Katie is in 100% meltdown mode because Owen is taking a bath without her. I had to bring out something new and interesting because she WAS NOT INTERESTED in anything.
Elmo app to the rescue!
Year: 2013
The stockings were hung…
The first attempt…
And the stockings drive me nuts. Does anyone have stockings that hang correctly? This is our third set that hang sideways. Why is it so hard for manufacturers to comprehend how a hook will make it hang? This irritates me EVERY year.
So I posted exactly that on Facebook…and my friends came through with ideas!
But first, the kids seeing them for the first time:
So…my second attempt, complete with curtain rod! Perfect!!
Well, the stockings were perfect—but the garland needed adjusting. There’s no way I could live with the garland like that. Looking at it all day every day. /shudder
So, the third and final attempt:
And that’s as good as it’s going to get this year!
Dress and jeans–why not?
Owenisms 31
Owen: Mama! Watch me! He runs around the living room moving his feet really fast.
Me: Wow, that’s fancy!
Owen: Yes! Do you know where I learned it?
Me: No.
Owen: Galloping school!
Me: Galloping school?
Owen: Yes, next door to my school!
Owen just came up to me and said “You don’t smell like the queen.” I had to think a minute. Oh! Yes. He was quoting A Bug’s Life. 🙂 Then he says “You smell like a mom.”
Our neighbors put up their Christmas lights. Owen noticed them at night when they were all lit up.
Owen: Mama, look!
Me: I know—aren’t their lights pretty?
Owen: Yes! Mama, when are you going to put our lights up?
I hung the stockings while Owen was at school today so told him there was a surprise for him at home.
Owen: What is it?
Me: Go look around.
Owen: THE STOCKINGS!!
Me: Is that a good surprise?
Owen: Yes. Where are the two reindeer?
Man he has a good memory. I usually put out two silver reindeer…and he knew they were missing!
Me: They’re still in the garage.
Owen: Mama, you have to put them out.
Surprise mystery trip!
I had dropped Maggie off at the groomers so we had about 45 minutes to waste after picking Owen up so I had planned to take them to the playground.
Me: Owen, we’re going on a surprise mystery trip!
Owen: TO THE BEACH?!
Me: No.
Owen: To the mall?
Me: No. Just wait. We’ll be there in a minute.
In line at the light to turn, he knows where we are!
Owen: THE PLAYGROUND!
He’s now tall enough to reach the bar without jumping! It was just this summer when he couldn’t reach!
Owen is 4 years 10 months old today!
November pictures are online!
Watching Despicable Me
Outside and loving it!
The cold weather hasn’t been great to play outside since both kids have coughs (that get worse in the cold) but today warmed up a bit so out we went. Katie was happy!!
“Playing rocks” as Owen says.
Ohhh crap. More toys.
As if the kids didn’t already have enough toys—and with Christmas right around the corner—I unearthed two big boxes of Owen’s old toys that I’m guessing we put away for Katie…or maybe just put in boxes temporarily because ironically, I had been wondering where some of the things had gone to…
Of course I can’t let Owen see them because he’d HAVE TO keep them all. But I can’t just get rid of everything because there are some good toys in there… So I think I’ll wrap up a few for Katie and hand pick a few for Owen to have. His school might get some donations as well.
It’s been a tough five days.
Sick and cranky kids, Owen’s poop issues (a clean out), obviously Tom being gone on a holiday, me now starting to feel sick—all on top of the normal everyday stuff—and after some random unimportant thing (like Katie reaching for the Kleenex box for the 23rd time) I kinda lost it. I really try not to do it in front of the kids, but it just happened.
Poor Owen was like “Mama, are you okay?”
I told him I was—I just really missed daddy and it was really hard work taking care of everything by myself while he was gone.
He came over and hugged me and gave me a kiss saying “It’s okay mom.” Then told me he was going to read me a happy story.
/bawl
She wears the pants.
If you leave any piece of clothing out, she’ll put it on. Today was Owen’s pants.
They aren’t cooperating!
Me lovin’ on my boy
Net head!
Gramma Jean got them this net. Katie loves it. 🙂
And you’ll notice the tights came off—she trued to pull them off herself but got frustrated when they didn’t come off as easily as socks!
