Big girl!

About a week and a half ago my back went on strike. Apparently 41 years of carrying me around is enough. So a few days ago I begged Mike to convert Emma Mae's crib into a toddler bed for me so I wouldn't have to lift her in and out of the crib. Actually, I had already stopped lifting her and was into just coaxing her to climb in and out. Parenting at its finest right there.

She has done great with the transition and stayed in her bed for naptime the very first day! In fact, she loves to run into her room and dive onto the bed. She snuggles into her blankies and just laughs and says "MY BED! MY BED!" She's pretty stinkin' cute.

Tonsil update #2

Okay, here is the picture of Jake just seconds before they took him away to give him "happy gas" at the hospital. Mike is more of a techie than I am and was able to get it from my phone to the computer. Who would have thought we would live to see such a day when this would be possible? The technology is scary good these days.

We had prepped Jake as well as we could about what was going to happen to him. Mike took him to the appointment with the ENT where it was confirmed that the tonsils/adenoids needed to come out. On their way home, Mike asked Jake if he was going to miss his tonsils when they were gone. And Jake said that as long as they didn't take out his brain he would be fine. Amen.

This morning Jake literally bounded out of bed and declared himself to be all better! Then he requested a poptart. I tried to discourage it. But there was no stopping him from trying this morning delicacy. He took one bite, looked at me and said "my throat still hurts." It's such a heartache when you can't eat the food you want to eat.

I had my tonsils taken out at 21 or so. I was home from college on summer break. And I was the biggest baby. It hurt! It took me a full two weeks to recover. I still remember the day my mom told me that the Dr. had cut me off of my codeine pain killer. I believe I cried. I'm sure my parents did too. Because now they had a big baby on their hands with no pain medication. I also remember the night I lost it at the dinner table. It was probably a week into the healing process and I couldn't eat anything really solid or good. We sat down for dinner. My family were all having steak and baked potatoes. That is my favorite meal. I was having mashed potatoes. I felt my eyes start to well up sitting there and since I'm not a public cryer I leapt up from the table and ran to the bathroom where I slammed the door to cry in peace. Such a scene had never before been witnessed in our home. My parents came after me asking what was wrong and I just said "I want to eat steak." Pitiful.

Jake is doing much better than me. And even when he's crying or whining about it I have a feeling a lot of that is just for show. I don't want to say he's milking it, but I think he's milking it. And let's not forget that Jake could make Anne Hathaway at the Oscars look like James Franco at the Oscars. He is just that dramatic. Hopefully, the next tonsil update I do will be to declare him "all better." For real.

Tonsil Update #1

Amy has requested a picture of the patient. Truth be told, I fully intended to include a photo of the sick boy in my last post. Strangely enough I never even posted the last post because I wasn't finished writing it. Mike bought a new computer a few weeks ago for school and I cannot for the life of me figure it out. It does strange things. And one of the strangest is that it won't allow me to post things on my blog anymore. So I have to write something and then Mike posts it from a computer at his work. Except for the tonsil post that wasn't ready for the reading public. That one our computer decided to post for me. So, thanks computer. If I weren't a sleep deprived, crazy person right now I would be scared of you.

Back to the picture. What my readers want, my readers get. I took a picture of Jake moments before they wheeled him away. I even tried to get a close up of the tonsils. Unfortunately, I took those pictures with my phone. If I could figure out how to get a picture from my phone to my computer I would put that up for you. But I think we all know those kinds of technological genes do not exist in my DNA. So, here is a picture a couple days after surgery. He was not feeling very well and refused to wear pants.



The day we spent in the hospital after surgery Jake was just so sweet. He literally had a smile on his face from the moment the nurse gave him his first popsickle. And the smile didn't leave his face until they woke him up at 1:15 in the morning to give him a dose of medicine. Well, that smile has since left his face and I can tell my boy isn't feeling so good. Looking back, I realize that smile was in place because A.) Jake was as hopped up on pain medicine as the Easter bunny at an egg farm and B.) Jake really likes to be waited on hand and foot with a bottomless supply of pudding and popsicles.

He did feel good enough this morning (or so he told me) to venture out of the house for the first time to go to a birthday party. I told him if he started feeling bad at all to tell me and we would leave. But honestly, Emma and I have been going stir crazy sitting in the house all week. We needed out. So we went to the party and Jake spent the better part of an hour torturing two baby ducks who were also there for the big event. He loved it. Emma made it into a swing post haste and refused to get out for the entire party. I think she felt shy in the large group of people. There goes me hoping she didn't inherit my wall flower DNA. Let me end this by telling you that after an hour Jake was ready to leave so we did. We went out and I got both kids in the car and threw my keys over into the driver seat so I could buckle the kids in. I'm not exactly sure what happened next but it goes something like this I think.

