Friday

On Friday, we...

had a cute friend come play



watched Nemo



acted pretty silly



ate cheese



painted our toenails



fed the car





took lots of pictures, and of course, did some laundry.
It was quite the eventful day at my house, which (embarassingly) reveals how little we usually do around here. When grabbing a Sonic during Happy Hour and hitting the car wash is the makings for a good time (and don't for a second think it wasn't, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves), it's no wonder I'm a bit nutty.
Now I have to go prepare a Sunday School lesson, which will require me to think like an actual adult for the first time this week. It's quite the adjustment, wish me luck.

An Ode to Laundry

Laundry, oh laundry, will you please go away?
Do you not understand how you ruin my day?

With all of the piles, I can't get on top
I start in the morning and don't ever stop.

I'll think that I'm done and only find sorrow
When I realize that I just have more for tomorrow.

Drying and washing and washing and drying,
Place your bets now for when I stop trying.

Can't we all wear clothes that I can throw out
I know I'd save money when I stop buying Shout!

Checking and scrubbing and treating with goop
The spit up and stains and gross baby poop.

Laundry for home and for sisters and brother,
Out with one load and in with another.

Then sorting and folding and matching's a pain
Of all my existence, I'd call you the bane.

This menial task just keeps me so busy
Is this one of Jane's socks or does it fit Lizzy?

Then into their rooms to find the right drawer
I'd call the whole process a chore and a bore.

And the iron sees almost no light in this place
When Brent asks me to, I laugh in his face.

When I hate it so much, then what does it mean?
There are too many baskets some dirty, some clean.

I have too many "things" I don't understand why
It's time that I take a trip to D.I.

qubo

Does anyone else get the channel qubo? It has cartoons, or at least "kid shows" (as opposed to "adult shows") on all day and since I STILL have no cable or dish, Jane watches it a lot. Some of the shows are a little... strange, but mostly inoffensive. There have been times that I wanted to turn it off just out of principle because I thought the shows were stupid or a little disturbing, but I have restrained myself. The peace and quiet is far too valuable for me to be taking a moral stand against stupidity.

The only real complaint that I have about the station is that they are like, the masters of the 'as seen on tv' commercials. I swear that's all they show. It seems as though Jane is a sucker for the ingenius creations the 'as seen on tv' people come up with and she wants, nay, NEEDS it all. The other morning, she called me in to watch the Cash 4 Gold commercial. It was hilarious, she was totally mezmorized by it...
"mooooooooom (eyes glazed over) look at thaaaaaaat."

She likes the Cash 4 Gold one, but not the other one, I can't remember what it's called.

It's not just the kid things like the Bendaroos that she wants either. So far, she's begged me for...
Bumpits (yikes!),
a Snuggie (really, who doesn't want one?)
Shoes Under (it would clear out so much room in her closet!),
the Topsy Turvey tomato planter ("we could grow our OWN tomatoes!" - I'll admit that this one tempts me.)
Big City Sliders (seriously, how have we been making and cooking hamburgers up until this point? I just can't imagine life without it.)

And these are just to name a few.

She'd pretty much be happy to take anything they advertise. I'm not sure if the marketers with the 'as seen on tv' industry were aware of how captivating their commercials are to 4-year-olds, but someone should probably inform them of this untapped market.

"Gimme cheese!"

I got these photos of Lizzy while she was trying to snatch the camera ("cheese") away from me. Even when she is as ornery as she gets, she's still adorable.





She has recently realized that the camera holds photos of "Sizzy" and she really likes to look at herself lately. I think she must be going through one of those self realization phases. She looks at a picture of herself... "Sizzy!" and after a couple seconds of deep thoughts she points to herself... "I Sizzy!" Yes, baby, you are.


**** apparently between the time that I posted this and tonight, Lizzy has learned to pronounce her name correctly. She's a total pro at this talking thing.****

Charlie's little buddy

After the usual 9 long months, today, my sister had her baby.



Meet David Steven Jackson.



He's so sweet, aren't newborns just the best? And doesn't Leslie look a little too beautiful to have given birth just minutes earlier?



The big brother.



They are destined to be friends, they really don't have a choice.