Post-Santa Pictures
I can’t accept failure…so I had to try again. 🙂
First outside (cute but NOT my typical perfect shot—at least you can see the whole outfit):
“Come back and sit down, Katie.”
And then I tried inside again but it still wasn’t happening so I didn’t get THE shot today. Oh well…
Our first picture with Santa!
Over the years we just never cared about getting the picture with Santa. I hate crowds and I hate holiday crowds even more…so we just never did it. Then, once Owen was a bit older, we tried…but the commotion was too much for him and we had to leave before Santa even arrived.
Fast forward to this year and he’s showing A LOT more interest in Christmas—like things he wants and asking about Santa—so I thought I’d have to try this year (of course, the year Tom is gone). Thankfully, the local autism society planned a sensory-friendly event at the mall (two hours before regular pictures with Santa started) and we were first in line!
Owen was good at being patient (just asking a handful of times how many more minutes) and overall it was easy peasy! Of course Katie wasn’t her normal smiling self, but I was just happy she wasn’t snotty and/or screaming and/or wiggly and actually looked at the camera. I think they only took four pictures! Owen was great, too—and was EXCITED to see Santa. (Last night when I was telling him about the “mystery trip” to prepare him, he asked if it was the real Santa or a pretend Santa. I had no idea where he got the idea of real and pretend, but I told him it was a pretend Santa because of course the real Santa was getting ready at the North Pole. He accepted that.)
Of course the picture packages are a complete racket—but I ended up with a $40 package because it came with a $20 Shutterfly credit. I could have gotten cheaper packages but they only came with $10 Shutterfly credits so it was cost efficient (for me) to get the bigger package. So I will have actual photos to mail out this year. 🙂
On the way out, Owen wanted to ride in this kiddie car. I just happened to have the required quarters, so I said okay.
As you can see, Katie lasted about four seconds…and Owen only lasted about three more. 🙂
Pre-Santa Pictures
Katie just wasn’t having it this morning…and this first picture is about the best of the bunch. Then you can see some of the fun I had.
More sword fighting
With Aquazookas this time. 🙂
Just chillin’ watching TV
Today was a Facebook day.
Nothing really blog-worthy happened today…but I did post a few things on Facebook that I thought I’d share here:
Up today? Toy Story. Both are fully entranced. Unfortunately, we only got to see about 10 minutes of the movie before our network decided to flake out…and an hour of messing with it did nothing. Which leads to…
I am so sick of our worthless wireless network that there just might be 500 yards of ethernet cable running through the house when Tom gets home.
On the best of days, I don’t have the energy for two sick kids (with one super snotty girl). On a day like today when I am feeling exhausted and headachy, I REALLY don’t have the energy to be up and wiping noses every two minutes. But when you can see the snot fly through the air during a sneeze…you can’t really ignore it. At least Owen can (mostly) do his own and can kind of help with Katie…but I still need to intervene a lot.
Aww crap. I just realized Katie is likely teething. It’s about the age and would explain the extra chewing and slobber. Yeah, you’d think I would have thought of that before now…but no.
I’m so glad Owen didn’t want to take a nap today so that he could fall asleep on the couch at 4:45. 😐
And I just had to be a mean mom and wake Owen up from a nap. I just couldn’t let him take a long nap at this time of day when his bedtime is 7:30…because I am NOT giving up my nightly alone/me time if I can help it. Especially since I want to go to bed early since I’m not feeling the best.
How can one tiny girl produce SO much snot?!
Of course the best time to find out the humidifier in your kid’s room is dead is at bedtime. GRRR. Unfortunately, this means a trip to town—since it’s the weekend, Amazon wouldn’t get here until Wednesday…and with a coupon at BB&B I can get $10 off. Blurg.
Sword fight!
It took about 50 pictures to capture this without blurriness—they were having a blast!
She always has to show you her belly.
Thanksgiving, photo fail, and friends.
The day started out well enough. Owen was very VERY excited about going to Uncle Roger’s for Thanksgiving…and kept asking me how many minutes how many minutes how many minutes. I told him it wouldn’t be until after Katie’s nap, so then he started asking how many minutes until her nap. Over and over and over. At 9am. 🙂 He told me he was going to go get in the car. I told him no, it wasn’t time yet. I finally told him it would be a few hours, and I would let him know when it was time…I wouldn’t let him miss it.
