the blogivers

Back in time

2012-03-09T05:00:00.000-06:00

Recovering from several days of an Austin allergy beatdown + hosting play group at my house today + Wade's family coming in town this weekend = not enough brain cells to come up with an original post today. Instead, I shall take you on a trip down Awkward Memory Lane by sharing this post I wrote nearly 3 years ago about that time I found myself being bathed by another human being in Arkansas.

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

Feelin' the love

2012-03-08T05:00:00.000-06:00

Being sick stinks.

Being sick when you have a baby to take care of and your husband can't take the day off to help you stinks infinitely more.

And that is exactly where I found myself for the first few days of this week. I wish I could say I took it like a champ with minimal complaining, but that would be a lie. I felt all kinds of sorry for myself and sent pitiful text messages to my husband and generally acted like the only mom on the planet who has ever had to take care of a child while not feeling well. So it is perhaps even more ironic than usual that my pal Brittany bestowed upon me the Sunshine Award yesterday, but hey, I'll still take it!

As with most blog tags/awards, I am rebelliously not posting the rules or tagging anyone in return, but I'll go ahead and be a good sport by at least answering the questions posed. Here goes nothin'!:

1. Favorite color: blue

2. Favorite animal: hypoallergenic dogs (other dogs are great, too... I just can't touch them, therefore decreasing their appeal to me)

3. Favorite number: I think it's funny that I'm supposed to give a "favorite" number instead of a lucky number... like, "I am really fond of the number 4. It's so superior to the number 7!" All kidding aside, I'll go with 12.

4. Favorite non-alcoholic drink: tall non-fat with whip & drizzle caramel frappuccino... OBVIOUSLY

5. Facebook or Twitter: Facebook all the way - like Brittany, I have been too cool to jump on the Twitter train

6. What's your passion?: making people laugh

7. Giving or getting presents?: both! Unless it's my birthday... in which case I should be doing all the present getting.

8. Favorite pattern: stripes (how boring am I?)

9. Favorite day of the week: Friday, because that's the day our playgroup (which I love) meets, and the weekend starts!

10. Favorite flower: maybe this is not cool to admit as a female, but I don't really care all that much about flowers! They are all pretty to look at, but I can't choose a favorite. (Also, a word to the wise: never tell your significant other that you don't care that much about getting flowers, because then you will stop getting them altogether... until you ashamedly confess that you actually do want to get them from time to time, at which point your significant other will hopefully catch on like mine did and start giving them to you occasionally again.)

Happy Thursday, my friends!

Way back when-sday

2012-03-07T05:00:00.000-06:00

Way back in April of 2010, I posted this picture to show my readers what Wade's hair looked like back in the day, and I titled the post "Way back when-sday".

My pal Liz was the first person to comment on the post, and she suggested I make WBW an ongoing theme... I thought it was a good idea, so nearly every Wednesday for the past couple of years, I have been giving you guys a blast from the past in the form of pictures. Along the way, a few of you even decided to join in on the fun which made my blogger heart very happy!

But I gotta tell you... it has become a pain in the butt lately for me to track down old pictures! And I don't want this blogging hobby to become a chore for myself. So today shall be my last official day of my WBW series. If you feel so inclined, I am happy to pass the torch on to any of you to let you carry on the tradition. And perhaps I will find inspiration for a NEW weekly series, so stay tuned...

If Davis were on a dating site...

2012-03-06T05:00:00.000-06:00

... this is what his profile would look like.

Name: Davis

Age: .833 years old

Height: 2 ft. 5.5 in.

Weight: 19.5 lbs.

Occupation: Manager of My Mom

Looking For: young babes

Likes: trying to eat dog food, playing with coasters, eating leaves, swinging at the park, chasing people in my walker, taking baths, partying in my crib

Dislikes: having my face wiped, changing clothes, getting out of the bath, being ignored, taking long naps

Favorite Book: anything by Dr. Seuss

Favorite Movie: the Baby Einstein series

Ideal First Date: good conversation over Cheerios, peas, chicken, & cheese followed by a bath, a book, and a 7:30pm bedtime

If you're interested in setting up a play date, let my mom know and she will make it happen!

(cute pajamas courtesy of the Joiners)

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming

2012-03-05T05:00:00.000-06:00

Allison can't come to the blog right now because she spent the better portion of her Sunday doing yardwork like this, and now her arms and hands are no longer fully functioning.

