What a weekend

Scott's parents came down to visit this weekend. It is always fun when Grandpa George and Grandma Micki come down to play. I know Olivia loves having "fresh meat" to work her charms on. We are all pretty much numb to the sweetness she tries to use to get her way, but not Grandma and Grandpa W. About 5 minutes after they were here Olivia had Grandpa George wrapped around her tiny little finger.

We didn't do much Friday. On Saturday George and Scott went to work at the church and Micki and I took the kids to the library. Saturday night we had dinner at my parents house. I made potato soup and it was delicious thank you very much. Sunday was just a lazy day and Monday I thought I was going to die of exhaustion.

We didn't really have any plans for Memorial Day but that quickly changed. I started out the day by going on a four mile walk to try to burn off the delicious dinner at Stanfords I had the night before and all the sugar I consumed while drinking their delicious cofffee. I love the coffee at Stanfords but it is a little strong for me. I practically told our server to just bring me a cow and sugar cane for my coffee so he didn't have to keep bringing me those tiny packets of sugar, of which I consumed more than I am going to admit to.

We decided at about 11:00 to take the kids up to the Portland Children's Museum since we had never been there before and it would be indoor fun. So we ate a quick lunch, packed in the car and headed into Portland. Olivia sang Ginkle Ginkle lil saw (Twinkle twinkle little star) and the ABC song ALL the way up there. I guess it's better than crying. The first thing Connor said when we pulled in the parking lot was "this makes me nervous." Well too bad, we drove all the way here, you are going to have fun! He did warm up to it.

Being forced to play

At the water table. He started warming up to the place at this time.

If there is a train, he is going to find it.

Grocery shopping

She didn't want to leave. Or maybe she heard us say we were going to the zoo now and she was afraid for her pacifier.

Yes, we went to the zoo afterwards. Connor asked me abour 4 times as we were walking in where Sissy's pacifier was. When we walked in the zoo and he saw the goat exhibit, he asked if that was the goat that had Liv's pacifier. He kept tabs on it the whole time we were there. Do you kow they actually have signs that say to not drop food or pacifiers in the zoo exhibits? Guess I wasn't the first one.

On the way home Olivia sang Ginkle Ginkle lil saw and the ABC song the whole way. We really have to teach that girl some new songs. I don't know why they didn't sleep on the way home, I sure wanted to. We finished the day at McDonald's with happy meals and ice cream and crashed when we got home. I am definitely feeling the four mile walk from yesterday and all the walking at the zoo and museum but it was all worth it.

New night time ritual

My son is a snuggler and wants me to cuddle with him in his bed every night after I tuck him in. His bed is more comfortable than mine so I don't have a problem with this. Lately he has been wanting to play "spiders" while we are cuddling. Let me give you a demonstration: 



These are 2 tarantulas from the north of eastern (wherever that is) and are also found in Mexico. (My hand is the one on the left in case you couldn't tell.)







I am the unfortunate spider that is not going to escape this encounter with all its legs. I never get to be the winning spider.

I have survived the fight but have lost a leg in the process. (I would appreciate my family not leaving any comments regarding my thumbs.)

Besides losing at least one and sometimes all of my spider legs, I usually get injected by some kind of spider poison that leaves my little spider hand all shriveled. All I have to say is if I have to play this little game every night I would like to just once be the winning spider. Oh well, there is always tomorrow night.

The Mighty Bug Hunters

It was nice outside yesterday so they kids and I decided to spend some time out of doors. It was more the kids begging me over and over to go outside than me actually deciding. I am more of an indoor gal- less bugs.  So we grabbed the sidewalk chalk and headed outside. Once we go outside Connor informed me that he and Sissy were going on a bug hunt. "Oh, this will be good," I thought to myself.



The pre bug hunting stretches





Armed with sidewalk chalk. A must have when hunting bugs

Any bugs over here?

Off to the wildest regions of the back yard

Yikes! We found some! Run away, run away! (It was very much like watching Monty Python: Search for the Holy Grail, just without the coconuts and British accents)

Connor wanted me to take his picure by the little fly that was on the see-saw swing next to him. While his focus was on the fly another bug flew by him on the other side. Thus the "What was that?" look on his face. He thought it was an ambush. He was about done with the great outdoors after that.



What to do, What to do?

We are out of milk. Well, we are out of 1% milk which is what I like to drink. We have whole milk but that is for Sis and I just can't drink that stuff. Connor was afraid he was going to turn back into a baby because he had to have whole milk this morning, I assured him that I would in no way give anything to him that would make him turn back into a baby, I just wouldn't punish myself by doing that.

