Sunday, January 31, 2010

MatchyMatchy:WooHoo

I have to live vicariously though my friends that dress their daughters in hair bows, tutus, and pink leopard print. But today, I'm happy to present to you, my version of cutesy dress up. Seriously. You can't imagine how excited I was when I found matching shirts in their sizes. (Um actually, yeah, you probably can.) So without further ado, I give you duded up-Ingy style.
Oh! And it gets better. After JR noticed what everybody was wearing he said, "Why are the babies dressed like me? I don't want them copying my style." My Style! JR thinks he has a style. My heart is beaming.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Parading Into My Good Graces

Alrighty, so I'm still miffed about the Sarah Palin incident, but Durango Snowdown, you've somewhat redeemed yourself. Shelly was right, the parade had tons of people completely and totally inappropriately dressed. It was a beach theme so of course there were plenty of crazies running around in bikinis and speedos (it was about 33 degrees!). But, I have to give it to 'em, it was one of the best parades I've ever seen. The kids loved it (even Harry), and Jason is extremely upset he missed it after I told him about the ladies in bikinis that um, *cough*cough* had their nipplear areas illuminated.

I WAS sooo Excited

Today I thought I'd let you in on what goes through this mind of mine. I already put everything else on this blog, so guess I'll go ahead and blare and blate that too. (Don't you just love the expression "blare and blate"? My mom always uses it when somebody tells something they shouldn't have.)
Before I start my story I have to give you some background information. This week in Durango is what they call "Snowdown". I actually have no idea how to describe it since it's not a craft show, rodeo, or fair. Best I can tell it's a lot of drinking, eating, and other really weird contests held at bars and restaurants in town. They also have a parade tonight, which we may or may not go to depending on the weather.
Wednesday I stopped in Starbucks (I have a gift card I need to use) while the babies were at their museum class. As I was checking out I saw a newspaper with "Snowdown" written across the top of it.
(Now here's where the rest of the blog turns into what was going through my head. If it's in italics I was thinking it)
Oh! Maybe this will explain what in the world this Snowdown thing is.
I always flip through a newspaper or magazine to see if anything grabs my attention before I start reading. And here's what I immediately found.
At this point my heart is racing (and it wasn't the coffee).
Oh my goodness! I wonder what night it is? I'll just have to call the bookstore and find out.
I can't believe she's coming here; Durango's so liberal. Well, maybe she was already coming to do some hunting. Typical they'd have to make a jab at her about shooting inside a fence.
Oh my goodness, there probably won't be very many people there! I'll get to really talk to her.
Oh, she's going to just love me! I'll tell her about Jason's dad and show her Jason's bobcat picture...maybe she'll invite us hunting with her! Jason's going to die if we get to go hunting with Sarah Palin!
I'm going to get a picture with her! I'm so getting it blown up. I wonder where'd it look best in the house?
What am I going to wear? What would Sarah think was cute? I'm going to do my hair up like hers that night!
I can't believe this!
And then I really started to think.
I. can't. believe. this.
My heart still racing and my hands shaking, I started flipping through the paper...Only to discover the whole paper is a joke. It's called the Snowdown Sneer and it's a completely fake newspaper for this stupid, ridiculous Snowdown thing that I still don't understand.
You are mean and cruel, Durango! Just for that I'm still not going to recycle or eat organically!
Stomp. Stomp. Pout. Pout.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Lookin' Good-er!

Can I get a doctorate in Neosporin application? Cause I'm thinking I would definitely be an expert in the field. I can see it now..."Have you seen Dr. Jan? She's the best! You can't even imagine the wonders she can work with that tube of Neosporin."
Here's Reed this morning, 2 weeks after the incident, and looking so much better! I've actually discontinued the Neosporin regimen and we've moved on to heavy applications of Scar Zone and Vitamin E. (Boy those Vitamin E capsules can squirt when you open them!)

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Gotta Have 'Em!

