Bad Mom

We had a few free hours one weekend and I was catching up on my dvr'd tv shows (since the kids think the own the television "I WANT DORA!" "PHINEAS & FERB!")

Nick was busy playing a game and Peri was napping, so I thought it would be safe to watch Grimm. (Grimm is the one where Nick and I watched the first episode together, thinking it'd be fun fairy tales. Until a wolf jumped across the screen, attacking a runner in a red hoodie and making us both gasp.) And this one seemed pretty tame - La Llorona - a lady who steals kids and drowns them. Ok - it doesn't sound tame when I type it out that way, but there wasn't anything scary jumping on the screen on this one.

Until Peri woke up from her nap and Nick turned around just in time to see the "lady of the water" turn into this

Peri wimpered. Nick turned around and firmly said "Mom, it's time to turn this off!"

I shouldn't question why they've both been in bed with us since this incident.

Cake and eat it too

Nick decided he wanted ring pops instead of a birthday cake for his birthday.

Happy Birthday Nick!

Look who turned 8! Rock on little man - we are so proud of you!!!!

Tired

3pm on the Day after the "best sleepover ever"

Clowns

I know you've seen the Halloween costume already. What you didn't see was a photo from her school parade. What could the little monkey be so afraid of? One of the mom's had the clever idea to dress up like a clown. Because most pre-schoolers LOVE clowns. Luckily Peri is always attached to her favorite teacher, who was there to comfort her.

Matisse

Little P is quite the artist. She comes at night and heads straight for her art table. We were working in the basement one weekend and she came down to show us she'd painted her nose red. We made the mistake of laughing. We later came up to find she'd painted herself. She was so proud.

(I will stop long enough one of these days to figure out my picture positioning issue...)

Rise of the Guardians

So you know we'll go see any kid movie that comes out. No matter how lame (Wreck It Ralph). The kids and I hit "Rise of the Guardians" last week and LOVED it. We're at the age where some kids are starting to question Santa. Nick came out of the movie amazed. "Wow, I knew Santa, Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy were real. But I didn't know about Sandman and Jack Frost!" It's cool to be a kid.

Anyone else think Nick looks a little like Jack Frost?

Hot Chicken

We keep some of our old costumes in our bin of Halloween decorations. Others stay out and are used throughout the year (every time a gaggle of boys gets together at our house, at some point they appear in various ninja/batman costumes). Peri found the old chicken costume that she and Nick both wore for their first Halloween (see Peri below from two years ago) and proceeded to wear it each week leading up to Halloween. Never mind that the crotch of the thing was riding higher than should be comfortable. She was happy in it. And would even give little chicken squawks if you said “hi” to her.

We were having some work done on our sewer and had a stinky smell in the house one day, so we lit candles all around. The kids are really good about not playing with fire, but we reminded them anyway. Guess we forgot to say – "don’t reach over the candle with a chicken outfit on". You know how costumes and PJs come with huge warnings about “DON’T GET NEAR FLAME!!!” Well, Chris and Peri were home watching TV one Sunday afternoon (that’s right, not on my watch) and Chris looked up to see our chicken reaching over the candle and “sizzling” a little. Everyone is fine (Chris, Peri and the chicken costume). We can laugh because no one got hurt. 

Parent of the year.

Halloween 2012

This Halloween restored my faith in mankind. No one smashed pumpkins on our block. The kids were all polite and not demanding. The parents all waved. One little girl even gave Chris two pieces of her candy when she found out he was giving out of Peri's bag because we'd run out of candy!

Our little monkey appears to be afraid of the big spiders...















But not to fear - Master Sensei Wu will save her!

Too early for me, but I'll figure out why these photos are fine until I post and they turn sideways...grrrrr.

No peeing in the water

Conversation from this summer (I have it on authority from most other moms that I'm not the only one who tells their kids this):

Peri: I have to pee
Heather: (whisper) Just pee in the ocean
Peri: WHAT?
Heather: (whisper) Just pee in the ocean
Peri: I DON'T WANT TO PEE IN THE OCEAN
Lifeguard and everyone around us staring at us.

Several minutes later:
Nick: I have to pee
Heather: (whisper) Just pee in the ocean
Nick: Really?
several minutes
Nick: MOM, I'M DOING IT!!!
More stares from lifeguards and people

Headless Dora

Peri had a lifesize Dora balloon for her birthday party this past July. It had weights on the feet to keep it grounded. That sucker stayed inflated for weeks! Until one morning Peri got downstairs before everyone else and let out a bloodcurdling yell. I rushed down to find her pointing at a headless Dora balloon standing four feet high. Seems the head came unattached during the night and had floated to the ceiling. A few lame tries by be on the ottoman were scratched. I finally had the bright idea to use Nick's "grabber" - those things that you pull a lever and it pinches the hands together to pick up stuff/pinch your sister - and was able to get it.

