Who said that?

Let’s all play a game. I call this game “Who said that?”

“Shoot BOOBS!”
“Mommy do it!”
“Cook BOOBS!”
“ewww, nasty!”
“Uh-oh, Holley cry again!”

There is no multiple choice answer key, because all of these statements were issued by my toddler. Boobs, by the way, are birds. He turned 2 last month and since then, has become the king of silly phrases. He’s not very sure what “silly” really is, though, so his breakfast cereal could be silly, or Mommy could be silly when she’s putting him to bed. He has mastered the fake guffaw, when he thinks he’s supposed to laugh at something silly, though. And it’s hilarious. Like every mother, I think my two year old is funnier than most.

Joshua antics lately, though, get me going. For instance, if I say to him, “Look me in the eye when I’m speaking to you,” Joshua simply MUST grab both of my cheeks and put his nose tip to mine, and stare wide-eyed into my eyes. Now, I ask you, how do you punish THAT without laughing your head off?

Today I thought he had a slight fever and he was acting very mean toward his sister, very unusual behavior for him. Sure, he’s ignored her and fussed about her but not cruel like today. So I asked him, “Joshua, how do you feel?” I didn’t really think I’d get a straight answer, but without even a thought, he put his palm on my cheek, wiggled his fingers and said, “Like that.”

Over our Christmas holidays, enough people called Shaun by name that Joshua figured out that “Daddy” will answer to a different name! He puts a funny emphasis on it, and only does it to call Shaun’s attention, so it is shouted loudly. “Shaw-oon!” “Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy….*insert foot stamp here* SHAW—OON!” We have a little photo snowglobe that was given to us as a gift back before we got married. There is a picture of me and Shaun on both sides of it. When Joshua looks at it, he shows me, “Mommy, Daddy.” Then he turns it to the other side. “Mommy and Shaw-oon.” He will flip it back and forth repeatedly, “Daddy, Shaw-oon, Daddy, Shaw-oon.” The pictures are nearly identical, so we are not very certain why he thinks they are two different entities!

Holley started crying today. Joshua leaned over her and sighed a great over-dramatic sigh. “Holley, just stop.” He sounded just like his daddy. In the mornings it is usually, “Uh-oh, Holley’s cryin’!”

Over our holidays he enjoyed playing detective with my mother’s magnifying glass, so she gave it to him. I don’t usually approve of giving him everything he smiles at, but in this case, it has given us a lot of laughs around here. Holley was playing on the floor yesterday, and Joshua leaned over her with the magnifying glass and said…. “Hmmm…..wong you?” As in, “Hmmm, what’s wrong with you?” And in a completely bewildered voice that just had me rolling.

Just tonight, I was saying his prayers with him, and instead of watching him, I actually closed my eyes. Right between “Bless our family” and “Thank you for sending Jesus to us” he reached over and told me, “Mommy! Wake up! Prayin’!”

The last thing that makes us think, rather self-importantly, that our two year old is sillier than most? He got some trains for Christmas that absolutely MUST be tucked into the box and kissed goodnight now. Good for a laugh or two.

Christmas 2008

Honestly, I don't have it in me to do emails and individual stories to everyone so here is my photo-blog of our holiday travels.

the night before we left, Joshua thought he'd show Holley who has hair and where. It was pretty cute.


Holley goofing off the morning we left....ha ha ha she didn't know the road trip in store for her:


Christmas Eve, they got to open Gramma Gerry's presents to them. Joshua got some matchbox cars,and HAD to show everyone in the room.



"this was Holley's but I opened it, want to play with it with me?"


"This isn't reading? I was sure I was supposed to use my tongue to read it..."


"Yeah....my way was more fun!"


I love this shot because not only does it show Holley deciding that crawling would be a fun thing to learn to do on Christmas, but it also shows where Joshua's buttered bread wound up at.



Christmas morning, the kids opened their presents from Mama and Daddy. Things like a Thomas letter laptop, a ball popper, new diapers, a first baby doll, a sipper in the stocker, a mini potato head in the stocking, new wooden trucks and a curious george doll with some bath soap and squishy sponge thing(loofah) for bathtime all came in from us. We were so grateful that we shopped ahead of time and were able to do this for the kids. They......didn't seem to care who it was from. Naturally.