1.) Jake closed the back door that the kids had climbed into the car through.

2.) I closed the front door after throwing my keys into the driver seat.

3.) My keys, upon hitting the seat, locked all of the doors of the car. With the children in it. And me out of it. And the keys in it. Do you see where I'm going here?

After panicking briefly, I remembered that we had a spare key under the car somewhere. Have I mentioned that my back is out? Yeah, it is. So I had to crawl under the JEEP to find the spare key while in extraordinary pain. It was like watching a pencil try to do the limbo. But mama bear was in a panic to save her cubs and I really think if I had had to pull a door off with my teeth I could have probably done that.

So, I got the spare key but couldn't get it out of the little compartment it was in. I found another mama on her way out and asked her to watch my car with my kids in it while I did the walk of shame back into the party to find a man who was strong enough to rescue my spare key from the rusty, crusted over container it resided in. The kids were probably only in the car for five minutes. But I can guarantee you that Jake will remember this for the rest of his life and remind me of it. It will go something like this. "Hey mama, do you remember the time you locked us in the car with no air conditioning right after I had some organs removed and I was all hot and sweaty and possibly infected with Avian flu from handling a baby duck?"

And that my friends is why I am going to go ahead and remove my name from the "mother of the year" award list this year.

Tonsil free

Jake had his tonsils and adenoids removed on Tuesday. He was such a little trooper. I knew he was a bit nervous about the whole thing but he didn't cry. Not even when they wheeled him away from us. I might have cried then. Just a little bit. I knew that he was having a very ordinary, simple procedure but at that moment I felt a little panicked. He just seemed so little and I have to admit I was worried about him. Whenever I have those moments about the kids the one verse that always comes to mind is "be still and know that I am God." Basically, it's just a reminder that He is in control and I don't need to worry about things. Like our Sunday school teacher says, "He's got this."

Anyway, Jake made it through the surgery just fine. He was only away from us for about an hour. Mike stayed at the hospital until about 3pm and then left to go relieve Cheryl and Katie from Emma duty. Jake and I had a "camp out" at the hospital until about 6:30 the next morning. He was so sweet the whole time. We watched movies, walked around, played in their extraordinarily small playroom and ate an enormous amount of chocolate pudding and rainbow popsicles.

Butterflies, donkeys and dirt!

Ugh. I'm so far behind I don't know where to start. I think I'll just start with yesterday! Katha brought her boys over and we all caravaned over to Wimberley for the butterfly festival. It was so cute! I would love to go back to Wimberley and look through all of the shops and eat at some of the restaurants. Alas, I would love to do this without the kids along. See you in 2019 Wimberley!

The butterfly festival was a huge success with all of the kids. For only $1 a slice we could purchase cantaloupe and go scoop a butterfly out of a cage and sit and hold it and watch it eat cantaloupe juice. Jake loved this! Emma was much more into going through my bag to pull out every single snack I brought along. I'd like to tell you my children didn't eat the cantaloupe slices that the butterflies were feeding on. I'd like to tell you that a lot. But, they did. I'd like to tell you the slices didn't have any dirt on them either. But, they did. Katha and I decided we were just going to let them have a true "organic" experience with the butterflies.





Once we were done with the insects, we headed over to this lovely Princess carriage they had in the park. Emma was in heaven. Actually, they all were. The boys quickly turned it into some sort of pirate ship or space craft and climbed to the top to do battle with whatever bad guys were around. They may have also all eaten a bag of Cheeto's while they were in there so the two mama's could sit down and have a moment. I'm just sayin'.





Then we headed over to the train to spend $2/kid on a 45 second train ride that Emma only lasted in for 3.5 seconds. I had to take her out due to all the crying and the boys went without her. The guy running the train (which didn't allow adults to board) told me at the beginning that I might want to walk along beside it because he "didn't stop for crying." He wasn't lying. I had to yank that little girl off the train while jogging along beside it. I think I pulled a hammie.

After the train we headed over to the petting zoo. It was a mad house. But right next to it was a pen with little donkeys all decked out in flower lei's. There was nobody over there. I guess donkeys don't draw as big a crowd as bunnies and goats. But I say that nothing says fun like some festive donkeys. Well, the lady let us in for free and the kids loved it! I won't tell you what we smelled like after that encounter but I assure you it wasn't flowers!

