I *heart* my valentine

Well, I posted about what I got for Valentine's Day, but I didn't post about what I got him.

Mister loves sweets, and his favorite type of cake is a petit four. I contacted Rach and scheduled her to make a custom cake in the shape and design of a very large petit four. It had four layers of almond cake with raspberry preserve filling and a buttercream icing. Rach also included nine chocolate covered strawberries...SWEET! Rach makes the very best cakes I have have even eaten, and I was so excited that I was able to get on her schedule.

Mister was very surprised and delighted with his Valentine's day treat. It was the gift that just kept giving..we had it for dinner, breakfast, lunch...dinner....

Beary Happy

I came home the other day and found a package from my dad at my front door. I opened it and inside I found this Mother/Baby panda bear toy. He didn't include a note or any indicator of if it is for me other the children. Doesn't matter really, it is truly a delightful toy. If you press one if the Mother bear's paws, she begins a little song dispensing life advice to her baby bear. Her head and her mouth move as she sings her little ditty.

Just then, the baby bear takes over and sings a verse or two. The children really go wild when this happens. Moving, singing bears are a BIG HIT in this house.

The song they sing cracks me up. They are obviosly Northern Californian, Low-Carb, Vegetarian bears. Some of the lyrics incude..

"Look both ways when you cross the street"
"Button up you overcoat, when the wind is free"
"Eat an apple every day"
"Take the spoon out of your cup when you drink tea"
"Don't eat meat (eeewww)"
"Cut out the wheat (eeeww), or you'll get a pain and ruin your tum tum"

Only in Cali. Thanks, dad!

*play*date*

Ray is G's little friend from school. The two of them make a great pair, both being a bit on the reserved side at first, but once engaged, they are both very playful and fun. They agree on most every game, and on this day made each other friendship bracelets. Bosom Buddies at 4.

Ray has a little brother, Cee. Cee and Little Guy are close to the same age, and actually seems to play well together in their own toddler boy way. Cee body checks Little Guy, Little Guy pouts, Cee hugs him. Then Little Guy shoves Cee and Cee goes down, and Little Guys consoles him. It is interesting to watch, and I believe it is a strong indication of how the male human relates to other male humans, not just in toddlerhood, but throughout his life.

Today we are headed back up to their house for another playdate. It's great for me, too, because Ray and Cee's mom is a very cool chick who like to indulge in some well earned coffee talk. And we both like McDonalds. Kindred Spirits.

{selective} Hearing

We are having fish for dinner. I don't know what kind of fish, and I don't really care since I am not the one cooking it. All I know is that it is being grilled on an oak plank. Said oak plank needed to be soaked in water.

Husband said to me, have you soaked the plank. I said, What? No. I forgot.

Husband said, Where is a container large enough to soak the oak plank?

I said, try the bathtub.

Husband went outside and put said plank in the rainwater collecting container. Acid rain on the food. Delicious.

Husband then went on the internet to look up how long said oak plank needed to soak. As he did so, I browsed the parenting magazine from last month that has been lingering on the kitchen counter.

"Soak plank for....Tewnty..Four..Hours"

"24 hours!?!" I exclaim!

"Soak plank for at least Twenty MINUTES or up to Four Hours" husband retorts.

Talk about selective hearing.

Delivered!

I created this announcement today. What do you think?I need more newborns to take pictures of. Let me know if you have one I can borrow!

We see the {sea}

Here are a few I found from G and Little Guy's first trip to the beach. G has been there before, but she was too little to remember. Southwest Florida has the very best beaches... all sugar sand and low waves. Little Guy was screeching so loudly that he scared the seagulls away. He had a great time lolling about in the water getting completely soaked.

It was a glorious day.

I don't like GREEN olives

I am in the process of sorting through all of the images that I have neglected since last summer, and while doing so I came across some snapshots I took when G had her little friend D over for thier very first playdate in July. D is a very sweet little girl, and is very sure of herself and her preferences. When preparing for our "picnic" the girls were rummaging through the refrigerator finding things that they wanted to eat. G suggested some large green olives; we always have loads of them tucked away as I am rarely without a dirty martini on Friday night.

"G's mom" D says, "I prefer BLACK olives, not green olives. Do you have any BLACK olives in the pantry?"