Mama, I mean Holley opening her sipper stocking stuffer.


Joshua's driven by edible things. Holley's just hooked on the drink. The doll was tossed to the wayside in order to keep our hands on the cup. Mustn't lose the cup!


Showing Daddy the power button....


Showing Holley how to use her ball popper and not-so-secretly having a blast himself:


Holley chose her favorite new diaper. I love all of them, but this was not my absolute fave. She rarely lets go of it if I bring the box of diapers into her view.



Later Christmas morning, Uncle Greg and Aunt PollyAnne, Aunt Carol and Uncle Dean all came over to Gramma's house and we had a huge breakfast of homemade waffles and berries, and egg casserole, bacon and sausages, and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember because it's late. It was yummy. Joshua actually ate. Big deal since he hardly ate a thing the rest of his vacation. The kids also got presents from their aunts and uncles, and the dogs seemed rather enamored of a few of them, as well. I was too busy eating to take many pictures at that time, but here is one of Joshua apparently telling Dean that he will be in charge of opening all of his sister's gifts.



From Penn State, we drove to Stuebenville, OH, to spend a few days with Shaun's mom. The kids got some neat presents, like the Spud Buds potato head kit, and a little hand puppet that looks like a hippopotamus plus lots of cute outfits were there to be opened. Not to mention a million, I mean a few, cats that Joshua thoroughly enjoyed chasing down to torment, I mean pet.
Crystal showing Joshua the nutcracker mouse. Joshua looking at her like she lost her mind. Of course, as soon as she set it down, it was his and we never heard it stop the rest of the trip.


Joshua cleaning up his pee. :)


Aunt Karen reading to the little silly-head:


If the boy won't cooperate, grab the baby cuz she can't get away yet. This is my personal philosophy and as evidenced, held true overall.







From Crystal's home in Stuebenville, we headed south to a place called Shadyside. It's on the Ohio side of the river, across from Wheeling, WV, and I think Shaun's dad's family are the only folks that live there. We were surprised to have a Christmas to-do ready for us when we arrived, including a nice handful of people from that branch of family. Since it was after Christmas when we arrived, we did not anticipate dinner or get-together!
Shaun's Pop, who I don't think was allowed to put down the etch-a-sketch after Joshua discovered that he could make a tractor picture on demand.


Joshua playing "If I hide in Perry's blankets and pillows, maybe they won't find me and put me back in that ol' carseat...." Otherwise known as "When granddad gets out of the potty, you scare him before you get on the road."


Feeling the need to report his every action to Vicki:



From Shadyside, we traveled into Columbus, where the kids went to church, and Joshua got to see his old teachers from there. He was sad to leave Miss Kathy, Miss Sue, Miss "Missa"(melissa) and "Pad-dor Dad" (pastor dave). I heard about them for a few days after that. We also spent the afternoon that day with some friends, whose boys have grown insanely huge and smart and not little like I remember and that makes me sad. Also my friend picked up Joshua a train track for his trains and such and got Holley some really cute outfits. Joshua is having a blast with his trains. I didn't get any pictures of this day. Mostly because I was tired.

That night, we headed up to Oberlin area. The kids got their Christmas presents from there, and by that point, Joshua was beginning to think if it has paper on it, it must be for him and it must be for tearing to shreds. Holley was just starting to get ticked off that there was even more paper she wasn't allowed to eat.

Finally getting the hang of things:


That's my boy. He actually asked me where was the stuff inside the thomas bookbag. Sigh. Be happy with what you got and fill it with love, boy! He's now putting cars and trains in, by the way.


Joshua got the tools he wanted!


Holley got some paper wrapped around some stuff and that was exciting to her. The stuff she didn't so much look at.



There were more trips for visiting and many more people seen than were mentioned here. And to prove it, Holley got the wardrobe for the next 2 sizes that she was in need of(ok, desperately in need of), and Joshua got several clothing items. This picture is JUST the toys that came from EVERYONE. We had to unpack everything in order to repack it and we laid it all out. This is just so much generosity from our family members that I think I want to cry when I think of it.
Here are the toys they recieved. We counted over 50.


Holley was one pound shy of hitting her weight limit so we took our Christmas gifts and bought her new carseat. Merry Christmas Mommy. ha ha ha. (It's ok, I also got an electric skillet, so there. lol).


