One step forward two puddles back?

I am a boy-mom, just like my friend Andria. (If you have a second, check out her post from today...another JOY of being a boy mom. Sorry girl, I don't know how to get vaporub out of hair..wish I could help!)

I love it. My boys are LOADS of fun. We love to play cars and get dirty. To run around like mad-people and tackle each other with tickles and kisses. It can scare the heck out of me every now and then (take a look at Colin's picture in the previous post for exhibit 1A), but I know that I am, and was always meant to be, a Mom of boys.

There is ONE little side-note to being a boy-mom that really is getting on my nerves lately though.

Landon, of course, is still in diapers. Colin, has been potty trained for over a year now, and I have to say, it's been nice. Pee-pee diapers are no big deal, but boy...when they get to be 18 months and older...those poops are just NA-STY!! ( I have the smell of one of Landon's beckoning me as I type, so I'd better hurry.)

YUCK!

Colin has been self-sufficient for a while now, and it's been great....BUT. (Yes, here comes the but.) Why is it that lately when I go in to the bathroom, I am finding a puddle on the floor in front of the toilet?

Why?

Is it all of the sudden out of control? Is there a reason why the floor seems a more appropriate place for your urine verses the perfectly placed toilet that is one inch from where you are standing?

I don't know what to do. I keep reminding him to "PAY ATTENTION!!" when he goes. I make *him* get down on the floor and clean it up thinking that eventually, he will get sick of it....but to no avail. I keep stepping in, or finding puddles at least once a day on my bathroom floor.

So. I am beseeching my fellow boy-moms and boy-dads to HELP me.

How do I RE-teach my 4 year old to pee IN the potty?

A cute face covered in road rash

We skipped school on Monday (shhhh...don't tell!)

Colin decided that he didn't want to go today either, so he took a nose-dive on the pavement on his way into his class......

OUCH!

Thank goodness for Neosporin with pain relief...that, and chocolate. I didn't think I was ever going to get him to calm down.

School pictures are going to be just LOV-E-LY on Friday!

Game on baby!

We took the plunge.

We bought a treadmill today.

I'm so excited!!! I'm ready to start my workout plan and get RID of the extra "me" that's been hanging around for the last couple of years.

The only issue to overcome is my stupid BROKEN toe! I can't very well walk and run now, but from what the Orthopedic Doc said, I'll be good to go in 3 more weeks. **Edited to add: We would have waited to buy it, but it was on sale for $300 off and the last day to buy it was Saturday. Lest we sound like idiots for buying a treadmill while I'm a cripple.**

Wish me luck. I'll take my inspiration from my friend Onehung who has been shrinking his waistline for a while now.

I know that I won't necessarily make it back to a size 2 and my lowest weight of 109 (I'm only 5" 1' if I'm lucky), but I'll be happy to get back to 125.

I'll keep you guys posted...hehe! (posted...get it?? I crack myself up!)

"Excuse you"

I can't get over how much Landon is talking. I love it because of course, it makes life SO much easier when he can communicate his wants and needs.

The latest in his ever expanding vocabulary is "excuse me". This term applies to any burp, fart, or bodily function that erupts unexpectedly and also to moving past people who may be in his way.

In trying to teach him this, and remind him to use it in these situations, every now and then I would say, "Excuse you Landon". Colin picked up on it and started reminding him every now and then with "Excuse you!".

Landon has now picked up on this and applies, "Excuse you" to the above situations.

He's only a year and a half and he's already blaming his farts on other people.

Nice.

Tagged

This is a really interesting meme (is that what you would call it? Hey...I don't even know what the heck "meme" stands for anyway. Yep, I'm a dork).

I was tagged by my friend OneHung, so here goes.....

Instructions are as follows:

1. Go to Wikipedia and type your birth month and day (not year).
2. List three events from that day.
3. List two important births and one death.
4. List one holiday or observance.
5. Tag five others.

Let's see if anything interesting happened on my birthday.

