Monthly Archives: July 2008

Going on vacation! Kinda.

It’s one of those doctor-y things.  Marshall’s going to a conference and we’re tagging along.  He’ll be in classes all day long while we check out the sites of the city, the pool and maybe even some room service.  See, I love hotel breakfasts, but I hate getting dressed…so we’ll see how that goes!  🙂

But Em’s actual birthday falls on Saturday, so check back then.  I have a little something that should be up to celebrate, eventhough we won’t be around.  (I’ve never set this thing to publish at a later date, so I hope it works!)

Happy Birthday to You, Emmie!

Em’s b-day isn’t until next week but we’re going to be out-of-town on her actual birthday, so we had her party today.  Admittedly the party is more for the grown ups than the birthday girl at this point.  She’s two.  She won’t remember it.  But I always love an excuse to have a get together! 

So…we got together, had some yummy barbeque and stew and a delicious watermelon cake with ice cream!  And everyone was able to marvel at my amazing crafting skills which lead to, if I do say so myself, adorable watermelon clothing.

So…without futher ado, pictures:
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Mamma Mia! Marvelous!!!

Earlier in the week my best friends from out-of-town came to visit.  They’d seen the new Mamma Mia! movie without me!  (How dare they?!?)  But promised me that they’d go see it again.  So…we trekked over to the theater, and I smiled for a solid 2 hours.  Who knew that Pierce Brosnan could sing??  Sing well, actually.  And Meryl Streep…I was amazed! Oh!  And Amanda Seyfried was so adorable I just wanted to pinch her cheeks!

Now…if you’re not musically inclined and if you don’t like a dash of silliness in your movies, you’re probably going to hate it.  But for me and mi amigas it was perfect!  We’ve now decided that we need a theme song!

But if I can’t have a theme song, I’ll settle for the soundtrack.  It’s ABBA…how could you not like it??  My kids have fallen in love with “Dancing Queen“.  I fell in love with a song ABBA recorded years ago, but I’d never heard: “Slipping Through My Fingers“.

Lego Frame

I think my brother has more fun with the Lego’s than my kids do.  Check out this “frame” he made:        

Watermelon Dress/T-shirt

As if Emmie needed another stitch of clothing, I came up with this brilliant idea to make her a watermelon dress to match her watermelon-themed birthday party.  Yeah, I’m an over-achiever.  What’s it to ya?

A long time ago I saw a picture online of a tie-dyed watermelon dress for little girls.  It had directions, but when I tried to find it again last night, I couldn’t find it.  I would otherwise give them credit for this cute idea!  If you can find it, I’m sure their directions are much more thorough than mine.

Anyway, I bought all the supplies yesterday without fulling realizing how long this whole process was going to take.  I may be an over-achiever, but I’m also a procrastinator!  Anyway…I bought all the stuff, and apparently you can only buy enough tie dye liquid to dye 50 billion pieces of clothing.  So, I decided to not only make a dress for Emmie and a t-shirt for Tucker, but also dresses and shirts for our little birthday party guests.  I didn’t want to waste the dye!  So…it all turned out well, even if it did take me from 10pm to 2am the night before the party! 

So…if you’re wanting to make one of these little dresses for your little watermelon, it’s really a lot easier if you plan ahead(unlike me).  If you plan ahead you can let the suckers air-dry, which is where I went wrong. 

What you’ll need: red and green RIT dye, 2-3 buckets, rubber bands, clothing item, black fabric paint.
**If you make a watermelon pillowcase dress, like I did, you’ll also need (2) 36″ ribbons, red thread and a sewing machine.**

Step one:  Take 2 rubber bands and your clothing item.  Put one rubber band a few inches above the hem, and the next rubberband a little bit above that.  You’ll be dying the hem to rubber band part green, leaving the next little rubber-banded part white, and dying the top part red. 

