No one told me a two year old is a teenager in a child's body...

Seriously, two year old, or teenager. If a stranger were listening to me describe his behavior, he might be inclined to think I was talking about a 13 year old.

Here's a recap of only one of the many encounters Little Man and I have had over the past few days:

Me asking LM about his lunch at school (which I pack, so I know what's in it, I talk about it just to make conversation with LM): "What did you have for lunch today?"

LM: "Ummm, cheese, but I didn't like it, strawberries, and nuffin."

Me: "Did you eat your cheese?"

LM: "No."

Me: "Why not?"

LM: "I don't like it, it has peel." (LM actually loves cheese, but HATES peel of any kind, and imagines that things have peel when they actually do not.)

Me: "Cheese doesn't have peel, honey."

LM: "Yes it does."

Me: "No, it doesn't. It has a wrapper on it, and you take the wrapper off and eat the cheese, but the cheese doesn't have any peel."

LM: Lowers head, then shakes head, looks at me and says in the most serious voice, "Yes, mommy, it does. It DOES have peel."

Man, I'd been told. If only he'd huffed a bit and rolled his eyes, the scene would have been complete. How did I get through life never realizing that string cheese had peel? I really had no idea the "my mom doesn't know nothin' about nothin' " phase happened at two years old.

Heaven help me when he really is a teenager ;)

Mission Status: Failed

Little Man spent the night at Grandma's last night.

Joy of joys, I had a good night's sleep. Evidently, Baby Girl did, too, as she didn't wake up until 8:30.

So when a friend sent me a text at 8:40, "on our way to the zoo, want to meet," I was a little torn. YES, I wanted to meet her. She's a good friend, an old friend, and she lives overseas right now, so when she's in town for a visit I jump at every chance I get to see her. However, the zoo opens at 9:00, and it seemed like my friend would be there waiting at the gates for them to open, and at 8:40, I hadn't showered, hadn't eaten, and was about to feed the baby. Let me put it this way, I hadn't even made the coffee yet. I also had a million little errands I wanted to do since I only had one child with me. However, I decided to go. So I step it into high gear, and by 9:30 Baby Girl and I are strapped in the car and ready. I put the key in the ignition, turn it, and......nothing. Hmm, that's weird, let me try again. Turn the key.....nothing. I didn't mention that I'm in The Husband's car, as he took my car into the shop this morning, it needs new tires. So there I was, I already told my friend I'd meet her, I jumped in the shower, got myself and Baby Girl ready at lightening speed, packed a bag with snacks and water for the zoo, installed the carseat in The Husband's car (not an easy task!), put the stroller in The Husband's car, scrounged around for a spare pair of sunglasses and a hat, as I keep mine in my car.....and the car won't start.

Arrrrrgggggg!!!!

I call The Husband, and he's able to come home to take a look. Turns out he left an interior light on last night after cleaning out his car for me. He was able to jump the car and get it started, but sadly, the zoo trip was history.

Oh well, just another day in the life of a busy, young family. Better luck next time :)

Monster Trucks, Firetrucks, Sparklers, Oh My!

We had a busy Fourth of July weekend. As of Friday morning, we had NO plans. The Husband and I were complaining about it and feeling sorry for ourselves that no one liked us ;) Saturday morning dawned and we had a full two days of nothing planned, which never, ever happens. But then the phone started ringing and the days soon filled up with activities. We ended up going to two cookouts, and had a fabulous time. Last year, Little Man was terrified of all fireworks, and wanted to stay inside all night long. That suited his overprotective momma just fine. As far as I'm concerned, the farther away from a burning projectile he is, the better. This year, however, he was fascinated by them, and his daddy shot off a few with him. I mean, what car and truck obsessed little boy could resist monster truck and firetruck fireworks? Little Man had a blast, me, a minor anxiety attack.

Little Man and The Husband with a Sparkler

We all made it home safe, tired, and happy.

Speaking of Malbec...

The whole idea for this post came from a bottle of Malbec. You see, last night The Husband and I had one of our favorite kind of dates. The kind where we wait until the kids go to bed, sit on our own front porch, open a bottle of wine, and talk until we can't keep our eyes open any longer. We love our porch dates, and, in fact, we love our Malbec. It's one of our favorite wines. The Husband actually popped the question over a bottle of Malbec, in a restaurant called La Rueda, in Iguazu, Argentina. Here's one of my favorite pictures from Iguazu, beautiful, isn't it?