There are some standard things you need in Houston to survive:

  • air-conditioning
  • swimming pool in your backyard or neighborhood
  • security system
  • mosquito spray

None of these thing we need (or even have) here in Durango. But the things I do need here, I really, really need. As we have hit the winter months head on, I began thinking about the things I use here daily. Things I wouldn't need in Houston. (And, unfortunately, I'm not getting a kick-back or any freebies. I just love these things that much.)

Ice spikes for my boots.

Yeah, it's not enough to just have snow boots, I actually have to put spikes on them to keep myself upright. I didn't have them on the other day as I was walking to the mailbox and I fell flat on my face. Flat as in: totally spread-eagle-on-my stomach-flat. (Yes, Mom, I'm fine; which is why I didn't tell you about it.) The ice spikes aren't coming off my boots til summer. (not spring. summer.)

This stuff is a-ma-zing.

I coat my face with this before we go skiing. Yep, sunscreen to go skiing. You're that much closer to the sun, plus the sun reflects off the snow. Makes summer in Houston look like Seattle.

My $.97 spa treatment.

My hands haven't been this dry since I was washing them every 5-seconds when the babies came home from the NICU. You know it's bad when your hands burn after lotion. Thanks to this little wonder, I don't feel (and look) like I'm moulting anymore.

I'm saying "Yes!"

Y'all know I could care less if something is organic or not, and I actually got this because it was free with a purchase at Walgreen's, but oh my goodness, this stuff is good. The best part: JR will put this one on! Jason and I were laughing that a tube of Chapstick would last us a year in Houston. We go through one a month now.

And, no, I can't pick which one I would take with me if I was stranded on a deserted Durango snow covered island. And, yes, I'm well aware I would so not have made it as a pioneer woman!

Monday, January 25, 2010

They're Still*



*A disclaimer to my title: They were actually being still and quiet when I snapped this picture. Although as soon as they heard the click of the camera they looked over at me, jumped off the couch, and started running around the house again. So in actuality, they were probably only still for a minute...tops.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Too Much of a Good Thing

Jason and I were super excited to go skiing yesterday. We just knew with 4 feet of new snow, the skiing would be incredible. Um, actually it was really hard. That's a lot of snow to get bogged down in, and my legs were screaming right away. We saw tons of snowboarders get covered under mounds of snow as they tried to land jumps. We ran into some friends that said they had to help free a skier and a snowboarder. The snowboarder was buried so deep they couldn't get him, but called for help. The mountain had to bring the bobcat dozer and dig him out! So, yeah, there's tons of powder up there. Jason and I are still in awe of the shear amounts of snow...we're just a couple of wide-eyed Texans for sure.




Friday, January 22, 2010

I'm Rescued!

Jason finally made it home about 10:15 this morning! He cranked up the snowblower right away, which made the babies happy since that meant they were now able to do their two favorite things:

play ball


and ride the tricycle


And like any good Texan, Jason's pretty proud of our front yard snowpile. I'm 5'2" so that gives you an idea of how much snow we're talking. (Although my boots and fuzzy hood are giving me a few inches.)


Another view: Babies on the front steps

And just for fun, let's compare the front steps for two "J" months.

Where's Waldo? (I mean Hunter)

We've gotten about 2 feet of snow in the last 24 hours. This is Hunter trying to go out to go to the bathroom this morning. Poor thing. I finally had to pick him up and carry him out to the street. The kids are home from school since it's a snowday. Oh, and did I mention Jason's not home? He was in Denver and all the flights were cancelled (except the first one out yesterday morning). He took the last flight out of Denver to Albuquerque and spent the night. He's trying to drive back today. I'll let you know how that goes. Without Jason here to work the snowblower (and being a Texan) I wasn't exactly sure what to do yesterday. I did go out and shovel the end of the driveway where the snowplow piled up about a foot of snow. As I was shoveling my mind went where it usually goes as I'm cleaning the bathrooms, "Hum, now how exactly did I get here?" In Beijing I would have had a team of young men with homemade brooms sweeping the snow away. (They also "sweep" the snow off the highways, no need for snowplows.)
JR started fussing at me as soon as he got off the bus about why I didn't bring the car to get him. I said, "JR! I can't even get it out of the driveway!" Our sweet neighbors came and snowblowed the driveway last night...before another foot piled up. At least that'll make it easier for Jason when he finally does get home.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Lookin' Good!

