touch a truck

If your community ever has a touch a truck event and you have young children,  you must attend.  Must,  must,  must!  This free event was a blast for the kids ( and us ) this Saturday.  

The community workers hosting the event are so friendly and willing to talk to the kids and let them romp around in their vehicles.  Zander and Kaya got to live out their dream jobs for an hour or two.  It is great fun to see all the families out with their kiddos at such an event!

Here are my two cute firefighters .......

They loved the police car and especially the sheriff motorcycles.

Cooling off in the back of the emergency ambulance truck.

Future race car drivers......now we're thinking of taking Zander to one of the races at the local track this summer.  I'm sure he would be fascinated!

They even got to get in the bucket of this cherry-picker  (It stayed on the ground when the kids were in it though).  

The double tractor.....
And Zander and Kaya's favorite.......the trash truck.  

Look at Zander gazing at it in amazement (Like he does almost every Tuesday).....
All of the kids loved this part of the truck the best----blowing the loud trash truck horn!
They even got to operate the levers on the trash truck!

Their dreams of working on the trash truck when they grow up actually came true for just a few minutes!

Check your community calendar or website and enjoy this fun event!!!

playground for worms

Each year my mood instantly brightens when I see my first Iris bloom.  

I instantly want to go play in the dirt.  This year is especially fun because Zander and Kaya are great gardening helpers.

Of course,  Kaya had to wear silver sparkly shoes to garden in.  After the fascination of planting subsided,  they quickly got to work on their worm playground.  Here they are digging and making a slide for their collected worms.
We went inside and made a bar graph of how many worms we had found.  On day 1 we found 7,  Day 2 we found 8.......after this post and my morning coffee consumption, we'll go see how many we can find today.

Yes gardening is good for the soul.  And obviously (look at the worm playground above)  good for the worms.  

our new favorite pit stop

How nice it is to have the Nelsons so close now and we can use them as our pit stop when we visit Kentucky!  Much better than living several hours away.

Our time with them is always wonderful even if it is only for an hour or two.

Here is Sue and Katie......beautiful, aren't they?

Camden was the biggest surprise.  At almost two years old,  she has really started moving around fast and her vocabulary is really developing.  We spent much of our time laughing at her antics.
Zander and Kaya loved running around with Camden and giggling at her also.
While the rest of the kids run around,  sweet Katie writes about rainforests (she has been studying them at school).


It is amazing how similar Kaya and Camden are.  At only 9 months apart in age it is easy to get them mixed up when you just glance at them.  With their blonde hair,  mischievious antics, and identical giggles (they truly giggle exactly the same)......they are two peas in a pod.  I think we are going to get many laughs and many headaches from these two in the future.
This is one of my favorite pictures ever.  I guess Camden thinks I'm pretty silly too.

unexpected stops....date day

Am I the only one?  Does life sometimes feel like a sleigh ride?  

I haven't ever been on an actual "sleigh ride" but it does feel like my life is doing that now.  I swish, swoop, turn....just trying to reach the destination.  The only reason is it doesn't always seem fun because I feel like I'm pulling the reins.

I just noticed that I had not blogged in a week.  A WEEK!  But it feels like my life has been in overload with the scheduling of fun play-dates,  the scrambling to get meals on the table, the ongoing quest to have a liveable, clean house.  What is going on?  Then, you throw in the fact that my 2 kids are acting like typical, defiant, 2-3 year olds........let's not even talk about that drama!

So it is nice to take a little break from our ride to just enjoy life.

Like, Date Day.  

Last week,  Matt told me "I think I need to arrange a date with Kaya."  "I need some one-on-one time with her."

So, of course,  I arranged some one-on-one time with Zander.

All of us had a great time.  The funny thing is they both wanted to do the same thing.  They both wanted to see Monsters vs. Aliens.  I took Zander to see the 3-D version ( which I highly recommend by the way,  so cool!).  

We both told the kids they could pick where they wanted to go to lunch.  They both wanted sushi.  So we had sushi and watched a movie ( at different places, of course).

Here we are all getting ready for our "dates"!  So much fun!!! I just hope my "sleigh ride" slows down enough soon to have a date with my Mattie........I miss spending alone time with him too!

my life is full of *((&&!!@))S(()

Yep,  my life is full of it.  Full of poop,  penises, and vaginas.  (Now, aren't you glad there isn't a picture with this post).

You know,  if I was really vulgar and into that kind of stuff that would be one thing.  But no,  I'm just a stay-at-home mom of a 2 and 3 year old.

And they love to talk about their body parts and most recently (yippee!), poop.

They have always been fascinated by talking about their vagina and penis.  At first I thought,  maybe Matt and I shouldn't have made the decision to use the correct anatomically terms for their body parts.    Because they talked about them all the time.  ALL THE TIME.  In the store they would say,  "Mommy,  is that a girl?".  "Yes, that is a girl."  "So she has a VAGINA?"  For some reason the word "vagina" was always 50 decibels louder than anything else that was spoken.  