Phew - glad it was just Dora!

Dia de los muertos

Day of the dead party and the kids decorated sugar skulls.

Holy Smokes!

Peri is now at St. Ben's preschool and in the big building with Nick. She has an adorable teacher who is JUST like Peri (that's what we told Peri to help comfort her before starting school) - she has blond curly hair, likes to run and likes cheese! "See Peri, just like you!" Peri ate that up.

Preschool at St. Ben's also means "Jesus Time", so I shouldn't have been surprised last night to hear Peri in her bedroom at bedtime saying "and Father and Son and Holy Ghost". Wow-they learn early! This should make for some interesting three year old conversations...

Happy girl

Oh, it's fun to have a "girl day" with Mom-Mom!

Cross Country

Anyone who's ever seen our calendar or stayed with us can confirm that we tend to over commit ourselves. But that was last year. This is this year! We narrowed Nick down to two fall/winter sports (cross country and ice hockey) and now have Nick and Peri at the same school (one drop off, one pick up - ROCK ON!)

Both kids seem happy with the new schedule. Now if they'd only go to bed on time...

Our kids are on the left of the attached photos.

Birthday Fun!

Peri had her first real birthday party! Turning three is a big deal. She had three little friends over for cupcakes, sprinkler fun and nail painting. It was funny to see Peri navigate the party scene - "what do I do when my friends come in?" "now what do i do with these gifts they're handing me?" "can i eat all of these cupcakes?!"

Grandparents

Cool things about Grandparents? They'll let you drive their cars. Even when you're only three!

Baseball is Over!!!!

It's been a long season. A really long season of trying to juggle two practices a week and get to 1-2 games a weekend. Worth it? Of course! Glad it's over? YES!!!

Cedar Point

Annual trip to Cedar Point this weekend with the A's. Boys get taller every year and Peri gets more vocal. "I no wanna ride the roller coaster. I wanna ride the roller coaster. I want ice cream. I need to pee..."

Wink

PJ taught Peri how to wink a few weeks back. Think she can do it better than I can!

Bad Dad

I can't remember how this came about, but at some point someone was chugging a drink (non-alchoholic) and Chris taught Nick to chant "chug chug chug...". I came out on the back deck a few weeks ago to hear Nick AND Peri chanting it to Chris. Klassy.

1st Grade Picnic

Better late than never?

St. Ben's has a picnic day at the end of the school year. They went to a big city park and had a nice mix of organized games and free play. A friend got this great shot of Nick during the sack race. I love it.

We took a little time off for spring break last month. Sigh – make that three months ago. Kids had so much fun sleeping in the same bed together, playing all day, eating ice cream several times a day. Imagine Peri’s disappointment when Monday morning rolled around and she woke up thinking we were playing again, but found me dressed in my work clothes. She smiled hello, then frowned as she asked what I was wearing and then screamed “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Ha! It’s what we would say if we could!

Everyone Poops

Everyone poops. But girls usually don’t announce it. We have certain etiquette such as leaving an empty stall between you and others in the bathroom if possible. And not blatantly announcing or making noises that would announce what you’re doing in the stall. Well, my little bathroom buddy has been calling me out recently. If Peri has to go to the restroom, I go in with her. If I have to go, she comes in with me. Last week she announced in her loud, almost-3-year old voice “Are you pooping?!” I told her no, in the hopes that everyone else in the bathroom would not know what I was up to.  I tried to quickly flush the toilet, but eagle-eyes Peri announced “Mom! You did poop!” Gee, thanks. Should we walk out front and alert everyone? This has now happened three times to me. I either need to have a talk with this girl, or save my private business for home.

Bad Squirrel

Peri and I were having an evening picnic during Nick's baseball practice last week. She was happily eating her PB&J when she decided she had to pee. So off we went to the bathrooms. I made sure to pack all our food away before we left our blanket. So imagine our surprise to come back and find her sandwich missing. I looked all around and couldn't figure out who would steal her sandwich. Kids? Dogs? And then I saw it. The squirrel eating a sandwich bigger than his head. Peri was so mad and demanded "GET MY SANDWICH FROM THAT SQUIRREL!" Ask her about it now. She'll tell you the entire story.

Pink

Peri tells me in the car tonight, "For Halloween I'm going to dress up as pink diarrhea!" Hmmmm. I'm guessing she thought she was saying something else.

Soft cheeks

Nick has a friend at school who I adore. Zoe. She's got the biggest eyes, and the cutest brown bob with bangs. And she's super sweet. Just love her! He copies her homework at aftercare and she shares tips from her big brother on new iPad apps to try out. I can only imagine what she might be learning from Nick. He's opposed to any girls as girlfriends, so we try to downplay their friendship a bit.

