i don't like them today

I love my kids, don't get me wrong. But today, I don't like them. They have been whining all morning. I can't stand whiny brats, and I don't want my kids to be that type of kid. Hopefully a good nap will solve that problem for today. They haven't napped much this week, and Matthew (great kid that he is) still needs a nap. They are both asleep now, so I'm hoping this afternoon I like them again.

I feel bad even admitting that sometimes I don't like them. Yesterday they were great (besides the not napping part). Matthew had a bloody nose sometime overnight so I needed to wash his sheets & "puff" (his stuffed dog). I had ordered a backup puff some time ago, but hadn't worked up the nerve to make the switch. Original puff is ~30 years old - he was mine when I was a little girl so original & new...quite different! But yesterday I did it. Matthew didn't seem to notice, other than he commented about puff's hair being fluffy & clean. But then he told me "Mommy you did it. You really saved the day." It doesn't get much better than that!

Scarlett is just a little devil. An adorable little devil, who likes to wave both hands at you when they are covered with mashed potatoes. An adorable little devil, who likes to say "no no no" in a way only she can say it. An adorable little devil, who likes to throw shoes over her bedroom gate. An adorable little devil, who goes to sleep a LOT faster in her new bed if I lay down with her. An adorable little devil, who has helped me sneak in a short nap for the past 2 days.

Tonight on Idol...hmmm - I think Megan or Michael will go home. Not very risky predictions, but I have liked them both up until last night. For the record, I thought Lil was HORRIBLE. I expected greatness from her but it hurt my ears. We rewound to see Kara's face (did anyone else catch the look of pain on her face?) and I said "that's how I feel." And the way things are going, if Adam doesn't win, I'll be shocked.

where did she come from

Whew. Scarlett is so much different than Matthew. I seriously don't know where she came from. Matthew is the spitting image of David. He looks like David, he acts like David, he walks like David. Scarlett...I don't know. She doesn't look like either of us, she certainly has a bigger personality than either of us, and while it's 200% adorable, she is keeping me busy.

Friday she woke up early from her nap & I changed her diaper. Then she got up again a little later. She made some noise and Matthew woke up. I heard them talk back & forth over the monitor and heard him say "climb out of your bed and come play with me." Uh-oh. They chattered some more but I could tell she was in her room & he was in his. OK. Then she got quiet & I could hear him playing. I figured she was back asleep & he was up. That's fine too. Then I heard strange noises. Well, not really strange but not normal. So I go upstairs. Scarlett was in Matthew's room (which has a gate at the door) and Matthew was in the hall. Scarlett was wearing only her shirt. No diaper or pants in sight. Those were on the floor in her room. I was relieved there wasn't any poop smeared around :)

Saturday & Sunday were both a battle to keep her in the crib at naptime. No problems at bedtime though - I think maybe because I put her in a sleep sack. Anyway, after naptime yesterday we decided to just convert the crib to a toddler bed. So then bedtime was a nightmare. She kept getting up & just screaming. She finally fell asleep around 10pm. When we looked in on her she had taken all the clothes out of the bottom half of her armoire & they were scattered around the room. She also fell out of the bed around midnight. Poor baby. Good thing I put pillows on the floor.

stinky butt

It rarely fails, Scarlett poops when she goes down for a nap. I've tried putting her on the potty but she won't poop in the potty. Maybe if I put it in her crib? Anyway, today she seemed to go to sleep, but she woke up pretty early, so I grabbed a diaper & wipes and headed upstairs. When I opened her door, she said "stinky butt" - I said "did you say stinky butt?" and she said "uh-huh". I don't usually put those words together during diaper changes so I'm not sure how she figured out that's what it was, but she was right.

A couple of nights ago at supper Matthew asked David a question but David was in the kitchen so I answered. Matthew looked at me and said "no mommy don't talk to me. I was talking to dada." All I could do was laugh.

Kids really do say the darndest things.