Fast forward until after Katie’s nap. I had the mashed potatoes going on the stove and their nice outfits all ready…and of course she woke up too early. Fine, no problem. I got them both dressed for pictures. Katie wasn’t terribly happy (she’s got a cold—as does Owen—and her nap wasn’t long enough) so it was challenging to say the least. And she was really REALLY cute, too, so I was disappointed. But I was snapping away and hoping I’d at least get one decent shot.
Then it was off to finish the potatoes. And take breaks every minute or so to wipe Katie’s nose. And try to get Owen to RELAX about getting his shoes and coat on and wanting to get in the car. And then I decided to take more pictures…AND DISCOVERED THERE WAS NO MEMORY CARD IN THE CAMERA SO I DIDN’T HAVE ANY PICTURES. I wasn’t in a great mood before that, so that just pushed me over the edge. (It’s the little things, I swear.)
So I was rushing to get everything packed to leave the house (changes of clothes for both kids because it was Owen’s Clean Out Weekend and because Katie accidentally got some of Owen’s “poop juice”, diapers, pull-ups, snacks, etc.), get the potatoes finished and in the crock pot, stack all the dirty dishes, let the dog out, and then—since I’m apparently a masochist—TRY TO TAKE MORE PICTURES WITH UNCOOPERATIVE KIDS… Needless to say I didn’t get one good picture.
The best picture of the super cute hand-me-down dress:
The best of the awful sibling pics:
The good thing about the day was going to our friend’s house—my babysitter’s house—so she took over Katie duty while her younger sister played with Owen. This became Katie’s favorite new activity:
The kids were having a great time playing (Owen even asked to play on the big outdoor trampoline!), I was drinking wine and visiting, and all seemed well. Until Owen came over to me asking where the bathroom was, so I went with him to show him—and watched as he puked in the toilet. Twice. Oh lovely. I told him he might be going home—if he was sick, we really couldn’t stay. He immediately started whining that he didn’t want go…he wanted to keep playing. So I told him we had to take his temperature and if he had a temp, we had to go. He didn’t have a temp, so we stayed.
The dinner was nice and it was good to be with friends—it helped not to miss Tom quite as much. But of course Owen was frustrating. He had told me he would try all the new foods…but come time, he didn’t touch anything. He claims he ate a bite of mashed potatoes but he didn’t. He didn’t even want his yogurt. Sigh. Then he had to go potty—and I went to check on him (I don’t trust him when we’re not at our house)—and it’s a good thing I did because he had peed all over the toilet, floor, and waste basket. SERIOUSLY?! Breathe. Breathe. I know where the cleaning supplies are, so off I went. It wasn’t a big deal (and they didn’t care) but still, it was like WHAT ELSE IS GOING TO HAPPEN?! Then we called it an early night because Katie was getting tired and I really just wanted to get into jammies and relax.
Once we got home, I tried pictures again…and didn’t have much more luck.
Both kids were in bed by 7 and then I got to relax…
Every once in awhile she’ll do this when I’m changing her for bed.
Those tongues again…and Katie’s words!
An unnatural sight.
I hate cleaning the floors because everything has to come off the floor. I usually put the chairs on the table so I have to clean off the table first—which is actually the worst part of the dining room. Today, however, I could have gotten away with not cleaning off the table (because I just put all the chairs in the foyer) but the table REALLY needed it. And the floor was awful since it has been a good month since I’ve cleaned it—and then Owen spilled apple juice all over the other day.
I had to take a picture because it was just so…clean…and…pretty.
Of course 10 minutes later at dinner there was strawberry, ham, and yogurt on the floor… 🙂
It’s all 100% true.
I usually don’t repost these types of things that I read on Facebook…but after a day when most of the stuff on the list has been irritating me, I really needed to see it to get a grip.
I love when she curls up like this.
Because just for an instant I have my tiny baby back. 🙂
This is why we can’t have nice things.
This just happened. I’m guessing Katie spilled milk I didn’t see and the laptop was sitting on top of it and it dried and…baked on? So it ripped off part of the ottoman which is now stuck to my laptop. Ugh.
I guess the bright side is the laptop still works—unlike when Owen stepped on it and cracked the screen.
Laundry Basketball