New Years Ever, I forgot to buy any decent boomers, so Joshua got some poppers and he did some sparklers with his daddy. He LOVED it. Naturally, since my little pyro likes fire in general. Although, he did try to eat it, also. I didn't try for a great shot, because I was really really cold.



Then we went home. Home. Where our own beds are! where our favorite jammies are. Where I have to be the mom and watch my kids again. Crap.
This is how much stretching room I had in the van after we packed everything the kids got into it.



Yeah.


After we got home, the kids were so happy to be around their own things again! Joshua took his new toys and introduced them to his old toys this morning, and Holley learned to pull up to stand using her granddad's filing cabinet so she practiced that at home on the gate. Escape is imminent, escape is imminent!!!!

She also found a new place to poop while I cleaned and unpacked today. This happened more than once.




Everytime I tried to take a picture of Joshua's room and his trains he was like a superstar caught in the midst of a scandal among the paparrazi. Ran at me yelling "No picture no picture no picture!" I am sure we will have an entire blog coming up regarding how my sanity has gone up and down the tracks and I'm pretty sure Duncan or Thomas the engines have it locked up in their boilers.


That's our photo-vaca. Stories to come.

'Cuz I'm just mean like that

Why? Well.... because he asked for it. Literally, he came to me with a hair tie and was trying to put it on his head like Mommy. So I did one just to be goofy. Since he let me do it, I went ahead and did another one. Of course, he said "ow ow ow" the whole time I did it and then after about 4 minutes of it, he started pouting "off off off off" at me. But it was good for a laugh when we did it.

Would I let him run around with his hair in pigtails regularly? HA!
Would I let him put bows in his hair and polish on his toes? HA!
Would I put him in a ballerina tutu and send him out the door? HA!

I am pretty old fashioned. These things make hilarious pictures to save to show his later girlfriends when he's about 15. But would I regularly turn him into a sissy-boy? Nope. Not having it. Although I got some flak from some people for doing it, most of my friends laughed their heads off at the pictures and said immediately "BLACKMAIL!!!" They get it. LOL

If a mom can't have something to save to later blackmail her teenaged children into good behavior, what else is there? I mean, I know good parenting spawns good children, but what fun is that???? Mommy has to have a little laugh here and there, too, doesn't she?

So to the people who saw the picture and asked if I'd lost my mind or told me it was time for a haircut(and yes, it is trim time), lighten up. And to the people who saw the picture and laughed with me, Have another chuckle at Joshua's expense. He's too little to know the difference yet.

If it helps, I WILL find something equally embarrassing to do to Holley. Because ya gotta love a teenaged girl's reaction to an embarrassing mother. I can see the horror now "Mo-o-o-om!" LOL.

Besides, the pictures are my payback to Joshua to being a smartmouth already. I will ask if he is silly, and he just rolls his eyes and says "moooo----oooom" in that tone that makes me want to crawl over and kick his little butt. Luckily, I don't think he knows about sarcasm yet.....

Cah-Ray-Zee

This has been a CRAZY month. Pronounced Cah-Ray-Zee!!!! Thank goodness for the end of November. :P Onward with December.

My baby boy is almost two. It is insane to believe. And since the last post, he has starting REALLY communicating well with us. We still have some spots to work on, but in general he is doing great, compared to where he was. Still behind a bit, but catching up well. His pretend play just suddenly EXPLODED!. My house is a zoo. Literally. Want to put the baby in the swing?



Whoops. Sorry Mr. Elephant. We'll just go over to the little rocker.



Mr. Penguin, don't you belong somewhere snowy???? Okay, Okay, she's awake anyway. I'll just put her in the jumper for some fun.



Tigger!!! This is starting to get out of hand. What am I supposed to have her DO? And Joshua sayyyyyyyys........."Teach her to do the books and earn her keep!"




After a long day of learning to write, Holley decided it was time for a dinner of....



FEET!!!

Yes, my baby girl sits in her high chair and sucks her toes. Little wacky weirdo.

And with those pictures, I do believe I shall leave for the night and I will leave you with a quote from Sir Joshua himself. "Daddy Dirty! Stinky Poopoo!"