Events from that day:
1. 1906 Congress passes the Meat Inspection Act (THANK God!).
2. 1936 Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell is published.
3. 1997 The first book in the award winning Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling is published.

Two important births:
1. 1960 Murray Cook, Wiggles singer.
2. 1984 Fantasia Barrino of American Idol fame.

I don't know if I'd consider those "important", but hey, they were names that stood out to me.

One Death:
1966 Giuseppi Farina, an Italian race car driver. I didn't know him, but I LOVE the name Giuseppi. Maybe if we go for another baby and it's a boy, that's what we'll name him.

Yeah, I can see Kelly going for that. Can't you?

One holiday observance:
Independence Day in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

........................................................

Hmmm. That was pretty boring.

I guess the best thing about June 30th is....ME! lol! At least my family thinks so.

Most days anyway.

I'll tag anyone who reads my blog and wants to try it out. I can pretty much guarrantee that you guys all have a much more interesting birthday than me.

What a difference a week makes!

I return to the blogosphere a broken woman.....

A woman with a broken TOE that is.

I know, I know, the first question that comes to your mind is, "Lori..., now did you *really* break your toe?" The answer to that question (which my Husband DID have the nerve to ask as I writhed and screamed in pain Friday night), is yes. I have x-rays to prove it.

Wanna hear how it happened? I certainly hope so, because I'm going to tell you anyway.

Would you expect anything less??

I was coming downstairs (to get some ice cream no less...guess that wasn't meant to be!) and not paying attention to where I was walking (hmmm, nothing strange there). I thought that I was at the bottom of the steps, but unfortunately, I still had 2 more to go. I fell forward and all of my weight was caught on the ball of my right foot with my big toe planted on the hardwood floor. I continued to fall forward and my big toe just snapped ( I HEARD IT!!!).

Can you just say, "OOOOWWWWWWIIIEEEEEEE!!!!???"

I cried and cussed, and cried and prayed, and cussed some more waiting for the pain to stop but it just never did. I had to hobble BACK upstairs to wake Kelly and inform him that I had broken my stupid toe! I don't think he really believed me (maybe it was the previously mentioned comment that gave me that impression?). He did his best to calm me down, but have any of you ever broken a bone before? Oh. My. Gosh. The pain is pretty unbelievable.

Eventually, I did calm down and at that point we had to figure out how the hell I was going to get to the Doctor. We have no family in town, the boys were sound asleep, and there was no way in HELL I was going to be able to drive myself anywhere. We had to call our babysitter at 11:30 pm and luckily, she came right over. (Can I tell you how *sick* I am that this girl is moving away for Grad school next year?? She's amazing!)

We went to a 24 hour urgent care center that's about 15 minutes away and were in and out in about an hour. Thank God we didn't have to brave the ER...oh the nightmares I've heard about that place!

It turns out I broke my toe right at the top joint. The x-rays actually look like I took a hammer to it because there are cracks all throughout the bone. yikes!!! The Doctor was afraid that I might need surgery b/c of the joint involment, but luckily I didn't (whew!!). I saw an Orthopedic Doctor on Saturday morning, and he said b/c of the way it was broken, there was no way he could do anything. I don't know if that's good or bad, but I'm thankful that I avoided surgery. I have to go back in three weeks for more x-rays, and he said hopefully, I'll be healed in about four.
.
So, I'm hobbling around in an orthopedic boot (there's no way to cast a big toe and let me tell you how Be-A-UUUUtiful it is!) and my toe/foot is turning some very interesting shades of blue and purple that I've never really seen before. They also gave me crutches, which is laughable being the mother of two small children.

The Orthopedic Doctor asked if he could give me a note for work, but I had to explain to him that my bosses can't read yet, so it would be pointless.

So...that's been my exciting weekend. I'm doing pretty well now. My toe doesn't really hurt unless I put pressure on it, or knock it into a chair leg like I did about 20 minutes ago. The Aleve and Vicodin are helping...a LOT! Especially the Vicodin, gotta love that stuff!

