I Love...

I love the baby curls on P's head when she gets out of the bath. A bit Phyllis Dillarish looking, but still adorable.

Christmas!

Oh, how fabulous is it to be a kid at Christmas time?! Nick was up at 7:30am - "Come on guys, the toys!" We stalled him for 10 minutes and then finally had to wake Peri up. Nick got downstairs before I could get a clean diaper on P. Luckily Chris was prepped with camera and video to catch him.

I love the sleepy looks on their faces. Peri couldn't stop saying "Dolls! Dolls!" What must she have thought was going on this day?

6 yrs old!

Who would have guessed that our little guy is six years old today?! 11pmish tonight is his actual birthday. THAT close to being a Christmas baby. He had his birthday party last weekend at the movie theater with 24 of his nearest and dearest. Lesson learned - 24 kids is way too many to handle. Thank goodness 4 moms stayed on to help.

The kids ate blue frosted cupcakes, watched Yogi Bear and ate so much popcorn that no one wanted lunch.


We weren't sure how long Peri would last. She made it to the end. Barely.


Happy Birthday Nick!

Baby Dolls

So to anyone who says that gender stereotypes are learned, I saw boo. I think I told you guys how I was in the Dollar Store and Nick was eyeing all the trucks trying to figure out if he wanted the dinosaur truck or the scorpion truck. He ended up with dino. Meanwhile, Peri (who at this point had always played with Nick's fake snakes and Transformers) found a bin of dolls at her level and started squealing. $2 later we left with two happy kids. Except Peri's doll was ugly. And had no feet. And was wearing an outfit so cheap that it was already ripping.

We met Chris for dinner and he looked at the "finds" of the day with suspicion. With good reason.



So a few days/weeks later I decided to take Peri to the real toy story for a real baby. Oh, she's cute and she smells like vanilla! Peri loves her. Except she still loves her other baby too and insists on carrying them (and purple/pink elephant) around and to bed. So for Christmas, she's getting nothing but baby dolls! She might just poop herself when she comes downstairs Christmas morning. I can hardly wait!

Yellow Jersey

And you thought it was just for biking. Turns out a yellow jersey is the next step in hockey too! And guess who got his last month?! (Maybe two months ago because it's taken me so long to get this video uploaded) Coach told Nick his skates were smokin'! Nick had no clue what that meant. I don't doubt that he looked down to see if there was smoke coming out of his skates.

Look at the little guy go!

Baby?

So I’ve been good about exercise since the fall. Really good. I mean, I’ve been religious about getting my scheduled workouts in. I’ve been running in the cold. I’ve been getting my butt kicked in a heart core class. I’ve been waking Chris up with my 5am alarm. So you can imagine my disappointment when Nick and I were brushing our teeth the other night and he touched my belly and happily exclaimed “You’ve got another baby in your belly!” I then had to politely explain that no, there wasn’t a baby in there. I was just fat. He didn’t seem to mind. He happily moved onto a little rant about how some people are fat and some aren’t. Sigh.

PopPop

Nick came home with a paper the other day and written on it was "Jack" "Matt" "Cooper" and "Popop". I saw it and thought "How cute - he listed his best friends and PopPop. I should send it to Dad - he'd get a kick out of it." Luckily I didn't, as I overheard Chris asking Nick about the paper and Nick reading "Popop" as "poop". He was trying to spell "poop". Sweet.

Sock Roulette

So we've always enjoyed tossing socks up on the ceiling fan and watching them fly off. Yes, the little things that bring joy. This weekend we figured out it was even more fun to toss one up there and sit still to see who it lands on. It was all fun and games until one landed on Nick while he wasn't watching. "That doesn't count!"

First Snow!

We woke up Saturday to find the first snow of the year. Nick came downstairs and didn't notice it at first. Then all of a sudden, "It snowed?! Woo-hoo!" Peri looked like a snow bunny in training with her fur topped boots and skinny jeans.

I wasn't as happy to see the snow, since I'd signed up for the Santa Hustle 5k run.

But it ended up being a great day for everyone.

Bored

Five years old like to play and talk. A lot. We tried to keep up with Nick on the long Thanksgiving weekend, but looks like we failed on the last day and brought out the tv babysitter. Don't judge unless you've been there.