So the dilemma is, do I pack up the kids and run to the store for milk or just wait until Scott gets home and see if he will do it for me. If I go I could get myself a latte, but I don't have any makeup on and didn't do anything to my hair and I am wearing my holey sweats and I don't think I can bring myself to put on jeans this morning. At least I am wearing a bra. Do I risk going to the store and having people I know see me and think to themselves, "Wow, Amy has really let herself go since she became a stay at home mom. Poor Scott." Or do I not worry about what people think and just walk in as I am? Do you see the dilemma I face? I know you feel bad for me. I told Scott we just need to get a cow and put it in the back yard but he didn't think this would be a good idea, seeings as how a puppy was too much work for me and we ended up giving it back to the person we got it from after a only a week. I am not big about animals peeing on my carpet and when I saw a flea it was all over. I need a clean, potty trained, lazy pet. But I don't have to potty train a cow so I don't see what the big deal is. It's a good thing Connor never peed on the carpet when we were potting training or I would have had to get rid of him too. He did pee on the wood floor but that was actually kind of funny, or rather his reaction was funny. I had just put big boy underwear on him and I said he wasn't allowed to go potty in his underwear. A little bit later I hear water splashing on the floor. I look over and he had this look of panic on his face. "What is happening to me?!" he says. He was used to his diaper catching everything for him and was shocked to discover things just gushing out of him and all over him. Scott just kind of stood there with a look of bewilderment on his face. I asked for his help and he looked at me helplessly and said, "What do I do? I don't know what to do?" Oh that husband of mine.

Anyways. Do I go, or do I not? I think I may be able to set aside my pride for a white chocolate mocha from starbucks. 

Watch your phraseology

Well my husband is watching a documentary about World War II airplanes right now and as much as I just love learning about jet propellers, the P51 mustang and the German Luftwaffe's I thought I would just blog instead. Yes, I was being sarcastic about loving to learn about that stuff. In the first part of our marriage he drug me to two different air museums and spent what felt like eternity drooling over every airplane and telling me everything there is to know about them. It was still early on in our married life so I pretended that I loved every minute of it and even had him take my picture while standing next to the airplanes. What I was really wondering was how long would we be there and I was pretty sure I saw ice cream in the gift shop. Sadly we left the museums without any ice cream. Now that we have been married seven years I no longer have to pretend to like the documentaries and I will just go get my own ice cream thank you very much.

So here I am blogging instead of learning and I am okay with that. The kids and I took a walk around our neighborhood today on the hunt for garage sales. This is actually something I don't enjoy doing. I never find anything good at garage sales. My mother however is the queen of finding great stuff at garage sales and I don't think she ever pays more than $2 for anything. She has the gift. Sadly I do not. My mom has made my son a lover of garage sales as well, so when I gave him the choice of going to the library or going on the hunt for garage sales, he chose the latter. So we packed up the suburban (double stroller) and we were off on our hunt. We (I) walked for almost an hour and a half up and down the sidewalks, up steep driveways and around garbage cans that people still have on the sidewalks even though garbage day was Thursday. It's Saturday people, put your garbage can away! But I digress. Sadly the most exciting thing that happened was Olivia getting her foot caught in the wheel of the stroller. Took a few minutes but I managed to free her with her foot still being intact. It was sketchy for a minute there. Connor was very disappointed that we didn't find any toys. I bought a veggie tale video for a dime and a Tinkerbell dress for Sissy for a dollar. Big spender, I know. Connor complained about all the walking making him hungry which is interesting since about 2 minutes into our adventure he decided he wanted to ride in the stroller instead of walk. I almost kicked him out of the stroller and had him push Olivia and I home, but I had to work off the chocolate chip cookies I had after lunch.

When we were about home I said I was pooped. Connor jumped right on that. "What Mom, you pooped! Where did you poop Mom, I don't see it. Show me where you pooped Mom!" Thank you son for making all the neighbors think I pooped outside. I will be watching my phraseology around him from now on. And in case you didn't know "Watch your phraseology" is a line from the Music Man. If you haven't seen it then you need to stop reading this right now and go watch it. Watch it until you know every line of "76 trombones" and until you can't here anyone mention Gary, Indiana without bursting into song. My husband loves it when I sing that song to him. Okay, not really but if I have to hear about the evolution of the fighter plane then he gets to hear me sing "Marianne, Madam Librarian."

Works for me!

Lately Connor has been interested in the clock and wanting to know what time it is. He would look at the clock when I would put Liv to bed and then ask me to show him where the hands on the clock will be when it's his bed time. Liv goes down for her nap at 1 and Connor at 1:30. This gives us a little extra time together where it is just the two of us. So I told Connor when the big hand points straight down it is your bed time. Since I told him that he has been the one keeping his eye on the clock and telling me that it is time for him to go to bed, and then he will go get ready for his nap. He is very concerned that he will be late for nap time. He is the type of kid that doesn't want to break the rules. He likes to keep the instructions to his toys and look at them so he knows the right way to do things.