I kept having to check Charlie in with the nurses and show him to them before he came in and before he left. They say it was a security measure to make sure I'm not a baby stealer. Does he look like a newborn to you? I stuck him in David's little crib thinger (can't ever remember what they are called) to make sure. Nope, not a newborn.



And Jane wouldn't leave until she got to hold him.
Congratulations Leslie and Cam!

I'd like to bear my testimony of...

I'd like to bear my testimony of 3M Command series. I LOVE these things. We bought the hooks to hang our calendar on the fridge a few years ago and I was hooked (no pun intended, at all) immediately. They are so easy to use and they really do stick to everything and really do come off clean, assuming you follow the directions. I have recently developed a love for their picture hangers, which are basically an awesome velcro that can either be used alone or as an extra support to help level the picture out or hold against the wall. I also used the cool little cord clips to tuck away the cords at my new desk. I'm a HUGE fan. If you've ever wondered if they are worth it, they are.

Be My Valentine

On Valentine's Day, I love...



Brace yourselves for lots more photos in my posts. I'm lovin' the camera
















and of course,



How about you?

Oh, I also realized that my free, rudimentary photo editing software allows me to type text onto my photos, so like it or not, be prepared for more of that.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Love is in the Air

All the "love" posts seem fitting seeing as how Valentine's day is so close.

In the car on the way home from school the other day...

Jane: Mom, there's a boy at school and his name is Ethan.
Me: I see. And what about Ethan?
Jane: Well he's my friend and we play together and I love him because he's my boy.
Me: (shocked) How do you know that he's your boy?
Jane: Because I asked him if he wanted to be my friend and he said yes and loves me too. He plays with Peyton and Madison too, but they don't love him because no one is allowed to love him but me.


Good grief. Who does this girl think she is?



In the car on the way home from the school the next day...

Jane: Mom, Ethan hit me today.
Me: I'm sorry, honey. Why did he do that?
Jane: I don't know. He just hit me.
Me: Well, maybe he wanted attention or something. Sometimes boys like to get attention, but they don't always know how to do it in a nice way.
Jane: (thinks for a second) Ya, you're right, Mom. He just wanted my attention.
Me: So how do you feel about Ethan today?
Jane: Oh, he's my boy and I still love him even though he does dumb things like hit me.

Great. Now I'm encouraging her to enable wife beaters. I'm not ready for this.

A Labor of Love

(warning, extremely wordy post to follow)

When I was not much older than my oldest daughter, my parents decided to build a house. While we were building, I remember making numerous trips to the Builder's Square which was a Home Depot-like hardware store. During one of those trips, a strategically placed bin full of wall paper caught my eye and drew me in. Inside it was the most magnificent wall covering my 5 year old eyes had ever beheld... Strawberry Shortcake wall paper. The thought of covering an entire wall with Strawberry Shortcake herself blew my mind. I HAD to have it. I remember pleading with my mom for the wall paper, willing to offer anything I had for it, and I didn't have much. I was thrilled when my mom picked it up and put it in the cart and even a little taken aback by how easy it was to talk her into it. I remember the time that she spent pasting my wall paper in my room and I loved her for it. Add in my Cabbage Patch Kids bedding (my loyalties were divided) and my beloved double bed complete with frilly, white canopy and I was heaven.

Fast forward 20 some odd years. When we moved, Jane was a little traumatized and I was determined to make a nice room as a sanctuary for her. She informed me that she wanted a "princess room" so I decided that even though the thought of decorating a princess room made me gag a little bit, I would do the best that I could. I thought that maybe I could handle it if I made one that was a little more maturely and subtlety princess themed rather than just buying Cinderella bedding from the store. I have issues with cartoon characters making their way into my house in anything other than DVD form. Don't ask why, I don't know. My mom was way nicer. So, I started on it. We bought matching beds for the girls since they were going to share the room. I painted. I made Brent put up molding. I made pillows and curtains, but it just wasn't turning out.

A few weeks ago, after several months of dealing with horribly under-rested children, we decided that Jane and Lizzy sharing a room just wasn't working and had to do something different. As a resolution, we chose to split up my beloved craft/play room by putting a wall in the middle of it to make a room for Lizzy. I'll get photos of those at some point, I'm sure, but this post is about Jane's room. I wanted to do something that she would like better, make it a little younger, I guess, and this is what we came up with...





