I've moved !

Well, not literally,  just over to a new blog. Instead of taking the time to revamp this blog ('cause I have zero patience for that), but decided to create a new blog baby.

So, if you're interested, join me over at Of House and Homies  for a new look and lots of new goodies!

You are 16 going on 17 (Well, months that is)

You love your Scott. He has become your best buddy.

You call Stewie Stew.

You say that everything is "stuck" 

By far, your most favorite thing to do is to help mommy and daddy do anything (grocery shop, unload groceries, put in laminate floors).

When you're at daycare, you tell everyone to "ssshhhh" when the babies are sleeping.

You love your MOVERS.

You don't love brushing your teeth.  

You tried to pronounce "strawberry" this week and instead pronounced your first "L" and mommy laughed very hard.

You go down your slide all by yourself now!

You know all kinds of words like "Monkey, duck, car, truck, star, cheese, keys..." 

You learned how to say "please" when you ask for something.

You are always very cranky between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. 

You fall asleep like a little champ every night!

You call your blanket your "Ba" 

You ask for mommy and daddy when one of us isn't with you.

You just learned how to fist bump and it's pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen!

You say "Hi and bye" like a little gentleman

You say "Hello" when you hold the phone up to your ear

And mommy's favorite:

You will always give us a kiss when we ask! 

  

I love you my little mona mi!  

All my love,

Mommy

Like I said...

This whole not caring thing is great. Another night went by that, post-dinner, the words "Let's just clean this up later" jumped from my mouth. I'm sure Gabe is probably wondering what on earth happened to his OCD wife, but he might not mind the replacement so much. 

Disclaimer: While I did leave the mess for quite a while last night, I did pick up....but AFTER Ethan went to bed....and only at the commercials during Modern Family!!!

However, THIS is what my kitchen looked like prior to meeting my Method spray:

Okay, this is quite possibly the hardest thing for me to swallow. I cannot stand dishes in the sink. This is like some kind of medieval torture therapy for me. But, in all fairness, the dishwasher was full of clean dishes waiting to be put away (did I mention that I can't STAND loading and unloading the dishwasher?) It's lose-lose for me, really. Can't stand putting the dishes away and can't stand dishes in the sink. Maybe I could put my dirty dishes under the sink??
 
For you germ-a-phobes out there: Ignore the sponge, I don't use that for my dishes. It's a wipe down the sink only sponge...) 

 Yes, the microwave is still dirty from Tuesday night....(okay, maybe you can't quite see it, but there's definitely still egg in there!)

 The product of not emptying the dishwasher. Every piece of silverware we own is either in the sink or in the dishwasher. Too bad you can't eat Ramen cave-man style!

(On a side note...yes, we had RAMEN noodles and grilled cheese sammies for dinner. And IT.WAS.FABULOUS. Yummy and quick: my favorite combination of words when it comes to dinner during the week.

  I don't think I'm quite ready to surrender wiping down my counter tops every night and sweeping my living room floors at least once a day, but, I am making progress. Baby steps!

Slowing down

I have this horrible tendency to do everything at the speed of light. Just this morning I realized that I am never walking behind Gabe, but rather I'm always walking 5 feet in front of him. It's not that I don't want to walk with him, it's just because I have 2 speeds, 0 and 50 and most times I'm operating at about a 47 or 48. 

Last night was the first night in a while that I actually left the kitchen a mess after dinner. The microwave had remnants of exploded egg in it (yes, I cook eggs in the microwave- very UN Martha Stewart-ish), the pan from cooking the breakfast sammies was still on the stove, the dishes were on the counter top, and my glass still had a bit of chocolate milk circling the bottom. And you know what,  I really didn't care. We brought Ethan's slide in the living room and watched him have a ball indoors while the weather outdoors was drizzly and dull. We went upstairs and gave my homie and bath and then dressed him in MIS-MATCHED jammies. Then, we played. We bowled with fuzzy paint rollers that are part of the construction mess in Ethan's soon to be a reading nook and his art nook. We took turns putting on a witch hat (that mommy puts on so everyone knows when she's crabby), we stuffed a fluffy football under Ethan's shirt and let him chest bump us and pretend to knock us over (which he found to be a complete riot). 

My point here is that I was completely out of character last night. It's not that I don't play and have fun, but that usually comes AFTER all of my cleaning is done and making sure the house is just so-so. 

Maybe it was a short-lived  evolution. Maybe it was an epiphany that will stick. I'm still not sure. All I know is that sometimes it's nice to slow down and just not care. 

It's amazing

It's amazing how different life is these days. We've traded in really late nights for really early mornings. We eat cold meals most of the time. Our living room has been taken over by bouncing balls and giant foam alphabet puzzles. A pick up and go has been replaced with a 3 week plan ahead. 2 loads of laundry has turned into 3 or 4. Our grocery list has added things like diapers and mini forks and spoons. The last book I read was "No Biting". The bathtub is littered with turtles and squirty crabs. My fall decorating has been quite scaled down (and put up high, I might add). 

