the ups, the downs, the weekend

my husband is training for his first marathon. i'm so excited for him and proud of him. he wanted to last year but with the addition of asher we just did not have the extra minutes in a weekend for him to do the runs. so sadly it got pushed off. well this year he vowed again that he was going to do it and i am determined not to push his goals off for another year. my husband is in shape all the time. even when he's at his fattest he's skinnier than most people. which means, if he's training for a marathon i can not let myself go, even for a minute. and i love eating chocolate. love it!
which leads me to this morning. i woke up before the kids-that never happens. i had energy-that never happens. i rolled over and said "mind if i go running?" i knew he wanted to go running today. he told me last night. and we have a double running stroller so we can go together-but let me tell you-it's one thing pushing a double running stroller, it's another doing it in high altitude, going uphill. (we live at the bottom of the hill no matter which direction you go.) he said he didn't mind. within 7 minutes i had brushed my teeth and was out the door with my running shoes on. i ran 4 1/2 miles in 45 minutes, got home, and fed the kids breakfast. paul was still getting ready to go running. he moves really slow on saturday mornings because "it's the weekend". and for me, the weekend is all about getting the stuff done i can't do during the week because i'm keeping up with the kids, wearing them out, getting them home for lunch, into bed for nap time, getting the house clean, laundry done, dinner made, grocery shopping. all of the things that go unnoticed literally every other minute of the week. he doesn't believe me that 30 minutes late on a lunch/nap schedule is a big deal. i assure you, it is! which led to more frustration. we got the kids down for naps and i hit the door to get my errands done.
and the neighborhood next door was having a garage sale. it's a really nice neighborhood. most houses go for $500,000 to $800,000. which means they've got nice stuff in those garage sales.
i scored these bad boys, all 4 for $50 (one sells for $40):

i'd show you how they look around the bar except we don't have the bar yet. give me a month or two.
and this bad boy for $5:

that will hide all of these secrets:

AND not pinch fingers. huge score. i love saving money, but best of all, i LOVE repurposing stuff and not buying things brand new and sending perfectly good stuff to the dump. LOVE it. my sister-in-law, jenn, is an amazing recycler. i seriously think she's eliminating the carbon footprint for at least 10 people all by herself. i wish i could be a smidgeon as good at it as she is.

and while i was getting those pictures off the camera i found these to tide you over for a while. asher eating a snack with all 5 of his teeth.

and karyssa taking a bubble bath. special treat around these parts because of asher's eczema. We're working on "smile" with out squinting her entire face.

obnoxious...and then cute

sooo....we have these new neighbors across the street and every day while my kids are napping she goes out onto her front porch and talks on her cell phone. why i don't know. probably because she doesn't want to wake her own kids from their naps. i'm telling you, i have had just about enough of it. and she has one of those voices that carries miles even when she's whispering. ANNOYING!!!!!

in other news asher has been putting things into things lately. it's so cute because he's mastered pulling everything out of things in the last month and just this week he's started putting things in. i love to see his little mind at work. he's also become a MASTER at climbing. he can climb anything and is starting to become, god help me, more fearless than karyssa. not sure what i'm gonna do with 2 fearless babes.

karyssa loves playing tag or hide and seek. if she can't get you to chase her she'll ask for hide. and we count to ten so she's started trying. but it's more like "one...two...ten...eight...hive...heven....mumble mumble not here come!!!" adorable. this morning i was hiding behind the shower curtain and she had a hard time finding me. i had to start talking so she'd come into the bathroom and investigate more. then she saw my feet and pulled the curtain back reeaaaalll slow and squealed with delight that i was there. she has started getting afraid of the dark. everything dark has a "monkey" in it. right after the incident at the zoo where the gorilla came face to face with her in a fit of glory the show "between the lions" read a book about a crazy monkey that got out of the zoo and followed this little boy home. then the little boy figured out the monkey wanted to become friends, but not until after running out of his room scared of the monkey. karyssa didn't get the end-her mind stopped at the part where the little boy ran away scared of the crazy monkey. and why not. 100% of her monkey experience has ended in wet pants. *sigh* so now EVERYTHING has a monkey that is scary.

