Too Much Pressure!

I love when a blog post gets so many comments. Everyone loves it. They tell me as much. It all goes to my head, and it gets bigger and bigger until I realize "Hey. I am not really that awesome. That was a lucky post. I can't top that. I can't top it." (Yes, I have been watching Madagascar today. Can you tell?)

And then, I plummet down into the pits of despair.

And what do I do then? I post random pictures that don't go with anything and a video that is cute, but nonsense, until I can pick myself up off the floor, put my wits together, and post something interesting, intellectual, funny, touching, compassionate, heartfelt and fabulous.

Needless to say, that is not what you are getting today. Maybe the pressure did get to me. Maybe it's cuz I didn't sleep last night. Maybe it's cuz its Friday, and my brain is fried, and I just can't take it anymore. Maybe, you can only take so much awesomeness in one go, and you need some recovery time. Yeah. That's it... You need some time to take it all in, before I hit you with another load of superfabulouscoolness.

So, here goes. For those of you needing recovery time:

My head board.

My son with my headboard.

My son, with my headboard, with his cute little fingers on each of the rod iron curls.

The end.

*He does this all the time. He crawls up, and puts one pointer finger on each upward curl, and just sits there

for a while. It is his zen. His place of peace and tranquility. The one place in the world where

no one will judge his cute, chubby thighs and dimpled elbows. Well, no one except his picture happy,

deranged mother, who loves when he does this :)*

We train 'em early here in the "House of Normal-ness". Gotta keep 'em on their toes. Gotta know how to type on computers, and recognize letters at the tender age of 14 months.

Push, man! You can do it, gosh dang you!!!

And, in what universe would your life be complete without the cute little puckered "oh"s of my little one? Not this one I tell you! Not this one!

Bath Time

I am not really sure what the appropriate age is. You know, the age when sister and brother should stop bathing together? I am not really sure I will get much choice in the matter either (I'll explain in a minute). This is what bath night is usually like at my house. I do the dishes (since we don't have a dishwasher) and hubby takes the girls upstairs and bathes them. Dylan used to stay downstairs with me. That was before he could crawl up the stairs. Now, he goes where he pleases, which is usually in the bathroom and (usually because the girls just have showers) kneels at the edge of the tub and plays. Thankfully, we change him into jammies after baths because his hair, shirt and knees are always wet. :p

The girls had been begging for a bath, and hubby finally gave in. I was downstairs almost done with the dishes when suddenly I hear a "club" (you know the sound... when something kinda heavy hits cast iron), a splash, another splash, and a crying little boy. 3 guesses as to what happened....

After hubby saved Dylan from drowning, we stripped him, gave him back the toy he was

over reaching to retrieve, and plunked him down in the bath tub.

And the rest, as they say, is history.
Kaitlyn loves to pour water on her face.

Smiley boy. Love those cheeks! Also love Kari in the background :)

Still happy.

Not as happy after his hand slipped and he hit his forehead on the tub. You can see the mark just above his right eyebrow. Yeah. That's gonna leave a mark. :p

Kari. Mucking around in the tub.

Kaitlyn, taking a breather from the busy, demanding life of an almost 3 year old. How she found room to lay down in a bathtub with 2 other people in it, I'll never know...

And, I will let this next sequence of pictures speak for themselves :)

The End.

Everyone needs a dance partner

My sweet in laws gave me a key board that fits just fabulously into my hectic, constantly moving, small apartment living, lifestyle. I use it really just to play the piano with, but it can do all kinds of things! The girls were playing with it one day, and discovered this cool button that, when pressed, will play a demo of the pre-programed songs, that runs, for, oh, about 5 minutes. One morning, while waiting for breakfast, they decided to turn on the music and dance.

During the course of dancing, however, they discovered their acute lack of dancing partners.
Rather than dance with each other (Ewww. Yuck! As if!) they made other arrangements.

It made the dance floor seem less empty, and they could be less inhibited.

*Notice in this picture, my rug, as well as my keyboard in the corner.*

Check out those sah-weet dance moves!