Nick always marvels on how soft Peri's skin is. One day we were all rubbing her (sounds much weirder than it was) and Nick commented how soft her skin was. Then he dreamily said "You know who else has soft cheeks? Zoe does." Chris and I looked at each other and then tried to casually ask "How do you know how soft her cheeks are?" Then he smiled and said "Because I do this to her all the time" and he grabbed both his cheeks and pulled them out in a grandma/pinching you cheeks sorta way. Cute!

Nick - girls like Zoe...no hoochies!!!

Girls day out

Peri and I found ourselves with an unexpected afternoon last weekend. After lunch and some sampling at Sephora, we took a train ride.

Bridget does Cinco de Mayo

Klepto

I got a bracelet for my birthday that Peri LOVES. The first time I wore it, she couldn't stop touching it and begged to wear it.

One night I went to a pilates class with the bracelet on, so I took it off and left it in my car. When I got home, I brought it inside, set my stuff down and went to say goodnight to everyone. I came back downstairs and the bracelet was gone. I totally remembered bringing it inside, but I still searched my car, the sidewalk, all over the downstairs. I mean, I'd only been home 30 minutes and the kids were upstairs - where could it have gone? Told C I lost it and he did the exact same search I did. Later I told C that I thought Peri had stolen my bracelet. He scoffed at how I could possibly blame a sweet two year old.

Well, next morning, I ask Peri if she's seen my bracelet and she proudly announced "Yep! It's in Nick's room!" And there in a pile of blankets is my new bracelet. Sigh.

Robbers

Nick came into my room late the other night to tell me he was afraid of robbers. I told him we had awesome security and there was no way anyone was going to get him. Explained the alarms on the windows and doors and the fact that my room is 8 steps away from his.

Fast forward to the next morning and Chris leaving before us (never happens) and automatically setting the alarm out of habit. Nick bounding down the stairs because he's getting to watch his show before Peri. Nick scurrying back up the stairs as the alarm goes off, caused by motion detector at bottom of stairs. Nick and Peri wide-eyed and running around upstairs while I yell down "Chris? You got it?" Me finally getting that he's not down there and getting the alarm off. Alarm company calling to see if there are any problems and asking for our "codeword". Sigh. It's 7am, I got two scared kids, can't figure out where my husband is and you want a code word? I give her two options. She says she can only take one. Thank god I picked the right one, or we could have had some extra drama before work!

Scary!

The kids looked like monsters on spring break, but luckily didn't act like them.

April is here...

and so are spring sports!

Reptiles

Nick's swimming class got moved to another location for a few weeks. How lucky that the Reptile Show was at the new location this weekend (in the gym, not the pool)! The boy was in heaven.

Big Gap

Nick finally lost his front teeth. I adore that gap. He must be tired of me saying “hey bud –give me a big smile!” One hung there for weeks. Feel out one night while he was brushing his teeth. I don’t remember mine just “falling out”. I remember pulling/tugging/pain. He thought the tooth fairy would have brought him more money since those are big teeth.

Big Girl Bed

For a while we had a twin mattress on P’s floor to get her used to a big girl bed. No problem! Then she got a cool net that hung from the ceiling and went around her bed. That was fun til C sat on the tulle and ripped the thing out of the ceiling. Then we brought up the stand and box spring. Not as interested. So we bought her a super cute comforter cover. Eh. She’s much rather be in our bed. She’s even tried to sleep on the floor next to me. Poor little thing. I get it. Being near mom & dad after being away from them all day is all she wants. But there’s that part of me that says “she should be in her own bed and not on my floor” even though it’s not really harming anyone.

Yesterday I threatened with “if you don’t sleep in your bed, I’m giving it away to another little girl”. Kinda worked. She wandered around our room until 10pm, crying and yawning and begging to come into our bed. Finally got her into hers and she was asleep. Surprise surprise to wake up this morning and think “how’d she get in our bed?!” (and full on blame Chris since I knew I hadn’t brought her in.) Only to find I was in her bed. Sigh. Went in to help her last night and apparently got a little too cozy laying next to her to rub her back.

Poop in the Potty

Peri has been wearing big girl underwear since the fall. Still wears a pull up to bed and still has accidents. Such is life. But she won’t poop in the potty. Refuses. She’ll stand there and know it’s coming and I’ll yell “let’s get to the potty!” but she’ll scream the entire way there. She did fall into the big potty a few months back, so maybe it’s left over from that? I’ve bought her a Dora seat, carried her little potty up the stairs and down the stairs, bribed her, threatened her. Nothing. Any advice welcome...

Swim Lessons

Finally. Yes, Nick is 7 and just now taking swim lessons. Guess it’s better than being 12 and taking them.

We tried when he was three, but what fun is getting into the freezing water with your parents just to have some stranger tell you to blow bubbles. Mom doesn’t want to put her head in the icy water either!