Lastly, we wondered over to the snow cone line. This line was from hell. But we were all hot and parched and needed some refreshment in the form of ice with sugar water sprinkled on it. Katha graciously stood in line while I kept an eye on the children. They immediately found an old fire pit or something with loads of dirt, soot and ash in it. It was like a child magnet. They could not stay out of it. Emma looked like a street urchin by the end of the day. I had dressed her in a cute little skirt and her diaper underneath it was just filthy by the end of the day. You know what they say, "the dirtier the play, the better the day!" Actually, I think I just made that up. I'm not going to credit that statement to "they". That's all mine. And I'm done.

Jake is 100% boy

When do little boys start to learn a little etiquette and good manners? Jake is really into potty humor these days and it is driving me crazy. What is wrong with me that I don't think the words "toot" and "poop" are all that funny? He thinks they are hilarious and I believe Mike does as well. In between all the tooting and pooping comments Jake fills the time with spitting. Remember when I said I don't like to take the children out in public? Do you see why?

Last weekend I took both kids to our neighborhood park to play. Some of our neighbors were there and I was pushing Emma in a swing talking to the other mama while Jake rode his bike around the park. At one point I looked up to check on him and saw that he had dismounted from his bicycle and had felt free enough to go ahead and drop his shorts and underwear to pee in the grass. Really? Really? Yes, really. At first I tried to distract everyone else from looking over there but then I just got a fit of the giggles. I mean, he had a pretty good arcing stream going on and looked quite proud of himself. So I said to the other mama "do you see what my child is doing?" So she looked and cracked up too. She has a three year old boy so I think she understood. Later, I said Jake why were you peeing in the grass? And he said "because I can." So I had to explain that just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you SHOULD.

The whole episode reminded me of a story his teachers told me a few weeks ago. They had their class sitting around in a circle doing show and tell. The letter for the week was "S". So they were all coming up with words that start with an "S". The next thing they knew my boy stood up, dropped his pants and showed everyone his Spiderman underwear because we all know that Spiderman starts with an "S". His teachers said the other kids were completely unphased by this and went on with show and tell like nothing had happened. The teachers themselves couldn't stop laughing. Only my boy. I hope he doesn't try pulling that same trick in kindergarden.

I'll leave you with one last thought. A few nights ago Mike and I were sitting on the couch. I had had a very rough day with the kids. From somewhere in the recesses of our house I hear Jake scream "MOM! I NEED HELP!" Ya'll. I was exhausted. I told him to come to me. If he needed help he was going to have to drag his little body to the couch. The next thing we hear is "I HAVE POOPY ON MY HANDS!" Hold the phone. Don't come to me! My sweet hubby knew I was done and he went to investigate. Jake was in the bathroom with about half a roll of toilet paper in the potty. Mike said "Why do you have poop on your hands?" Jake responded "because I put my hand in my booty!" Ya'll. We need prayer. Big time.

Roughing it

Mike took Jake on his first camping trip last Thursday. They went all the way out to the backyard and slept in a tent. Jake was super excited about it. I fully expected to see them back in the house by 2am but they made it through the night. Jake thought it was fun and I think Mike did too although he was really complaining about his sore back the next day. I did not sleep so well. I wanted to have my boys inside where they belong! Plus, I was a little weirded out because I knew that before I went to bed that night I saw something run by the back door out where they were sleeping. I knew in my heart that we don't have bears around here, but my mind was thinking nasty thoughts. Turns out it was just a cat prowling around. I think Jake heard it too because he made sure to tell Mike several times before he fell asleep that there was a monster out there. I can't wait until we can go on our first official family camping trip. I think we'll need a bigger tent!



Emma got to play in the tent before she went to bed inside. This was strictly a boys only campout.

The day that should have been

So I think we all know that today is March 23, 2011. The day Amy and I were supposed to experience the culmination of our life long dream of meeting Rick Springfield. But then he cancelled. And I have to say I'm a little bitter.

I woke up trying to pretend that this was just any normal old day. That's pretty easy to do when you have to get two toddlers ready for "school" and out the door in a 45 minute time frame. Emma did not want to get dressed. She only wants to wear her new TinkerBell pajamas now. She wants to wear them all day, every day. So, that was fun. And Jake kept telling me that American cheese is made from whole milk. He has also started announcing his presence by saying "the King is here." I'm not sure what is going on with our son.