Please leave a comment after the beep.

BEEP.

Picture this

2012-03-02T05:00:00.000-06:00

So we have this enormous blank space on the wall leading upstairs to the second floor of our house, and lately it has been crying out for some attention every time I pass it by.

See? BLAH.

I had thought many times about how I wanted to adorn it with lots of pictures, but the task seemed too overwhelming to start and I just never got around to it. But a few weeks ago when I was ordering our recent batch of pictures from the past couple of months, I found within myself the motivation to knock out Phase 1: Selecting Pictures, and so the project was set in motion.

We received all the pictures last Friday, and then I got intimidated all over again thinking about Phase 2: Finding Picture Frames, so I was tempted to put it off. Lucky for me, a random trip to Target on Wednesday morning led me to a shelf of simple black frames, all for under $3 a piece! (I had originally envisioned finding more exciting mix-and-match frames, but since that task seemed pretty daunting, I was happy to give that dream up in favor of saving money.) I snatched up an armful of those bad boys and set out to tackle Phase 3: Designing the Gallery Wall (although I am hesitant to actually refer to it as a "gallery wall" because I feel that implies it is something really fancy or artsy, and neither of those adjectives really applies to me or my decorating sense).

I knew that simply arranging the frames on a table or floor wouldn't help me get the visual I needed, so I put on my thinking cap and busted about my Microsoft Word skills. I counted how many frames I need by size and orientation, pasted a bunch of rectangles into a document accordingly, and then arranged them to my liking. I'm not going to lie to you: creating this made me feel like a genius.

From there, it was super easy to choose which pictures would go in each frame, so then it was time for Phase 4: Hanging the Pictures. I had seen tutorials on Pinterest about tracing the frames on paper and marking where you want them to hang and then nailing it in on the paper on the wall and OH MY WORD THIS IS ENTIRELY TOO COMPLICATED. So we just started with hanging the middle picture and then worked our way around it like a puzzle. And by "we", I mean Wade did the manual labor while I kept an eye on this little one who was really wanting to help.

A little tweaking with the spacing, a little rearranging... and voilà! We have a finished product.

Well, finished for now anyway... it looks a little scrawny for my liking, but this way we have room to grow, right? I'm just proud of myself for finally tackling this project (with Wade's help, of course). So, YAY ME.

Have a great weekend!

Ten months!

2012-03-01T05:00:00.000-06:00

Our little fella guy celebrated Leap Day yesterday by turning 10 months old!

He is becoming less of a baby and more of a little boy each and every day, and it's crazy how much I love it and hate it at the same time. Maybe if I stop doing the monthly pictures, he will stay this little forever...?

Way back when-sday

2012-02-29T05:00:00.000-06:00

When people meet Davis for the first time, they often comment on his big, blue eyes. Since neither Wade nor I currently have eyes that are either big or blue, they usually ask from whom he got them. Even though we were both fairly wide-eyed as babies, pictures like this make me pretty darn sure he got them from his daddy:

Wade is on the left, Davis is on the right... in case ~~you are blind~~ that wasn't clear

Grab a button and join the WBW fun!

Link yo' self:

Playground etiquette

2012-02-28T05:00:00.000-06:00

Before you have children, many ~~overbearing~~ well-intentioned mothers who have gone before you make sure to impart all of their wisdom to you. But sometimes there are things they don't tell you. Important things, like how to disassemble the seat from swings/walkers/highchairs as quickly as possible once they have been pooped and/or vomited on so you can get them in the washing machine before the stain sets, or whether or not you should put the pacifier back in your baby's mouth if it falls on the floor in front of the pediatrician but they are screaming bloody murder after getting their shots.

Something else they don't usually enlighten you about is proper playground etiquette. This is why I was totally stumped about what to do when I took Davis to the park for the first time last week to try out the baby swing and another mom came up shortly thereafter to put her baby in the swing next to us. I smiled and said hello, preparing myself to make small talk - but I was greeted with silence. So we stood there, separated by only 2 or 3 feet, silently pushing our babies in their swings for what felt like hours but was probably only about 5 minutes. I guess it wasn't awkward for her, but it was excruciating for me!

So when I showed up at the park the next day, I was paralyzed with fear when I realized she was back and had beat me to the swings. Initially someone else was using the swing next to them, so Davis and I hung out like creepy stalkers at a safe distance, waiting for one of the swings to open up. I tried to pass the time by texting Wade about my dilemma, who responded by mocking my irrational fears.