(I dunno why you can't hear the music. I guess they can though ;)

New Books

It all started when I was pregnant. I (apparently) have pregnancy induced insomnia. It has gotten worse with each pregnancy, and with the length of each pregnancy. By the time was I was 25 weeks pregnant with Dylan, it was virtually impossible for me to actually sleep through the night. Because of this, and because there is not really anything good on the TV at 3:30 in the blessed AM, I was going through alot of books. We have the good fortune to belong to 2 libraries. One is large, and about 20 minutes away. One is not so large, but closer. I would borrow books on a regular basis, and was reading at least 1 or 2 books a week. This is on top of the ones I own and felt like re-reading. One night, in desperation, because I did not have anything else to read, I was at the library's website picking out books and putting them on hold, so I could pick them up the next day. Upon further searching of their website, I found that I could download books to my computer (after I downloaded a free application) and read books on my screen. This, was good and bad. Firstly, it prevented me from loading my then 2 children in the car and taking them to the library at 2 in the morning. And, it provided more opportunities for more books from the further, but bigger library, without wasting the gas and time. The books downloaded to my computer, and stayed there for 2 weeks; at the end of such time, they disappeared (and assumably went back to the library). However, it tied up the computer for when someone else wanted to use it. And, after I had stared at the computer screen for hours, I felt like the words were burned into my retinas, making everything appear to have black and white stripes across it. Thankfully, after Dylan was born, the insomnia left quickly as well. But, I didn't even know things like that existed until that night.

Then, last Christmas, my BIL got a Kindle. I wasn't really familiar at all, but it looked like a cool gadget, and if you could read books on it, then all the better.

So what brought it to the forefront of my mind now? Some new books are coming out, that I think I want to own them. And my thought process is this: I think, at some point, I will want to go digital. I am pretty sure in fact. Maybe not right this second, but, probably for the sake of storage and convenience, someday. That being said, why do I want to buy several more books in paper format, and then either feel the need to re buy them electronically, or carry around a nifty electronic thing and a paper book?

So, I started researching. One of the first things I came across was this website. And since it is on the Internet, it must be true. :) But, it really got me thinking. I have since looked at several products and asked several people, and I think I have come to some kind of a decision. Mind you, I am not spending the money right this second. I think I will save up for a while. But, I am also not going to buy my paper books either; just make a list, so that I can get them later.

I believe I want a Sony Pocket eReader. It looks something like this. It is available in 3 colors (silver, pink and navy blue, but at the moment I think I like the blue the best). And, lemme tell you why...

According to the above website, this one is just right for me- the casual reader. (That website was very informative for me, btw. Being that I didn't know practically anything about eReaders, anything would have been informative. But it was also very helpful). The Sony Pocket eReader reads several widely available formats of ebooks (while the Kindle only reads Kindle formatted books). It also can use books from libraries (a very big selling point for me, which the Kindle and the Nook {Barnes & Noble's eReader} cannot). I like the size too. I was able to finally see it and hold it the other day because my local Wally world is selling them at a price tag of $148. And that price tag, that speaks to me too... Better'n Kindle by over $100 smackeroos...

Does it have drawbacks? Maybe. Some complained that it can't read the book to me, like a Kindle can. But, my BIL said the "reading" is the same robotic voice, with no emphasis or inflection, that you have heard before. Besides, a regular paper book doesn't read to me, so why should I expect this one to? They also complained that it isn't back lit, so it is hard to read in dim light. Again, I can't read a real paper book in the pitch black dark either, so, not a big deal to me either. The Sony also doesn't have any way (currently) to make the memory bigger, and only holds 350 books. Wait. 350? Lets be honest here... I doubt I have bought 350 books in the last 10 years... Why should that worry me? It also doesn't have the ability to go online and instantly download books. Well, if I can't plan ahead enough, or be patient enough to wait until I can get to my laptop, then I got another thing coming. Also, it won't play music, hold pictures (on a black and white screen, who wants it to?!?!), play movies, surf the web, or let me write notes in the margins. You know what? I own a MP3 player, a portable DVD player, and a laptop. Are any of these things really important to me? I honestly don't think so.

So, is my heart set on this? Not exactly. But, I think it fits the bill rather well. I want something that will allow me to carry around more than one book at a time, in a compact form. I think this does that rather nicely. At $150 bucks, it does it quite cheaply also. Plus, I like the way it is set up. I think it looks pretty groovy. Now, to save my pennies, so that I can one day get the books to go on the cool electronic gadget that will make it all worth while. Any one wanna donate to the cause?

A 3 minute tour, a 3 minute tour

As I put together this post, Gilligan's Island popped into my head. Random. Who knew?

The first thing we did when we moved, was put together the girls room. We wanted them to feel safe, comfortable, at home. We theorized that by doing this, they would be less whiny, clingy, and annoying. So, I say it like it was for them, but really, it was a completely selfish decision. The house has the possibility of 4 bedrooms, but only has 3 right now. We put the girls together, and one day, if everything gets done, they will either get a bigger room, or one of their own. Who knows at this point?

This is the view from the door. Kari has half the room, Kaitlyn has the other half.