On a bad note, I gained weight this week. Ugh. I knew I shouldn't have made cake. But hey, it could have been worse - at least I don't still have cake sitting around. Sending it to work with David was smart. I had really hoped to be at my goal by now and it is just so frustrating that it is coming off so slowly now. ARGH!

idol again

I think it's Allison's week to go. She is incredibly talented and every time I look at her or listen to her, I just can't believe she is only 16. I want to be a fan of the rocker girl but I don't think her performances have been as good as the rest of the group. Kris was my favorite last night - I never expected to like him singing a Garth Brooks song more than I like Garth singing it, but I did. If you had asked me before the performances who I thought should be going, it would have been Kris.

are you picky about whose food you eat?

I kid you not, I love to eat. But what I enjoy almost as much as eating is not cooking, but baking. So as I read blogs this weekend, I got a craving. All because someone else posted a picture of cake on their blog. So I kept thinking about this cake, mainly because it's been one of my favorite cakes for as long as I can remember. I wanted to make one, just to see if I could. But I didn't want to eat it. Well, more than one slice of it anyway. As I was bitching to David about how I enjoy baking but can't have cake in the house, he told me if I made it Sunday he would just take it to work Monday. Good idea, right? I get to bake & he gets to score brownie points at work (assuming it's edible). So I cook, layer after layer after layer after layer after....I ended up with 15 layers, but the 15th was a lot bigger than the others, because I wanted 14 layers & the 15th was just all the extra batter. So I didn't use it. Then when I was stacking & icing, I began to worry it was going to be too tall. So it's only 12 layers. Yummy!




But as I baked, stacked, and iced, I had help. I made sure his hands were clean before we started, but I couldn't stop him from licking his finger every once in a while. I tried to make sure everything he licked was from a drip off the spoon he was holding, and that he didn't actually touch the cake, but I can't be sure.

So tell me, do YOU eat goodies that people bring in from home? Do you worry about whose fingers have been licked while they were preparing it?

You'd eat after him, right?

friday's random thoughts

First, weigh in this week was good. I lost 1.6 lbs, but what is good is that it puts me at my lowest weight in a LONG LONG time. I mean like, back from when I first got fat, maybe 7-8 years ago. Last time I actually remember being this low was when I got married. I was actually at 120 then, so I still have a lot of pounds to lose to be there, but I really don't know when I gained the weight that started me on my fat journey. I blame it on the weekly work travel...eating out all the time sucks. But anyway, I hope I've broken that plateau and will be heading to goal now. Yay me!

Second, we're supposed to have nice weather this weekend. Hopefully we'll get outside some - I love winter but I'm getting tired of having to be so bundled up every time I take the kids outside.

Rumor has it McD's in Canada sell Cadbury Creme Egg McFlurries. Anyone know if this is true? Hopefully I will, later today. David had to go on an "international business trip" (eyeroll) today and I asked him to check it out. If he was able to and they have them, we'll be heading over there sometime. (yeah, i know, i just talked about weight loss, but I'll figure out the points for the mcflurry & I'll count it...it's ok!)

I have a weakness for Cadbury Creme Eggs. And they're putting them out in stores earlier & earlier before Easter. This week they're on sale so David bought me a bunch. I'll try to limit myself to one every 3rd day or so. I'd like to eat one a day, but I can't do that & expect to lose weight.

Sounds like I'm obsessed with food & weight, huh? I think I might be, but not in a dangerous way.

Any thoughts on how to go about finding someone? I only "know" her through her blog, but she is a pretty regular poster & she hasn't posted in almost a month. I've sent her a message but nothing. I worry.

Scarlett is a mess. I am afraid she's going to be trouble down the road! Matthew is so laid back, he never really went through that phase of saying "no" or "mine" (but then again he didn't have to share for a long time). Scarlett will tell me "no" or "mine" so much. She also loves to point at herself in the mirror and say "me". I encourage her though - I say "who is mommy's pretty girl?" and she says "meeeeee" and points to herself. I interchange the adjective, sometimes she's sweet, smart, busy, rotten, etc. Not always pretty :)

idol thoughts & some other krap

Last night Jorge & Kris were my bottom 2. David had Jorge too but I can't remember his 2nd. We also think Jasmine might go home, even though we think she's got a good voice. The sad thing to me, if Kris goes home, is that I really want to like him he just hasn't won me over yet. I think no doubt, Adam and Alexis were AWESOME last night. To me Danny wasn't as good as he has been, but I am sure he'll be around for a long time. I also thought Michael was good last night.

