You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch...

Things in the last 48 hours that very well could be followed by some sad, trumpety noise.

1. Packing away Sam's 12 months clothes.

2. Packing away Emma's 2T clothes.

3. Taking down my green bean vines b/c the stink bugs most likely destroyed them.

4. And the icing on the cake...Although, I should be happy that it is probably advanced for Emma to be able to illustrate emotion in drawing a face, why did it have to be me? Seriously, I think I am mostly nice to her, but this gem would make anyone think otherwise.

I walked by her drawing quietly. It was everything pictured above without the smile.

Emma: Mom, I drew a picture of you.

Me: (I'm thinking to myself..good lord! that looks angry...no...she's only 3...let's hope it's a coincidence)

Emma: That's you being angry.

Me: (great.) Why am I angry?

Emma: Because I hit my brother.

Me: Yes. That makes me angry. I'm not always angry, though, right?.

Emma: (added the smile).

Hopefully, I outgrow my Mom=Dr. Seuss Grinch status.

The Late Night Show

Scene: Middle of the night. Sam wakes up itching...I'm rocking Sam in his dark room. Steve is in the bathroom helping Emma who woke up for a potty break. Sam sits up, noticing the light in the hall. Apparently, he needs to get to the bottom of this.

Sam: medsin, medsin, medsin, medsin? (translation: sweet! am I getting some tasty meds?)

Me: No medicine, lay down.

Sam: (lays down for a few seconds, pops up) Potty, potty, potty? Daddy potty?

Me: yes. daddy potty. lay down. (I'm for sure not mentioning who else is in there)

Sam: (lays down for about a minute, back up laughing)

Me: what's so funny?

Sam: bye, bye, poopie, bye, bye, poopies..hahahahah...(cracking up)

Me: hilarious. goodnight.

oh my little sam. =)

PS: He is not allergic to cats, wheat, beef, eggs, codfish, other random things on this allergy screen. However, still itching. Any thoughts? We are using the most hypoallergenic detergent possible.

Summer Vacation - Part 1

San Antonio, here we come! We miss our friends terribly. So much, in fact, that we went ahead and jumped into the scary unknown..a plane ride with two little ones. We were pleasantly surprised when all went well. We arrived at the airport and Jason picked us up in a minivan they rented to cart our growing group around. They live in paradise. A place where a gluten-free/vegetarian diet is no big deal, the swimming pool is refreshing, and good friends and good conversation await on an amazing lanai! Jason, a genius with surprisingly exceptional hide and seek skills, and Amanda, a superhero-goddess in all things domestic, welcomed us warmly!

Our fleet

I saved the best for last. The main reason we came to visit was to meet the newest member of this family and Princess of Paradise, Miss Isla Rose!!!!!! My font choices do not allow me to express how exciting this is for us! I did not take nearly enough pictures of Isla. She is so so tiny and cute! And, Jason and Amanda make such great parents.

Hanging out with Isla is especially exciting for us because it seems like just yesterday that Jason and Amanda were baby Emma's special friends. Babies and ALL that comes with them was new and surprising.

Jason and Emma(1 day old)

Amanda and Emma

Jason and Emma (5 mos)

And now, Isla's here!!!! And, she's more beautiful than any of us could have imagined. Even though, she is so mini and new, she already has a sweet personality and her own preferences. She will let you know if she is too hot and likes to watch everyone around her, taking everything in. It's amazingly fun to see Jason and Amanda glued to their monitor and surrounded by baby gear! During our trip, Emma asked Amanda if she could be Isla's big sister. We can't wait for all of the fun times to come!

Our Hero

Now, there are lots of reasons why Steve is our hero, and I'm looking forward to listing all of them in later posts. But, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Our summer has been full of traveling and vacationing, which is great. We feel very lucky. There are some side effects, though. Bouncing in and out of our normal routines made us pretty desperate for getting Sammy some sleep during our Kentucky trip. Hence, the binky rescue....

I mostly posted this because Sam was laughing at Steve jumping out. Looking back, behaviorally, it was kind of a nightmare. Lots of attention for a teeerrrible act. Also, to clarify, Sam calls his binky "binka" and drink "drinka". My theory is that everything gets an "a" at the end of the word because that's how his sister's name ends. Also, I'd like to remember how Emma likes to give advice these days (i.e. "watch out for that boat, dad."). Good times. =)

Uninvited Guest

Well, look who's been keeping my garden company while we were gone. This little punk ate most of every tomato on one of my plants. So, I have found tomato hornworms on plants before. Each time, we captured it and banished it to a glass jar. Each time, I forced it into a science project. Apparently, these things turn into giant 5-spotted hawk moths that can fly up to 30 mph. I wanted to see this. Unfortunately, (but actually I don't really care), they all did not quite make it. Once, death by squirrel and then, death by hot jar. We'll see what happens this time. Every time this happened, I couldn't help but think, "Well, buddy, maybe you shouldn't have eaten all of my tomatoes."

tomato hornworm

I ran across a home remedy I want to remember for next year. These jerks also LOVE dill. So, if you plant dill around your tomatoes, they will attack that first. The idea is that you would notice this damage before they get to the tomatoes. Learn something new every day.