Dolls!

Peri is doll crazy. Think I told you about the one she found at the Dollar Store. Then I decided that if she was going to carry a doll around, it might as be a cute one with legs instead of stuffed fabric. Well, we were in Target and I decided to get her another doll for Christmas, thinking she could play with it in the cart and wouldn't remember when she unwrapped it at Christmas. Wrong, she screamed trying to get it out of the box. I finally had to go to Customer Service and ask the man to cut the doll out of the twist ties holding her in. He has kids and completely understood. Luckily Peri fell asleep in the car on the way home, so we were able to sneak Christmas baby doll away from her.

Yes, we're still working on her hair...

Indian

Nick is learning about Indians and Pilgrims at school. I told him that he has a little bit of Indian in him and boy did that make his day! It's all he talks about now. I can only imagine what he went to school telling his teachers. All I know is he came home dressed like an Indian today.

Cute

Found these on my camera. Cute.

Reading!

Our little man is learning how to read! The other night he was telling me all the words he can read - "my", "the", "I" and "Beware of Rats". Yes, he's a city kid.

Shoes

Did I ever show you those cute new baby shoes?

Chilling with Big Brother

This photo must be from a few months ago because she appears to be milk drunk off of the bottle in the foreground.

Darth Vadar and his pet chicken

Well, I balked at the pricetag of the Boba Fet costume for Nick and they were all gone when we went back to the store. Most kids don't listen to "let's go home and get it online". They want it NOW. So I give you...Darth Vadar.


And his pet chicken.

He likes to push her around in a car at Halloween parties in the burbs.

Until he pushes her so fast that she flies out the door. Evil he is.

Skinny Jeans

Skinny jeans. Peri has skinny jeans. Oh yes, those fabulous folds are on full display in these stretchy pants. Does anyone watch “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”? Imagine Danny DeVito in his skinny jeans and you can imagine the apple shape that Peri resembles in hers. Adorable.

The Death

Last night I said I was "freezing to death" and Nick asked me to explain. Was halfway into my typical nonsense explanation when Nick interrupted with "Do you know what death is?" I asked him what it was and he said "It's when you're dead!" Good job. Then he went on to tell me that a friend at school had given him 'the death'. Huh? I asked Nick how he gave him 'the death' and Nick said "I'll show you" and popped his middle finger at me. He was so proud to share! I tried not to laugh and told him "Oh buddy, that's not 'the death'. That's something that means a bad That's a kindergarten brain trying to comprehend what 'F*#k you' means.

Eagle Monster!

Not only is our little (big) guy learning to read/write, he’s learning punctuation! Think I could use a refresher there…We were working on his homework last night and I was spelling out “My favorite part was the eagle monster.” Tried to show him where to put the period and he asked me to read the sentence back to him. He then repeated it and said “Eagle monster. Eagle Monster! Why don’t we put one of those things with the line and the dot so we can make it say “Eagle Monster!”. Ah, the joy of exclamation points!

Stories

Nick loves his bedtime stories. I usually tell elaborate stories with Nick as the hero, after which he asks "Will you tell Dad to come tell me one?". So last night Chris went in Nick's room and moments later I heard peels of laughter. This is the story Chris was telling...

Once upon a time, Mommy, Daddy and all the aunts were at Grammy's house. They took a walk around the neighborhood to get some fresh air. They walked by a a big, scary house. Dad said "This is a haunted house." They heard a little song "when the log rolls over, we'll all be dead". They went inside and could still hear the song "when the log rolls over, we'll all be dead". Aunt Shannon and Aunt Andrea ran screaming out of the house. Then they all went to the basement. A bat flew out of a corner. Aunt Megan and Aunt Gretchen ran out. As they ran out they heard ""when the log rolls over, we'll all be dead". It was just Mom and Dad left. They went upstairs and held each other because they were so scared. "When the log rolls over, we'll all be dead". They got to the top of the stairs and Dad said "It sounds like it's coming from the bathroom". They opened the bathroom door and heard louder singing "when the log rolls over, we'll all be dead". They opened the toilet lid and there were three flies with their legs stuck in a piece of poop. "When the log rolls over, we'll all be dead".