Well, it was just last Thursday Reed tore up his face front flipping off the couch. The Lord sure knew what He was doing when He gave babies such amazing skin. I've also been militant about following doctors orders and have been renamed the Neosporin Police. But look how good he's looking!

Yep, looks like we're on the mend!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Can You Guess What's Wrong?

So what's wrong with this picture?
The Texans are probably thinking,
"Well, JR's probably sweating in that big coat" being that it was in the 70's in Houston today. But you Snowbirds know. Um-hum, JR didn't put his pants back on after P.E. (You can see he's holding them in his arms). So on a day it snowed 3-4 inches this morning, my child gets off the bus in shorts! (Yes, I gasped when I saw him.) We also had to stop right there and put on his snow boots or he'd have never made it home. I'm learning so many things about this Colorado lifestyle. And one of those lessons: It's too hard to do P.E. in snow pants, so you need to wear shorts/other pants underneath the snow pants on P.E. days. Poor thing, he's like a walking boutique: hat, gloves, coat, shorts under his clothes, and tennis shoes in his backpack. (The Texas days of going to school in shorts and T-shirts sure were easier!)
We ran into some neighbors on our walk/sled home and stopped to talk. As we were talking I noticed JR's outfit and made sure to clarify, "I promise I didn't send him to school that way!"

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

And That's How We Roll

It was snowing like crazy this morning, but with the school bus right on time, I figured it was business as usual. And being the good Durangoan that I am, I headed out to Tiny Tots. And I would like to point out that everybody was carrying on business as usual. In fact, not one kid was absent from The Tots. But parking and unparking at The Tots was more than I could handle this morning. Not only did I slide back down out of the parking lot into the street, but I got stuck. Stuck so bad that 4 people had to help push, including a snowplow driver who was telling me which way to turn my wheels. Now I know I was blocking the road, so to get through they needed me to move, but they were all really very sweet and helpful. I finally got myself parked, but then I got stuck again trying to leave The Tots. Not as bad as the first time (I only needed one helper), but stuck all the same. The one thing all the helpers had in common: telling me, "make sure you've got it in 4-wheel drive". You should have seen their faces when I said I didn't have 4-wheel drive. I guess in an effort to make me feel better they did comment on how nice my all-terrain tires were.
I wasn't quite sure I was actually going to make it home. Our house is uphill from town. And when I say "uphill" I mean, town is at 6, 500 ft and we're at 7,500 ft. So yeah, it's uphill. There's a fine line between driving fast enough so you don't start sliding backwards and not driving so fast that you loose control. I'm still not sure what that actual speed is. Neither my Texas driving skills (pull over and get in the ditch if you see a tornado coming at you and wave to the television camera if a high-speed chase passes you by), nor my Beijing driving skills (sit in the back and chit-chat with your girlfriends as the driver drives you around) prepared me for this. After a fish-tail to end all others coming into our neighborhood, and then a slide after a prayer into our garage, I decided I was done for the day. So although the sun came out and the roads were cleared in time for the bus, this is how we rolled this afternoon.
And JR pulling the sled was for modeling purposes only. Carrying his backpack is enough exercise in his book!

Monday, January 18, 2010

Did You See Me?

