Awww Poop

My day didn't start out that great....it started out really poopy actually.  Literally...my day started with a lot of poop.  Specifially a poopy diaper that my two year old daughter decided to change herself.  Don't get me wrong....I would LOVE it if she could change her own poopy diapers.  Sadly her verion of changing herself is just removing her diaper and showing it to me.  Somehow in the removal process poop ends up everywhere.  It ends up all over her legs, her hands, her clothes, the floor (thank goodness it was the tile floor and not the carpet).  I had to give her a shower to get her cleaned off...which she wasn't too happy about. 

Here's the really bad thing....this isn't the first time she's done this.  I think it's at least the third time =/  Somehow she turns into a stealthy little ninja nad manages to whip off a poopy diaper without anyone seeing until it's too late.  She's done it right in front of me and I wasn't able to stop her before she got the diaper off...she's that fast.

Hopefully this won't be a problem for too much longer.  We are working on potty training, and she'll poop on the potty every once and a while.  I am hoping that eventually she will realize that pooping on the potty is SO much easier for everyone involved.

It's kind of weird to think that poopy mornings will be nothing  but a memory someday (in the near future I hope).  I can't even imagine life without diapers....the last almost four years have involved a lot of poopy siutations.  I will miss a lot of things about the "baby days" with my kiddos...poopy situations?  Not so much ;)  

Another Day in Love

My husband and I don't usually make a big deal out of Valentine's Day.  We don't make dinner reservations and fight the crowds at the movies.  I don't expect jewelry or anything fancy.  For us Valentine's Day is just another day that we are in love.  It's a good reminder to be romantic and to take the time to tell each other what we mean to one another.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

I'm sure having two small children has something to do with our attitude towards this holiday....and towards romance in general.  We've had to really make an effort to find little moments together amid the chaos that is our wonderful life.  When you don't have a lot of time alone together you have to make the most of the time you have.  A little "just because" love note goes a long way too.

Maybe someday when our kids are older we will leave them with Grandma so that we can do the traditional Valentine's Day thing.  In the meantime I'm loving being in love...chaos and all.  Our two little valentines just mean more love and more fun :) 


Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope your day is full of sweetness :)

I Must Be Getting Old

Last night I had a hard time staying up to finish watching the Grammy's....which should have been my first clue ;)   I managed to make it through to the end, but I didn't know who most of the artists were.  The thing towards the end with the mouse was totally confusing to me.  I'm too young to feel old!  I need to make an effort to stay current I guess. 

One thing really bothered me about this years Grammy's.  I really don't understand why we continue to glorify someone who is guilty of domestic violence.  A pro athlete gets caught being involved in dog fighting and the whole country hates him, but Chris Brown can punch his girlfriend in the face and still sell hundreds of thousands of albums?  I don't even think he's that talented....but even if he was....really? 

I know people make mistakes.  I believe in second chances.  I just don't understand how some people can get away with the things that they do.  Maybe I missed his heartfelt apology.  Maybe there's counseling and community service going on that I don't know about.  I just can't see him without thinking about what he did.  I don't want to watch him sing and dance.  Like I said....maybe I'm getting old.

Enough Said....

I'm a lucky lady.  Do you want to know why?  This is currently my husband's Facebook profile picture...

Enough said :)

There's No Place Like Home

I like to consider myself a homebody.  I prefer to be home more often than I'm out and about.  That can be tricky with a two year old and an almost four year old.  I am still working on finding a balance between being home to keep the house in order and being out and about.  You have to be a parent to truly understand how much work goes into both. 

Today I decided to stay home to straighten up the house.  The weather has been so nice lately that it was tempting to take the kiddos to the zoo or the park.  Well....my plan didn't really pan out.  The photo above is of my living room.  Every time I try to get something done a larger mess seems to appear.  I have to say that it's a little frightening how quickly my children can destroy a room.  You would think they could clean just as fast, but no....not so much.  It will probably take at least an hour of "guided clean up" time.  I will have to point out each and every item that needs to be picked up, and remind them of where it belongs.  About half way through I will realize that somehow I am cleaning and they are not.  It will take everything in me to stop and get them back on track.  They might be in the mood to clean (a girl can hope right?).  They might sing the "clean up song" and make a game out of who can clean up the most toys.  The more likely scenario involves a lot of tears and a time-out or two.