And the truth of it is, I wouldn't trade it for anything. As hectic as our life gets, it's just that, our life now. We are parents first, spouses second and Jamie and Gabe last. Don't get me wrong, life isn't perfect. For example, one of the last times we went out to dinner, Ethan decided that he wanted nothing to do with sitting in a high chair, despite my desperate plea. Even after putting him on my lap he went into limp fish mode and was trying to slide under the table. We went outside and had a talk (and if I remember the conversation correctly, it went something like this:

Mommy:           "Ethan, you need to have a better attitude"

Ethan:                "Dog?"

Mommy:           "No, Ethan, there's no dog. Okay wait, yes there is a dog in that car, but we're being a little cranky and you need to behave"

Ethan:               "Dog?"

Mommy:          "Ethan, we don't eat Mommy's shirt"

Awesome. Sweet talk. I'm pretty sure I didn't even finish the dinner I ordered that night.

Then we have our evenings between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. most nights. We call this "that time" of the evening. The time when our sweet, blond haired, blue-eyed angel turns into a shell of himself. He's cranky, doesn't want to be held, but doesn't want to be put down....it's special. 

Then we have the mornings where Ethan equates having his diaper changed to having his arm ripped off. At least that's what you'd think was going on if you heard him crying. It's a really fantastic start to a morning.

BUT, then we have the moments when I sneak in Ethan's room to put away laundry early in the morning and I realize that he's popped his little head up and he's waiving at me through his crib, like this morning. 

You have the moments when Ethan always calls for the other one of us that's not with him. If just I am dropping him off at daycare, we'll get out of the car and Ethan will say "Daddy?", in the sweetest voice, because he's so used to us both dropping him off.

You have the moments when he says "MMMMMM AAAAAAA" whenever he gives you a kiss.

You have the moments where he smells a lemon or a lime with a sniff......followed by a blowing of his noise...because he doesn't quite understand that sniffing something only goes one way....in not out!

He's a character and he's a sweetheart and, just like Gabe and I do, he has his moments. When I feel like I'm losing control and I feel like my child is a nightmare, I remind myself that adults have "off" days, so why can't toddlers. And once I climb over that sense of panic that I'm going to have a bad child I realize that this is my life. This is our life. It's hurdling the struggles to get to all the good "stuff". 

And life, well it's about to get even more interesting.....to be continued. 

Wordless Wednesday

My how this little guy has grown in a year!

Wordless Wednesday

A letter to my little love

To my homie:

You have your mommy's sense of humor. You're silly just like me. You're also stubborn just like me. We give daddy a real run for his money sometimes. You have a smile that lights up the entire room and a laugh that can make even the crankiest of mommy's smile so big.
You look just like your daddy so, naturally, I fell in love with you the minute I saw you. You have mommy's big blue eyes and I think you're going to have daddy's dimples, so you're probably going to be a heart breaker. Just remember, mommy is your first love!

You have such a big personality. I love your determination to do anything, even if it's just trying to climb the back of the couch.  Again, just like me, you're impatient and you have a hard time taking no for an answer. But I know that you'll go far in life because of it.

Your hugs and kisses make me melt. I know it's silly, but if it were up to mommy, you'd stay little forever. I sometimes just sit and look at you when you're in your big room sleeping and you seem so very small. It makes me sad to think that one day you won't need me in the same way that you do now but I can promise you that even when you're big and grown, I'll always be here and waiting.

You are the center of mommy and daddy's world. We have good days and we have some bad days, but our little family is full of so much love. You're so smart that it makes mommy cry and smile all at the same time. I'm already so proud of you. Whether it's learning a new word or bending your knees to shoot a basketball already, you're so determined! You pick up your little screwdriver, just like daddy, and you already know just what to do with it.

Mommy worries about you and always tells you to be careful and daddy laughs and says that I'm silly! You're so rough and tough that I'm sure you'll have lots of bumps and bruises and mommy will always come running to kiss it and make it all better.

When you point at your belly button, mommy points to hers and tells you "That's wear you were connected to mommy" and it always makes you smile. It makes me smile, too, homie. I loved every minute that you were in my belly. I most loved your hiccups. Mommy was so sensitive while you were in her belly that it made me laugh and cry (like lots of things still do when it comes to you).

When I finally married daddy I thought that was the happiest moment of my life. And it was, until I saw you. I always wondered what kind of mommy I would be, but you make me realize every day that as long as I give you all the love I have, nothing else matters.

I call you my homie. I'm sure other people think it's silly but it's your and mommy's "thing". You give me high fives, big hugs and lots of wrestles. You are and always will be the light of my life. You are what I am most proud of.

With all my love,
Your homie, Mommy