Did you see me today? Yeah, that was me, the one who opened up a package of Sour Patch Kids in the middle of Target. That was also me feeding them to my children as fast as I could to keep them quiet and inside the basket. Did you also see me switching baskets halfway through the shopping trip and getting the basket with seats in front, which have the ever important over the shoulder harness seat belts?
Did you see me at the Farmington mall? And I use the word 'mall' only because it's an indoor covered shopping area and has a Sbarro's. Did you see that I had forgotten our stroller? So then you must have seen Kyle immediately jerk the first 70% off Christmas decoration he could find on top of his head and cover himself in glitter. Yeah, that was probably his plan all along. You know Kyle, he loves the glitz.
Did you see me tell Reed that was the best idea ever when he jumped inside the double car stroller? Best $5 I ever spent. Did you see how I left the car stroller in the middle of the parking lot? It wasn't worth getting a $1 back to maneuver to the car strollerless. Plus somebody else will get a free stroller + $1. You know me, always looking out for others. Speaking of looking out for others, if you were looking out for us today then I'm sure you saw the boys riding in the stroller the "correct" way for about 5 minutes. After that you saw them riding standing up, switching places from front to back while the stroller was in motion, demanding to hold my drink from lunch, and pulling this little escape plan...while I was still pushing!

Now I know you saw us at Hobby Lobby. My favorite part was when the manager had to chase after Kyle when they went running down separate aisles. That was almost as fun as waiting in line at the framing counter behind the woman who was taking her sweet time as my kids screamed at the top of their lungs. Didn't you love those dirty looks she was giving me? They were almost as good as the eye-rolling I was doing over all the ridiculous "art" she was having framed.
And you must have spotted us on the ride home when Kyle refused to take a nap, or when he woke Reed up trying to dig a toy out of his car seat.
Yep, I'm quite sure you saw me today!

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Comedy of Errors

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to accompany any of the following stories, but as you can imagine, dramatic faces ensued on each.
Last week JR started Snowburners. (For my nonDurangoan readers: Snowburners is 8 weeks of half-day ski lessons for the local kids.) We have a high school babysitter (that we love) that comes each Saturday to watch the babies. Which means Jason and I get to ski together in the morning while JR is at lessons, and then we ski with him in the afternoons.
The first Saturday went off without a hitch, but yesterday was one blunder after another.
-It started with Jason and I skiing on the backside of the mountain. We needed to get to the bottom front to pick up JR from lessons. We were on a terrible run that was just straight across (think cross-country skiing) and my arms were getting tired. Finally I said, "I'm done with this, let's just ski down here and find another way to get down." It was a blue run, which we ski all the time, but after a little way down we discovered it was all moguls. If you don't ski they looks like this:

Jason did amazing; I was really impressed. Me? Yeah, not so much. There were 3 other girls on the same run with us who were struggling too. We were all laughing saying, "I thought this was a blue!" I finally just sat down and took off my skis. With skis in one hand and poles in the other, I slid down on my butt. Jason was so embarrassed he could have died. And I could have cared less. Jason says I squealed the whole way down...but I think I was only squealing when I started going too fast. It's harder than you'd think to butt slide while holding your skis and poles! (BTW, one of the other girls that was having trouble did the same thing.)
-After picking up JR, we headed back over to the main ski lift. It's a 6 person lift and they have little individual gates that automatically open when it's your turn. The gates opened, Jason and I went through, and as we were about to sit down we noticed JR wasn't with us! He hadn't gone fast enough and the gate had shut. Jason screamed, "Wait!", as I looked back to see pitiful JR face looking back at me from behind the gate. The lift operator told us to sit down and Jason said, "Are you going to make him ride by himself?!" Luckily one of the ski patrol medics was right there and said, "I'll bring him." In actuality JR probably had more fun getting to overhear all the "ski business" on the medics walkie-talkie than riding with us anyway.
-After the ski lift fiasco, we were skiing along and I saw Jason go flying though the air. I yelled to JR, "Look JR! Daddy's doing a jump!" But ya know, the most important part of the jump is the landing. And as I saw Jason bouncing off his chest with snow, skis, and poles flying through the air...I'd say it wasn't such a successful jump. In fact, he had about half a dozen people stop to see if he was okay. A true sign of a wipe-out. (In Jason's defense, he wasn't trying to jump, he just came upon a drop that was a lot steeper than he had anticipated.)
-And our final "error" of the day...We were all getting tired and trying to head home. I was convinced a certain run would put us out right where we wanted to be. I couldn't have been more wrong. It actually put us out at the ski lift mid mountain...the one we had just been on...which we had to take again. We were literally in one of those "you can't get there from here" kind of situations.
Needless to say, we're all a bit sore today. Here's hoping for some non-erroneous ski days in the future!

