Pants on the Ground

Pants on the Ground.


Lookin' like a cutie with your pants on the ground.


K, I have to admit to something here... I don't have cable. Hence, I don't watch American Idol. I have been hearing about this song for months, it seems, and had no idea what it was, where it came from, who sang it, etc. Until, Dylan did this. He crawled right out of his pants.

I was forced to take a picture. And go and look up what all the hub-bub was about. I didn't want to link my child with anything too unsavory. Thankfully, his cuteness bring it all together :)

My own personal brand of Heroin

Growing up, my mom used to make all kinds of concoctions in the kitchen. Some good. Some, well, not so good. Mom was always trying to find ways to "stretch" meals to accommodate our growing family/appetites and shrinking budget. If I remember correctly (and it is completely possible I don't) this was a family "go" (as opposed to a "no go"). Cheap, tasty, easy. Hard to beat. Egg noodles with poppy seeds and a bit of butter.

In my almost 8 years of marriage, I haven't tried the recipe before. To be honest, I am not sure why I tried it now. I think I dreamt about it. You know, one of those dreams between fitful periods of sleep due to sick children. So, needing a side dish for our venison patties the other night, I gave it a try.

Guess what? I will probably not do it again. Not because I didn't like it. Nope, it tasted just about the way I remembered it. And I really did enjoy them. Good news because it turned out I was eating them for the rest of the week. However, hubby and the girls were not impressed. I did have one other fan, however.

Oh Dylan....

"Yes Mother Dearest?"

What do you think of the noodles?

"They are ok."

Just ok?

"Yep. Ok."

"Well, maybe even alright. You know, pretty good."

However, as the poppy seeds digested, and made its way into his system,

I got bigger and bigger smiles...

That's not odd, right? Odd were the diapers in the morning.

And lets just leave it at that.No one drug tests an 11 month old right? I'm just sayin'.

Scootering

Kari has invented a new word. And I, being her mother, feel that it is my best interest, and hers, to let her keep using that word. One, because it pretty accurately describes what she is doing. And two, and probably more importantly, it is cute. Kari likes to go "scootering". She has found the perfect scooter run: the front porch. I am not adverse to this discovery because it allows me to sit inside, on the couch, on my bum, while my children are outside running themselves ragged... However, occasionally I drag myself outside to commune with nature, to watch the little goofballs, and to take some pictures.

All decked out: helmet, elbow pads, knee pads, boots, coat.

Kaitlyn goes outside to "skippy" (again, a made up word, but see afore mentioned reasons for the lack of correction) when Kari goes to scooter. Wherever big sister goes, little sister goes. Just without the wheels.

Getting ready for another run. They line up at the bottom and take turns.

Me first!

My turn. She's getting bet-tah :)

Sometimes I let them adjourn to the drive way. They must stop at the line, however, so they don't go out into the street. And they are supposed to stop before they hit the van... Sometimes that happens. I love how Kaitlyn just puts her head down and goes for it.

Or she does this. Either way, she is entertaining to watch.

Kari-isms

I am not all the way up to speed today, so a short little ditty will have to suffice :)

These are all things Kari has said, that I think are pretty cute...

"You're my favorite yip-you- tee." (Supposed to be "deputy" from Toy Story)

"We had to get a trash mint today." (We had to get a trash permit to dump some construction stuff.)

"Why is your voice so nice today?" Me: "What do you mean?" Kari: "Well, you don't have that mean voice or face like when we don't listen, or come when you call us."

"I smell someone who needs to throw up." Kaitlyn threw up last night, and apparently still stinks :p

The Car

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, a mother and a father had a baby. She was beautiful, and happy, and lovely. She grew. She grew to roll over. Then to crawl. Then to stand. She wanted to walk, so the mommy and daddy bought the little girl a toy to walk with. Well, the little girl grew so quickly that the mother and father decided they wanted to have another little baby. Low and behold, after a while, they had another beautiful baby girl. Who also used this wonderful walking toy to play with, and walk behind, and make just lots of general noise. Low and behold one day the mommy said, I don't really feel all that well, and Surprise!!! 9 months later, the mommy and daddy have a beautiful little boy. Don't get me wrong. The little boy was wanted, and loved, and planned for. It was just surprising he should arrive so quickly. Anyway, the little boy is growing up too, and he loves to make noise as well as pull up on everything as well. So the mommy decided it was time to introduce the little boy to the wonderful, walk behind car.

Walker Car, Dylan. Dylan, Walker Car.

"Hello Walker Car."

I think he likes it :)

Its a pretty crappy picture of everything except his dimples.

Have mercy on me dimples, please!

And the rest are just lots more cute pictures of the boy on the car. I couldn't decide which ones I liked best.

So you just get the whole she-bang.

Ain't life grand like that sometimes?

