25 Things

And here it is again, the next 25 things we never said until we had kids. To check out the previous lists, follow the links back from here. Greg and I just started a new list of things we never heard someone say until our kids said them. It will probably be a long while before you get to enjoy it, but it is something to look forward to. Until then, enjoy this list of things I never said until I had kids, and I assure you that each and every one of these things made perfect sense when Greg or I said them:

151. You did it! And I didn't even have to turn into a cannibal!
152. You can leave your clothes on when we go outside.
153. It's been a long time since we sniffed butts.
154. Sometimes I wish the Bicycle Chickens would come.
155. Did you know you have glitter on your penis?
156. Your brain looks exactly like a Spider Man chair.
157. That's a crazy way to ride a zebra.
158. If you swing like a monkey, you're going to need to poop like one.
159. This is the most uncomfortable squirrel I've ever ridden.
160. Get your face off the cheese.
161. That's the best head-backing ever.
162. Okay. Let's turn into naked scary monsters.
163. Don't let the dog eat Mrs. Pteranodon.
164. You can't wash your penis with lizards in your hands.
165. Are you pooping and playing drums at the same time?
166. There's no better entrance to a party than being delivered by scavenger birds.
167. Don't drink that! Your butt was in there!
168. You're the saddest boy I've ever seen holding lizards.
169. Do not stick baby Steelers in the faucet.
170. The table or your mouth: those are the only places a banana goes.
171. You got scratched by a waffle?
172. Soccer is not a snack food.
173. I wouldn't have to tickle you if you didn't pee on your butt.
174. That's not a bug; it's a sheep with a bug on its head.
175. Ahhh! You're flooding the bathroom with a hot snake!

Outdoor Games

I found this video that I took on my phone a couple months ago. This is one of my kids' favorite games. I don't understand it so don't ask me to explain.

Impromptu Photo Session

"You guys looks so cute! Go stand by the Christmas tree in your hats!"


"Okay, let's try one with both of your faces showing."


"That wasn't too bad but Marcus, your hat was not sitting right on your head."


"Marcus, let's get your hat all unfolded and Will, what in the world were you looking at? Awww, Maya! That is so nice of you to just sit down in the picture at the exact right place. Hold that pose!"


"Maya! Maya! Look here Maya!"


"Good girl Maya! Marcus, let's not kiss Maya this time, okay? Wait, where did Marcus go?"

The Big One

On December 5, 2008, a little puppy was born. Just like my other children, I had no idea that it was happening. One year later, I've got a big overgrown puppy who keeps me company, keeps me warm at night, keeps me moving, and keeps my stress level down. When we brought her home, we braced ourselves for a chewed up house but the pup has never been much of one to chew things she shouldn't. She is friendly to a fault, often overwhelming people with her excitement and once nearly making my neighbor pee his pants since my neighbor confused her unbridled enthusiasm for a menacing animal attack. She is so smart and so quick to learn that I got bored teaching her stupid pet tricks in about two weeks since she mastered them all quickly. Teaching her manners has been a bit of a struggle. Once we invested in an electronic collar, she became much more controllable. She stays in the yard unsupervised and greets the neighbors without leaving our porch, until we tell her it is okay to go after them them with kisses. The kids and the pup have a special bond and LOVE to chase each other, play tug, play fetch, and wrestle. And as I sit here and type this, my sweet little birthday girl is being the most fantastic foot warmer, all without even asking.

I picked her up a little birthday present at the store, the Dollar Store since I knew the life of a stuffed toy would be very short. The whole family sang "Happy Birthday" to her (because we are dorks like that) and gave her the present. My cute little fur covered lady turned into a greedy little kid. She ran. She hid. She gave evil stares to anyone that she thought might for a minute take away the most fantastic of gifts ever. I had to army crawl and zoom in just to get a photo of her.



At last she was able to get to the surprise inside. Maya is now the proud owner of Sheepy.


It has been about 8 hours since Maya and Sheepy first became friends. Once she removed all the stuffing (about 15 minutes after she first unwrapped Sheepy), she started considering letting us play with her and Sheepy. At this point in time, not only is Sheepy missing all its guts, it is earless and has only 3 legs. The pup is still carrying her new friend with her everywhere she goes, despite its handicap.


Greg thought we should take a picture of her in our truck to show just how much she has grown in the past 10 months since she has been part of our family. She was pretty mad at us for putting her in there, but you get the point.



And for fun, a few of my favorite baby Maya pictures.

Leaving the breeder's:


The first week or two she would barely leave my lap. Greg was really not the least bit happy that this was how I ate dinner the first night we were home with her:


So sleepy




Sleeping again...


Snow Maya




Party Hard, Sleep Hard

The Details

I have two very different kids. I am sure that most parents say that. I have a little extra leverage to meaning it since my kids aren't biological siblings. Marcus is so attentive to the details in life that it at times gets annoying. He helps to keep his forgetful momma on track which is definitely a bonus. He is also a great cleaner because he knows where everything belongs and he does everything he can to keep it in its place. On the downside, we can't leave the house unless he has all the dog toys lined up on the floor in the exact same order every time. Seriously, I am not making this up. Nor can we eat dinner if one of the cupboards is slightly ajar. I just can't get anything by him. This morning he finished his breakfast and asked for pancakes. I said we were all out because I really didn't want to take the time to cook up some pancakes. I wasn't lying. We really were all out of pancakes, just not pancake mix. Marcus was on top of it. He told me we weren't all out. There was more in the pantry.