A different child

It's amazing to me how different Colin and Landon are. You would think that being children of the same two parents, growing up in the same household, that they would be very similar. I am shocked every day at how unique and special each of them are.

I don't remember Colin getting in to stuff as a child (I'm sure he did, but I've have 3 years to forget...just call me mother of the year). He was curious, of course, but he wasn't a climber, and if I stepped out of the room for a second, I never really had to worry about what I would find when I returned.

Landon, on the other hand, is VERY much the mischief maker! He climbs on any chair that he can find and if he can reach any of my bags, he will rummage through them, until he finds something that he wants.

Thursday, it was a fortune cookie that I brought home with us from dinner the night before. I was washing some dishes and hear him running up to me saying, "bite! bite! bubble!" (translated: "I want to eat this cookie!!")

Saturday was a different story. I was upstairs trying to finish getting ready while Kelly, Colin, and Landon were in the family room. I hear Colin start yelling, and then the ever infamous words, "Landon...NO SIR!". I ran downstairs thinking maybe Landon had done something to hurt Colin, or had managed to color something that he wasn't supposed to (he ALWAYS manages to get to the crayons. I guess I need to find a better hiding place.).

What I found was pretty surprising.

My beautiful ,18 month old child turned to look up at me with a lovely smile covered in........ ........LIPSTICK!!!

Somehow, he had managed to rummage through my bag and find the tube, take off the top, and create almost the perfect "clown" smile on his face (a little bigger on one side, but hey, for a one year old, I thought that took some talent!).

If ONLY I had thought to get out the camera so I could document this!!!!

Alas, you only get to imagine it. I promise, the reality was a THOUSAND times cuter!

I'm just glad that we discovered it before he managed to make it to the walls!

Aaaaahhhhhh...

I am lying here, comfortably typing this from the cushy-cushionness of my NEW SOFA!!!! I cannot express how truly excited I am!

Since we have been in the new house, we have been using our K*mart brand, $119.99 special, futon as the main seating for our family room. Can you just say, "ouch?" If you weigh more than the 38 pounds of my four year old, it is really one of the most uncomfortable things to sit on, other than a bed of nails maybe. You basicly have your choice of one of the metal bars either going up your butt*crack, or two of them painfully pressing on either cheek. Neither of which makes for a relaxing evening of television. So, a few weeks ago, we set out on our adventure of sofa/family room furniture shopping.

Both Kelly and I agreed that we wanted leather this time around. The shredded carcasses of our last couch and love seat are currently in the basement (I would have preferred tossing them to the curb, but the hubby wanted to keep them for some reason.) along with the upholstered chairs that go with our new dining room set that we aquired along with the house.

Yep. You guessed it. We have two cats who insist that anything that is over one foot tall and wrapped in cloth is a scratching post purchased solely for their use. I know, I know. We could have them de-clawed. We had that conversation years ago when we first bought that set, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Needless to say, the poor couch and love seat payed for that decision...tenfold.

So...back to the reason we bought leather. We're hoping...yes HOPING, that the cats will find the leather furniture less to their liking as far as sharpening their claws. We have had one leather rocker/recliner for four years now that they haven't touched, so this is what we're basing our decision on. Hopefully it's not a $1000+ mistake. I guess we'll see in a couple of weeks huh?

The boys and I had a pretty rough day today, besides getting our luscious furniture, of course. Part of the reason was the waiting, and waiting, and even more waiting for the damn delivery truck to show up. I don't know why they even bother to call and give you a four hour window for delivery. We were told between 9am and 1pm. They showed up at 1:10pm, which I guess in the grand scheme of things is pretty damn good, but shit, I could have gotten a LOT done with all of that time we sat around waiting. Oh well. The pay off is well worth it. My cushy, tushy is very thankful at the moment.