Brings back memories....we used to go to Argentina for two weeks every year at Christmas. The Husband had family there, and, well, we'd go to visit. The seasons are switched there (Southern Hemisphere), so when we'd go at Christmas it was summer there - Heaven!! Add to that the fact that we stayed in our family's home instead of a hotel, and had the best tour guides - our family - it was always a fantastic trip. Anyway, The Husband's family has since moved on, so it's been almost three years since we've been - booooo. We miss it. While enjoying our porch date last night, we talked about how we would love to take the kids there one day, and how we would greatly enjoy revisiting our old haunts. Here are a few of our favorite places:


Iguazu Falls

As I mentioned this is where The Husband and I were engaged. It is a beautiful place, I can't do it justice in a few sentences. If I could only revisit one place in Argentina, this would be it.

San Telmo

This where we'd buy most of our Christmas gifts for the family back home. It has WONDERFUL shopping, traditional stores, antique stores, artisans...plus nice cafes. The Husband accidentally ate cow tongue here, and if I'm feeling mean, I'll remind him of it. To this day, oh, about 5 years later, he still turns green at the memory.

The Gum Tree - I couldn't find any really good links for this, but it's a 200 year old tree in the middle of the city. Some of the branches have grown so big that they are held up by supports. A cafe is located across the street from the tree, and they've set out tables and chairs, so you can have a cup of coffee or lunch while sitting in the shad of this magnificent tree!

Jumbo

As the link says, Argentina's answer to super Walmart, only more fun, you never know what you'll see in there - one time we saw an entire hog's head in the meat case. Can you imagine walking into super Walmart and buying a hog's head from the deli? Note the 50-something checkout lanes! They don't just have regular checkout lanes, either. There are the express lanes, the pregnant women lanes, and the lanes for those with small children, the delivery lanes, and lastly, the "normal" lanes.

Rio Alba (don't have a photo, there's one in the link)

This restaurant was close to where we stayed when visiting. It was a fun place, we called it the "Pink Restaurant," because it used to be painted pink and that's what the kids dubbed it. We ate there about every other day on our trips and never tired of it.

Hopefully one day we'll make it back!

We've been busy...

June has been BUSY!! I am beyond grateful that it's over, and glad that I survived ;)
Besides all the birthday hoopla, The Husband and I made a few minor home improvements.
Here's the first one:

I don't have a before picture, but we used to have a trendy, square-shaped light here. The Husband accidentally broke the cover (or if you want to be technical, the lens) almost two years ago. You read right, two years ago. So, for the past almost two years we've had bare fluorescent bulbs in our kitchen. Nice. Needless to say, it looks much better now.

Here's the second one:


The Husband is a military brat, so to speak, and he spent about five years in Iran back in the seventies. He was just a child when he came back, but he ended up with these beautiful Iranian prayer mats. The are at least 30 years old, unraveling a bit, and were living in our attic. So, for Christmas, I had them matted and framed. They turned out great, and The Husband loved them, but they've been living propped up against the wall since Christmas. Yes, since Christmas. So we finally figured out where to hang them, which was A LOT harder than we anticipated, because they're so big with the matts and frames. As you can see, though, we finally found the perfect place.

And on to our next project, first I will post some before pictures:


Yes we had a ghetto yard, complete with astro turf where the grass didn't grow. The Husband and I had our house built, it turned five years old this past May. At the time of building we were involved in about three costly ventures, not the least of which was planning our wedding, so we decided to save some money and do the landscaping on the new house ourselves. If you are laughing hysterically at that ridiculous idea, you should be. We put down sod ourselves, dug up years old (and VERY HEAVY) crepe myrtles, and planted a pretty nice front flower bed. The front looked okay, but the back, well you've seen it. However, here's the new and improved backyard! It only took five years to do it! (the fence is next on our list, and you can definitely see why)

That's about all, The Husband and I are enjoying a well-deserved rest. I do have one more picture to show you, though:

Can you see that there's a fly trap hanging above my kitchen table? We have a bit of a fly problem, may be the dog door, I don't know, all the neighbors are having fly issues, too. Anyway, we bought a few outdoor and indoor fly traps. I thought we would put the indoor traps in an out-of-the-way place and hope for the best. The Husband had a different idea. Yeah. To make matters worse, we have a very open floor plan. When you walk into our front door you can basically see the entire downstairs, save for the master bedroom and bathrooms. So, when you walk in now, surprise, fly trap! Besides looking tacky, do you really want to eat your meals under a fly trap. "Oh, I'm sorry honey, I couldn't hear you, did you say pass the potatoes? The sound of dying flies buzzing in my ear drowned out your voice." Gross. The Husband honestly HONESTLY thought this was a good place to hang a fly trap. Ladies, see what I'm up against? ;)

Attitude Adjustment

It was "one of those days" around here today. A day where nothing catastrophic happened, but lots of little things happened.


Again, and again, and again.....


So by dinnertime, when The Husband was still at work and I was alone with these heathens, I mean kids, I'd had enough. I was to the point where I was thinking of putting the kids in a box in the front yard with a sign that read, "Free to a good home."


(not really, but a mom can daydream, can't she?)


Anyway, after the kids went to bed, late, of course, I decided I needed an attitude adjustment. So here goes,

(and btw, I totally stole this idea from a blog I read a few years ago, not the exact words, but how it's presented. If I remembered where I read this, I would give credit, but I don't...)

I'm thankful for my messy, cluttered house because it means that a family lives here.

I'm thankful for my dirty house because it means that I spent quality time with my children today.

I'm thankful for not getting to see enough of my husband because it means he has a job and can earn a living.

I'm thankful for my "bigger than I'd like" belly because it means that I've had the privilege of bearing children.

I'm thankful for my meager bank account because it is the result of me being a stay at home mommy.

I'm thankful for Little Man's tantrums and teenage-like behavior because it means he is developing a strong personality that can carry him far in life.

I'm thankful for family drama because it means that I have a family that loves me.

When you put it like that, it doesn't seem so bad...

Little Man is "Too Cute" Part 2

Little Man is grandchild number four for my in-laws, so the grandparent names had long been established before LM's arrival. When LM was about 1 1/2 and just starting to talk we realized he didn't really care for Grandma and Grandpa's names, as he had given them new ones. Monger and Pocker. He still uses them to this day.


We love us some crackers at our house. Any kind of cracker at all. Our favorites, though, are Ritz and Cheese Its, or "Cheesetulls", as LM calls them.


Of course, the ever popular "aminal" for "animal."


We were working in the yard today, and while I was digging a hole for a plant, LM goes, "Oh, that's a good hole, Mommy." So I told him thank you and let him know that he was a good encourager. He replied, "Yes, yes I mam." (that's LM speak for "yes I am")



Little Man is very observant - the other day he stated, "The zoo has lotta smells."


Like every child, Little Man goes through phases where unless it's cookies, cake, candy, or ice cream, he won't eat it. During one of these phases, The Husband and I were trying to entice him to eat his dinner, specifically his chicken. I know I mentioned that Little Man loves Mighty Machines, especially the episode about the farm. So on this night, The Husband and I were getting nowhere with LM, who was in danger of going into a diabetic coma from too much sugar throughout the day, and The Husband says, "put that chicken in the combine!" (the combine = Little Man's mouth, in case you were wondering) So now, every once in a while, during a nice quiet (ahem) dinner, Little Man well yell out, "Put that chicken in the combine, chew it up!" All I can say is, it works :)


I call these posts "Little Man is too cute!" because I tell LM that he's too cute all the time. Now he's started using the phrase himself. He'll do something that he thinks is funny, and he'll yell out, "I too cute!"


Here's how a conversation went between LM and me the other day,
Momma - "Little Man, do you want to go to the store with Daddy or stay here with me?
LM - "I go to store with daddy. I sorry, but I love my daddy."


LM has gotten into the habit of replying to "I love you" with this phrase, "Yep, you do love me."


We don't use the baby monitor much for Baby Girl, as she's usually within earshot. Since she's started sleeping more upstairs, though, we've been using the monitor more. LM is not yet used to us using it for her, and he gets a little worried when he hears her cry through it. A few days ago she started crying as she woke up from her nap, and LM said urgently, "Mommy, Baby Sister's trapped in there!"