smiling bumper to bumper traffic

today we had our little buddy aidan over. karyssa and aidan have had a connection since they were about 18 months old. probably before that even. they are just over 2 months apart and he is her favorite person, just after our speech therapist emily, to come over. this morning i said "guess who's coming over today? 2 people..." and she goes "aidan!?!" and i was like "wow, ya...how'd you guess?...and emily" which ensued about a minute of yay's and woohoo's romped through the living room. what can i say, i've turned her into a cheerleader.
later when he was over he was having a hard time with chairs. i had rearranged the chairs and he wanted to sit in the chair i was in so he was on the floor mulling it over and karyssa climbed down from speech therapy and put her hand on his shoulder to console him and gave him a sticker. seriously...the sweetest thing i think she's done in months. it brought both me and emily to tears. the big crocodile kind that just stay in your eyes but don't really fall out. that kind of tears.
then tonight we had a meeting at children's hospital and on the way home we were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic. except i kept noticing cars would slow down right next to me for a while and then speed up smiling. stumped i looked in my rearview mirror to catch her tiny little hand waving to all the people in the next lane. so if you were driving on I-270 this evening around 5:00 wondering why everyone in the right hand lane was smiling...it was karyssa passing out love. *sigh* dang i love that little thing!!!!

no really...make yourself at home

this is the kids easter picture. ugh! seriously-they are so cute. my eyes just dance when i look at them. i gave asher a haircut shortly before taking our easter pics. i've been ready to cut his hair for a while, but just not ready for him to start looking more like a little boy and less like a baby. but it was time. i've been asked what her name was many times in the past month, so it was a necessity now. *sigh* but i can't stop wondering who that little boy is in my baby's clothes and in my baby's bed and eating my baby's food.
easter night karyssa wanted juice instead of her nightly milk bottle. i asked numerous times if she was SURE she'd rather have a little bit of juice instead of an entire bottle of milk. she assured me each and every time that juice was her choice.
we are always working with her on choices so i let her pick juice. then when it was time for bed and asher got his big ole bottle of milk she melted into tears. cried off and on for almost an hour from her bed. "mooooomm mmiiiiiillllkkkk!!!" breaks. my. HEART!
i hate saying no. HATE it! most of the time i say yes, unless it's life threatening or seriously the answer is just plain no. so she doesn't hear no much. i just don't see the need to fight every battle and if it's not gonna hurt her or any one or any thing else i don't see why not. if she wants to blow bubbles before cleaning up, why not? we still clean up. if she wants to help clean up, why not? i make her wash her hands afterwards. so it came as a great surprise to her when i stuck to my guns that she had chosen juice instead of milk and was NOT going to get both. the very next morning she climbed out of bed, climbed into bed with me to snuggle and watch a little cat in the hat while i woke up. but it took me an hour to wake up. later asher was walking around with a bottle and neither paul nor i could remember the last time we had a bottle upstairs since we'd spent the weekend at grandma and grandpas. so we took the bottle away from him, assuming it was rotten and fed the kids breakfast. then when it was time for bottles i looked in the fridge and no bottle! nowhere...it was a very odd feeling. i know me and paul are the only ones who get in the fridge and i know for fact neither one of us had drunk it because neither one of us can drink dairy. then i realized...the bottle asher had been carrying around WAS the bottle we made for her last night. at some point, maybe while paul was in the shower, she went downstairs and got her bottle of milk from the night before. i was so baffled and surprised. i said "karyssa, did you take the bottle out of the fridge this morning?" "ya, morning." she said. and i remembered, last night through tears (have i mentioned i hate it when they cry?) i bent over her in bed and told her "you chose juice. you can have your milk tomorrow, but tonight you chose juice...next time you need to think about your choices." i've seen her open the fridge a time or two but i didn't realize that she would actually just help herself to what's in the fridge. and technically i did tell her that "tomorrow" she could have it, so she wasn't disobeying me. it's a whole new world for her being able to open the fridge. a whole new world of chilled possibilities. and later i realized how comfortable she is becoming because at snack time she opened the fridge and got out the strawberries and grapes by herself, shut the fridge door, just like i do, and headed for the couch to watch pocahontas and eat herself a little snack. i did draw the line there. next thing i know she's gonna have one hand down her pants and the other on the remote control for pete's sake. and what am i supposed to say? this IS her house. she IS at home...so why not make herself at home?