Quit Whining

I did a lot of personal research on the candidates for this presidential election. I tried to be unbiased, but no matter what people say about the media, every author or speaker has his/her own opinion and it flavors the report. Personally, I didn't care for Obama or McCain. So to make my decision, I had to track their history of voting and stances on the things that are important to our family.

I'm proud to have been given my chance to vote, and I'm proud that I took that chance to make my voice heard. Regardless of who I voted for, the winner or the loser, I made my choice. So if I'm unhappy with how things turned out, I could grumble. If I'm happy about the results, I could throw a party. But what good would either of these things do? Neither a party nor a grumble shows any respect to the office of the President.

I have heard some McCain supporters say things like "Well, it's not my choice, but that's OK. I hope Obama does well." This is my personal stance. I had resolved, prior to voting, that whomever "wins" or "loses" would have my respect as the leader of my country, and I wished him well. I liked the McCain quote, where he said "I cannot wish my opponent luck, but I do wish him well." That's just it, you don't give luck to the guy you want to surpass, but certainly people should respect the hard work and energy that it took to get to even participate in the Presidential elections as a candidate.

I am making this post because I am so saddened to hear so many McCain supporters whining about the results and McCain's concession. I want to scream, because half of them didn't bother to make their voice heard at the polls, and the other half are acting all gloom and doom over this. I want to put them in a corner and tell them what I tell my toddler: "Quit whining. It will be over soon enough." If a person feels it so absolutely necessary to think that Barack Obama as President is a punishment, just wait 4 years and make your voice heard again. At worst, he will only be there for 8 years. 8 years sounds like a long time, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not so bad.

Honestly, to those that complain and those that say with absolute fear and dread in their hearts, "It's in God's hands now" or some similar statement, I say it has always been in God's hands. We may not be pleased with some of the political decisions he makes, but until he tries to burn Christians at the stake, we are not really in a bad place.

Consider: This country has had a rotation of presidents from day one. Liberals, conservatives, liberals, conservatives. It was about time for a liberal to have a turn trying to run the country. We've always bounced "back" from things in the past. Whether you agree with this side or that side, we will see another conservative in office soon enough. It scares me to hear the extremists on both sides talk, as if the first thing to happen will be assassination attempts regardless of who won.

I'm not upset by the outcome. I'm not pleased by the outcome. But I will respect the office of the President and I will respect Senator Obama as my president. All I am asking is that everyone else do the same. It will make for a more peaceful 4 years, in my opinion.

I am trying to teach this standard of respect to my kids. That a debate or a difference of opinion can go so far, but to watch how they speak. Whatever happened to the Golden Rule? Would some of my friends who speak so disdainfully of the candidate opposite of their choise want someone else to spread the same filth about them? I seriously doubt it. And I put that question to the candidates who chose to run smear campaigns instead of smart campaigns as well.

As for me and mine, we will serve the Lord. Above all else, we will serve the Lord and trust that he knows how to keep us afloat as a nation. Why is it so hard to find that trust in the Lord when things are going your way, but when things are harder or not coming out like you want them to, you turn to the Lord in prayers of dismay and dissapointment? Trust that HE WILL GUIDE US, always.

And now I shall jump off my soapbox and return to my typical amusing posties tomorrow. :)

what a day!

I'm done. This day...wow!
The day started out all right, everybody was happy and slept within the marginal terms of "good." Or "well" if you prefer proper grammar. I had to run to the drugstore and to the doctor's office with a question. So I wound up having to bring Joshua in to be seen due to a rash on his face that is either an infection or a latex allergy, and she's not commiting to either one, so he gets antibiotics. Wheeeee.
But, still. OK. I knew I had to run to the store for a bit(out of formula), as well as pick up the prescription, so I had planned a busy afternoon.

I got locked in Joshua's bedroom, instead.