I have enjoyed the fact that he is so interested in making his naps on time, but the best part has been that he has been putting himself to bed a half an hour early at night. Liv goes to bed at 7:00 and then when the big hand points straight down Connor thinks it's his bed time. His bedtime is actually 8:00 but who am I to tell him he is wrong. Scott tried to say something the other night about it not being bed time yet but I quickly gave him the, "keep your mouth shut if you know what's good for you" look and Connor still doesn't know that he is going to bed a half an hour early. I know someday he will learn to tell time but until then mommy gets an extra half hour to herself.

The Deadly Dozen

This is my sons new favorite show. No matter how many times I try to get him to watch the new Rapunzel movie, he always chooses this one. It's an animal planet documentary that we have on Netflix that has 8 different episodes and each episode is about the 12 most deadly animals in 8 different places around the world. I now know 8 different places that I will NOT be traveling to thanks to this show. I have learned a lot of interesting facts about different animals. Like did you know a hippo can run 45 miles an hour. That's on land! They are among the deadly dozen so stay away from them. Oh, and Jellyfish, don't even get me started, just take my advice and stay out of the water.

Connor's favorite episode is the one about Australia, but the only part he wants to watch is the spider part. Shocking, I know. It's about the red back spider and the funnel web spider. Both are extremely deadly and he is just fascinated with them. Did you know that the funnel web spider has fangs that are so long you have to pull the spider off of you when you get bit? It can bite right through your toenail! I can hardly type that without getting the goosebumps. I have had to put a stop to watching this show because when I lay in bed at night I totally psyche myself out and think I can feel spiders crawling on me. It takes me forever to fall asleep and then I dream about funnel web spiders being stuck in my toenail. It's awful.

I was snuggling with Connor the other night in his bed and he says to me, "When are we going to Australia mom so we can see the funnel web spider?" And I of course responded with a "Well son, that would be never." But he wasn't upset at all. He says, "That's okay mom, Grandma will take me." And you know he is probably right. I don't think there is anything my mother wouldn't do for her grandson, and that includes trips to far away places to see extremely poisonous spiders.

I can't wait for him to get over this spider kick. I am going to continue to push that Rapunzel movie. It's so cute and there isn't any spiders in it. Why don't my children want to watch those fun disney movies? I grew up watching them and I loved every single one. I made Connor watch Robin Hood not too long ago and he said it made him nervous. It's just not normal! Robin Hood makes you nervous but you are completely okay with deadly spiders? What can I do though, this is the world I live in. I can only hope that with all the tornado, hurricane, and spider shows we watch that he will grow up to be some kind of scientist and make his momma lots of money.

No soliciting!

I really need to get on of those signs for my door. When we first moved into our house in town I didn't think we really got that many solicitors, but that is only because I worked all day and they came when I was not at home. Now that I am home all the time it seems like they are always knocking at my door. There timing is horrible. It seems like they always come during nap time or on a day that I  haven't taken a shower yet or am not wearing a bra.

We have had some very interesting people come to the door wanting us to buy there stuff. Here are a couple of things they should know before they knock.  If I open my door and you look like you are living on the streets and don't have any teeth, I am not going to let you in my house.  If you can't remember what company you work for, I am not letting you in my house.  If you come during my kids' nap time, you are keeping me from taking my nap and that will not help your sales one bit. Mama needs her nap!

On saturday we had a guy selling vacuums come to the door. The first mistake he made was coming to my door at 8:00pm. The second mistake was coming when I didn't have my bra on. Have I mentioned how much I hate answering the door when I am not wearing a bra? When I opened the door he was all cheery and handed me a container of clorox wipes. He then said he was with a new company and would get $35 if he would let me do his demonstration. I said I wasn't interested. He started whining and begging and said I was his last house of the night. I asked what he was selling and he said vacuum cleaners. I said nope, not interested at all and he got mad at me and rudely stuck his hand out to take the clorox wipes away from me. He then tried to leave but the back of his shirt got stuck on the handle of my screen door and he couldn't move. It was a very awkward situation. Do I shut my door while there is a strange man with clorox wipes hanging on my screen door, or do I keep it open until he gets himself free? I started closing the door right as I heard him about to say a naughty word, and then I started opening it again because I just wasn't sure what to do about him, and then I remembered how rude he was and I just shut the door and hoped he would free himself before we went to bed. Just a minute later I saw him angrily stomping to the next house. There are times I really don't like that screen door but that night I appreciated it very much.

I think I may just write a letter to all solicitors and hang it on my door.

Dear solicitors,
I am probably napping and may or may not be wearing a bra. Do not bother to knock, just continue on to the next house.
Thank you