To make up for the crappy morning, the boys and I went out to dinner and had a good time, which was a turn-around for all of our moods. Afterwards, we indulged. Ohhh...did we! I figured since we had the luscious, cushiness of the new furniture awaiting us at home, we may as well add to the yumminess of our evening. We went by Olive Garde*n and purchased a piece (okay, you got me! Make that TWO pieces) of tiramisu and shared it when we came home. Mmmmmmmmmm......

My waist line will pay for that later, but I can say that I don't do that often. I'll just run up and down the stairs a couple more times, and hopefully that will help. (I wish!)

So, I'm still lying here typing, full of the cinnamony, creamy, goodness of my tiramisu, and it's time for Colin to go to bed. Kelly is once again working late (damn financial statements that will never go out!) and I don't know if I will be able to peel my as$ off of this couch to get Colin up to his room. Ahhhh....the smell of new leather. You can't beat it! I'll be here for a little while longer.....Colin will make it up there eventually!

Check out this picture from 2006 Summer Preschool

Take just ONE guess at which one of these kids is my child.

Come on...can you figure it out?

If I haven't told you, my child is very set in his ways, and if he doesn't want to do something, he just flat out won't.

I wonder where he picked up that stubborn streak?

Certainly not from his mother..hehe!

Lovin' life

I just can't express how *much* I love the age that Landon is right now (18 months)! He is talking non-stop, picking up new words every day, and really becoming, well.....Landon.

He's so sweet. He loves to give kisses and is determined that he can do anything and everything that his big brother can do. We put up our new swingset last weekend, and he's already climbing up to the top and sliding down...on his butt! He was hesitant at first and only went down feet first, on his belly, but now he's determined to slide down just like his big brother.

He can point to many of his body parts and is hysterical when he burps. He laughs and looks around to see if anyone heard him. I guess that's just a by-product of growing up in this house...poor kid.

He's turning in to a little neat freak too. (I can assure you that he received those genes from his father.) Any loose piece of paper or trash, he will pick up and walk over to the trash can and throw away. We have a shoe rack in our coat closet downstairs, and as soon as we come home, he takes off his shoes and insists on putting them away. He'll even put mine away for me if I ask! Hopefully this will pay off when he becomes a teenager.

We shall see.

Things that Landon can say are:

Hi
Bye
Thank you (used in appropriate situations)
Uh-Oh
Bite (which means anything that he might want to eat)
Bubble (which means candy or something that he *really, REALLY* wants to eat. He learned this from Colin's begging for bubble gum at restaurants and stores from the gum-ball machines.)
Please
juice
Mommy
Daddy
Grammy
Nose (which he LOVES to point to and of course stick his finger IN)
Eye
Ear
Flower
Hot dog
Baby
Poopie (nice huh?)
Pee pee
Boobie (which actually means OOBI from the show on Noggin...I'll have loads of fun explaining that one!)

Of course, about half of these words are not necessarily understood by anyone outside of our family. Boobie and poopie are VERY clear, but thank you sounds more like, "tane too" and nose is a bit more like, "nooooo". Translation isn't really a problem when you find his finger halfway up yours, so at least he knows how to get his point across right?

Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

Did anyone happen to catch this show last night on Fox?

At first I pshaww'ed it too, but, can I please tell you HOW hysterical it was? Hysterical because these kids are SMARTER than the adults on the show!

They have a panel of six 5th graders that answer the same questions given to the adults. The contestants are able to get help from the kids (similar to the life-lines on Millionare) if they need to.

The first contestant was a man with a Bachelors, Masters, AND LAW degree, and he did not answer one question on his own. The questions that he earned money for were answered by the student helpers (I certainly hope that they get a percentage, if not, they're getting ripped off!).

You can visit the website and take a test to see if *you* are smarter than a fifth grader.

I took it.

I will not reveal the results...although, I will reveal that I at least scored higher than the first and second grade level.

(D'ohhh!)

I guess I'd better study up before I start helping Colin and Landon with their homework.

What about you?? Are you brave enough to take the test?

If not, at least check out the show. You'll be shocked at how stupid the contestants can look and you can feel.

