Still Potty Training

This afternoon:

Me: Alex, your pants are still dry. Do you need to potty? Let's sit on the potty!

Alex: NOOOOOOOOO..... NA-HUN! NOOOOO....
(Throws self on floor. Kicks dresser.)

Five minutes later, changing wet Pull-Up.

Me: (Stern voice) Alex, look at this... all wet, next time you put your pee in the potty!

Alex points at the potty chair and says: No, dat's eeeewwwww.

**Sigh**

Christmas 2008

We made our own home-made Reindeer Food to feed Santa's reindeer.

Alex wasn't too interested in sprinkling out the 'reindeer food'. The neighbor's cat came over and started eating the Wheat Chex out of the Reindeer Food. Alex was more interested in chasing the cat around the yard!

Some of us took nice Christmas picture.

Some of of didn't....

Catelin put out letters for Santa and cookies and milk.

We played our favorite Christmas Game. Wrap the baby in a blanket and wait for him to find his way out...

Catelin ripped through her gifts on Christmas like a crazy kid. With her usual 'jump in with both feet-gotta see everything' zest for life and excitement.

Their very different personalities were obvious.

Alex was content to open one gift at a time, take it over to the coffee table and examine it completely. It didn't bother him a bit that there was a whole pile of presents with his name on them.

It drove Catelin nuts. She wanted to open his presents for him.

They really liked all their gifts and had a great time playing. Thanks for everything!!!

Santa even brought a toy for Lucy. What a nice Santa we have.

The best "free" Christmas present ever!!

Playing Wii Boxing.

Happy Holidays!

The kids and I spent yesterday afternoon making Christmas cookies! Lots of chocolate chips were snatched and eaten.

We made Chocolate Chip, Cream Cheese cookies, Fudge and No-Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies. Today, after we go to the store, I will make some Buckeyes and maybe one other kind of treat. This time I intend to make the cookies when the kids aren't around...

I tried to be one of those "good Moms" and let the kids "help" and "make memories" and all that on Sunday. But, geeesh, all the messes and burnt cookies, and flour spilled all over Alex, and nuts all over the floor, and Alex trying to lick a Ginsu knife. It was enough to give me a twitch.

We did use our fresh picked pecans from Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving dinner Rita, Catelin, Alex and I went for a walk in C-Hill and picked up pecans. We ended up with two BIG plastic bags of fresh pecans. We cracked/shelled these pecans to use in one of our cookie recipes. That was pretty neat! I hope to get a bunch shelled so we can make a Pecan Pie for X-Mas. The fresh nuts were really good, better than store bought.

We put our tree up last week. Between Alex and the kitten, Lucy, the bottom 1/3 of the tree is bare and about four ornaments have been broken. Catelin has put herself in charge of guarding the tree. Two gifts have "accidently" been opened. One by Alex, of course, and one by Lucy. Who knew kittens were kinda like puppies? She chewed and ripped at the paper until it was shreds, ummm, thanks Mom, I like the Arbonne Travel Kit!

Today, we are going to clean house and get the last of the gifts wrapped. I can't believe it is December 22nd already. Even though we have seen every old Rudolph Christmas movie made (about 5 times), decorated a tree and made cookies, listened to endless Christmas music on the radio and paid insane amounts of money to ship gifts, it still does not feel like it should be Christmas time!

Well, better go this house isn't cleaning itself and Alex is getting his own breakfast, Ha, Ha!!
Merry Christmas, ya'll!

You Can't Beat Free!

Back in October, when I first started thinking about Christmas shopping, Catelin was going on and on about her friend's Nintendo Wii. She wanted a Wii for Christmas. Well, I thought, it could be a gift for the whole family to use, Mark could play with Catelin with it, etc, etc.

Then I priced them. Not only were they hard to find, but they were $250 for the basic console with one traditional controller and one "action" controller. Well, when you start adding in all the second controllers and a couple games to play, it became quite pricey.

So, we decided, maybe not this year. Maybe next year, when the prices start dropping and we have a big family room to play in, etc...

BUT, while feeding my blogging addiction I came across a Blog Giveaway. Blog giveaways, they are so much fun and I never win anything, and Mark just laughs at me, but I'm always hopeful. One of these days I will win a Kitchenaid Mixer from http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/!

Sooo, http://www.noobie.com/ is having a Wii giveaway for Christmas!! Fantastic! I sign up, BUT, if I "tell my friends" about it I get 5 extra entries. Well, of course I pimped out a few e-mail addresses so I could get 5 extra entries!

I warned Mom that I had done this, and told her she could just delete any junk looking stuff.
Well, SHE ENTERED THE WII GIVEAWAY TOO! And out of 8,000 entries.............

