Thinking outside the box...

So the other day Luke got a new box of toothpaste out from under the sink and opened it. I told him to put the toothpaste back in the box and put it back where he found it. I saw him put it back in the box as I walked out of the bathroom....

...a little while later I came back in to the bathroom and found the above item. I asked Luke about it. His response, "I had to tape the top close." Cute.

Food for thought.

Ben is the craziest eater. I think because Luke has been incredibly picky up until last week when he decided to eat salad and chicken nuggets(the one and only type of meat that he consumes); that we are so amazed over what Ben eats. Other than tuna salad and spaghetti noodles, Ben seems to like everything....including (as I mentioned in previous posts) wet dog food. Not only does Ben like a huge array of food, he eats ALOT. He always eats more than Luke...at every meal. Luke eats a half a sandwich, Ben eats a whole. Luke is 3, Ben is 1. Ben almost always screams when we take him down from his high chair. This is after the initial meal plus additional servings of things like dry cereal or crackers. Ben only has 5 teeth....and he was eating more than Luke when he had 0 teeth. He should be in the 90th percentile on weight, but he is always around the 5oth or so....Anyway, I just wanted to post what he ate at Todd's parent's house last night for dinner:

1. 2 hotdogs (completely chopped up in to tiny pieces)

2. a bowl of slightly spicy chili

3. part of a hot dog bun

4. raisins

5. a drink

Am I over-reacting...or is this not that much for a 1 yr-old to eat at one meal?

Ben doing his favorite thing...eating.

We Are Officially Rednecks....

So we were at McDonalds today. We were just hanging out in the play yard area when Luke grabbed my Diet Coke off the table and spilled it all over his jeans. I asked my friend 'E' to keep an eye on him and Ben while I ran out to the car to grab some new pants for him. As I was grabbing the pants, I also grabbed another pair of underwear just in case they were soaked too. Heading back inside and for whatever reason McDonalds was really empty, thank goodness.....I glanced at Luke and thought, "there's no one in here but the five of us, so I'm just going to change his pants right here." I pulled off his wet jeans and reached around for the dry pants. As I turned around to give him the new pants....in the 2 SECONDS of me turning around, Luke is nude....except a shirt!! Private parts totally exposed....."Uh Luke....we don't take our underwear off at McDonalds!" (unless your redneck mom decides to change you!)I get the underwear on as quickly as possible. The only thing that could have been more hideous is if I would have left the underwear there on accident....would love to see the look on someone's face as they find some random underwear in the play yard :)

Word Play

Kids say a ton of crazy things. What I think is really funny is when actual words are made up for real items. Below are two words that Luke has completely made up, we have no idea where these have come from.

1.Chine(pronounced like 'chime', except with an 'n'): This is the plastic thing you put on a door knob to prevent children for opening the door.

Used in a sentence: "Mom, why did you put the chine back on the door?"

2.Penny-Bug: Pinata

Ex. We Are at Walmart passing the Pinatas....."Mom, I want the Elmo penny-bug at my birthday party!"

We have NO idea how these words came to be. Although I can say that we have started using 'chine' in our house.

As in, "Sorry Luke, the chines have to be on the doors." I do kind of feel like an idiot, but at least we are all on the same page.

Now & Then

So this August will be thirteen years I have lived in Tennessee. I moved from California in 1997 to finish college. Every August I always marvel to myself that I have been here for as long as I have and that I consider TN my home now. Although it isn't August I started thinking to myself all the things that are different now versus then and I thought I would compile a list. Here goes:

13 years ago....

1.I was 20

2.I still lived in CA, hadn't moved to TN yet

3.I hadn't met my husband

4.I didn't have a college degree

5.I drove a Dodge Neon....which was the first car I paid for!

6.My dad didn't have Alzheimer's

7.I worked at Mimi's Cafe

8.I didn't have children

9.I did have a blind cat named Hope

10.I had never tailgated

11.My brother was 12!

12. I hadn't met my best friend 'S'

13.I had never lived away from home

14.I thought cowboys were hot...I guess some still are :)

15.I hadn't been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans

16.I hadn't owned a convertible yet

17.I had never heard of Peyton Manning

18.I didn't understand the constant worrying my mom always had for us....now that I'm a mom, I get it.