Then there's Will. He has no sense of details. He lives his life separate from the clutter of life around him. It can be quite frustrating when I tell him to get something that is always in the same spot and he has no idea where that item could be. This quality about him also makes him quite adaptable to change, experiencing new places and new people. However teaching him the details of a simple routine - like washing his hands - is very frustrating. He is spontaneous and fun... and easy to fool, which is a nice feature to be able to use while parenting.

Take the other day when we were at Target. My kids love toothbrushes. They are so much fun with bright colors and different characters on them. I decided to give them some new toothbrushes in their stockings at Christmas. I really didn't want to have to make an extra trip to Target. Marcus was in school so it was just Will and me. We headed to the toothbrush aisle. Will was excited and fascinated as usual. I spotted two toothbrushes that I felt were ideal. Then I did the old, "Hey Will! Look at that!" He looked. I grabbed the toothbrushes and put them in the cart. That never would have worked with Marcus.

Yesterday I was eating lunch out with my mom and the kids. The manager stopped by our table to see how we were doing and he asked Marcus if he was paying for lunch. Marcus said, "I don't think so!" When the check came I asked Marcus to pay. He got into my purse, took out my wallet, flipped through all the inserts, and went right for the secret place I hide my credit card. Where did he learn that?? That kid just doesn't miss a thing. That makes me worried. At least my credit cards are safe from Will, for a few years.

Photographic Proof

Yep, we're still here. And I have pictures to prove it. We have been busy but not really busy doing much that has been worth blogging about. Here's some of the randomness in our life recently.

We had our first snow. I was all excited and shouting that it was snowing. Greg couldn't see outside from where he was standing in the house and started looking at me like I was crazy. (Obviously he thought I was crazy for saying it was snowing, not crazy for jumping up and down and screaming because of it.) Maya came to live with us on a snowy day but she was such a baby back then she probably doesn't remember. I let her out to enjoy it. She kept running around with her mouth open trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue.

It came down so fast and in such big flakes that it stuck to the ground. Apparently snow makes puppies run.


We had two great Thanksgivings. Yes, two. We are so thankful this year that just one wasn't enough. Our first Thanksgiving was at my sister's with several of my family members. Our second one was with Greg's parents and sister. The kids had a great time wearing out their grandfather.





We decorated for Christmas, at least on the inside of the house. We still haven't purchased enough lights to decorate the outside of our house and because of where our house is situated, no one would really see it anyway. Marcus hoarded all the train decorations and put all those on.

Will did a far better job this year at helping to decorate the tree.


I've been hanging out with the pup and loving her lots. And getting lots of love in return.


And I have two ideas for future posts. So stay tuned.

Pepto to Perfecto

This Thanksgiving week I have countless things to be thankful for. One thing is my awesome friends. I have a whole group of girls that are very special to me, but this post is about just two of them. Way back in May I posted about how Will was now sleeping in his crib converted into a toddler bed. (Since then he has had to go back to sleeping back in the confined crib since he was not behaving himself.) I posted here a picture of him all happy in his room... his very very pink room. We had named the color of his room "Radioactive Pepto Bismol". The room was that color when we moved in and we just never had figured out how to manage painting it with two little kids running around. That post sparked an email from The Boss's mom and my friend and fellow AK. These two awesome friends of mine offered up their time and step ladders and came to help fix that awful paint job.

I didn't take too many before pictures because it was just so hideous. I took this shot a couple days after we moved in. I know it is hard to look beyond those pink walls, but take notice to that dark purple trim everywhere. The entire window frame was also that lovely color as well.


We were all pretty busy over the summer so we put off the project for a bit. In August I ripped down the boarder (which was an easy job thankfully). Will just isn't a flowers and butterfly kind of guy.


The colors were so (hideously) vibrant, that my expert painting friends felt that we should break the project up into two days. Day 1 was in October where the entire room (except the door stopper and doors) was covered with primer.






The room was so pink that the kids never noticed that the doors were yellow until we put the primer up. After the coat of primer, the pink still showed through. The trim probably could have used a second coat of primer to cover up that dark purple. Will's room was somewhat reassembled as we waited for a time the painting could resume. A month passed. Even though there was just primer on the walls, that room was still so much more pleasant than it had been in it's complete pink horror.

At last, it was time to add some pleasing color to those walls. My friends were back and the paint can was cracked. It took two coats on the trim and one coat on the walls, but at last, the room is glorious! We leave the door open now. The kids enjoy being in there. Will is starting to consider that room to actually be his, and not just a room he sleeps in. We still don't have anything on the walls (apart from paint), but we are getting there.




The original plan was to paint the doors white to match the trim. Greg suggested that we just leave them yellow to add more color to the room. I was fine with being done with painting so yellow they are.


I would like to point out how nice this light switch plate looks with the color that we chose. The previous owners could have just used that same boarder and light switch plate and painted the room a much more pleasing color. But noooooo.... no one bothered to check with me when decorating their home. (Will has a new, plain white light switch plate now.)


I am in the process of making curtains - another slow to the finish project. I somehow managed to be about a half of yard short on the fabric so I had to make a second trip out to get some more. In the end, I decided that I liked the fabric so much that I bought the rest of the bolt. I'm not sure what I am going to do with it yet. Quilt? Blanket? Something that isn't going to end up in the room at all? Suggestions anyone? Maybe in a few years there will be a post about what that fabric became. For now, a sneak peak at the curtains.



Thank you so much to my friends who gave us such a wonderful new space in our house. I owe you one!