This is Kari's half (her bed and dresser). I love how my children feel the need to be in any picture, even if what I really want is a picture of the furniture. Oh well... :)

Kaitlyn's half (her bed and dresser/changing table {I am dreaming of the day when I will no longer have to change diapers. Is that soon? How about ever?!?!}).

View from the beds... The door to the hallway, the closet, some more toys, a random brother and Bob's your uncle: a complete room!

This is slightly later. After I had hung up their stuff on the wall, and made up the beds properly. Can you guess/remember who this side belongs to?

How 'bout this side?

It is kinda dizzy-ing, but this is a quiet video to give you the whole effect.

Head on

You know those people who whine about things daily, but never do a thing about them? Well... I would like to say, I no longer belong to that grouping of peoples. Today, I can hold my head high and finally say that we bit the bullet and cut the kid's hair. We hit it. Head on. Get it?

No more flying nun!

It seemed to start well. We busted out the hubby's "personal groomer" removed the ear hair cutter thingy (just kidding honey. No really. He doesn't use it, I swear) and put it up on the highest guard. We turned it on in front of Dylan. Let him hear it. We even let him hold it. This is the before picture. He is happy. And drooly. And flighty. Unfortunately, things went down hill from there. Thus the lack of "during" pictures. I was given the duty of holding his head still. Hubby was the barber.

Poor kid. You'd think it was a horribly traumatic experience.

Check out all that hair we cut off. I carefully selected some of it and put it in a
bag to save for when I get around to doing his scrapbook.
Strangely, I think the hair looks darker off his head than it did on it...

Check out the back. No more curls. But, no more mullet-y thing either!

See? Once he calmed down, he was fine. I am pretty sure it wasn't the clippers he was scared of, so much as he wanted to see what was going on, and I had his cute cheeks in a death grip, so that wasn't gonna happen.

Hubby said it added 6 months. I think his hair looks lighter.

Then, in a completely uncharacteristic way, hubby said, "Maybe we should have 12 more babies." Looking at him and Dylan cuddling on the couch, playing with the clippers, and feeling like my baby had grown up before my very eyes, I was inclined to agree.

Then I thought of all the nausea, diapers, and breast milk that would involve,

and told him "I hope your second wife has better hips than I do."

*As a side note, Dylan is holding the baggie of hair. When I held it up, he grabbed it like "Mine" :)*

Fun with a box

Raise your hand if this is a familiar scenario in your house:

You scour the store trying to find the perfect gift. You finally think you found one, but you want the green one. Not the pink one. You go to 3 different stores until you end up buying it on line. With shipping you paid $29.72. You carefully wrap the present, leaving it in the shipping box, because hey, a box is always easier to wrap. You set it before your beloved child. They open it. They say "Thanks." Then, they proceed to play with the box it came wrapped in....Show of hands... Yeah, I thought so :)

I order diapers online from Diapers.com. For the kind I get, they actually have the cheapest price (they beat Wallyworld by fractions of a penny). And, I get them shipped to my door if I order $50. Let's face it... When am I not going to need diapers?!?! Not in the foreseeable future. So, I order $50 at a time, and have them delivered right to my door. Totally worth it! Anyway, they come in the rather large boxes. Kari has been asking for a club house for a while, and although this isn't exactly what she was thinking of, it was a big box...

Tada!!! My idea, hubby's creativity and ingenuity.

Check out those windows. And that door thingymajig.
Who's in there?

I see you :)

Can I come in too?

It's big enough both girls can fit inside.

Brownie points if you can guess what we used as a doorknob.

Hubby made the door like a barn door. You know, the top and bottom open independently of each other. Silly girls. I explained that they could open the whole door, but they insist it is way more fun to get in this way.

First thing they asked if they could do.... Nope, not go in. Color on it. They wanted to personalize it... Oh well :)

Peekaboo! I see you!

The 5 Senses

First the sense of touch. Notice he is touching the pizza crust. If I had taken a picture of the rest of the tray, you would notice that he had been finger painting with it as well. I call this sensory exploration because I want to make myself feel better that my son is making a mess.

This one is sight. He is looking at me and saying "What? Whad I do wrong?"

This one is sound. I liked the face he made after he dropped pizza on the floor. Again, I am trying to make this scientific so I don't look at the mess. Then again, I have a built in vacuum. Mollie has taken up permanent residence below Dylan's high chair at meal times. Smart Dog.

This one is smell.

Or is this one smell? Hard to miss when it is up your nose :)

And finally taste. You know, they say if you can't smell things, your sense of taste is off. I have always been for testing hypotheses and pushing limits, but I would stop just short of putting the actual pizza up my nose. Not my son. Nope. He always goes the extra mile. :)