I will now attempt to put my house back in order.  Hopefully with two willing assistants.  Wish me luck!y

Wonders Never Cease

Every once and a while I have to just sit and stare at my children and wonder to myself, "how the heck did I have anything to do with creating these perfect little beings?" Then a moment or two later one of them will spill an entire container of yogurt on the floor, run into the corner of the kitchen table, or snort when they laugh and I think..."yeah....they're mine alright".

My children are amazing. Amazingly intelligent. Amazingly funny. Amazingly sweet. And yes...there are times when they are amazingly frustrating. There must be a reason that God made children, kittens and puppies so darn cute. My guess is that it has something to do with the fact that they all ruin your stuff at one point or another.....or with the fact that they aren't born potty trained.

I can't even begin to imagine the many ways that they will amaze me in the years to come.  I knew what to expect when they were babies (first words, first steps, and so many other milestones), but I wasn't prepared for how amazing I would find it all.  I'm sure all parents feel this way.....we know that millions of children have reached the same milestones, but it still seems like some kind of miracle when our own children grow and change before our eyes.

Wonders never cease.

Preschool Projects Photo Book

Sometimes I feel like I'm the verge of becoming a hoarder.  I have an overwhelming desire to save EVERYTHING.  So far I've managed to keep the hoarder inside of me under control...but there is one area that I have a little trouble.  Artwork from my children.  How can I throw it out?  Their cute little hands made these masterpieces.  Can I really be expected to part with them?

My son started preschool this past August.  I've saved everything he's made up to this point.  It was getting kind of hard to manage, so I decided to take picture of everything he's made so far.  I'll keep taking pictures of the projects he brings home.  Then at the end of the year I'll make a photo book of all of the projects.

I've given myself permission to keep a handful of the originals too.  Now I just have to decide which ones to keep and which ones to throw away.

I also posted about this in my photography blog.  If you are a snapaholic mama like myself feel free to check it out!

Someday

Someday I'd really like to have a coffee table again. Just somewhere to put a magazine or two....or even a cup of coffee if I'm really feeling crazy. Before I had children a coffee table seemed like a harmless enough object. It might bruise a shin or two if you are a hopeless klutz with horrible depth perception (which I happen to be), but it's a fairly safe piece of furniture, right? Wrong. Soooo wrong. I can only imagine what my three and a half year old son and two year old daughter would do with a coffee table. Chances are it would involve climbing, jumping, and (eventually) a head wound. Any drinks placed on said coffee table would surely be spilled within moments of being set down.

Maybe if we had a separate living room and family room we could get away with having a coffee table. I guess that's the not so great thing about the "great room" concept. Open floor plans make it hard to close off an area to keep your kids away from objects that might lead them to do something Emergency Room trip worthy.

Am I being overly dramatic?  Probably. Are their safety measures I could take to make a coffee table safer? Sure. I could make the entire thing padded....and it would need to be low enough to the ground that they couldn't hurt themselves jumping on it. I'm pretty sure I just described a carpet....which we happen to have in our living room. So there...I have a coffee table. It covers my entire living room floor, it's really soft, and super low to the ground.

Someday we'll move. Someday the kids will be older. Someday we'll have a coffee table...and maybe even a coat rack...

Here We Go Again...

I want to be good at this...I really do.  I keep telling myself that I'm going to make time to blog.  I like to blog....it's just hard to find the time.  There are a lot of things I'd like to do, but there seem to more things that I HAVE to do. 

So I'm starting over again.  I'm going to make the time to do something that's just for me.  Really.  Seriously.  I mean it this time.