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Much Easier On The Eyes

After the upsetting nature of my last post (Reed's face is already looking so much better), I thought I'd write the silliest, most ridiculous, most non-upsetting post I've ever done. Seriously, I'm posting the mundane today.
I've been bummed the last few days because I finally had to admit the house plant Jason's company sent us as a welcome present this time last year is dead. No amount of pretending it was alive or filling up the Aqua Globe (which I'm not exactly sure really work) was going to bring it back. So with my green thumb humiliated, it was thrilled to see how great it was at growing grass seeds. JR got this little snowman in his stocking...sorta like a Chia Pet except you grow the "hair" and then give it haircuts. We're always trying to find things JR is good at, so why not give cosmetology a whirl?



Thursday, January 14, 2010

What. A. Day.

Last night around 5:00 Reed came over to me and was trying to tell me something...then he threw up all over the couch. I picked him up and carried him in the kitchen, where he threw up all over me. At 3:00 AM JR came in our room to tell us he had just thrown up. (Twice.) As of this morning I didn't have anymore pukers, but let's just say I'd changed Kyle's diaper 4 times before he'd been up for an hour. I didn't even know 'green foam' was possible down there. About 11:00 JR started to feel better, and decided he needed to take the couch cushions off and use it as a trampoline. After threatening him with getting dressed and taking him immediately to school, the couch cushions were back on, but the babies now thought trampoline-couch was the neatest thing they'd ever seen...so of course they had to partake. The words, "sit down, quit jumping, you're going to hurt yourself" had just come out of my mouth as I watched Reed do a front flip and land head/face first into a box of Thomas the Train accessories. (I believe it was the roof and handle of the Coal Loader Playset that did the most damage.) I grabbed him up so fast he hadn't started to bleed yet, and thought we had gotten away with just some bad scrapes. I'm not so good at looking at injuries, so I just held him close to me...until I started to feel the blood on my cheek. I called our pediatrician, but they were booked and told me to go to the ER. I took off running down our street hoping one of the 4 doctors was home. I knew Pediatrician across the street was at work since I had just called her office, Hand Surgeon and OBGYN's house looked as if nobody was home, so I took off for Anesthesiologist house. All the while Reed was screaming at the top of lungs. (Did I mention JR, Kyle, and Hunter had all wandered (barefoot) into the middle of the street since I left the door wide open as I ran out it?) Anesthesiologist's wife, Radiologist, told me to take him to the hospital ER and not the clinic ER in case they needed to do a CT scan. I also left JR at their house, but took Kyle with me since I didn't want them having to change green foam diapers. I felt terrible strapping Reed in his car seat since he still hadn't stoped crying, and gave serious thought to pulling a Britney and driving with him in my lap so I could continue to hold him.
Jason was absurdly calm when I called him, so my next call was to the person I knew would have the exact reaction I was looking for: my mom. I can always count on my mom for just the right amount of dramatics, poor "whoever is hurt", and of course my favorite, poor Jan.
With Jason still calm as could be, and knowing he thinks I tend to overreact, I sent him a picture of the situation as we sat in the ER. Reed was lying on my chest as Kyle sat on my knee and we were both petting his back. (The picture is just too sad to post.) By the time we got to a room, Reed was feeling better, and Kyle tried to make him laugh by playing "Night!Night!" on the bed.


Which seemed to do the trick, because in no time at all they were trying to destroy the room and playing chase up and down the hall. Praise the Lord he's fine, and no stitches. I don't even want to think of what he could have done to himself.

So here are some pictures from the hospital. His face looks bad, but at least he's smiling.






As for the person in this house who's even more dramatic than me, he spent the rest of the day shielding his eyes and crying, "I can't even look at him! I can't even look at him!"