There was something else I wanted to mention, not Idol related, but now I can't remember what. Loser!

And Beth, you asked what happened to your boy...his darling sister threw a car at him and blackened his eye. Then he was climbing into the toy box (which is a nono) and he fell & scraped his mouth/chin. Those were the injuries in the pic, now healed. But yesterday he scratched his head really bad - he was walking with a book & Scarlett pushed him, he fell and caught the side of his head (his temple I guess) on the corner of the book. It looks icky. Poor kid. No hockey/skate injuries yet, but Scarlett is getting him ready! I know some other people were wondering too since they asked me in other places.

bag o'randomness

On the wild card Idol round, Anoop, Jesse, and Megan are my favorites, based on the week1-3 performances. I doubt those are the 3 selected though. Especially Jesse, since the judges almost didn't even put her in the wild card round.

Someone I know online says they dress their kids like miniature adults. I definitely don't. I dress my kids like kids. I dress them in gingham seersucker with bunny rabbits and snowman outfits with butt bows and ribbons. But *I* would never wear a big version of those clothes. Lately I have been knitting diaper covers (soakers, shorties, or longies) for Scarlett. They are wonderful, and I think they are oh so cute! But ya, I'd never wear hand knit wool pants. However, some adults, um, will. I don't know what copyright laws are about posting pictures even if I credit the original source, so I'm just posting the link. You'd never catch me in those! But to each her own, right?

But here is Scarlett in her momma-knit pants and I think she's pretty darn cute!


I won't be around tomorrow - the kids are going to daycare while David & I go to a meeting. Matthew is so excited. They went a couple of weeks ago and had a ball. Kinda makes me feel bad for keeping them home with me every day!

While I had the camera out, the kids were being so sweet, so I snapped a lot of pictures. Here are a few of my faves:


Scarlett gave Matthew a kiss:


And then I encouraged them to hug - Matthew does this incredibly sweet pat on the back as he hugs that just melts my heart, and you can kinda see him patting in this pic:


sweet but tough - look at that face :(

my idol predictions

Tonight I think we'll find out Lil Rounds, Scott MacIntyre, and Jorge Nunez are going through. I think Kristin McNamara should be top 3 though. I love this show, just for the competition of it. But ya know what, I never call & vote! As a matter of fact, we always DVR it but I do try to keep up & watch it the same night it airs.

making me happy

I love that I have a husband who is willing to do whatever it takes to make me happy. He knows I really want to live in Georgia, even though I agreed moving here was what was best for us. I didn't realize how hard it would be *for me* after we had children to live so far from our families. My sister in law makes a big deal out of "I don't know how you do it without help" and that's not my problem. I'm not doing it on my own. My problem is knowing how much I loved living across the road from my grandparents and less than 5 miles from the other grandparents. And every time we visit, or my parents visit here, I hate leaving. I hate thinking of all the little things that happen in Matthew's and Scarlett's lives that they miss out on. I hate going 3+ months without seeing my nieces and nephew. Otherwise, I'm happy as a clam here.

David had an idea for us to get back to Georgia. We are looking into our options and trying to figure out the finances and logistics. I feel like we are on a good path, but of course it is scary to think about picking up & moving with the economy like it is right now. We will lose a bundle on our house, if we can even sell it. But I'm so excited about the opportunity and the possibility. We could be in Georgia in just a couple of months! What I really appreciate is that David is actively working to figure out how we can make it happen, he is coming up with ideas and encouraging me that we can do it, even when I have doubts. And I know he's doing it all for me (well and the kids).

I haven't been blogging quite as much lately, because my "free" time is when the short people are napping, and right now while they are napping I am busy busy busy working on this possible move. I am researching, analyzing, and making phone calls. Let's move!