No I didn't win, of course not................ MOM won the Wii giveaway! How cool is that!!!!!!!!!!

Potty training

This morning.

Me: Alex, you tell me when you have to potty. Okay?

Alex nods.

Me: Keep your pull-ups dry. Okay?

Alex nods.

Ten minutes later, the air is pretty stinky.
Clean up, sit on potty.

Me: Alex, next time you sit on the potty. Put your poop in the potty.

Alex: (Very soft, serious voice) Oh, noooo!


We started out with cotton pants, I was going to skip the whole pull-up phase. Go straight to cotton pants, to make training faster.

After the second time Alex wet his pants, and was left standing in a puddle of pee, he took the stack of cotton pants out of the bathroom and hid them in the bottom of the closet. Then he went and got a diaper and brought it to me.

And so it goes....

Wednesday Weariness

I spent most of Alex's nap time this afternoon cleaning out my two cabinets that hold spices, seasonings, oils, etc.

When you cook often, as I do, it is important to have an organized, clean, well-stocked kitchen.

Bwaaaa, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Hee, Hee........................ ROFL..............

Okay, you can stop now, it wasn't that funny...

Seriously, I was looking for two things: Colored sugar, for Christmas sugar cookies, and blue food coloring for the magic potion for Catelin.

I know that I had these items before we moved, but now... ? Who knows. Can't find 'em. Must purchase more.

As I was cleaning/organizing I remembered that my baking powder was expired. When I made Pumpkin Bread before Thanksgiving it turned out kinda "heavy". So I wanted to get the baking powder out of the cabinet as well.

Now, this was so funny I thought you all might like it:

It looks fine, don't you think?

This is the bottom of the can.

Ha, no wonder the bread was "heavy", it's a wonder we didn't all die of Botulism or Trictospitosis. The best thing is, I packed it and moved it all the way from IL to GA.

Someone here must really like Hot Sauce. Who needs 5 bottles of hot sauce???

This is where Lucy stands on the chair and tries to help.

(Don't tell Mark, she sniffed his favorite hot sauce)

Let me tell you about The Vinegar, er, Vinegar(s). Balsamic-Fancy Brand, Balsamic-WalMart brand, Red Wine Vinegar, White Wine Vinegar, Apple Cider Vinegar, Seasoned Rice Vinegar and TWO bottles of regular White Vinegar.

Who needs 8 bottles of Vinegar......... the same nuts who have 5 bottles of hot sauce, and 15 packets of soy sauce from the Sushi Bar, that's who!

This is why you need a clean and well-organized kitchen. So you can keep all your Hot Sauces and Vinegars on the same shelf.

Post Thanksgiving Burn-out

Happy Post Thanksgiving Burn-out. I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving and a great turkey feast. Hope you got to see friends and family and remembered to be Thankful. We had a great time visiting with our Grandmas and making memories.

Catelin was off school for the week so the kids and I left on the previous Saturday, drove to Illinois and spent the whole of Thanksgiving week with Grandma Angela. On Wednesday, Mamaw and Papaw drove over from Indiana to spent the holiday with us.

Three Grandparents, two Grandchildren; it's a good thing.
I slept in, finished a good book and even took time to shave my legs. (TMI, sorry, but you just don't understand how significant that really is...)

Now, the drive up to IL was uneventful, just looooong. The weather was good, and no one screamed unnecessarily. Catelin ran the DVD player and Alex was allowed a pacifier. ( I know, I know... but I just don't care...)

We break up the drive with a lunch stop at a McDonalds playland. I always pray against, staph infections, pink-eye germs or random bodily fluids being in the playland.
I wasn't disappointed, Catelin came out to report one little boy was guarding the top of the slide by spitting at everyone. Yeah... there's one in every crowd. At least this time it wasn't mine.

The playland is perfect for Alex to run out all his energy and maybe sleep a little for the second half of the trip. It's a treat for them, for being in the car so long and it's also good-behavior leverage. "If you don't stop fighting/whining/crying/kicking we are NOT going to McDonalds!"
What did parents do before McDonalds?

Coming back to GA was another story. We left an hour and a half behind schedule, it was foggy, it rained, it was dark by 5:00pm, Chattanooga was bumper to bumper traffic for miiilllles and somehow I completely ignored my GPS and got lost briefly in Atlanta. Ack...

So, now it is time to prepare for Christmas. I need to finish my shopping, of course.
Catelin and I always choose a charitable cause to support for Christmas. This year I think we are going to purchase coats for a local 'coat-drive' and maybe even donate supplies to one of the county animal rescue groups. We also need to decide on a tree: real or fake? And see if our decorations made it here in the move or are they in IL? Hmmmm.
I want to spend one afternoon, with Catelin, making cookies.