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

45 Minutes of Fun

You'll remember a while back when I wrote to you from one of the coffee shops in town. I was so excited because I had a babysitter coming every Monday. Yeah, well, the babysitter left for a two week vacation the next week, then got a full-time job. So my free morning was a one-shot deal. I still haven't been able to find a daytime, weekday babysitter, so you can imagine my excitement when I showed up at the Children's Museum fully expecting a Mommy and Me type class and found it was a drop-off class. The other moms and I stood there saying, "You mean, we can leave? Are you sure? Really?"
I was so excited. 45 minutes all to myself!
I couldn't wait to shop in all the neat decorative stores here on Main Street that I never get to go in because:
A. our double stroller won't fit in these stores since they're so loaded down with fabulousnesses
and
B. I could never afford to pay for all the breakages of said fabulousnesses if I was to let the babies go in without being strapped down in a stroller.
So off I headed down Main Street, ready to shop. And then, just like that, my excitement was again gone. Seems everything here in Durango opens at 10 AM. And the babies class? Yep, it's over at 9:45.
Today was our second week of class. I did a little window shopping (since that's still as close as I can get) and the babies had a great time. So great, in fact, that Reed screamed "Mine! Mine!" the whole time I was making them leave. (I'm assuming the 'Mine' was as in: "That's my class and I don't want to leave!") I finally got them both in the car and made the mistake of buckling Kyle in first. Reed took this as his opportunity to leap from his car seat to the driver's seat. I guess he figured he'd make a break for it and drive us back inside the building! Apparently attempted kidnapping/grand theft auto means Reed really likes the class.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Oh Baby!

Now that Kyle and Reed are two, I figured I should stop referring to them as "The Babies". But after the cuteness as of late, I've changed my mind. Reed has a new job in the house. His job? Call everybody up for dinner. (Yes Texans, 'up'. We have a split level house so the kitchen is actually upstairs.) Reed stands at the top of the stairs and screams at the top of his lungs, "Jar! Ha-yee! Ki-alll!"And each time, he always refers to Kyle by his name. But when they're playing together and Reed needs Kyle's attention, or he's talking to him, he always refers to him as "Baby". (Kyle also refers to himself and Reed as "Baby".) So I figure as long as they're calling each other "Baby" so can I! (I also planned on just letting Kyle use his pacifier when he's sleeping, and you can see how well I've implemented that.)

Monday, January 11, 2010

Toothless Tuesday on a Monday

I'm pretty sure JR's teacher was the happiest of all to see his top tooth finally come out. He's been obsessed with it at home for a week now, so I can only imagine the tooth hijinks that have been going on at school. As in...."I turned my tooth sideways with my tongue and made all the girls scream". I'm sure that didn't disrupt class in any way, shape, or form. And yes, only one tooth came out. I know it looks like both his top teeth are gone, but they're not. The spaces between his teeth are just that big. I'm guessing orthodontics will be part of our future. The Tooth finally fell out today while he was in music, which means that besides the fanfare of loosing a tooth at school, he also got that cute little necklace to bring it home in. And Murphy's Law: I got a call on Friday that JR was ready to graduate from speech...and now he's missing a top tooth. "Th" sound, we almost had you!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Food Network Part 4

Welcome to another installment of:
Look At My Kids Eat Fruit

You'll notice one of my kids is still nowhere to be found in fruit pictures, hence the excitement and need to take pictures of the other two. That, and I think this documentation will help get me out of jail when CPS comes to take me away after JR is diagnosed with scurvy.
Kyle and Reed love tangerines and will eat about 2 each a day. Of course they can't say "tangerine" or even "orange", but are quick to squeal for a "ball-ball" when they feel the need for citrus. Look at Reed, so talented...able to say "Cheese" and eat at the same time. You'll also notice (especially you, CPS worker,) on Kyle's high chair that they were also eating an apple that day. Yeah me!
In "JR still won't eat anything healthy news": He did make a teeny-tiny baby step the other night as he tried strawberry milk. We were having a "milk tasting" at Cub Scouts (I know it sounds ridiculous, but it turned out to be really fun) and first up was strawberry milk. We didn't tell them what kind of milk it was before they tasted it, but as soon as JR saw it was pink he started holding his throat and acting like he was gagging. I did my best to just ignore him, thinking we were about to have a huge scene. But he actually tried it, and actually liked it. Baby steps. Baby steps. (And in case you were wondering, lactose free milk was far and away the kids' favorite. Who would've thought?)