After I spoke to other friends,  they said that was totally normal,  except their kids say wee-wee, pee-pee, or weiner.....not vagina.  Somehow "VAGINA!!" isn't as cute coming out of a kids mouth in the middle of Publix.

After several car rides (when we had raisin snacks) I had to have a little talk with my loving little ones.  Because a raisin (or any type of berry or round object on a finger) looks like a penis to Kaya.  She would put a raisin on her finger and say, "Zander,  I'm going to say penis."  

Then it started,  "Penis,  Penis,  Penis!"  He, of course would laugh hysterically and join in the penis chat.  I had to hold my breath to not laugh hysterically with them sometimes......but did it anyway,  because I didn't want any unwelcome attention to the word.  

But finally I had it with the "Penis Conversations (or rather shouting matches)" .  I calmly explained to them.....

We can talk about penises and vaginas in the bathroom when we potty or only in the car if you whisper to each other.  Why I added the part about whispering.......probably so I could have some sort of "alone time" in the car.......if you call "alone time" listening to your favorite music while your kids whisper "penis" to each other.  

Now I'm regretting the whispering comment......

I was okay with being an easy-going mom and talking to my kids patiently when they were going through the "penis" or vagina" stage...........not so easy-going when we entered the "poop" and "pee" conversation stage....

The POOP obsession started a couple of days ago when we were going to a birthday party.  After about 20 minutes of hearing them talk about it,  Matt said "Stop talking about poop or we're not going to the party,  that is not nice conversation."  They continued so I said, "Lets talk about something else,  how about toys?"

So Zander says, "Toys."

And Kaya says, "Poop on toys."

I'm sure you can imagine how the remaining ten minutes of conversation went.

For some reason,  my patience is a lot more stout when I hear the word penis or vagina.  Not so much with the word POOP.  I'm sick of the word.  Sick,  sick,  sick!  If you're sick or my word "sick" multiply that by a million and you'll know how many times I heard the word "Poop" today.

Just five minutes into my day after Kaya awakes,  the "Poop" commentary begins.  

They wanted to watch Tinkerbell.  Since I needed to start some laundry and make some beds, I said "Okay".  They were so excited that I actually agreed to a movie early in the morning.  Before I even had one towel folded,  they started,  

"What's her name?

"Poop" ( with many giggles following)

"What does she do?"

"Poop on heads."  ( more giggles)

I could go on and on and on and on.........but I was trying to ignore them.......thinking that would work (ha).  So then I told them,  "If you keep talking about pooping on Tinkerbell, you're breaking our number one rule,  BE KIND TO EACH OTHER, because it isn't very kind to want to poop on Tinkerbell."

Oh, what the kind, patient Mother I am.  (Ha again).  The talk continued so I started moving clips which is part of my discipline plan I said I would share.......not working so much, is it......maybe I won't share.  Then,  after it kept going on for another 10 minutes,  I took away their most prized toys.  Still didn't work.    

Instead of working, it instead made my kids pour their cereal on the floor and start stomping on it and saying while laughing crazily,  "Step on Poop!  Step on Poop!"

So finally I thought,  I'm going to get on their level and talk to them.  I squatted down eye-to-eye to them both and said,  "Mommy is so sad that you guys aren't following our house rules (which are 1.  Be kind to each other & 2.  Listen to mom and dad) so let's talk about this."  "Talking about poop to people is not kind and you're not listening to me when I ask you to stop talking about poop. So can you please tell me what the rules in our house are?"

Zander looks at me and laughs,  "Rule number one...Poop on Mommy's head!!!" and Kaya repeats him and laughs like a maniac.  

I'm glad gave me a dose of self-control because I almost went crazy on both of them then.  

I then told them I was setting the timer and if their poop (oops, I mean cereal) wasn't picked up in two minutes I was taking the toys out of their playroom.

I guess it worked.  We still had moments today when Z bit K and she slapped him in the head.  We still had moments today when I was frantically picking up stuff for the cleaners tomorrow and K poured a whole bottle of powder on the floor while Z poured several cups of water on the floor.  We still had moments today when I was getting stuff ready for Pappaw Texas's birthday card and they poured bottles of glitter glue on the kitchen table and floor.

But we didn't talk about Poop.

Not until dinner,  after Daddy got home at least.  And it was just once......

Zander had to tell Kaya a secret,  across the table.  The secret was "Toys."  And her response was,  "Poop on toys."

But their daddy has the best plan.  He agrees that is probably a phase.  And he thinks when we get old,  we should just poop everywhere,  for them to clean up.  Even if we know better.  And we'll tell them,  "Your day has come little ones......your day has come."