19.I had never been inside a Hooters

20.My sister Dani was alive and doing great! Good times.

My sister Dani....You are missed everyday.

I love you!

Yesterday is gone...

My best friend and I were talking this morning about how children really allow you to appreciate the simple things in life....the fact that we were actually talking on the phone is one of them. On both ends our conversations are constantly interrupted by crying, things spilling, someone pooping, along with millions of other things. We had text each other several times , but had not actually spoken in over a week! Texting is great for quick things and some adult interaction, but it is no match for for hearing someone's voice. Along with phone conversations, here are some of my other favorite things, which in another life I took for granted:

Going to the movies: This is something I used to be able to do on a whim..."Hey, I'm bored, lets go to the movies.." Not anymore. Going to the movies takes an act of congress.... getting a baby sitter, packing a bag, etc. Todd and I can usually never go together. I'm also the world's worst critic now...first of all, I haven't seen the movie you are going to ask my opinion on, and second I probably haven't even heard of it unless it involves cartoon characters. Secondly, unless it is some horrific blood bath type and you are asking what I thought of it, it's going to be the best movie ever! It doesn't take much to entertain me these days. When you get to see one movie a year (I'm not kidding) every movie is awesome! I will just be excited to have been in the movie theater. So...please don't form an opinion of a movie based upon what I say.

Going out to eat: When you have a tiny baby(s) this is not an issue. Going out to eat is a breeze...they usually sleep the whole time. When they get to be 1 and up, watch out. If I get to eat my food, it's cold. Salads become an even greater option at this point. You are constantly fielding food and tempers being thrown. Blood pressures raise as a child's time span for eating in public places disappears. All I wanted was a meal I didn't have to cook or clean up after...was it worth it?

Getting Ready: If you wake up super early, great you can probably achieve this, but most moms I know value their sleep more than fresh make-up. Because I'm horrible at taking off yesterday's make-up I always have some on the next morning. As gross as this may be....it gives me a little to work with when I have to dash out the door. Some days my showers are not until 9pm or later.

Anyway, this is just me venting. Kids are great, they are worth cold food, a dirty face, and always provide entertainment.....As Luke walks out from pooping, "Mom, come look, it's a huge circle!" Awesome.

It's Just Skid Marks...

So we've been working on potty training with Luke and it's actually been going really well....He grasped going pee really fast. Poop has been another issue and quite the struggle. I think he is finally getting it though, which is such a relief because I'm getting really sick of scraping underwear. I thought I might share some of the highlights of this journey with you:

We first taught him to go by peeing outside...one of the great joys of having a boy! However this can backfire on you, because the world becomes a toilet.....

-on one of our many trips to the vet, after unbuckling Luke, while trying to get both Ben and our dog out of the car I look up and see Luke yanking his pants down in front of the only tree directly in front of the vet office. If we hadn't been such great,loyal, probably paying their mortgage payment (by bringing our dog in at least once a week)customers over the past 7 months they probably would have said something.

-pulling his pants down at the park and peeing directly in front of a little girl. We were tending to Ben and didn't see Luke do this (they are fast!), the mom came up to us & told us, she said it didn't bother her at all, however her little girl has been learning about "privacy" and seeing Luke's underwear bothered her.

-An obsession with urinals. I love this when Todd is with us, because I, simply, cannot go into the men's room ;)

Poop...on the other hand has also provided some great stories...

-Poop is like mold..somehow it gets everywhere. Unless you are my Obsessively clean friend 'C', that is. I think I've cleaned up every surface and body part and then I look down and it's under my fingernails.

-When Luke tells me he needs to poop, I asked him if it's already in his underwear or not. His typical response, "No mom, it's just in my booty crack." Nice visual I'm sure. Occasionally he will just pull his pants down and say, "it's just skid mark shoneys mom!" (our term for skid marks...derived from my brother who says eating at Shoney's makes you have to go really bad).

Well I'll stop for now, I just wanted to share a little of the journey we have been on as we have ventured in to the world of potty training. God definitely knew what he was doing when he planned the timing of the stages children go through. If parents had to potty train a new born, I think the world's population would be a lot lower.