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Traveling Ingys: Smellin' the Roses


Okay, so the National Championship didn't turn out like we'd hoped, but at least we Ingys got to go to the game. Here we are tailgating at The Rose Bowl with some of my sorority sisters: Shelley, Lynn, Kelly, and Shari. (Marcia, Where were you during this photo-op?) And if The Horns could have pulled it out by the cheers of the crowd alone, it would have been due in part to these ladies. All I'm saying is I've witnessed Shelley fall off a table trying to lead Texas cheers, and Kelly chase a news truck down 6th Street screaming "CAN YOU TASTE THE SUGAR?!" after a win against A&M that sent Texas to the Sugar Bowl. Yep, these girls can cheer for the orange and white. And we're so happy Shelley let us come along (especially with Jason being an Aggie an all).

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Baby Talk: Wow, It's Been Awhile

Reed: I can't even remember the last time Mommy let us talk. It's been forever! But she has to let us do whatever we want today because...Woo-Hoo, It's our birthday. Feel free to clap along with me.
Kyle: It's not so fun to have a birthday 2 weeks after Christmas. Mommy wasn't really in to planning a big party since we'd just had a big Christmas.
Reed: Luckily for Mommy, we're only 2 this year so we were just as happy with cake and presents at home as a big party.
Kyle: But I'd also like to add, I've seen the pictures of JR's big 2nd birthday bash, so I'm just letting Mommy know we'll expect some big shindigs in the future.

Reed: How cool is our cake? Yo Gabba Gabba is one of our favorites!


Kyle: We each had "Happy Birthday" sang to us and we each had two candles to blow out.
Reed: And I danced and sang along. "Happy Birthday" is one of my favorites. We both also screamed "ice cream" just to make sure we'd get some of that too!


Kyle: And then it was time for the best part...
Reed: Presents!
Reed: So here's to the 2's!
Kyle: 2 years old
2 of us
and ready to have 2 much fun!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Silvery Scouts

I spent the day bedazzling tutus. My house is just a total pink applique' wonderland of sequins, spangle, and sparkle.
Or not.
Actually I was trying to sew Cub Scout patches at a fast and furious pace. I promised JR I'd have his patches sewn on before his next meeting. And that next meeting...
Oh, today.
Nothing like waiting til the last minute. (And no, mom, I couldn't just hot glue them on.)
Sure there's not a shimmer of glitter to be found in this house, and I'm the only one with a flair for jazz hands, but I'm quite convinced that the Cub Scout uniform is the boy mom's princess costume. Seriously, what could be cuter?!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Prom with the Bros

I was trying to work with the little guys on the Bro Pose. You know the pose I'm talking about: Arms around each other's shoulders, other arm at their side, completely manly and cool. As you can see, we had a little problem with "side arm placement", so the boys actually turned out looking more like a prom picture. But being that they're boys (who could care less about having their picture made) and not girls (who love to pose and model), I think we did pretty good.
Speaking of boys vs girls, we're back to our normal routine which means Tiny Tots is back in the mix. I switched their Tots day from Wednesday to Tuesday and was fairly certain I'd made a monumental mistake when we walked into a gym full of girls. I immediately thought, "Uh-oh. There's going to be a whole bunch of paying attention, taking turns, and following directions going on here. Not sure this is going to work for us." But surprisingly, they did pretty good. Of course after seeing them in a class full of girls my dreams of them being gymnastic prodigies have been shattered. But other than that, I think there was lots of "taking turns" going on. The girls happily took turns while the boys cut right in front of them and did what they pleased.