Step two: Prepare the dye according to the package, and put the hemmed end in the green dye and let it sit.  (I did mine for about 10-15 mins, but obviously the longer you leave the fabric in the dye, the brighter/darker it will be. )

Step three:  Now put the other end in the red dye for 15-20 mins.  Remember that your color will be a lot more subdued once it dries.  (If you’re doing a pillowcase dress, I would suggest dying the ribbon in red as well.  I didn’t, but wish I had.)

Step four:  This is where procrastination hurt me.  If I’d had more time, I would have had the option to let the items air dry.  As it was, I had to do the “quick-dry” method.  This consists of rinsing the item in hot water, squeezing out excess dye.  Then warmer water, squeezing out excess dye.  Then slightly cooler water…and even cooler water…and then cold water, rinsing over and over again until it’s no longer “bleeding”.  If you had to use the “quick-dry” method, you’ll now have to finish drying the fabric in the dryer.

Step five: Use the black fabric paint to paint on all the litle watermelon seeds.

Step six:  If you are making a pillowcase dress, now is when you’ll want to sew it up according to the directions in an old post of mine about pillowcase dresses.  If you’re just making the t-shirt, stop here!  You’re done!

Step seven: If you’re lucky enough, your kids will look this cute in your creations:

             

My little Divo and Diva in action

I’ve been promising a video section on this site for a while now.  I got one video camera that I really like, but it’s not as portable as my new Flip Ultra video recorder. The picture isn’t as clear as my “good” camcorder, but it fits in the palm of your hand and I can easily carry it in my purse or diaper bag.

It’s no big surprise to any of you that I looooooooove to karaoke.  I got my very own machine a few years ago for Christmas and I’ve never turned back.  I’m not ashamed to say(although I probably should be) that I frequently karaoke all by my lonesome.  I sing anything if you give me the words!  Just give me that microphone and I’m in heaven.  Apparently my kids feel the same way.  Enjoy!

 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J5YnWJtjhM&hl=en&fs=1]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRPk1KXnZTw&hl=en&fs=1]

p.s. For those of you who really want to be like me, but don’t want to admit it to anyone else…you can actually karaoke in the comfort of your own home.  All you need is a computer and this link. Once you get to “The Sims On Stage” karaoke room you can browse through the hundreds of songs they have available. If you want to hear/sing more than 30 seconds of any song you’ll have to register.  If you get really brave you can even record yourself and put it out there for all the world to see.

I loved those…

Remember those old scratch-and-sniff books we all used to have.  It’d have some delightful smells like apple pie or roses.  And my brother and I would always have fun coming up with a list of alternate, disgusting options that they should have put in, like dog poop or rotten eggs. 

Anyway, recently on my friend Kate’s website, she posted about something fun she’d done with her almost 4 year old daughter: scratch and sniff painting!  She got the idea from Wondertime magazine, which is published by DIsney. We had a subscription to this magazine before we moved, but I let it run out so that I wouldn’t have to deal with a change of address. But I miss it! It’s a great magazine full of lots of fun ideas, and as soon as we move into our new house, I’ll be ordering it again.  Another magazine we loved, also published by Disney, is Family Fun. Both magazines are cheap, but chock full of good ideas! They both have great websites, too, that let you easily search for activities appropriate for your child’s age, the season, or your little person’s latest obsession(is anyone else tired of the pirate thing yet?)

So…here are our masterpieces. (My kids are apparently aiming for a Picasso-esque feel vs. Maddy’s truely delightful and accurate realism painting.) At least they smell good!  🙂

OH!  And just in case you are wondering if they really make scratch-and-sniff books any more, they do!  I knew I’d seen a Strawberry Shortcake one recently(which smelled heavenly), so I did a quick Amazon search and found this list. We might have to buy some of these!

True tales from life in the (mommy)hood…

If you can’t stomach gross stories or just don’t like them, please stop reading now.  Come back tomorrow.  I promise to have a more upbeat post then.  Something light, short and funny.

I think my body actually believes that if it can cause me to vomit frequently enough or violently enough, it may just be able to rid itself of that pesky little ball of cells causing so many problems. My throbbing head, aching abdomen and unsettled stomach are about to convince me that they are right.