After several minutes had passed, I had given up and we were about to leave the park when I noticed the other swing open up. It was the moment of truth: should I avoid the potentially awkward situation and go back home, or should I get over it and press forward? In the end, my lack of desire to go home and find another way to entertain Davis triumphed and we headed to the swings.

I greeted her with a smile and was fully prepared to carry on in silence from there, but then homegirl turned all Chatty Cathy on me! We had a pleasant conversation for the next 10 minutes or so, and after she left, another mom and her son took their spot in the swing next to us, and I had an equally pleasant chat with that mom. I did it! In only 2 days, I had mastered the art of playground etiquette. I had visions of many more afternoons spent at the park, keeping Davis happy while making friends of my own with the fellow moms...

That is, until I showed up yesterday, plopped Davis down in the swing next to another kid, greeted the other mom, and then watched her promptly pick her daughter up out of the swing and leave. Back to square one I go!

Review

2012-02-27T05:00:00.000-06:00

In case you hadn't noticed based simply on the fact that I mention her in approximately 95% of my blog posts, my twin sister and I are pretty tight. It is rare that we go more than a few weeks at a time without visiting each other, and since the last time we were able to do that was over the holidays, we made a quick trip there this past weekend.

En route to their neck of the woods, we were able to make a pit stop in Navasota to see our friends Lauren and Drew and meet their sweet baby boy, Eli.

Wade + Davis, Drew + Eli, and Brian + baby who has not yet been conceived but hopefully will very, very soon

After a short, but fun visit with them, we made our way to Amanda and Brian's house for Davis to take a nap. When he woke up, we surprised him by taking him to one of the ponds in their 'hood to meet some friends and feed the ducks. As you will see from Exhibits A & B below, this "surprise" didn't turn out to be as pleasant for him as we had hoped.

Exhibit A: meeting the ducks and then flipping out after they stole his pacifier!

Exhibit B: giving the ducks another chance until being peer pressured by Daddy to feed them and then flipping out again at the prospect of that

After recovering from that fun outing, we returned home to enjoy dinner with their new raclette. If you will recall, last time we stayed with them, they made us a New Year's Eve feast that included some of our favorite things: chips & queso, sliders, sweet potato fries, and strawberry margaritas. This time they busted out some fancy machinery and made us feel like we were at Benihana. Last time they stayed with us, we barely scraped together enough ingredients to make them grilled cheese sandwiches.

I'd say they win in the hospitality department.

Davis chowed down on Cheerios (see Cheerio goatee for proof) while we partied it up with the raclette

On Sunday, we really didn't do anything picture worthy before heading back to A-town. And even though our little getaway was brief, it was great to spend some quality time with a couple of our favorite peeps. Hope everyone else had a nice weekend as well!

The votes are in...

2012-02-25T07:30:00.000-06:00

So, after reading all the comments on yesterday's post, I'm going to declare it a tie for Amanda and me! Most of you don't see the nutritional value of eating raw cookie dough and/or chips and queso on a regular basis, but you don't necessarily think it's strange. As for the early dinner time, there are a lot of haters out there! All of that being said, I feel the need to defend myself on a few things...

1. Yes, I am fully aware that raw eggs are not good for you and can make you sick. While this is probably immature logic, I have eaten cookie dough many times in my nearly 29 years of life, and it has yet to make me sick... so I continue to eat it. Let it also be known that sometimes (ie: when I was pregnant) we make cookie dough without raw eggs.

2. Yes, I am also fully aware that chips & queso is not a balanced meal - but if I try to eat a "real" meal afterwards, that will make me feel ill. So while I may not be earning myself any points for being healthy, in my mind, I am doing myself a favor by not overeating.

3. And finally, to address the early dinner time, I blame it on this: the later in the evening I eat, the more likely I am to have heartburn the next day (regardless of what I eat and regardless of the fact that I take medicine for it every day). So it's really in my best interest to eat early! Also, I am the type of person who usually eats lots of small "meals" throughout the day, so I get hungry every couple of hours. And because of the heartburn thing, it makes more sense for me to just eat dinner at that hour rather than have a snack and eat later.

And there you have it. Thanks for weighing in, everyone!