I was a bit surprised that a 3 year old would have such strong opinions on olives. As it turned out, I did have a can of black olives in the pantry and thus, all was well with the world.

Now, I make sure to stock the pantry with BLACK olives, just so we have some for when D comes over.

Gift Giver

I had a very wonderful Valentine's day. I woke up late and the children were good to me, getting dressed without much prompting and even brushing their hair and teeth without being told. I went downstairs to brew a cuppa joe to get the morning rolling, and when I opened the cabinet to get out my coffee cup I found this:

I had been wanting this movie for months now, as I am definitely a Harry Potter fan. Not a fanatic, mind you, just a fan. If I was a fanatic, I would surely have owned this by now.

After enjoying my coffee and packing G's lunch, I went on a search and destroy mission for a clean pair of pants. Remembering that I had some waiting for me in the dryer, I went to the laundry room to get dressed. As I was squeezing into the freshly dried jeans ( I should really stop drying my clothes in the dryer, I swear they shrink a half a size every time) I look up and see:

Now I AM a Gilmore Girls fanatic. For 7 years Tuesday nights were sacred, my time to hang out with the Girls and learn a little bit about pop culture from the bits and pieces mentioned during their witty banter. Those Girls had some great writers. Yay! My collection is complete!

Finally I am dressed, the kids are ready, all buckled safely in their carseats, when what do I find waiting for me on the front seat but the newest release of my favorite artist, Mr. Jack Johnson! It had stickers on it, too, but I couldn't wait to listen to the cd and thus the stickers are in the garbage with the rest of the wrapping. Jack is a very soothing guy, and the icing on the cake of my wonderfully surprising Valentine's Day morning.

Which brings me to my wonderful husband, the gift giver. He is always so thoughtful with his gift giving, it really astounds me sometimes. Sure, there was the crock pot birthday, when he got me a crock pot, a little dipper AND the Fix it and Forget It cookbook (I detest crock pots, too messy) and the Costco underwear one Valentine's Day (he was thinking quantity, less laundry for me to do,I suppose); but then there was last Valentine's Day when he got me an assortment of dark chocolates and every single gossipy rag mag available so I could have a day of complete indulgence. And there was that Mother's Day that he got me my very first diamond necklace...a solitare that he had special ordered just for me. And one year for the holidays he got me a suitcase (which I needed) and filled every pocket with a different gift. He really is quite good to me.

According to my friend Di, gift giving is his love language. Love language or not, I'll take it. I hope he knows how much I appreciate the thoughtfulness.

Baby Ryan's Final Announcement

I am so happy with this one. His parents are going to do this on one side of a 5x7 press printed paper card and the full photo below on the back. That way, the recipients have a photo to display as well as an announcement!

It's on the Tip of his Tongue

I was trying to get Little Guy to say "Happy Valentine's Day" yesterday, but all he could come up with was "Hap'pe! Tine". G was speaking in paragraphs at this age, so it is a mite difficult for me when he can't get his message across clearly. Happily, he has mastered "Yesh" and "No!" so we often play twenty questions to figure out exaclty what he wants and avoid a tantrum.

LG: "ite"

Me: "Ite? You want a vitamin?"

LG: "No! Iiiiite"

Me: "You want to play with G's kite? You know she'll get upset if you break it."

LG (pointing): "NO!! Iiiite. Andy."

Me:"Oooh! You want a bite of candy!"

LG: "Yesh"

she holds my heart in her tiny hands

and she doesn't even know it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

smooch <3

I just adore her jawline. Flawless.

hide & seek

Her new favorite game is hide and seek. She's really getting clever at it, too. Today she hid under her bed, much to the delight of Little Man who before today had never thought of wriggling his way into such a tight spot. He crawled in and out from under the bed for about 30 minutes afterwards. He's easily entertained.

She also hid in between the couch and the wall, which is no small feat considering the couch is against the wall and there is only a 4 inch or so space there normally. She did end up getting stuck and needed help out, but I suppose it was worth it to her to have me waive the white flag.

"Come out Come out, Wherever you are!"

Project of the day...