It certainly isn't finished since it has nothing on the walls, and baseboards aren't all there, the closet door is on backwards and (as Jane has informed me) it needs a rug, but the the bulk of the hard work is done. I painted those pink and purple princess stripes all myself over the course of the past couple of weeks. It took hours and hours of my time. They go around the entire room and required 4 different coats of paint. I sure hope that she likes it. I made the curtains, the bedskirt and pillows. I still need to paint the dressers and add the crystal hardware. After having done this, I have a much greater appreciation for what my mom did for me at this age. I feel, now, the love that she must have had for me that made her willing to wallpaper my room in Strawberry Shortcake just to make me happy. I know that it is a couple decades over due, but maybe it's better late than never. Thanks Mom, I love you.

do you know the muffin man?

Just a couple photos of Charlie since I still can't get over how handsome he is.





I always have called the girls my little muffins, so we all call Charlie our muffin man. He has also been cursed with the dreaded eczema, hence the claw marks on his nose and greasy skin. It doesn't seem as bad as Lizzy's was at this age, so I have hopes that he won't ever get quite as bad, but we still have a lot of scratching going on. AND... for those that haven't seen him, his eyes are turning dark! Hooray! I love my blue-eyed family, but I really wanted someone to have dark eyes like me. I'm glad to have genetically passed them on to one of my children. It makes me feel like I had something to offer :)

Mama called the doctor and the doctor said

Until we gathered all the stuffed monkeys together, I hadn't realized exactly how many we had. We have a lot of "ah ahs" as Lizzy would say.



But really, can you ever have too many stuffed monkeys?

What I like about you

Lizzy is growing up of so fast and I don't like it. The toddler years are my favorite. There's something so exciting about toddlers, the way that they are discovering the world, but not the sad or scary parts that you don't want them to discover. Before I know it, my toddler will be gone and I'm going to miss her so much. So in an effort to remember the things I love about this stage, here are some of the things I don't want to forget about Lizzy

-The way she loves her sister and copies everything she does. She repeats the words that Jane says, laughs when she does, dances when she does, it's so fun.

-She doesn't speak super clearly yet, but she thinks that she makes perfect sense, she treats you like you are crazy when you don't understand her.

-She is obsessed with putting things the way they are supposed to be. Doors are supposed to be closed, socks and shoes are supposed to be on your feet, trash is supposed to be in the garbage. She makes messes, but as soon as you ask her where something is supposed to be, she's compelled to put it away.

-When I put all her lotions on her, she likes to help. She'll show me where she itches so that we can put medicine on her in the right spots.

-She loves her little brother. She won't give anyone in the family kisses except for him.

-Speaking of which, she might have the makings of a puppetier when she gets older because if you ever ask her for a kiss or hug, she makes her dolls do it. She's not often very snuggly, so we eat it up when she is.

-The girl has got SUCH an attitude with us and we're awful because we just laugh at her.

-She is a total daddy's girl. I have to get her up in the morning or she'll cry for hours that her daddy has left her.

-She loves candy especially "lollies" which is a sucker or really any candy on a stick. "Want lolly!"

- When she talks, she speaks so deliberately, concentrating on each word before she says it. "I.... love... you.... mo....mmy"

- Today she found a drawing from nursery a while ago and wanted it. She started saying "Show mommy, show mommy. Oh, so cute!" I think they must have encouraged her to show me her drawing.

-She's always down for bath time. "Need tub tub!" She mostly just tries to drink the bath water, so she must be closely supervised during her "tub tub."

-She loves necklaces and will wear several all day and even sleep in them if we forget to take them off.

-Instead of saying "meow" to make a cat noise or "woof" to say a dog noise, she will actually do her best to imitate the sound the animal makes. She's pretty good at it too.

-She's reached that age that she knows we think she's adorable and uses it to manipulate us. You should see the sly smiles she send us, we almost always fall for it.




I'm sure I'll come up with 10 more before the end of the day... I'm so in love with her.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Everyone likes chocolate, even Charlie. Of course his lack of teeth makes actually consuming it hard on him, but he's doing what he can about that. I suppose it's possible that he's not teething, but if he's not, then there's no excuse for the overwhelming amount of drooling and chewing and gnawing that we've got going on in this house. I'm going to need more Tylenol.