I also mentioned that we were gone this weekend. This trip concludes our summer travels. We have been on 5 trips all together, and I will be working on a new post about our adventures soon. Probably will be more exciting than hornworm stories! =) Stay tuned!!

A New Invention

A carrot update for those that are interested. So, I decided to pull many more of our carrots for dinner. I've been told by my awesome gardening-guru buddy, Jen, that I should not expect long, store-bought-looking carrots. I appreciate the reality check, because I was really holding out for the pretty, long ones in the picture they have right on the seed packet. Anyway, not so much, but enough to try to eat for dinner.

Pulled, check! Washed, check! Peeled, check! Pre-tasted, check... Arg! Metal taste again. That's okay...we're definitely going to eat these things, even if I have to use lots of butter. To the 'fridge.....no butter! Nice. Water and brown sugar it is then.

Next, the CHAOS that is preparing dinner while supervising 2 little ones ensues. Long story short, I start to smell a funny carrot smell. I remember those carrots on the back burner, and lift the lid to uncover my new invention...gummy carrots. If ANYONE looked into that pan and had to guess what was in front of them, I may have heard, "are you cooking pennies?....in goo?" or "gummy bears for dinner?!?" or "are you cooking the pan from when I changed the oil in my car?" What a life....those mini seeds came a long way only to be turned into inedible, shriveled disks that require a sharp, sturdy object to pry them from our teeth. (Don't worry...I'm talking about the adults' teeth..they were deemed too terrible to feed to the kids). BUUUHMMER. I would have taken a picture, but I was too busy trying not to cry. Oh, well.

My new plan is to come up with a menu per week and prepare/freeze as much as I can. Wouldn't that be fabulous? To just pull meals out of the freezer and presto..dinner! So, I can't really see this ACTUALLY happening, but I'd like to try. What is your favorite recipe to freeze? Has anyone done this before or know of weekly menu resources? The whole vegetarian/gluten free thing might throw a wrench in this plan, but just a thought...we'll see.

G'on...Get Down With Your Bad Self!!

Sam's been dancing since he was so little. He has perfected some of his moves and chooses them carefully!

This happens every time my phone rings.

I call myself to see this happen. Without fail, he drops what he is doing to bust a move!

Stinky Situation

Bad news to report. The green beans are going down hill quickly. Instead of our lovely, long green pods, there are wimpy, yellow, misshapen beans. The culprit: STINK BUGS!! Brown Marmorated stink bugs to be exact. Apparently, these little jerks have "sucking mouth parts" that destroy everything. I've been learning a lot about these little suckers and turns out that they go through a metamorphosis looking a lot different at each stage.

I found their little babies, which look like ticks. Ugh...I start itching when I think of those crawly things. They definitely have that lice effect, where you know it's not on you, but it still starts itching when you talk about it. Hopefully, I'm not the only one this happens to, and hopefully I didn't just create it here. Are you itching? Ok. Ok. I'll stop.

Anyway, I'm looking for an organic answer to this problem. I haven't really found one yet, except I did smash a really big one the other day. Smashing isn't going to work for those little tick-like babies. More good news...some of the research I have found explains that when it gets colder these jerk-face stink bugs look to get into your house. Help!

Choices

So, I just finished the book, Parenting with Love and Logic. It's a book I used to use at my job when I met with families to talk about their crisis. We talked about natural consequences and avoiding power struggles with kids. I feel like I owe all of my former clients an apology. Little did I know that just having a toddler can be a crisis in itself and can instantly morph you into a crazy person.

Anyway...this book gave me a refresher and was really helpful. It motivated me to add more choices to Emma's day and help her to figure out her own problems. I will have to admit, there were a few ideas that were panic inducing. They really drove home the point that our interactions with her will shape her self-concept and develop (or underdevelop) her self-esteem. Ahhh! Enter flashbacks of me being impatient, less than supportive of her, and having my own tantrums. BUT..kids are resilient, right?...So after reading, and feeling guilty, I'm all geared up to give Emma some choices today. The ball is going to be in her court. She's going to feel like she has control and build off-the-chart levels of self-esteem!!!.....OR.....:

Em: I know! I want to trace my letters!

Me: Great idea! Would you like me to bring up paper? or would you like to work on your art desk downstairs?

Em: Oh...whatever works best for you mom.

In case you are thinking this sounds sweet, think again. This girl has my number, can possibly read my mind, and I am terrified of her teenage years. =)

Things I want to remember from this book:

• Children's mistakes are their opportunities
• Setting limits is like building walls that don't crumble and leave kids feeling secure
• Let your yes be yes, and your no be yes, too (i.e. I want to play computer NOW!! Can I? Yes. You can play after lunch. tricky!)
• You can't make a child go to sleep.

Sick.

Read at your own risk..yucky stuff ahead...

On our road trip home:

Me (to Emma): It's a bummer we all have colds. I don't like having a cold.

Emma: Me neither..(pause)..well, I like them a little. It's a little fun.

Me: What do you mean?

Emma: Well, colds have coughs and I like coughs.

Me: You like coughs?!?

Emma: Well, coughs have spit in them and then you swallow it and that's kinda fun!

It's official, we can add optimist to the list of adjectives that describe our 3 year old.