stop growing up. just stop it!

asher can now do this:
can you see what he's doing??? he's brushing his teeth. by himself. standing at the sink. and able to reach the water.
there are so. many. things. wrong with this picture!!!
you see, karyssa couldn't do that until a few precious months ago. she was too short. so we got that step stool so she could at least touch the tip of her toothbrush with the water but she still needed help. not asher. he can climb up the stepstool and get his toothbrush wet and brush his 3 little teeth all by himself.
it makes me sad.
probably more sad because those same little piggy tails in the background were just signed up for preschool this morning.
i'm so not ready.
i told my friend lisa that it's like those commercials where they are handing the car keys over to toddlers only for them to look back a second later and they are a teenager driving the car those keys belong to. STOP IT! i can't take it! let's face it, i was jipped a year. she came to us 13 months old. i can't help but feel like i was jipped of some of those months. but seriously-if i had 130 more months i still don't think i'd be ready for her to go to preschool. as i stood there watching her sitting in circle time and passing around the jars of caterpillars and butterflies, taking turns, albeit hers a little longer than all the other kids...i realized there's no going back. it's not like i can start her in preschool and then take it back. i can't make her be 2 1/2 again. i can't un-potty train her. well, technically i could but i'm enjoying those few more bucks a month only having to buy diapers for 1. i digress. all i'm saying is i am not ready for my baby to be standing at the sink brushing his own teeth and i'm certainly not ready to be handing over car keys. i guess i should just count my lucky stars that all i'm doing is signing her up for preschool. and letting her become the independent little thang that she is. piggy tails and all. *sniff*sniff*

no beer bong for my baby!

today we had another swallow study. and by we, i mean, me and asher. we did one in a blizzard in december and they found that he aspirates. no explanation why or how long it would go on for or what to do moving forward. just that he aspirates and the entire room paniced and shut down the swallow study when he did it. aspirates means when he swallows some of it goes into the wrong pipe and into his lungs. they told me to change the nipples on his bottles and to sit with him when he drank putting his back to my chest so he couldn't lift his chin too far while drinking. it was never explained to me that every drop of liquid needed to be drank/drunk in this position. and he was 10 months old at that point so i think everyone in the room understood that he ate and drank normal foods and drink all day-not just a bottle. nonetheless the therapies and diagnoses kept coming. weekly. i exaggerate saying that we saw everyone but the split end specialist, and i'm pretty sure if medicaid would cover it, asher's ex-therapist would dream one up. shortly after, exasperated and confused, i talked all of this over with karyssa's speech therapist. she said that her son had alot of the same symptoms and it was his adnoids and i should look into an ENT (ear, nose, throat doctor). so i did. i got an appointment with childrens. i didn't care if they gave me the janitor in the ENT department, i wanted a 2nd opinion. i got a physicians assistant. i told him what was going on, what the other therapist was guiding me towards...or actually...aimlessly pointing me into different directions and he mentioned the aerodigestive clinic. thus the hospital stay a few weeks back, which has then led to his sleep study last week, and lastly (thankfully lastly) another swallow study.
and we got answers. finally! after months of stabbing in the dark and being so worn out from the aimless directions i've been pointed, we have answers!!!
there's a muscle in his throat, the epiglottis, that is supposed to act like an umbrella for his esophagus and airway. and it does-but its timing is off. luckily his trachea is stepping up to bat and moving over causing that fluid to go back up into his throat and down in the right direction. when i asked his ex-therapist where all that liquid is going if it's going into his lungs it was explained to me that "he's active enough that it's just working its way out." that greatly puzzled me. i've never known a liquid that has the mind to get itself righted into the correct organ in my body so that baffled me that it just "worked its way out."
for now i am supposed to thicken all of his liquids, water, milk, juice...anything liquid and in 4 months we'll do another swallow study to see if his epiglottis is getting the point. no beer bongs for my baby any time soon.