With my other pregnancies, nausea slipped in the door quietly at about 9 weeks…and just as polietly excused itself at around 12, knowing when to make a discreet exit.  I have to admit that during that whole time(from the beginning of pregnancy #1 until now) I thought you “sickly” type preggos were drama queens.  Playing all the rest of us for the fool, just trying to gain some sympathy.  I’d roll my eyes whenever I heard things like, “I just can’t handle cleaning the toilet when I’m pregnant” or “I can’t even look at feta cheese without wanting to hurl.”  Stop your whining!  Clean the toilet and eat the cheese, I’d smugly think.  You can’t be that bad off!

And then along came #3A  Nausea marched in horns a-blaring, announcing that (s)he was here to stay.  Initially, after the miscarriage only months before, I was glad to see the nausea. It was my friend. It meant that there was actually still something there. But now…well, it’s really starting to get old! I can’t change a poopie diaper(or sometimes even a pee diaper!) without losing it. And trying to deal with the potty training?? I’d rather have my toenails ripped off slowly one by one than have to suffer through one more episode of “dump the poop in the pot from the now-stained underwear.” Poor Tucker has even gotten to the point where when he has an accident he asks, “Mommy, am I gonna make you frow up?” The child is never going to poop in the potty if he thinks I’m going to toss my cookies every time!

I’m pretty sure I reached rock bottom last week. Home alone with the kids, I thought to myself: “It might be a good idea to get ni the bathtub and relax, see if I can coax this nausea into hiding.” Oh, what a great idea it was in my head! The kids could watch TV while I left the door cracked just enough to see them from the tub. I could soak away all the aches and pains that come with constant vommiting. (Who knew you used so many muscles to throw up?) I could dip my head under the water to help relieve the tension of my now-ever-present headache. I could just do my pest to think about nothing. Nothing at all. My husband assures me that this is possible, although I’ve never actually achieved it myself! Enevitably, something always comes up. So today Em toddles into the bathroom and announces that she “tooted”. I can assure you that the girl did more than “toot”. But being the horrible(and, let me remind you, very sick at the moment) mommy that I am, I say, “Just go finish watching Wilbur, okay? Then I’ll help you.” Oh, but no. She’s persistant! I guess he had the right to be…what with poo smeared all over her butt. So she stayed in the bathroom and “chatted” with me like only a 2 year old can do.

Tucker all of a sudden realized that the book on Wilbur is no longer intriguing, and that he is missing all the fun in the bathroom. So he joins us, still in his pee-soaked overnight diaper. (See, I am a horrible parent!) 16 weeks ago I’d have never have left him sitting around in a diaper as disgusting as that! But pregnancy can change a girl!  So…he tells me that he needs to pee, and proceeds to pull the diaper off like underwear.

Now, for those of you who don’t have kids or who simply don’t ever leave your kid in a diaper for too long like I do, let me explain to you a little about diaper physics.  Inside diapers these days are these little moisture-absorbing crystals.  They’re tucked discreetly between the inner pee-catching layer and the outer pee-containing layer.  When these little suckers get wet, they swell up to something incredible like 500 times their original size.  That’s when normal parents notice that their child has a soggy bottom and, like a responsible non-vomiting adult change the diaper.  OH, but not me!  If you continue to push the absorption limit, you’ll eventually find that the diaper begins to desinigrate, leaving behind a urine-crystal covered kid.  It’s gross. Trust me.  But it’s even grosser to watch said diaper as it is rolled down the bony little legs of a 3 year old, pee-crystals flying this way and that.  I sat in the tub, watching them cascade dwon his leg and all over the bathroom floor like everything was in slow motion.  And as I tried to so hard to say “No”, I began to vomit mericlessly into my bathwater.  All over me…all in the tub…everywhere.  I started to cry, as did both of my now-completely-traumatized-and-destined-for-therapy children. 

And that’s when I realized that I truely had reached a low point in my life:  home alone with two scared and crying children, whom I can’t comfort because I’m soaking wet, completely naked, and covered in my own puke.  Welcome to mommyhood!