Dylan

I feel like I have alot of Dylan posts. When I try to rationalize it to myself, I think "When the girls were his age, I had tons of posts about them too. Besides, everything he does right now is new. And cute." So, I am not going to be fair today, and put up several cute pictures of Dylan that I have been holding on to, in hope of balancing him out later with the girls.

Dylan has said his first word. Words actually. It was "Dah." What? You don't know what a dah is? Oh. No, of course you don't. Since, it isn't actually a word. However, I would like to think he is saying "dog" since he says it every time the dog is around.

Coincidentally, both of the girls first words were dog also. Hubby says that if we have more kids, we are gonna have to kill to dog first if we want a chance at having our names said... Sorry Mollie :) He has also said "nana" when he eats banana's for breakfast. :)

These next 3 pictures were from before he could crawl forward very well. He could, however, crawl backwards very well. Hence the reason why he got stuck under this cabinet in the kitchen. Don't worry. He had his toy and was entertained for, oh, 12.3 minutes. Not bad.See? No harm done.Since this picture, he also has 2 bottom teeth. He is working on the top ones, but no luck as of yet. Also since this picture, his hair has grown. Quite a bit. I am going to have to cut it soon. I don't think I can stand it much longer. The flying nun look is sooooo out.

Solid Solids

The other day I was talking on the phone to my sister. Lets call her "Thompson". And Thompson has a daughter. Lets call her "McBaby." McBaby is 5 months older than Dylan, which puts her (at the time of the conversation) about 15 months. We were talking about McBaby's diet, because she is now completely weaned from nursing and baby food. And suddenly, out of no where, I get nervous. At this time, Dylan was 10.5 months old, and he had never had any table scraps. It was probably about time for me to start transitioning him to big boy food, and, for whatever reason, I got scared. Wait, you say. You have 2 older children who are no longer nursing or on baby food. Surely they survived "the transition". Yes. As a matter of fact they did. And they both did quite well. But, strangely enough I started to worry: What if I didn't do it gradually enough? What if he was resistant? What order am I supposed to introduce foods? What if he isn't getting enough? What if he is allergic? Ahhhh! How does all this work again?!?!?!? Being a mother can be the most stressful thing ever, even when you have already done something...

Turns out I was being silly for no reason. The first thing I tried was a banana. Simple enough, right? This was his initial reaction. "Eh" he said. "Eh?" I said. "Eh." he said.

His face says to me, "I've had better. Chewing your own food is highly over rated."

Poor kid couldn't pick up the slimy pieces, so I helped him.

Well, he has started to get the hang of it. He doesn't have any more all baby food meals, and often eats scraps from the table. In fact, he eats more dinner than his sisters sometimes. I suspect it is because he isn't actually chewing, so much as swallowing whole, but, that's not what is really important. What is really important is that he is transitioning wonderfully. He loves big boy food, but also still eats his baby food (which I do still feed him to make sure he has enough). No allergies to speak of. And, it doesn't appear that the order really matters. :) Whew! What a load off my mind!

This is a video of him scarfing mac & cheese. There are a few things I love, and I am going to point them out, in random order. A) His cute little chubby hands and inverted knuckles. 2) Whole said hand has to go into his mouth in order for the food to get in there.

And third, this is what his feet are doing the whole time :)

And this is what happens when big sister gets done first.

The Dog

I never had a dog growing up. I was always told it was because my dad was "allergic" to them. Come to find out, it was really the thought of dogs that made him "allergic." We could have had a dog any time we wanted to growing up. Assuming we could have convinced my dad. So, when I grew up, got married and moved out, what was one of the first things I did? I got a dog. Having done only a little bit of research, I knew I wanted one that didn't shed. I also thought I wanted a small dog, to keep me company when hubby was away, and because I figured they ate less, therefore pooping less. Its all logical really. Because I wanted the dog, and I wanted the small dog, and I picked out the dog, as well as trained the dog, fed the dog, walked the dog, and cleaned up after the dog, I figured she was my dog, right? We had the dog for a total of 6 days before hubby had to leave for training out in CA, so I figured with that much alone time, we would have really bonded. So, I ask again, whose dog is she? Hubby's. Again, its all logical, right?!?!?! I don't know what it is about it. Maybe its because I don't let her lick my face, like he does. Maybe it is because I don't let her chew on my fingers, like he does. Maybe it is because I wouldn't let her sleep on the bed, like he does.

Note, she is in the masters spot. The other night, she actually slept under the covers (on his side). All. Night. Long. Completely under the covers. Head and everything. Nothing poking out to take a clean breath of fresh air every now and then. I would imagine it was hot and stifling.

However, whenever something needs to be cleaned up, she goes back to being my dog.

SNOW!!!