To preface, this door did not have any doorknob on it when we moved in. Neither did the closets in that room, so we assumed they had taken them off for the safety of a small child. Joshua has yet to discover his bedroom door, and we've been here for two months. Given his "doh" fascination, this is surprising, but there it is. Well, Holley was asleep in the living room and I went in with him to mess around with some stuff. I needed to put something on the wall behind his door, so I say "Go ahead, close the door." He closed the door. Then we couldn't get back out. Whoever took the doorknobs off, LEFT the latching/locking mechanism on the stupid door! I couldn't get a good enough gribp on the edges to pull the thing enough to bend the lock, and I had child-proofed Joshua's room. Wait. The closet! I had some small storage stuff in his closet! Hmmm....let's see. Christmas wrap. No. Gift bags. Maybe....try that, nope. Empty guitar hardshell case. Well, that's not going to pick a lock. The rest is out-of-season clothing. hmmm. well....there are safety pins on the corners of his bed tent! The door broke the head off as I was trying to pick the lock. Sigh. The window! There's a safety guard on it, but if I can get that off, I can jump out and ring the doorbell until the landlady answers it and helps me! OK, who the heck screwed the safety gate onto the window? I don't have a screwdriver!! Holley has awakened. She's crying and upset. Start to panic about the fact that it's nearly 3 hours or more until Shaun gets home! Yell out the window. "HELLO? I NEED HELP!! HELLO? ANYBODY? HELLO????" The guitar case. Joshua stands at the window yelling "H'WO? H'WO???" That guitar case would make a great battering ram! Yeah, good idea, poor execution. It didn't work. Start crying with Holley. Back to the window to yell for help. The landlady(who lives right upstairs) is home. Finally I hear from the upstairs window. "Megan? Do you need something?" Uh, yeah. HELP. duh. Freakin' out, I just asked her to please come and get the baby and help me get out. She does, of course, and calmed Holley, then picked the lock with a knife from the kitchen. And thank goodness she was home. She said "I thought I heard something funny." Oh well. At least she could come and get me out. Holley had wet and was hungry! poor thing. Shaun came home from work and fixed the rest of it(read:removed)


So, Okay, by the time I calmed down, Shaun was almost off of work. So I go get him and we head to the shopping plaza, where EVERYONE IS SOLD OUT OF MY FORMULA. Holley has a low tolerance for the other kinds. Great, now I'm just irritated. We bought a can of the Enfamil brand equivalent, but we will see. Some kids can go back and forth, but Holley can't even tolerate the powder, so we aren't sure about this. And when I asked if I could order two cases ahead---(that's twelve bottles, we do one bottle per day), they tell me that they do do pre-orders or order in any especially for a customer. Shoot me now. We have to go back out tomorrow and pick some up from Target, who usually is the only place that has plenty.

With everything that went on today, I remembered to bake bread, but forgot to make supper so we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner. ha ha ha.

By the way, the images today are of Joshua at 2 months old and Holley at 4 months(well, today). Both barely fit into the snowsuit at these respectable marks, but I wanted the matching pictures!

The librarian is BORED????

How in the world can a librarian be bored in the city? There are so many people, and hey, it's a LIBRARY! So many books, and all the day's news at her fingertips. The day had barely begun at 10:30 am for them. There was a children's group meeting there and about 11 little 5 year olds running around.

And yet, I believe she was bored. She sat at the check-in counter with that one-elbow-on-the-table-propping-up-her-head and a dazed sort of look in her eyes. When I put our videos on the counter, she just stared at them as if I was interrupting her game of solitaire on the computer just one click before she won the 1000th game.

And boy, oh boy, when I hauled Joshua up to the counter with the Eloise Takes A Bawth book that he had checked out, she looked at me like I was insane. Then the fun part came in.

"Joshua, show the librarian what you did to her book."
Joshua pointed at the book. "Uh-oh."
"Joshua, show her the page you tore out."
Blank stare--from both the librarian and the boy.
"I'm very sorry, but the page was torn and he got to it and finished the job."
She just stared at me.
"Joshua say you're sorry."(he still doesn't have this word, but any acknowledgement would do!)
Joshua promptly started pointing out the videos he'd borrowed.
"Buf!" The Magic School Bus
"No?"Frosty The Snowman
"Mah-mee?" OK, I don't know why he said Monkey--it was a learn to read video with no monkeys in it at all.
The librarian just raised her brows. "OK." And then ignored us.

So back into his stroller he went, feeling very pleased that he did not have to use up any of his dimes on a torn page. And me disgruntled that the librarian could have at least looked at the torn page and said something along the lines of "Oh no, we should never tear library books!" to reinforce my teachings.

I maintain...how can anyone working in a library ever feel bored? If there are no patrons, pick up a book!!!