Geez, I need to start a to-do list.
There are many, many things I need to get started on and get done.
What are you doing to get ready, now that the Holiday season is in full swing?

Friday Observations

1. Ants do not die when it gets cold. They just move into your closet. And the upstairs bath.

2. It is possible to turn the whole television upside down and shake it to get the DVD out. That would be the DVD that Alex shoved past the DVD tray.

3. There needs to be a LAW, that any Halloween candy left over past November 5 must be thrown in the trash immediately.

4. Forty degrees is considered a serious cold-front in Georgia. Everyone broke out the scarves and fuzzy boots. Catelin is still wearing a cotton jacket.

5. Candy Cane Creme Oreos are from the Devil. Purchase at your own risk!

6. When you really need one, every flashlight in the house will have dead batteries.

7. When you put your jeans in the dryer, by mistake, they will never fit again.

8. Oh, and Candy Cane Creme Oreos are evil. Do not buy them...... but if you do... send me two.
Just two, no more than that...

Oh, so pretty...

"I feel pretty, oh so pretty.... " everybody sing now " ....so pretty, and witty and bright!"

Don't worry Grandmas', it's not blood. Nor, is it, a new variety of Alex Allergy hives.

Oh no, it is a whole tube of Avon, Beyond Color, Lip Plumping, Mad About Mauve. Yes, mauve lipstick.

What you can't see is, that it is even rubbed into the back of his neck and behind his ears.

Apparently, when he got the lipstick out of my make-up carrier he also grabbed a really nice Clinique blush brush. He used the blush brush to smear the lipstick all over the floor and front of the dresser. So not only is the lipstick a goner, but so is my best blush brush.

This is about the 5th tube of lipstick that Alex has destroyed.

Sorry Dad, but the boy likes himself a bit o' color.

I swear I was only out of sight 6 or 8 minutes so that I could go upstairs and supervise Catelin's piano practice. I had a feeling she was practicing her notes one time and then just hitting replay on her keyboard over and over. (I'm still not sure that wasn't the case.)

I left Alex sitting quietly with his trucks, watching Caillou on PBS. I'm pretty sure it was a premediated strike. He was just waiting for the right moment.

Please note that the lipstick is everywhere except his lips.

Now that annoying song is in my head.

Just wait, you're going to be humming it all day and cursing me.

Beware of Greeks...

Friday was Greek Day at school.
For the last 2 weeks the third grade has been studying Greece, ancient Greek customs and Greek mythology.

On Friday, they dressed in Greek costumes, sampled Greek food and competed in the "Olympic Games"!

She really would have preferred to go as Medusa. That's my girl.....

A Small Observation

I actually read the reader "Sound Off" section and the Editorial comments in our local newspaper today.
It reminded me of this quote, which I could not quite remember, and finally had to look up. (I love Google.)

A long time ago Oscar Wilde said: "By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community."

'Nuff said.

Happy Halloween!

We had a great time Halloween.

All the kids 'on the block' (sorta) met at one house to trick or treat together. Costumes were required for all participants. Including adults. Hee, Hee Mark, thought he was going to get away with NO costume. But the neighbors busted him and pointed him to a big pile of costumes. And, of course, I do not have a picture of his get up or of my totally cute witch costume.

Really, I just wanted a reason to wear spider web stocking and paint my fingernails glossy black. I sooo could have been a good Goth (if I'd been born 10 years later).

Catelin was a Go-Go Girl. Alexander was Thomas Train. That other cutie is Princess Isabella, one of our neighbors.

Alex totally GOT IT. Follow the big kids to the door, stand in the group, hold up your bag, get CANDY!!! He walked the whole circle of the neighborhood and refused to ride in the wagon. He walked 1 whole mile!

I think if you walk a mile in the dark and cold, tripping over a foam train costume every few steps you deserve to get to eat Tootsie Pops at 9:00PM.

Catelin's Birthday Cake

How. Cute. Is. This?


I didn't have this picture downloaded to the computer when I posted Catelin's birthday pics, but I wanted to show it off.
Our next door neighbor, Sarah, is almost 16 years old. Catie thinks that Sarah is GREAT, and the whole time we've lived here Sarah has been very friendly and kind to her. She has gone out of her way to introduce Catelin to kids her age in the neighborhood. She lets Catelin hang out in the yard with her and play with her dog, showed her the pathways in the woods, etc. Just a really sweet kid/young lady.
Well, Sarah told Catelin she would make her a birthday cake. "What kind did she want?"