Nick just about peed himself he was laughing so hard at this story. This is apparently what kids learn in summer camp in the 70s.

Alive

We're here. Just busy trying to keep up with life. Nick just moved onto the yellow team at hockey! Coach said his skates were smokin! Peri is doing her best robot/Frankenstein imitation and walking up a storm. Moving into the big kid room at school in two weeks! And Chris is starting his new job November 1st. Looks like more fun to come!

Momma Mia

One of the fun things about Kindergarten is learning rhymes from the other kids. He seems to have a new one every day.

"Momma Mia, Momma Mia, baby's got the diarrhea!"
"We want a pitcher, not a belly itcher"
"We want a batter, not a funny ladder" (that doesn't sound right, but that's what he says)

Golden Delicious

Nick is studying Johnny Appleseed at school. Each day they're trying something new with apples. They did a taste test of different kinds of apples and turns out golden delicious are his favorite! I'm a Fiji/Braeburn kinda gal and usually only buy those, so poor Nick hasn't had the opportunity to test other apples. Jeesh - don't I feel bad for depriving him all these years.

Car Snack

I'm sure I've told you about car snack. It's the first thing Nick says when he gets into the car at night, "Where's my car snack?" Nick isn't so great at sharing his car snack and Peri is getting big enough to realize she is missing out on something! So the other day I bought Peri her own car snack. Nick hopped in the car, asked where his snack was and then asked what Peri was eating. Priorities.

Now when Peri sees me getting her car snack out of the box, she howls like a howler monkey until I can get it to her in the back seat. Today she wanted Nick's car snack (Pirate's Booty) more than her snack and yelled until he gave her one. I realize I'm rewarding that behavior (yell and you'll get it), but it's hard when you're trying to get 2 kids home before it's bedtime. "Nick! Give her some booty!" He just sits there, laughs and gives her one at a time.

Walking

The time has finally come - walking video! Peri's been taking steps for a while now, but I feel like it has really been since this past weekend that she's officially walking. Of course I went to get her some new girl shoes right away! (photos of those cute things to come)

Squirrel in the House!

We had a squirrel in the house today. Nope, not Peri the girl squirrel. A real one. Yep, we live in the city. I was on the back deck and had left the door open. Nick came running in telling me there was a squirrel in the house. "In the basement?" I asked. Nope. In our living room. I ran in the hall to find a squirrel under our chair looking at me. Apparently the same scene Nick walked in on. I yelled into the basement to Chris "Chris! Help! There's a squirrel in the house!" then I opened the front door, shut the basement door and tried to figure out what to do. Helpful Chris then emerged from the basement with a lacrosse stick and proceeded to frighten the squirrel. Have I ever told you the story about Pop-Pop, the squirrel and the bb gun in our house growing up? Anyway, I shooed us all into the dining room to let the squirrel have some room to move into. Then when he got to the hallway we ran at him and chased him out the front door. Ever seen a squirrel run on hardwood floors? Hee hee. The thought of getting a picture dawned on me after the fiasco.

Berries

A few weeks ago we were eating raspberries out of a bowl. We got to the bottom of the bowl and found a few moldy raspberries. We left them in the bowl and moved on with life. A while later I looked at Peri with berries all around her mouth. Thinking it was from earlier, I didn't think twice. Til I went to put the bowl in the kitchen and found it empty of berries. A little mold never hurt anyone, right?

Noches!

Nick digs school. I drill him with everyday "How was your day? Did you learn anything new? What are your friends names?" and can't get a thing out of him. Finally he said he learned "noches" in Spanish. Rock on! He said it meant "tired". So the two of us goofed around with "I'm noches" "I'm noches too". I finally added in "I'm muy noches". Something just didn't seem right, but...I took Spanish for years in high school. And suddenly "Buenos Noches" came to mind. Wait a minute..."noches" means "night" not "tired"! The next day I asked if the teacher did this (put hands together under her head like she was sleeping) to teach them "noches". Yes. Tired. Ha!

Homework

I love homework. Math was my favorite.

I do not love Kindergarten homework. It could be a lot of fun but instead it's Nick dragging his heels and pouting while I yell at him to hurry before bed time. Our precious few night hours this week have been nothing but yelling/crying. Windows were open tonight, so the neighbors got to hear me lose my temper. Sweet.