I can't believe this is one of my longest posts, and it is all about poop.  Yep,  my life is full of it.

appropriate attire.....not necessary.....

I'm sure all of you have been invited to a party or occasion and wondered, "What should I wear?"

My daughter however, has no qualms, about appropriate attire.  We were getting ready for a birthday party today and she did put on a really cute sailor dress with striped tights.  BUT she also wanted to wear a Halloween Spider Hairband with little high-heel black shoes (although we were going to a bouncy-house for the party)  , because she told me "Canyon Loves Spiders mom AND it IS his birthday." She HAD to were "heely" sparkly shoes to a birthday party.  (She also tried to talk ME into wearing my VERY High Heel Purple print shoes to the party......because it "Is Canyon's birthday party, MOM",   I said no.......by the way).

So,  what do I do with two kids with very true opinions with their clothing choices? My son, by the way, only wants to wear shorts with "Holes in them,  like basketball shorts"  or any t-shirt with a character on it or my dad's city pool hall emblem shirts.   OR.....if none of those are clean.....how about just wearing pajamas for the whole day?

Yes,  I have one extreme to the other........

One child with the most casual clothes you could imagine on, and One child with the most fanciest clothes you could imagine on.

So,  a few days ago,  I let the kids dress themselves.  Zander, of course,  wanted to wear a tee shirt and shorts with holes in them.  Kaya,  of course,  wanted to wear one of the fanciest dresses in her closet.

We were staying at home.  I hid eggs outside to search for.  We painted inside.  We colored eggs outside.  We played on the swings outside.  Not really appropriate settings or situations for a fancy little red dress.  

To the Normal mind.

Not the Kaya mind.

And I can't really say I blame her.  If you can look pretty and wear a pretty dress,  go right ahead.  I often clean the house and put on my bright  red lipstick (while I wear sweats) to just make me feel better.

The fancy attire might not be appropriate..............but doesn't it make you feel SO GOOD inside! 

Go ahead,  wear something "fancy" today and make yourself feel just a little bit special!!!

the ultimate compliment

A few days ago I received the ultimate compliment from Zan.  I was planting some marigolds and he was helping me.  He then looked up and said,  

"Mom,  this gardening stuff is hard work.  You're kind of like a girl Handy Manny."

Thanks Zander,  I know Handy Manny is the greatest in your eyes.

crafty music bag

Using my handy-dandy glue gun and felt remnants,  I made this music bag for my one, very sweet and wonderful,  piano student to hold all of her music supplies.  I just used one of my bags to create a unique one for her.

Making something out of things in my house felt good.  I hope I get to do more of it in future days...  

reasons to love a rainy day

Snuggling in bed and watching Pinnochio

cute umbrellas and rain boots

the sound of the rain on the roof

long naps

creating fun crafts with the kids

dr. doom

My daughter loves to sing.  Not necessarily songs that we all know.  She loves to make up her own songs.  And amazingly they have catchy little rhythms and melodies.....how this happens with a two-year old,  I'll never know.  

Her favorite little ditty is:

"We're all alone.  We're all alone.

So we have to go to the hospital.

We're all alone.  We're all alone."

Now,  she has never been left all alone so I have no clue where this song comes from.

But her newest song keeps me laughing, even now as I type it.

I've been trying so hard to get her to sing it for my video to post,  but that will never happen.  Instead she sang it at 6:30 in the morning when I really had no desire to get up.  To preface the song story, I'll have to tell you about the previous day's events.  After my children refused to listen.....even with my new discipline plan (which I promise to post later) I pulled out all the stops.  NO TV for a day.  Now I know many parents don't even show TV to their kids at all but I do,  I find it highly entertaining for the kids and myself.  And to be totally honest,  the NO TV punishment,  seemed to punish me too.....because that is the only way I get my much needed shower in the day.

But...in the sake of punishment and making a stand....I took away the TV.  And the kids hated that punishment.  They hated it so much that Kaya woke up the next morning and decided to jump in my bed and wake me up with her newest song...

The ALL CAPS words are the most dramatic,  loudest ones in her song.

"Dr. Doom.  Dr. Doom.  Doctor. Doctor.  Doctor Doom.

Mommy took my TV AWAY........

Because she is NOT bery, bery, NICE.

Dr.  Doom.  Dr. Doom.  Doctor.  Doctor.  Doctor Doom.

Daddy didn't take my TV AWAY.............

Because he is BERY,  BERY,  NICE."

I suppose I should have been mad about the fact that obviously I am NOT Bery Nice.  And that Daddy is.  And I should have been mad because 6:30 is way too early to be up and singing about your problems.  But I laughed.  And I'm still laughing.  Because Kaya is a Bery,  Bery,  FUNNY LITTLE GIRL......