So…that’s my bad mommy moment of the month(hopefully it’s bad enough that we’ll be able to catch a break the next few months!)  Please don’t hate me, think I’m a truely terrible mom, leave mean comments or call DFCS.

Blogher envy

I’m fairly new at this whole blogging thing.  But it’s fun.  It helps me process all the craziness that goes on in my daily life, much like a journal…but one that anyone can read!  Kind of scary!  Today I met up with an old friend from college who has taken a peek or two at my blog.  She showed my blog to another friend of hers who loved it.  Now they both want to blog.  Because of me…maybe it shouldn’t be, but its kind of flattering.  I was telling her today that although I haven’t been doing this long, and although I don’t have as many readers as a lot of bloggers, I still really enjoy it.  It’s something that I don’t have to do, but is fun to do.  It’s a way to express myself, find fellow moms in the same trenches as I’m in, and have a good laugh or two.  I’ll often find that something not-so-funny in real life is actually pretty funny once I type it up.  Perspective is key, I guess!

I’ve talked a little before about why I like to blog.  It is theraputic, and it’s fun.  I can get out what I need to get out of my system without having to censor(too much) what I say, and if something is bothering me I can often blog about it and let it go.  (I haven’t been able to let go of the whole poop thing.  He’s gone on the potty twice yet, but nothing consistant.  If he doesn’t get the hang of it soon, he won’t be able to go to school.  Lord help us all if he can’t go to Mother’s Day Out…I need MDO to keep me sane!)

And I’ve met some really cool, fun people-some who are like me in many ways, and others who have absolutely nothing in common with me.  Either way, it’s fun to read about them and their lives.  A lot of these ladies are going to the big Blogher conference in San Francisco this weekend.  I’m super jealous!  Not only have I never been to California, but I’ve never been to any kind of blogging event.  The conference attendees will be talking about all kinds of topics that come up in my daily blogging life like privacy issues for moms and kids, positive posting(although I try to blog about happy/funny stuff, I sometimes tend to sink into not-so-fun stuff, too), building traffic on your site, and about living your life in the fishbowl that is the internet.  One of the most intriguing events I’ve seen on the Blogher ’08 agenda is the Day 2 Closing Keynote: Living the Truman Show.  If you’re not a blogger, you’ll probably think this is crazy.  But if you are a blogger, you can’t not identify:

…haven’t you experienced some or all of these symptoms?

  • Parts of life get nearly fictionalized in your own head as you plan your next blog post about events happening in real-time
  • People confuse you with a character and forget you’re a real human being
  • As your friends, co-workers and family become more aware of your blog they either get caught up in it all…or get more and more uncomfortable. By blogging we sometimes put ourselves in a fishbowl. Hilarity (and sometimes other not-so-funny stuff) ensues.
  • I know that there are people in my “real” life that think my blogging is silly or frivolous, crazy even.  But I like it…and I like meeting people like you!  And so, for now at least, I will still be here and still be blogging-chatting away about my life, reading about yours if you blog, asking for advice, and probably occasionally giving some, too.

    Want to see which of my favorite bloggers will be at Blogher ’08?
    Stephanie at Baby on Bored
    Sarah at Hair Thursday
    Casey at Moosh(rhymes with “push) in Indy
    Heather at The Spohrs Are Multiplying

    Just a few more pictures

    Yesterday I decided that I’d get the kids dressed up in ther matching little outfits and go do a photo shoot, since we hadn’t done one in a while.  (Plus it’s almost time for Em’s TWO YEAR OLD pictures!  Can you believe it??)  But once we got started, it was just too hot!  We were all red and sweaty and grouchy.  So I asked the kids what they wanted to do.  Tucker, of course, wanted to go on an “amventure”.  He loves to go on adventures, so we hop in the car and drive around until we find something fun to do.   Yesterday we found a local arboretum that had an old fashioned water pump.  The kids loved it!  And I did, too, because the water was SO delightfully cold and delicious!

    Anyway, here are the pictures of our little hike:

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