It snowed here in Alabama!!! I proudly admit that we went out and played, and I promptly took 122 pictures. I went through and edited some of them, and was able to cut that in half at 62. However, that is still far too many to be able to load them on the blog. So, I put them in an album on my facebook. You will have to do without my fabulous blogging skills however, and just read the captions. Here is the link: Enjoy :)

My walls

When we bought our first house in GA, oh, 6 years ago, the first thing we did was paint. Every room in the house was painted a different color, and no two were the same. Or white. White is boring. So, one of the things we were most excited about doing when we got here was paining. We wanted to do a technique on the walls, but (some of you remember) we didn't want it to be quite as loud as the technique we tried before. We also had envisioned this green/grey/beige color. We looked high and low, and found a color we liked, but we were afraid it was going to be too dark. We tried to paint before we moved in (since that would be easier) but with one thing and another, it never happened. I finally did the base coat and got the glaze on the day before we left for the Thanksgiving holiday. It is taking me until now, however, to post the pictures.

This is the base coat. I almost left it at this because it turned out just perfect.

This is with the glaze. It is called color washing, and I got the materials from Home Depot (including step by step instructions). Pay no attention to the open switches. Hubby was doing some pretty fancy electric-ing, adding over head lights, since the family room had none.

I also think I have found the right red color for the accent wall in the dining room. I will post pictures of that once I cut in, and some final pictures of the family room since it is pretty much done now.

Wiped out

We got sick this week. The girls both said their tummy's hurt on Monday. Not a good sign. They were both whiny and slow, and were not particularly hungry. So, I battened down the hatches, and prepared to stay inside for the next approximately 3.4 weeks while the illness worked its way through our family. At lunch time, I asked Kari if she wanted some toast, and she said no. I made Kaitlyn a bite to eat, and by the time I had gotten her situated, this is what I found:
Kari rarely takes naps anymore. Most of the time it is quite time. But, she had fallen asleep by herself on the couch in the time it took for me to put a piece of bologna and some goldfish on a plate. I carried her up to bed, and, miraculously, she stayed asleep. Strangely, even though they acted sick all day, we remained vomit free.

Until Tuesday.

The Wonders of Glass

Down here in good ol' Alabamy, the weather is usually balmy enough for me to leave the front door open and the glass door shut in mid January-March. (Not that it has been like that lately, but, I digress) This allows for several things to happen. One, Mollie will sit at the door and bark at every leaf, squirrel, blade of grass, stray cat, etc that happens by. Two, Dylan, notices Mollie barking, and will crawl over and see what all the fuss is about.

*I love how in this picture, Mollie looks like.... Hey.... He took my spot.*

It was, apparently, a decent place for him to learn to master pulling up and sitting on his knees. Don't worry... there are very few smashed face imprints on the glass.

And, lets face it, tiny face imprints are very cute. He has only recently discovered

how to get all the way up on his feet.

It also allows for Kari to go "scootering" while I do things like pay the bills, or make dinner. She has found the perfect scootering run... She goes up and down the front porch. And, I will be danged if she isn't improving.

On this particular day, Kaitlyn had over stepped the boundaries I had set for her, and thus had to come inside. This is Kari lecturing her (on my behalf I am sure....) on the virtues of staying within set boundaries. However, it sounded quite a lot like "You have to go insiiii-iiiiide."

Will the wonders of glass never cease?

I heart Sears. AKA 9, 2.5, and 5

I'm just gonna come right out and say this: I am pretty good at getting my kids pictures taken. They usually align with the well kid check ups. To this point, I don't have any children in school, so these are all done at Sears. I almost said my local Sears, but that is a story for later. I have also been lucky that thus far, I have almost always 2 children needing pictures at the same time. This time, it was all 3. Beat that! :)

These are Dylan's 9 month pictures. This first one is nakie because the kid drools so much, I brought him in his pjs, and changed him when we got there. It was hard to resist the cute, soft, chubbiness, so we got one of these. The photographer suggested I take of his diaper, and get a little crack in there, but, I didn't think she would appreciate a wet backdrop, so....

* Check out that ^ dimpling effect :) *

Yep, my hands. But cute smile....
Push up position. Daddy would be so proud.

Now for Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn went through a phase where pictures were not her thing. She didn't like them at all.... In fact, her 18 month pictures (I think) the best I could get was one of her screaming..... Well, she started to warm up to a certain photographer, and since it was right down the street from the pediatrician, I have kept going to her (even thought hey are both about a 40 minute drive). These are Kaitlyn's 2.5 year pictures.

Problem is, I can't come up with a good enough reason to just go get the actual pictures. I downloaded these from the website. Hence the reason they look kinda blurry.

And Kari. Always the ham. Always ready to take a picture. She even let me flat iron her bangs for her (since I didn't have a curling iron)

This picture isn't the best, but the story behind and the attitude in the face makes me giggle. Kari had just posed for the picture above, and Kaitlyn came and flopped down and we got this picture. The face says to me: complete martyrdom and tolerance. Silly girl.

And, if I do say so myself, we got some pretty good ones together.

Cheese!

Shout out to Kayla, my photographer, if she is reading this. I will pick up these pictures someday. Probably when I come to get the next set done.... :)