Here is a simple project the kids and I did today. I took some heart shaped doilies that I found in the Target dollar bin, had the kids paint them and sprinkled on some glitter and sequins here and there. I lay them out to dry on some white papers, making sure to pick them up and turn them every once in a while so that the paint didn't get stuck to the paper underneath. When all of the doily hearts were dry, I threaded some twine through the holes and hung it up in the archway to the front room.

G painted all the hearts half pink and half purple, except that one that she did pink and red in the center with purple to the edges. Little man was more of a minimalist... interesting course of action with an art project for a 2 year old.

I blame Alton Brown.

That's right, Alton. It was you. Allll you. You had to make a show that was interesting enough for my engigeek of a husband to watch. You had to focus on food that is manly, inspiring him to try to perfect each of your recipes, one by one. You had to make pretzels that looked so tasty he decided right then and there to make me some. (he had absolutely no encouragement from me with this endeavor...none at all. really.) You had to specifically NOT include a recipe for Whole Wheat pretzels, leaving us to fend for ourselves with the conversions. We are on the healthy eating campaign, after all, mister. You should be, too. Don't you watch Oprah? So, Alton Brown, if that is your real name, it is YOUR FAULT that the crowning jewel of my kitchen, the creme de la creme of kitchen gadgets, burnt her little motor out on some thick, heavy, pretzel dough.

Rest assured, Mister Brown. You will pay.

Announcement for Ryan

Rockin the Suburbs

So today we were over at Lynn's house when I decided to "do" Little guy's hair. I broke out the AquaNet and gave him a really Maddox-esque do. I told him to go find Lynn and show her his new hairstyle. He went into the dining room to look for her and caught sight of his reflection in the mirror in the back of the china cabinet. He froze, dropped his hands to his sides and SCREAMED bloody murder. He was TERRIFIED, poor guy. I haven't laughed so hard in years.

Endless...

Dirty dishes. As soon as the sink is empty, it starts to collect the dirty dishes once more. Every day it ends up like this. Baffling, really. There are only two adults and two small children about, so how in the world can we generate this many dirty dishes? It's not that I don't try to keep up... I do. I have no problem rinsing them off and loading the dishwasher. The kids even help me now, they love to push the buttons to start the washing cycle. The problem is, I really hate the putting away of the clean dishes. The stacking and the reaching. Hitting my head on the corner of the open cabinet doors...every...single...time. The clinking and the clanking and the, oh no, these cups need to sit out for a while on the counter to air dry since the dishwasher didn't quite get all the nooks and crannies and if I put them away wet I am afraid some kind of funkiness will happen inside.

I think I've found a solution, though. Dipsopsable dishware. Fill the landfills! Save the water!

{V} is for VOTE!!

Today is Super Tuesday here in Georgia and it is time for us all once again to make our voices heard. I was making G's lunch when I got the text message reminder from my dear husband to make sure to get to the polls today. Thank goodness he knows me so well, because I actually had forgotten today was the big day and had I not been reminded, I would've been violently cursing the extraordinary traffic which I encountered on the way to drop G off at school.. only 3 minutes late, as always.

After depositing my oldest with her teachers for the morning, little guy and I proceeded to the polling place. It is confusing to vote here in my little town, as there is one particular street that is home to roughly 47 churches and one school, each of which serves a polling place. To make matters worse, they change the location of "your" polling place every few years so you are never sure which "vote here" sign to follow....was it the Baptist Church last time? The Lutheran? the second reform order of the democratic independent? Fiddlesticks.

Little guy and I decided to try the school first this time, and then make our rounds to the rest of the polling places, in case I was mistaken the first time...kind of like Trick Or Voting... Little guy was dressed for the occasion, in his Winnie the Pooh footed sleeper, his football hoodie and his sister's patent leather mary janes. He had originally donned her pink cowboy boots, but apparently they weren't sophisticated enough for the occasion.

Happily, the school was the correct polling place for us this time, and the line was short. Little guy even did the voting for me, the newfangled touch screen technology making it so easy to vote, even a toddler can do it. As we said our good byes to the polling enforcers, the man at the door gave us our very peachy "I'm a Georgia Voter" stickers so we could show the world what dutiful citizens we really are. Little man ate his before we got to the car.


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Before and After