The new place is indoors, with two square pools about 9x9 with ledging all around the inside that they can perch on. About six kids and two teachers. Nick was not excited to go to his first class last week. “I’m going to sink.” Jeesh – what kind of a lesson did he think this was?! But he and the other new student bonded and Nick walked out saying “That was awesome!” Rock on. The four year wait was worth it.

Miss Piggy

This is how far behind I am on stories…we were with some friends watching the new Chipmunks movie a few months ago. Peri fell asleep right as the previews ended. How she did that with all the singing and dancing I’ll never know…About an hour later she woke up and said (very loudly) “Where’s Miss Piggy?!” Her little friend said back (just as loudly) “She’s in the other movie!” They are going to make great old ladies.

McD's

As much as I hate McDonald's (and yet love their fries), we stop there at least once a week for happy meals. Usually we're rushing from work, picking up kids, onto sports, tiger scouts, some outing...all to then rush home and get homework done before bedtime. Seriously, how much can you fit into two hours?! But look how happy it makes the kids!

Pee Pee Frog

Meet pee pee frog. Tiny, rubber frog that the kids play with. It streteches. And is sticky too - thus all the fuzzies on it. One day Peri was playing with it and then lost it. Imagine our joy at seeing it fall out of her diaper (this was back when she wore diapers) when we went to change it. Of course we immediately started tossing around the frog at each other and yelling "pee pee frog!"We are all just kids...

Lost!

Nick, Peri and Chris were super busy last weekend. Soccer, hockey, birthday parties, a trip to Ikea (no!), errands...So when Sunday night came and Iris was missing, we hoped she was in C's car. Nope. Poor Iris!

We started with the last place they remembered having her (water park birthday party) and talked to a nice young lady named Nicole. We tried to describe Iris ("a dirty pink/purple/mauvey elephant. well loved.") Nicole went looking and came back saying "I think I found it. Kinda looks like an elephant." I asked if it had black velvet on its tail and we had a match.

(the mark on P's forehead is from a incident involving running and a door jam. Three weeks ago!)

New Teeth

Look at Nick's adult teeth!


Just kidding! But he has lost his two bottom teeth. More like they just fall out of his mouth because the new ones are coming in so fast.

The other night he came in our room around 10pm to show us his tooth had fallen out. I was too tired to get up and take care of everything. I always get up before the household, so figured there would be plenty of time in the morning. You can imagine his dismay the next morning when the tooth was still in the tooth pillow. Oops! We explained that the tooth fell out late and he was up early, so the tooth fairy probably hadn't had time to get the text about needing to get to his house. But while he was downstairs complaining about her not coming, she came! Woo hoo!

Helicopter

Everytime we go to Walgreen's, Nick sees a remote control helicopter and goes nutty over it. While Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop were in town over Thanksgiving, Nick and Mom-Mom went to Walgreen's to pick up Uno. And came back with a remote control helicopter. Nick was SO excited! Nick and I flew it around the house, but weren't so good at controlling it. Basically the helicopter flying from ground to ceiling in two seconds and then crashing. Chris got ahold of it and took it outside. Nick begged him not to. He'd seen an episode of Modern Family where the boys lose a remote control flying thing. I told him not to worry. So out Chris goes. And up the helicopter goes. And goodbye helicopter. REALLY?! Technically it just went over the neighbors roof and got stuck in their gutter. See the tiny spec on the right hand side?

So handyman Chris rigs up a lasso from our bedroom door. We stood on the deck and laughed (except for Nick who was crying) until he actually lassoed the thing! But one quick tug and the helicopter was just further in the gutter.

I still think the laugh was worth $20.

Poop on the Floor

Come on, it's been a while since we had one of these stories...

So Peri is potty trained and rockin it. Most days...When she says she has to go, you run like hell to get her to the nearest bathroom. She also likes to say "I pooping" when she really just needs to pee. We were at Nick's hockey game and Peri gave the signal. We ran, got there in time. Yay! And no poop. Until I got her pants on, both of our hands washed and turned around to find a piece of poop on the floor. Huh?!?!? Whose is that? How'd it get there. No way is that ours, is it? So I used 50+ paper towels and cleaned up the poop and we moved on with life.

A few nights later we're eating dinner and Peri says "I pooping". So I run her to the bathroom and we make it in time. And no poop. Until I look on the floor. Seriously?! The only thing we can figure is that in my haste to get her pants down and fling her on the toilet, I'm also flinging some poop out of her pants or bum.



Good times!

Definitely not on the xmas card...

Santa Came!

Love Christmas!!! Peri opened up her princess dress first and wore it the rest of the day. Actually until dinner when she spilled her sparkling grape juice all over it and the floor.



Nick couldn't open his gifts fast enough. Made him promise to never take apart the Ninjago Temple that took us 2 days to build.