Random bits of nothing....

Woo-HOO! We closed on the old house yesterday. It's now official. We are the owners of only ONE home.It was a strange mixture of emotions to sign that little house over to someone else. Happy, because who the hell wants TWO house payments, and just a little sad.



Both of our boys were brought home from the hospital to that house. I still remember the blue balloons and streamers all over when we arrived home with Colin. When Landon came home, Kelly and Colin had decorated the driveway for us. I cried when I saw it, but of course that could have been the post pregnancy, raging hormones.(Don't ask about the socks up to his knees. I didn't dress him that day. I think it was my stepmother.)




The couple who purchased it were a good bit older. For some reason, I pictured a younger couple like ourselves...getting ready to start their family like we had. In fact, they are retirees moving down from New York to get away from the ice and snow. Of course, as you can see, every NOW and then, we get a good snow here. Maybe once every ten years anyway. It's normally melted in 2 or 3 days, even after 17 inches covering the ground. I'm sure they can handle it with all the experience they've had though.


She was a hoot. As soon as she confirmed that we were the sellers, she asked if she could give me a hug, and then she smooched me on the cheek. She reminded me a little of my late Grandmother, so I guess it was alright. She couldn't stop gushing about how much they loved the house and how they couldn't wait to move in. She even pulled out pictures they had taken a month or so ago that she's been carrying around in her purse. She wants us to stop by some time and even come over for a visit. I don't know about that. It might be a little weird, especially considering that she has an affinity for wallpaper...ick! We'll see. We still have friends in the neighborhood, so we'll at least ride by. I'm just glad someone is there who will love it as much as we did. Goodbye little house!

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Landon just got his third haircut. It was about time. The poor kid had hair all over the place. She actually used the clippers and really trimmed up the top. My little baby is gone. In his place is a little boy. I know that's really a good thing, but I just can't get over how quickly they grow up. It makes me want another one....ALMOST! Those ten months that Landon didn't sleep through the night even once aren't that far gone for me.

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Instead of singing in church this past Sunday, I worked the pre-school room for a girl who hadn't gone to a service for the past 4 weeks. I'm glad she was able to go, but Oh. MY. Gosh. I was about to DIE in there. One of the worst kids was MINE!!! I'm sure he behaves better when I'm not there, but good Lord! I'm just not cut out to be a pre-school teacher. I think they should all be granted saint-hood, because I was ready to strangle a few after about ten minutes in the room. When we got out, a few people mentioned that they missed seeing me up on stage singing. It was a pretty good feeling. I'll be back this Sunday gettin' my groove on..yippee!! If you're wondering, it's not your normal church choir. It's a praise team, and we sing a lot of mainstream music in addition to contemporay Christian. I love it.

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Both boys have been really sick over the last week and a half. Landon ended up with strep throat, and Colin had one nasty virus. It lasted NINE days people. NINE frickin' days. I had the worst cabin fever I think I've ever had. Colin will finally be going back to school for the first time in a while tomorrow morning. I know that both of us are looking forward to it.

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I think Kelly has strep now too. He's off to the Doctor after work tonight. God forbid I get it because you know, Mommies aren't allowed to get sick. So far so good (fingers crossed, knocking on wood.)

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We have a really cool creek that runs through our new backyard. Saturday, we were outside and we met one of our neighbors. Nice guy with two girls and a SWIMMING pool! Gotta love that. He informed us that he has killed two, large, cottonmouth snakes in the time that they have lived here. Ask me how I feel about us playing in the backyard now. He did say that supposedly mothballs keep them away. I think I just may invest in a large quantity of them once Spring arrives. I wonder if the smell will keep the neighbor-kids away too after I coat the backyard with them?

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The laptop has officially been given to someone else, so I'm back to the desktop computer which is in the basement. That means that I won't be on as often as before, which in all honesty, is probably a good thing.