Taking a vote

2012-02-24T05:00:00.000-06:00

A couple of nights ago, Wade and I were sitting at the table eating some peanut butter cookie dough straight out of the bowl with a couple of spoons. (In our defense, I had taken Davis on 2 walks that day and Wade had taken Rocky on a walk and Tucker for a run, so we were both starving a few hours after dinner was over.) As we were enjoying it, I heard my phone ringing and realized it was Amanda calling in to FaceTime with us.

We chatted with her for a minute, but when she caught a glimpse of the bowl and spoons, she cut us off and demanded to know what we were eating (she's a nosy one, that sister of mine!). I confessed that it was cookie dough; she and her husband shared a good laugh, and then she said, "You guys have such strange eating habits!"

Ok, Judgy McJudgerson, thank you for that observation! But I really don't think our eating habits are that unusual - unhealthy, perhaps, but not necessarily weird - so I'm taking a vote. I will list out what Amanda deems "strange" behavior below, and then I want you to leave a comment deciding whether or not my sister is right. Got it? Great.

1. We occasionally (maybe once or twice a month) eat raw cookie dough straight out of the bowl (or package).

2. We frequently (probably once a week) have chips and queso as a meal in place of a "real" dinner.

3. We used to eat dinner before 5:00pm - thanks to Wade's new job, that doesn't happen often... but we do still eat before 5:30pm.

Let's hear what you think!

SAHM trials & tribulations

2012-02-23T05:00:00.000-06:00

One of the catch-22s of being a stay-at-home mom of a baby is the constant desire to get out of the house coupled with the baby's constant desire to fall asleep in the car (once they get past that whole "I hate my carseat and I hate you for putting me in it so I'm going to yell the ENTIRE TIME I am in here while you attempt to master the art of driving with one hand and using the other to plug me up with a pacifier" newborn phase). You find yourself planning your day out in 3-4 hour increments, wanting to maximize your time out in the "real world" while also being careful not to get stuck in the car too close to nap time.

So yesterday when my mom suggested Davis and I meet her for lunch around 12:30, I was a little worried that might be cutting it close, but I needed some adult interaction so badly that I decided to risk it anyway. When lunch was over and I headed back to the car to strap Davis in his car seat, I noticed he immediately slumped over to one side, as if making himself comfortable so he could enjoy a nice little snooze on the 15 minute drive home. But I'm no dummy! I knew my sneaky little baby would try and use that mini slumber session as a replacement for his actual nap, and I was having none of that. Thus began Operation Keep Davis from Falling Asleep.

It started out innocently enough. I rolled down the windows in the backseat, alternating sides to maximize the distractions. But I glanced in the mirror and could see those little eyelids of his becoming heavy, so I stepped up my game.

First, I called on LMFAO to help me out. I blasted "Party Rock Anthem" as loudly as I felt comfortable doing before inflicting hearing loss upon both of us. That still wasn't working, so I tried turning the music all the way down, then all the way up, and so on and so forth. Much to my dismay, I checked in the mirror again and he was out.

It was time to pull out the big guns! I reached behind me and pulled the pacifier out of his mouth. He fussed for a minute, but then fell silent. So I used the pacifier as a poking device, bopping him on the head with it over and over again. Still snoozing! I began pushing on the car seat and rattling it back and forth. I started SHRIEKING as loudly as I could. STILL sleeping.

At that point my driving was becoming rather erratic and I was honestly beginning to wonder if my baby was still alive in the backseat, so I pulled over, hopped out, climbed in the back, and started lightly patting him on the cheeks. He opened his eyes for a few seconds, but it was clear I didn't have much time. I flew home as quickly as I could, continuing all of my tricks in the front seat, but he was still fast asleep when I pulled into the garage.

Thankfully I was still able to get him upstairs to his crib for a real nap - I just couldn't help but laugh to myself thinking about how much energy we put into getting them to sleep and keeping them asleep when they are newborns, and here I was, acting like a total crackhead in my car trying to keep him from even closing his eyes. Ah, the irony!

Oh, and in case anyone was curious about how his allergic reaction was going, the pediatrician was (unfortunately) right: it got MUCH worse on Tuesday morning! It has been slowly spreading to different areas of his body and then fading away, so hopefully it will be all gone soon...

Way back when-sday

2012-02-22T05:00:00.000-06:00

Eight years ago yesterday, on 2/21/04, I met the guy who would become my husband at a baseball game. (You can read the full story here.)