CLICK HERE to see the diagram in motion...just hover your cursor over the picture.

com'on kids...we need to stop by the tattoo parlor on our way to music class.

seriously...some days i question why i got out of bed. this is how it all went down:
woke up realized my eye was still curiously puffy, but not as painful as yesterday.
put away the kids' laundry that i washed/dried/folded last night before bed.
called the doctor and got an appointment for late morning. perfect since i had a laundry list of errands to run today.
started a load of actual laundry.
fed the kids breakfast then went running so my mother-in-law doesn't leave me in the dust when we run the bolder boulder. ended at the park after the run so the kids could get a chance to play before heading home.
came home and changed laundry loads.
showered and out the door by 9:30 so i could get a chance to get a cup of free starbucks on my way to run errands.
took forEVER at starbucks and accidentally got caffinated but couldn't exchange it because i had brought my own cup with my own non-sugar/non-dairy additives. decided it would just be a really hyper and productive day after my doctors appointment...no more time to run errands first.
went to the doctors office just in time.
found out i have a sinus infection behind my eyeball and if it turns red or starts to hurt i am to go immediately to the emergency room.
joked with doctor about severity.
was corrected by doctor that "no, for real...it's really serious."
was given an antibiotic and told to take zyrtec, the antibiotic, nasal spray, cold presses and probiotics for the rest of the day.
and was told to rest.
didn't admit that i've already been running 3 miles today and had a list of to-do's before my head would hit another pillow today.
went to asher's pediatrician for the prescription he needs for his water thickener stuff. (not sure if i've mentioned that when he swallows a whisp of water goes into his lungs each time instead of all in his tummy.)
went to walgreens to get my prescription, his prescription and all the extras.
took baby g his pants back because last week karyssa wet hers while she was at his house for an hour while i went to the dentist.
came home and made ham and cheese grilled sandwiches for lunch.
changed laundry loads.
started feeling REALLY sick...hoping it's the coffee and not the infection.
laid down.
heard the HOA mowers come right past the windows.
so did asher.
waited for him to fall back asleep.
no luck. went upstairs and laid with him for a minute getting a glimmer of hope that he'd fall back asleep.
gave up and brought him downstairs.
took him to the basement to fold another load of laundry. started another.
heard karyssa get up.
decided i might as well sweep and vacuum. if they're up, i'm up.
swept the kitchen and bathrooms....almost.
straightened out my nose ring completely....while it was still in my nose.
sat on the toilet glad i didn't pass out but pretty sure i blacked out the last minute of pain throbbing from my nose.
found out i was still able to stand up so i decided to clean up the blood with rubbing alcohol.
vacuumed entire house.
then i heard these words come out of my mouth: com'on kids, we gotta stop by the tattoo parlor on our way to music class.
stopped by the tattoo parlor and told them what i'd done...except for the part where i explained exactly what i'd done because for a million bucks i cannot tell you how i straightened out my nose ring sweeping the bathroom.
they winced, fixed my nose ring, and informed me that my nose looked "pretty angry" about that.
hurried the kids to music class, where they ran circles around the other kids and parents listening to music.
went to target to get a few last supplies for easter.
called paul to see how late he'd be to find out he was already home.
drove home...stuck in rush hour...took a short cut....got stopped by the train...for 10 minutes....realized this was no longer a short cut.
called paul and asked him to put dinner in the oven.
finally got home, unloaded groceries and the kids from the car.
made brownies with karyssa super fast.
pulled dinner out of the oven, put brownies in the oven.
ate dinner and brownies and played with the kids a little bit before letting them fall into bed.
now i'm blogging and hoping they fall asleep soon because this girl needs her head on a pillow.

do you ever get over adoption?

