the end, and then Sam answers “POTTY!” and cracks up laughing.
• Overall, this dude has gotten even more vocal, even more LOUD in his vocalizations, and even more stubborn. He wants to do a lot of things all on his own, and gets easily frustrated, resulting in a hissy fit. He won’t snuggle or lay/sit still for very long, and absolutely wants to do EVERYTHING that Ryan does. The two play together really well though, which is great.
• Has loved the open gyms and toddler playtimes that we’ve been trying out. Calls other kids that come near him “baby”.
• I still call him baby sometimes myself, but those times are getting to be fewer and further in between. He’s getting OLD, this little wee one of mine.

(sorry dude, most of what you get this month are iphone shots!)

Samsy becomes quite the complainer if the sun shines in his eyes during a car ride

January 9th…in the 40s!!! Nice enough to take a walk/bike ride.

January 10th…temps in the 50s! Nice enough to play outside hatless! Nice enough to walk around on the (SNOWLESS) grass, bounce balls in the sidewalk, walk to Nokomis, run through weeds. Unbelievable!

Throwing sticks on to the melting ice of L. Nokomis

last but not least, christmas in duluth

The day after Christmas… boys posing in front of Grandma and Grandpa’s tree.

brotherly love:)

More presents…Sam got Duplos

Ryan got an aircraft carrier

Sam loves goofing around and playing with BOP! SEE BOP!

I love this one…Sam dancing

The next day, Tom, Kim, Max and Vivi came over for a full-family post-Christmas celebration. Ryan and Max had a blast playing with each others’ new toys. And if I had twins, maybe they’d look something like this?

(wearing outfits they received from Grandma Karen)

cookie time

this one cracks me up- the cousins

And with that, I am DONE posting about Christmas 2012.

christmas day, continued

After our eventful Christmas morning we went to Pat’s parents’ house to spend Christmas day with them and the rest of the fam. I didn’t take many pictures- between all the action of gift-opening and trying (unsuccessfully) to get Sam to take a nap, these are the best I got of the afternoon.

Check out this poser! Ryan was excited to keep opening presents.

Brynn

and the knit bootie slipper (mukluk?) things that I bought her

Brady and Troy

the wham-man

christmas morning

I have no motivation to post this holiday stuff anymore, but I know if I don’t I’ll be mad at myself for not doing it.

Christmas morning Ryan woke up at the usual crack of dawn- no earlier, no later than usual (I think it was about 6:00am). We managed to hold him off from waking up Sam till 6:50, when we could all walk into the living room together to see what Santa had brought. The stockings were stuffed and the boys each had one wrapped gift from Santa, along with a gift that Hermie the Elf left upon his exit from our home. (Hermie’s gift was a joint gift- more wooden train track for their train set.) Ryan tore into his stocking immediately. He got underwear, a chapstick, a nerf basketball, a Thomas pull-back engine, and a Froggy book.

Ry, opening new undies from Santa

Sam got some new pacis, a nerf football, a book, and a Thomas engine as well. Looking back, we could have done nothing for Sam for Christmas with the exception of the new papis, football, and candy cane in his stocking and he would have been happy as a clam.

Sam’s favorite gift: this candy cane

Ry moved on to his wrapped Santa present next. He was SO SO excited to get a remote control car. (Monster truck to be exact. ROCK CRAWLER to be more exact). Santa brought Sam a remote control school bus for toddlers so he didn’t feel left out.

But like I said, Sam would have been fine with one paci, one ball, and one candycane:)

The boys opened their big gifts from us. Ryan got a 6-lane Hot Wheels race track, which he was super excited about.

Sam got into the fun of ripping the wrapping paper off the gifts. He loved taking his time to rip it off in little strips. Ryan would have NONE of that though, and typically jumped right in to help Sam speed up the opening process. When someone else was opening a present Sam would say “mine!” or “Sam turn!” Sam enjoyed opening up the presents more than discovering what was inside of them. From us, Sam got a Little Tykes basketball hoop.

We spent the morning at home in our PJs, eating cinnamon coffee cake and egg bake that Pat made for us. The boys played with all their new toys once batteries were installed, and had fun exploring all the new stuff. We even took a brief family walk since the weather was so beautiful.

My favorite picture of the morning

It was a great morning!

christmas eve

I need to get these Christmas posts out of the way.

We spent Christmas Eve at home. Pat spent the day cooking, and I tried to spend the day cleaning and preparing, but got none of that done until Ry and Sam spent a few hours at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

The dudes were so excited for our evening to start! (Grandma snapped this picture as she was getting to our house.)

Pat’s parents (Mar and Jer!) and brother Jim joined us for dinner. Pat cooked a marvelous meal of turkey, dressing, sweet potato bake (which was basically a dessert), a green bean/red pepper dish, butter rolls (Baker’s Wife) and cookies for dessert. It was all really, really good.

Ryan and Sam exchanged their gifts with each other

and then they each got to open one present from mom and dad. Ry got this sweet playdoh dentist set

(not pictured- Sam got a Thomas the Train boat for the bathtub)

We snapped a few family photos and hung out.

By 7:30 I was more than ready for the children to be nestled snug in their beds, so Ry and Sam got on their jammies and set out a plate of cookies for Santa. Ryan made sure Santa only got THREE cookies, because if he ate more than that then there wouldn’t be enough left for Ryan.

A lovely Christmas Eve was had by all, if I do say so myself!

 

things for ’12 (but first, a review)

Happy New Year!

So far 2012 has ruled! The children slept in till 7:00am today. We spent the entire day at home cleaning and purging and de-Christmas-ing and selling junk on Craigslist. I got to spend 2.5 minutes alone on a walk. We popped some popcorn. And then- AND THEN- I booked a vacation. YAY!!!!!!!! Mexico, end of February, grown-ups only.

Okay so, I was just reading my post from last January 2nd. I did an update on my accomplishments for 2011 in this update post in November, so no need to write that all out again. I am very disappointed to report to myself that I never did write a letter to my Spanish host family. Leading up to the holidays I had every intention of doing so, but never got around to it. Otherwise, I feel like I accomplished all of my ’11 things to a certain extent. I wish I had done MORE yoga, wish I was in MORE photos with my kids, I wish I HAD blogged more. But I did some of the above, so that’s what matters to me. I’ve also envisioned changing the look of my blog for a long time now, and finally on Friday night I did just that. I kind of went bare bones this time- we’ll see if I add any additional flair or not.

Without further adieu, Anne’s List of Things to Accomplish in 2012:

1. Take a yoga class. And continue with yoga longer than last year.

2. Write a letter to the host family I lived with in Spain.

3. Continue with the Spanish conversation class I took this fall/early winter.

4. Take a vacation without kids.

5. Blog more. Photograph more. Post more photos on blog.

6. Buy a mailbox. (We’ve been without a mailbox/slot for about 8 months now. This is getting ridiculous. I mean, how hard is it to buy a mailbox? Apparently very.)

Ahoy! It’s NYE! and that would be sparkling pear juice

cheers! (Sam was way into cheers-ing everyone over and over and over)

this dude looks like he’s been beat up. Oh wait- it’s little bro and his sharp claws is all.

us