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I'm off to start on dinner. I have cooked a LOT in the last two weeks. YEAH for me! I can actually still do it! We've been turning on the 80's music while I cook and while we eat. It sure makes for a fun evening, although, my four year old now insists on making the family room into a mosh pit with his little brother. I keep telling him that was a 90's thing, but I just don't think he believes me.

70 Degrees Today!!

I am SO excited!

I don't care HOW sick these boys are...we are getting out for some fresh, WARM, air! I'll truck them around the neighborhood in the double stroller if I need to.

Oh, and by the way. One of the saddest things I have ever heard is a one year old who has lost his voice. Poor little guy.

He's still running around with a smile on his face and laughing his husky little laugh. You'd never know he was sick if you couldn't hear him.

Big brother, on the other hand, is the biggest grump in the house.

Let's hope this mess passes soon!

Bored, bored, bored

So, I'm bored with my template. I'm looking to liven things up a bit and maybe that will change my mood in the blogosphere.

If you notice something strange, then I'm probably playing with my template. So far, no luck in finding one that suits me, or one that I can make work correctly.

Any suggestions??

Gracias in advance!

Landon has been asleep for FOUR HOURS straight....

Anyone think I should go wake him up?

I'm thinking yes.

Yep, we've got the crud in this house.

Colin has had a fever every night since Sunday, and Landon came down with one this morning. I'm just praying I'm not the next victim to fall to these nasty germs.

I'm going to go walk around armed with Lysol for the rest of the week.

Out, OUT, damn, GERMS!!!

A Toddler's version of pick up sticks

I must not be challenging Landon enough.

His latest "thing" is to open the pantry door and rifle through all of the items that he can reach. Luckily, he started this at the old house, so when we moved I decided to put all of the canned goods up a little higher (can you say OUCH!?).

Tonight, I was sitting here reading an email, and he was doing his regular search of the pantry. All of the sudden I heard a noise that did not bode well for Mama.

Somehow, he had managed to open a box of linguini pasta and dumped the entire *pound* of it on the floor. Fun, fun, fun!!

For the last 10 minutes we've been picking it all up and throwing it away.

On top of it, my 4 year old is turning in to a comedian.

As we're cleaning up, he looks at me and says, "Now this party is really starting to pick up"....get it?? Hahaha!!

Some days you just have to laugh your way through it!

What a sick world

This makes me want to vomit.

In a world where there are families that are desperate to have a child.....

Why?

Starting to wonder...

You know, the whole Anna Nicole thing has me thinking.

She just had a baby 5 months ago. Her son died 3 days after the baby was born. There is a very real thing called post partem deppression and I'm SURE that she was dealing with it.

Poor Britney (and I actually mean that sincerely) just had a baby....a few months ago I guess? I'm not sure of the exact date, but only a few days or weeks later, she filed for divorce from her husband (probably a wise decision, but a hard one nonetheless).

I think this girl needs help, and she needs it fast.

I hope everyone stops gawking (and I readily admit...I was a gawker) and intervenes before she does something to hurt herself, or her kids.

It's so sad that fame and money can destroy someone so easily.

Can someone please tell me what is wrong with this girl?

I guess it's a personal choice, you know, how you want to wear your hair, but WHAT in the world were you thinking??

I hear you on Dateline complaining about the paparazzi and all of the unwanted attention, which, as a mother, I can understand because I wouldn't want my kids exposed to all of the hype either, but your actions totally show the world that you *want* all of this nonsense following you.

Are you upset because Anna Nicole's death has totally overtaken the tabloids and E-news shows? Are you mad because your panty-less portraits are no longer the talk of the town?

Honey.

You're a mother.

Please reign it in.

I'm all about having fun, but if you don't get your shit straight, those boys of yours are going to end up with an idiot who calls himself "K-fed"....and I don't know which is worse right now, you...or him.

Just my unsolicited advice because I *know* everyone cares what I think.

Question

Do you believe that Heaven can exist without a God?

I'll explain the reason for the question later...I don't want to sway your answers and I want to thoughtfully write out *why* I'm asking....

Have at!