i know it's only been 5 months and 7 days since we finalized the kids' adoptions, but who's counting?
yesterday i had to explain that the kids are adopted twice. and both times i said "i don't know, we adopted!" but not in an eeyore kind of way, more like a tigger kind of way. once at immunizations and once again at a sleep study at children's hospital. hopefully the last time we will have to spend an overnight down there for a long time. forever, if i could chose.
every time i explain missing medical information and the fact that he's adopted i feel like i'm explaining how lightning struck us. not once, but twice. perfect, effervescent, life changing lightning strikes. i still can't get over how perfect they are. how perfect they are for us. how MUCH like us they are. not just in looks but goodness sakes karyssa couldn't be more like me if she had a handbook! i know what she's thinking before she does it. i know why she's reacting the way she's reacting. i know what each and every look and glare and giggle means. i love every fiber of her being. and asher...my son whose name means "he makes his mother happy" could not live up to his name any farther. he has brought our family to completion. as i laid in bed watching him last night i just can't help but think how lucky i am to be his mom. then when he couldn't sleep and the sleep study nurse decided to put us in a bed together and we got to snuggle together for the rest of the night. i loved it! the nurse didn't. at 2am she came in and told us if he didn't fall asleep soon there wouldn't be time to get enough data for the study and we'd have to redo it. i keep thinking that maybe tomorrow i'll get over it. it'll be nothing to me. sure, they're adopted, what of it? but so far it hasn't happened. i wake up and think they're adopted! they're mine forever and ever. they'll never be rid of me no matter how hard they try. they're tethered to me and i to them, and i'll never get over it!

here's a couple pictures from the sleep study. it was not easy to get all those plugs on his head but it was even worse getting them back off this morning. his hair is about a day from dreads with all that goop in it.

seriously god...that was weird.

today i made my grocery list and waited for karyssa to wake up from her nap to go shopping. she loves to go as much as i do so i figured i'd get her out of the house this afternoon. but when it was time to put on shoes she was SURE nothing would do but the light up crocs. thanks alot mimi! they don't stay on her feet well so i told her she could wear her brown shoes or her ballerina shoes, but not crocs. seriously-getting crocs off that girls feet once her mind is made up is so impossible most days it's not even worth it. but today i knew she'd want to walk all the way through walmart so i insisted. finally i told her if she didn't pick one of the other pairs she was going to just stay home. and with that she crawled up on paul's lap and started watching a video about reseeding lawns. with out a fuss from her, i left the house. weird. she almost always fusses to go but not this time.
as i was checking out i realized i had gotten the wrong peanut butter so i went back to get the right one. on my way back to the peanut butter i saw someone who looked so much like the kids' birth dad from the back. then on my way back i realized the guy who looked so much like our birth dad from the back was with someone who looked just like our birth mom from the front. *gasp* i scurried back to my check out lane and handed over the peanut butter. then our birth dad scurried up to the lane too. he stood at the end of the isle for a brief second trying to decide if it was me and then looking disappointed that i didn't have either of the kids with me. i said "hi!" and he came towards me so i gave him a hug. what, exactly, i'm supposed to do i still haven't figured out. as my friend says "it's not like emily post has quite written a chapter for this." and she's right. there's no protocol. every "open adoption" is different. and although ours is open, as in: we send pictures and letters a few times a year and meet with grandparents a couple times a year. it's not open as in: they know our last name and where we live and see the kids whenever they want to. in fact, we're still deciding what, if any, contact we want to have with the birth parents. that's a decision we feel is for the kids to make. and until they are old enough to tell us they want to or don't want to we don't feel that's something we want to push onto them.
we chatted about some photos i'd recently sent and he asked if the email address i had given him was working yet. and after a minute (it felt like forever since my heart had stopped beating when he came to my isle) we parted ways and i waved to our birth mom. she didn't come towards me and i didn't want to push her. she didn't talk at all, and i didn't want to force her.
but then she smiled at me. SHE SMILED AT ME! the woman (girl really) that didn't show up to any of our face to face meetings, the girl i've only seen in pictures or from the back of the head in court smiled at me. so i have to know she's as happy to be kid-free as i am happy to not be kid-free. so maybe down the road, just maybe, i'll figure out this open adoption thing. until then seriously god, that was weird. i need a little more warning.