I don't even like baseball, so the fact that I was there that day is kind of a sign that we were meant to be together, don't you think? Me too.

Though I knew instantly that I liked this guy, I apparently didn't like him enough to awkwardly request a picture on the day we met just in case I would need it in 8 years to post on my blog as proof of our first meeting, so you will just have to settle for this shot that was taken a few weeks later when Amanda and I were asking these guys - our future husbands - to our sorority formal:

Brian & Amanda are on the left; Wade & I are on the right

So grateful to be able to say that 8 years, 1 marriage, 2 cities, 3 homes, 2 dogs, and 1 baby later, I still like that guy... a lot.

Grab a button and join the WBW fun!

Link yo' self:

Let's call the whole thing off

2012-02-21T05:00:00.000-06:00

On Sunday evening, some friends of ours invited us over for dinner. They served us some tasty burgers and fries, and because we are the coolest parents ever, we decided to share a few bites of our food with Davis. We also let him try a teeny tiny (I'm talking the size of the tip of a fingernail here) piece of tomato for the first time. He wasn't a fan, and we're not sure if he even swallowed any of it, so we didn't push it.

Fast forward to Monday morning. I was changing the little fella's diaper after his first nap, and there was a surprise waiting for me all over the top half of his body:

It wasn't bothering him at all and he wasn't having trouble breathing, so I didn't panic, but I did call the nurse at his pediatrician's office to figure out a) why my kiddo looked like a freak of nature, and b) what could be done to fix that. She suggested Benadryl and told me it should work within 45-60 minutes. An hour and 15 minutes passed, and he was actually looking worse. So, off to the pediatrician we went, and just in time for the medicine's drowsiness effects to kick in:

I had to wake him from his car nap to take him in, and he was all kinds of out of it. One nurse told me he looked like he was stoned, to which I replied, "Yeah, I didn't really give him Benadryl - I gave him marijuana. Don't tell anyone!"

That joke was met with a blank stare, much like this one my stoned son was giving everyone:

Anywho, after a lot of super scientific investigating (listing out all the foods he had eaten in the past 24 hours), it was determined that the tomato was likely to blame! Even though it was a teeny tiny little piece, and even though he may not have even swallowed it, the simple fact that it came into contact with his mouth was enough to cause a reaction like that.

And even though I started my Monday off with hardly any plans, that teeny tiny little piece of tomato made sure I stayed busy. The doctor (who is not our normal doctor and who also kept calling my son "Oliver"... pet peeve!) said it will probably get worse before it gets better, so here's to hoping she's wrong (since she can't seem to read the chart to figure out my kid's real first name, I'm hoping she is in the business of being wrong... though I guess that's not a good thing to "hope" since she is a doctor in charge of helping children, but whatever).

Jokesters

2012-02-20T05:00:00.000-06:00

A little facebook humor between the husband and the twin sister for your reading pleasure (translation: we had a fun, busy weekend but I have no photographic evidence of it, so this is all the material I've got for the blog today):

Bumper cars

2012-02-17T05:00:00.000-06:00

Warning: this is another video of my child doing something that I find amusing, which means the general public will probably think it's boring! (Though last time I checked, I wasn't forcing the general public to read my blog, so I'm not sorry for posting it anyway.)

Recently I decided to take a cue from my friend Brittany when she got a walker for her son, Reid, who is just a few weeks younger than Davis. It seemed like a genius idea that would help him get used to being on his feet while doubling as a contraption to keep him relatively confined. Imagine my disappointment when we brought it home, assembled it, plopped Davis in it, and then watched him cry in fear as he propelled himself backwards, unable to control his movements.

Unfortunately for him, I have developed a relatively high tolerance for his fussing, so I was still putting him in it from time to time when I needed to leave the room or was otherwise occupied. So the other day when I was getting food out for Tweedledee (Rocky) and Tweedledum (Tucker), into the walker Davis went. Well, apparently my child is even more fond of dog food than I thought! Here's what happened:

Thank you, California Natural dog food, for giving my son the motivation he needed.

Ask and you shall receive

2012-02-16T05:00:00.000-06:00

Amanda, aka: my wombmate, recently tagged me to answer a bunch of questions. I'm also supposed to follow all sorts of other complicated tag rules, and while I'm going to rebelliously ignore most of those rules, I AM going to answer her questions because 1) they are interesting, and 2) she is my twin sister, which means I am obligated to not let her down. So here goes nothin'!