On our way to school I was listening to my favorite morning show on the radio. All of a sudden they started playing "Jessie's Girl." I was SO happy and excited. I actually had thoughts of this radio station following my blog and arranging for me to meet Mr. Springfield and somehow they were secretly following me on my way to work and played his song to get my all hyped up and then as I was pulling into the parking lot there he would be. Guitar in hand, playing my song just for me before I went to work for the day. And of course, I would get a hug, a picture and an invitation to come on the next Rick Springfield and friends cruise. (delusional much?)

Yeah, but none of that happened. Except for the fact that the radio station did randomly play my song this morning.

The kids at school today were "on fire" to quote one of Jake's teachers. They didn't really let me think about Rick too much.

Then tonight after I finally got Emma to bed and Jake was watching Tinkerbell before he went off to bed I got a phone call from Amy. My BFF. And this is why she is my BFF. She alone knew how disappointed I was going to be today and she shared in that disappointment. We ended the day with much laughter and I actually feel okay about not meeting Rick. I don't feel great about it but I'm okay. I've even forgiven Charlie Sheen and CBS.

Jake and the Jet Pack

Jake has always had great teachers at Mother's Day Out. This year his teachers are really fun and creative. About two weeks ago they had a "space and pajama" day at school. He got to wear his rocket pj's and was so excited about it.

When I picked him up at the end of the day there was the cutest little homemade jet pack in his bin. His teachers had made one for each child. Jake wore it out to the car and zoomed around the parking lot for special effect.

I had planned on taking some clothes back to Old Navy that didn't fit and since Mike goes to school in the evenings now I really had no choice but to take the children with me. This goes against every fiber in my being. I KNOW what happens when I take the kids out in public and expect them to act like normal human beings.

Needless to say, Jake would not leave that jet pack in the car. So I let him wear it inside Old Navy. Some things aren't worth fighting about. And he looked pretty cute with it on over his rocket pajamas.

Well, as soon as we got in the store a lady on her way out started going on and on about how cute Jake's outfit was. That was all the encouragement he needed. He immediately started zooming around the store with his arms out screaming "TO INFINIWY AND BEYOND!" Yes, I said "infiniwy." That's how he pronounces infinity. So, while I was busy pretending that he was someone else's child, Emma was having a full on conversation with the plastic dog and manequins at the front of the store. No big deal.

Five minutes later, I had exchanged my clothes for new sizes and was desperatley trying to round up the children to get out to the car. They had discovered the dressing rooms and were running into each one slamming doors behind them. Then Emma discovered herself in a full length mirror. Only I guess she didn't recognize herself. Or maybe she thought herself was actually some long lost friend. Because, I kid you not, she ran full blast straight ahead right into the mirror. Luckily, nothing (and no one) got broken and we made it out to the car where I desperately wished I had a stash of chocolate for myself for the car ride home.

Spring Break Road Trip

Last week was our spring break. It was nice to have Mike at home every evening instead of off at Texas State participating in higher learning. It was also nice to have a break from Mother's Day Out and hang out at home a little more.

However, Friday rolled around and this was our first full day and evening together as a family since Mike started school in January. So, I had a brilliant idea. I decided that we would load the kids up in the Jeep and cruise on over to San Antonio for a trip to the zoo. I hadn't been to this zoo in at least twenty years and I had heard nothing but great things about it.

The problem was that when we showed up we were greeted by about 18,000 of our closest friends. Never, I repeat, never go to the zoo during spring break. It was a complete zoo in there.

We arrived around 10:30 and saw our first animal at about noon. First, we went into this education center that had some games set out for kids. Jake and Emma loved it. I think it was their favorite part of the trip.



Then we decided to join the other millions of people there in looking at some animals. We took in our little umbrella stroller to push Emma around. She had other ideas. She did not want to ride in it. In fact, she wanted to push it. So we let her until she started running into people left and right. We tried to help her steer but she wasn't having it. Finally, we had to tell her to just step away from the stroller. This caused a raging fit from little bit. She cried and cried and then she screamed and flailed her little body around right there in the middle of all of those people. For about twenty minutes. That was how long it took us to realize that the kids were probably hungry and then stand in line to buy hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, popcorn, ice cream, and Popsicles for them. We left no stone unturned in the junk food that was available to us.

We resumed our animal watching as soon as we had two happy kids again. The problem with the animals was that they were over it. A week of having thousands of loud, smelly humans around was more than they could take. I mean we saw the animals, but the animals were all playing dead. And really that is exactly what I felt like doing.

We ended our adventure with a train ride around the zoo, a two hour trip home in some really bad traffic and a promise from me to never ever ever have another bright idea again.