wearing them out

lately karyssa has been BEGGING for a bath. not that she doesn't get them. we do bath night every other night. but lately everytime she sits still she decides it's time for a bath. she points upstairs and says "bat!" and when you tell her she just had a bath, or she had a bath this morning, or it's not bath time or even bath day she falls into a heap on the floor and says, more dramatically, "baa-haa-hat!" so today we decided to take the kids swimming. "yay! himming!" she says. for over an hour they swam. asher too. we went to the erie rec center pool and it's just short enough that when he falls in half, landing on his hands, his face is JUST above the water. it was so cute. i wish i had taken my camera. we swam until their lips were blue and even karyssa was requesting to get out of the pool. then we gave them showers and piled back into the truck and came home for grilled cheese & turkey sandwiches...and, of course, and naps.
love mornings when we can successfully wear them out. i wish that was something i could do on my own, but i can't keep up with both of them in the water alone.

side funny note: last night i turned on the new gas grill and paul was keeping an eye on the kids. i came inside, got the meat for grilling and went back but the grill was ice cold. then i realized all the knobs had been turned back off. silly little man. he loves twisting things. door knobs, the dishwasher knob, toys that have twisting buttons, and now, apparently, the grill knobs. *sigh* i love that little man!

love this laugh

pay no mind to the dead tree in the background. it's a long story. well...not so long as just tragic.

wild thing....i'll eat her up, i love her so.

when the foster boys were here we had a hard time with karyssa going to bed. that has continued even after they've moved on. finally, after endless nights of catching her and her partner in crime (the foster brother that was only a month older than her) we built another bed and put her in our room. but that only lead to different kinds of mischief. every night i would catch her in various outfits of mine from the hamper. i finally started taking pictures, then there were so many pictures, i just stopped.

the night(s) karyssa wore her wolfsuit she made mischief of one kind:

and another:

and another:

crazy monkey

now i see why my mom hates it when i cuss.

this little boy of mine...

oh how i love him! i remember thinking "how am i ever gonna love another as much as i love karyssa? she's so perfect!" well, let me tell you, i can. he's started shaking his head yes when we ask him questions and it really is when he means yes. i love the way he double fists it with passies. if he's sucking on one and finds another he picks it up and tries to shove it in piggy backed until he realizes it might be easier to take the first one out. then when he gets the 2nd in his mouth and discovers there's yet another passie (the first one) he keeps putting them in and taking out the other until he decides which one is better and drops one and goes on about his business. it is SO funny!
he's gotten so opinionated in his old age. he wants everything karyssa has. it used to be that she could have a balloon, or a mechanical horse ride at the store, or a snack or a sippie with out asher even noticing. now he's all about it. if she has it, surely he needs one too. and if you pick him up to redirect him from something he can put on a cry that's oscar worthy. he's always shown his frustrations by taking his hands with his fingers fanned out and shaking his flat hands from his knees to his ears-that's cute too-even though he's trying to be mad.
he's getting his 4 top front teeth right now so he's kind of cranky, but when he forgets about his teeth he is the happiest baby on the planet. smiles and laughs ALL day long. it's so refreshing to be around him.
i love the way he wanders around the house looking for the next great thing. he has the cutest little baby hips. i love the way the fronts of his thighs stick out to the sides. and how tiny they make his butt look when he's in the tub.
and i LOVE the way he growls. he does it when he's laughing and it. is. so. cute!
he's all boy. it's so amazing to see the differences from karyssa, and yet so many similarities too. as he got nearer to that 13 month 2 day mark that karyssa was when we brought her home it became more real to us how much she had been through. and now that he's past it and doing so many things that she couldn't at that age we realize how blessed we are and how lucky he is that we were able to get him at just 1 day old. i miss the 36 hours we missed with him before he came home...but i'm so glad to have had those 13 months and 1 day more than we had for karyssa. and in that way, she will always hold a special place in my heart. i will always grieve those 13 months and 2 days.
he amazes me every day!!! and i am so lucky, and i know it, to be able to call him my son.