1. If you had to have any one song play to announce your arrival whenever you walk into a room, which song would it be? "Bootylicious" by Destiny's Child

2. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? She also warned me to choose wisely, as there is only one correct answer to this question as far as she's concerned... I'm going to go with chicken. (Is that "right"?)

3. What one thing is guaranteed to make you cry? Those videos where military parents come back from duty and surprise their family members... they get me every time!

4. What do you do for a living? Did you grow up wanting to do this? Stay-at-home mom, and yes, I did grow up wanting to do this! Probably because no one warned me it was going to entail cleaning up human waste so many times a day.

5. If you had to name your next child after a pet you've had during your life, which name would you pick? Reagan... though Butterscotch is a really close second.

6. What's your favorite sport to play? And to watch? Soccer to play, but I really don't find any sports very fun to watch.

7. What's your pet peeve of the moment? Guilt trips

8. If you had to eat one thing for breakfast every day for the rest of your life, what would it be? Cereal, and since you didn't ask me to be specific about what kind, I shall leave it at that.

9. How many glasses of water do you drink, on average, per day? Are you proud of this number? 12-16 eight ounce glasses (I drink 3 or 4 Nalgene bottles of water a day... I'm serious!). And yes, I am proud of that! I also attribute my lack of puffy face/cankles during pregnancy to the insane amount of water I consume on a daily basis.

10. What was your favorite grade in school growing up and why? Can't say I have a favorite... too many that I liked to choose from! It's like asking what my favorite cheesecake flavor is from the Cheesecake Factory...

11. How many pairs of shoes (estimate) do you own? Estimates are for slackers, so I counted. The magic number was 46! That's kind of embarrassing.

The end.

Way back when-sday

2012-02-15T05:00:00.000-06:00

First of all, I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day! Wade and I went to dinner several days ago to celebrate his new job and we decided that would be our Valentine's Day date as well, but then the sneaky guy went and made plans for us for tonight, too. We are going to see The Vow, and if you're wondering why we are going tonight instead of last night, it's because I HATE CROWDS with the fury of 10,000 lions, so he planned accordingly. Smart man!

Anywho, today is a throwback to our first Valentine's Day in 2005.
(Please excuse the awesome picture quality.)

Before our date

He pulled out all the stops!

He kept our date plans a secret, so I was super confused when we had to stop by his apartment en route to dinner because he "forgot his wallet". I have to admit, when I walked inside and saw that set-up, I was a little worried he was about to propose - and I say "worried" because we were still in college and hadn't talked about marriage at that point. Thankfully he didn't drop down on one knee that night, but he did eventually. And after being spoiled with dates like that, how could I have resisted?!

Feel free to grab a button and join the WBW fun!

I decided to give the link-up party another good ol' college try, so have at it:

Crack is whack

2012-02-14T05:00:00.000-06:00

Let me preface this by saying that I love Whitney Houston's music, and I was very sad to hear of her passing on Saturday night. Like many children of the 80s, she was a musical fixture in my childhood. In fact, "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" was Amanda's favorite song for awhile.

So when I saw the news on facebook (shut up... you know it's your #1 news source, too!), I immediately sent her a text message to make sure she knew. I found her response to be so amusingly pitiful that I was tempted to post it on the world wide web for all to see right then and there, but then I decided it was too soon.

Now that a few days have passed, I decided it was fair game.

RIP, Whitney.

{Oh, and happy Valentine's Day!}

Alert the media

2012-02-13T05:00:00.000-06:00

In many parts of the country, sleet/snow/wintry precipitation is nothing to write home (or blog) about.

Austin, Texas does not fall into that category. So here I am!

We were walking to our car after leaving a birthday party yesterday afternoon when I noticed something falling from the sky. "IT'S SNOWING!" I loudly proclaimed. My ~~dream crusher~~ husband gently responded with, "You mean sleeting?"

Whatever. Sleet or snow, it stuck to the ground long enough for me to take a couple of pictures.

"What the H is this?!"

"OMG I love sleet/snow!"

Happy Monday, my friends!

Ayudame!

2012-02-10T05:00:00.000-06:00

People, I need your help. And in this instance, "people" means those of you who 1) have at least one child, and 2) eat dinner at home most nights... or if you don't fall into either of those categories but 3) have helpful ideas for me. Can you tell me what your usual dinner routine is on week nights?