Emma's Big Day

I think I'm finally ready to talk about Emma turning two years old. I've sort of been in denial because, well, we no longer have a baby in the house. That's weird. She is in full blown little girl mode now. Emma Mae is very opinionated. She likes to try to do everything by herself. Which makes our morning routine take about three times longer than it used to. I'm trying to be very patient and let her do what she can without butting in. That is so hard for someone who likes to be in control and get things done already! The hardest thing is letting her dress herself. Although it is pretty cute to watch. Just not on days where we need to get somewhere by a certain time. She is constantly trying to put pants on her head or put her pants on upside down or something.

The thing I'm enjoying most about this stage is her conversation. She talks all the time now! Just like another child in this house I know! In fact, I took her to her two year check up yesterday and she talked through the whole thing. The nurse totally cracked up. I think the doctor was annoyed. We'll be getting another doctor now. Just like any other two year old she can throw a fit to rival your worst day without chocolate at any time. She is also the sweetest, most helpful, most loving little girl I know. I love when she puts her hands on my face and just looks at me and says "mama." She is our joy and I cannot believe she is two!

I decided to give her a Tinkerbell birthday party since she loves the fairies so much. For two weeks before her birthday we would ask her how old she was going to be and she would say "two!" and then follow it with a "tinkerbell!" Needless to say, she was very excited about her Tinkerbell birthday party.

I found the cutest idea for a cake on my friend Suzanne's blog and she got the idea from The Idea Room blog. It's for a rainbow cake. I thought since fairies make rainbows (according to the movie) that this would be the perfect cake for Em. I spent just about all day on this cake. It has six layers and we only had two cake pans. Other than that, it really is a fairly simple cake to bake (just a box mix). Although I will tell you if you try to make it to let your cool whip thaw before folding it into the icing. Otherwise, you will end up with a lumpy mess in your frosting and you will need to call your hubby up frantically and ask him to stop for a can of store bought frosting on his way home from work so you can cover up all of the lumps. The cake tasted wonderful but Emma ate about a bite and a half and was done with it. Your welcome, sweet girl.






We had a couple friends come over for the party and my parents and my sister and her family came. We bought Emma a cute little red kitchen for her present. She got lots of plastic food, dishes, Tinkerbell stuff and some cute clothes for her birthday. Thank you to everyone! We took the kids to our local park to play for about an hour and then came back home and had cake and opened presents. I think she had a good day!

Binky-less

Here's a picture of Emma during her first nap ever without a binky in her mouth. The day after her birthday I told her that the binky fairy had come and all of the binky's were gone and had been given to needy babies. She was not happy. She cried for thirty minutes before she finally fell asleep in that exhausted heap on her blankets. Night time was much better. She cried about ten minutes. The next day she fussed for a couple minutes and that's been about it. She does come up to me a lot and rub her fingers on her lips which means she wants that binky but I just remind her that she's a big girl now and her binky's are for babies. I think she has adjusted fairly well. Now, onward to potty training!

Charlie, I'm sorry

It seems I owe someone a huge apology. So here goes. Charlie Sheen, I apologize. You, in fact, did not ruin what would have been the sixth most amazing day of my life. You have done a lot of weird things lately, but the rumor that Rick Springfield was going to take your place on Two and a Half Men was just a rumor.

Rick did cancel his book signing in Austin and I'm still severely bummed about that, but now it seems it was because he is/will be filming an episode of Hawaii Five O which also airs on CBS and somehow we were led to believe that he was going to be on that OTHER CBS show.

Therefore,

Dear Hawaii Five O people,

See below letter to Charlie Sheen. While I don't think any of you are evil or crazy you did still mess up my life and I am not happy with you.

Hanging in there, LM

Just goes to show that you shouldn't believe everything you see/hear/read until you have confirmed the facts yourself. How do rumors get started? They get started by the jealous people. Look at all of these rumors surrounding me everyday. I just need some time, some time to get away. Thank you Timex Social Club. Ya'll remember that song?

Anyway, I have so much to catch up on. But, let's just start with today. I met my friend Katha and her boys for lunch. Turns out it is her birhtday today. As I was driving to our destination I realized that this is her birthday month so as soon as I saw her I was all "when is your birthday again?" and she was all "today!" and I was all "i am such a crappy friend." Which goes to show us all why I only have three friends here. I can't handle having friends. Anyway, Happy Birthday to my sweet friend!

We went to Phil's Ice House in Austin. You all know I love me a good burger. And these were good burgers. The bread was divine. I should have taken a picture of it. Instead, I took a picture of my peeps playing on the playground.




Happy Wednesday! I will get around to putting up some pictures of Emma's birthday party soon.