A kitty-cat cake.

And THIS is what Sarah made for Catelin for her birthday!!!

White and pink icing, licorice whiskers and Life Saver eyes!

Pumpkins! (or punkuns)

We went to The Pumpkin Patch this past weekend. It was a cute little pumpkin patch run by our neighbor's Methodist church.

Alex was fascinated by the small pumpkins. Mostly, because he could pick them up and throw them like balls. I guess we were lucky we didn't have to buy a dozen bruised baby pumpkins.

Pumpkin Love!

Look at that face. He was not havin' any of that sittin' down stuff!

"Let go, Catie!"

Sweet little angel. *snort*

The church was giving out Halloween coloring sheets and little boxes of crayons.

If you look closely here, you can see that Alex is scribbling on a pumpkin, with a crayon.

Catelin is trying not to laugh out loud.

Me: "Shhh, just get up and go! Alex give me that!"

Catelinisms

After 6 years of speech therapy, private and public school system, Catelin is probably going to 'graduate' out of school speech therapy this year. Now, she is doing great, but when you have a speech delay you seem to lose something, or maybe just be behind, in the phonics department.

Pronunciation can be a bit challenging and we do have to practice more when it comes to "sounding things out". We especially notice this when practicing weekly spelling words.
Or, when we realize she is pronouncing something completely wrong.

Today we were driving in the car. Catelin had been tormenting Alex for quite a while. Then she shrieks: "Alex just picked his nose and threw a burger at me". She totally deserved it.

Yesterday, she asked Dad if we could buy Mollyopy (Monopoly) to play.

She is a good sport about me correcting her. Pumpkin, not punkun, etc.
But, she flat refused to believe that it was a festival, not a festiball. Because, you know, it's like a party.?!

That said, the girl, reads and comprehends at almost 5th grad level (she's in 3rd).
?? Huh?? Love that girl!
*********************************************
Don't forget to give your kids extra hugs today.

Even if they did: pour cereal on the floor, break a lamp, spill red Gatorade, lose the remote, knock the folded laundry onto the floor, dump the cat's food into her water bowl....................

Lucy

Isn't she da cootist' widdle puddy evah? Huh, huh, who's a widdle sweetie pie?

Look at dat, big, outside kitty sleeping in da dirty backyard.

Hey, that's supposed to be an outside cat, keeping the snakes, mice and lizards out of the backyard and thus, the h0use!

Something went awry with that plan.

The last thing she killed was a purple hair scrunchie!

Maybe we should get another one.

Alex and Papaw

Alex loves his Papaw. He always has.
He was a little baby, at one of the Mommy Only stages, but he would sit with Papaw.


He was barely big enough to walk, and he would go fetch his Big Animal Book, with real animal pictures, and take it straight to Papaw.

For two days before Mamaw and Papaw, came to visit, every morning and every bedtime, Alex would ask, "Where, Paw Paw?" And I would say, 'coming Friday, coming tomorrow or later' etc. I don't know if he understood the time-frames, but an answer seems to satisfy him.

I think Pawpaw got the first hug when they showed up... sorry Mamaw. But them boys do stick together!

I try to keep him a Mommy's Boy, but he really isn't having it. I'm losing the battle. Even when he was smaller, he wanted to be with Daddy. He's a guy's- guy, a man's-man. Wants to hang with the boys. *Sigh*

" Come on Paw paw, lemme show ya the secret passage behind the shed."

New! Improved! Child Containment System!

I guess it's better than tying them to a tree with a rope.

The harder I laughed, the madder he got... heh, heh.

Birthday Girl

Last weekend we celebrated Catelin's 9th birthday. She wanted to make a cake and go to the Georgia Aquarium. Great, very do-able!!

The Aquarium was very cool, we all enjoyed our visit.

Catelin's favorite's were the Whale Sharks (there were 4, wow!) and the Beluga Whales. Of course, after seeing the Belugas, I couldn't stop singing the Baby Beluga song.
Thanks Raffi.

Japanese Spider Crabs. These were pretty neat, they were HUGE. They can reach a span of 13 FEET and live 100 years!! They are the largest known arthropod.

Don't they just look sweet and lovable??

I like the jellyfish. They just seem so stress free floating around in their blue water.

Catelin and Mamaw made her cake and she wanted to decorate it herself. Colored icing and sprinkles spell out Follow your Inner Star American Girls. I'm not sure what this meant, but it was important..... and she was very proud of her cake.

Summer teeth, sum'er there sum ain't.

Matching American Girls pajamas and slippers, Too Cute!!