Now that Wade is working a teensy bit later in the evenings and Davis is eating real(ish) meals that require preparation, our current routine is killing me (softly). In the past, Wade and I have always eaten dinner pretty much as soon as he walks in the door from work because I like to eat dinner early. Shortly before he would get home, I would feed the dogs, then feed Davis, then get our dinner ready (we generally make 1-2 large meals per week and eat lots of leftovers, so usually this just required heating something up in the microwave). But now that he gets home a little later, the combination of feeding the dogs + getting dinner ready for Davis + getting dinner ready for us before Wade is home to help is making me want to punch myself in the face.

So how do you do it? Do you cook every night, or do you make a couple of large meals each week and feast off leftovers like we do? When do you start the cooking? If you have really young kids, do you feed them before Dad gets home or after? Any tips for restoring sanity during the hours of 4:00-6:00pm are greatly appreciated!

Yours truly,

Anxious Allison

Thinkin' on Thursday

2012-02-09T05:00:00.000-06:00

1. After a torturous year of trying to groom Rocky ourselves, we finally gave up. I took him to the groomer yesterday, and when I came to pick him up, they made a point to tell me that Rocky had been "a little naughty" - basically he didn't want them touching his legs so he squealed and whined a lot. I responded with, "Yes, that's why we stopped grooming him ourselves and brought him here. Sorry!" I didn't know what else to say, and honestly I am wondering why they even bothered telling me? I mean, unless he injured you and/or he was so terrible that you don't want me to bring him back, I don't want you to give me the details and make me feel bad. I am paying you a decent amount of money to do this so I don't have to deal with it. Does anyone else agree with me on this???

2. My apologies to those of you who already read this on facebook, but... last night I was chatting with a woman who was working at a children's store. She told me she had a baby the same age as Davis (9 months) at home, and I commented that she looked great and like she had never had a baby in her life. She then went on to explain that she had trouble gaining enough weight when she was pregnant, that the doctor kept forcing her to eat peanut butter, and now she hates it. POOR YOU! I feel so awful for you and your inability to gain weight and your peanut butter aversion... that must be so hard for you. I laughed politely and told her I did not have the same problem, but I really just wanted to punch her in the uterus.

3. The following have become new hobbies of mine as of late: crawling under cribs to retrieve pacifiers, confiscating doggie Kong toys from baby mouths, comforting crying babies who have fallen over and hit their heads, recovering food scraps from the depths of high chairs, being pinched and/or bitten by cute babies, and inventing errands that don't really need to be run in an effort to avoid spending all day doing all of the above.

4. Since Wade started his new job on Monday, he now gets home about half an hour later than he used to. In the grand scheme of things, 30 minutes is not a big deal. But let me assure you that around 4:30pm each day, it FEELS like a really big deal. Right about that time every day, Davis and the dogs get their game faces on and they take turns trying to drive me insane before Daddy gets home. They haven't been successful... yet.

5. The main reason this post is so wordy and lengthy is that I have not had enough adult interaction this week (with the exception of one super fun play date on Monday with our friends Lindsey and Drew!). I will attempt to remedy that over the next several days so you don't have to read this much verbal vomit next week. No promises.

Way back when-sday

2012-02-08T05:00:00.000-06:00

I am usually pretty resistant to change, but every once in awhile I get a hankering for it. Since I am not very adventurous, this typically displays itself in the form of something like a haircut. And that's exactly what happened this past Saturday.

I was focusing a little too hard on smiling while taking the picture in the mirror... thus the creepy eyes.

I almost always like the way my hair looks right after it's cut and styled, but the true test comes a few days later when I am forced to style it myself. Thankfully I am still digging it! However, this was not the case when I last cut my hair this short in 2009.

As you can see, the similarities between my hair and that of Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men were far too noticeable.

Here's to hoping I continue to be pleased with it and don't end up looking like an "emotionless, compassionless killing machine" who goes around killing people with a cattlegun.

Happy Wednesday, folks!

I hope I never forget...

2012-02-07T05:00:00.000-06:00

How your whole face lights up when you smile, and your right eye always crinkles a little more than the left one...

How beautiful your big, blue eyes are and how precious your cute little nose is...

How warm your chubby little cheeks feel when they're pressed against my face...

How your funny little cowlick makes your hair part in the front just like Daddy's...

And how lucky I am to get to be your mama.