Dear New Neighbor Across The Street,

I know you just moved in a couple weeks ago but there are already so many things I'd like to tell you.

First I'd like to tell you how vibrant* your 400 watt front porch bulb is all night long. I wake up mere moments after falling asleep to find that it's almost dawn, only to look at the clock and find it's only 12:30am. Wow...I've never had a neighbor with such an effect on me before. It's really....something!

We've all been talking about the playhouse that you brought with you. I love the color of shingles it has. I say that because as I sit here in the dining room of my townhouse I can see the top of it sticking out from the wall of your front porch. Huh, I thought that was against HOA regulation but kudos to you for finding a way around that.

I love the assortment of pickup trucks that park out front of your unit for hours on end. They block the nice bright red curb so well. I was always afraid to leave my car unattended there for fear of towing since, after all, that red curb does indicate a fire lane.

Your son is also so...*vibrant. I love the way he rides his bike down the sidewalks yelling while my kids are napping. And your communication style with him is so expressive. It's nice to see that every hour or so you are keeping an eye on him. As well as your 3 year old daughter. I keep my kids on our porch with the gate locked for fear of the sex offender down the street but you're so brave to let her wander the neighborhood like a lost child. Invigorating, really, to see such brazen parenting skills. We all look forward to the day we get to meet you by dragging your son home by his ear because inevitably, we all see it coming but you.

Oh, and one quick thing you might not be aware of...when you take your cell phone calls out on your front porch late at night when all the lights in the neighborhood (with exception to your vibrant porch light) are out, I wasn't sure if you were aware the rest of us could hear you. Just a friendly FYI.

Sincerely,
Gladys Kravitz

*[read: obnoxious]

P.S. I love the ARMY t-shirt you wear often. Really drives home the tough as nails exterior.

this little girl of mine...

she makes me LAUGH and shocks me every day. which is saying a lot since i'm not often shocked.
last week, all in one day, i caught her sitting in her flower pot (it's full of sand) with her pants down acting like she was peeing. and then had to tell her to stop "puking" rocks into the chimnea. she was putting rocks in her mouth and then leaning into the chimnea with a hearty "BWUH!!!" upchuck noise. my neighbors must think i'm the biggest alcie this side of jersey shore.
other things we have to constantly be reminded: no pyting (typing) on the computer. don't hug brother so rough. don't eat the sand. go put on undies. only use the chalk on the sidewalk...not the house. and more i just can't think of right now.
she's also become so girly i don't even know what i'm gonna do. she's loving wearing piggy tails. i let her pick 1 or 2. and pajamas-forget footie pajamas. sooooo out. nightgowns are in and clearly the only choice. and i used to open her pants drawer and just let her pick a pair...now i have to clarify if it's going to be a dress day or pants day before i even bother rooting through the drawer for the perfect pair of pants. *sigh* LOvE this baby girl!
every time we look through the newspaper or drive through neighborhoods now it's "house.....yard!" because we've been prepping her that we're going to buy her a house with a yard this summer.
and don't even get me started on picking out a pair of shoes. every day we have to clarify WHICH pair of crocs. our light pink ones, or our light up ones. now we have our prima ballerina shoes from miss nancy. the kids' CASA. when the case ended she came to me in tears asking if she could please keep in touch with the kids and boy has she been a godsend at times. SO CUTE! and miss nancy has a husband who has been named by karyssa as "POP!" never just "pop". always with an exclamation point at the end and in all caps "POP!" and believe me POP! loves it as much as karyssa does. POP! it turns out, likes to garden and let karyssa help him in the dirt. so for a week after staying at their house while asher was getting his scope study all i heard about was "POP!...dirt."
i could go on and on but i have a list of to-do's as long as my arm.
more later about how much i love my boy!!