I hate homework.

Lunch or Nap?

Got this photo texted to me from Peri's daycare last week. Yes, she's sleeping. Love it! They said she does this often.

Beach Beauty

Went to the beach last weekend and ended up spending the day there. We met several of Nick's friends there, so the boys were busy playing and swimming. Peri was in heaven in the sand and water. So much so that she wouldn't take her nap! Finally collapsed at 3:30pm. Look at that scrumptious right cheek!

Bedhead

My favorite thing about these photos? They were taken in our bedroom while I was fast asleep. Thank you Chris!

Happy Day

Practicing her model poses.


Apple juice on a hot day.

Family Yoga

Nick and I hit a family yoga class this weekend. Totally cool teacher who made it fun for the kids and parents. At one point we went around the room saying our name and favorite animal. Then she would lead us in a pose based on the animal. Cat, rabbit, dog...the usual animals. Until we got to Nick. "My name is Nicholas and my favorite animal is a spinosaurus". Huh? I explained to the teacher that it was a type of dinosaur. Nick then happily explained that they have spines on their back and eat people. That got a few of the boys in the class excited! Apparently there's no dinosaur pose in yoga, but the teacher did a nice job improvising. She asked Nick if people were around when dinosaurs were (since they were apparently eating people). I told her it depended on what movie you watched - go Jurassic Park! I mean ommmmmmm.

School Boy!

Nick started Kindergarten Friday! I came downstairs to find him fully dressed in his uniform, hair brushed, eating breakfast. Thank you Chris! We all walked to school together and ran into his friend Cooper. Took lots of photos along the way and outside school until he finally said “I just want to get in there!” Point taken. He hopped in his room, plopped down in his chair (sits at a table with 3 other kids) and started coloring. My little man is all grown up!

Cute Baby

Time for cute baby photos!

JLo

We know Peri likes to dance. Found that out at a block party earlier this summer when we let her stay out much too late. Then her teacher told me they had JLo playing one afternoon and Peri entertained them (and surprised) them all with her non-stop dancing. Runs in the family!

Snake

We've been living with a 4+ foot snake in our bathtub for five weeks. Aunt Ta-Ta brought Nick a rubber/spongey snake during her last visit. It's one of those ones that you put in water and it grows 4x its size. But this one started out a foot long. And had to stay in water five days! So Aunt Ta-Ta went home while we all stepped around the snake each morning. And woke up in a panic screaming "I forgot to put water in for the snake!" Not even sure what the cleaning ladies must have thought. Doesn't bode well for pets some day.

Memory

So most five year olds have the best memory. They remember things you'd never in a million years think they'd picked up on. A few weeks ago Tracey and I went to LA to visit Jen and her family. She's got two adorable kids - Daphne (5 1/2) and Owen (1). We were with them for three days and Daphne continued to call us "the other girl" when one of walked out of the room. But apparently she remembered both our names once we left.

I took a red-eye home and came home to a sleeping house. Nick's first wake up word was "Mommy!" followed by "I saw bugs! We went to the zoo and..." I told him a story about the skunks that walk through Jen's yard. And he saw the sunburn I got while on the open-air "Star's Homes" tour bus. A few days later he said "You know that place you went? You know, where there were skunks and you got a sunburn". That would be LA in Nick's mind. I'm just the "other girl".

Syrup

Have I talked about Captain Knuckles before? He's a character from "Misadventures of Flapjack" and he carries around a jug of maple syrup and drinks it like hooch. (Ha ha, love that word) And the similarity between him and Nick? Nick is about to loose "waffle breakfast" privileges bc he's drinking too much syrup.

Parenting

It's hard being a working parent. Note below from Chris last week. I'm glad I get pick up duty.

"Two kids off to school. Mostly fed and mostly dressed (Peri's wearing shorts and a tank top)."

Astro Shannon

This is why Aunt Ta-ta needs a kid...

Ed Grimley's Sister

Poor Peri. She's got the sweetest little hair. But there's a big curl in the front that reminds me of Ed Grimley the way it sticks up. Hopefully she'll grow out of that.